Returning home… a first little game of Song of Blades and Heroes

I’ve been trying  to get round to trying SoBaH for a while but despite having the table set up it never seemed to happen. However, this evening I finally threw a few figures on the table and tried the basics out. I kept it simple. A Norman knight and four of his sergeants are patrolling the local woods and come across a Saxon hut and it’s lone occupant, Eadric. Eadric has served many times in the Fyrd for his lord and soon grabs his spear and shield to defend himself! I’d started everyone quite close together and gave the Normans the initiative. I used a system I found on a blog (which I can’t remember but will try and dig out!) where for the opposition in a solo game you have one dice marked 1-3 and roll that with three other dice which you can order (I chose red/white/blue). So for activation rolls if the yellow dice is a 1 you use the red dice, a 2 you use the red and white etc. The first rolls saw the Norman sergeants rush ahead, apart from the chap at the back managed to end the turn!

Across the bridge, Grimmwulf was returning from his long travels with his two companions, Abdul Khaliq el-Rahimi and Kameel al-Hameed. As Grimmwulf drew his two blades, he and Kameel headed to the bridge.

But Abdul, seemed a little hesitant and they paused, not knowing why.

This saw the first blows struck as Eadric fought with the first Norman!

Kameel rushed onto the bridge but Grimmwulf sped past him to confront their first enemy!

In a flurry of flashing blades the first man fell to Grimmwulf’s wrath!
And sensing the new threat the furthest Norman paused to consider his options!

Grimmwulf bellowed his war cry but seeing three potential enemies paused.

A sergeant rushed at him but was stunned, falling to his knees!

Meanwhile, the Norman knight rushed to face Kameel as he reached the end of the bridge and forced him back!And Grimmwulf, his opponent at his mercy, dispatched him bloodily and mercilessly!Seeing this two of the Normans fled back But their leader was made of sterner stuff and fell back in the face of three foes. Coming to blows with the savage warrior with the two swords he was pushed back and as his men made haste to escape he too fell back. He had encountered a fearsome warrior and lost two of his men! As his foes gathered along the path he bid them farewell and headed back to report his news.And Grimmwulf and Kaleem prepared to help the old warrior whose life they had clearly saved.And that was it! As it was a solo game I think  the three dice approach worked well. Generally, I rolled two for ‘my’ chaps except for Grimmwulf as I had given him the Hero trait so he always gets one successful activation. His two-blades trait proved quite nasty in combat but he did roll well. His final attack was two 6s which enabled the grusome kill that prpmpted the morale checks that led to the Norman fleeing!

The basic stats were:

Norman Knight: Q3/C4 and the Sergeants: Q4/C3
Eadric was a basic Fyrd warrior: Q4/C3
Kaleem and Abdul; Q3/C4
And Gimmwulf was Q3/C4 with Hero and Two Blades traits

I’d made up a measuring stick beforehand as well has marking out the D3 I used.I was playing the Advanced rules so used Reactions for both sides. I’m not sure this really worked solo but it was OK. I think I need to look at one of the other solo rules variants for a more formal way of handling the enemy. But the game was simple and quick. The hero did the killing, the bad guys ran away and the Norman knight now has an enemy who got the better of him and must now seek revenge!

More to come!