Burrows and Badgers NPL game 1 - Royalists v Hillfolk "'Tis the soldier's life to have their balmy slumbers waked with strife."

The Referee

The Bab NPL is a competition between 4 crews to see who is the top crew in the North. Each crew will play eachother at least twice (and possibly more if I enjoy the process) with the winner being crowned champions and the loser being relegated to Southern England. A win is worth 3, a draw which seems almost impossible 2 and a loss 1 point. Goal difference is replaced by a running total of xp gained. No magical items not related to spells such as ingredients or dispel scrolls are allowed until the 4th round at the fixtures.

Mistakes will be made, where they can be corrected they will be where they cant VAR missed it and we move on!

The first game of the season in the Burrows and Badgers Northern Premier League was a home fixture for the Royalists as they launched a Surprise attack on the raiding Hillfolk. This one went into extra time so make sure you are sitting comfortably.

Royalists

The Royalist force was lead by Harold the Hare who although lightly armed has the potential with 3 fate and the skill Killing Blow to do one really big hit in a game. He is backed up by Edward the Shrew Knight Thane of Morpeth with potentially high damage output on the charge. Aethelred is a back up fighter but had a different mission this game. Missile support is in the shape of the Squirrel bowman Edwyn of whom it is probably fair to say he might have done better....Magic is provided by Aedith, a mouse nun who is very much a support character and did pretty well on her debut. Finally there is Aethelstan the Kingfisher, maybe next time Aethelstan...

Hillfolk

The Hillfolk are lead by Broc the Badger who with his pretty awesome killing power was augmented with Feint. This does not give the single blow kill potential of Harold's Killing blow but should deliver more consistent damage across the game. The Wildcat adds speed and Nibleness as well as some heft in attack. Shieldmaster should provide a bit of cover against poor Block rolls. The Piper is still really useful in 2nd edition and while the effects are not as strong as in 1st edition they are now repeatable so Burst of Speed and Slippery become very useful whilst All out attack as second to last action in a turn has a place. Additionally he has a Bow so once in position can help out hopefully. Feorag the Squirrel brings Haste and Cure which are both useful and the Murder Sparrow Aethelstan brings speed with Flight. Rounding out the crew is Lugh the mouse who is not expected to do great things.

Set up - Surprise attack

As per the instructions the set up area for the defenders is essentially a box 8" from any edge and the three starting Hillfolk were Lugh the mouse in the ruins, the Piper cat skulking in cover and Fiadhaic the Wildcat with difficult ground on 3 sides. On terrain, indidual trees on quite big round bases count as blocking line of sight (los) across the base but not as difficult terrain so the Piper has los cover on two sides in this case. Green patches with irregular bases of scrub on count as difficult terrain across the whole of the area bounded by the green patch but offer only partial cover into or across for line of sight. Hills are considered plateaus blocking los across but not onto. In this game they also provided no height advantage but in some games they might. Sharp eyed readers will notice the objective markers were wrongly placed but as it turned out this had zero effect on the game. It might have helped the Hillfolk marginally had they been placed properly but nevermind.

The Royalists rolled Scavenger Run which encourages searching terrain and took their own quest which rewards killing. The Hillfolk rolled up Showdown which meant Broc was going in for the kill against Harold. Additionally there own quest was taken but with little hope of actually achieving it given the placement of Royalist objectives.

Royalist set up was a puzzle. The temptaion is to surround the enemy from all sides but given Broc was not on table at start it seemed that a split up force would inevitably lose a man or two to Broc when he entered on any edge, while at least with this set up if he came on to pick off the weaklings there was cover from the Shrew Knight Edward and Edwyn the Archer on Sneak. Aethelstan the Kingfisher had one job - to get into combat with Lugh and stop at least one of the Hillfolk from legging it.

Turn One

Piper skulking behind a tree waiting to pipe retreat.

Turn One

The Royalists won the roll off for initiative and began the game hoping to do some plink damage to the Wildcat Fiadhaic perceiving him to be the greatest danger. Edwyn focussed and shot but damage there was none. A damp squib start. In response 'Pipes' played Strathspay to add +4 to Hillfolk movement this turn to get them away from danger then legged it himself to the Hillfolk rally point at the windmill. As both pipes and Fiadhaich were big enough to ignore the low fence while most of the Royalist crew were not.

The rest of the turn involved the Royalists moving forward and focussing whilst the Hillfolk retreated to the windmill to await reinforcements. However there were two more interesting events. firstly in an attempt to pin Lugh the mouse in position Aethelstan the Kingfisher moved into contact with a move charge. No damage was expected and none caused but the hope was for a free attack if Lugh moved away. Sadly for Aethelstan Lugh did not move away as planned and in a splendid demonstration of rodent martial arts attacked Aethelstan with a 6 and then again with a second 6. Aethelstan went OOA immediately!

The only other action was Aedith who fearing the worst decided to cast Invulnerable on herself and acheived a respectable 3 turn invulnerable boost.

Turn 2

Turn 2 started with the arrival of Broc on the eastern edge of the board to provide a bit of punch for the Hillfolk. However the Royalists won the initiative and Harold immediately moved in and attacked Lugh doing a good 8 damage to the smug mouse.

In response Pipes played 'Slippery' and then took a shot at Edward the shrew knight which criticaled inflicting 8 damage and taking him out the game essentially as was now -2 to all rolls. Except it did not as Aedith enboldened by her invulnerable spell moved and cast Heal restoring him to full health as seen below. Go Aedith!

Lugh then slipperied away to the rendezvous on the windmill hill glad to get away from Harold and hoping Feorag might arrive and heal him next turn. There was little other action this turn as Aethelred the Weasel searched the terrain unsuccessfully, Fiadhaich moved out of sight and focussed and Broc entered and focussed. The recovered Edward took cover and focussed in preparation for turn 3 whilst Edwyn the archer moved and sneaked.

Turn 3

Only Eun the bird arrived for the Hillfolk and deployed to threated Aedith He has the hedge for a bit of cover.

The Royalistswon initiative with Aethelred who again searched and failed then decided that with Broc incoming that retreat was the best option which was probably for the best as Pipes then played the run faster tune again and popped off a poor shot at Aethelred missing completely.

Aedith then moved a bit closer to Harold and tried to cast a bit of invulnerable on him but failed. At this point Eun the murder sparrow launched himself at Edith with a move and a successful charge. Edwyn then mistakenly used ambush to try and intercept from Sneak which was an excellent idea but in retrospect he did not have a spare activation as Sneak had been his second action leaving no possiblity of ambush. Fortunately he missed anyway and Eun succeeded in his charge into Edith resulting in 4 damage after invulnerable. Sad face for Aedith.

Fortunately her Knight in shining armour rode to the rescue with Edward move charging Eun into a piece of roadkill. Birds are having a tough time this game. Feathers everywhere.

Edward's moment of chivalric glory was shortlived however as using run faster and his own d8 move Fiadhaich swept down and battered him for 13 damage with a critical +2 charge, +2 focus attack.

Elsewhere Broc sidled forward and expecting an attack from Harold added Guard to his focus as insurance. When Harold did move charge the charge failed disappointingly and the gurad was removed at the end of the turn. The only other actions were an unsuccessful focus shoot by Edward at Fiadhaich, the focus allowing hin=m to target Fiadhaich in the melee, and Lugh girding his mousey loins and running towrds the fight

Turn 4

Feorag entered on the Eastern edge

Harold won initiative and moving into contact with Broc rolled a crit 12 to which he added his once per game killing blow skill for 19 plus strength...Broc rolled, rerolled and went out of action with a thump. Sliced and diced!!

Morale plummeted for the Hillfolk seeing their iconic leader one shotted with ease however Fiadhaich responded by attacking Edward who after rerolls for both sides became Deadward. Back in the game. As he was also in base contact with Aedith, Fiadhaich took the opportunity to hit her as well but did only a couple of damage.

Edwyn continued to be utterly useless missing his focussed shot at Fiadhaich while lugh ran his little mouse legs offo join Fiadhaich encouraged by the fact that pipes had just put 6 damage into Harold before moving away to either draw off Harold or if things went south in the melee to be able to walk off table. Feorag rather stupidly in retrospect was entirely forgotten and did bugger all.

Turn 5

Turn 5 was all about the melee. Harold moved in against Fiadhaich and did reasonable damage but nothing serious helped by Aedith being in contact. Pipes moved and played slippery in case Fiadhaich decided to exit the melee but after Lugh charged Aedith and did almost nothing Fiadhaich decided to stay. The battle of the inadequates continued as once again Edwyn fired rubber arrows and Fiadhaich did 1 point of damage over 2 attacks against Harold! In retrospect a mv away and a charge back in might have been better. aedith continued the general theme of inadequcy by attempting to heal herself but rolled a 1... Outside the melee Feorag realised she was in the game and move/focussed hoping to affect the melee. In a personal battle of his own against the hedge Aethelred finally pulled off a successful search to gain an 1xp...

Turn 6

The game continued despite the increasing exhaustion of all concerned as small amounts of damage racked up. It looked like a repeat of Turn 5 as Harold and Fiadhaich traded Handbags for no damage! However Lugh did then focus and attacked Aedith doing just enough to put her out of action finally. Edwyn finally found an arrow with a pointy end and took Lugh desperately close to being Out of Action, his only effective shot of the game. Feorag moved and caste Haste successfully on Pipes in the hopes that he might take out Harold but despite a focus to avoid hitting his own men Pipes did no damage. On the Royalist side Aethelred realised he had a sword and charged Flaidhaich but again despite 2 attacks no damage was inflicted.

Would the game go into a 7th turn?

RIP Aedith (Edith)

Turn 7 - Endgame

Sadly for all concerned it did but such was the exhaustion of all concerned very little happened. Aethelred finally got a decent strike in against Fiadhaich only to see Feorag heal almost everything back up! Other than that excitement every attack was feeble and with the game result obviously going to be a Hillfolk victory the game drifted to an exhausted close.

Conclusion

In the end a win for the Hillfolk as quite comfortably and despite their own dodgy decisions they remained on table at game end! The loss of Broc was quickly balanced by killing Edward the Shrew Knight and surviving the slugmatch melee. Both sides' Birds essentially committed death by stupidity and Aedith's death came long after it should have done as the mostly dead Lugh struggled to do damage and Edwyn really should have done much better with his shooting. Faidhaic was probably MVP for the Hillfolk while Harold clearly starred for the Royalists. Poor placement and the half decision to walk off the table hamstrung Feorag who then had little impact on the game from arrival on turn four. Aethelred the weasel was poorly utilised by the Royalists who assigned him the scavenger run sidequest when he actually strikes on d8 so poor resource management - should have been Aethelstan the Kingfisher.

Post Game

Hillfolk

Despite the loss of Broc things went quite well for the Hillfolk post game. Broc took a minor injury - blurred vision which wont affect him that much as all his actions are close combat oriented. Eun the murder sparrow came away scot free and must have been playing dead! Even poor Lugh who so nearly died ended up with a brain injury which made him a berserker so win win! Although he missed the post game phase due to being a psycho.

All came away with 3xp for participating and winning but only 15 gold pieces on the treasure roll and completing neither sidequest.

upkeep 12Gp

Broc laboured on the den for 6 points The others all wandered locally gaining 36 Gp, a removal of upkeep and a strength increase of 1 for Cat which is largely irrelevant when playing the pipes! In total they ended with 45Gp. With that the Hillfolk bought Heavy armour for Broc, a Mages pouch for Feorag and ingredients of Thyme and Lugwort to go in it leaving nothing in the bank.

Royalists

Harold escaped with a pulled muscle and enforced rest in the post game phase. Edward the Shrew Knight is back in the saddle unscathed which is more than can be said for Aedith who left the battle Traumatised and who must also miss the post game and her fortitude is now d4. Fortunately Light magic is Presence based so she remains able to cast reasonably. Aethelstan the bird has a leg wound which means he treats all movement as difficult terrain except flight so not terrible

Harold gained 2xp, 1 for participation and 1 for killing Broc (Royalist sidequest). Edward gained the same amount for the same killy reason(Eun), while aethelred gained 2xp one of which was for the single successful search. Everyone else gained just the 1xp for taking part.

They did come away with more gold though 17 from the main quest treasure roll and 3 from Aethelred's search for a total of 20.

With Harold and Aedith out resting no Labour was done and the Royalists wanderings were less impressive. They gained a rebate on Upkeep reducing it to 6 and gained 22Gp and a Caliver which is going to Edwyn whose bow goes to Aethelstan the Kingfisher. They took 36Gp into the shopping phase. At the shops they went to Shields'r'us and bought 3 light shields. One each for Edward, Aethelred and Aethelstan leaving nothing in the kitty. They do however have 18gp in the pension pot!!

As the Hillfolk return North with their loot and in good heart and the Royalists return tails between their legs to their realm two new contenders for the NPL title arrive on the table. From the sea come a Rogueish crew of scurvy Knaves to face off against a vulpine crew of Freebeasts.