Batrep: Robin Hood and the Tax Collector

Introduction

Time for another 4-player game at the Helensburgh games club.  This week it's a large Song of Blades and Heroes game, with 2 players on each side.  So..

Robin Hood and his merry men have learnt that a particularly noxious tax collector will be carting his ill-gotten gains near the forest.  It's an easy place for an ambush and the outlaws have never been known to pass up an opportunity to strike at the oppressors of the poor.

Of course, it's a trap!  The Sheriff of Nottingham and his forces close in from one side...

...whilst Guy of Gisborne leads more knights and men-at-arms in from the other side.  Can Robin and his men escape?  If they do, can they take the treasure cart with them?  What do you think?

The Game

The 2 (4?) forces quickly formed a confused melee, so I won't attempt to describe all the ebb and flow of the battle.  Rather, here are some little vignettes:

The very first character to activate was one of Robin's men.  He immediately shot the tax collector dead [so I don't really know why I bothered painting that model and putting it on the table, mutter, grumble...].

The Sheriff of Nottingham crept up behind one of the outlaws and knifed him in the back, scoring a particularly gruesome kill.

Guy of Gisborne ran ahead of his men, eager to engage the outlaws.  Much to everyone's surprise, he ran straight onto Robin's sword and was felled instantly.

More knights charged in, but this time it was one of the Merry Men who scored a gruesome kill.  Nottingham's forces were losing all their best fighters really quickly!

Just one of the original wagon guards was left, but he was close enough to prevent the outlaws from leading the treasure away.  Little John attempted to dislodge him, but in a show of stunning bravery, the lone guard knocked down the giant in green.  He failed to finish him off, though.

An outlaw stepped forwards, giving Little John some much needed respite.  It didn't look so rosy for the archer though: two of the Sheriff's men grabbed him whilst their boss stepped forwards to finish the outlaw scum.  However, the tables were turned unexpectedly as the merry man knocked the Sheriff over, into the mud!

While the Sheriff was engaged in slaughtering some of his own men who turned and fled (after Will Scarlet inflicted a gruesome kill on a nearby man-at-arms), one of the outlaws managed to get the wagon moving.

The Sheriff and several crossbowmen ran after the treasure, but Will Scarlet got in the way.  In yet another very quick swordfight, Nottingham was killed.

For much of the game, the Black Knight had been wrestling with Friar Tuck.  On the face of it, this should have been an easy win for the knight, but the doughty friar was giving it all he had; the knight was only saved by his heavy armour on more than one occasion.  Eventually, the combatants stepped apart.

Where was the treasure cart in all this?  It had almost left the table at the outlaws' exit point (which would have won them the game immediately), but it had outrun the outlaws who were guiding it.  Now the wagon was stuck in the ford; the carter wasn't going to try to move it on his own.

It was a race to see who could get to the treasure first; all the players were making risky attempts at 2- or 3-dice activations in an attempt to gain an edge.  One of the Merry Men was in the lead, hotly pursued by a man-at-arms and followed - slightly further off - by the Black Knight [who had left Friar Tuck to the tender mercies of a trio of spearmen].  Trailing the knight, just out of this picture, was Will Scarlet...

The Merry Man arrived first, but was unable to get the cart to move before he was set upon by his pursuers.  Between the two of them, Guy's men cut down the outlaw.

Before the authorities could turn the wagon around, Will Scarlet came running up.  He shot an arrow as he approached and it struck the man-at-arms for another gruesome kill.  This was too much for the Black Knight; he turned and fled off the board.

Will Scarlet may now have had possession of the treasure, but the rest of the field was a confused melee.  Most of the authorities' named characters and superior fighters were down, but they still outnumbered the remaining outlaws.  Not that this mattered, since the treasure was lost...

What of Little John?  He had drifted away from the main fight, but a couple of have-a-go men at arms tried their luck and attacked the giant outlaw.

Against the odds, the pair actually managed to wound Little John.  [I think this is the first time that has ever happened in one of my Robin Hood games!  Most characters are knocked out after a single hit, but Little John has the tough attribute and can take multiple hits.  He's never had his own blood shed before...].

Finally, with Will Scarlet encouraging him, the carter drove his wagon over the ford and into the forest, thus securing a win for the outlaws.

Conclusion

The Sheriff's side lost most of their big men/named characters very early in the game and I think we all believed that the outlaws would then find it easy to escape with the loot.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Interference from multiple minions (including the heroic last man of the caravan guard) prevented Robin's men from moving the wagon until fairly late on.  Even then, it was pursued with vigour and could have been recovered, if a few die rolls had gone the other way.

Once again, the players all got into the spirit of the game and (I hope) enjoyed it thoroughly.  There was heroism, skullduggery and a finely-balanced finale - what more do you want?!

SoBH: Robin Hood and the Bishop of Lichfield

Introduction

It's Tuesday evening again, but this time I've no doubt about what game to host at my local club.  I've already trailed that I'll be running Song of Blades and Heroes.  We'll use my fresh Robin Hood & Sheriff of Nottingham warbands (initially described here, but adapted slightly since then).  OK, that's the easy bit - but I still need a scenario.

I had been thinking of an archery tournament in or near a town.  However, in the end I decided that I hadn't got the time to develop special rules for the tournament itself (i.e. before the battle itself kicks off and everything becomes a free-for-all).  I still want to run such a game, but it'll have to be for another time.  So, I need a new idea...

Scenario

Blue dots mark the 3 possible locations of the Bishop's group.

With relatively little time to prepare, I decided to adapt one of the scenarios from the rulebook: Treasure Hunt.  I can't remember if this is from Song of Blades and Heroes or from Song of Arthur and Merlin, but that doesn't really matter.  In the standard scenario, 2 warbands race to examine 3 possible locations for treasure; when the loot is discovered then one side wins by carrying it off.

My adaptations were as follows:

• Rather than treasure, the hunt is for the Bishop of Lichfield and his entourage.  The unfortunate cleric's party is lost near the fringes of Sherwood Forest.  Depending upon your point of view, he either needs to be guided to safety away from the greedy authorities (and persuaded to part with any excess riches in order to feed the poor), or rescued from the threat of rapacious outlaws (and questioned about his tax affairs).
• Once discovered, each member of the Bishop's group can be moved by spending an action from a model who is in base contact.  Since there are several people in the ecclesiastical party, I don't imagine that they'll move very fast!
• I had 4 players and (roughly) 600 points of figures on either side.  It seemed sensible to split them into 4 separate warbands, each of which was roughly equivalent.  Obviously, the bands are split into 2 pairs of allies.

The 4 groups were as follows [note that the Sheriff's men outnumber the outlaws considerably, but are  distinctly poor troops]:

•  Robin Hood, 5 outlaws and Maid Marion.  Note that Maid Marion was an Inconvenient damsel bought by the Sheriff's side and then given to Robin.  It was priceless to see the look on the face of the player who thought he'd got the best character in the game, only to have Marion attached to him!
• Little John, Friar Tuck and 5 outlaws.
• Sheriff of Nottingham, Yorik the Jester, Sir Stanley, 2 crossbowmen and 10 men-at-arms.
• Guy of Gisborne, Sir Walter, 2 crossbowmen and 11 men-at-arms.

The Game

In the north, Robin's group advanced in a tight phalanx, taking full advantage of the automatic action that a model can take in Song of Blades and Heroes when sufficiently far away from all enemies.  For some reason best known to himself, Guy of Gisborne only advanced some of his force towards the outlaws in response.

The Sheriff split his force: most of the troops accompanied him and Yorik while a smaller detachment entered Sherwood Forest to search for the Bishop.  However, the churchman wasn't hiding amongst the trees.

Little John himself made a dash for the bridge.  His outlaws moved forward, skirting the edge of the woods and ready to dive into the cover of the trees if the enemy came too close.

Little John ran to the middle of the bridge, only to discover that the bishop and his priests were sheltering beside the structure.  They clustered around him, demanding help and praying that he wouldn't hurt them!

Even as John's men spread out to form a ragged firing line, Yorik came bounding towards one of them.  He turned cartwheels, threw insults, juggled and cracked jokes; this performance so entranced the nearest outlaw that the man could only stand, open-mouthed and stare at the jester.

Little John tried to make his way back across the bridge in order to help his man, but he found his way blocked by churchmen.  His bellow of "Out of my way" sent 2 of them scattering, but John still couldn't move far enough.  Friar Tuck and other Merry Men were racing to assist, but it was Robin Hood who acted first.  He drew back his bow and aimed at the jester.  Despite the little man's acrobatic dodging, Robin's arrow killed him.  Not only that, but it was a gruesome kill in SoBH terms [I guess that Robin Hood doesn't have much of a sense of humour, then!].  That meant any friends of Yorik who were within "Long" distance would have to take a morale test.

At this point, we were horrified to discover that Sir Stanley and 6 men-at-arms were within 'L' of the death.  The Sheriff himself was just beyond that distance and would therefore be immune to the effect.  Why were we horrified?  Because the Sheriff had the Evil attribute, which meant that he would automatically kill any weakling who took so much as a step backwards, but only if they came within 'Short' distance of him whilst doing so.  All the Sheriff's men in this group were within 'S' of him...

In the inevitable disaster, first two men broke and ran.  The Sheriff promptly knifed them in the back, at which point the others had to take 2 further morale tests (for seeing their buddies killed in this manner).  More men tried to flee; they were also slain for cowardice and so on.  By the time the cascade had finished, the Sheriff stood alone behind a pile of bodies...

After the Sheriff's little temper tantrum, you'd be forgiven for thinking that his force was spent.  However, he seems to have motivated his remaining troops considerably by the deed.  He walked over to the small detachment in the woods and ordered them to attack the outlaw scum.  This they did with alacrity [a group move with 3 activations, followed by some very high combat rolls].  Following this charge, 1 outlaw was dead and 2 were on the ground and in trouble.  Only the one who had been befuddled by the jester managed to defend himself, even though he was still confused.

On the far side of the bridge, Robin and his men were lined up and waiting for Guy's troops to come into range.  Marion hid behind the line; one of the crossbowmen had taken a pot shot at her earlier and even though the range had been long and the bolt had missed, there seemed little point in taking risks.

When Guy eventually came into close range (he and his troops were advancing with glacial slowness), Robin took a single shot at him and killed the knight outright.

A single spearman did eventually contact Robin's troops, but he was swiftly overcome.  A few more were shot down individually, whilst the bulk of them just hung back in a confused mob.

Note the Bishop of Lichfield's monk to the left, keeping his head down and praying that he won't be hurt!

Back on the south end of the bridge, the fighting was desperate.  The Sheriff's men were on the rampage, as they killed several more outlaws. The last outlaw was on the ground and outnumbered, so things didn't look good for him.  In the best Hollywood tradition, as his assailant raised his sword to strike the fatal blow, the outlaw lunged from underneath and stuck his dagger into the soldier's ribs [a massive upset, even allowing for the men-at-arms being Rabble and therefore easier than normal to kill].

Sensing a possible victory nevertheless, the Sheriff and 2 of his men caught up with Friar Tuck and knocked him down.  They then proceeded to give him a good kicking, but the feisty friar just managed to survive.

In the last act of the game, just before we had to pack up, Little John charged down the bridge.  He gave his opponent an almighty thwack with his quarterstaff, scoring a gruesome kill.  Tragically, the Sheriff had moved back a bit after failing to kill Friar Tuck.  Once again this evil man saw his own troops running away close to where he stood.  "Cowards!  Dogs!" he yelled as he slew them all mercilessly.  This was a fitting point to end the game...

Conclusion

This game was enormous fun and much enjoyed by all the participants.  On balance, I think I have to give victory to the Merry Men - after all, they still have all their characters and over half of their troops left.  The Sheriff was the only man left standing of his group (he'd killed most of them himself!) and Guy's band was suffering as well.

It seems that an Evil Leader is a tricky character to play in SoBH.  On the one hand, you want to be within "Long" to motivate your followers.  On the other hand, if they flee within "Short" of you then you'll kill the cowards yourself.  It's a fine line (and who'd be part of such a man's entourage)!