The Laird and the Druid: A Song of Blades & Heroes Game Report

Mattias and I played a fantastic, fluff-driven Song of Blades and Heroes scenario last night. I supplied some terrain, and Mattias wrote an amazing scenario around it. Here's a shot of the table.

And here's a bit of background, courtesy of Mattias. The game is set in the Wyrdwold, a darkly enchanting fantasy setting that Mattias has been developing lately.

The Fell Glendywr carries in his lungs the wisp of a Fay-o’-the-Swale. His intention, and that of Laird Bilebroke, is to feed the spirit to the Stone All-Knowing in exchange for powers of blight and ruin. Bilebroke plans to use that power to re-enter the Fulgent Desmesnes, reclaim his seat, and wage war upon the Magnifex. 

However, in capturing the wisp, Bilebroke the Dread intruded upon sacred and unspoiled tracts of the Weald Aboriginal. He captured the guardians. He had them slain. But worst of all, he commanded the Fell Glendywr to defile the heart of the woods with his Vile Majicks. He had the magician capture the fay spirit that was the life of the place, and he put the heart of the woods to the torch. 

For this crime, Florifera the Wild has sworn vengeance and now lies in wait for Bilebroke to return to his hidden stronghold. She plans to make Glendywr kneel and spill his blood, releasing the Fay-o’-the wisp to wreak its vengeance upon Bilebroke and his minions. 

In the scenario, Mattias's nasty raiders were tasked with defending their magician -- the Fell Glendywr -- while he attempted to complete the ritual on the Stone All-Knowing (itself located atop the highest tower of the crumbling fortress. The attackers -- the wrathful druid Florifera and her cadre -- were seeking to capture the Glendywr and prevent the foul ceremony from reaching its apex.

Here are the defenders: Laird Bilebroke and his Banditry

And the attackers: Florifera the Wild and her Coven of Weald-Dwellers

We actually played this scenario two times, because the first was an utter failure. I did an awful job of deploying my druid warband at the start, and was quickly overcome by Mattias's bandits. For the second game, we adjusted the terrain and starting points a bit, and it worked out much better.

Florifera and her tree constructs deployed in the woods near the Spinney Shrine. The wolves and the avian bird-man waited off board, ready to ambush.

Across the table, the castle was well defended by Bilebroke's grim crew.

On the first turn, Florifera and the constructs moved forward. Laird Bilbroke and his followers moved forward along the road, unaware of what was in store. The avian materialized on the path, ready to attack -- but he failed his activation rolls, ending my turn and giving Mattias the initiative.

Bilbroke's followers destroyed the avian on their next activation. It was so gruesome that we can't show the pictures. Summer and Winter, the druid's two huge wolves, bounded out of the woods to avenge their fallen comrade. They surrounded the Fell Glendywr, hoping to end the battle quickly:

This quickly escalated into a huge brawl!

Winter fell in combat, but one of the tree constructs entangled Laird Bilbroke in vines, giving Summer a chance to exact her revenge. This triggered a number of unsuccessful morale rolls, sending Bilbroke's forces fleeing in every direction. Many of them were cut down while running. Some of them ran off the table!

The Fell Glendywr fled toward the castle, a construct hot on his heels.

At last the Shivering King recovered, and spurred his mount to speed him into combat with Florifera. He cut her down in single combat -- or did he just make her angry?

The Fell Glendwyr watched nervously from the castle walls, hoping to find time to complete the ritual.

He ascended the tower and cast himself before the Stone All-Knowing, but Florifera in her wolf form scaled the tower to meet him in single combat.

The druid Florifera knocked unconscious, slung his body under her arm and carried him back to the Spinney Stone.

Their wroth thus sated, the Druid and her companions sacrificed the Fell Glendwyr, restoring the Fey Spirit, and returning order to this small part of the Wyrdwold.

We had a great game, made all the better by the setting and flavorful scenario from Mattias. Look for more games in the Wyrdwold in the future!

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Galactic Frontier: The Recent History of the Ventauran Empire

The Ventauran Empire has its roots more than a century ago in the collapse of the Unified Colonies in the year 2375. Both the Ventauran and Khiff homeworlds had both been among the earliest to be subjugated by this totalitarian directorate with the benign-sounding name.

Their economies entirely subordinated to the UC, many Ventauran and Khiff found themselves with few options other than hiring themselves out as mercenaries under the various branches of the UC military, a job at which -- it was was soon discovered -- they excelled at.

By the 2350s, the UC was a vast collection of worlds held together by a progression of ruthless warlords. The military's vast legions of Ventauran and Khiff mercenaries had maintained the "Iron Unity" that was the cornerstone of UC rule. It was in the 2350s that the UC absorbed its first human colonies, and for the next decade it would continue to slowly expand its footprint into the furthest regions of human-explored space on the Galactic Frontier region.

In 2362, the UC took aim at the Melk system, with its trio of habitable worlds Melk-1, Melk-2 and Melk-3. Though today these planets orbiting the star Melchizedek are part of well-traveled space on the Galactic Frontier, their position in 2362 left them at the very fringes of human expansion.

Settled only 40 years earlier by fiercely independent humans who had ventured far beyond the reach of Terran authority, the Melk system appeared to be easy prey for the nercenary legions of the Unified Colonies. Melk-2 fell in 2362, and despite fierce resistance, Melk-1 was overrun in 2364.

Melk-3 was a different story, as the UC juggernaut was finally slowing down and growing weaker from nearly a century of aggressive expansion throughout the Frontier. The human settlers on Melk-3 couldn't have known this, though, as they prepared their defensive lines for the coming onslaught.

In the middle of the Melk harvesting cycle in the Terran year 2365, the Unified Colonies' forces landed on the planet in the face of minimal resistance. The green-armored Ventauran mercenary troops swept through village after village with little effort before arriving at St. Martin's Parish two weeks after making landfall.

It was in the small transit center of St. Martin's Parish that the citizens of Melk-3 made their stand. Unbeknownst to the Unified Colonies, the Melk settlers had won a powerful ally to their side and now boasted armored vehicles, mech and mercenaries in their defensive lines. Shadowy envoys of the mysterious +++redacted+++ race provided the financial backing to keep such a force viable. Massive fighting machines battled alongside the second brigade of the mercenary 2nd Jovian Lancers. The expeditionary elements of Ventauran and Khiff met their strongest resistance yet and were soundly defeated.

In most circumstances it would have been a small matter for the Unified Colonies directorate to order the Ventaurans to regroup and destroy the resistance, but a larger game was being played. Across the UC, disparate resistance groups had been united with external enemies of the despotic rulers. Supply lines were disrupted, entire planetary systems began to assert their own authority, and Iron Unity began to crumble at its foundation.

The Ventauran legions found themselves virtually stranded a backwater planet, part of a forgotten war that the Unified Colonies had no intention of supporting. And so began the slow rollback of the UC's grip on the Melk planets and the path to dissolution of the UC.

In eight months, the Ventaurans were nearly dislodged from Melk-3, though a series of parting raids in early 2366 against the spiritual heart of the reistance, St. Martin's Parish, reminded the settlers that the Ventaurans were still a force to be reckoned with. By 2368 the Melchizedek system was once again completely independent -- just one in dozens of similar liberations taking place across the Unified Colonies.

On June 14, 2375, Ventauran and Khiff forces simultaneously broke off fighting on each of the several dozen worlds where they were engaged. Turning 300 years of experience against their masters, the Ventauran and Kiff forces drove like a spear into the heart of the empire, capturing Unified Colonies war material and spacecraft as they went. In three short months the Unified Colonies collapsed, their demise hastened by the professionally trained killers they had subjugated so ruthlessly over the centuries.

The Ventauran leadership laid claim to the former capital of Nakati Prime and the 32 worlds at the heart of the Nakati system, which contained the Colonies' earliest conquests including the Ventauran and Khiff home worlds. The Ventauran council simultaneously renounced their former masters and decreed a near absolute embargo on all non-Ventauran transit into the six Ventauran core home worlds.

And so the Ventauran Empire was born. Except for voluntary inclusion of some inward planets who sought out Ventauran protection, expansion has been slow and mostly outward into the Galactic Frontier.

However, the Ventaurans and their Khiff mercenaries have been notably fanatical -- some would say homicidal -- in their suppression of revolt and in application of military force against any faction that would attempt to carve away at the edges of Ventauran space. That zeal has continued to the present day (Year 2455).