Burrows and Badgers - NPL Round 2 game 2. Rogues V Royalists

After the first game these two went into game two with different expectations. The Rogues were confident after their quick win against the Freebeasts whilst the Royalists were a bit down and surprised by their defeat to the Hillfolk. The game was again Recover the Paychest on the same terrain as round 2 game 1, and the sidequests were Test a Spell for the Rogues alongside their innate ' Search for stuff.' The Royalists rolled Attrition alongside their own 'Kill things' side quest. Attrition was the trickier of the two as the Royalists needed to finish with a larger crew to succeed. On the other hand they could just kill one thing and walk off with an XP for everyone! Once again the main quest was actually not the main event here for either crew as there were more Xp available elsewhere.

The Rogues had invested in survival upgrades where possible with Captain Morgan getting light armour and a light shield and Lafitte also getting a light Shield. Bucklers were passed on to the minions...

The Royalists had not had much cash to splash post game 1 and essentially they got some shields to replace buclers and Edwyn was given a Caliver from their wanderings. His bow went to Athelstan who during this game completely forgot that he owned it

With the same table set up as described previously and the Paychest once again in the 'Beehive' in the middle it was no surprise that both sides looked to similar set ups with both crews looking to get their missile support up high. The Rogues started in the SE corner with objectives in the usual 'as far as possible from the opponent' layout. Clearly yhey were going to get Calico up the tower asap.

In the NW corner the Royalists had the same idea but getting Edwyn up in the ruins. Edwyn has the advantage of range with his caliver but Calico could focus shoot every turn a possibility denied Edwyn who had to spend an action reloading after every shot.

As previously mentioned neither side were particularly bothered about the actual paychest as there were more XP available via side quests for both sides. The Royalists wanted to kill more enemies for which they would gain individual XP but also everyone would gain an XP if they ended with more alive than the opposition in addition to 'taking part' XP. If they somehow touched or possessed the paychest that was bonus, but they wanted to draw the rogues into a fight so some effort had to be made in the centre.

Edwyn was obviously to shoot overwatch, Edward to get in a position out of arrowshot ready to charge the centre. Harold was to head off to kill some weak stuff to fulfill the killy quests. Athelstan was to try and take down the Rogues magic user, Aethelred the weasel to hang around looking like the centre was important and Aedith to cast invulnerables then cures as necessary.

For the Rogues their focus was on searching terrain as this would get more XP than the paychest probably but needed to draw guys away from the terrain to be searched. As such a presence in the centre covered by Calico, Morgan and Bellamy would act as a centre of attraction while Bonney and Lafitte would go for search duties. Kidd was now useless at searching with his injury from the last encounter making his awareness d4.

Turn 1

started as predicted with the missile guys taking position.

Pretty much everybody else successfully moved up to their alloted positions except Kidd who failed his difficult terrain role at this wall...I assume he just didnt see it with his awareness now being d4! Vane and Bonney got behind cover mindful of the 36" Caliver.

Aedith having recovered from her Trauma in game 1 made sure she could get off a Turn 2 spell by moving and focussing while remaining out of site behind the hill.

Bellamy showed Kidd how to deal with walls and got into total cover from Edwyn and his Caliver.

A snake walks into a bar.

Barman says, "How did you do that?"

Anyway...

Athelstan and Aethelred took up position with Athelstan taking a focus in case of either a fly/search or an attack. Athelstan was here with a brain injury which could make him berserk which might not be bad.

Edward on his trusty mount raced across the table into a 'hull down' position behind the hill out of sight of the sniper tower.

He was though surprised by the arrival of Lafitte in the ruins. Should Lafitte get into combat next turn Edward would be out of the central fight. Lafitte however had no such plans and was there to search.

Morgan moved up and focussed. He was in sight of Edwyn but had the wall for some cover and might get out of sight before Edwyn could shoot. Harold also move/focussed remaining behind the northern hill.

At the end of a mobile turn 1 the board looked like this.

Turn 2

Athelstan won the initiative with neither side really caring about first activation. He flew down to the 'Beehive' and using his focus searched it but failed - possibly the brain injury suffered in game one did not help. In response and as a sort of wait and see move Bonney wandered over to the Forest in preparation for a search.

From his post in the ruins Edwyn took a focussed shot shot at Kidd who was just regaining his footing after stumbling over the wall. He rolled averagely though as did Kidd and the result was 5 damage. That could have been worse for Kidd.

Kidd decided to make for total cover behind the beehive and after once again stumbling over a wall managed to get out of line of sight from Edwyn.

On the western flank Edward moved just a bit to keep the hill between himself and the sniper tower and focussed. He was now within reasonably certain charge range of any enemy at the 'Beehive. As previously mentioned Lafitte had no intention of attacking Edward unsupported and focus / searched the ruins finding an XP hidden under some rubble! He waved his sword in celebration...

In a less showy move Ethelred moved to within move/charge of the Beehive and put himself 'en Garde' in case of a shot. As it turned out he was out of range by a smidge but better safe than sorry.

With Kidd being unlikely to find his backside in the dark Vane ran over to the Beehive, at this point he was looking to search as sidequest rather than mainquest as the sidequest XP was a lower target! Vane is actually a decent attacker with his 2 handed weapon and possibly should have been better used in ambush.

Seeing little Bonney out on her own Harold decided the most Chivalrous thing he could do was head over and kill her so move / moved into the Forest. Noblesse oblige.....

Surveying the field Calico decided to Sneak and go for an ambush hoping that he might get two shots next turn.

The rest of the turn was also preparation for a big turn 3 as Morgan went into ambush anticipating a charge by Edward and Bellamy focussed looking to test a spell for XP. On the Royalist side Aedith moved a little and successfully cast a really good invulnerable on Athelstan which would help in turn 3 and 4.

So far so not much to be honest but there was a lot set up for turn 3. The Rogues had ambushes and a chance to pick up 3 XP apart from the main quest and the Royalists were now in position to kill stuff and get XP.

Turn 3

Vane in a moment of inspiration, having won the initiative focussed and searched the terrain Beehive realising that a successful search would net him 2 XP - one for the paychest and one for the Rogues sidequest. And behold he was successful! This then propmpted some debate about whether interactions were needed to take the chest from him or whether the paychest could only be removed over his dead body. In the end it was decided that It could be dropped by the carrier during his action and picked up with no interaction needed during another creatures action making it important to attack Vane now he had activated. This might be wrong but it would be odd if he could drop the chest outside his activation.

Athelstan enboldened by the invulnerability protection bestowed by Aedith decided it was time to get in and do over the snake. He move charged Bellamy. But wait! What was this? From the tower Calico ambush shot at Athelstan with great drama but sadly very little actual effect doing just 1 damage after the invulnerability came into play.

So Athelstan continued into Bellamy and rolled a perfect surely Bellamy would take terrible damage. Nope, Bellamy also rolled a perfect and ended up only taking 4 damage. I suspect it was his new hat that saved him! The Rogues decided that Bonney should do a quick search of the forest before Harold came to batter her. However the sound of inbound Harold obviously put her off as she found nothing.

With the paychest in play and wanting to stop Vane retreating with it Aethelred got drawn into the centre andattacked Vane but only did 4 damage even after a reroll, however Vane was now pinned in place. Kidd responded with a charge but as with everything this game he fluffed it and did no damage.

Harold pounding throught the forest charged into Bonney (after a reroll!) and did zero damage. Harold rolled a respectable amount on his d12 but Bonney pulled a perfect defence and Harold was unwilling to use his once per game killing blow on a Shrew.

In the Athelstan v Bellamy contest Bellamy decided to cast Test a spell with a focus cast and got it away. The effects were mixed. Athelstan now lost an action from his next turn but also his Berserk condition kicked in putting both Bellamy and himself in great danger! Bellamy did though gain an XP

In the Beehive fight Edwyn shot at Morgan and despite a quite poor roll managed to get 4 damage through due mainly to the strength of the weapon. Lafitte seeing Bellamy in trouble Flew and attacked Athelstan not risking a charge but barely scratched Athelstan, once again invulnerability being at work.

Edward finally rode into actionmoving and charging Vane, however as anticipated he was ambushed by Captain Morgan, Aedith had managed to get a single round of invulnerability off on Edward just beforehand though so he had additional insurance. This was not required however as Morgan did nothing after making his quite long charge roll and Edward sailed on into Vane (after rerolling his charge!). Edward ended up doing 11 damage to Vane helped by Vane using a fate point and the rolling a 1! His trusty steed should then have finished Vane but disappointingly did nothing. This left just Morgan to go and using his own action rather than his ambush move / attacked Edward but once again failed to inflict damage having been too close to charge.

And so ended turn three with Bellamy having tested a spell for an XP but now possibly due to get clobbered by a berserk Kingfisher. Vane was in trouble and Morgan it appears was now a pacifist. Two ambushes had gone badly as had Harold's killing spree. Overall it was a turn of missed opportunities and neither side was confident of victory.

Turn 4

Both sides were aware that a previous game had ended at the end of turn 4 so there was an imperative to get on with it. Initiative was rolled between Edward and Vane and after both sides rolled a perfect the second roll went for Edward who promptly finished off Vane (OOA) picked up the chest and realising that he could not then outrun Morgan attacked him but to no effect. Note that Edward's invulnerability was no longer in effect.

Athelstan then feeling a tad vulnerable with his last turn of invulnerability in effect but still berserk let fly at Bellamy doing 9 points of damage and had he been able to do a second attack might well have killed him. Unfortunately 'Test a spell' had removed one action so Bellamy lived.

Morgan then tried to hurt Edward and after 2 attacks had pushed through 8 damage which was making Edward consider his place in the universe.

With the game possibly ending this turn Harold needed a kill and after using his Killing blow Bonney was the victim. The photographer was clearly horrified by the butchery and completely flubbed this shot!

There than followed several less than impressive turns as first Calico took a focussed shot at Edward and only managed one damage whilst Aethelred did nothing against the hapless Kidd. Aedith failed to cast Heal on Edward and there were red faces all around. Kidd had decided to leave the whole situation realising it was not his day and inevitably took damage on his exit putting him close to both the edge of the board and going OOA. In the ruins Edwyn calmly focussed after reloading and looked down the barrel at the fleeing Kidd.

Bellamy time! Bellamy focussed and cast Terror! This was good last time out and was just as good this time. Athelstan lost his roll-off and turned to flee but was cut down by Lafitte who did 13 damage and then finished off by Bellamy himself who turns out has a d8 attack! Who knew?

In the middle Edward also failed the duel and ran a full 11". It was uncertain as to whether difficult terrain (for carrying the chest) applied but reading the spell it was decided it did not. This was both a blessing and a curse as it took Edward and the chest far from the danger zone but also gave Morgan a free attack. Luckily for Edward he again underperformed and inflicted only a couple of damage. Edward was badly hurt but far from the battle. The end of turn die was rolled and the game...continued.

At the end of this turn the Rogues decided it was in fact time to leave and it was just a matter of who would get away. They had picked up 3 XP for individuals plus an XP each for 'taking part' so not too shabby. The only Gp had come from touching the chest briefly, The Royalists had achieved attrition so XP for all survivors and had 2 XP for Kills. Additionally they had the taking part XP and if they could get the chest off before turn 7 ended would get another for Edward.

Turn 5

Only two things of note happened this turn. Firstly the hopeless Kidd failed the initiative test against the frankly spiteful Edwyn and secondly Edwyn shot him! Kidd went OOA - this really was not his day.

After this the rest of the Rogues slunk away off the edge. Aedith failed a Cure on Edward which might hurt later in the post battle phase and Edward seeping blood through his armour and hauling the chest slowed down and was nowhere near getting the chest off table. The end of game dice was rolled and unfortunately for Edward the game ended.

Final thoughts - Both sides had a plan and to be fair they both executed the plan. That neither plan worked was down to unlucky dice at clutch moments. Had Morgan been able to inflict more damage on Edward from ambush the Rogues might have retained the chest. Had Bellamy not retricted Athelstan to one berserk action through 'Cast a spell' Athelstan would probably have killed him before he could get the Terror spell off. However both sides finished with significant XP and could be reasonably happy.

Except for Kidd obvs!

Post game

Royalists

Holding the paychest did not prove fruitful in money as there was only 19 gp left in it after the Rogues had dipped their hand in it. However there was a stupendous set of magic armour very heavy armour with +3 protection which if i am reading it correctly creates tough 7! This was given to Harold who is now essentially a tank. His light armour went to Edwyn who also inherited his shield as Harold is unable to use it now. Harold also advanced and took Feint as a fighting skill to add to Killing blow!

After very few wanderings due to injury or training there was very little to spend. Aedith got a handbag and some Blessed water while Edwyn got 4 rounds of superior black powder leaving them with a balance of Zero. Fortunately upkeep was covered during wanderings by Aedith. Edward brought in the remainder of the wanderings cash whilst Harold received 13 Labour points from some happy villagers! These were banked as there was no cash for materials. Injuries were light overall with Athelstan now adding to his Brain damage with a nervous condition that reduced his nimbleness to d4. He is a flying target for missile fire now! 20 Gp went to join the pension fund.

For the Rogues this game was a loss but not a disaster, except for Kidd who has now aquired Delicate 1 due to his general ineptitude and sat out wanderings making him even more useless. Vane also became Slow due to a leg injury - I empathise entirely! Several crew needed to train to make the advance so in the wanderings they made a grand total of 3 gp. Yes 3 gp. Dont spend it all in one shop! this was added to the 25gp Vane had snatched from the chest before his demise for 28gp. Upkeep subsumed 14 so in the end there was cash only for light armour for Lafitte.

Advances went better however with Lafitte gaining Slippery and Morgan gaining Lucky which should both aid their survival. Bellamy also gained Lucky which will either save his life or ensure a key spell. Vane took Killing blow, Bonney, Slippery and Calico managed a stat increase after rolling a 12 so upped his Ranged to d8. He would have preferred a shooty skill but at least he is a tad better on average.40 gp went to pension and it is likely Kidd will be replaced in future...

End of round Two

Hillfolk are at the top but all very close with only 5 XP separating top from bottom with one round to go until everybody has played everybody else. The next round will be Defend the Camp and the fixtures are;

Hillfolk v Rogues

Royalists v Freebeasts