I was told about a fantasy rule set a while back by a friend of mine and have enjoyed playing it a few times since then, the rules are A Song of Blades and Heroes.
If you have not seen or heard of these rules before and you want a really fun Fantasy skirmish game then go and check them out.
I have the older version of the rules which in my opinion are the better set, the later set tries to hard and allows for reactions which to me spoils the fun of the original a little.
I downloaded a few of the expansions for them as well, one of which allows for games in a dungeon and solo rules!!
I have been using lots of my old fantasy figures for my games, Dwarf’s and old Empire Human figures against Undead or Orc’s and Goblin’s, there are lots of options for characters in the rules including lots of monsters.
The rules play really well and have a neat character activation mechanic, you roll either one, two or three D6 to pass the characters Quality roll ( the Quality is like an initiative level and determines when the character will react or if the character will react )
Each pass you get gives the character an action, but… there is always a but, if you roll a double with your dice then the play goes over to the other player! So even trying to activate your characters has its benefits and downsides.
You have to choose how many dice to roll, do you take it really safe and roll just one dice or do you take a little risk and roll two dice giving you a better chance to get at least one activation, or do take a real chance and risk it and roll all three dice!! 😱
Because this is a fantasy game it has magic, but again this is really simple and doesn’t break the game like some system I have played in the past,.
This rule system is so simple so it fits in with the games I like, it plays so well that this is my go-to fantasy skirmish game.
The characters in the game only use two stats!!! Quality and Combat ( I like this, but I guess some people will want or expect more stats than just two so won’t like the game )
To make the characters a little more individual during the game the rules do have a good selection of skills for the characters which give the players lots of options ( each expansion gives more skills to add to the basic list in the main rules )
Each expansion also adds more character races and monsters! expansions like Song of Gold and Darkness ( which is the dungeon expansion and solo rules ) Song of Wind and Water ( this gives rules for the weather! ) and Song of Deeds and Glory ( which give campaign rules ) all of these expansions also give rules for new terrain types, new special rules, troop rosters and scenarios, all in all these expansions make a really good system, and you can use as much or as little as you like making the game play the way you want.
I do intend to put up a battle report at some point ( once my figures are painted and finished ) so that you can see how the game plays.
And because I want to actually do a battle report or two for this game I have been trying to get some more of my fantasy figures painted up, I have been painting a few over the last couple of evenings, most are not finished yet so this is just a “work-in-progress” post.
These few pictures below show a couple of female wizards and a vampire hunter and a crossbowman, and a lovely winged monster, because you have to have monsters!!
I have kept the paint thin on this figure as it is made with really soft plastic, mainly in the hope that the paint doesn’t crack, those wings are really soft… keeping my fingers crossed 🤞
I have lots of monster / creature types for when I send my band of adventurers down into a dungeon, including rats, spiders and a few zombies!
Here are a couple more figures I am still working on.
And then I have some of my finished stuff, including my wizard and his band of fighters.
The other good thing about the rules is that you don’t really need many figures to start playing… unless of course you are using Goblin’s!!
But luckily I have one or two Goblins waiting to join the painting queue 😉
