WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 4

 Scenario Four: Can Werewolves Swim?

A notebook found in the previous incident indicted repeated visits to a small dockyard at the edge of the city, so the team decided to investigate the site. The Hunters split up, Pip Kingsway and Penfold Byron approaching by road, whist Roberto Gatti and Sophia Richardson would come in by boat, in order to prevent anyone (anything) escaping by sea.

Location: A run-down boatyard at the edge of Venice. On land there is a scattering of barrels, boxes and old rusted machinery providing cover. On the seaward side a network of broken jetties extends into the water.

Time: Night – Full Moon, LOS as normal.

Deployment: Sophia and Roberto deploy from a boat on the seaward side of the table. Pip and Penfold deploy on the opposite edge.

Scenario Special rules

Jumping a gap of 1” is as per the rules (-1” from movement). Hunters, Cultists and Werewolves can jump gaps between jetties/boats of up to half their move distance (reducing their movement accordingly), but need to pass a die roll. Dark Spawn roll 1d6, Hunters use their Body Primal Attribute. If they fail, they slip and fall in the water. Resurrected Corpses cannot jump!

Climbing out of the water requires a successful action. Figures can use their free move, but still need to pass a die roll. Dark Spawn roll 1d6, Hunters use their Body Primal Attribute.

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: 2 Cultists.

Turn 2: 4 Cultists

Turn 3: 2 Reanimated Corpses 

Turn 4: 4 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 5 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

Turn 6 1 Werewolf and 2 Reanimated Corpses

The starting set-up. Roberto and Sophia enter from the gondola on the left-hand side, Pip and Penfold in between the purple and pink buildings on the right.

Turn One: Sophia rushes to the closest portal, but stumbles on the rickety gangplank  and does not have time to do anything else this turn. Roberto runs past her and just reaches the POI. Pip and Penfold advance together, moving towards the POIs on the bridge and on the boat on their side of the table.

Tow cultist appear, fortunately neither from the portal next to Sophia. The cultist with a pistol takes a shot at Pip and hits, but Pip uses his Granite's Fealty to shrug off the wound. The other rushes towards them and attempts to jump the gap between the jetties, but slips and falls in the water.

Turn Two: Penfold moves onto the boat and searches it, finding our first clue. Pip first shoots the pistol armed cultist, then turns and shoots the other as he is clambering out of the water. He then moves up to the next POI.

Roberto searches the POI next to him and finds a second clue, the moves up to the next POI, by the newspaper seller's stall. Sophia extracts some Arcana from the portal, then closes it down, before running down the quayside to join Roberto. 4 more cultists appear and all advance towards the hunters.

Turn Three: Pip successfully searched his POI, which caused the nexus to appear on one of the jetties. He and Penfold gunned down the two closest cultists, then advanced towards the nexus. Sophia and Roberto did likewise with their cultists, then also advanced towards the nexus. Two reanimated corpses appears and hurriedly staggered after the hunters.

Turn Four: Pip and Penfold both missed shots at the advancing resurrected corpse, then dithered a bit (lost activation dice due to failed terror rolls).  Sophia ran to the end of the jetty and leapt across to the moored boat next to the nexus, almost falling into the water, but landing safely (just made the pass on her die roll). Roberto aimed carefully and downed the corpse pursuing them, then ran out onto the jetty, following Sophia. 4 more resurrected corpses appeared and rushed forward, two of them contacted Sophia, but she fended off their attacks.

Turn Five: Sophia casts a Shockwave spell, which knocks the reanimated corpses to the ground, then steps over their prone forms and moves up to the nexus, pausing to harvest arcana before starting to shut it down. Roberto runs down the jetty and leaps into the boat, to block the undead from following Sophia once they reactivate. Pip takes careful aim and shoots the corpse in the boat, shattering it's skull! Unfortunately Penfold moves past Pip, towards the nexus. The fallen reanimated corpse gets to it's feet and attacks Roberto, who dodges the first attack, but is wounded by the second. More Dark Spawn appear, another reanimated corpse and a werewolf! The corpse lumbers slowly towards the nexus, but the werewolf is speedier. It charges down the dockside and catches the unfortunate Pip, but does not have the opportunity to attack him.

Turn Six: Penfold throws a Repellent from his satchel at the werewolf's feet forcing it to flee away from the hunters, then moves up to the nexus and extracts arcarna. Pip, relieved at his close escape from the werewolf's jaws, moves along the jetty to help Roberto in his fight with the reanimated corpse. As Pip distracts the creature's attention, Roberto smashes it's head in with his rifle butt. Sophia closes the nexus, shutting down the portals just before another werewolf can appear, then casts a Heal spell on Roberto. The last animated corpse lumbers down the gangplank and attacks Pip, wounding him.

Turn Seven: Technically the game had ended with victory for the Hunters, but with Pip engaged in melee and a werewolf loose on the dockside, we decided to play on. Penfold joined the fight against the reanimated corpse, but the creature dodged his attack. It was not so lucky against Pip, who killed the creature. This allowed Roberto a clear view along the dockside to the lurking werewolf, he took careful aim and put a round through the creature's head!

We had a lot of fun with this one! Although the Hunters only suffered two wounds it could have been so much worse, especially if the werewolf had passed his last action to attack Pip (or if it had entered from the portal closest to the nexus). There were several occasions when things looked desperate, such as turn four when both Pip and Penfold were down to 1 activation die each, after failing terror rolls caused by the reanimated corpses.

On to the next adventure, which the clues they found will lead the hunters to an abandoned islet at the edge of the lagoon.

Battle in the Barrowdowns: Big Middle Earth Game

 I've been playing a lot of skirmish games recently, so it was nice to get a big battle games on the table for a change. I set up an encounter, somewhere on the southern border of Arthedain.

I would have liked to have said we were using the new Midgard rules, but as that currently seems as distant as a Nazgul's flying beast, we were using my own modifications for Soldiers of God, which seem to work and give us a game we are happy with.

We had experimented with Oathmark, but were not really happy with the result, hence reverting to the modifications I had been tinkering with pre-Covid.

I started off with good intentions and took pictures, once the action got going I was too engrossed in trying to remember the rules (we hadn't played for at least 3 years!).

The two armies in entirety, before the troops were deployed.

An army of Khazad-Dum dwarves and Noldor elves.

The forces of Angmar.

Angmar advances on the Elf force, the snaga units in front are suffering badly from the elven arrow-storm.

Trolls, wargs and warg riders, supported by a unit of uruks, advance of the dwarves.

A nazgul moves up to "encourage" the second rank of uruks.

The result was an outstanding victory for the Free Peoples. Successive warg and troll attacks bounced off the dwarves, who then pinned the uruks in a long drawn-out melee. The elves destroyed the snaga units in front of them, then the two flanks engaged the following-up uruks. In the meantime the centre units broke through then swung to either side, catching the already engaged uruks in the flanks and destroying them.

WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 3

 We managed to fit in our third game in the campaign quite quickly.

Scenario Three: Moonlit in Venice

The team have followed the evidence they gathered from the standing stone in the Croatian forests, which led them to the city of Venice.

Location: A small piazza in the backstreets of Venice with a few streetlights.

Time: Night – Lighting conditions are Dark (ranged attacks limited to 6”).  Streetlights provide illumination for 6” radius (anything within 6” of a streetlights count as well-lit).

Deployment: As the party have arrived together, deploy all Hunters on same edge.

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: 2 Cultists.

Turn 2: 4 Cultists

Turn 3: 2 Reanimated Corpses 

Turn 4: 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 5 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

Turn 6 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

The table set-up, the little red flashes are POIs and the yellow/green flames are portals. The Hunters will enter from the gondola at the bottom of the picture.

Turn One: Pip rushes forward to the nearest POI and finds a clue and Penfold runs further forward to the next POI. Roberto moves up to the POI nearest him and finds a second clue, while Sophia runs the length of the canal-side to reach the right-hand portal. Two cultists enter from the far portals, one is armed with a pistol and moves forward then fires at Penfold, but misses. The other charges into Roberto and stikes with his dagger, but Roberto successfully dodges the blow.

Turn Two: Pip guns down the pistol armed cultist and Penfold searches the POI, finding a third clue and triggering the appearance of the Nexus. Unfortunately it materialises back on the canal-side, close to where the team started, right next to a portal. Sophia runs towards the Nexus, as Roberto struggles with the cultist, eventually killing him. Four more cultists appear from the two far portals and move forward, those with guns firing at Penfold and Roberto, who is wounded by a lucky shot.

Turn Three: Pip returns fire, killing the gun wielding cultist on their side of the table, as he and Penfold move back towards the Nexus. Sophie reaches the Nexus and extracts some Arcana. Roberto quickly administers first aid, then returns fire but misses the cultist. The cultist shot also misses the mark, then the second cultist charges Roberto, wounding him. Two resurrected corpses enter from the far portals and move forward.

Turn Four: Roberto kills the cultist attacking him, fires at the pistol armed cultist, but misses, then moves towards the portal, intending to put himself between Sophia and the advancing resurrected corpse. Sophia casts a heal spell on Roberto, then concentrates on closing the Nexus with two auto successes. Pip shoots the last cultist on his side of the table, as Penfold moves to join Sophia and extracts Arcana from the Nexus. The last cultist dodges into cover then fires at Roberto, who narrowly dodges the shot. The two resurrected corpses rush forward. (At this point we paused for a discussion, technically Roberto was the closest target for one of the resurrected corpses, but we decided that keeping the Nexus open would be the priority for the Dark Spawn and move it towards Sophia and Penfold. Two more resurrected corpses appear, one by the footbridge and one (finally) comes through the portal next to the Nexus. All the corpses rush forward, triggering Terror tests, then Penfold, Sophia and Pip all find themselves locked in melee. Penfold is wounded, as was Pip, who used his Granite's Fealty esoterica to ward off the blow. Sophia managed to fend off her attacker. 

Turn Five: Penfold drops a Snare, then attacks his undead opponent but fails to wound him (Colin temporarily forgot that he had failed a Terror test in the previous turn, so only had two actions this turn!) Pip aims a blow at his foes head, crushing it's skull, then moves back to help Penfold. Roberto charges into the fray, killing the corpse attacking Sophia. Sophia takes advantage of the opportunity to close the Nexus, also shutting down the portals before a werewolf could join the action.

Turn Six: Technically we had won the game at this point, but as Hunters were still in melee with Dark Spawn, we decided to play the last turn. Sophia cast a Shockwave spell, which knocked the resurrected corpse off it's feet, unfortunately doing the same to Pip and Penfold. She then moved so that she could use her last magical energy to cast a Heal spell on Penfold, restoring him to full health. Roberto moved back to get a clear aim at the unengaged resurrected corpse, blowing the creature's head off. Pip leapt to his feet and a killed the last resurrected corpse, whilst Penfold climbed back on his feet. This left the final cultist. As he was in the shadows where he could not be seen, he was more likely to skulk off and report to his masters, rather than move closer to engage the Hunters.

Another great time with these rules. By turn 3 it was looking as if it would be an easy walk in the park to achieve the objectives, but the game took a sudden turn and we found the Hunters desperately fighting for their lives. We were certainly lucky that only one Dark Spawn entered through the portal next to the Nexus. Giving Sophia the Weaver Skill that allowed her to automatically succeed in rolls to close portals and Nexus has been a great help.

The more we play WNC, the more we are enjoying the rules, as we start to grasp the subtleties of the system and get a handle on the best tactics. Which is just as well as foes get even tougher from now on.