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hello everyone

ive had some old warhammer models lying around for quite a few years now doing nothing as ive never really had time to build up paint big armies, therefore ive never actually played a game, although i have always kept one eye on the hobby. anyway i happened to stumble across a game called song of blades and heroes and after buying the rules and reading some battle reports it seems like the perfect game for me and i have some friends willing to try also, now the questions id like to know are pretty simple.

which of the expansions are worth buying?

how easy are the rules to adapt to a four player game?

what size board is ideal for a four player game?

thankyou for taking your time to read this

Loode.

I think that most of the expansions have merit. I would suggest just starting with the vanilla version before complicating things.

My group plays it all the time. While 4 player scenarios can work, they are not always ideal. They will require at least a 4x4 surface, but larger is better. I think that team based scenarios tend to work better than a 4x4 free for all.

To be honest, my favorite games of Song of Blades and Heroes were all 2 player ones. Why not set up 2 smaller boards, and play multiple games, rotating opponents? It might end up being more fun... especially when starting out.

-J

Thankyou for your reply, i guess making 2 boards could be a good option, but knowing my group they would want some games that involves 4 players at once, now my plan was to build 4 small boards at 45cm sqaure so i could build a 90cm square board with those that would be easy to store, so i guessif i make 8 we can play 2 sepseperate matches, and then for a four player just use 6 of them?

I pretty much echo what jlopaitin says.

Multiplayer is entirely possible, but 1v1 is my favorite. A 1v1 SBH game takes 30-60 minutes and rotating players and playing a few games in one evening is one of the best things about SBH. An entire mini-campaign can be carried out in a couple of evenings in this way. Expect a multiplayer game to take an extra 30 minutes for each player added.

The good news is that 1v1 scenarios play very well on a 3x3 or even 2.5x2.5. table, so a good sized table can easily accommodate 2 games at once. Your plan about modular boards sounds like a good one.

As for the expansions, they are all useful as each adds more special rules which are the real flavor for SBH characters. My favorite is Song of Deeds and Glory which adds a sturdy campaign system, though it does have a few features which require Song of "Gold and Darkness" and "Wind and Water" to be useful. As said above, give the base set a few plays before you decide.

Our club do a SBH campaign every summer. if you'd like to see our last two campagins, they are here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/p/iron-isle-song-of-blades-heroes.html
and here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/p/dark-days-have-come-to-lands-of-qaarra.html

thanks for the post, hopefully ill can put up a report on our first game in a few weeks, your campaigns look awesome and lots of fun, i cant wait now

I'll echo that SoBH is pretty great. And the expansions are all pretty good, although I haven't used the expanded campaign rules. They do get a little bit more fiddly, but not much. We haven't done a four player game, but three players games work pretty well. Random initiative each round is the way to go, though.

Also check out their other games - I really like Mutant and Death Ray Guns (which has a new version!) for post apoc, and it could easily be used for a Necromunda-like game. Flying Lead is good for straight up military/near-future, too. I like MDRG a little better cause its a bit more flavorful.


Edit: also, totally jealous of the Chicago crew. Those are pretty sweet campaigns!