Example Archers using archer specials

In the Dragon Noir campaign, each individual has a name. To make the campaign more interesting, I tried to give each model some unique traits to make players attached to the characters.

Here are examples of 3 different characters using the archer specials.

I thought Elves with a Quality of 2 were overpowered, so I increased their quality. In addition, I made ample use of the prototype rules of Shock and Sharpshoooter to differentiate models.

Archer Specials for a Song of Blades and Heroes

Here are two specials for SOBH. I haven't had a chance to play test them much.


Shoot or Move
Cost: -3
Requires Ranged Attack.
If you move, you cannot shoot. If you shoot, you cannot move.

I modeled the cost after the slow move. The standard SOBH rules basically allow archers to shoot on the run, so you need to give crossbowman some benefits.

This seemed to work well and the cost looks ok in my playtest.

Quick Shot
Cost: 7
Requires Ranged Attack.
If the character does not move, you may make an additional ranged attack. Each additional shot is at -1 combat. You may not make any additional melee attacks using this special.

This allows you to simulate robin hood or any excellent archer at the cost of shooting on the run.

The cost is a bit high but based on the high costs for other multiple attack specials.

One Page Rules

There is something about one page rules that attracts me to reading them. The rules are short,concise and easy to pick up. There is almost a zen like quality in trying to express rules simple enough to be displayed in 1 page.

From the boardgamegeek website, here is a link to several one page war games. The author put in a bit of work in actually creating maps and icons to accompany his quick one page war games.

Take a look!

Dragon Noir Special Rules

Here is a list of the special rules used in the SOBH conversion of Dragon Noir.
There are a few custom rules I wrote or gleaned off the SOBH forum.

You can copy these rules into Ray Forsythe html warband builder for SOBH.

I used the custom rules to record specials that are against certain types.

Dragon Noir Special Rules
Acrobat;3;
Amphibious;3;
Animal;-3;
Armored;3;
Artificial;3;
Assassin;15;p;
Beastmaster;8;
Berserk;3;
Big;3;
Bodyguard;3;
Burrowing;4;
Cleric;15;p;
Clinging;3;
Combat Master;10;p;
Coward;-2;
Danger Sense;3;
Dashing;3;
Desert Walk;3;
Distract;12;
Drain;8;
Elementalist;15;p;
Entangle;15;
Epic Attack;5;p;
Evil;0;
Fearless;3;
Flying;10;
Forester;3;
Free Disengage;3;
Ghost Blade;2;
Giant Slayer;3;
Glancing Blow;5;
Good;0;
Greedy;-2;
Gregarious;3;
Group Fighter;3;p;
Hatred;3;
Heavy Armor;5;
Hero;15;p;
Huge;5;
Leader;15;p;
Lethal;3;
Long Move;10;
Magic Resistance;2;
Magic-User;15;p;
Mighty;3;
Mountaineer;2;
Mounted;6;
Mutant;3;
Necromancer;15;p;
Opportunistic;4;
Paladin;2;
Poison;3;
Quick Shot;7;
Running Blow;8;
Savage;3;
Sharpshooter;3;
Shieldwall;1;
Shock;3;
Shoot or Move;-3;
Shooter: Long;7;
Shooter: Medium;4;
Shooter: Short;2;
Short Move;-3;
Slow;-5;
Sniper;10;p;
Snow Walk;3;
Sorcerer;15;p;
Standard Bearer;0;
Steadfast;3;
Stealth;3;
Summoner;15;p;
Swamp Walk;3;
Swarm;3;
Tailslap;3;
Teleport;12;p;
Terror;15;p;
Tough;15;p;
Traps;3;
Undead;3;
Weapon Master;7;p;
Were;0;
vs dwarves;0;
vs elves;0;
vs evil;0;
vs good;0;
vs humans;0;
vs magic users;0;
vs mounted;0;
vs orcs;0;
vs trolls;0;

Elves Oath - Dragon Noir

Dragon Noir Scenario:
Map: The WaterMill Map. For a miniature map, you will need to build a map with
a river running through it with a building on one side and forest on another.
A sample image of the Cry Havoc maps can be here.

Setup:
The exiled Rebels - Laberne, Jon, Grast, Hohmley, Gustav, Evans (all mounted); The Orks - Zed (mounted), 1 archer, 1 crossbowman, 2 Elite Orks (both 16 attack strength), 3 warriors (2 x 14, 1 x 10).

The humans start mounted on horses. Give them the special "Mounted" and "Long Move".
For the unnamed orcs, pick orcs that match the general stats on their images.

As a special rule, if a mounted figures ever gets "Fallen" as a result. Remove them off their horse and place them adjacent to their mount. It takes 2 actions to remount a horse in battle. Horses stay in the hex where their rider was unmounted. They may be pushed aside with no penalty as part of a character's move to an adjacent empty hex.

Flavor Text:
"We are like leaves from the same tree: same blood, same destiny" says the Oath of the Elves.
Since their arrival on Kazhdin, Zacharie has advised Konrad to send a small group to meet the Elves in the forest of Penrad.
If Laberne and Jon, half-elven through their mother, were to join with the Elves
then the assistance of the Elves of the island would be acquired.

Black Fox, well named, suspects that there may be elves among the strangers
and that they will seek contact with their brothers on the island.

So he sends a patrol to intercept them on the road leading to the forest.

Starting positions and Sequence of action: The Orks enter by side 8 of the map, in the section between the corner (with side 5) and the stream.
They make one initial full move and then a second.
The exiled Rebels then start the first game turn by entering through side 6 in the section between the corner (with side 7) and the stream.


Important: A bridge is placed over the stream 2 hexes from the edge of the map (side 6), where the watercourse is no wider than one hex.
Characters may make use of this normally.

The fallen wall represents the bridge.

Victory conditions:
The first scenario is essentially a breakthrough scenario. Team 1 needs to break through the opposing team's side in order to achieve the scenario objective and gain victory points.

Specific rules:
If, before the end of the twelfth turn, the Rebels are able to exit Laberne or Jon through side 8 of the map, between the stream and the corner (with side 5),
they have won. If neither of those two characters exit the map by the specified edge before the end of the twelfth game turn, the Orks win.

Victory Points: 1 vp per 25 point kill. 3 VP for winning scenario + Campaign scenario bonus below.

Campaign scenario: If the Rebels win, the 4 Elf archers will take part on their side in the decisive battle (see Scenario 5).

Dragon Noir Song of Blades and Heroes Conversion

After reviewing the scenarios for the game Cry Havoc, I realized that the scenarios are a natural fit for a Song of Blades and Heroes.

I've started a conversion of the Dragon Noir Campaign to the Song of Blades and Heroes game to allow more people to enjoy the scenarios for this game.

The idea of the campaign is to play through the first 5 scenarios of Dragon Noir using the Rebel and Orc Army List provided by Dragon Noir scenario.

Each scenario will post the map rules along with some conversion of the original scenario to Song of Blades and Heroes.

My first attempt at this conversion is the first scenario: Elves Oath. To speed up play, I use the default teams defined in the non-campaign scenario rules.

Heroscape Warbands

Here is a set of rules for running warbands in Heroscape with similar campaign rules to Mordheim. I loved the Mordheim campaign rules and created a similar set for use with Heroscape. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to playtest it much.

Summary:

Heroscape Warbands

Supplemental Campaign rules based on Games Workshop Battle Companies and Mordheim rules to add
experienced based play to Heroscape.

Might and Fate
All Heroes can now acquire 2 new attributes: Might and Fate. These attributes allow heroes abilities
beyond normal Heroscape heroes. A hero can have a max of 3 Might and 3 Fate.
Might
Might represents a hero’s great skill in battle. During a heroscape game, a hero can expend a Might
point to reroll an Attack roll, Defense roll, Special Attack roll or any d20 roll on his Hero card. He may
not use this ability to reroll any other player’s dice.
Fate
Fate represents a hero’s unnatural luck or the divine favor of the gods. Whenever a hero suffers an
attack that would reduce him to zero life or destroy him instantly, he may expend 1 Fate point to roll the
Fate Die.

Heroscape Warbands

Battlephase games

If you ever search for Cry Havoc, you will come across the battlephase games website.

The developer here created two working implementations of the Cry Havoc game: Test of Faith and Deadly Ground. Both are simple quick tactical games which give you a test of the Cry Havoc game system. I'm not a big fan of the rule set but the beautiful counters always appealed to me.

The developer also has a few other free games on his website for the busy gamer looking for a quick fix.

Mekka Advance

Here is a link to a game I rewrote several years ago: Mekka Advance. Its an advanced version of Mekatac by Warpspawn games.

I wanted to keep the simplicity of Mekatac with some campaign rules.

List of changes:
- resolution system from d10 to d20
- added the concept of commanders
- reworked the usage of the action cards
- added supply points concept to add repairs/buying new pilots in between scenarios
- added an experience level system borrowed from one of the other warpspawn games(Star Fury)
- added pilot injuries.
- Cleaned up the tables and put them in nice excel format embedded in a word doc.

Red Hand Orcs - Stats

This is the starting stats for Red Hand Orcs