My painting progress has stalled since April, which was right before my Mom got very ill and eventually died. These are a huge improvement over my earlier version of the rules, which played too much like a beefy board wargame if I’m being honest. It feels great to playtest Version 2.0 of my Crown of Severnia campaign rules and see them in action. The War of the Jade Zodiac campaign is underway online and via email, and we’re having a good time with it so far. Until then, my tabletop gaming world won’t feel anywhere close to normal.įortunately, the Harrisburg Hacking Hobgoblins, the foursome that periodically plays miniature wargames in my game-loft, finally launched our fantasy wargaming campaign. Hopefully, I can get a few of the guys together soon for some live gaming. To say that I’m in “gaming withdrawal” isn’t fair to that phrase. Yet still, I haven’t played a live face-to-face game with friends for 16 months. Life is getting a little better around here now that we’re vaccinated. I’m really looking forward to our next SOS game (hopefully in July). Version 5.x is a vastly different experience, more fluid, less downtime between players, plenty of interesting decisions, more decisive, and just more fun. My game has come a long way since I created Version 1.0 over 15 years ago. Despite the lopsided outcome, Kev said he enjoyed it and we had a great post-game chat. Losing an Orc Lord was bad enough, but when Orc General Bugfart the Filthy eventually fell in battle, everything else quickly crumbled. They were never able to mount as many devastating hand-to-hand attacks as they should have. What positives the Greenskins had in numbers, hard-hitting melee power, and several nasty monsters, they lacked in toughness and morale. The Barbarian army was tough with solid discipline, but lacked in overall numbers compared to the Orcs & Goblins. The combination of winning initiative every turn, smart troop deployment, effective outflanking maneuvers, and good use of their large battle-groups was a big difference maker for my guys. Other than that, it was a runaway victory for the Barbarians. Kev’s Goblin Brigade occupying his Right Flank. It was really fun to face-off against them. He doesn’t get to play them often (it’s usually me), so he was eager to unleash some Orcs & Gobbos against my Barbarians. Kev has been steadily amassing Greenskins over the last few years. I was shooting for a vaguely Norse themed army anchored by Krones (Vikings) and Dwarves, but I decided to swap out a few regiments of Ice Trolls so I could get some Gnomes into action and add firepower (Gnome arquebuses) and speed (Gnome cavalry riding Giant Rabbits) to the mix. Foreground: My Krones (Vikings), Wylderlings, and a supporting Ogre regiment with a Druid attached. We took our time and I carefully explained rules along the way to help Kev learn the new stuff (I’ve refined the SoS design a lot since 2019). After a 30 minute rules refresher, followed by setup/deployment, we got the battle started. Kev had not played SOS since at least the Fall of 2019, so this version was very new to him and there was some getting up to speed required. My Barbarians army on the right, Kev’s Greenskins on the left. In the end, once both armies started fighting, the scenario goal got lost in the shuffle. The Defender (Greenskins) were trying to stop this from happening.

We played a scenario where the Attackers (Barbarians) were escorting a prisoner to a Sacrificial Site to be offered up to the gods.

Kev’s Greenskins (Orcs & Goblins) faced off against my Barbarians (Krones, Gnomes, Dwarves). Lately, we get so caught up in playing that we forget to stop and take more in-the-midst-of-battle pics along the way. Here’s a brief recap of the game with some early, post-deployment photos. My good friend Kevin and I played Sword of Severnia last Sunday (June 25).

Blood bowl orc size compared to brutes