Song of Blades & Heroes play report from Little Wars 2011

At the height of the fun at Little Wars last weekend, our game table was full of players rolling dice, moving miniatures and generally having a great time. Our local club hosted an introductory scenario for Song of Blades & Heroes, and we had a packed house — all spots were taken, and we briefly had a waiting list of players who wanted to jump in.

As we had hoped, the simplicity of Song of Blades & Heroes meant we spent about 10 minutes explaining the basic rules before turning the players loose to battle each other. The factions were the Forces of Good (Knights, Gladiators and Celts) versus the Forces of Evil (Orcs, Undead and Mycenoid Mushroom-Men).


As you can see from the photos, we had some young players at our table. This was by design — we intentionally listed our event in the "Parent and Child" section of the Little Wars convention program, in an attempt to attract some younger players. And they showed up! Maverick, age 5, got some help from his father Matthew, but guys like Aaron (pictured above) mastered the rules with virtually no assistance!

The game was a wonderful success. Big thanks to David, Aaron, Adam, Maverick, Matthew, Robert, Claire and Liam for coming out to play!


Tim's ruined church proved to be a wonderful centerpiece for our table.


Here's the group shot: 6 players plus onlookers, all battling it out on our fantasy tabletop.

Ryan (red shirt, but not a redshirt) officiates a game taking place in a small medieval town.

We're already brainstorming ideas of games to run at other conventions. Personally I'd like to do some sci-fi skirmish, as I think that particular sub-genre doesn't get a lot of representation at conventions. Generally, it's either 40k-style big games, or nothing at all. So a game of 5150 might work, or Wastelands, or WarEngine, or some other fun ruleset we've yet to try out.

Running my first convention game

My local miniatures club is going to run a miniatures game at Little Wars, a wargames convention that takes place April 8-10 outside Chicago. This is our first time doing anything like this, so we played it safe and decided to host a game designed to introduce players to Song of Blades & Heroes, our current favorite for fantasy skirmish battles.

Since SBH is quite easy to learn and encourages RPG-style warbands, we chose to list our game in the "family friendly" convention category, which means we'll likely have some parent/child teams at our table. This is 100% great — the hobby needs ways to fire the imagination of younger players, and SBH is definitely an excellent introductory game.

I found out last week that our event filled up during the pre-registration period. Again, this is a good thing — we can count on a full table. We're already brainstorming ways to accommodate walk-ups...maybe we'll grab some space on an adjacent table and squeeze in another couple players? SBH requires a comparatively tiny play area...you can play on a 2 by 2-foot square if necessary, though the author suggests 3 by 3 for 28mm gaming.

Anyway, wish me luck as I attempt to give back to the hobby that I enjoy so much!

The run-up to GenCon

My biweekly game fell through this week, which probably for the best — I've got to pack for GenCon!

Typically I'll bring an assortment of notebooks, pencils, erasers and dice to carry around during the convention, just in case a game falls into place in a hurry (like lightning, games can strike anywhere at GenCon). I'm not currently signed up for any games, but I hope to do some last-minute registering and/or bump into some folks interested in playing.

As far as shopping, there are a few stops I make every year. First, I go to the dice vendor and buy a big mug full of random dice, which I then distribute over the course of the year to friends (mostly non-RPG players) as gifts to sucker them into gaming. (Disclosure: I also keep the occasional super-sweet dice for myself.)

I also make time to paw through the loose D&D miniatures, of course. It's almost always duplicates of the same dozen figures, and you have to shoulder aside sweaty dudes wearing 3 Wolves Shirts, but it's generally worth it to track down a few plumb figures for cheap.

This year I'm also planning to spend a lot of time browsing cool fantasy miniatures that could work for Song of Blades & Heroes. Since that game lets you use any combination of minis from different manufacturers, it's prompted me to look again at figures from Crocodile Games, Privateer Press, Reaper, Wargames Factory and others.

Bound for CODCON, It Would Appear

In the last 48 hours, a weekend of gaming fun coalesced from the aether of nothingness. It looks like I'll be hauling most of my regular Chicago gaming group out to Glen Ellyn for CODCON—the College of DuPage's annual gaming convention.

With any luck, my merry band of adventurers will descend upon Chgowiz's Dungeon Robbers, Inc. event and venture forth to plumb the depths of his old-school dungeon. If his game is full, well, we'll no doubt find ample entertainment at CODCON.

I'm also intrigued by one of the vendors who who will be offering up a sampling of Pendraken's 10mm-scale WWII miniatures for mega-cheap. Just the thing to go with my 1/144 micro-armor collection...

Rock-Con 2008 is on my calendar

Gencon was fun — but huge. I only ended up playing one scheduled game, although in all fairness we were able to snag a few demos and sit-down board games.

I’m excited about Rock-Con, a medium-sized annual convention outside Rockford, IL. That’s about an hour from my place in Chicago, so this is an ideal convention for someone (like me) who wants to actually play games, rather than shop and watch others play games.

There’s very little content on the Rock-Con 2008 site right now, and I really hope that changes soon. I’m particularly excited about the historical minis representation at the con — it’s put on by the Noble Miniatures team, so you can bet they’ll have a bevy of historical wargames on hand. For a guy who’s been spending a lot of time with sci-fi and horror RPGs, there’s something really appealing about taking command of a Wehrmacht detachment in the ruins of Stalingrad. Count me in.

Bound for GenCon

Apparently there’s a bit of liveblogging going on from GenCon. Will I do this? Not if it means missing out on cool demos or shopping or meeting designers. So, most likely no.

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Big news has already trickled out about one of my favorite game companies. Fantasy Flight Games, which secured the license to publish material for Warhammer 40k Roleplay and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay earlier this year, announced the first substantive release for the 40k RPG product line: Rogue Trader, set to debut at GenCon 2009.

Like Dark Heresy, which digs into the furtive schemings of the Imperial Inquisition, Rogue Trader promises to be an in-depth look at another fan-favorite part of the 40k universe: the raffish captains who pilot ancient starships deep into unexplored space. These rogue traders, as they’re known in the game’s lore, operate at the very fringes of civilization, often encountering never-before-seen cultures and creatures. If Dark Heresy was the 40k conspiracy game, Rogue Trader promises to be the 40k exploration game (though as always, count on a hefty dose of gothic, Cthulhu-inspired horror).

From a purely nostalgic point of view, Rogue Trader is the spiritual successor to 1987's Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the seminal work that laid the groundwork for the rich, detail-drenched 40k universe we know today.

I’m hoping to chat up the FFG developers either today or tomorrow about their plans for the 40k RPG line.