Hey everyone and welcome to another howling edition of the Dispatch!
For this one we are going to take a break from the Noise and look at the Workbench to check out one of the projects I have been working on. I recently heard of Songs of Blades and Heroes and decided to pick up the basic rules to give them a once over. All and all, it seems to be a nice and quick little fantasy skirmish game. While they are simple enough to keep the game moving at a good pace, they also seem to have enough variety to keep things interesting I haven't actually played it yet but I've mentioned it to a couple of my friends and they are interested in checking it out so I decided to make a few small warbands for us to push around. But enough talk! Let's get a little feral as we head on over to the Workbench to take a look at the first warband, the Wolfen of the Black Thorn Forest.
The Hills Are Alive With The Howls of Wolves...
Building A Warband For Song Of Blades and Heroes
For my first Songs of Blades and Heros warband (or SOBH for short) I decided to make use of some of my old Rackham minis that I have lying around. Mind you I don't have too many of these but amongst them were some Wolfen figures and this seemed like a great reason to finally paint them. Or actually re-paint them in a few of the cases.
First up were the hunters. These started their lives as pre-painted hunters for Confrontation. In my opinion, these are really not bad miniatures. The paint job is not the best that Rackham has done but if you are looking for something that you can set down on the table and play they fit the bill nicely. In my case I'm looking for something a little more, especially since a couple of my figures are the original metal figs. Call me a perfectionist but I would rather have the same style paint job throughout than some mix and match. Thankfully this is easy enough to achieve with a just a little black primer and away we go!
Wait a minute! Hold the primer! What's that on their backs? Where did those things come from? Those are actually taken from a couple of Trollblood Impalers that I happen to have lying around. I love the idea of these Wolfen having these giant spears to throw but only one? Really? What do they do, play fetch with it before they can shoot again? Instead, I attached a pack of spears to the back of each so they'll have plenty of ammo. The spears are slightly different but close enough to pass casual inspection so that works for me.
Here are my two hunters sporting their brand new paint schemes.
Next up are my two Wolfen warriors. These are from the original metal range so they are a little harder to find today but thankfully I had them stashed away for a rainy day.
The poses are much more dynamic than the plastics but that works for me. Instead of just making these guys plain old warriors, I decided that they will each different pack leader so I can expand to another warband in the future. In fact, with that in mind I've only painted up one of the two for now.
Now I just need to work on a better set-up for taking close up pictures of my minis. Battle reports I think I have a hand on but the up close ones not so much. You get the idea at least.
Now I just need to get some regular warriors to bulk out the ranks and I'll be good to go. For this, I am going to head back to the plastics range as you can find them dirt cheap if you look around. I had originally thought about getting the Great Fangs as I like the look of the figures with the two blades but since I decided to use my metal minis as characters, I going to get some of the regular fangs instead. This will make them look a little more plain in comparison which is alright in my book. They are supposed to be the grunts after all, not elite warriors like the two characters. Now I just need to order a box of them and I'll be all set...
The good news is that just the two hunters and the warrior give me enough to try pushing them around to see just how the rules play out once I get my second warband together. Be sure to check back next week to see what I dug up for that one!
The Parting Shot
As always, thanks for checking out the blog and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to either leave them right here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. I hope you enjoyed checking out the workbench and be sure to come back again. Until then, remember that if you can't win, it's time to change the rules.
