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Song of Blades and Heroes

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TITLE:

  • Song of Blades and Heroes (2007) - English Edition
  • Il Canto degli Eroi (2007) - Italian Edition

AUTHOR: Andrea Sfiligoi

PUBLISHER: Ganesha Games

PUBLICATION DATE: 2007

WEB SITE/SUPPORT FORUM:

PRICE (with date): $4 (2008) for the pdf version

About €8 (2008) for the printed coilbound version

REVIEWED BY: Cristiano “Elianto” Cozzolino  http://mondialterei.wordpress.com

PERIOD COVERED: Fantasy

THE BOOK: SBH book is a 34 pages Color cover and backcover with B/W interior. Printed version size is 8.26”x11.69”.

SCOPE: The game is a fantasy Skirmish

ARMY SIZE: The standard warband for SBH is made up by 5-10 models

BASE UNIT: The smallest unit can be considered the single model hero

GAME SCALES:

  • Ground scale 1cm = 1 meter
  • Figure/Base Ratio 1 figure = 1 men/monster
  • Recommended Figure size: The game rules are written for 15mm models but there is a conversion for 20 and 28 mm miniatures.
  • Table Size: 2 by 2 feet
  • Game Length: a game will take about 30-45 minute, a full campaign about 2-3 hours

The book includes rules to allow games on hex maps.

BASING SIZES:

There is no specific basing size in order to use any already based miniature. For 15mm the author suggest the use of small coins or round bases.

Suggested for 28mm:

  • Man sized figure: 2 x 2 cm
  • Mounted figure:  2 x 4 cm
  • Big figures: 2,5 x 2,5 cm
  • Huge creatures as needed

TURN SEQUENCE:

The players throw a dice to check who will act first in the turn. The winning player chose a miniature and try to activate it deciding first how many action he will try up to a max of 3. If the activation is successful the player activate the miniature and then he can chose another piece. He can go with all his model until he gets 2 failure in activating a miniature. Then the turn passes to the other player.

GAME MECHANICS:

To play you’ll need only three D6 and three predefined measuring sticks for short medium and long distance. Once activated there is no turn flow, the miniature can perform any action in any order up to a maximum number of three (depending on how many dice he used to activate). Each move costs one action and each fighter type has his own move distance. Fighting is divided in hand to hand and shooting. Models engaged in hand to hand throw a d6 each adding various modifiers, if a model beats the enemy you can have different results: beated but not doubled can cause to the enemy a pushback or grounded result, double the enemy dice means that the enemy has been killed, triple the enemy results ends up in a gruesome kill (with effects on enemy warband morale). Shootings is performed in the same way (with different modifiers) with the obvious results that only the shooting character can kill or effect the enemy model.

Magic is really simple, a magician can cast a spell spending one or more actions. Each additional action spent increases the spell power and effect. The spells available are two, the attack spell (fireball and similar) which acts like shooting and the holding spell that can entangle the enemy leaving it vulnerable to attacks.

Morale checks are performed only when gruesome kills happens or when a warband has lost more than half of its members.

ARMY LISTS/SCENARIOS:

The rulebook includes 6 scenario type and rules to create small campaigns and to develop your warband through experience. Using the 22 army lists available each player can build up his own warband. There is also a way to create your own character through a formula (now updated and available on the yahoo group).

REVIEWER’S COMMENTS:

Really a good fast and simple fantasy skirmish rules. No need for tons of dice and meters, you can setup and play a fast 30 minute fight in no time or build up an ongoing campaign with few steps that will not take months to play and organize.

The rules are well written and clear. The book already contains a faq build upon playtesting questions and there is a good support to the rules through the yahoo group. Nice also the format and the many b/n illustrations.

PLAYER’S COMMENTS: None

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