Sellswords and Spellslingers - Last Stand at Mistham campaign - Game 5 final

[Burgundavia]

Great stuff again.

I finished Mistham ages ago with a really powerful team - have created a bunch of 'newbies' to tackle the book this time and will be starting soon.

We're in the middle of it with 80 XP parties (3 players). We found the low level a cake walk, the higher level just right but still dangerous. Only played the first two scenarios, have to see what the 3rd fight at Mistham itself brings.

[6mmfan]

We're in the middle of it with 80 XP parties (3 players). We found the low level a cake walk, the higher level just right but still dangerous. Only played the first two scenarios, have to see what the 3rd fight at Mistham itself brings.

These games were with 60XP so the standard scenarios are less of a cake walk! I want to try the Expert options so its good to know 80XP is about right.

[Burgundavia]

These games were with 60XP so the standard scenarios are less of a cake walk! I want to try the Expert options so its good to know 80XP is about right.

80 with 3 magic users with different spells seems to work (although two of the 3 magic users rolled ones last game - one of them on the first spell they tried)

[Sunjester]

We're in the middle of it with 80 XP parties (3 players). We found the low level a cake walk, the higher level just right but still dangerous. Only played the first two scenarios, have to see what the 3rd fight at Mistham itself brings.

Was that 3 parties, each of 80 points?
 

[6mmfan]

Game 3 of Last Stand at Mistham

As the party is resting within the village, there is growing concerns that the Orc raid was not a random event, but rather part of a bigger plan. So once again the party ventures out into danger, this time on a scouting mission to try and find any clues regarding a plan, left behind by the Orcs.
The table is setup and 6 stone markers are placed to represent clue markers. The party must find at least 3 clues to complete their mission.





And the monster deployment



The first turn start with the party deployed at to bottom edge of the table. They advance and are attacked by the Orc brute, who hits Big Jim and wounds him! Meanwhile the Wizard Kurt, launches a fireball wiping out a horde of 3 Goblins.



Turn 2 and the party begin to wonder if Big Jim is a bit past his prime. He has another 2 swings at the Orc both miss, but his armour and shield save him. Meanwhile Kurt kills 2 more Goblins but plenty of reinforcements arrive.
Morton decides to help Big Jim with the Orc and misses as well, and takes 2HP for his troubles. Finally Lemmy and Big Jim manage to wound the Orc and kill him.



Morton drinks the party’s only healing potion, while Lemmy heals a wound from Big Jim. It’s very early in the game to be using up a large amount of the parties healing (as a character an only be healed once by a healer).



The party begins to advance and Kurt again cleans out a horde of 4 Goblins with a fireball.
Meanwhile Lemmy rolls a 1 when shooting at an Orc and breaks his Crossbow! Morton is attacked by a Goblin ambusher and loses a HP. The rest of the party kill a couple of Goblins and slowly move forwards.





The next turn is a mixed turn with Kurt the magician running out of magic for the rest of the game (another 1 rolled)! The rest of the party try a teamwork approach, and first Big Jim and then Lemmy move into contact with the nearest Orc Brute. Morton then runs in and kills the Orc with a mighty Power blow.



Since that was so successful the party tries it again on the Ogre. After Lemmy finished looting the Orc, he closes with the Ogre, followed by Big Jim. Unfortunately Morton roils 2 failures, and the Ogre swings at Lemmy but his armour protects him. A monster frenzy follows and the big horde of Goblins close on the party.



Lemmy is knifed by a goblin and loses 1 HP. Then another Goblin attacks and wounds Lemmy, who is taken out of the game!



The Ogre swings at Big Jim but Big Jim counters and causes 1 HP on the Ogre.
As the Goblins try to encircle the Party, Morton swings his big sword and is able to kill the Ogre, and Big Jim kills a Goblin. But then Big Jim loses his balance and falls over. The goblins try to hit him but Big Jims armour deflects the blade.



While this is all going on, Kurt is attacked by a Goblin Wolf rider and loses 1 HP
Morton and Big Jim chop their way through the goblins and Kurt scores a hit on the Wolf Rider. There is another Monster Frenzy and Morton and BJ both kill a Goblin but Kurt again loses a HP. Morton rushes over to help Kurt but he is too slow, and he watches Kurt get chopped down by the Goblin Wolfrider!



So now half the party is out of action and the other half wounded, and they haven’t got close to the clues.

In a fit of rage Morton swings at the Wolfrider and rolls a 20, scoring a critical hit, killing the Goblin Wolfrider, while Big Jim kills the last remaining nearby Goblin. The party regroup and check on the status of Lemmy and Kurt.

Amazingly Lemmy and Kurt roll a 19 and a 20 for their Out of Action rolls, and both are unscathed!!!
Kurt locates an interesting object in a nearby bush while Lemmy rubs some healing herbs on himself and recovers a HP.



More Orcs and Goblins trickle towards them and a couple of goblin ambushers spring out at the party. Both Morton and Kurt take 1 HP of damage. Then there is another Monster Frenzy, and an Orc brute attacks Morton, who coolly counters and kills the Orc. The party pause once again, while Morton heals himself and Lemmy heals Kurt.



Next Big Jim and Morton attack the Ogre. BJ does one point of damage while Morton misses.



While the Ogre is occupied, Kurt the wizard rushes to the nearest clue marker (he got 4 activations) and finds a clue.



The party batters away at the Ogre  but Morton rolls a one and is taken Out of Action! Lemmy also tries to help but is hit by the Ogre twice, but his armour saves him both times. Finally Big Jim and Lemmy both hit him, killing the Ogre.



While Lemmy attends to Morton, the rest of the party throw caution into the wind and scatter to search the clue markers, before reinforcements arrive.
Then Morton rolls a 20 on the Out of Action table (another lucky escape for the party) and springs back up. He then rushes the nearest Orc brute and rolls another 20, scoring a critical hit and kills it.



 Kurt searches another clue marker (and doesn’t find anything) but then he is accosted by an Orc Brute.



Lemmy finds the second clue while Morton’s clue marker springs a Gas trap but is not affected by it.
The monsters continue to get closer (2 Monster frenzy cards came out) and Big Jim and Morton are unable to find a clue. Meanwhile Lemmy heads for the last clue marker in the corner.



Lemmy searches the clue marker but comes up empty, while Morton finds the last clue marker, and the game is over.



Post game stuff
Morton +1XP for killing an Ogre and +1XP for a searching for a clue
Lemmy +1XP for killing an Ogre and +1XP for a searching for a clue
Big Jim +1XP for a searching for a clue
Kurt +1XP for find an interesting object and +1XP for a searching for a clue
The party +3XP for completing the scenario
60SP pieces collected (a much better bounty this time)

Notes:
Another close call with everyone apart from Big Jim being taken out or action at some point. Some very good recovery roles stopped this being a disaster. And losing both Magic and shooting attacks early on really made it tough.
In the “I forgot…” section, I forgot to Big Jims drunkenness at the start of the game, but I also forgot to use his leadership ability for the whole game!

[Little Odo]

Great battle report. I really enjoyed reading it.

[Burgundavia]

Was that 3 parties, each of 80 points?

Yes, 240 XP total.

[Burgundavia]

Indeed, another great report. Timely to watch you play this a few days before us as we fight our way through the full campaign. Love your giant boulders - are they foam?

[6mmfan]

Indeed, another great report. Timely to watch you play this a few days before us as we fight our way through the full campaign. Love your giant boulders - are they foam?

Yes blue foam. I cut lines into them with a knife and then sanded the boulders to smooth them off. Here's a photo from when I was making them

[Sunjester]

Yes, 240 XP total.

No wonder you found it a "cakewalk", the basic scenarios are designed for TOTAL maximum of 99XP!!

[Burgundavia]

No wonder you found it a "cakewalk", the basic scenarios are designed for TOTAL maximum of 99XP!!

Oops. Right - I am re-reading the intro. Party I guess is defined as the whole group of all players, not a per-player cap.

EDIT: Ahh, ok. So Mistham and the core rulebook have slightly different definitions of what a "party" is.

Core rulebook says this: "At the beginning of a campaign, each player has 60 XP to create PCs." <- making it clear that it is 60 xp multplied by number of players
Mistham: "The Basic level games are designed for relatively new parties built on 60-99 XP" <- this implies that the scenario is total XP, not per PC

[Burgundavia]

No wonder you found it a "cakewalk", the basic scenarios are designed for TOTAL maximum of 99XP!!

I was intrigued and ask Andrea Sfiligoi the answer and he said this: "the number of points shown is PER PLAYER, each player having 3-5 characters on the average. The number of opponents, including the tough ones, will scale up with the number of players"

[mr ed]

I made this spreadsheet that scales the number of baddies per the original rulebook. Just change the number of players and the total number of minis (all players together) in the top left corner and the rest auto calculates.

As I recall it the random encounters don't always scale with the number of players in the missons, so it gets easier in that respect, but the baseline goes up everywhere so three bands of four minis are going to face a LOT of goblins.

[Sunjester]

I was intrigued and ask Andrea Sfiligoi the answer and he said this: "the number of points shown is PER PLAYER, each player having 3-5 characters on the average. The number of opponents, including the tough ones, will scale up with the number of players"

That is the case for the scenarios in the main rulebook. The scenarios in Last Stand at Mistham do not scale up with the number of players in the same way. This is why I wrote the "Level of Difficulty" section the way I did.

[Burgundavia]

That is the case for the scenarios in the main rulebook. The scenarios in Last Stand at Mistham do not scale up with the number of players in the same way. This is why I wrote the "Level of Difficulty" section the way I did.

Good to know. I'll scale the next encounter accordingly.