Flashing Steel!

After the brutal beating we gave Drums and Shakos last week, I decided to pull back and try a smaller game. We only had 4 players last night, so I dug out some minis I've had sitting around patiently for rules to go with.
I recently downloaded the latest in the "Song of..." family from Ganesha Games, "Flashing Steel". Having played lots of games from the family the group was already familiar with the mechanics. But, FS seemed to have a little more depth. I gave each player only two figures each (except the Cardinal's men who got a bunch of "extras"). Each team only came out to 150 points. Normally in a two player game, you use 500 points a side.

The scenario went thusly: A messenger carrying secret letters of love to the Queen's lover has been waylayed on the road to Calias. She has sent her loyal Musketeers to find the messenger and the letters before they fall into the wrong hands. Enter the Cardinal's men. They want the letters to prove the Queen's disloyalty. Somewhere at the crossroads they meet....
Each player had to search areas on the board. Aramis found the messenger right away, but forced to burn an activation each turn to keep him close. He could take him off the board, but would lose Aramis for the rest of the game.

The Duc D'Harme and his lackey Smedley stumbled into the thugs that had attacked the messenger. While they were distracted D'Artagnon and Porthos attacked. Unfortunately for our heroes, it was a bad move. D'Artagnon was taken out by a common thug, while Porthos was done in by the Duke and his man-servant.

On the other side of the table Athos was dispatching a veritable horde of Cardinal's Guards single-handedly, while Rochford (boo-hiss) stumbled around the woods looking for letters (which he found along with a pack of wolves).

It finally came down to Aramis and Rochford. It was Aramis's "Slippery-ness" that won him out. The Queen's honor remains intact!
This turned out to be my favorite version of the Ganesha system yet.

Gettin' some painting done

I guess the Gendarmes I did a while back wasn't torture enough, so decided to return to the paint table by working on complicated paint scheme for the leader of a "Songs of Blades and Heroes" retinue.
Meet Sir Reginald de Bulle.

Saturday night Song of Blades

Saturday night saw five brave warbands enter the Valley of Mists, a place of treasures and terrible danger. They were:
Grishnash, leader of a small orc tribe seeking glory.
Sir Gordon the Gold, and his band of adventurers.
Korgoth and his barbarian band.
Aleroth, elevn hero and his forest brethren.
and Sir Reginald de Pu and his retainers.
Right off, Sir Gordon found the Blade of Orc Cleaving, which got Grishnash's attention. Meanwhile Sir Reginald stumbled upon some ghost protecting a ruined temple. After the spirits were driven off, Reginald was awarded with the Bow of Eternity.
One of Korgoth's men, a berserker, ran off by himself and ran into an enchanted well. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a fis monster that quickly dispatched the wayward barbarian. The creature was later eliminated by the other barbarians, which gained them the Boots of the Hare god.
Across the valley battles were being fought and treasure uncovered. It looked like the elves might come out on top, but they got greedy and took on Reginald and his men. Though the great knight fell, his men ended up with 4 of the treasures, besting both elves and barbarians.

Gaming weekend

The Baroness is off for her world tour (girl's weekend). That means a weekend of wargaming. Tonight is the Battle of Vollenbeck, the much anticipated brawl between Volborg and Borogravia, to decide the fate of the west in Unkerlant. Saturday is either a Medieval battle or some VSF. Saturday night is a fantasy skirmish using Song of Blades and Heroes.
I will do my best to document the whole game-fest.

Old School Chaos

Came across a horde of Old Citadel lead. This was one of my earliest figs I fell in love with. A little repainting and ta-dah!
I plan to use this guy and his chaotic buddies in a Song of Blades campaign. Speaking of which, Song of Deeds and Glory (the campaign rules) just came out yesterday!

Song of Blades Thursday

Orcs, Elves, Lizardmen, soldiers and barbarians battle for control of an ancient water source, the Well of Infinite Knowledge. It was a bloodbath as usual. The Lizardmen hid in the trees until their opponents took some casualties. The barbarians had a rocky start, shrugging off losses with their "Fearless" trait. The Elves lost their wizard almost immediately, and the Orcs struggled to maintain any kind of plan. In the end, the king's soldiers' numbers won out.
These rules are easy to learn and have a lot of depth. We played a very simple scenario, with no bells or whistles, but still had a great time.

Rock and Roll

This is a repaint of a D and D plastic. I got the idea from Dampf's Modeling Page. He can pull several duties, stalking the battlefields of Song of Blades and Heroes, Retro SciFi and even VSF.

Sammies at Spring RECRUITS

Thought I'd post some pictures from the Basement General's Samurai game at Spring RECRUITS. The game was run and terrain done by Ken (Lead Addict) Boone and the pictures were taken by Ken Van Pelt. As you can see the table looked great and the game was a blast. I, as some humble Buddist monks managed to get away with one of the scared treasures, but alas, 2 other were stolen or destroyed. The rules were "Song of Baldes and Heroes", one of my favorites.
KB will probably be posting a real battle report sometime soon on his blog.

Song of Blades Warband

Here's half of a Song Blades and Heroes Elven warband.