I recently purchased the newly revised and updated version of the SoBH game system: Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes. The rules are fundamentally the same with a few revisions here and there that have all been, in my experience so far, beneficial and fun. The biggest difference is the addition of reactions: when a player rolls one failure on an activation roll, his or her opponent gets to re-roll that one dice to attempt to activate one of his/her own figures. This keeps the pace much more interesting and allows for more smooth back-and-forth action. The rulebook itself is nicely designed and illustrated, clears up certain areas of the rules that seemed vague before, and has includes more character profiles. There are also new special abilities listed. The creators have also developed an entire fantasy world complete with its own map and brief history, if you enjoy fantasy worlds. Which I do. Immensely. If you liked the first version of SoBH this is definitely worth a look.
To go with my new rulebook I've also been busy painting some more figures and making terrain. I finished the Ogre Warchief a while ago:
I also built a ruined orc wall as an obstacle for SoBH games. As you can see below I used regular Styrofoam for the bulk of the wall, then covered the whole thing in joint compound. The walkway thingy was a piece of thick corrugated cardboard with strips of thin cardboard from a cereal box glued onto that to create the appearance of individual wooden boards. I smeared some joint compound over it after it was dry and scattered some sand around, then drybrushed it to make it look old and weather beaten.
The tattered orc banner and the skulls are made of clay which I baked then painted.
I also bought beautiful new dice from Chessex. They just make each roll that much more awesome.
A farmhouse that I made a while back.
