Burrows and Badgers NPL game 2 - Rogues v Freebeasts "Ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I mean pirates,"

After the epically long game one which went into extra time this game barely made it to the end of normal time! On one side were the Pirate Rogues with Captain Morgan at the helm and on the other were the Freebeasts lead by Renard the Fox. The quest was obviously Surpise attack as per the previous game as it would possibly be unfair if each game in a round had a different quest with different rewards. As the larger rated crew Morgans' Rogues were first to set up and had drawn Loot as their side quest 'Strip the area'. The Freebeasts had their standard 'look after yourself' and 'Scorched Earth'

Morgan's Rogues are led by Capt. Morgan an Otter with an eye for survival which is why he has taken shieldmaster for defensive rerolls. First mate is Lafitte the puffin who has Feint and Flight which is frankly a poor choice I think. Bellamy the illusionist snake will probably get killed on a regular basis as all spells are 6" range meaning it needs to be close up and impersonal. Calico Jack provides missile support and to a lesser extent so does Bonney with throwing knives, though she exists mainly to run side quests. Vane is a hard hitting shrew and a poor attitude and the crew is rounded out by Kidd, a large rat (despite wrong base!) who has a pistol to shoot before a charge.

Captain Morgans' water and land rats...pirates.

Renards' Libertarians are as you would expect led by Renard, a ginger old fox who cares only for himself and money, possibly the other way around. Along with Zorro and Volpe, fellow libertarian foxes they have appealed to the lesser natures of some less intelligent creatures to join them. Volpe as you might expect is a fateweaver creating a world of rerolls and disappointment. Zorro is looking to be number one in future. Fleder, a second magic user is a bat using Dark Magic to weaken enemies before the coup de grace. Lapin provides missile support while Spitze and Spero are there to tie up enemies, run sidequests and possibly die. As Renard often says "some of you may die but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make"

The table was the coastline where Morgans' rogues have beached their boat for a spot of careening the hull. Bored of this however they decided to wander off for a spot of larceny and have been ambushed in a surpise attack by Renards freebeasts who 'protect' this area for a price.

In 'Surprise attack' the larger crew places half their crew fractions rounded up in play with various restrictions then the oppostion may enter on any edges. Bonney, Morgan and Lafitte are all centrally placed ready to leg it away from any strong force of attackers while Kidds's position atop the ruins was intended to allow both a shot from height and a search of terrain for the Rogues' sidequest however Freebeast deployment made this unfeasible.

Kidd atop the highest terrain waiting to search or shoot.

The Rogues with correctly placed objectives unlike game one!

Freebeast deployment split their forces in an attempt to tempt the Rogues into standing and fighting thus allowing them to be surrounded

On the beach Renard, Volpe the wizard, Spero the bird were hoping to move South West to cut off the rogueish retreat. Fleder the bat was hoping Kidd would vacate the upper ruins faced with the force mere inches away

In the North west corner Zorro was to advance as bait covered by Lapins' bow from the 2" high hill. On the western flank Spitze was supposed to run down to the fields and set them ablaze for an easy side quest XP.

Turn one

Faced with a large force within 6" Kidd decided to retreat SW and move / moved as far away as he could to some cover. Lapin moved into position and let off a loosener at Morgan getting through just 1 point of damage but declaring a threat.

Lafitte flew back out of any threat range and focussed hard behind a tree. In a braver move Fleder the bat flew up to the top of the ruins vacated by Kidd and successfully cast Pain from her Dark magic on Morgan causing the Stunned condition. This would be bad news if it were not removed as Morgan would be vulnerable to any attacks. However as a continuous spell it could be removed only by damaging Fleder.

Discretion being the better part of valour Morgan took matters into his own hands and retired behind the low fence where he focussed. Volpe focussed and attempted to cast a Fateweaver spell but fluffed her lines and remained rooted to the spot in failure.

Step forward Bonney who moved and threw knives at Fleder with a critical 6! This was going to hurt Fleder except she also rolled a critical on d4 and with the -2 for partial cover zero damage got through! That was all the activations for the Rogues which left the Freebeasts with their remaining activations.

Slightly unwilling to race into action unsupported by Zorro or Volpe's magic Renard just moved and focussed in the hope of getting some guaranteed dice from Volpe's fateweaving. Zorro made haste across the board in the hope of attacking Bonney who had now been pinned in place by Spero whose attack had only inflicted 1 damage but had revealed that the minis for Spitz and Bonney had been transposed so all is well that ends well. To end the turn Spitz did his flank run towards flamey glory...

The picture below shows the board with Volpe standing on the beach having been ditched by her mates.

Below is a summary shot of the Turn 1 action, or in Volpe's case inaction

Turn 2

Reinforcements arrived for the Rogues as snaky illusionist Bellamy and bowman Calico arrived on the southern edge. Bellamy needs to be in the action to be effective whereas Calico just needs a clear line of site. As such Bellamy arrived where they would be safe to move / move this turn while Calico made for the high ground.

Bellamy slithers in

Calico climbs the hill

The turn proper began with Kidd winning initiative, focussing and using his pistol to shoot Fleder. This successfully inflicted some damage which removed the Stunned condition from Morgan and made Fleder a bit wary as anybody with Delicate 2 would be..However they pulled themselves together and cast Pain on Kidd in return out of spite!

Calico took a pot shot at Renard and surprisingly got a couple of damage through and should have removed Renard's focus but this was missed. In a not unexpected move Zorro saw the opportunity to attack Bonney while Spero had her attention and with a focus/charge easily made it in and inflicted 4 damage despite a good defence roll by Bonney. Bonney was now in trouble as any attempt at moving out of combat could put her in big trouble.

In response Morgan now unstunned move/barged Zorro knocking him backwards and out of contact. He could have move/charged to damage but wanted to give Bonney a chance of survival. After the game I realised that as Zorro had been pushed off the 'edge' of the hill as a fall he should have taken 1 damage but as I envision the hill as a slope rather than an abstracted 'edge' I dont think I will be doing this going forward unless predefined as a cliff. As an aside Fleder should also have tested for falling earlier but again as a bat I think this point is mute.

Taking advantage of Kidd's stunned condition Renard the cunning fox charged him and pushed through 8 damage making Kidd's position serious. I loke the look on Renard's face in the picture below as he attacks his stunned enemy!

However he had overextended as Lafitte now used flight to get a 2 on 1 against Renard. This was an unarmed attack but did actually get some damage through as the +2 for charge cancelled out the -2 for unarmed. The main point though was to pin Renard for a double whammy next turn.

As a side effect of barging zorro away from Bonney, Morgan now stood out of melee and was targetted by Lapin with a perfect roll and even with a good nimble roll 7 damage went through. That was a high price to pay for helping Bonney.

It was now wizard time but with no magic as Volpe again failed after moving and Bellamy just moved as fast as possible to the action. A lesson learned here was that Volpe needs to activate early or not at all as her spells affect subsequent dice rolls and late turn are less useful.

Bonney now skipped out of combat with Spero taking 2 damage but now free to fight back by throwing knives at Spero for a couple of damage. The last act of the turn fell to Spero who decided to just go and start burning stuff! Which after flying to the first field immediately set it ablaze gaining 1xp.

But what about Fritz? Where's Fritzee? Well as a small model under a large tree he was entirely forgotten about but was allowed to make a bit of an extra activation t3 to make up for it!

End of Turn 2 situation. Bellamy getting ready to enter the fray and some big decisions on initiative.

Turn 3

Vane the Shrew enters on the Eastern edge perilously close to Volpe.

Initiative went to Morgan who charged Zorro as the fox stood up from his fall down the hill. " attacks got through for a total of 9 damage which obviously crippled Zorro and made him consider his whole world view.

Having chosen Morgan to start though this meant Renard was able to attack the still stunned and weakened Kidd and using his feint skill was able to get enough through to put Kidd down. In his second action he attacked Lafitte but failed and gained a fate point which was useful as he was running short already.

But now it was snake time and an activation which decided the game. Bellamy moved over the fence losing nothing to the difficult terrain role and cast Terrify which made all enemy within 6" take a roll off against it. This was carnage as all but Volpe failed and fled 2d6". The really bad part was those in combat then were subject to free hits against them and took damage, in Renard's cae this took him to 12 in total making any further participation unlikely while Zorro went to 13 and became equally ineffective. Fleder fled the field.

Essentially through a combination of poor fortitude roles (and rerolls in some cases!) and a lucky hit by Lafitte on Renard as he fled the game was over.

Volpe did finally cast Fates Twist which would help the retreating units avoid further damage but at this point she should have walked off herself as Lafitte no longer in combat move/charged her. There was no effect but to pin her but this would kill her in the end.

Lapin again popped an arrow into Morgan for 3 which took him to -3 on attacks etc which discouraged any turn 4 chase of Zorro...

Vane move/charged Volpe who even after being forced to reroll becuse of the Fates Twist spell inflicted 7 damage and made any escape now impossible

The rest of the turn felt inconsequential as Spitz move/move/interacted (to make up for Turn 2) and set ablaze field 2 for 1 xp which was a good reward for doing nothing else in the game! bonney threw some knives ineffectually at Spero. Spero then headed for the table edge. Calico found himself with no targets and wandered optimistically down the beach hoping for a turn 4 shot.

At the end of turn 3 the writing was on the wall, floor and ceiling for the Freebeasts and they all decided to head off leaving Volpe no-mates to her fate - which was ironic as she was a Fateweaver...

Turn four Volpe really really needed the fates to be kind and let her win the initative roll but it was not to be. somewher in a cave scissors went snip. Suffice to say Lafitte finished her off and Vane looted the body for 10 gp and an XP! At this sad point the game ended as all the Freebeasts was able to leave the table unaccosted.

At the end of turn 4 the table looked like this with the land and water rats in charge!

Post game

Rogues

For the Rogues the injury count was not terrible. Morgan missed the wandering phase with a recurring injury which would go on to harn his future performance. Kidd lost his sense of smell affecting his awareness and Bonney became a lot less mobile suffering a leg wound making her d4 basic move.

In terms of Experience all gained 3xp with Vane gatting an extra for looting poor Volpe to go to 4xp

After wanderings, looting and main quest rolls the crew lumped together 39gp and had their upkeep paid for by a welcoming hamlet happy to pay less protection money to the Freebeasts. With this they invested in 2 light shields for Morgan and Lafitte as well as light armour for Morgan. Lafitte passed his buckler onto Kidd and Morgan his buckler to Bonney. 1gp was left over (woo) and 30 gp went in the pension fund.

Freebeasts

Renard lost the use of an arm which was not great as no shield is now available. Spero with just 4 wounds went to dead but had a reroll and came back to life with loss of smell which seems better than dead! All the rest escaped scot free.

For experience they all gained 2 except Volpe, one for taking part and 1 for being an alive freebeast at battle end. additionally spero and spitze the arsonists gained an extra 1 for burning stuff.

As far as finances post battle wanderings and main quest money the crew ended with 27 GP and a Caliver which went to Lapin, he in turn handed off his bow to Zorro who is innately a better shot anyway. Purchases were limited but Volpe gained a pouch and some Bear bone to make Fate's Path more useful. A healing potion was also given to her and the whole was rounded out with 2 lots of quality black powder and a bodkin arrow which might hint at a more cautious approach next game.

End of round 1 games summary

Obviously I am giving 1 point for a loss and should it by some weirdness occur a draw will gain 2 points.

One thing stood out from the first round of games, firstly the quest handicap for the Hillfolk of having to drag a marker across the table at difficult terrain speed to score XP. I appreciate that everyone gets a Xp point should it happen but in the majority of quests it wont. Even a bird with d12 will take 2 turns minimum to interact and pick up the token if they are tucked away as far as possible, as is usual in almost all the scenarios, and then on average difficult move rolls and with no interference from the enemy it would take 3 additional turns to get it off table at the opposite corner. So 5 turns minimum with no interference and the commitment of a mini for 5 turns. If you have a couple of poor rolls its going to be 6 or 7 turns and the game is most likely over, either actually due to variable length. or effectively due to on table events. Compared to freebeasts this is a big handicap in Xp gain for the Hillfolk as even if the piper played 'run faster' every turn ignoring battlefield requirements its unlikely to happen whereas Freebeasts could walk on and walk off and all gain xp. Royalists can kill a few weak things and rack up Xp and even Rogues can have a good chance of picking up 3 or 4 on average.

I suppose the Hillfok could try and 'chain' the objective across the table passing from one activated model to the next but this is massively inefficient and the opportunity cost of losing a t least a couple of turns is too great. Unless Hillfolk win the main quests and get a lucky sidequest I think they may struggle over the longer term. In contrast the Freebeasts took a drubbing and are only a few Xp fewer as their side quest is ridiculously easy. Next game the Hillfolk will attempt it and see how it goes.

Fixtures round 2

Rogues v Royalists

Hillfolk v Rogues