Decided to take my newly painted warband for a spin!

Sir Edward,the baron of Averon, and his retinue marched out to investigate some unusual activity in one of Averon's border villages. There had been reports of  murder in a few villages at the border, and the presence of bitemarks on the victims was a sign for the Baron that there were undead roaming his lands. He ordered his men to keep an eye out, and especially watch the graveyards and burial mounds for signs.

When one of his scouts returned, reporting he had seen a figure performing rituals at a graveyard in a small village, he immediately rounded some of his men and set out to investigate.

Upon arrival, they found a vampire with a freshly ressurected band of minions. Sir Edward ordered the attack!

However, count Nikolai had caught their scent, and was waiting to meet him head on.

forces:
sir Edwards retinue:

sir Edward,baron of Averon - Personality Quality 3+   Combat 4
Special Rules   Giant Slayer, Hero, Leader

Joseph,the baron's champion - Personality Quality 3+   Combat 3
Special Rules   Leader

man at arms x3  Quality 3+   Combat 3

man at arms Quality 3+   Combat 3
Special Rules   Standard Bearer

man at arms Quality 3+   Combat 3
Special Rules   musician

huntsman Quality 3+   Combat 3
Special Rules   Sharpshooter, Shooter: Long

archer x3   Quality 3+   Combat 3
Special Rules   Shooter: Long



count Nikolai's rabble

vampire count Nikolai - Personality Quality 3+   Combat 5
Special Rules   Ghost Blade, Terror, Tough, Undead

zombie lord - Personality Quality 5+   Combat 5
Special Rules   Leader, Short Move, Slow, Undead

skeleton x3  Quality 3+   Combat 2
Special Rules   Undead

ghost Quality 4+   Combat 1
Special Rules   Flying, Free Disengage, Undead

skeleton rider x2  Quality 3+    Combat 2
Special Rules   Long Move, Mounted, Undead

zombie x3  Quality 5+    Combat 4
Special Rules   Slow, Undead

ghoul x2  Quality 3+    Combat 2
Special Rules   Poison, Undead



The undead started in the graveyard


While sir Edward's men started divided into two groups, the archers with the baron, and the fighters and the huntsman with his champion


The first surns saw them closing in, and the situation prior to action was this:




The men at arms got 3 successes on their group activation:


And the first one immediately put a ghoul out of action, the rest of the men only drove their opponents back



The vampire rushed in where the ghoul had fallen,while two zombies made way for the champion...


Who caused a turnover on the first activation of the baron's force:


count Nikolai knocked down his enemy, but the skeleton beside him ended the undead turn after that:


The baron's force turn was over on the first roll though, so it went back to the vampire...

Who swiftly dispatched his fallen prey, and made way to the huntsman, while one of his skeletons fumbled his attack and got smashed to bits! The next roll resulted in a turn over with no successes


in their turn, the men bunched up on the ghoul and knocked him prone, while their drummer's attack went bad and he got knocked down himself. when trying to activate, the champion caused a turnover once more.


Sir edward and his archers had activated before the champion though, and they each knocked a skeletal rider down.


in his turn, count Nikolai rushed the huntsman and quickly dispatched him.


while behind him his minions slowly pushed the men down. However,the fallen drummer managed to drag his opponent down too!


But then a lucky roll saw a zombie kill the champion.


This caused some of the men to fall back (he was a leader), but luckily they had a standard, so they fell back to him. The drummer however rolled three failures, so was taken out.

In their turn they moved towards each other, and the standard bearer went behind the house to attack the zombie that had just killed the champion. (the baron had killed a skeletal rider earlier but i forgot to take a pic)


One of the archers shot the other rider


But when the undead's turn started it went quite bad for the men of Averon, the vampire knocked the last halberdier down, and the zombie scored a gruesome kill on the standard bearer.Taking a morale check for the halberdier saw him out of the fight (failed morale when fallen and touching an enemy = death) This also resulted in a morale check for a force below 50% , wich caused an archer to flee the table.


With the undead making their way towards the survivors, the baron charged the count:


who rolled 1,2 and 4 and so managed only one action before play went back to the men of Averon:


But in his turn the baron fluffed his roll and was taken out. The loss of their leader caused another archer to flee the table.


The last archer makes a valiant stand and kills a skeleton


But the count rolled three successes and charged in. The archer failed his terror check, and seeing the powerfull vampire charge towards him, he turned around and promptly fled the field!




Nice battle, went really smooth!

And it just shows what we all know, freshly painted troops = defeat in their first outing  

Nice report Peter

You are very aggressive with your activation rolls. We nearly always just roll 1 dice for most troops, so that we don't end our own turn with a double failure. And will save the figures we want to activate multiple times until the end of the turn so that if we do fail it is of less impact as the rest of the Warband has already activated.

Good report Peter

Great report, Peter !

Cheers - Phil

Quote from: fred. on 26 February 2017, 07:42:32 AM
Nice report Peter

You are very aggressive with your activation rolls. We nearly always just roll 1 dice for most troops, so that we don't end our own turn with a double failure. And will save the figures we want to activate multiple times until the end of the turn so that if we do fail it is of less impact as the rest of the Warband has already activated.

Most rolls that ended on a turnover were on a 3+ or 2+with the leader bonus, so worth the risk .i just had a lot of bad rolls  

Looks like a fun time! 

nice terrain
nice minis
nice game
nice report
!

Quote from: fred. on 26 February 2017, 07:42:32 AM
(...)You are very aggressive with your activation rolls. We nearly always just roll 1 dice for most troops,(...)

Some of my friends also played like this, but some times it's worth to take the risk.  Too cautious often means too slow .
This very good game allows us to think.. 

Quote from: ronan on 26 February 2017, 10:50:39 AM
nice terrain
nice minis
nice game
nice report
!

Thanks!

Nice report and fun looking game.

Quote from: fred. on 26 February 2017, 07:42:32 AM
Nice report Peter

You are very aggressive with your activation rolls. We nearly always just roll 1 dice for most troops, so that we don't end our own turn with a double failure. And will save the figures we want to activate multiple times until the end of the turn so that if we do fail it is of less impact as the rest of the Warband has already activated.

Too few activations leaves you at the mercy of someone picking you apart (we've found). Playing it safe doesn't end the turn but you really do cede the initiative, usually fatally. But not pushing your luck is never bad

One of our regular players is so averse  to the risk he usually only fields three models, all Q2+ and stupidly hard. It's rarely beaten but it is very dull!

Looks a good game, Peter - right up Song's alley

I must say that i really don't take SOBH for a competitive game. It's mostly for fun games that tell a story. You can play it either way of course, but i like it to be something lighter than the rest of my games.

It's just really a reason to bring out the gazillion random fantasy figures i have obtained over the years 

I wanted a game where i can use all of those, giving me a reason to finally paint them. And once i get the hang of it, i'll be making campaign games, just to producesome narrative and give me some fun in the weekend!

That's about what I use it for

It's a good. Quick and simple game that gives a nice narrative and gets a lot of otherwise unused minis out the loft

Mind, it never hurts to win, eh

True, but having a good time is win in itself.

This is true

But not always for everyone!