The Wolf of Iskedumdrum

The kids and I finally sat down to play another game of Song of Shadows and Dust. Often I set up games by coming up with two factions, we roll for objectives, set up the game and go… I take pictures and most of the fluff – the background situation, etc. – I come up with afterwards. This time the kids made up their own factions (with my figures) and came up with their own names (or ideas for names – which I them found rough translations for…) and backgrounds for their factions.

They are both working on assembling and painting their own miniatures for their own factions at the moment – hopefully we’ll see them in action shortly!

Iskedumdrum, 69 BCE

SITUATION

Magnus Malus Lupus is a rather corrupt property owner in Iskedumdrum. He is not above forcibly ejecting – or even murdering – occupants to take over new buildings. Recently he put an old hag out of her (and his) misery to take over one such building, but is beginning to regret that action. The “old hag” happened to be the grandmother of Rubia Cuculla – a young firebrand not to be trifled with!

Rubis Cuculla is out for justice. If she cannot get it through the Magistrate, she will find some way to personally ruin Malus Lupus…

SCENARIO

Magnus Malus Lupus is aggressively trying to take over a few new buildings in a new neighborhood (“Seize the Suburb” objective). He gets 1 Victory Point per 50 points of defeated enemies, plus one Victory Point for each turn one of his faction is in control of any of the three target buildings, but suffers -1 Victory Point for each turn his rival’s faction is in control of a building.

Rubis Cuculla is simply out for blood (“Looking for Trouble” objective). She gets 1 Victory Point per 25 points of enemies defeated.

The scenario took place at midday - 12 civilians on the table. 

FORCES

Magnus Malus Lupus – Corrupt Property Owner

Q 3+, C 2, 50 points

Leader

Foreign Bodyguard

Q 4+, C 4, 42 points

Armed, Barbarous, Heavy Drinker, Protect Leader

Cretan Bodyguard

Q 3+, C 3, 60 points

Agile, Armed, Bow, Protect Leader

Armed Henchman

Q 4+, C 3, 36 points

Armed, Bellicose

Henchman

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points

Grey

Boxer

Q 2+, C 3, 83 points

Hard, Street Fighter

Rubia Cuculla - Faction Leader

Q 3+, C 3, 60 points

Leader

Cretan Bodyguard

Q 3+, C 3, 60 points

Agile, Armed, Bow, Protect Leader

Armed Henchman

Q 4+, C 3, 36 points

Armed, Bellicose

Henchman with Javelin

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points

Javelin

4x Henchmen

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points each

Grey

Blind Prophet

Q 2+, C 0, 8 points

Distracting, Slow, Short Move, Clumsy

THE GAME

Rolling for his Hard Drinking Foreign Bodyguard, he turned out to be "Slow" for this game. The Boy won the initiative roll and things were off and running...

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The terrain – as set up by The Girl – for this scenario. Magnus Malus Lupus and his men are entering the table on the left. Rubia Cuculla and her men are entering from the right. The three target buildings are marked with chests on the roofs.

Magnus Malus Lupus looking to expand into an new neighborhood.

Rubia Cuculla and her hanchmen ready to spread out to defend the neighborhood.

Turn One: The Boy goes first. Magnus Malus Lupus rolls two successes and parades into the neighborhood ahead of his men calling for them to follow (issuing a group move order). The Boy rolls a one and two twos… turn over. They were hesitating... something just didn't feel right about this neighborhood... 

Meanwhile, on The Girl’s end of the turn, she has better luck with the dice and contacts two of the target buildings, putting The Boy 2 victory points in the hole!?

Turn two… as before Magnus Malus Lupus rolls two successes. He declines to move any further into the neighborhood without his gang and issues another group move order. The Boy rolls two ones and a four… so the gang catches up.

At the bottom of the 2^nd turn The Girl gets two guys in contact with the third target building and The Boy is now down 5 victory points!

On his next turn his guys get two actions and he cleverly gets one guy in the corner contacting TWO of the target buildings – so at least The Girl isn’t putting him 3 points in the hole each turn any more! Not sure if that's totally legit, but I let him do it since things were going so badly for him... 

The rest move out into the square by the neighborhood well.

On The Girl’s half of the turn her Cretan Bodyguard knocks down the leading henchman in the group and The Boy is now down 6 victory points….

We began to wonder about that – perhaps he shouldn’t be able to lose more than he’s gained…? Not allowed to go into the negative victory points….? This seemed a little harsh!

On The Boy’s turn he moves Magnus Malus Lupus once and that ends his and the downed guy what was not able get up was finished off by The Girl’s Cretan Bodyguard. 

On The Boy’s next turn he got Magnus Malus Lupus moving towards the third target building – hoping he may be able to at least contest it so he would stop losing points he didn’t even have yet (but not before he lost one more victory point)! The rest of the gang started moving through the square under withering fire from The Girl’s Cretan body Guard – in The Girls’ turn her Cretan Bodyguard shot The Boy’s Cretan Body guard who was recoiled by her arrows – and a civilian fled (on short) away…

On The Boy’s next turn he got Magnus Malus Lupus in contact with the third building so he would no longer be losing points. The Gang got one action so The Boy’s Cretan Archer fired back recoiling his opposite. The rest declined to move – partly to stay together as a group. Partly because the Foreign Bodyguard couldn’t move much further anyway otherwise he’d be beyond one long form the leader – something a bodyguard isn’t really supposed to do!

At the bottom of the Sixth Turn The Girl’s Cretan Bodyguard took down The Boy’s Foreign Bodyguard (and moved up her Blind Prophet).

The Boy, seeing no way out of this mess, conceded and fled the field with is remaining four faction members – dragging the bodies of the two fallen members with them… as it turned out the Foreign Bodyguard was seriously injured, but made a miraculous recovery and gained the Lucky special rule! The Henchman was not so lucky – his serious injury left his leg permanently crippled and thus gained the Short Move special rule.

The Girl Scored 7 Victory Points – 4VP for the faction members that fled the field and 3VP for the 78 points worth of foes her forces took out.

The Boy… ended with -8 Victory Points. I think in a campaign we’d call that zero – rather than taking away from points gained in previous games. I think the negative victory points should be counted for the scenario though – if it had been the reverse (The Girl with a not-so-great faction for the objective, setting up poorly, and having bad dice rolls) the boy could have racked up 8VP for himself – which The Girl would be hard pressed to recover from…

I had kind of wanted them to, despite all the wonderous toys I have available, design a faction with figures that I have that they would be able to make with the figures they have – so they could see how it works out. The boy, as I had kind of predicted, took a small number of high-point, hard-hitting brutes… which, I’m hoping he realizes, was PART of his downfall here.

I like “Seize the Suburb” it forces players to split up their forces and prevents a simple brawl in the center of the table… sometimes… You do need numbers to do this, though – enough to contest all three, with a large enough group of others to go clear off enemies from one building to start scoring Victory Points.

As the last week of our summer wraps up I’m hoping we’ll get in a few more games – next I’ll probably get them to try building some different warbands with their fantasy figures as we’ll be running a Song of Blades and Heroes/Song of Deeds and Glory campaign starting in September.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More games. More figures painted – I have a bunch of Roman Legionaries I’m just finishing up. 

The Bad Legatus

My friends Dave and Patrick stopped by Thursday evening to try out Song of Shadows and Dust. It’s been a busy few days and my memory of exactly how things went down, turn to turn, is fading quickly… but I’ll do my best to relay the highlights of the action!

Iskedumdrum, 69 BCE

SITUATION

Quintus Malus Legatus was the bright shining star of the Iskedumdrum Militia when he joined 15 years ago – rising quickly and gaining a reputation as a steady, dependable, man who could get things done. Many still remember him thusly, and turn a blind eye or refuse to believe some of his more recent activities. Over a decade and a half of dealing with the worst elements of society, seeing many of the guilty get away with the worst sorts of crime due to political connections has had a telling effect on Malus Legatus.  First he became hard and jaded and disaffected, and then became utterly corrupt – taking bribes, extorting “protection taxes”, and more recently taking a more active hand in the criminal underworld – using his position as an officer of the militia to remove his rivals…

Publius Vindicus Consultus is a young magistrate in Iskedumdrum. He is determined to root out corruption within the militia. He wants to make an example of Malus Legatus!

Mad with power, Malus Legatus has become brazen and believes himself untouchable – he is at the point where he is even willing to risk open confrontation with the magistrates men in the streets..

SCENARIO

The magistrate needs hard evidence and has decided to try and capture one of Legatus’ men to be tortured and interrogated. They score 1 Victory Point for every 50 points of opponents defeated and a bonus 5 Victory Points if they can capture and drag one of Legatus’ men off their own table edge.

Malus Legatus is out to teach the neighborhood why you don’t mess with Malus Legatus. They only score 1 Victory Point for every 100 points of enemies defeated, but score 10 Victory Points if they can retrieve a bee hive and deposit it in the building of a businessman that’s been a little behind in paying his “protection tax”.

The scenario takes place in the scorching heat of midday – only 12 civilians are in the street.

FORCES

Qunitus Malus Legatus - Grizzled Militia Officer

Q 3+, C 3, 96 points

Armed, Dogged, Leader, Threatening

Veteran Militiaman

Q 3+, C 3, 50 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Determined

Militia Archer

Q 4+, C 3, 45 points

Agile, Bow, Steadfast

2x Militiamen

Q 4+, C 3, 39 points each

Armed, Bludgeon, Steadfast

Henchman (informer)

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points

Grey

Publius Vindicus Consultus - Magistrate

Q 2+, C 2, 100

Demagogue, Determined, Tribune

Frantix – Foreign Bodyguard

Q 4+, C 4, 42 points

Armed, Barbarous, Heavy Drinker, Protect Leader

Armed Henchman

Q 4+, C 3,  36 points

Armed, Bellicose

4x Henchmen

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points each

Grey

Blind Prophet

Q 2, C 0, 8 points

Clumsy, Distracting, Short Move, Slow

THE GAME

Rolling for his Heavy Drinking Body Guard – Patrick found his drinking today had made him a Combat Master!!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The setting for the action. The behive is tucked in the carner behind the irritable mule and the target building is the one at the bottom right of the picture (with the chests stacked against it). The magistrate’s men can be seen entering from the top right. A few of Malus Legatus’ men can be seen at the top left.

Malus Legatus spots that meddling Vindicus Consultus and his men approaching.

Innocent civilians standing about the square unaware of the confrontation about to take place.

Legatus’ militiamen march past Mad Abdul’s carpet stall…

The standoff in the street.

Legatus’ men rushed in trying to block the magistrate and his men from advancing further so the militia archer could get to the beehive in the corner.

I can’t quite remember who struck the first blows… I think it may have been the Magistrate’s men. The civilians – that Patrick had hoped might join his cause – scattered.

The Veteran Militiamen was the first of them to go down – clonked on his head and knocked out cold. This Patrick decided would be his target for capture – Legatus’ Right Hand Man. Frantix, the Foreign Bodyguard of the magistrate, also took down the Milita Archer before he could get to the hive.

There was a little confusion about the details of how capturing someone worked… in the rules is explains that at any point during the player with the Abduction objective could choose to change a kill result to a fall, it then took two action to bind and lift a captured enemy… it also said that if the carrier was attacked that a captured enemy would be dropped and should be placed lying down on the table and could then get up…?!

So we weren’t sure if ANY fallen opponent (beaten, even roll on dice) could be captured – as long as there was a standing rival in contact with him that could spend two actions to bind and lift them? Or did they HAVE to get a “kill” – which would then be considered “knocked out” who could be bound and carried off at the player’s leisure.

If a captured person was dropped an did manage to stand up were they automatically unbound and able to fight again normally? How would they have gotten their weapons back?

To keep things simple for the evenings scenario, I said that the abducting player had to score a “kill” result (doubled) – but not “gruesome kill” (tripled) – to “knock out” someone. One action was required to bind them, a second action was required to pick them up or grab them to drag away. If they were then contacted they would drop the captured opponent, but once captured the opponent was essentially just a marker (as in the Rescue objective) that either side could “pick up” for an action and drag or lead away as they see fit.

The scrap continues – Legatus’ men were constantly hindered by the presence of the extremely distracting Blind Prophet…

For some reason Vindicus Consultus decided to push through the melee into the square – perhaps he wasn’t feeling much use loafing about in the back – and so decided to march into the square and try to rouse the citizens against the corrupt militiamen.

Sadly he was cut down by Malus Legatus himself – not close enough for any of the civilians to join in…

But close enough to his own men to cause most of them to flee!

Things were looking pretty bad for the Magistrates men.

But then Dave choked on an activation roll  and someone rallied the magistrates men: “Lads! Lads! We can’t leave the magistrate lying in the street there! We can’t let Malus Legatus get away with this!! Let’s go back there and get ‘em!!”

Frantix the Foreign Bodyguard, mad with rage, took on TWO militiamen!

Frantix was recoiled from the Militiamen. One of the Magistrate’s henchmen beat down Malus Legatus’ henchman who had just picked up the bee hive…

Which unleashed a swarm of angry bees… Malus Legatus and one of his militamen were knocked down by this – rolling about on the ground trying to get angry stinging bees out of their segmented armour!

Frantix took down another militiamen. The magistrates henchmen just could not get ther veteran militiaman bound and lifted… so many failed quality rolls… the Militia still hampered by the Blind Prophet’s presence…

Malus Legatus took to scaring off the Magistrates henchmen by bellowing threats to put out the eyes of their families and sell their daughters into Syrian brothels and such…

The game eventually ended due to the death toll… I think Frantix took down this last Militiaman he was fighting…

In the end, three of the magistrates men had fled the table and one henchman had been cut down along with the magistrate himself. Just over 200 points worth of troops defeated or fled netted Malus Legatus 2 victory points… Checking afterwards, the Henchman died of his wounds, but Magistrate Publius Vindicus Consultus luckily escaped serious injury and apparently the Fortunes smile upon him because he gained the “Lucky” special rule!

Malus Legatus had lost two militamen, the archer and his henchman (the one we decided was an “informer”). Enough to give the magistrate 3 victory points! The archer, the hemchman and one of the militiamen all died. The remaining militiaman was seriously injured and would suffer a permanent -1C.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The kids are asking to play a Song of Shadows and Dust game today – perhaps there’ll be a second game report posted later this evening! 

The Egyptians of Iskedumdrum

I got in a quick game of Song of Shadows and Dust with the family Sunday evening…

Iskedumdrum, 69 BCE

SITUATION

Iskendumdrum has a sizeable Egyptian population – traders mostly, but also artisans and others. There is a growing interest in all things Egyptian amongst a certain segment of the Roman population – including their religion… A certain up and coming Roman politician – Trimus Canis Nocturnus – a staunch conservative sees this as an affront to the Roman state religion and a threat traditional Roman family values and the morality of Roman youths… He had campaigned against the setting up of Egyptian temples and allowing Egyptians to practice their religion in Iskedumdrum. He has been especially irked that Roman citizens have been offering up Roman coin as offerings at the Egyptians temples… As his pleas have fallen on the Deaf ears of the Roman governor (himself a Egyptophile), Trimus Canis Nocturnus had decided it is time for action! A group of his cronies staged a daring daylight raid of the temple – making off with a rather large strongbox full of Roman gold – they were unable to get far with it and so hid it in an alley in the Egyptian quarter before fleeing for their lives. By night Trimus Canis Nocturnus returns to the Egyptian quarter to recover the stolen gold, but the treets are not empty – and by no means safe!!

SCENARIO

The Romans under Trimus Canis Nocturnus were attacking, the Egyptians were defending.

The Egyptians objective was “Looking for Trouble”. They simple got victory points for taking out their enemies – 1 VP for every 25 points of Roamans killed or fled from the table.

The Romans Objective was “Theft”. The Romans had to locate the stolen goods (three possible location markers were placed within one ling of the Egyptian base line after terrain placement and determining side, but before setting up figures). If they located the goods and carried them off their table edge they would get 5VP. They also got 1 VP for every 50 points of Egyptians killed or fled from the table.

The scenario took place at night – there were only 4 civilians on the table.

FORCES

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The Egyptians – played by The Boy and The Girl

 

Bes – Guild Master

Q 3+, C2, 50 points

Leader

Sethirkopshef – Zealous Egyptian Priest

Q 4+, C3, 50 Points

Savage, Threatening

2x Priest Body Guards (as per Cretan Bodyguards)

Q 3+, C 3, 60 points each

Agile, Bow, Armed, Protect Priest

2x Armed Henchmen

Q 4+, C3, 36 points each

Armed, Bellicose

The Romans – played by Amanda

 

Trimus Canis Nocturnus – Young Politician

Q 2+, C2, 92 points

Demagogue, Tribune

Hottopix – Foreign Bodyguard

Q 4+, C 4, 42 points

Armed, Barbarous, Heavy Drinker, Protect Leader

6x henchmen (with improvised weapons)

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points each

Grey

THE GAME

Rolling for Hottopix “Heavy Drinker” outcome – he was feeling a little “Clumsy” this evening…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Night falls over the Egyptian Quarter of Iskedumdrum.

All set up and ready to go! Trimus Canis Nocturnus and his up-standing Roman citizen followers are at the top center of the picture. The three objective markers can just barely be made out across from them along the bottom half of the picture.

Trimus Canis Nocturnus and his gang storm into the Egyptian Quarter by moonlight…

The Egyptians were a little uncertain which way to go and took a bit of a “wait and see” approach…

Being a bit drunk, Hottopix – thea heavy Drinking Foreign Bodyguard of Trimus Canis Nocturnus Barged ahead – not realizing his leader had gotten into an argument with one of the others and ended up being left far behind… (Hottopix had gotten three actions and charged ahead, the second guy got two, the third rolled a turn-over…)

One the Romans second turn a few more henchmen moved ahead – one catching up to Hottopix, who was standing in the street wondering where his master was at. Trimus Canis Nocturnus, however, continued to argue with one of the other henchmen…

“I think I head someone coming, boss”

Finally moving forward… one of the Roman Henchmen located the stash!

…only to have himself be discovered by the prowling Egyptians… The first of the Priest’s bodyguards through the courtyard knocked him down. This violent action scared away the Nubian slave that was out sweeping the streets at night…?

The second of the Priest’s bodyguards out a second arrow in him taking him out! At this point the Nubian slave joined with the Romans – such violence in the streets at night! The Romans were right, these Egyptians ARE a menace!

The Armed Egyptian Henchmen were the next out of the courtyard and charged into contact with the next Roman henchman… but didn’t have enough actions to attack.

Amanda’s first activation attempt on her next turn…

This is going downhill fast…

The first Egyptian henchman actually tied the Roman henchman – despite the Roman being up ounumberd by armed opponents attacking with a powerful blow! The second Egyptian henchman forced him to recoil from the melee… where he was taken out with an arrow from one of the Egyptian Priest’s Bodyguards… The Nubian Slave was frightened off by the chanting of Sethirkopshef – the Zealous Egyptian Priest.

The Romans finally made it to the scene… mostly… and Hottopix rushed forward to grab the stash!

But Hottopix simply ended up being the next victim of the merciless Egyptian archer/bodyguards.

A bunch of the Roman henchmen tried to jump one of the armed Egyptian Henchmen – but none were feeling quite so vigorous to get too close to his massive khopesh! Trimus Canis Nocturnus, not beign one to learn from the follies of others, charged forward to grab the stash himself!

The Romans leader was cut down by the cruel arrows of the Egyptian bodyguards – his cries and the dark blood on his white toga in the moonlight made for a gruesome scene – the remaining Roman henchmen fled the table – well…. TRIED to flee the table – one was cut down with a free hack as he tried to break contact with the Khopesh-wielding Egyptian.

Another fun, quick, and utterly decisive game!

Playing at night is a whole different kettle of fish.

Bows are BRUTAL at night – without the line of sight issues caused by civilians, not to mention the strong possibility that a civilian will join the side of anyone struck by a bow. I am considering adding a few house rules to counter this… limit visibility at night…? negative modifiers to all shooting – or at least remove the +1 to hit for bows…? I’m not sure just yet, but I’m thinking about it…  Or perhaps I just need MORE buildings and line of sight blocking terrain…? I don’t’ want to make it totally impossible to move, though.

Also the Demagogue/Tribune abilities were basically useless at night… but them’s the breaks…

As I’ve mentioned one of the things I really like about Song of Shadows and Dust is the objectives – giving the player options about how to play the game and how to try and win. We had a little trouble with plans in this game as the game is supposed to end when either a scenario objective has been met that triggers the end of the game, all of the opponents have either died or left the table – as was the case in this game – or seven people have died. At the beginning of the game Amanda thought perhaps she could try and just grab the stash – if she could find it quickly enough – and scarper off the table without even contacting the Egyptians – if possible. This is the sort of thing I really like… but looking at the “Theft” objective, it didn’t specifically say that removing the item triggered the end of the scenario…? It simply said that removing it from the players own table edge gave them five bonus victory points. Of course anyone that purposely leaves the table gives the enemy one victory point. So, technically, if Amanda had wanted to play this way (and been able to pull it off) she would have gotten five VP for carrying off the stash, but given up 8 VP for all her faction leaving the table!? So I decided that leaving her own table edge with the stash could trigger the end of the  scenario those carrying the object would not give up VP to the enemy.

I also like the idea that the game would end when a certain number of people had died – representing “the critical point on eht table where the violence has attracted too much public attention forcing all faction members to quit the table in fear or arrest or loss of local support.” I REALLY like this rule – one more thing to keep factions from being utterly massacred – something very handy in a campaign! The one thing is the number seven seems rather arbitrary. So I’ve been considering making it slightly random… somehow… perhaps once four have died start rolling d6 after every death if the total of D6+3 is equal to or less than the current Body Count the game ends. On average I think it will still end at about 7, but could conceivable end at 4 or carry on until 9 die. Perhaps we’ll try it in a few of our next games.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

My painting table is getting very crowded – it’s hard to tell what may roll off of there next, but it’d very likely to be SOMETHING ANCIENT – Egyptians, Greeks, Romans or Nubians… and there’s always the possibility of more game reports – have to make the most of these last two weeks of summer vacation before all our regular activities start up again!