Forces of Battlesworn: Ninja

Ninjas!  I'd throw this Battlesworn army in on the 'good guy' side, rounding out that bunch with Bandits, Knights, and now Ninjas.  I think the Knights better hide their wallets!  Man, I loved the Lego Ninja sets, and no, NOT Ninjago either!  It's good to put these guys back on the table in action.  

What's a Ninja army without half a dozen rogues?  Here we have the backbone of the army, six rogues.  Rogues, just for posterity as you already know, are harder to hit with shooting and get bonuses to melee when they're 'flanking' with allies.

These are the compulsory fighters of the army, dual-wielding katanas Mirumoto style and wearing heavy armor.  I'm still using the sample lists, but these guys could easily be brute / tanks, bear in mind you only get up to three multi-class models in the army however.

No real personalities in the Ninja army, but here's a pair of ranged attack models.  The model on the right in red with the bow is a shooter, but the veteran on the left with the crossbow is a sniper.  The difference between these two is that the sniper is not limited to shooting the closest model, he may shoot at ANY unengaged model in line of sight.  

And with the Ninja we round out the six forces of Battlesworn.  These six were the 'gimmes' out of the sample lists.  I'm sure I could crank out at least a couple more fantasy armies, but those might take a little more effort.  As I mentioned with one of the Undead armies though, six is a great number to have and opens up some real possibilities to an all-day skirmish-fest or the like.  I'm going to let that idea simmer for a bit.  Stay tuned until next time!

Forces of Battlesworn: Undead of the Night

What's better than a bonus undead tomb kings army for Battlesworn?  A bonus undead 'children of the night' army for Battlesworn!  Yes, here's bonus army number two; Undead of the Knight.  Looking at the photo above, a pretty cool (if a tad pale) looking army.

Look, it's the undead Beatles!  I know what you're thinking, four troops so these must be the compulsory four fighter choices.  Nope, after five armies made we're still unlocking new troop types.  These four zombies are the rabble troop type; rabble fight just as hard as fighters, but their weakness is they die after taking only one wound.  On the other hand, rabble only take up half a slot, so you can take twice as many, now I see why they're labeled as zombies in the sample list.

And here's our four compulsory fighters; skeleton warriors, always a classic.  There's really not a whole lot to say about these guys, they're tireless, they're relentless, they're sword-wielding skeletons.

What's cooler than skeleton warriors?  Skeleton archers!  Fighters are one thing, but shooters?  Archery requires all kinds of things you'd not expect from a skeleton; dexterity, long ranged eyesight, finesse, and more.  In a lot of ways skeleton archers are creepy.  Here's four of them.

No undead horde is worth their weight in salt without a suitably good leader to command them.  The force list uses another combo class with the ancient vampire here; the tank / sorcerer.  He's going to be tough to take down, and gets to wield a whopping five spells while he's at it.  Plus, though all I added was a sword and shield, he looks pretty awesome at the head of the army.  

Only one more of the bonus armies to go, and the next one comes across quite sneaky, and quite pointy.  Until then, enjoy! 

Forces of Battlesworn: Undead of the Desert

I knew had at least one more Battlesworn force left in the pile of Legos, truth be told I was able to crank out three more.  This puts the army count up to six, which opens up the tantalizing possibility of an all-day, round robin Battlesworn skirmish "tourney".  On to today's army, we've got undead of the 'crunchy' variety, tomb-kings of the desert.

I'm continuing to use the sample force lists from the rulebook, and since there's about three pages worth of those we've got plenty of source material to work with.  The five troops above were listed as 'brutes', which hit hard in melee, but they were also listed as ghouls.  Brutes, I've got, no problem.  These brutes are the heavy weapon sorts and are the charred bones of past kings interred within the tombs, arisen and ready to smash their foes.  I tried to go with a different shield for each king to represent different kingdoms they initially hail from.    

Every list needs four compulsory fighters, minimum, and here they are; minor mummies.  I'm no slouch when it comes to my Lego collection, but I'm ashamed to not be able to field four matching Egyptian headdresses.  Here you go, minor mummy fighters, moving on.

On to the personalities, the dark figure in the background with the serpent staff is technically our only living model in the army, and he's a sorcerer, a powerful model who gets five spells for the game.  And the scarab shield hefting figure up front is the head of the army, the master mummy whose stats are those of a hybrid tank / rogue.  

This is an interesting class combo too as it means he'll be brutal in melee as long as he has his minions along for the ride, and he'll be harder to hit with shooting, and if you happen to hit him with shooting or melee, he'll just shrug off the first wound.  There you have it, tomb kings, enjoy!

Forces of Battlesworn: The Bandits

Our last Battlesworn army is upon us, and this merry band of Bandits is almost a completely vintage collection of old Forestmen to boot.  These Bandits harangue the King's Highway at every opportunity, to the point where I believe some Knights may need to be dispatched.  Of course, this band would also complement the very same Knights force in an extra large game acting as Royal Rangers.  I do like this particular sample army, lots of troops, a good variety of slot types, and plenty of effectiveness.

Practice makes perfect; here the veteran archer looks on while the newer recruits shoot their bows.  Having four shooters in a warband is quite the boon too, especially figuring in all of the opportunity fire reactions and sheer ranged attack goodness they bring.

The Bandits' four compulsory fighters; the three fighters look on impassively while their all-too-charismatic squad leader laughs at another one of his own jokes.

What do they fight for?  Is it coin, is it their own code of honor?  Is it just the chance to best someone in a duel?  Who knows, but one thing's for sure, the Bandits are glad to have these four 'rogues' on their side!  Rogues are a new troop type we're seeing from Battlesworn in these lists and their strength is that they are harder to hit with ranged attacks and in melee they get bonuses to hit depending on how many other [edit: friendly models] are joining them in that combat.  

So I'm thinking I've got at least one more list up my sleeve, I haven't made them yet but I'm pretty sure I have the makings for them so we may see a bonus Battlesworn list before too long.  Plus, if I can get Biscuit Miller's cool demon army he used the other night, that'd make for even more bonus armies.  Until then (and oh yeah, I've got maybe a batrep or two for you as well) enjoy!

Forces of Battlesworn: The Orcs

Last time we saw the Knights of Battlesworn, today we see an army that could easily be their nemesis; the Orcs.  Again, I'm using the sample forces from the rulebook as is, so on to the Orcs!

Every good Orc warband needs a leader, and who better to lead than the fairly recent Cyclops fig from the Lego collectible series.  In the case here, our one-eyed Orc is a warlord which combines both the 'leader' and the 'brute' classes together, appropriate for him.  The cloaked figure on the right is the warlord's advisor and shaman to the tribe (using the 'warmage' slot).  Warmages in Battlesworn are as capable as fighters, but also get the use of a single spell for the game.

This warband features a pair of archers for good measure, also known as 'shooters' in the rulebook.  Here the veteran archer coaches the newer archer on form and aiming.  They fight as good as fighters but have the obvious benefit of calling on a ranged attack to boot.  

These three Orcs are 'brute' slots.  The sample army defined these particular brutes as 'heavy weapons' but I decided to make them more like dual-wielding beserkers.  Brutes hit more often, therefore deal more damage be it from large, two-handed weapons or the option I went with here.  I like the mix here too, the fig on the left could be one of their northern mountain cousins, and the fig on the right could be from the feral southern jungles.  Of course the Orc in the middle is just an angry beserker Orc.

As I mentioned last time with the Knights, every force in Battlesworn has four compulsory 'fighter' slots, and here's that very backbone of the Orc warband.  This Orc veteran runs his troops through an equipment inspection the evening before the battle.  Again, sergeants and veterans are all just flavor text I like to do to give the army a little extra dash of neatness.  

We're almost done with the initial three armies I whipped up in my rules-reading frenzy.  Only one force to go, and up next will be the Bandits list.  Of course, "bandits" could be anything really so you'll have to stay tuned to see the Mik's Minis interpretation, mwahaha.  Until then!

Forces of Battlesworn: The Knights

Welcome to the first of three initial installments that feature, as canny readers may have already discerned, the forces of Battlesworn.  Read the review here, of if you don't just know that one of my favorite things about the rules is army creation.  Using generic 'slots' you kit out your army as you see fit with whatever forces you've got on hand.  Me being me, I went the Lego route.

Above you see the twelve slot force (standard sized game) of Knights.  In the rulebook there are two pages worth of sample armies, and all three of the initial armies here come directly from those sample pages.  What I should do is take the excellent fantasy setting we cranked out with Sarterra and apply it to these new armies and where their battles take place.

The core of every Battlesworn army are the fighters, your basic troops that every force requires to have a minimum of four of.  Here two of the Knights' fighters practice sparring while the other two look on.

There are a lot of troop type options to go around, and these two heavily armored Knights are of the 'tank' variety.  They don't hit any harder than the fighters, but they do shrug off damage better than  most, thus lending them their role's name.  

The Battlesworn rules also allow some customization by combining two different classes together and taking the best of both classes.  In the case of the two mounted figs here, they are 'cavalry/tanks'; heavily armored knights on horseback.  I modeled them here to be the king and his champion, of course on the tabletop there's no difference in stats, but it's the little details that give just that much more character.  That's it for the Knights, next up will be the greenskins.  Until then, enjoy!

More Battlesworn Incoming

Ganesha Games' Battlesworn fever has struck Mik's Minis for sure.  Read the last review for more details on the game itself, but suffice it to say that I've been on an army building kick.  When you're building said armies with Legos it's even better.  Not that I need any excuses to play with Legos mind you!

In the rulebook itself, in addition to all of the sample troop types and suggested alternate genres, there are a ton (at least two pages worth) of completed sample armies.  I've cranked out three so far, and have my eyes on a couple more at least.  I went with your basic Orcs, a Bandits list (which I themed heavily towards a Robin Hood style band), and the Human Knights list.  

Over the next few days I'll be posting individual warbands with details of what troop types are in each, as well as closeups of the the figs themselves.  This is all in Lego mind you, but a dozen figures or so from any collection you've got should work.  Until then, enjoy.

Battlesworn Rules Review

Ganesha Games has good standing here at Mik's Minis, every one of their games has been thoroughly enjoyable, easy to get into, and provides what we're all looking for; getting minis on the table.

Song of Blades and Heroes is no stranger to us, and there's tons of posts on it here.  Love it, great friggin' game.  There's even been some Flying Lead around these parts, just ignore that broken image link.  Now there's a new addition to their rules stable, and unlike the first two mentioned that share many of the same mechanics, Battlesworn; Bid for Victory is completely different in scope and incredibly fresh to boot.

It says 'fantasy' right on the cover, but you can just as easily use it for any genre you want.  Really, you can.  In the rulebook it gives suggestions for zombie survival, alien bug hunters, wild west, historicals, and more.

The best part of the game is that troop types are defined by fourteen archetypes and the rules are inherent within each type (ala another of my faves, Hordes of the Things).

If you have a "shooter" on the table that could be anything you define as a shooter; an elf with a bow, an orc with a spear,  a Colonial Marine with an M41A pulse rifle, a gangster with a tommy gun, you think of it, it's a shooter.  The troop types also include brutes (hit more often), tanks (hard to kill), rogues (hard to hit), and so forth.  There are some spell-casters in there too, but a fireball thrown by a wizard has about the same effect as a Vietnam War-era trooper tossing a frag grenade.  It's all how you interpret your army during creation.

What makes it different though?  It says so on the cover; bidding.  When you start a turn both

sides bid a number from one to six for initiative.  The lowest bid goes with a number of actions equal to their bid.  The initiative loser gets a number of reactions based on the difference between the two rolls.  I bid a 2, and you bid a 4; I get two actions and you get two reactions during my turn.  You won't get any actions this turn, just reactions to what I do.  It's a quick turn, then we bid for initiative again, rinse and repeat.

Combat is in the same fashion, it's all about the bidding.  Say I'm going to hit you with a melee attack.  I bid a number between one and six again, you bid the same.  The lower bid strikes first, and if the higher bid is still standing they get to strike back.  So why not just bid "1" all the time then and always go first.  Because you roll a number of attack dice equal to your bid, and you need 5's and 6's to hit.  If you bid one die, chances are you won't hit.  If you bid six dice to attack with, chances are you'll get some hits, but you'll also roll some 1's in there, and 1's cancel out hits.  Ranged attacks are handle in a similar fashion, with the targeted player bidding for a dodge.

It sounds pretty different so far, right?  It gets better.  No measurements, no ranges.  None.  Now I've played some games with "Line of Sight" movement before, horizon to horizon, but Battlesworn takes it further.  Ranged attacks are not measured in increments, but shots are at "the closest model" be the closest target two inches or two feet away.  Same with spells and pretty much everything else.  Being that ranges are relative and not measured, and movement is done in straight lines until you hit a new terrain type, you can play on any size table you want, with any scale figs you've got.

The first time we played we hadn't even read the rules yet, but within twenty minutes we were knee-deep in the battle and didn't think twice about the rules, end of story.  It is a pretty non-traditional minis game, but you get the hang of it quick enough, and when that light bulb dings, you really get it.

The rules are solid, versatile, and easy to grasp right off the bat.  The best part, the PDF of the rulebook is a mere eight bucks.  Eight bucks!  I could've save you reading this entire post and just written this last paragraph.  Here's the one line review: Battlesworn is great fun and innovative enough to deserve room on the bookshelf regardless of your preferred genre.  Plus, did I mention it's just eight bucks?