Thursday, August 6, 2015

Songs of Blades and Heroes

Thanks to Paul I finally got to play a game of Songs of Blades and Heroes.  I've had the rules (I think I even bought them twice) for a few years and have a few miniatures I could use, but until now the opportunity hasn't arisen.  All that changed when I went on a quest to get some minotaur blood.  Unfortunately I only took one photo - Paul's figures are just great.


Update

Paul has provided this background information for this game, along with an extra picture.

Lorenzo ran his tongue from eye tooth to eye tooth, feeling their sharpness as he always did when a carefully-crafted scheme came together. The Doge would soon taste the bitter fruits of his misdeeds, the orchard of vendetta having been planted so long ago. Pleased with the tortured metaphor he just composed, Lorenzo wrote it down quickly in his journal, his pen hand moving past the map to the minotaurs' lair.

In this first game of Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes, the wizard Lorenzo di Torino (3+, 1, Spells: Blast, Lightening), famed golem-maker from the north of Italia, had travelled to Gracia with his newest creation, The Hoplite (3+, 5, Artificial, Big, Slow, Tough) and mercenary brigands from the Black Crest Bandits, Soulful Willy, Lantern Pete, Jimmy the Kid (all 3+, 3, Shooter: Long) and Two-Handed Joe. His goal was to obtain fresh minotaur blood to power his next monstrosity.

The minotaurs, of which there were three (4+, 4, Big, Long Move) were decidedly against such a scheme, and hired Jeff, a wizard known for his peaceful methods of conflict resolution (3+, 1, Spells: Fear, Sleep, Counterspell, Leader). Less passive, however, was his brother Ivan (3+, 3, Blast) who would see these raiders off with his blunderbuss.

Lorenzo's planning was less secret than he believed, and the Inquisition dispatched two Inquisitors, Hulthen (3+, 4, Block, Leader) and Yukawa (3+, 4, Block) to quietly dispose of Lorenzo while on distant shores. Eliminating the unholy monstrosities that live there was to be a happy bonus. The Inquisitors were supported by four of their giant wolves (3+, 3, Animal, Big move).

The three parties met in a sparse wood bisected by a crumbling, low stone wall. Lorenzo split his forces, with himself, Joe and The Hoplite moving towards the Inquisitors. The holy knights were soon defeated, the warband fleeing and rallying twice upon losing their leader and then half of their fellows, before being wiped from the table, unable to overcome the Toughness of the automaton. The archers moved against the minotaurs, who were followed at a distance by Jeff and Ivan. The minotaurs were slowly killed off, and as the rest of Lorenzo's party entered the fray this accelerated. In the end, Ivan and the minotaurs felled, and facing the Hoplite, Jeff fled the field. Lorenzo had been taken out of action, but survived and headed for home with his vials of the bull men's blood.



2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a wonderful adventure.

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    1. The rules really lend themselves to story telling. I've seen some great posts using them, or one of the others in the Songs stable, where the AARs read more like a novel than just a game. Next time I must take more photos.

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