zondag 4 januari 2009

Solo SBH playtest

In preparation for the first face to face game of Songs of Blades and Heroes next Friday I reread the rules, dug up a few LotR figs and terrain and proceeded with a quick playtest.


I'm using terrain tiles that I made myself a year or two ago, but as so often I didn't carry the project through. The only thing they need is a quick paintjob of the roads and cliff-face though. An ideal project for the LMM programme! Same thing for the chapel I made using HirstArts molds...


A view of the LotR Uruk-Hai I used. The three in the center of the group are actually completely finished! Yes, I do have some figures that are completely finished, few as they are though ;-)


Turn 1: The men of Harad got to move first, two archers on the flank moving quickly forward to get behind cover and engage any Uruk-Hai that comes onto the board. Most of the spearmen failed one of their quality rolls and made only one move. Two of the Uruks made it to the bottom of the hill and started moving towards the chapel.


Turn 2: The spearmen move slowly forwards, making sure that the archer on the right gets to shoot. I roll for three actions and pass two. The first shot hits the front Uruk on the hill, knocking him down. A second shot manages to kill him... One Uruk moves towards the chapel, but the rest screw it up and do absolutely nothing...


Turn 3: The archer on the left lets fly and knocks down the Uruk lurking near the chapel. His spearman buddy comes running around the corner and finishes him off. The archer on the right seems a little too excited from the kill and can't hit a barndoor... The spearmen move forwards to engage the Uruks.
The Uruks seem to be taken aback by this bold move and as a result just stand around doing nothing. (The first Uruk fails both his quality rolls, ouch!)


Turn 4: The spearmen on the left advance on the last Uruk near the chapel and prepare to slay him next turn. Once again the archer on the right screws up. The Uruks decide to charge down from the hill and one of them actually does it! He tears right into the Haradrim and kills him with a single blow.


Turn 5: The spearmen at the chapel gang up on the unlucky Uruk and kill him. This forces the remaining Uruks to make a morale check, chasing the one on the hill off the board while the berserker decides to fall back to the hilltop.

While intended as a quick test of the game mechanics I can see that this a simple, little game that I will most likely enjoy quite a lot. No big rulebooks with exception on exception, masses of canon figures... Ideal both on the "spend less" (the PDF costs 5 dollars and you can use any figs in your collection) and "play more" department of Less, More, More!

This game gets "Two Sixes"

3 opmerkingen:

  1. Just remember that a model can only make a single attack in an activation (that is where the aiming rules come into play). Of course, there is a special that will allow this (combat master I believe).

    Otherwise. Great report!

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  2. Oh! I seem to have missed that one, thanks for the feedback. I run into a game with next to nothing in basic rules and still I manage to overlook something crucial.
    On the other hand, this at least tells me I'm not posting into a void ;-)

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  3. No worries. The terrain looks good (pending those last miniute details we all need to add) and I'm definitely inspired by you "less is more" approach!

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