[SoBH/FiFu] Down By Law

This time, I wanted something new in our games, so Gorm's IroncLads had to participate in a man-hunt. Their task was to cooperate with other companies in order to capture or eliminate a band of outlaws that formed around an escaped pit fighter. The pit fighter and his band had their lair in an old keep, and reckoning that their current position is untenable, they decided to either break through the encirclement or die gloriously.

Gorm's Ironclads

Objective: Kill, incapacitate or demoralize half or more outlaws.

• Gorm: Q3+ C3, Leader, Group Fighter, Heavily Armored, Block, Short Move
• Goth'Rack: Q3+ C3, Boiling Blood, Fearless, Unruly, Stubborn, Block, Short Move
• Ragnar: Q4+ C3, Hammering Blow, Heavily Armored, Short Move, Steadfast
• Gimli, Robur the Scabby, The Other Warrior: Q4+ C3, Heavily Armored, Block, Short Move, Steadfast
• Lorm: Q4+ C3, Crossbow, Heavily Armored, Short Move, Steadfast
• Skadi: Q4+ C2, Crossbow, Good Shot, Heavily Armored, Short Move, Steadfast

Outlaws

Objective: Freedom or death!

• Pit Fighter: Q3+ C4, Inspiring, Master Duellist, Terror
• Bowman: Q4+ C2, Shooter: Long, Good Shot, Unerring Aim, Reload
• 3 Outlaws: Q4+ C3
• Halberdier: Q4+ C3 Heavy Weapon

Inspiring is a version of Leader, who can't issue commands but still gives Q bonus to figures in 1xL. Terror represents the renown of a veteran pit fighter, just as Master Duellist represents his combat skill. Perhaps giving him C3 and Combat Master would be a better choice, but in the end it had no effect on game.

The Game

As soon as a patrolling bowman rushed in with the bad news, the outlaws set to motion. The plan was to break through the dwarves no matter the cost.

Dwarves appear...

Most of the group headed out through the main entrance, while two men volunteered for a diversion through a ruined tower. Or perhaps they saw better chance of escape there.

Breached tower, later known as an oasis of peace and tranquility.

Ironically, all they managed in the whole game was to enter the tower and stare menacingly at the grim dwarf with big hammer blocking their way. (This was the main argument for lifting the restrictions on reactions - both those men and the dwarf were of Q4+, so none of us didn't want to risk activating them, when there was so much happening on the other side of the keep. Another point for FF!)

The other side of the keep was where the fun was being had.

Things went a bit more lively where the leaders were. Missiles crossed the air and fighters were closing in. Perhaps the ale was a tad too strong last evening, perhaps it was too early, but the dwarves didn't advance in their characteristical coordinated fashion. (Until then I thought I had been the only one with such horrible activation rolls...)

The dwarves spread out in fear that their quarry might run away.

Still in clutches of a hangover, Gorm ordered his lads to charge, and threw himself forward. Gimli and another warrior also joined the fray, determined to show the pit fighter how not impressed they were, while Robur and Goth'Rekk intended to flank the enemy (and take down the pesky archer).

Up close and personal. Also, reactions galore.

All changed when Gorm was struck down (as another victim of the dreaded 6:1 split). Robur fled and Gimli retreated. The dwarves then had the advantage of two to four, and intended to use it.

This was Ironclads' best chance for a kill...

Goth'Rekk failed to fell the bowman but he had little time for regrets as the pit fighter charged him. And knocked him down. And stylishly took out him of action.

...which they failed to realize.

The bowman headed for the ruined tower, hoping to stay out of sight of at least one crossbowman, but soon after that the remaining dwarf in contact was mobbed and brought down. This was too much for poor dwarves, and they retreated.

A good moment to reconsider plans.

Summary: This game was formed by the bad luck of my opponent - he may have even trumped my horrible activation failures from games past. He was also quite pressed by dwarves' short legs - the fear of the outlaws running away made him to spread his men in a rather risky fashion. I have to agree that some scenarios favor more mobile warbands - either I raise the quality of his dwarves, or give him cavalry (which is quite hard to do without the minis) or we'll have to make mixed warbands. We've also agreed to try the "reactions" without any limits on LoS and distance, which might eliminate staring contests such as the one around the tower.

[FiFu/SoBH] Indoor Fighting

I got a bit verbose with the introduction - if  you want, you can skip right to the game.

Lothar's gaze was fixed on the tip of the shortsword. He did not regret anything. This time, he may die, but all his men were alive and the enemy suffered heavy casualties. "Hold! I have a better idea..." Who said that? With that thought, his spirit fled.

"Pity he can't see his men running away like rabbits." said Lorm, still pointing his weapon at unconscious Lothar. Gorm was fishing something in his bag. "Aye. Now go check Gimli and Ragnar."

Lothar opened his eyes again, almost instantly forgetting all those weird dreams. The first thing he saw was a bearded face with deep eyes. "So, you're awake. Good." The dwarf gave him something to drink and then fed him. None of this made any sense.

The next day, more dwarves came. "Stand up." Lothar wanted to look down on the dwarves with disdain but being so weak, all his effort went to staying upright. The dwarven nurse smiled. On his command, Lothar was tied, hands and legs. Still naked. "Gimli, pay the bill and ready the wagon."

The day was quite warm and sky was clear, yet the Small Square still had a pond of mud in front of the alehouse. Avoiding the pond was quite difficult in a busy hour like this, especially when some dwarves had the great idea to halt their wagon on the dry ground close to the pond. Some people stopped to watch, because something was certainly going to happen. First, an armoured dwarf jumped down and walked through the people to the pound. Next, some clothes and stuff were thrown into the mud. By this time, a small crowd gathered. "The audience is here, we can't let them wait!" Then, a naked man was kicked from the wagon into the mud, landing square on his face.

"This is going to cost you, dwarf..." The words almost drowned in the mud and (not only) dwarven laughter, but Gorm heard them. The commander stopped laughing and looked Lothar in the eyes. "Remember, my name is Gorm Haraldson, captain of the Blue Peak Ironclads. Do not shame me ever again." With that, he sat on the wagon and rode away.

As the crowd dispersed, one man remained, his face without a smile - as usual. Wilhelm helped his former captain to stand up and dress, playing the old game of good news - bad news. Good news were that they had lost no man but Lothar that day. Bad news? Their message had arrived late, and now, Udo was self-appointed leader of Bad Company. Clearly, Lothar had a position to reclaim and vengeance to enact. But first, there was a job to be done.

Bad Company

Objective: Find and retrieve the signet ring.

• Udo: Q4+ C3, Block, Leader 
  
• Lothar the Black: Q3+ C3, Block, Unruly, Hatred:Gorm
• Antar: Q3+ C3, Veteran Group Fighter, Unruly  
• Wilhelm: Q4+ C2, Fearless, Crossbow, Good Shot
• John: Q4+ C2, Good Shot, Shooter: Long, Reload (taken from Short Bow)
• 3 Halberdiers: Q 4+ C3, Heavy Weapon

I have made Udo the leader, although without upgrading his quality. I'm certain this will cause trouble from which Lothar will try to benefit. Lothar is not inspired by Udo at all, and he hates Gorm with a passion. The shield may be represented by Block trait in FiFu, basically giving an armour save.

Gorm's Ironclads

Objective: Find and retrieve the signet ring.

• Gorm: Q3+ C3, Leader, Group Fighter, Heavily Armored, Block, Short Move
• Goth'Rack: Q3+ C3, Boiling Blood, Fearless, Unruly, Stubborn, Block, Short Move
• Ragnar: Q4+ C3, Hammering Blow, Heavily Armored, Short Move, Steadfast
• Gimli, Robur the Scabby: Q4+ C3, Heavily Armored, Block, Short Move, Steadfast
• Lorm: Q4+ C3, Crossbow, Heavily Armored, Short Move, Steadfast
• Skadi: Q4+ C2, Crossbow, Good Shot, Heavily Armored, Short Move, Steadfast

Both Ragnar and Gimli recovered, and Lorm proved to be as deadly in melee as from afar, raising his C score for close combat. Armour got simplified in this iteration of FiFu rules: Either it is calculated in C score, or represented by "Heavily Armored", which is more or less Heavy Armour without penalties.

The Game

This game was a treasure hunt - both warbands were hired to retrieve a lost signet ring from a plundered castle. I incorporated new rules for shield and armour, and decided to house rule reactions to 2x long, LoS and not engaged or engaged with activated figure.

I put together two maps from Shattered Keeps an placed three treasure tokens more or less in the middle between the two warbands - forgetting that the stunties have wee legs and therefore short move. Honestly. It didn't help that I set the same Q score for troopers and character from both sides, something my friend still hadn't got used to. Due to our house-limits on reactions there were plenty of turnovers, but that belonged to SoBH and we were quite content with it.

Warbands rush in from the opposite corners

Shooters are rightfully feared in our games, and it was the same this time - especially with the reactions in place. Peeking from behind the corner, or keeping an eye on "fire lanes", shooters were worth their salt.

While shooters keep each other in check, Lothar finds the treasure

"I've found it! I got it!" Shouted Lothar, perhaps too loud. Men on the other side of the building turned to retreat, but the halls also echoed with the stomping of heavy boots. A bolt whistled past Wilhelm, who in turn shot Lorm.

Rushing forward, Lorm is incapacitated

"Any orders?" Asked Lothar with a grin, taking Udo by surprise. (Yes, three failures - turnover.) A surprise that the dwarves exploited all too well - all of a sudden, they were around the men of the Bad Company. Lothar could have led the withdrawal - but there was a status to be won back. He threw the ring to Udo (who failed to catch it, of course) and headed back to meet the Ironclads.

Be a winner, or a hero? Lothar would like to have both.

Udo managed to find the ring and ordered his men to retreat - and cover him. In an unusual fit of discipline, most of his men obeyed.

The fray was fierce - men were mown and shields shattered.

Here, the reactions came to the full bloom: They were used to put men into the way of charging enemy, to knock the defender aside and charge forth, to create local pressure points... as an example, I tried to stand up one of the knocked down halberdiers, and while I didn't want to risk a turnover with Q4+, I wanted him to succeed. Of the two dice I rolled, one failed. Robur, who was adjacent, managed to use it to smash the halberdier's head with his hammer, causing a gruesome kill (good thing I didn't name the halberdiers). The following morale check went almost great, with only one halberdier staying in place and the rest of the men grouped around Udo (who was conveniently out of the checked range).

The otherwise insignificant halberdier is going to influence the game...

They were all shaken a bit, but then Lothar saw a familiar figure - and threw himself at Gorm, thinking little of the consequences. Much to his surprise, men of the Bad Company followed him.

While men charged back, Udo knew better.

After a proper scrap, a sudden lull in fight occured. Gorm, noticing that the ring is gone and his dwarves disorganized, ordered a proper withdrawal, while the men tried to talk some sense to rabid Lothar. Both sides more or less succeeded, and both sides lived to fight another day. Also, there could be little doubt about the real leader of the Bad Company - now, Lothar has only the vengeance to fulfill. As the winner of the game, I have also given the trait "Steadfast" and name Yira to the single halberdier that didn't run.

Summary: This game was quite close in the end, considering how lopsided it looked after first few turns. We had to finish before a proper conclusion, but Udo got the ring and the fighting could have gone both ways, so I declared it a minor human victory without any further casualties. I liked how the reactions worked, they became rather a spice than a bread and butter of the game. The change of rules for shield and armour was definitely for the better - the rules are more straight, and shields/blocks are even stronger than before.

Fightin' Funghi Playtest

As you may know, I'm a backer of Fightin' Funghi,or, Advanced SoBH. The new ruleset includes bunch of interesting special abilities, now called "Traits", new rules for armour and shields (still w.i.p. with at least three variants possible) and  reactions (Even in SoBH, it may always be your turn! :) How does it play? 

Read on (and brace yourself for another bunch of crappy photos)!

After his adventure in the Northern Mountains, Lothar managed to rebuild his Bad Company, and soon found a offer fitting such highly skilled professionals - deliver a secret message. A single messenger could do it, sure. But a messenger could be captured, interrogated, killed and replaced by another. Having a slight doubt about this, Lothar accepted. 

Little did he know that Gorm's Ironclads were after him, paying spies here and there just to get a trace of the man who shamed them.

Bad Company

Objective: Pass the most men through the opposite corner.

• Lothar the Black: Q3+ C3, Leader, Light Armour, Shield
• Antar: Q3+ C3, Veteran Group Fighter, Unruly  
• Wilhelm: Q4+ C2, Fearless, Crossbow, Good Shot, Light Armour
• John: Q4+ C2, Good Shot, Shooter: Long, Reload (taken from Short Bow)
• Udo: Q4+ C3, Light Armour, Shield
• 3 Halberdiers: Q 4+ C3, Heavy Weapon, Light Armour

Gorm's Ironclads

Objective: Get Lothar.

• Gorm: Q3+ C3, Leader, Group Fighter, Medium Armour, Shield, Short Move
• Goth'Rack: Q3+ C3, Boiling Blood, Fearless, Unruly, Stubborn, Shield, Short Move
• Ragnar: Q4+ C3, Hammering Blow, Medium Armour, Short Move, Steadfast
• Gimli, Robur the Scabby: Q4+ C3, Medium Armour, Shield, Short Move, Steadfast
• Lorm and Skadi: Q4+ C2, Crossbow, Good Shot, Medium Armour, Short Move, Steadfast

The Game

Lothar was not surprised. Something always had to go wrong, just as this time, with those dwarves blocking his way. The last time, he had ran away from them, leaving his dead men behind - he had to. Through clenched teeth, Lothar muttered "No more running." At his command, his men began a cautious advance towards the dwarven barricades.

Shooters are being sent as a vanguard, while the dwarver take positions.

Wilhelm takes cover while a dwarven bolt whizzes past.

Seing that the enemy has crossbows, men of the Bad Company took cover wherever they could. At Lothar's nod, Antar headed into the woods - he enjoyed working alone anyway. The rest of his men dashed to Wilhelm.

Sometimes I read laments that ranged attacks are weak in SoBH - give me a pair of crossbowmen, and I'll teach such people the error of their ways. Crossbow is a trait in FF, it is really powerfull to one long distance and still menacing up to two. You have to reload it, however, and in order to do so, you must stay in place.

Strange as it may seem, noone is eager to buy the farm.

Poor Ragnar can't stay but fears to leave - because it's always my turn.

FF Reactions are new to SoBH - generally, if you fail any activation dice, your opponent may use them to attempt actions of his own. Although the reaction rules still need some adjustment (my oppinion), they shift the whole tactical paradigma and present more choices for both players.

No reload on my watch!

"Aye, I'm watching you..." said John in a low tone, as he drew his longbow. One of the dwarven crossbowmen just bent to reload his weapon, which was quite a lucky decision as he took an arrow on his shoulder plate. Wasting no time he vanished behind a rock few moments before Gorm ordered all his lads back.

Seing their enemy retreating was a welcome sight, so Lothar's men needed little incentive to rush forward. However, their advance was contained by Ragnar and Gimli, while Robur stomped to the forest to check Antar.

See those two? Surely the beginning of an epic duel.

Ragnar swung his hammer at Udo, but the swordsman managed to avoid the attack and seeing the dwarf off-balance, he returned the blow. Steel rang on steel, but aside from a notch on the helmet, Ragnar was unharmed.

Armour is yet to gain a final form in FF, but there is a variant available on Facebook group where it provides an armour save roll. If it is successfull, the result turns to a less harmful one: OOF to Knockdown, Knockdown to Recoil, Recoil to a tie. This rules add one more roll to combat, but we didn't feel it as an inconvenience. It brings more granularity without adding another combat roll modifier.

Near the edge, the blood starts to boil.

Armoured or not, there's only so much two fighters can do against trained men in more than twice their number. As his dwarves fell, Gorm could not restrain himself any more and lanched himself at the enemy. Loud roar from his left suggested that Goth'Rack finally got out of his gloomy mood into a more productive state of mind.

However, cold blooded John was not the one to be scared by a tattoed madman. The ferocius attack broke his bow and threw him back. John got ready for a hand-to-hand, only to see his foe collapse!

I like Boiling Blood. It is something like more controlled berserk, empowering you significantly - however, you'd better clean your surrounding in the rage, because you may collapse at the end of turn. My opponnent was quite unfortunate, getting a decent bonus to C but lousy combat roll.

Have at them!

Reactions can be great indeed. In one case (following picture), Robur got one failure and two actions - no doubt he was about to use them on a power blow, but Antar managed to react and strike first (although not that hard). It didn't matter in the end as both combats were tied, but the possibility was there.

A very private battle.

Finally, Lorm had had enough. He sneaked around the stunned swordsman, sprinted, drawing his shorsword, and finally thrusted it into Lothar's side. Lothar collapsed, and something had broken in his men. Two managed to sneak past the Ironclads, but rest of them ran away in random directions.

The dreaded morale check cascade about to begin.

"Hold!" Shouted Gorm, as the crossbowman raised his shorsword for a coup de grace. "I have a better idea..."

All of the Bad Company had ran away, without any casualties except Lothar. Perhaps they were able to deliver the message without him, but I doubt it - the confusion was too great. Moreover, the dwarves achieved their goal, which means a decisive dwarven victory!

Summary: The game didn't take any longer than our usual games of SoBH, and the new rules for reactions, weapons, armour and special abilities were fun. However, the reactions need to be either changed or house-ruled, because currently, there is no limit as to who can react to what, which may lead to quite gamey approach, like reacting with a figure on the other side of the table.

Anyway, I'm glad I took part in this Kickstarter project.

Skulldred!

Recently, I have been tempted by a generic skirmish set of rules called Open Combat. It enables you to stat up any of your fantasy/up-to-medieval miniature with a bit more granularity than SoBH. In an attempt to save me some money before christmas I read some reports and summaries I consider unbiased (i.e. they are not mentioned on designer's blog) and I was able to come up with these:

 - it still features "turnover" mechanic

 - no campaign rules included

 - looks a wee bit incomplete
 - more bookkeeping

None of that would stop me by itself, however, here comes uncle Scrooge with a coup de grace:

 - 10 pounds for a set of rules that I haven't seen in action nor tried?

Skulldred, on the other hand, is for free (though also rather incomplete). I admit, there are no campaign rules and only a handful of special rules, and the current version available is (hopefully) very close to being obsolette, but still, with a bit of house ruling it is worth a shot.

Skulls, Skulls Everywhere!

This Thursday I decided to shock my friend with a completely unknown set of rules - your guess is right, Skulldred it was. After weathering the traditional whining about a "new ruleset - again?" I was able to cheer him up by highlighting the advantages of the system. I opted for a rather short game: Empty dungeon treasure hunt, 5 minis and 5 dreadskulls each. Dreadskulls (glass beads in my case) are a vital resource, as they represent a favour of the gods, individual's determination or anything such.

In one of Lundor's many taverns, everything was pointing to a nice evening. Lothar the Black was drinking another beer, quite content with himself. A job had been done, money had been made, and only less fortunate Wilhelm was lying in the room upstairs with light wounds (well attended to, anyway). But just as others' black clouds had a silver lining, Lothar's sunshine had dark clouds just beyond the horizon. When a guy sat to their table, Lothar was still feeling a sort of happiness, so he let him talk. A grave mistake. 

-"I heard you are great mercenaries - but aren't you also great sinners then?"

A strange (and annoying) way to introduce oneself, considering that the guy didn't look like the ordinary zealous type. "Our sins are ours only." replied the leader of Bad Company, his mood heading down. 

-"But I may rightly assume that you fear Orladim and revere him and the order he represents?"

The question and a slight menace combined in one sentence gave it away. This was far worse than any preaching idiot...

...in the end, it were only half that bad. Their sins were absolved and a nice sum promised for retrieving a "thing of great importance" with "utmost haste". From an abandoned dungeon. In the Northern Mountains.

When they finally reached the (gods)forsaken dungeon, his company counted mere five men, including himself. The inquisitor that recruited them was among the dead of the clash he initiated - they met a dwarven warband apparently hired to get the same thing, and cooperation or sharing the profit was not considered an option...

Bad Company

• Lothar the Black: Leader, Level 4, Cbt 4, To Kill 3; 39pts
• 2 Halberdiers: Hold, Level 3, Cbt 3+1, Longstrike 2, To Kill 3; 23 pts each
• Skirmisher: Steadfast, Level 3, Cbt 3, To Kill 3; 19 pts
• Bowman: Panic, Level 3, Cbt 2, Ranged 4, To Kill 3; 17 pts

Dwarves

• Gorm: Leader, Level 4, Cbt 4, To Kill 4, Slow; 39 pts
• Shieldbreaker: Steadfast Level 4, Cbt 3+1, To Kill 4, Slow; 25 pts
• Warrior: Hold, Level 3, Cbt 4, To Kill 4, Slow; 20 pts
• 2 Crossbowmen: Hold, Level 3, Cbt 2, Ranged 4+1, To Kill 4, Slow, Reload; 20 pts each

The dungeon was illuminated in an eery shade of purple and all quiet (until the dwarves broke in) - but that was hardly enough to discourage what was left of Bad Company.

Both bands reached an entrance in the same time.

The archer was sent to harass the dwarves, and at first, he was wildly successfull, knocking down one of the dwarvish crossbowmen. The rest of the band - except the otherwise nimble skirmisher - hurried into the depths (and out of LoS).

First blood dreadskull - with a lucky shot the bowman downed his counterpart.

The archer went to meet Orladim a bit sooner that he hoped for - first bolt missed him, but to his horror the wounded crossbowman just snapped off the arrow, took aim and hit home with deadly precision.

First bolt missed, but another hit so well that no dreadskull was needed.

With the skirmisher still lagging behind, the rest of the band secured a conspiciuos heap of rubble. Too bad that they were outnumbered and outmaneuvred; the dwarves were nearing a summoning circle and blocked their way to the library.

The race to treasure locations.

Apparently, the treasure was not in the circle...

The skirmisher finally arrived, just in time to help his outnumbered comrades. In a lucky break, one of the crossbowmen was vanquished and a halberdier found the relic they were looking for.

...and an upstart crossbowman was taken care of.

Things went south from then on for the Bad Company. In the end, Lothar fought off the angry dwarves while the halberdier hurried away with the treasure. (Keeping Lothar alive has cost me all five dreadskulls, but even then it was just by the skin of the teeth.)

Lothar's selfless rearguard action.

The halberdier ran for his life, and as the daylight grew he may even have seen himself safe and rich... "Duck! Duck, you fool!" Thwack! Halberdier fell to the ground, his last thoughts evenly divided between all his life, the unknown and aquatic birds.

So close...

Lothar wasted no time grieving, snatched the relic and threw himself over the rubble, dodging another bolt. And then he was off for a long and perilous journey back to civilisation.

Summary: Skulldred has a tagline "Fast. Furious. Fun." and it really delivered. We were able to play it in 90 minutes, including a brief explanation of the rules. In contrary to SoBH, I was able to do at least something with all of my figures on my turn - the element of risk/reward in activating ("I may try to do more, but I may also fail horribly.") was replaced by resource management in the beginning of combat (Is this character important enough to sacrifice a dreadskull and add one die to my roll?). The stats are more granular, however, one of the most important, Level, has a similar problem as Quality in SoBH - one level for troops, one for the heroes, and the rest that still may be used is either for wimps or demigods. In the 2.05 version the rulebook itself is quite complete (and includes magic), but you have to add (and appraise) your own special abilities and make your own campaign rules. I don't hold my breath for promised public beta 3.3 or a commercial version (because I was never much into asphyxia) - I'm quite sure we'll have some fun even with this one.