Batrep: The Witch of Nether Thicket

Introduction

It's been my custom for several years now to play a themed game on or near Halloween.  This year, we got out my 17th century witches and witch hunters again, for another outing with the Song of Blades and Heroes rules.

The Scenario

We decided to play the Place of Power scenario from the basic SoBH rulebook.  In this, a terrain feature gives in-game bonuses as well as victory points to any magic user who is located in it.  An ancient runestone was located in the middle of the woods; perhaps the witches could use it to increase the efficacy of their black magic?

In a slight change to the published scenario, we decided that a witch would score 1 victory point for each 2 turns that she was in contact with the place of power, rather than 3 points only at the end of the game.  The basic scenarios in SoBH have no time limit and victory is effectively determined by who remains on the field of battle.  That being so, I saw no reason why the witches should get an extra 3 points if they had already won!  In addition, the per-turn bonus would add some time pressure to the game; it would force the opposition to deal with any witches rather than just hanging back and waiting.

The Forces

We played the game with 300 points per side, or near to that.  At most half of this could be spent on "expensive" models (50 points or more each).

For the witches, I chose the following:

• 1 witch.  After all, she's the main point of the warband (and the only magic user in the game).
• 1 ghost.  Not much of a fighter, but it should be able to scare away some of the opposition, right?
• 2 hellhounds.  These are big, scary and mean!
• 4 ghouls.  These are quite expensive, but their poison attacks and savage natures might be useful.

So, my plan was this: get the witch into contact with the place of power and start racking up victory points.  Use the hell-hounds to hunt enemy heroes and the ghost to scare off the common soldiery.  The ghouls are there to skirmish with anyone who tries to get smart and outflank me, or to assist in outnumbering an enemy hero.

Playing the forces of humanity, my sons decided to take:

• John Sterne, the witch hunter.  Strong-minded and well-equipped, he's pretty much essential when facing such abominations.
• Major Fairfax.  A decent military leader.
• 4 musketeers.  It doesn't hurt to have some ranged firepower when faced with satanic horrors.
• 4 soldiers.  A group of cheap lads, mostly useful to get in the opposition's way, I suppose.

The Game

So, how did the game play out?  Not as I had planned...

To start with, both sides advanced towards the central runestone.  If anything, the humans moved with a bit more purpose and organisation, due mainly to Major Fairfax's Leader ability.  A few long range shots were attempted, but these were all wide of the mark.

The ghost then caused consternation by advancing directly towards the largest group of soldiers ("Why yes, a ghost can move straight through a building").  Muskets and pistols were fired at the apparition, but it came on regardless.

Whilst the humans were distracted with the ghost, a huge hell-hound charged out of the gloom and bowled over the witch hunter.  Indeed, he had to use his hero's "once per game" re-roll to save himself from a brutal demise from the devil dog's jaws, but the re-roll converted his original throw of a deathly '1' into a respectable (but still losing) '5'.

A second beast followed, but before it could tear out the throat of the unfortunate man, one of the soldiers reacted and attacked it.  With contemptuous ease, the monstrous creature tore the poor squaddie into screaming, bloody chunks.

Despite Major Fairfax's cries of "Stand firm, my brave lads!", the common soldiers were appalled at the carnage of the gruesome kill; to a man they all turned and fled (though none of them ran off the table and away for good, sadly).

So far, this was going swimmingly for the witches!

Maybe I was cackling too soon, though.  In one turn, John Sterne regained his feet and gave the hell hound which was over him such an almighty buffet that the beast fell to the ground, momentarily senseless.  How the h**k did that happen?  I suppose that his Hero attribute gives him the right to perform superhuman acts of gymnastics, not to mention out-of-time judo skills...

Before anyone else could react (I threw a double activation failure for the first model in my next turn and therefore couldn't do anything), the witch hunter pulled out a pistol and shot the monster dead.  This guy is too much!

Whilst the rest of us just stood there, gawping, he stepped over the corpse of the hell hound, levelled his other pistol and shot the witch dead too (I threw another double activation failure for my first model and so missed another complete turn).  What the...

Encouraged by this (and by the shouted orders of Major Fairfax), several of the soldiers then charged at the second hell hound.  Whilst it was thus distracted and outnumbered, the witch hunter turned round and slew it too.

At this point, I conceded the game.  Whilst I still had the ghost and 4 ghouls, it didn't seem at all likely that they could wipe out the enemy force on their own.  So: the final tally was 1 witch and 2 hell hounds slain (5 victory points), versus 1 soldier killed (0 victory points) and 1 turn of communing with the runestone of power (0.5 victory points).  Despite it being Halloween, the forces of darkness were hammered!

Conclusion

I think that my plan was reasonable, but I was hampered by a series of very poor quality rolls just at the critical moments.  Of course, every roll in SoBH is critical - but some are more so than others!

As for John Sterne, the witch hunter - I'm beginning to really hate the man!  Of course, that's because I always play the evil side and I haven't really worked out how to deal with him...

Battle Report: The Flames of Justice!

Introduction

Last year, I reported on a game of Song of Blades and Heroes that was fought between my Witch Hunters and their deadly opponents, the Witches' coven.  This year, I intended to fight another such game on or near to Halloween.  Well, things didn't quite work out that way (especially with my wife's current eye problem).  We did manage to play the game, but it was a week late.  I'm now reporting it over a week after it was played, so this is at least a fortnight after I would have liked.  Still, better late than never, right?

The Scenario

One of the 3 witches in the coven has been captured by the forces of law and order.  She will be burnt to death at the stake - unless her sisters can rescue her, of course!

Forces

• Both sides have the same number of points to spend on appropriate warbands.  We used 350 points each, though lower or higher should also work.
• The witches have one extra witch for free.  She's currently chained to a stake in the centre of the board and cannot take any actions or be attacked unless she is released from her bonds.  Note that she could be burnt to death before this, though (see special rules, below).  If she is freed then this witch can be used in the same way as any other figure in the witches' warband.
• The witch-hunters set up first; they may start with 1 figure in contact with the pyre.  All other models must be placed at least medium from it.
• The witches set up second.  Their models may be placed anywhere desired, but at least 15" from the stake and pyre.
• The witches take the first move.

Victory Conditions

• If the witches free their sister and move her off the board then the witches win.
• If the captive witch is freed, but cannot move off the board (due to being killed, perhaps?) then the game is a draw.
• Otherwise (i.e. the captive is never rescued), the witch-hunters win.

Special Rules

• To free the captive witch, another witch must be adjacent to the pyre and must devote 3 activation successes to breaking the chains.  These successes can be all in the same round or split across several rounds.
• Either the witch-hunter general or the magistrate may attempt to light the pyre.  To do this, they must be adjacent to it and score 2 successful actions.  That will result in a single fire marker being added to the pyre.
• A witch may use magic to extinguish a burning pyre.  If successful (i.e. within the range allowed by the number of successes rolled) then all fire markers are removed from the pyre.
• If the pyre is alight at the beginning of the witch-hunter band's turn then it attacks the captive witch with a combat value (C) equal to the number of fire markers.  Recoil and Knocked Down results are ignored; only kill or gruesome kill have any effect.  After resolving this "attack" against the bound witch, the fire may spread.  Roll a d6: on a 5 or 6, add another fire marker to the pyre.

Our Game

In our game, I played the witches and my sons commanded the witch-hunters.  I spread my forces so as to approach from all sides (possibly a mistake?).  Black Agnes and 3 ghouls would creep down an alley on the southern edge of the town.  2 hell-hounds would approach along the road to the north-east, whilst Agatha flew over the wall to the north west.  My band was completed by a ghost which roamed the woods to the north; hopefully it would terrify the soldiers near the pyre and allow one of the witches to get close enough to release the chained Meg.

Things don't always go to plan, sadly.  For 2 complete rounds, I threw nothing but '1's for activation, which meant that the witches and their allies stood frozen to the spot in a mire of uncertainty.  During that time, one of the musketeers on sentry duty happened to look down the alley.  Seeing shadows at the far end, he called out "Halt!  Who goes there?  Identify yourselves!".  Not receiving a satisfactory answer, this likely lad then opened fire.  The musket ball hit one of the ghouls and knocked the evil creature to the ground.

The local magistrate was just around the corner.  He reacted instantly to the gunshot by calling on several nearby musketeers to form a firing line and move forwards ("First rank, fire!  Reload!  Second rank, advance and present!  Fire! ...").  Black Agnes and the ghouls fell back in disarray before the ferocity of this attack, completely unable to advance.

Hearing the commotion, the witchfinder-general applied flint to steel and tried to light the pyre.  Even though he fumbled his first attempt, he was successful at the second try - and still the witches' warband hadn't made a single successful activation roll.  This was not working the way I had hoped!

The Assault

Finally, the witches had some successes, albeit minor.  Black Agnes abandoned her ghoul pack and flew away from the line of musketeers.  Opposite her, Agatha approached the hedge, wondering whether to fly over it and attempt a rescue on her own - but there were soldiers everywhere!  To the north, one of the hell-hounds wandered along the road slowly.  Although this caused consternation amongst the nearest musketeers, the animal seemed to be in no great hurry.  Meanwhile, the ghost continued to haunt the same spot as before, moaning quietly without moving.

Back in the alley, the firing line of musketeers continued to gun down the ghouls enthusiastically.  As far as I was concerned, this was now a sideshow; the ghouls were as good as dead already and I had no intention of wasting any activation rolls on them!

In desperation, Black Agnes flew forwards towards the pyre.  She had barely cleared the building when she was spotted; a musketeer turned round from facing the approaching hell-hound and fired hurriedly at her.  The shot hit her broomstick and as it staggered in mid flight the witch clipped the ground and fell off [Darn it!  These musketeers are just too flipping lucky today!]

Seeing the witch prone in the dirt, first Brother Matthew (the mad monk) and then Sir Jasper (the magistrate) charged up and tried to finish her off.  In desperation, she somehow fought them both off and even managed to regain her feet...

...only for the musketeer to reload, take careful aim and shoot her in the back!

In revenge, the hell-hounds sauntered up the lane and tore apart one of the musketeers.  The nearest soldier ran for his life, which was probably the smartest thing he could do when faced with the 2 huge, vicious animals.

The second musketeer, whose shot had killed the witch, was so elated with his success that he never even looked over his shoulder.  Presumably he thought that the hot breath and low rumbling sound was one of his friends coming over to congratulate him?  Anyway, he barely felt a thing as his head was ripped off - and at least there were no other soldiers nearby to see this second gruesome death!

Meanwhile, back at the pyre, the fire burnt sullenly, resisting all attempts to spread it further.  Despite the general lack of flames, the captive Meg was surrounded by thick smoke and started to choke.  Within a couple of turns, she succumbed and fell away, lifeless [how unlucky was that!  The witch was C2, the fire was only C1 at this stage and she needed to be doubled to perish.  Predictably, I threw the necessary '1' (for a total combat score of 3) at the same time that the opposition threw a '5' or a '6' (for a total of 6 or 7 - I forget which)].

In a truly suicidal attempt at revenge, Agatha flew over the hedge to the north of the pyre.  She had barely landed her broomstick when the witchfinder-general strode up to he and fired both pistols at short range.  The poor old woman didn't have a chance and was killed on the spot!

This just left the ghost and the 2 hell-hounds.  The ghost finally looked up from its misery and decided to act [I think I'd failed every single activation attempt for this model up to that point in the game!].  It dodged the witchfinder-general and charged at one of the soldiers.  The poor lad cried out "Mummy!", turned and fled - never to be seen again.

Before the ghost could repeat this success, however, Brother Matthew came rushing towards it.  This was bread-and-butter to him [he ain't afraid of no ghost!] and the poor spirit was summarily banished from the world.

By rights, the hell-hounds should have fled at this point because they are animals and the last non-animal member of their warband had perished.  However we didn't remember this at the time and played on.

The continued play didn't really change the result in any way, though: the first hell-hound was surrounded and it was then only a matter of time before the beast perished.  Although it took a couple of soldiers with it, eventually Brother Matthew delivered the coup-de-grace with his jawbone-of-ox-on-a-stick.  I called it a day and the second hell-hound slunk off, the only survivor of a truly doomed rescue attempt!

Conclusion

What a disaster for the witches (but oh, were my sons chortling with glee at having beaten their dad)!  In hindsight, I think there were several issues that really messed up my day:

• I don't normally like to blame the dice for my losses, but I was barely able to move any models at all for the first half of the game.  Thereafter, my attacks went in piecemeal as only a small part of my band was activated in any given turn.  Truly the witches must have been in despair before setting off on this suicide mission; their troops were so dispirited!
• Perhaps I should only have taken 1 witch, or dropped the ghost?  I wanted to have 2 chances to rescue the captive, but these models are quite expensive and this meant that I couldn't afford much in the way of other figures to shield them or to act as a diversion.  Hmm.
• My deployment was really poor.  Since I was outnumbered considerably, attacking from all sides was just stupid!  It meant that there were always troopers waiting and ready for each of my forces, without the defenders having to spend any activations to move them there.  Next time I'll come steaming in from a single direction, in a big group with the witches protected in the middle...

SoBH: Night of the Witches!

Introduction

A little while ago, I wrote that I had started on a new gaming project: to paint 2 suitable warbands for a Halloween game of Song of Blades and Heroes (here).  Well, last night I took the results of this obsession along to the Helensburgh Games Club and set it in front of 5 of the members.Here's how it went (and yes, I know that it wasn't actually played on Halloween, but Tuesday was the closest club night to the 31st and therefore it had to be played then)...

The Scenario

Normally, I would have created some interesting story and goals for a game.  However, since this was to be the first time I'd ever played SoBH, I thought that I'd better keep it simple.  We ended up with a straightforward pitched battle, with each warband entering the table from opposite edges and the winner being determined solely by who could drive off their enemies.

The Forces

The 3 Witches had the following figures:

• 3 witches (Black Agnes, Agatha, Meg): Q3+, C2, Magic User, Flying, Leader
• 1 Ghost: Q4+, C2, Terror, Undead, Flying, Free Disengage
• 3 Hellhounds: Q4+, C3, Animal, Savage [note that I've decided since the game that I might upgrade these to C4]
• 5 Ghouls: Q4+, C2, Poison, Savage
• 6 Giant Rats: Q4+, C1, Animal, Gregarious, Stealth

As can be seen, I really went to town on the attributes for this force!  Perhaps a bit more than necessary, in hindsight?

The Witch Hunters force was composed of:

• John Sterne, Witch Hunter: Q3+, C3, Fearless, Hero, Lethal vs witches, Shooter(S)
• Brother Matthew, the mad monk: Q3+, C2, Fearless, Cleric
• Sir Jasper, the magistrate: Q3+, C3, Leader, Dashing
• Colonel Brandon: Q3+, C2, Mounted, Long Move, Leader, Shooter(S)
• Major Fairfax: Q3+, C3, Leader, Shooter(S)
• Sergeant Stone: Q4+, C2, Heavy Armour
• 6 Musketeers: Q4+, C2, Shooter(L)
• 4 Soldiers (swords, spears or halberds): Q4+, C2

I've not included a points value for either force.  Partly this is because I realise that I calculated some of them incorrectly, which is embarrassing.  It also reflects the fact that neither warband is technically legal: both have greatly more points in Personalities than the 1/3 permitted by the rules.  However, a rough figure would be about 600 points (to the nearest 100) for either side - that's about double the amount for a "normal" game.  I was aiming for a large, multi-player event, though...

The Game

Note Sergeant Stone in the centre background, skulking in ambush

Initially, the southernmost soldiers and the ghouls advanced towards each other.  A perennial issue for the troopers was that while the squaddies themselves would move forward on command, the players didn't advance the officers at the same time.  This left them without leadership for some critical moments.

Colonel Brandon and his bodyguard moved up to join the sergeant in the alley.  Seeing this, the evil players immediately surrounded them with giant rats.  The ghouls moved up to the other end to block off any escape route.

Only 1 rat had enough activations to make an attack.  Even though the Colonel was at a disadvantage, his horse managed to kick the rodent away.  It was immediately replaced by another animal, though.

In his next turn, Colonel Brandon rolled 3 dice for activation (in SoBH, a figure can choose to roll 1, 2 or 3 dice against their Quality and receive an action for each success.  However, if 2 failures are rolled then your side's turn is over).  He made all 3 and used his Free Disengage (because he was mounted against non-mounted opponents) to flee through a narrow gap by the wall of the house.  With 3 actions and the Long Move attribute, he went right out of the village and half way across the fields...

Meanwhile, Sergeant Stone and the soldier double-teamed the nearest ghoul and slew it.

Their triumph was short-lived, though.  Surrounded by rats and a ghoul, the troopers had little chance of escaping.  First, Sergeant Stone was knocked to the ground.  Although he managed to pick himself up again, a fierce attack from the rats achieved a gruesome kill against him, despite his armour (it's probably best not to think about how this might have happened).  Once on his own, the other soldier didn't survive for long.

Seeing 2 more soldiers out in the open, the rat/ghoul pack moved on.  They achieved another gruesome kill against the first human, but the second lad was plucky (or desperate!) and fought back valiantly.  He killed 1 ghoul and floored another...

...before the horde closed in and tore him apart (another gruesome kill)!  The only other person nearby was a solitary musketeer who hadn't managed to hit anything all game.  He took one look at the grisly sight and fled in horror!

Meanwhile...

To the north of the village, John Sterne, Brother Matthew and a very nervous trooper were advancing slowly through the woods.  "There are witches abroad tonight" proclaimed the experienced hunter.  "I can smell their fear!"
He was correct, but Meg and Agatha were hanging back a bit.  Instead, their pack of enormous hell-hounds were in the vanguard.

The 3 beasts made a co-ordinated charge through the trees, with 2 of them concentrating on Brother Matthew and the 3rd facing the witch hunter himself.  John Sterne killed his adversary with contemptuous ease, but the cleric was hard pressed.  Before either of his comrades could aid him, the monk was torn apart (yep, another gruesome kill).  This caused the soldier to run a short way off, but when he realised that he was then alone in the forest at night, he retraced his steps very quickly and stood behind the witch hunter's imposing bulk!

The 2 remaining hell-hounds renewed their assault.  This time the witch hunter tied with one beast; both opponents wary of the other's power.  However, the soldier was immensely lucky and managed to swing his halberd at just the right moment to kill the animal that was attacking him!

From behind a nearby tree, Meg now decided to get involved.  She managed to transfix John Sterne and freeze him in place.  This would have made him very vulnerable indeed, but with a great effort of will, he drew in a breath and shook off the curse before the hell-hound could take advantage of his weakened state.

What of the Colonel?

Colonel Brandon was very experienced in battles, skirmishes and sieges against human foes, but he wasn't used to fighting supernatural terrors.  After galloping out of the village, he started to work his way to the north, trying to join up with John Sterne and seek advice from the witch hunter.  However, in his path there was a ghost!

He tried to calm himself down by thinking of how he'd survived all his fights so far, spurred his horse on and charged straight at the apparition.  When the Colonel opened his eyes again, he was alone; the spectre had dissipated and vanished.  "Huh, that wasn't so bad" he thought to himself as he pressed on.

Hearing the noise of a scuffle ahead of him, the Colonel galloped his horse up the hill, just in time to bowl over the last hell-hound.  Agatha, the 3rd crone, tried to hex the witch hunter, but he saw her preparations in plenty of time and managed to dodge the spell.

The hell hound picked itself up and backed away, just as Meg approached to support her sister.  The 2 sides eyed each other without attempting to disguise their hatred, but no-one was prepared to make the first move.

Finally...

Back on the southern outskirts of the village, Sir Jasper came huffing and puffing up to see how his troopers were doing.  The scene was grisly, with rats and ghouls gnawing on the carcases of the fallen soldiers while Black Agnes watched on.  Sir Jasper wasn't having any of that!  The stout fellow summoned up all his younger memories of fencing and lunged at the foul, black-clad hag.

With an eerie screech, the witch fell down, dead!  At the sound, the minions of darkness looked up and saw the magistrate standing over the body of their leader.  Almost all of them turned and fled in panic, leaving Sir Jasper facing just a single, nervous foe.

At this point, we had to pack up since our 2 hour slot in the room was over.  Neither side had driven the other off, so there was much discussion about who had won.  Opinions varied...

Conclusion

Well, that was fun!  I've not played Song of Blades and Heroes before, so here are my first reactions:

• I made some mistakes when preparing my quick-reference cards for the various characters.  This was annoying, but I managed to work around it on the night.  I'll have to redo several cards, though.  Bother!
• It's not obvious from just reading the rules, but a step in Quality is worth a lot.  The Q3+ characters were much more active than the Q4+ troopers or minions.
• The witches easily over-ran the soldiers in the village by using a single leader (Black Agnes) to give sensible group moves.  However, in the forest they seemed to be overawed by the reputation of John Sterne, the witch hunter.  I think they could have swarmed him and his sidekick with hell-hounds and the ghost, with 2 witches providing fire support.  Instead, they hung back and were reluctant to engage until it was too late and Colonel Brandon arrived.
• The humans were all over the place.  Their soldiers and musketeers were scattered in small groups and most of these never even saw an enemy (remember Major Fairfax from the order of battle.  He didn't do anything useful).  However, a handful of active people saved the day for them, with Colonel Brandon dispatching the ghost and Sir Jasper slaying a witch.
• On points, it looks as if the humans won.  Although the witches slew more foes, their kills were typically ordinary troopers, whereas the witch hunters felled fewer, but higher value, enemies.  I'm not sure which way it would have gone had we continued, though!
• This was a much bigger game than the recommended 300 points.  Additionally, it had a far greater proportion of Personalities than is technically permitted.  I don't think that either of these modifications hurt the game at all; I'd be very happy to play at this level again!