Midgard The Iron Valley Campaign Game 2

 We played through the second scenario in the Midgard Iron Valley campaign.

Scenario B: Trouble at Saltsee., Prinzessin Adalheid’s advance party of Dwarves clash with Khrag Bittercleaver’s Orcs over the lakeside village of Saltsee. The dwarves have been cought out while some of the force are off scouting. Can the Prinzessin hold out until the reserves arrive?

For this game I went for two units of Shieldmaidens (a mix of spears and bows, less punch than the Long Axes, but equally strong armour) supported by two units of Troll-Foes (fanatics, deadly in the initial combat, but less staying power once suffering casualties) and my only giant. Finally I had a unit of skirmish Hunters in the village to protect my flank. Arriving sometime in turn 2 or 3 was a unit of Bear Riders and another unit of Troll Foes.

Mark went for less Goblins and more Soldier-Orcs, supported by a unit of Troll-Bloods, a unit of true Trolls and some wolf riders.

The Orcs initial deployment, that impassable rocky outcrop interfered somewhat with his original ideas. 

So he decided to mass most of his force, and all his elite units, on one flank, intended to quickly extend his line using the skirmishers and wolf riders.

 Then screen the village with a weaker contingent.

The Dwarves deployed with the flanks protected by the village and skirmish archers at one end and the giant at the other!

TURN ONE

The main orc force advanced...

...with wolf riders moving out to turn the flank.

The Dwarves held their ground, other than the giant turning to face the wolf rider. Initial archery was fairly ineffective, other than the Dwarf Hunters inflicting a casualty on the Orc Skirmishers.

TURN TWO

The main Orc attack closed in, but some poor activation rolls meant that the wolf riders were unable to get close to the giant (who can blame them?).

On the other flank theOPrc bowmen screen the village and the Soldier-Orcs started to turn towards the main Dwarf positions.

The Dwarf reinforcements failed to turn up, so they would arrive at the start of Turn  Two. This meant things were looking a bit nasty for the Dwarves, who responded in typical Dwarf fashion by charging forward, crashing into the Troll-Bloods, throwing them back with heavy casulaties.

TURN THREE

The Dwarf reinforcements arrived, in the corner furthest away from the main action! Whilst the fast-moving Bear Riders might play a part, the unit of Troll-foes had no chance of reaching the battle in time.

In the centre, fresh Orc units and Trolls charged into the ongoing melees. At the same time both units of wolf riders charged the giant.

The Dwarves took heavy casualties, but forced the Orcs back and cut down half the towering Trolls, whilst the badly wounded giant tramples a unit of wolf riders into the dust. 

Khrag Bittercleaver fell in the vicious melee with Prinzessin Adalheid and her Shieldmaidens. The Bear riders closed in on the flank of the orc archers but failed to make contact.

TURN FOUR

The Orcs managed to extract the decimated Troll-Bloods and replace them with fresh units as the carnage continued. A unit of Troll-foes fell, as did the unit of Trolls and a unit of Soldier-Orcs.

Whilst facing the remaining wolf riders, the giant was charged in the flank by fresh Orcs. The huge creature finally succumbed to his wounds, but not before he had effectively destroyed the second unit of wolf riders.

In the Dwarf phase I kept up the attack as four more Orc and Goblin units dissolved under the Dwarf onslaught.

At the end of Turn Four the Orc Reputation had fallen to -5 to the Dwarf +6. An overwhelming victory to the Dwarves!

Victory came just in time, as I had three units at the point of collapse. If the Orcs could have lasted another turn, it might have been a very different outcome.

In campaign terms the results were much closer. I had lost my only giant and a unit of Troll-foes, both of which could not be replaced. Mark had lost his only unit of true Trolls, but he still had three giants. All his other losses were just orc and goblin sword fodder, easily replaced in future games.

The Crimson Court: getting an impulse buy painted 1

 Having picked up the Darkest Dungeon supplement The Crimson Court a few weeks back, I have manged to get some of the minis painted! The set has an 18th Century/Versailles vibe to it, representing a decadent court mutating into increasingly bizarre insectoid-like monsters.

They are large figures, more on the 32mm "Heroic" scale, so much bigger than standard 28mm. But after all they have mutated, so maybe size was also effected in the process.

First up, the Sycophants, large insect thingy's (remind me a bit of old-style D&D stirges).

Next a couple of servants, a Gatekeeper (You're name's not on the list!) and a Manservant. I'm thinking that the later might have some sort of area effect, choking fumes?

Some characters have two versions, presumably representing different stages of mutation. I'll probably use them as different beasties altogether! This is the two versions of the Courtesan.

And the two versions of the Esquire.

A slightly bigger beastie, the Chevalier.

To finish off this batch, all three of the more humanoid Esquires. I'm not sure this is quite what Alexandre Dumas had in mind!

Of course the big question is what to do with these once I've painted them. I do have a few idea, I do have a few ideas, Use some to create warbands for Song of Blades and Heroes or Moonstone. Terrorising the street and canals of Venice with Wolsung or Fear and Faith. Once the whole set is painted, perhaps the basis for an entire campaign using Sellswords and Spellslingers.

Midgard The Iron Valley Campaign, Game 1

 We decided to fight our way through The Iron Valley, a goblet-sized fantasy campaign for Midgard. Mark is playing the Orcs, I'm taking the Dwarves and Colin will sit in as a sub-general for which ever force is the largest.

Scenario A: The Liberation of Krumpendorf, Prinz Schlagbert leads an assault to drive off the orcish invaders. I went for a strong force with two units of Long Axes and a unit of Troll Foes, supported by a unit of Tree-Clawers (forest bears). I have only taken one weak unit of Old Warriors, which I'll try to hold back in support.

Mark went for a large mass of goblins and soldier-orcs, supported by a unit of Troll-Bloods, a giant and some wolves and wolf riders.

The battle opens, Othere's contingent of Dwarves have occupied the village, whilst Prinz Schlagbert  is positioned to rush to their support. On the right, Friedhelm has the unenviable task of keeping  the orcish host from getting around the flanks and rear.

With only 9 Dwarf units to the Orc's 15, the initial deployment looks intimidating. With the number of units involved, Colin took command of the Orc's left flank.

Turn One 

Prinz Schlagbert rushes forward, while Friedhelm hangs back, waiting to see what the orcs do.

Unsurprisingly, Othere keeps his contingent in the village, manning the palisade.

After all, what they are facing looks rather daunting!

First blood! Othere's bowmen score a kill on the orc archers, whose reply decorates the palisade with dark feathered shafts, but fails to find Dwarf flesh.

The orc advance is slow and patchy. Mark was trying a tactic of putting the goblin units in front to weaken my troops before contacting his stronger units, but the goblin's reluctance to move was screwing with his advance.

Turn Two

Pretty much a repeat of Turn One. Schlagbert and Friedhelm's comtingents kept advancing. The bears rushed ahead and got onto the flank of the Orcs threatening the village, effective pinning them in their killing zone. The orcs responded by retreating one unit and turning the other to face the bears, effective preventing any assault on the village.

The Orcs also advanced, with the wolves and wolf riders swinging around  the Dwarves flank, forcing Friedhelm to adjust the end of his line.

Another exchange of arrows left the orc archers at half strength.

Turn Three

Being so outnumbered the Dwarves resort to the age-old dwarven defence tactic, All Out Attack!

Othere leads two of his units out of the village to crash into the Orc archers.

All of Schlagbert's units charge, frontally hitting two units of goblins and catching the elite Troll-Bloods in the flank.

Friedhelm leads his Long Axes into the goblins in front of them. On the flank the Old warriors decide that it's better to charge the wolves before the wolf riders can join them, rather than just wait to be overwhelmed!

The Dwarves have banked a good bunch of Reputation tokens from all their heroes charging, whilst the Orc Reputation suffers as the archers and two goblin units dissolve into red mist!

With opponents on two sides the giant is unsure who to attack first! At this point Mark realised that he had put two giants out in error, in fact his army list only had one! As he hadn't fought yet, he took off the confused giant, saving him the pain of making a decision!

Elsewhere Schlagbert's troops are pushing their opponents back with heavy casualties. But now the giant charged into the melee in support of the Troll Bloods and the Dwarves lost their first unit.

The isolated Old Warriors on the flank successfully held the wolves to a draw, only to be additionally charged by the wolf riders in the Orc's phase.

But somehow fought this combined attack to a standstill (another drawn combat). But cumulating looses left the Old Warriors with thin ranks to continue the fight.

Turn Four

The Orc's reputation is down to 1 so the Dwarves continued to press their advantage. Another unit of goblins and a unit of orc soldiers collapse into red ruin.

On the flank the last of the Old Warriors are finally cut down, surrounded by a heap of wolf and orc corpses.

In a final attempt to stave off defeat the giant and Troll Bloods both charge the units in front of them, but it's too little, too late.

At the end of turn Four the Orc's Reputation is down to -3 while the Dwarves are still on a healthy 7. A  Crushing Victory to the Dwarves.

It was a fun game for all. Mark's tactic of swamping the Dwarves with numbers might have worked better if he had put his better troops in the front rank and used the goblins as supports or to outflank the Dwarves. Let's see what happens in the next game.

Sellswords of Traitor's Toll 2

 We played our second game using Sellswords and Spellslingers adapted for Guards of Traitor's Toll. This time we played The Body scenario from the Traitor's Toll rulebook.  Here's a brief summary of how thing unfolded.

And so it starts! A nicer part of town, not usually much trouble here. The Blue Jackets will enter from the lefthand road and the Red Cloaks from the right.

In the street lies a body just oozin' life (And someone’s sneakin' ‘round the corner

Could that someone be, well you get the idea). The three civilians with white tokens are hysterical witnesses, who need to be calmed and interviewed. One of them has useful information that will identify the two potential suspects. Examining the body will provide evidence of which of the suspects is the actual killer.

The Blue Jackets start well, the first guard passes three activations and rushes towards the commotion, the second fails all three and is overtaken by the corpse cart!

The cards aren't kind, fist a pickpocket steals from the rich bloke right in front of the guard and runs off. Then the rich bloke accosts the guard to complain about the lack of ability shown by the Watch, preventing the guard from pursuing the rogue.. To make matters worse, a small lost child wanders up, in tears, and tugs on the guards jerkin!

The situation is similar for the Red Cloaks, Varin moves towards the body for three actions, whilst his companion, Gardis, only passes one action. For his the first card activate a criminal, allowing the pickpocket to start to make his escape and the second starts a pub brawl in the tavern courtyard. As the Red Cloak is right next to the tavern he moves towards the yard entrance. 

The second Blue jacket runs after the pickpocket, but a combination or bad card draws speed the footpad away down the lane, leaving the guard puffing along behind him. In the next turn the pickpockets escapes off the table with his loot.

Varin in the meantime manages to calm his nearest witness, using his +1 Charisma, who can identify the two suspects who were closest to the victim when he fell to the ground. With actions to spare our budding Sherlock moves on to the body and spots a scrap of black cloth clutched in his hand. Only one of the suspects is wearing a black cloak, so the murderer is identified!

And is isn't the suspect the Blue Jackets were trying to nick! 

"I told you, it wasn't me, it was him!"

Back in the tavern Gardis spends the next two turns calming down the drunker brawlers, without resorting to violence and gaining more discontent.

While all this is going on, the unfortunate Blue jacket is still getting his ear bent by the outraged robbery victim!

The Blue jackets close in on the murderer and havoc erupts in the streets. The murderer proves to be a formidable opponent. Although he takes a wound from the Blue Jacket Captain, in the space of  a single turn he stabs one guard twice and pushes him back then stabs the Captain once and pushes him back. A third guard decides to pummel the murderer into submission, but is in turn knocked to the ground. The murderer then activates and breaks away from the circle of Blue Jackets.

Which brings him within reach of the Red Cloaks, Delgan promptly slips and falls over, possibly in shock at the mayhem he had just witnessed. Undeterred, Varin rushes up and knocks the murderer to the ground, restraining him.

At this point the Blue Jacket Captain runs up and slaps the manacles on the prisoner, claiming the arrest for himself and grabbing the glory. Bloody officers, they are all the same!

Whilst all this is going on, another pick pocket strikes at the far end of town. A succession of poor rolls and unlucky cards by the Blue Jackets allows that villain to escape off table before any guards can reach him.

As the Blue Jackets are showing no interest in escorting the prisoner to the city jail, Varin quietly sneaks the man away and takes him to jail himself (this allows him to claim half of the arrest fee!).

But now a fire breaks out in one of the houses.

Returning from the jail, Varin encounters a lost child and decides his time is best spent returning the snivelling wretch to it's mother. The Blue Jackets can get their hair singed dealing with the fire.

It was at this point we both realised that no-one had remembered to search the murderer, which means those greedy bastard jailers will have got his money!

Another pub brawl erupts amongst the tavern's drinkers but by now Reinald has joined Gardis and the two Red Cloaks soon calm things down.

Another moderately successful patrol.

The Blue Jackets ended the game with a +1 Reputation (which will help in the next game), but only 5 silver coins. The Red Cloaks gained another 20 SCs, which gives then 40 in the bank. Very similar result to the previous game. Although it had a shorter duration, so we did not accumulate as much Discontent, there were less opportunities to gain cash!

Still a lot of fun and we will try to fit another game in soon.