Halloween: Horrors Stalk the Night!

Introduction

It's Halloween and once again I've arranged a seasonal battle to mark the occasion.  Like last year (see here), this will be a battle between the Witches and the Puritans (Witch Hunters).  This time, each of these forces will be supported by some rather uneasy allies, respectively the Rat Plague and the Five Musketeers.

[On a side note, I believe that this will be the 500th article on my blog.  I had no idea the number had grown so large until I was looking for the links to insert in the previous paragraph...]

The Scenario

Very simple: witches, ghouls and other beasties intend to raid the village of Middle Dorking and carry off at least some of the locals (for use as sacrifices, slaves, playthings, food...  Use your imagination!).  The local authorities would like to stop them.

3 villagers have been placed along the table's centreline.  Each of these can be moved, at a reduced rate, by anyone who has a model in base contact at the start of an action.  Whoever holds the most at the end of the game wins!  Note that in order to foster some unhealthy competition, each side (i.e. good or evil) wins or loses according to the number of objectives they have caught/saved.  Within each side, the force with the larger number of villagers will be declared the major victor and the other force will only be allowed a minor victory.

For example, if the Puritans rescue 2 villagers and the Musketeers none then the Puritans win a major victory and the Musketeers must be content with a minor win.  Even if the Witches have caught the third villager, the evil side still loses completely.  Clear?

The Game

The rat monster is an exceptionally dangerous foe; as well as its very high normal combat score it gains another +2 for its berserk attribute.  It loses this attribute as soon as it throws 3 failures in a single activation roll.  In this game, that happened in its very first turn - so the creature was no longer berserk.  Sighs of relief could be heard from the Puritans and Musketeers; this seemed like a very good omen for them!

Initially, the witches and rat swarms on the right surged forwards, though their bigger monsters on the left were sluggish and didn't make much progress.  For the good side, pretty much the same pattern occurred: the musketeers advanced rapidly on their right, whilst the Puritans on their left were slow to move.

Athos grabbed the nearest villager and tried to drag him to safety - but the shocked young man wasn't easy to pull along and the rat monster was overhauling the pair rapidly!

In the centre, near the unlit pyre, D'Artagnan and Leroux bravely tried to stop the rat priest from taking away the blacksmith.  They did look to be heavily outnumbered, but perhaps French élan would be enough to carry the day?

Nearer the wood, Aramis stomped on a seemingly endless swarm of rats and killed many of them, whilst Porthos faced off three huge, but distinctly reluctant, hell hounds.

At the other end of the village, Major Fairfax and his soldiers saw a ghoul trying to drag off a small boy.  Whilst one of the troopers led the rescued child away, the rest of them set upon the evil ghoul and butchered it!

So far, the few casualties had all been on the evil side, but that couldn't last forever.  Even as help approached, the beleaguered D'Artagnan was felled by the rat priest and his minions.

Another tragedy occurred when Black Agnes zoomed in and commanded her hell hounds to attack Porthos.  The musketeer could not resist the combined attack of such fierce opponents and he too fell in a bloody mess.

As he came into the open, John Sterne (the witch hunter) bellowed a challenge to Meg (the witch).  He fired both his pistols at her - but missed (despite having a reasonably good chance of killing the crone with a single shot).

Sword drawn, Sergeant Stone then charged forwards - but he was intercepted by a ghoul and thus couldn't prevent the rat priest from dragging away the kicking and screaming blacksmith.  He was promptly struck and transfixed by Meg's baleful glare.

When the ghoul tore apart the disabled Sergeant Stone, Leroux ran for his life.  Meg then cast another evil spell, this time at the witch hunter himself.  With an epic lack of situational awareness, John Sterne didn't see the attack coming and was bound and made helpless by witchcraft!

A long way from the action in the centre, a lone ghoul attempted to recapture the child from the village.  Major Fairfax and his lads fell upon the creature and butchered it; the child will probably have nightmares about the scene for the rest of his life!  [Normally in Song of Blades and Heroes, doubling an enemy's combat result kills it, whilst tripling it results in a gruesome kill.  Combined, these Puritans scored seven times the ghoul's defence.  Result: dead ghoul, though probably not recognisable as such any more...]

The rat monster chased down and finished off Athos, but rather than attempting to capture the nearby villager it turned and ran up the village street towards the Puritans.  Some of them shot at it as it came, but this merely seemed to annoy the creature...

In the open area, the rat priest continued to plod along with his prisoner, the blacksmith.  Aramis fought for his life against two huge hell hounds, but surely it could only be a matter of time before he made a fatal mistake?

The rat monster may not have been berserk any more, but it was still huge and fierce.  It charged down the main street of the village, tossing aside any soldiers who stood in its way.  One corporal attempted to shepherd the village boy away to safety, but he was really moving too slowly.

Eventually, most of the remaining troopers broke and fled, leaving the rat monster free to recapture the boy [and if you think he would have had nightmares about being taken by a ghoul then feel pity for him now!].

This tore the heart out of the good side and left them with very little in the way of forces.  Most of the Musketeers were dead; now the Puritans were also dead or dispersed.

For a brief moment, it looked as if Aramis might salvage the situation all on his own.  He slew one of the hell hounds, shook off the other and charged at Black Agnes.  The witch felt the Frenchman's steel as his rapier passed right through her body and with an unearthly shriek she fell, dead!

It was heroic, but it wasn't enough.  Meg used her black magic once more, paralysing the last Musketeer and making him easy prey for the nearby hell hound.

We did play on for a little while after this, but the outcome was already pretty much decided.  Major Fairfax rallied a couple of soldiers and chased after the slow-moving rat priest.  They nearly stopped it before it left the table - but couldn't quite do so.  After that, these last remnants of the human side chased after Meg - until the hell hound intervened and killed the major.  At that point, we called it...

Conclusion

That was a bitterly-fought game, for certain!  Initially it looked as if the Musketeers would triumph over everything in their path - but there just weren't enough of them and in the end they were outnumbered and overwhelmed.

The rats and the witches concentrated a lot of their force in the centre.  This gave them numbers against some of their enemies, but conceded some easy, early kills to the Puritans.  However, these Puritans seemed hard to motivate; their advance was very slow and a little bit fragmented.  In the end, the charge of the rat monster scattered the bulk of them past recall.

Man/Woman/Creature of the Match: A tough choice:

• On the one hand, Aramis cut his way through most of the rat swarm, one hell hound and the witches' leader (Black Agnes).
• On the other hand, Meg was instrumental in killing Sergeant Stone, the witch hunter (John Sterne) and Aramis.

I think I'd probably give it to the witch, because she survived and was on the winning team.  Her actions made a difference!

Biggest disappointment: I think it's a toss up between:

• The giant rat ceasing to be berserk on turn one
• The witch hunter failing to kill Meg with his pistols.

Take your pick!

Victory goes to the evil side, very obviously.  The rats held all three villagers at the end of the game, so they are declared the clear winners, with the witches taking the consolation prize.

Batrep: Robin Hood and the Tax Collector

Introduction

Time for another 4-player game at the Helensburgh games club.  This week it's a large Song of Blades and Heroes game, with 2 players on each side.  So..

Robin Hood and his merry men have learnt that a particularly noxious tax collector will be carting his ill-gotten gains near the forest.  It's an easy place for an ambush and the outlaws have never been known to pass up an opportunity to strike at the oppressors of the poor.

Of course, it's a trap!  The Sheriff of Nottingham and his forces close in from one side...

...whilst Guy of Gisborne leads more knights and men-at-arms in from the other side.  Can Robin and his men escape?  If they do, can they take the treasure cart with them?  What do you think?

The Game

The 2 (4?) forces quickly formed a confused melee, so I won't attempt to describe all the ebb and flow of the battle.  Rather, here are some little vignettes:

The very first character to activate was one of Robin's men.  He immediately shot the tax collector dead [so I don't really know why I bothered painting that model and putting it on the table, mutter, grumble...].

The Sheriff of Nottingham crept up behind one of the outlaws and knifed him in the back, scoring a particularly gruesome kill.

Guy of Gisborne ran ahead of his men, eager to engage the outlaws.  Much to everyone's surprise, he ran straight onto Robin's sword and was felled instantly.

More knights charged in, but this time it was one of the Merry Men who scored a gruesome kill.  Nottingham's forces were losing all their best fighters really quickly!

Just one of the original wagon guards was left, but he was close enough to prevent the outlaws from leading the treasure away.  Little John attempted to dislodge him, but in a show of stunning bravery, the lone guard knocked down the giant in green.  He failed to finish him off, though.

An outlaw stepped forwards, giving Little John some much needed respite.  It didn't look so rosy for the archer though: two of the Sheriff's men grabbed him whilst their boss stepped forwards to finish the outlaw scum.  However, the tables were turned unexpectedly as the merry man knocked the Sheriff over, into the mud!

While the Sheriff was engaged in slaughtering some of his own men who turned and fled (after Will Scarlet inflicted a gruesome kill on a nearby man-at-arms), one of the outlaws managed to get the wagon moving.

The Sheriff and several crossbowmen ran after the treasure, but Will Scarlet got in the way.  In yet another very quick swordfight, Nottingham was killed.

For much of the game, the Black Knight had been wrestling with Friar Tuck.  On the face of it, this should have been an easy win for the knight, but the doughty friar was giving it all he had; the knight was only saved by his heavy armour on more than one occasion.  Eventually, the combatants stepped apart.

Where was the treasure cart in all this?  It had almost left the table at the outlaws' exit point (which would have won them the game immediately), but it had outrun the outlaws who were guiding it.  Now the wagon was stuck in the ford; the carter wasn't going to try to move it on his own.

It was a race to see who could get to the treasure first; all the players were making risky attempts at 2- or 3-dice activations in an attempt to gain an edge.  One of the Merry Men was in the lead, hotly pursued by a man-at-arms and followed - slightly further off - by the Black Knight [who had left Friar Tuck to the tender mercies of a trio of spearmen].  Trailing the knight, just out of this picture, was Will Scarlet...

The Merry Man arrived first, but was unable to get the cart to move before he was set upon by his pursuers.  Between the two of them, Guy's men cut down the outlaw.

Before the authorities could turn the wagon around, Will Scarlet came running up.  He shot an arrow as he approached and it struck the man-at-arms for another gruesome kill.  This was too much for the Black Knight; he turned and fled off the board.

Will Scarlet may now have had possession of the treasure, but the rest of the field was a confused melee.  Most of the authorities' named characters and superior fighters were down, but they still outnumbered the remaining outlaws.  Not that this mattered, since the treasure was lost...

What of Little John?  He had drifted away from the main fight, but a couple of have-a-go men at arms tried their luck and attacked the giant outlaw.

Against the odds, the pair actually managed to wound Little John.  [I think this is the first time that has ever happened in one of my Robin Hood games!  Most characters are knocked out after a single hit, but Little John has the tough attribute and can take multiple hits.  He's never had his own blood shed before...].

Finally, with Will Scarlet encouraging him, the carter drove his wagon over the ford and into the forest, thus securing a win for the outlaws.

Conclusion

The Sheriff's side lost most of their big men/named characters very early in the game and I think we all believed that the outlaws would then find it easy to escape with the loot.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Interference from multiple minions (including the heroic last man of the caravan guard) prevented Robin's men from moving the wagon until fairly late on.  Even then, it was pursued with vigour and could have been recovered, if a few die rolls had gone the other way.

Once again, the players all got into the spirit of the game and (I hope) enjoyed it thoroughly.  There was heroism, skullduggery and a finely-balanced finale - what more do you want?!

Batrep: Robin Hood and the Abbot of Newstead

Introduction

There's time to fit in one more battle report in 2017 - it's the holiday season and Steve (my regular opponent) has given up some of his family time to come and play games with us instead.  This time, it's a Song of Blades and Heroes battle featuring a certain 12th century English folk hero...

The Scenario

I thought long and hard about creating a novel & interesting scenario for this game (in other words, I left it until the night before and then scrambled to come up with any ideas).  In the end, I picked the "Magical Cattle Raid" scenario from the Song of Arthur and Merlin rules.  Of course, Robin Hood wouldn't usually be found chasing magical cattle, so I changed the story a bit.  Here's how it goes:

The Abbot of Newstead is visiting a small shrine near to Sherwood Forest.  This shrine is situated at the spot where Saint Alban performed one of his miracles several hundred years earlier (restoring to life a man who had been cut in half during a fight with his visiting relatives).  In reality it's not a very significant shrine; it is to be found at a river fork in a remote and somewhat inhospitable location.

Both the forest outlaws (led by Robin Hood) and the authorities (led by the Sheriff of Nottingham) have got wind of this expedition.  Both groups would like to lay their hands on the Abbot and his monks, either to rob/ransom them or to petition their support for/against the outlaws' cause.  Or to rob them and petition for their support.

Each monk can be led to "safety" by any of the players' models, though at a reduced speed:

• There are 4 senior monks/civilians in the party (the Abbot, the abbot's secretary, a lay treasurer...); these are worth 4 victory points apiece (4VP) for the player who controls them at the end of the game.
• There are also 8 regular monks, worth 2VP each.

Here's the catch: the abbot and his important colleagues have suspected that this form of treachery might occur.  They have (or at least, may have) changed clothes with the lesser monks.  It's up to the two warbands to try to identify the real abbot, secretary &c.  This is implemented by the following scenario rule:

• A player may use 3 activation successes for any model to switch that model's captive monk with another monk model, as he discovers the "true" identity of the captive.  Of course, there's nothing to stop the same monk being switched again later on by someone else...

The Forces

Authorities

Sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Walter, Yorik the Jester, 3 crossbowmen, 6 men-at-arms.

Guy of Gisborne, Sir Stanley, the Black Knight, the White Knight, 9 men-at-arms

Forest Outlaws

Little John, Friar Tuck, 7 outlaws

Robin Hood, 7 outlaws

The Game

Predictably, both sides used their first turn to advance.  In most cases, the players moved their main heroes ahead of the pack, mainly to try to close the gap with the bulk of the enemy and thus deny them a free "long range" activation for the bulk of their figures [In Song of Blades and Heroes, a model which is more than a certain distance from any enemy can take a single activation per turn without having to dice for it - this is very useful for marching bodies of the less resolute soldiers towards their objectives].

Seeing that Sir Guy was ahead of his troops, Robin Hood ran forwards and shot an arrow at him [in game terms, Robin rolled 3 dice for activation and achieved 3 successes.  He used one to move and the other two to take an aimed shot at medium range].  The missile was perfectly on target and Guy of Gisborne fell, pierced by an arrow.

As the leader of the bad guys, this was a disaster!  Our best fighter, shot down in turn two without having even engaged an enemy?  Of course, it was very heroic and cinematic for the good guys, if you like that sort of thing...

In response, the White Knight ran forwards to engage Robin Hood.  Various monks were seized by both sides (though mostly by Robin's men) and the Sheriff of Nottingham hid behind a tree.

There was a lot of dawdling and hanging back by Guy's minions...

Guy's knights continued their flanking manoeuvre, though this didn't work quite as hoped.  Sir Stanley found himself engaging an outlaw in the middle of a gorse thicket, whilst the Black Knight ran into a pair of ruffians and was promptly pulled down and knifed!

On the other flank, Little John strode forward with a view to whacking the Sheriff's men with his huge quarterstaff [Hmm.  I think it must be at least a half-staff; it's a lot bigger than a regular quarterstaff].  Before he could engage anyone, a couple of the sheriff's crossbowmen advanced, shooting as they moved [in an act of desperation, I was rolling 3 dice for activation for just about everyone.  Miraculously, this pair both passed with 2 successes].

Little John ignored the first bolt, but the second one was a lot closer.  He dodged it, lost his balance and fell over.

This was the cowardly Sheriff's kind of fight!  He raced forwards from where he had been hiding and stabbed the fallen giant.  Before Little John had struck a blow, he was out of action.

After a prolonged fencing match, the White Knight defeated Robin Hood and knocked him out.  The major characters were dropping like flies!  [As I recall, at this point in the game not even a single unnamed minion had become a casualty - yet the three supposedly best fighters were all gone].

Friar Tuck charged forwards to avenge his friend - straight on to the Sheriff's blade.  The Sheriff didn't even have to move and another outlaw character was down!

On seeing Friar Tuck's gruesome death, some of the outlaws ran back towards the river, full of horror.  Seeing this retreat, one of the sheriff's more enthusiastic spearmen charged forwards to try to save the abbot's treasurer from a brigand who was leading him away.

The White Knight followed up his success against the outlaw leader by running towards the riverbank where several brigands were towing away reluctant monks.

It was about this time that Sir Stanley was killed by a couple of ruffians whilst trying to untangle himself from the middle of a gorse bush...

The outlaws had almost taken one important-looking monk off the table when Yorik (the jester) took a closer look at his own captive.  "Just a moment!" he exclaimed, as he pulled the hood from the "monk's" head.  The man didn't have a tonsure; he wasn't one of the monks after all.  "You're their treasurer, aren't you?"  [Of course, as the models were swapped there was a simultaneous cry of despair from the other end of the table when an outlaw realised that his captive was a simple brother monk and not one of the important inner circle as had been thought!]

Things seemed to be going very well for the Sheriff; his troops were closing in on a leaderless enemy and it looked as if it wouldn't be long before the rebel scum were given their just deserts!  Of course, in Song of Blades and Heroes, little things can cause huge ripple effects.

In this case, the trigger was simple: the remaining outlaws all mobbed the spearman who had run on ahead.  Between them, they scored a gruesome kill.  This would cause all of the Sheriff's men who were within 'L' distance [i.e. Sir Walter and two more spearmen] to take a morale check.

The problem is that the Sheriff has the Evil attribute.  Amongst other things, this means that he will slay any cowardly underling who tries to run away [and is foolish enough to run within the Sheriff's reach whilst doing so].

• First, the two spearmen ran from the horrible gruesome kill.  The Sheriff knifed them both.
• Then, Sir Walter broke and fled.  The Sheriff killed him.
• The two retainers standing nearby saw this.  They turned to flee, but the Sheriff executed them as well.

D*mn it - he's done it again!  Almost every game where I play the Sheriff, he ends up killing most of his own men for cowardice [see the various other "Robin Hood" battle reports on this blog].  The man's a grade I psychopath!  And we were winning, at that...

The final blow of the game was struck on the other side of the river, where the White Knight and his minions slew one of the outlaws.  With that, the rest of the foresters slunk away, taking several monks with them.

Conclusion

The remaining outlaws did briefly consider having a go at the Sheriff, but he retreated before they could organise themselves.  In any case, pretty much all of the forces [apart from Guy's, oddly enough] were now below 50% of their starting costs and therefore didn't have many men to commit - they were too busy escorting monks to "safety".

Instead, we called the game and worked out the result.

• For the outlaws, they scored 5VP for kills and had control of 5 monks for another 10VP.  Total for the outlaws: 15VP
• The authorities scored 6VP for kills and had control of 3 monks and 3 important monks [the treasurer slipped away when Yorik ran from the Sheriff's wrath.  The jester was far enough away from his boss to avoid summary execution, though]. 3x2VP + 3x4VP = 18VP for captives.  Total for the authorities: 24VP

Therefore it's a solid win for the Sheriff and his followers!  The outlaws are chased off and the Abbot & his entourage are (mostly) saved.  I'm sure that the Sheriff will be magnanimous in victory and not tax the abbey too heavily...