Sellswords and Spellslingers - Close Quarter Battles campaign - 12/12 The Finale

[6mmfan]

We recently started a new campaign for Sellswords and Spellslingers by Ganesha games, called Close Quarter Battles. It differs from their other campaign books as it is designed for smaller parties on a 1 1/2ft square table, with less foes and faster games (around 45min -1 hour). There is a lot more customisation of the scenarios, cards and events, and a rich background, which helps give it more of a RPG feel.

We played this as a co-op game with a 2 PC party, and one character each. Mark chose a sword and shield guy while I went for an archer with the free disengage ability. We both went for healing abilities.

Act 1
The campaign started with the party being thrown into the gladiator pits of Luurkana. Their job is to survive so that they may join the White Dagger, a company of Sellswords.

The Arena - 3d printed and hurriedly painted for the game!





The 2 Heroes - Marks fighter on the left  and my Archer (I left my actual figure behind so I'm using a converted LotR orc instead of a bow armed figure!)



3 Slaves - these are NPCs who will fight alongside the party to help gain freedom. Later in the campaign they may reappear as part of a raging mob!



The Gladiators of the pit - A mix of Reaper beastmen and RBG Orc Brutes (Saamu Gladiators)



Turn one - the slaves went first and rolled 3 successful activations and charged into the closer horde of Gladiators, determined to win their freedom. We then read the victory conditions and realised it would be better if we were more cautious with the slaves, so that they could survive. Meanwhile the archer successfully shot the Sammu gladiator inflicting 1 HP of damage.



Next minute - the slaves cut down the horde of gladiators with some great dice! Meanwhile my archer shot the Saamu gladiator again killing it. Further back a ambush occurred with a gladiator jumping down from a pillar and attacking the fighter, who dispatched him with ease.



Spike pit trap- suddenly a large opening appeared in the middle of the pit. One of the slaves was pretty close so we gave him a 50% chance of not falling in (which he didn't).



More fighting - the PCs decided they should help kill some of the gladiators before  the slaves killed them all, so the fighter charged into contact with a Saamu gladiator



Fighter down - unfortunately it didn't go well for the fighter who failed to hit when he charged and was wounded and the wounded again and taken out of action, during a monster activation. Before dying he did manage to inflict one wound on the gladiator. The Saamu gladiators are tough and cause 2 HPs of damage, which means 2 hits will kill a PC (who has only 3 HP).





Meanwhile the highly motivated slaves have attacked the second horde of gladiators and are hacking their way through them, killing 1 during the charge.



Saamu gladiator killed - my archer switched to a sword (no shield) and attacked the Saamu gladiator, scoring another wound and killing it. I then used my archer to check on the fallen fighter who managed to stagger back to his feet, but was extremely groggy



Game over! - As this was happening the slaves killed the remaining gladiators, but they lost one of their number doing this.



The PCs looted the gladiator corpses and set off to join the White Dagger, while the slaves are now free to go their ways.

Next we rolled up an interlude (in between game event), in which the party who was resting after there efforts, helps put a fire in a nearby house.  The PCs entered the house but rolled appalling activation dice and the fire got out of control, so they had to flee the burning building before it collapsed.



So that was the game, over in just under an hour and very enjoyable. It seemed easy at the time but we did have half 1/2 of our party OOA, so it could have gone badly if the slaves didn't fight so well.

After completing this game we started a Side Quest 1, and I'll post the AAR for that soon.

[MysteryMachine]

Hi 6mmfan.

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to share this excellent battle report and fantastic pictures. Your miniatures and set up look great!

I picked up a copy of Close Quarters Battles and was very impressed with the writers' creativity, in the variety of scenarios, and the background and story arc. I'm looking forward very much to playing it at some point.

I'll be very interested to see future chapters in your team's adventures.

[Askellad]

Curious about this extension, Arena theme IS heavily replayable

[MysteryMachine]

The arena section is only the introduction. The book includes a wide range of different scenarios, held together with a 'mercenary band for hire' theme.

[6mmfan]

Yes its just the first scenario is in an arena. The rest are set in or around a city.

 

Curious about this extension, Arena theme IS heavily replayable

[6mmfan]

Hi 6mmfan.

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to share this excellent battle report and fantastic pictures. Your miniatures and set up look great!

I picked up a copy of Close Quarters Battles and was very impressed with the writers' creativity, in the variety of scenarios, and the background and story arc. I'm looking forward very much to playing it at some point.

I'll be very interested to see future chapters in your team's adventures.

Thank you. I agree, the CQB book is really well written and we've enjoyed the variation on just the first 2 scenarios. Also the short sharp scenarios have a different feel and you don't get the endless amount of monsters attacking you.

[Vagabond]

This sounds an interesting start, I'm a little surprised that with odds of 2 to 1 you and the slaves managed to beat the gladiators so easily.  Were you just lucky with the dice rolls or was this a reasonable outcome?

[6mmfan]

Yeah we were lucky, they needed a 11 or higher on a D20 to kill a gladiator (1 HP each). The Saamu gladiators had 2 HP each and were tougher.

[Sunjester]

This sounds an interesting start, I'm a little surprised that with odds of 2 to 1 you and the slaves managed to beat the gladiators so easily.  Were you just lucky with the dice rolls or was this a reasonable outcome?

We had the same outcome when we played this scenario, but it was a pretty close thing for the PCs. I rolled ridiculously high dice for the slaves, they slaughtered everything they encountered with ease, but all three PCs were wounded in the game, two were 1HP away from death! I also know of players who were completely wiped out the first time they played this scenario, so it is pretty hit and miss!

[6mmfan]

Game 2 of the campaign was set in a market place. the objective was to find and clear out all the thieves who frequented the market. There was 16 citizens but 6 of those were thieves in disguise who were there to steal some valuable goods (6 tokens were used for those) and exit the market.



Our PCs were only armed with a club and armour, no other weapons. When they came into contact with a citizens, a card was flipped to see if it was a citizen or thief.

The setup. The PCs started on opposite sides to cover the market quicker.




The first encounter with thief. When revealed the thieves will attack first but instead Mark's PC was successful and caused a point of damage



Meanwhile on the other side of the market a crazy hobo appeared from the crowd and attacked the PC.




After killing the first thief, the PC continued to mingle.




My PC suffered a wound from the hobo and then encountered a thief. He rolled a natural 20 on a D20 and killed the thief outright.




The other PC reveled the 3rd thief again dispatched it with relative easy.




The PCs had joined forces as there was 2 thieves left and only 3 citizens tokens. An event card produced a wandering monster, in the form of a Street thug lieutenant. Although a pretty tough character, we outnumbered the thug ans so were able to kill him.




Then another crazy hobo emerged from the crowd attacking the PC. He wounded my PC again before being killed, so the other PC used his healing skill to patch up my PC



Then they decided to split up again and Mark's PC found and quickly killed another thief. One down and one to go!

He then contacted the second to last citizen who turned out to be the remaining thief. In a rare miss, the PC failed to wound the thief and his armour protected him from the counter blow.



The thief disengaged from contact and picked up the objective token (that was the thieves orders to escape with the loot). But he was out of luck and the PC got 3 activations and moved to contact, and finished off the thief with quick blow.



Game over and again the PCs got through it with relative ease. Mark's PC killed 5 thieves and didn't get wounded once, so luck was definitely on our side!

Again it was another very enjoyable scenario and we liked that it wasn't just about hacking your way across the table (like some SS&SS scenarios). While that can be fun, the first 2 scenarios of this campaign have been really good and varied, and our enthusiasm is really high. We can't wait for the next games, but i have a few more figures to paint first!

[Sunjester]

Another great write-up and a good looking table set-up.

We are up to Act Three in this campaign and you remind me that I really shoud get around to posting photos from our games!

[Burgundavia]

Another great write-up and a good looking table set-up.

We are up to Act Three in this campaign and you remind me that I really shoud get around to posting photos from our games!

So should I - we finished the market fight a few weeks ago. We found it a bit easy, but we were challenged with scaling as we are playing a more traditional Sellswords campaign in terms of numbers.

Did you scratch build the market stalls?

[Spinal Tap]

Looks like you had fun.

I certainly enjoyed reading those.

[6mmfan]

So should I - we finished the market fight a few weeks ago. We found it a bit easy, but we were challenged with scaling as we are playing a more traditional Sellswords campaign in terms of numbers.

Did you scratch build the market stalls?

Yes it would be good to see more Sellswords content here.

The market stalls are made from bamboo skewers and coffee stirrers, with silicone infused drop cloth for the canopies. Don't look too closely as I didn't finish them in time for the game, and I slapped a quick coat of paint on the canopies an hour before the game!

[6mmfan]

Looks like you had fun.

I certainly enjoyed reading those.

Thanks its much easier writing AARs for shorter games.