Song of Blades and Heroes First game

Well the Fists of Iron got there first outing on Saturday night and I played my first game of Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha games. It was a lot of fun I found the rules quite easy to learn, simple yet Can be quite tactical once you get the hang of it.  You don't need a great deal to play the game either some tokens so you know whose activated as this swings between players on the whim of the dice, Some D6's and a tape measure and your pretty much ready to go. There are measurements included so you can use 15mm or 28mm miniatures as well. The game uses various charts to determine what goes on activation is interesting as you choose to roll 1-3 dice against you Quality statistic if you achieve or beat your quality score theneach dice that passes allows you character to perform an action. So you can perform up to 3 actions in a turn if your lucky with the dice if you fail more than you pass then the activation swings to the other player and they get a go.

Forces used

Fist of Iron Adventuring Company Warband size 299
I sort of found the stats from the back of the book that best fit the description and armament of the characters for my first game. Having played a game and been a little disappointed with the fist first outing there's been some tweaking and customising done.

Tharzon Hammerfist Dwarf Commander
Theo Wyvernjack Human Cleric
Snorri Stonehear Dwarf Orc Slayer (more so because of the equipment carried in the description)
Petril Shortcloak Halfling Spearmen ( I know he's a gnome but theres no profile for gnomes)
Falco Stoutoak Halfling Veteran
Torgar Oakarm Dwarf Thief
Milo Tealeaf Halfling Slinger (Thieves don't carry missile weapons normally and its the only one I have with a missile weapon in the company and wanted to try out the rules for ranged warfare)
2x War Dogs (These I made up the profiles for them gave them Quality 4 and Combat 3 Animal)

Vandarr's Undead Menace Warband Size 296
Sire Vandarr (Vampire profile)
Lady Vandarr (Vampire Profile)
8x Zombies (Standard Zombies)

I didn't take many pics as I was learning the game and taking pics etc is distracting.

Fists Of Iron Adventuring Company

SIre Vandarr the U:ndead Menace

The Battlefield

Fists Deployment

Vandarr Deployment

The Fists got trounced. I totally forgot about the rules for morale. A lessons learned on army selection characters with the leader skill it didn't matter so much for the Fists as the average quality was 4 or higher so apart from the odd roll of treble 1 for activation most of the Fists got off the starting block. The undead side however made up mainly of zombies with quality 6  meaning you need to roll 6s to activate them. Even using 3 dice this doesn't happen as often as you think one zombie didn't move from its deployed position over 16 turns lol!  Note To self take some Zombie lords or some other type of leader character to boost the zombies not that zombies are not very good they are slow but the are tough in combat.

The combat rules are simple you roll a d6 each adding the combat score of the characters involved to your roll various factors decrease your combat score outnumbered, knocked over etc. If you double your opponents score then you achieve a kill. Beating them with an Even score and the losing side falls over (makes them vulnerable if the can't activate next turn and stand up) or an Odd score which push the loser a base size away .

The game has some amusing moments at one point the Dwarf thief Torgar was behaving like he was fighting on banana skins he lost a combat and was knocked down, rescued by Snorri  then activated in the next turn he stood up, moved and attack another zombie only to fall over again. Visions of him slipping and sliding around in mud was quite amusing. Don't get me wrong it seems a little weird to think people are falling over in combat all the time but it represents you character becoming vulnerable in some way rather than actually falling.

In the end the Fists got trounced by the male vampire who killed them all pretty much apart from one attack dog who fled at the end (Animals don't count as part of your force so when the last proper member is removed from the table they flee).

I split the Fists up and they got took out piecemeal by the male vampire. A crap round of combat  Theo rolled a 1 vs a 6 against the lady vampire in the first combat of the game (Supposed to be great at fighting undead) ending in him getting killed.

I really enjoyed it and will certainly play again some of the Fists will get different profiles. I need to get some special zombies to use as the lord characters or perhaps have a look through the undead list for more leader types. Goblins and Orcs are on the cards for the next warband I think plus they'll come in handy for dungeon delving. More missile weapon armed characters are needed in the Fists as well as I didn't get to try this out as much as I'd like. Then of course I need to add in Magic!

I have a load of Dwarf characters to paint up that I've just got from Lord Siwoc. I've cleaned and based a few. But will be concentrating on Zombtober for now.