Song of Blades and Heroes and fantasy skirmish wargaming general

I just gotta say I am enjoying the hell out of this game, and I haven't even gotten a chance to play it yet. I can't get anyone near me interested, and my daughter is way too young to start, but this is the game I will use as her introduction to tabletop.

But what I have been enjoying is making little profile lists for whatever. The game's simple system and built in model generator (where you make profiles from the ground up) lends it to be a fun little activity.

So I started going through some Reaper minis, because this game is pretty much made for Reaper minis, and made some profiles. I thought an undersea deep empire theme list seeking vengeance or something on the surface would be pretty cool.

Other urls found in this thread:

mediafire.com/folder/58t2w9hu30t37/sobah
ganeshagames.net/army_builders/SBHbuilderRevised-v1217.html
twitter.com/AnonBabble

I've got a book on the way myself to add to my collection. I've got a Mordheim book and Frostgrave in the library as well, and a whole lot of supplemental PDFs.

I just have the main book (print), and some of the supplements (PDFs).

Next month when I get paid I will get the pdfs of advanced sobah and the hammer and forge supplement.

I am also interested in pic related, but not so much to spend money on them.

Here's all I have of the supplements so far.

mediafire.com/folder/58t2w9hu30t37/sobah

Thank you, kindly. I'll drop some cash off if I end up using any of them. I'm always appreciative of more resources for the collection.

Got Mordheim? I think I have a scan of that.

I would just recommend buying the basic rulebook at least. The thing that sucks about it is all the supplements cross reference each other for additional rules and it's a pain in the ass. That's why I am providing those.

Really? Ew, that's ugly. Supplements should be stand alones themselves with no reference material outside of the core rulebook. Possibly incorporate rule tags and classifications to help them tie in together and all play with each other different ways while still being able to interact.

Of course that's hard to keep track of unless you've built the modular structure into it in advance, or release a new edition that restructures the system. The only game I know of that's done something like that is Infinity. Others have probably done it, but that's what I know.

Fucking hell the Karkarion and the Tortoise Dragon look retarded. The rest are pretty cool though, the Slithe Champion in particular looks awesome.

How would you stat WHFB Wood Elves for ASoBaH? Specifically the kind used for Wyrd Wars, so mostly just the smaller infantry and characters?

In SoBaH, no matter what each faction/race has about the same range of Quality and Combat scores, but where the difference lies are the special rules/traits.

A racial constant is everyone would have Forester. Other armies are going to have hell dealing with them in their territory.

Animal would be for the bears and eagles.
artificial for the ents and treemen

Other common traits I would see would be danger sense (rangers and waywatchers), good shot (common among the bowmen, because elf rangers are keen eye), mounted (on stags and bears and eagles), long move on some special infantry (its a powerful and expensive trait so i would keep it on the mounted stag riders), stealth (on the rangers). Most shooters I would keep in the medium range (wood elves wouldnt be used to having long bows because they are unwieldy and visibility in the forests are generally low).

I doubt you would see any heavy armour.

Common personality traits would be cleric (life magic), combat master (for the blade dancer types), hero (elite soloists), leader (obviously), legendary shot (legendary bowman)

Not on my main computers or else I would mock you up some profiles. But using the warband generator, I would follow those guidelines.

ganeshagames.net/army_builders/SBHbuilderRevised-v1217.html

Remember, Q 2+ is for legendary heroes, 3+ is for most hero types and elite infantry, 4+ is for rank and file dudes who have had little training and are hard to deal with without a leader, and 5+ is for a guy who never picked up a sword in his life. 6+..ew.

As for combat scores, it not only represents how skilled they are in combat, but also how hard they are to hit. The rulebook says a basic human soldier is Q4+ C2, so an average wood elf being Q4+ C3 would account for them being generally more skilled and nimble, but as a result the average wood elf would be more expensive than the average human.

Cool warband OP, that tortoise dragon is horrible tough. For anyone wanting more variation in they scenarios (vital for skirmish games) chek this one.

I saved this book from the last thread. An excellent resource for SoBaH. I cant wait to try some of the scenarios out. There's one for just about every narrative you can think of.

I never tried the cards, but they seem fun too. Also if anyone has material for Mordh or Frost, post away too.

Deep Wars build stuff on the relatively simple system of SoBaH to ridiculous levels. Weapon ranges? Have those. Lightning levels. Gotcha. Water visibility? Of course. Now cross refer these three systems to find how far you can shoot. Oh, remember to not dive too fast, or you will die to to decompression.

Yesss. My game. Last time there was a thread about this I derailed it entirely by spamming pics and blog.

My best advice for getting people to try it out/finding players is to provide everything needed for the game yourself, and then just talking someone into giving it a try.

...Which is actually manageable since that's like.. 12-15 miniatures and some sticks.

Apart from that, make it look good and have fun with it, and people will get enticed.

Blogtime:

My gaming buddy and I have embarked on a sci-fi project for the Post-Apoc version of the system (and other games, but primarily) Mutants and Death-Ray Guns.

We're still a few weeks off of playing our first game, but we'll get there.

Pic related is the first member of my squad

The Advanced Version of the rules have a LOT of the worthwhile specialrules for the game collected in one book, as well as a YMMV reaction system (which we dont use locally because we feel like it takes away a bit of the systems elegance: Still nicely designed, it just slows down play a bit)

Ill be honest, Im really only interested in the setting. I took a look at the reference pages (all 17 of them) for shadowsea and realized they abandoned the simplicity of the system long ago. The setting does pull me in a bunch though.

Allready a great post by user. To be concrete, I tend to have elves be Q: 3+ C: 2 as a base. Forester if Wood Elf, Shooter: Long if Archer. C3 if Swordsmen (or similar), and so on.

I almost never push anything to Q2+ as it takes away a lot of the fun and tactics of the game related to Leader positioning and Risk-Reward mechanics of the activation rolls.

As a contrast, a human man-at-arms (or empire halberdier, I guess) I'd stat as Q 4+ C 2, with elite status improving either Q or C or both, depending on the soldier.

But really, its up to you. These are just the guidelines I go by, but I tend to like my fantasy gritty, and my humans weak and terrified when faced with supernatural monsters.

its also hella tense and fun to play with a warband of weak shitters with pointy sticks

I feel the same about Hammer and forge, the Dorfs clans seemed very cool. Also no one has the pdf version of ASoBaH, not even 7chan were they are quite thirsty about it.

Most definitely. I guess a 3+ on the average wood elf might be better. Because Q is sort of reaction, morale, and cool under fire all rolled into one. C is strength, agility, armor and fighting rolled into one.

So I could totally see an average wood elf 'foot soldier' being [Q3 C2 Forester]

When I get them and hammer and forge next month Ill add them to my mediafire here It's my birthday July 4th so I may put asobah and mutants and deathray guns on my gift list for the wifey.

I can add the pdf I have if you want them, I have Fear and faith and some more (Shakos, Merlin).

ooh cool thanks. Ill add those tomorrow

Another one.

This one is pretty good, for semy historical war bands.

If you ever want to up your game to mass skirmish, take a look at Dragon Rampant. It's just as rules light and generic but for larger battles.
Might also be an option to get people into SoBH, if they have a whfb/kow/aos army but are reluctant to try 'generic' rulesets.

Also for large battles I only have this one. Of gods and mortals seems quite cool, but I didn't play it.

I read a bit about it from some user in the KoW thread, how is it? I was thinking to use from Gods and mortals as a bridge between great battles and skirmishes (also because the dominions vibe is pretty cool) but Dragon rampant sounded quite cool.

I'm probably one of these anons that talked about it in /kowg/. You couls say that I'm shilling a bit for the game...
Anyway I wouldn't recommend if, if I wouldn't rhink it was a really good game.
The best way I ca describe it, is that it's what I wanted AoS to be.
-mass skirmish
-less models per unit than whfb
-no square units
-no bloat of special rules
-less of a gap of powerlevel between the different units than in whfb, so my basic units are finally not a tax anymore
-easy to learn and fast to play

Also its as generic and thus as flexible as SoBH. You have different kinds of units ( (elite)infatry, (elite) shooty infatry, (elite)cavalry and so on) and a pool of special rules which you can buy for the units.
Don't want to shill here anymore now, I didn't know there was a mass battles set for sobh () but that one looks really heavy on rules.

Song is pretty awesome but other systems are cool bro, plus Shakos is for napoleonics. I think they were making a more mass battle game with song but I don't know if it was ever released. I think they bunched it together to make the osprey game Gods and Mortals. Lately Osprey is more awesome than ever, they were ever cool but mang that's some extra levels of rad.
Also how big are games for rampant? And how's the magic and dice use?

>an actual Song of Blades and Heroes & Reaper Bones thread on Veeky Forums

Literally wanking myself off right now. Since I "returned" to the hobby, I can't be arsed with big battles and complex rulesets any more.

Think I might have to purchase Advanced, not seen it on the web anywhere yet. Here's the Revised Fifth Edition though, much clearer than the badly translated Fourth that is commonly shared.

I've got this lot that need making into a motley crew. Need to decide on a colourscheme though.

wtc pilgrims, love the pathetic aesthetic

>mouslings

But...why?

>Song of Blades
So since there's no set miniatures, you can basically use whatever you want for your army, as long as it's close enough in looks? Is it ever confusing?

Nope, it make your imagination fly tough, picking this or that mini and making his stats is pretty cool, and a more your dudes warband you can't make.
>Rock Tower-Fort and his ratty fellows..

About 30-50 models for normal game. Units consits of 12 models for infantry and 6 for cav. Casting is a normal activation like move or shoot. If you succeed to activate the caster you cast the spell. Spells are mostly buffs and debuffs though. Dmg Casters are suggested to be played as shooty infantry/cavalry.

You make your own unit profiles to fit the models you have

Battle Pilgrims are from the Brettonian Grail Reliquae, no idea if it's still in production with Age of Shitmar. Think they might have also been available as a separate blister pack.

>Mouslings

Because the idea of this band of holy questing types running into mouse Robin Hood & friends and them tagging along sounds like an idea. They have the same Medieval "dagging" pattern on their clothes too.

>no idea if it's still in production with Age of Shitmar
They're not, which is why I wtc, not have copped.

How it deals with big monsters and powerful heroes?

I had to look up what wtc means. I am old now, I guess.

Idea is solid, run with it! Go have fun with the warband builder.

A monster or particularly powerful hero is just treated as a unit, consisting of 1 model. Instead of being, eg., 12 models, it just has 12 wounds.

This works well because of the way the system is written: You always roll 12 dice for combat, unless you are at 50% initial strength or below. Then you roll 6.

Smooth, elegant, and makes monsters make sense within the system. They are powerful but not dominant.

There is are unit types for monsters and heroes, can be played as single model units of any kind. The model count on a unit isn't set, just the wound counr. So a 6 model elite cavalry is the same as a unit depicted by one model. It's rather abstract but an epic hero is basically just that, one man that is as strong as 6 (or 12).

>an epic hero is basically just that, one man that is as strong as 6 (or 12).

I've been waiting for this mechanic in a game for some time. I own G&M and DR, I might actually have to read them now.

I've so far only had positive experiences with SBH as well.
Granted, there is not much detail but it's not really necessary if you're looking for a standup fight and some good, violent fun.

I see, and how varied are the power/special rules then, to diversify armies and stuff?

There are enough to cover everything, but it's a common complaint that there should be more and some are rather useless. You can easily make up your own stuff though, and there are already lists of homebrewed special rules and spells on different blogs.

Post y'alls speshul donutsteel snowflake characters that you use in your warbands, or just character inspiration.

>> Pic related, propably my most played miniature over the last year.

>>Albrecht Hauser [Personality]

Q 3+ C 1
Spellcaster: Fireball.

38 Pts.

Known for: Failling "I cant fuck this up" activation-rolls all day and lobbing fireballs that do fuck all to anyone but my own guys.

I love the lil' bugger.

Miniature is from the old Citadel Adventurer Starter kit (I think its called)

So, how's wrath of kings? I dig the minis but the gameplay doesn't seem to have lots of adepts. Plus they are expensive.

The system allows you to build unit profiles completely from scratch, and assigns a decent points value to them. So you take a mini, make his stats, and there you go. It's a simple system so it's easy to convey to your opponent what it's capable of so there are no surprises.

Because it assigns points based on what you give it, you could make all your minis super elite badasses, but you will likely be outnumbered and that has its own drawbacks.

In the OP, all those profiles I generated by myself based on how they looked.

who is this semen demon, I would like to requisition sauce

It goes with the name of maru, very lewd but not sex.
Also do you guys mix different ranges? I have problems with getting minis than go well with my LoTR ones.

lotr minis should fit fine with reaper ones i think. warhammer minis go heroic scale, whereas reaper and lotr try and stay truescale.

I didn't tough reaper was true scale, I will look it up thanks bro.

I updated my mefiafire here with everything I have in one convenient location.

We only need fightin fungy, hammer and forge and ASOBAH to get a nice pdf base. And deepwars seems interesting but I doubt we will get a pdf for it.
Also anyone has tried the other ganesha games than aren't inspired in sobh?

i will be getting a physical copy of asobah, sorry. But I will be buying a pdf of fire and forge and will bring it here early next month.

Thanks Satan. In my experience, a lot fo Reaper figures are much larger than your standard 28mm dudes, and they aren't really truescale like the LotR ones. It has something to do with how they scale figures across the pond, with Americans measuring from the base to the eyes, and Europeans measuring from the base to the top of the head. That said some Reaper figures from European scultpors (Werner Clocke for example) actually are the right size, but all of them have exaggerated proportions.

Don't feel bad brah, we will get it some day for sure. Some day.
Also anyone has ordered from the Cadwallon slavs? Are they trustworhty?

They are. I haven't been cheated by them once. Combined with WoK figures you can make a decent Rackham styled army.

Or war band, they wolves are pretty cool, plus the Dirz clones army and gobs have some serious soul in them. So many minis to decide too then, they catalog is very wide.
So mixed bag then? Could be worse, at least the monsters they have from bones don't need to be perfect scale.
Anyone knows a good minis than could represent a black numenorean mage/prince? The one gw has don't tick it.

With scales, yes. I would also say that the sculpts themselves can be a mixed bag too. While I love anything that Trey Manor touches, some figures like their giant spider look like god damn Halloween decorations. I would recommend looking at the figures in their blisters in person at wherever you buy them.

Did another fun list. I love going through Reaper's lines and seeing what might be fun to run in sobah. These are the Bloodstone Golems from their game Warlord.

Basically a bunch of gnomes took up residence in a cave system that was rich with a magical stone (kinda like warpstone) which imbued them with power but drove them all insane. Its a pretty unique take on gnomes.

They are quite cool, the meso american stuff suits them. Those crab/beetles are cool as fuck.

Reaper need to Bones more stuff up

The new batch from the Kickstarter is going to be in their store later this year

Excellence.

Eh, it's mostly just their dark heaven and chronoscope minis. I want more Warlord minis, because they generally fit a theme and that would be cool.

However I can get their reluctance because all warlord minis are meant for slotta bases, and there are no slotta base bones. So they have to convert the old models (which most are probably not 3d models) and redo the casts with little built in bases.

Sweet, I'm liking what I'm reading

How does the game play? How many models are generally in the average team and how's the average turn look?

>How does the game play?
Very quick and simple. It's a game that is ideal for small skirmishes. For each model you need to only remember 2 stat numbers and a few special rules. All ranges are done with the same 3 measuring sticks, so no measuring tape.

>How many models are generally in the average team
Average game size is 300 points, and that's generally 5-10 models.

>and how's the average turn look?
That's a big part of the way the game plays, and where some of the strategy lies. Basically when it's your turn, you activate a model, then do the next model, and keep going. But whenever you activate a model, you roll to see how many actions you can give it, but the more actions you try for it, the higher risk the turn gets passed to your opponent and he begins activating his models. Of course he has the same risk and turn can get passed to you. I can expand on this further if you want, but basically activating models can bring high risk but high reward situations. Turns go by quick because of how measuring and rolling is done.

Also the game is great because you build your models profiles from the ground up, and build them to suit how you want them to play, traditionally what they look like. So if the model is some peasant looking dude with a sword, you stat him as a cheap cannon fodder militia guy. If he's wearing gold trim plate wielding a grand runic axe, you build him as the awesome asskicking hero.

>Also the game is great because you build your models profiles from the ground up, and build them to suit how you want them to play, traditionally what they look like. So if the model is some peasant looking dude with a sword, you stat him as a cheap cannon fodder militia guy. If he's wearing gold trim plate wielding a grand runic axe, you build him as the awesome asskicking hero.

That does seem neat. It's a contrast to Frostgrave, which has a lot of catch-all generic profiles, so you instead build each type of model from scratch.

Are the PDFs in this thread from 5E or 4E? I'm looking to add the former to my collection

5e i think. The main pdf of sobah is a different format to my 5e hardcopy but everything is there.

It is a pretty fun feature. There are limits to the system, but the fun part is working within those limits to try to fit the theme of the model. The stuff I did here was made with the core rulebook generator alone.

I made another one. I don't care what anyone says, I love the stormcast eternals.

The Music and Standard Bearer traits are the only ones not in the core rulebook, but in the supplements.

I actually find this system really attractive now. Frostgrave puts forward the idea that any models can be used to represent a number of basic models in a warband, and while that certainly solves a lot of balancing issues (since everyone has access to the same stuff) it's not hugely fluffy if you're craving mechanics to back up what your guys can do.

This system is nothing but that. Goblins, Elves, Knights, Demons, Fish People, Elementals, Magitech Constructs, Fiendish Puppets and Carnival Clowns... You can represent practically anything you have a model for with a few well-chosen rules and abilities.

Now you're feeling it. One thing frosgrave does well though are the many random treasure tables, but additional supplements provide more of that.

Song of deeds and glory provides an expanded campaign system
Song of gold and darkness is about dungeon delving for treasure
Song of wind and water is mostly about different environments and more magic

The magic item tables from Gold and Darkness. Hnnnng. Those are good.
There's also some really neat traits in there.

Expanded tables are always good.

I'm wondering if these rulesets can be interchanged or at least partially merged with other systems. Are they better standalone, or can they be mixed up a bit. I've got Mordheim and Frostgrave in my library already and I'm curious as to whether these systems can take inspiration from one another.

Though it seems like ASoBaH is more encompassing than most and can easily fit in anything Frostgrave and Mordheim has to offer. I suppose choice of system is what it comes down to.

As another user uploaded here , thats about the best way to combine sobah with mordheim and warhammer skirmish. It's really all about the scenarios and story since the minis can be whatever you want.

I've got a copy already, and I agree, it's a great resource.

Here's another. You know I should be painting my army for a tournament later this year, but im doing this instead. Oh well.

I think they're all 4th, I actually don't know if any of the expansions were released again after They are perfectly compatible though, it wasn't so much a new edition of the rules as just clearing up a lot of the awful translations to make it more concise.

Perhaps we could use the treasure/exploring tables to spice it up,. And some of the scenaries from frostgrave too.

polit bump

It's pretty easy, with a bit of flexible thinking, to adapt those kinds of tables for SoBH. Or to just write new ones and use the old ones as inspiration, much in the spirit of the game itself.

I wrote an entire campaign-system with basebuilding pretty much inspired by mordheim in that vein for my local group. Worked out fine (Needs a bit of tweaking, though, but everything does)

Those kinds of things are half the fun.

I also recommend checking out the randomized gang creation and survival-focused campaign system of Mutants and Deathray guns. Haven't run it, as we have no post-apoc or sci fi miniatures painted (Something we are working on changing), but it looks really interesting. I like the design of it alot on the surface of it.

>tfw everyone near you is a 40k, Warmachine or X-wing shitter who would literally have no time for a genteel "Your Dudes" game like this

I have a shitload of Heroquest models that are getting hacked off their integral bases (fucking pain) and put on round ones.

I love crappy old monopose models for some reason. Pic not mine, but it just shows how they still brush up nice.

Its absolute suffering. People seem to hate fun.

>>"muuh armylists. muuh competitive".

But that discussion is old anyways. There's usually always someone around with the same mindset as you, or a similar enough one that you can have fun, its just hard to find them.

I love my country, but sometimes I really do wish I lived in the UK for the gaming community alone. Narrative and fun gaming is king over there.

Here in Burgerland it's all competitive gaming all the time.

Burgerlander speaking. I'm attempting to assemble a narrative skirmish game myself, though it's going to take a while.

I feel your pain. My country is small enough that most niche hobbies are very sparsely populated. Even 40k and warmachine seems to be struggling lately, so it's been a real struggle to find someone to game SoBH with.

At my lowest point, I had to press gang roommates, unsuspecting friends and my gf into playing a game or two with me.

Luckily I bumped into a guy with pretty much the same problem as me, so we actually get regular games in now.
Basically, what I did was just to keep on blogging about minis I was painting and random hobby bits and bobs, and then getting the occasional "Hey, you should try this"-game in.

But yeah, some of the communities in the UK seem near mythical when you read about their conventions and events. Honestly considering traveling over there for Salute or Bring Out Your Lead at some point. Or just to visit Foundry HQ.

thanks for reading my blog

Now.... kiss!

Anyone has tried fightin fungy? It seems weird, but cool.

reverse image search says it's a Brazilian trans women from tumblr

I would berry it the same brosky.

passable, as long as the collar stays on

Anyone has Dark Sword minis? How well they scale up to other minis? They seem pretty cool for heroes in warbands.

I've got a couple.

Darksword miniature scale very well with other heroic 28mm miniatures, but keep in mind they're a little less cartoony and more realistically proportioned than GW heroics.

They should mesh well with near anything you populate the rest of the table with.

Sweet, I was thinking to merge them with some Divine Rage and lotr, and they are more true scale than silly heroic gw ones. Hows the quality of the casting and stuff?

It's pretty slick and professional, albeit I haven't taken a look recently as they're currently sitting in my backlog of stuff to assemble, paint, and have tabletop ready (and what a backlog it is).

GW LotR? That stuff's 25mm rather than 28, though while it might look a little odd close up it's fine at a distance, especially if you want that 28mm model to accentuate their bulk or build in comparison to the other models.