Saturday 15 October 2011

Hymn to Pan

I'm pleased to introduce the prototype Satyr warband for Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games. I decided to start with a smaller warband of higher quality characters (after all, it requires less painting). I have more models with hand weapons in my lead pile, but I'll see how these little chaps perform first. The Satyrs are all Eureka (panpipes added to Pan as a small conversion), the Dryad is Shadowforge.

The warband as it stands:

Pan; Q3 C3 (100pts)
Hero, Forester, Mountaineer, Terror, Unique
Phoebe the Dryad; Q3 C2 (56 pts)

Entangle, Forester
Satyr archers (x3); Q3 C3 (48pts each)

Forester, Mountaineer, Shooter: Medium
All Satyrs have both the 'mountaineer' and 'forester' special abilities to reflect their sylvian habitat. The dryad model has legs that turn into roots at the feet and I liked the idea of her being able to make roots or plant matter spring up out of the ground to entangle her foes and so gave her the 'entangle' ability rather than the suggested 'distract'.


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Homeric Hymn 19, To Pan

[1] Sing Museof Pan, the dear son of Hermes, with his goat's feet and two horns —a lover of merry noise. Through wooded glades he wanders with dancing nymphs who foot it on some sheer cliff's edge, [5] calling upon Pan, the shepherd-god, long-haired, unkempt. He has every snowy crest and the mountain peaks and rocky crests for his domain; hither and thither he goes through the close thickets, now lured by soft streams, [10] and now he presses on amongst towering crags and climbs up to the highest peak that overlooks the flocks. Often he courses through the glistening high mountains, and often on the shouldered hills he speeds along slaying wild beasts, this keen-eyed god. Only at evening, [15] as he returns from the chase, he sounds his note, playing sweet and low on his pipes of reed: not even she could excel him in melody —that bird who in flower-laden spring pouring forth her lament utters honey-voiced song amid the leaves. At that hour the clear-voiced nymphs are with him and [20] move with nimble feet, singing by some spring of dark water, while Echo wails about the mountain-top, and the god on this side or on that of the choirs, or at times sidling into the midst, plies it nimbly with his feet. On his back he wears a spotted lynx-pelt, and he delights in high-pitched songs [25] in a soft meadow where crocuses and sweet-smelling hyacinths bloom at random in the grass.

They sing of the blessed gods and high Olympos and choose to tell of such an one as luck-bringing Hermes above the rest, how he is the swift messenger of all the gods, [30] and how he came to Arkadia, the land of many springs and mother of flocks, there where his sacred place is as god of Kyllene. For there, though a god, he used to tend curly-fleeced sheep in the service of a mortal man, because there fell on him and waxed strong melting desire to wed the rich-tressed daughter of Dryops, [35] and there he brought about the merry marriage. And in the house she bare Hermes a dear son who from his birth was marvellous to look upon, with goat's feet and two horns —a noisy, merry-laughing child. But when the nurse saw his uncouth face and full beard, she was afraid and sprang up and fled and left the child. [40] Then luck-bringing Hermes received him and took him in his arms: very glad in his heart was the god. And he went quickly to the abodes of the deathless gods, carrying his son wrapped in warm skins of mountain hares, and set him down beside Zeus [45] and showed him to the rest of the gods. Then all the immortals were glad in heart and Bacchic Dionysos in especial; and they called the boy Pan because he delighted all their hearts.

And so hail to you, lord! I seek your favour with a song. And now I will remember you and another song also.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

The haunting lilt of panpipes high on the mountain peak...

At MOAB this year I finally submitted to my long-time desire and picked up a few 28mm Eureka satyrs and a Shadowforge dryad. I'll use them for SBH for now, and for the Greek Myth version, Song of Gods and Heroes, when it is finally written. The 'satyrs' are technically Panes, the twelve Pan-esque nature spirits, Greek Satyrs having human legs an horses tails, but I'm happy to go with 'satyrs'. Note that the pictures below are from the respective manufacturers' websites.
Pan
Satyr spearmen
Satyrs with hand weapons
Satyr archers
Dryads
Not sure whether I want more of less satyrs for SBH. I tend to find that less (with higher Q) is more in the game, but my provisional lists are as follows: <SBH warband builder HERE>

;Arkadians
Pan;100;3;3;true;Hero,Forester,Mountaineer,Terror,Unique;;
Satyr archer;48;3;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Medium;;
Satyr archer;48;3;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Medium;;
Satyr archer;48;3;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Medium;;
Dryad;56;3;2;false;Entangle,Forester;;

or

;Arkadians
Pan;100;3;3;true;Hero,Forester,Mountaineer,Terror,Unique;;
Satyr ;30;4;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer;;
Satyr ;30;4;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer;;
Satyr archer;41;4;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Long;;
Satyr archer;41;4;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Long;;
Dryad;56;3;2;false;Entangle,Forester;;

MOAB 2011 (DBA matched pairs comp.)

The Southern Battle Gamers host MOAB (Mother of all Battlegames) over the three-day October long weekend each year (see HERE). This year I was only able to attend the Saturday and took part in the DBA historical matched pairs competition. On the Sunday there was a AD 1067 campaign, but I was pre-booked to drink bier and eat suspiciously shaped German sausages to welcome in Oktober...

The main hall early on Saturday morning... before it got rowdy.
The many many MOAB events take place over three floors of a gymnasium/hall/basketball court. The main floor including stage (pictured), a mezzanine (sort of in the picture), a basement and a bunch of rooms out the back. All manner of games are on offer as competitions, for demonstrations and participation. No Conflict at the World's End this year, but I might see if we can't have a couple of games on the go next year.

In the historic matched pairs competition I managed to scrape into 9th place out of ten entrants. Not my best result yet to be sure.... A photo of each of my games below. I only used my own armies once (Nabataean vs Seleukids), the other games were all played with my opponents' armies.

My vikings take a close 3:4 defeat at the hands of the miserable Welsh.
Radagaisus leads my Ostragoths to victory (4:0), capturing the Late Roman BUA in the first turn.
My Mound-builders were crushed by his Mound-builders (2:5)
My Nabataeans had a bad time of it against the Late Seleukids among the palms (2:4)
The dirty New Kingdom Gypos sweep in to crush my poor Mitanni (0:4)

So, four losses and only one victory. A couple of the defeats were quite close, but by the last game I'm afraid I had lost heart and the Mitanni were doomed...