The Village Must Stand is a cooperative or solo-compatible siege mode for Song of Blades and Heroes.

Use the normal SBH rules for activation, movement, combat, shooting, magic, morale, traits, and point costs unless this document says otherwise.

Players control a small party of heroes defending a village against escalating enemy waves. Between waves, they spend Supplies to repair buildings, build defenses, upgrade the village, and prepare for the next attack.

The players win by surviving the final wave.

The players lose if the Town Hall is destroyed.

You need:

• the SBH rules,
• 2-4 hero models,
• enemy models,
• five village buildings,
• tokens for Supplies, Opportunities, fire, traps, and damage,
• terrain,
• a D6,
• a ruler or measuring sticks.

The default village buildings are:

• Town Hall
• Forge
• Temple
• Watchtower
• Stable

Building

A village structure with Integrity. Buildings do not move, activate, attack, or make morale checks.

Integrity

A building's damage capacity. Reduce Integrity when the building takes damage. A building at 0 Integrity is destroyed.

Supplies

The village economy. Supplies repair buildings, build defenses, and upgrade buildings.

Wave

One enemy attack. A game is a sequence of waves.

Enemy Group

One or more enemies that share a Behaviour, spawn point, and activation roll.

Behaviour

The AI instruction for an Enemy Group.

Opportunity Token

A risky event or reward outside the village.

Village Defender

A simple non-hero friendly model granted by a village upgrade.

4.1   Choose Game Length

Choose a game length before setup.

4.2   Choose Heroes

Choose 2-4 heroes.

Each hero counts as 100 wave points for wave generation, regardless of exact SBH reference cost or equipment.

Party value:

Use the hero profiles in the Hero Compendium.

All heroes have the SBH Tough trait. Since all alpha heroes are Q3+, each hero can suffer 3 normal Tough wounds; a fourth normal kill defeats the hero. Gruesome kills still defeat heroes as normal for Tough models.

A wave is not a new SBH scenario for healing purposes. The whole defense is one scenario, so Tough wounds persist between waves until a healing rule removes them. Each normal Tough wound worsens the hero's Quality by 1, as in SBH; healing 1 wound improves it by 1. A fallen hero remains out of the game unless a rule revives them.

Heroes do not gain custom levels in this mode. They improve through village upgrades and, if used, separate Magic & Equipment rules.

4.3   Prepare The Table

Use a normal SBH-sized play area. For an alpha default, use a 3' x 3' table.

Place terrain as usual. Leave enough open routes for enemies to approach the village.

4.4   Place The Village

Place the Town Hall near the center of the table.

Place the Forge, Temple, Watchtower, and Stable within 8" of the Town Hall. Buildings should not touch each other.

4.5   Set Building Integrity

All buildings begin at Level I.

4.6   Set Starting Supplies

The village begins with 0 Supplies.

4.7   Prepare Opportunity Tokens

Set aside one or more Opportunity Tokens before the game begins.

Do not place an Opportunity Token during initial setup unless a scenario says otherwise. Opportunities appear after waves, outside the village, so heroes must leave safety to claim them.

5.1   Wave Sequence

Each wave follows this sequence:

1. Determine the wave's Escalation level.
2. Generate Enemy Groups.
3. Determine enemy spawn edge or edges.
4. Deploy heroes.
5. Deploy enemies.
6. Play the wave.
7. End the wave.

If the village does not have Watchtower III, spawn edges are determined before hero deployment but are not revealed to the players until enemies deploy.

If the village has Watchtower III, reveal enemy spawn edges before hero deployment.

5.2   Escalation

Escalation sets the enemy budget and unlocks new threats.

Round fractions normally.

5.3   Escalation By Game Length

Intro games scale slowly so players have time to earn Supplies, repair damage, and learn the village before facing late-game threats.

5.4   Generating Enemy Groups

Use the Bestiary & Wave Generator to build enemies up to the wave budget.

Build a wave by adding Enemy Groups until you reach the Escalation budget. Each Group takes one Behaviour and one matching enemy type — Pure Mobs, or Mobs + 1 Elite at Esc IV+ — filled with a random number of models (max 5). Boss waves (Esc VI–VII) always open with the Boss. Keep adding Groups while under budget; if the last Group overshoots the maximum, drop one model. Give each Group one spawn edge (§5.5).

A wave's Difficulty is an Easy / Normal / Hard label based on how close the final enemy total is to the budget.

5.5   Random Edges

Number the four table edges 1-4.

When a rule asks for a random edge, roll D6:

• 1-4: use that edge.
• 5-6: reroll.

Enemies deploy within 6" of their spawn edge unless a scenario says otherwise.

At Escalation V or higher, use at least two different spawn edges if there is more than one Enemy Group.

5.6   Hero Deployment

If the village does not have Watchtower III, deploy all heroes within 6" of the Town Hall.

If the village has Watchtower III, deploy heroes within 6" of any village building.

6.1   Round Structure

During a wave, the heroes are one SBH side and the enemies are the opposing SBH side. Heroes take the first turn of each wave unless a scenario says otherwise.

On the hero side's turn, players activate heroes and friendly models normally. The hero side's turn ends as in SBH: when all friendly models have activated, when the players pass, or when an activation roll causes turnover.

On the enemy side's turn, Enemy Groups activate as the enemy side's figures. Activate Groups in Group number order. If an Enemy Group rolls two or more activation failures, resolve any actions from successes, then the enemy side's turn ends and play passes back to the heroes.

6.2   Enemy Groups And Activation

Each Enemy Group has:

• one Behaviour,
• one activation dice value,
• one spawn edge,
• one or more enemy models.

When an Enemy Group activates:

1. Use the number of dice listed for its Behaviour.
2. Roll once for the whole Group, using the worst Quality in the Group.
3. Resolve successes and failures using normal SBH activation rules.
4. Each model in the Group receives the same number of actions.
5. Resolve one model's actions completely before moving to the next model.
6. Each model uses its actions according to the Group's Behaviour.

If an enemy model cannot perform its Behaviour's preferred action, it performs the closest useful action.

6.3   Enemy Behaviours

6.4   Buildings In Combat

Buildings are terrain pieces with Integrity.

Buildings:

• cannot move,
• cannot activate,
• cannot attack,
• do not make morale checks,
• can be attacked by adjacent enemies,
• are destroyed at 0 Integrity.

Use normal SBH combat unless a scenario says otherwise. Treat buildings as Combat 0 and unable to push back, knock down, or kill attackers.

Destroyed buildings lose all abilities and cannot be repaired or upgraded during the game.

If the Town Hall is destroyed, the players lose immediately.

6.5   Fire

Torch Bearers appear from Escalation II onward.

A Torch Bearer adjacent to a building may ignite it instead of attacking.

Place a fire token on the building.

At the end of each wave, each burning building loses 1 Integrity.

A hero adjacent to a burning building at the end of a wave may extinguish it before fire damage is applied.

If there are multiple adjacent heroes and multiple burning buildings, each hero may extinguish one burning building.

7.1   Ending A Wave

A wave ends when all enemies have been defeated, have fled, or have left the battlefield.

After the wave ends:

1. Resolve burning buildings.
2. Gain Supplies equal to the wave number.
3. Gain any bonus Supplies from rewards or scenario rules.
4. Place one Opportunity Token, unless this was the final wave.
5. Resolve the Council Phase.

7.2   Placing Opportunity Tokens

At the end of each non-final wave, after gaining Supplies, place one Opportunity Token outside the village.

Place it on a random edge, at least 12" from the Town Hall if possible.

The token is unknown until a hero reaches it. If the village has Watchtower II, reveal it as soon as it is placed.

A hero reveals or claims an Opportunity Token by moving into contact with it.

Unless the result says otherwise, remove the token after resolving it.

7.3   Opportunity Table

Healing Herbs

A hero may consume Healing Herbs during the Council Phase to heal 1 wound from one hero.

Lost Villager

Place a villager model or token where the Opportunity Token was found.

A hero adjacent to the villager may escort them. The villager moves with that hero and cannot move independently.

If the escorting hero is knocked down, killed, or moves away, the villager remains in place.

When the villager reaches the Town Hall, remove the villager and gain 3 Supplies.

Ambush

Build an Ambush Group worth about 25% of the current wave budget.

The Ambush Group should use a Behaviour that fits the enemy type. If unsure, use Hunter.

Deploy the Ambush Group within 6" of the nearest table edge and activate it normally on the next enemy turn.

7.4   Council Phase

Resolve the Council Phase after each wave.

During the Council Phase, players may:

• repair buildings,
• upgrade buildings,
• place Barricades,
• place Traps,
• use healing effects,
• resolve Opportunity rewards.

There is no limit on the number of Council Phase actions. Supplies are the limit.

7.5   Building Upgrades

Buildings begin at Level I.

During the Council Phase, players may spend Supplies to upgrade buildings.

A building must be Level II before it can become Level III.

Destroyed buildings cannot be upgraded.

Village Archers are Village Defenders.

Village Defender profiles are:

Village Defenders activate during the hero turn as normal friendly models.

Village Defenders are not heroes. They cannot claim Opportunity Tokens, use hero passives, or suffer campaign consequences.

Village Riders are Village Defenders.

Ready Mounts movement is free movement. It does not require an activation roll. Warhorse changes the hero's normal movement for the wave; it does not grant a free activation.

7.6   Repairs

During the Council Phase, players may spend Supplies to repair buildings.

Default repair rate:

With Forge II:

A building cannot be repaired above its starting Integrity unless a future upgrade says otherwise.

Destroyed buildings cannot be repaired.

7.7   Barricades

During the Council Phase, players may spend 1 Supply to place one Barricade.

Barricade rules:

• place within 3" of any village building,
• use a 3" long obstacle or equivalent terrain piece,
• Integrity 2,
• counts as Cover,
• counts as Difficult Terrain,
• can be attacked normally.

Treat Barricades as Combat 0 when attacked.

7.8   Traps

During the Council Phase, players may spend 1 Supply to place one Trap.

Trap rules:

• place within 6" of any village building,
• use a 2" diameter marker or a clearly agreed 2" area,
• mark secretly or place the marker face down,
• triggered by the first enemy that enters it,
• roll D6 when triggered.

Trap effect:

Remove the Trap after it triggers.

The players win if the Town Hall survives the final wave.

The players lose immediately if the Town Hall is destroyed.

Optional harder rule:

Use the optional rule only if the group wants a harsher game.

The following rules are playable defaults and still need playtesting:

• exact wave generation,
• Ambush size,
• Temple I healing,
• Watchtower I shooting bonus,
• Stable mobility balance,
• Village Defender balance.

Use the simplest ruling at the table, record what happened, and revise after play.