You'll have to excuse the poor photography and bad scenery (I generally just like buying and painting minis)
This battle was good to help me sort out some of the rules that need some refining.
We just used miniatures I had at hand as my brother lives a fair way away (4 hours) and didn't have any miniatures.
He was in charge of the Undead Warband. He chose a Skilled Necromancer, 3 undead Warriors (Lefty, Righty and Axey) and a Scorpion from the Monster List.
For me I had A goblinoid warband. I made this entirely of Goblins.
1 Goblin King, 2 Goblin Warriors, 2 Goblin Archers and a Troll from the Monsters List.
The game relies upon a creatures reaction to decide the turn order. Those with an lower reaction place a counter in the turn order first followed by those of higher reaction (any equals then refer to the main warband race initiative to solve any ties) So the Skeletons having a low reaction ended up having to place their actions counter first followed by the Necromancer (who had an equal reaction to the goblin warriors and archers but a lower race initiative) Then the Goblins and troll would take their actions followed by the scorpion and finally the goblin king. This would possibly bring the skeletons closer before the archers could fire upon them. (Essentially those with the best reaction choose when they want their creature to play, those with the worst reaction don't get much say at all when they go)
Turn order:
Skeleton Lefty
Skeleton Axey
Skeleton Righty
Necromancer
Goblin Warrior Upsy (with the spear up)
Goblin Warrior Downsy (spear down) (Doesn't always turn out being lowest reaction moves first, usually does at the start though)
Goblin Archer Shooty (shooting stance)
Goblin Archer Waity (not shooting stance)
Troll
Scorpion
Goblin King
TURN 1:
The Skeletons, Scorpion and Necromancer all advance on the Goblins The skeletons run (meaning they can't run next turn) The Troll moves behind some difficult terrain to hopefully stop and people trying to charge into him while the archers move to position themselves for a better shot at the skeletons. The goblin warriors move to protect the archers and the Goblin King hides behind the Troll.
TURN 2:The Reaction order remains the same in order to bring the skeletons closer before the archers fire.
The skeletons move closer to the goblins in a group so they don't get overwhelmed by the cowardly goblins. The necromancer moves behind the altar for some cover while the scorpion moves into cover to prepare to charge forward the next turn. Now that the skeletons are in range the goblins open fire. It is at long range (over half) so the goblins on throw 1 combat dice each. Each combat dice hits on a 4,5,6 in melee and archery. The first goblin fails to hit but the second scores a hit. As the skeletons are "Already Dead" hits need to be rerolled to determine whether they hit something vital. The roll is good and the aim is good. To prevent being hit a creature needs to roll under their reaction to see whether they make a lucky dodge/see the archer preparing to fire etc and the skeleton makes a lucky dodgy rolling a 3 on a d10 (needing 4 or less).
No melee combat yet
TURN 3:The reaction order remains the same
Skeletons run forward getting much closer to the goblins, next turn they should be in combat.
The necromancer casts an attacking spell against the Troll but fails to cause any damage. The archers, now at close range to the skeletons both fire on the skeletons. Axey takes 1 damage from each of them failing his reaction roll each time. The troll, Warriors and Goblin King stay where they are. The Scorpion scuttles forward.
TURN 4:In a silly move, with the reaction I decide to have my warriors and Troll act first and charge into the skeletons. (During the turn I realise I should have had my archers perform their actions first and shoot at the skeletons in close range before getting the warriors to close in) The King moves into position to charge into the skeletons in the next turn. So the archers move to get the Necromancer into their sights for the following turn to fire upon the spellcaster. The necromancer hits the Troll for 1 damage.
Melee time:
The 2 goblins outnumber the 1 skeleton they are fighting so are not affected by the cowardly rule (meaning they need to be defensive) The Troll is in combat with the skeleton. The combat takes the same order as per the turn order so lefty is attacking the 2 Goblins. He has 3 combat dice so needs to split these between the 2 goblins however he wishes. He also needs to elect whether he is being offensive or defensive. He elcts defensive and splits 2 to the goblin on his right and 1 to the goblin on his left. Both goblins offensively fight with 2 combat dice against the 1 skeleton. One goblin rolls blocks, 1,2 or 3 and as he was being offensive he needs to reroll these to see if they block successfully. Unfortunately both miss blocking and are counted as a miss. The skeleton rolls 2 hits and as he was being defensive he needs to reroll these and they both end up as hits killing the unlucky goblin. The second Goblin manages 1 hit on the skeleton which ends up being blocked.
The troll and the other skeleton end up in a stale mate.
TURN 5 and 6:After determining the turn order the Archers fire upon the necromancer who at long range and in cover ends up a very hard target and escapes unscathed. He casts a spell in turn against the Troll which ends up fizzling in the air before reaching his target. The scorpion charges into the side of the troll. The goblin King charges into the skeleton.
The battle between the goblin (who being cowardly and not outnumbering the skeleton can now only fight defensively) and the skeleton remains a stalemate much to the goblin's surprise.
The battle with the second skeleton (righty) with the goblin king and the troll ends up with the skeleton spending 2 dice on the troll and 1 on the goblin king. The goblin king uses 3 dice on the skeleton and the Troll only uses 1 on the skeleton saving his other 3 for the scorpion in a later combat. After 2 turns of combat (with the archer and necromancer both firing arrows and magical bolts about the place to no effect) The Troll ends up finishing off the skeleton and severely damaging the scorpion with his hulking ability. The scorpion then ends up poisoning the troll leaving him a dead heap on the ground.
TURN 7 onwards:The Scorpion, with the higher reaction, charges into the Goblin King before the archers can fire upon him. The archers try again to hit the necromancer but again fail to do so. The necromancer luckily manages to raise from the dead the Troll, who is now under his command (although at much worse stats) Over the next few turns the scorpion manages to move about killing the last of the goblins even the one that remained in a stalemate with the skeleton for the entire game. The Resurrected Troll shambles about doing absolutely nothing. The Scorpion engages 2 goblin archers at once and manages to kill them both.
In the end the scorpion and skeleton were left with 1 Health each and the Necromancer survived unscathed.
In reflection I think I need to tone down the Necromantic ability, even though the Troll didn't do anything, it did seem to make the ending very undead dominated. (basically for raising something from the dead you roll however many Hit points that creature has and depending on the skill of the necromancer if they roll a 1,2 or 2 1's or 2's etc they fail the resurrection. I may change this to 1,2,3.
After feedback from my bro.
He really enjoyed the group battle dynamic. This made ganging up on someone a good thing to do, but while doing this it did leave you open for attacks in other places.
He liked how the reaction system worked in ordering your turn. It works thematically although sometimes we did seem to forget about this. I'll be making up some little counters to go with the PDF on which you can put the name of the creature and their hitpoints for ease of playing.
Movement around obstacles was difficult so I have changed that rule. Originally it was that you could only run in straight lines so I have now changed it to allowing 1 turn and normal moves have unlimited turns.
It was a fun game. Some poor strategy on my part contributed to my loss. The archers could have taken out another skeleton before the melee began. I should have commited my Troll to attacking the Scorpion only as the poison rule hurt him quite badly. Also unluckily my Troll didn't regenerate at all during the game but that is just luck of the dice.
Thanks for reading. I think this may have been the biggest post I have made. Now lets hope there isn't a power cut before I click POST.
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April 30, 2024, 02:35:32 AM
September 06, 2009, 12:37:07 PM
