Burrows and Badgers NPL round 3, game 2 - Freebeasts v Royalists
- johnjsalango1
- Jul 27
- 11 min read
Renard the Freesbeasts' leader
Harold the Royalist leader
So the first half of the season comes to an end with this game. All the teams have played eachother once and go into the mid season to bandage wounds and wounded pride. This was the second game in Round 3 and again was main quest 2 Attack the camp. This though would be a very different game to the first. In the previous game the Rogues needed to do everything right and get some luck to get past a solid Hillfolk defence, this time the roles were reversed and right from the start the Freebeasts knew they were not going to be able to stop the Royalists who having found some magical armour for their leader Harold were now lead by an absolute tank. His very heavy armour with extra toughness meant he was essentially now tough 7 and there was little that could stop him.
Additionally Edward the Shrew Knight was an offensive unit and Aethelred now had 'Lucky' which meant he could do damage. A caliver armed squirrel who could evade any attempt to pin him using 'slippery and a berserker Bird were also likely to escape.
Faced with this all the Freebeasts had so far were hard luck stories and a chance to do a decent sneak ambush!
Side quests also did not favour the Freebeasts as they rolled attrition which was unlikely against the Royalist kill team. The Royalists rolled conserve which seemed a tad more possible. In short the plans of both sides were straightforward and assymetric. The Freebeasts were hoping for an early kill then leave as soon as possible possibly getting 2 XP each from the side and support quests as the main quest was clearly out of reach. The Royalists on the other hand wanted to get plenty of kills for their support quest before wandering off having the main quest in the bag.
Terrain rules were covered in the previous post and remained unchanged but the Royalists had decided to head off the NW corner as opposed to the NE which had been the Rogues choice in game 1 of this round. The thinking was that it might tempt the Freebeasts into defending the ruined house and body blocking the exits around the difficult terrain. The Freebeasts did move to do this but had no intention of hanging around to be killed!
The Freebeast plan such as it was consisted of getting Spero into the corner to block the exit or at least look like he was. Zorro and Lapin were to sneak and hope for decent ambush shots. Renard might hopefully get a kill on a wounded Royalist post ambush.
Renard and Zorro hoping for an ambush
Volpe deployed in the NE corner safe from harm and was to cast Fate's path to get some good dice to use while fleder cast Pain on something to make it easier to damage. Hopefully having done one OOA they could fade away as all would be near the edges.
Volpe no-mates on her own as usual
Fleder, Lapin and Spitze
The Royalist plan was to wander on, kill stuff and then leave! Here they are in camp discussing the details...
Turn 1
Special rules mean that the Freebeasts get 3 activations before the Royalists wake up and for the first turn the Royalists can use no equipment so essentially are just moving or in the case of Aedith she can cast but without ingredients. Zorro took a Sneak ready to ambusher with his ambusher skill and his bodkin arrows. Lapin ditto with his caliver while Volpe focused and cast Fate's path - or rather she failed again to cast rolling a 2. Disappointment all round.
For the Royalists who are in no hurry Aedith cast Invulnerable on Berserker Bird Athelstan but like Volpe was a flop even with a focus. As per the plan Spero flew into the exit corner with absolutely no intention of putting his body on the line but took a focus in case it became necessary!
Edwyn with his mighty weapon - caliver - moved a little and focussed in case a decent target appeared in turn 2. In retrospect he should perhaps have just Sneaked and ambushed but either way it would be largely irrelevant. In turn one he cant use his caliver by quest special rule.
Spitz moved to body block any Royalist running around the back of the ruins to force them into difficult terrain movement but again was looking over his shoulder at the exit.
Edward the Shrew Knight moved gingerly into a position where neither of the Freebeast ambushers could see him but which would allow a reasonable charge at Spitz in turn 2. Remember the Forests block line of of sight through or into except to minis within an inch of the edge so he was safe here.
Fleder flew into the ruins and cast Pain on Harold but failed to win the roll off. Edward was another possible target but had even higher fortitude so Harold was the only target. Had it gone off it would possibly make Harold an easier target for ambush.
Athelstan the berserk bird flew into the forest and focussed. It was at this point that Lapin realised he was doomed. If he fired at Athelstan he might do damage but it would unlikely put the bird OOA and it would inevitably move into contact next turn possibly before he could reload and then he would be unable to fire without offering a free attack and certainly unable to avoid the double whammy of an incoming Harold. However it probably would have been the right choice and had he won initiative he might have run away to the ruins.
Renard moved from cover to cover up by the ruins on the hill in the hopes of getting a later post archery ambush by Zorro. while Athelred moved and stopped for a moment to tempt a shot from Lapin but when that didnt come he moved again into the ruined ecclesistical type building
That left Harold who move / moved into the forest. He remained invisible to the doomed Lapin but was essentially in the open to Zorro as he was within an inch of the edge and not behind a tree base. Zorro loaded a Bodkin arrow and shot using Ambusher and ....rolled really poorly failing to beat Harold's armour.
End of Turn 1 situation - only Northern part of battlefield shown as rest is irrelevant
Turn 2
Initiative was between Volpe and Edwyn and once more Volpe did her side no favours by losing but luckily Edwyns shot against Fleder was not too lethal and while she took 6 damage it could have been worse. She did gain a fate out of her roll.
Volpe then did successfully cast Fate's Path and got a d4/1 a d6/6 a d8/3 and a d12/10! The last only useable if given to Harold which was the opposite of what was wanted! However on the upside the d6 and d8 might be useful.
Athelstan then move/attacked Lapin who was unable to react in ambush as Athelstan started out of sight and ended in contact. Unable to shoot at either end of the first action Lapin was now unable to shoot at all. To make matters considerably worse Athelstan then rolled a perfect 6 which on top of his berserkness gave him a hideous amount of damage. Lapin rolled well in defence but not well enough to survive so swapped in the d6/6 provided by Fate's Path and survived on 6 damage.
Lapin could see the writing on the wall here and attacked Athelstan rolling a perfect which combined with Athelstans berserk defence penalty meant a huge 12 damage on the impetuous bird. He could then have hung around to finish off Athelstan but decided discretion was the better part of valour and hopped off the edge taking no damage from Athelstans free attack.
In response Edward spectacularly charge Spitze and with his lance attack pushed through 7 damage but again Volpe's spell helped a little reducing this to 5 and giving Spitze a chance of surviving if the Stag beetle missed it's attack.
Which it did.
Fleder than cast Pain on Athelstan successfully having focussed. This would seal Athelstans fate but also Fleders as it would have been wiser to just cast and leave with Harold in the offing. However the Freebeasts were hoping for the attrition XP at this point and the gamble was taken.
Aedith move / moved to get into position in the hope that Athelstan might not be attacked again this turn and she could heal at the start of Turn 3.
However Zorro moved into range and shot an arrow doing the necessary damage to put Athelstan out of action (again) and denying the Royalists the side quest Conserve. It also at this point gave the Freebeasts the possibility of achieving attrition if they could all now get away.
Sadly for the Freebeasts this plan went downhill fast as Aethelred raced out of the ruins on a difficult terrain roll of 8" and slammed into the very surprised Zorro. So surprised he apparently forgot to defend as Aethelred then rolled a perfect attack and even with a fate roll Zorro took 10 damage and crucially was pinned. The difficult terrain roll had been crucial but was not the last crucial roll Aethelred would make. As an aside Aethelred's character arc has been spectacular since spending game 1 mooching around failing to search terrain!
The pressure now affected the Freebeast judgement a bit as they could see that with a decent charge roll Harold coul barrel into Zorro and finish him off denying Attrition so Spero took one for the team and flew into contact with Aethelred but in such a way as to block any potential charge by Harold. Inevitably the bird's attackwas blocked by yet another perfect roll by Zorro!
Harold though as has been his strategy in all the games to date decided to go for the easy target and made it into charge contact with fledr even after the short difficult terrain roll which was disappointing for Fleder. The attack was not enormously successful though doing 4 damage after fleder opted to replace her 2 on a d4 with Volpe's d4/1 to gat a fate point for later. She might still survive!
Renard move charged Aethelred and rolled a perfect 8 which would be a 18 with the spear bonus and outnumbering but....Aethelred unbelievably rolled his 4th perfect in a row - and still had 'Lucky' unused! 6 points of damage only and now he was pinning three Freebeasts. This was not in their plan!
Spitze rather foolishly attacked Edward rather than focussing and leaving the table with a +2 insurance in the bag. However he got lucky and although he swung and missed he escaped off table untouched as Edward rolled very poorly and the Stag beetle just whiffed again.
Turn 3
Volpe v Harold for initiative...
Both rolled perfects!! However Volpe won as her 13 beat Harold's due to the -2 for the super heavy magic armour!
Volpe chose Fate's path again which may have been a mistake as Fate's twist forcing 3 rerolls on the Royalists might have worked out better. She rolled 1s on both the d6 and d4 band 8 on d8 and 12 on d12 so probably useful.
Harold returned to his murdering of Fleder and rather ineptly took both attacks to put her OOA even after her rerolls. This was a sad turn of events for the Freebeasts as Attrition was now out of the window and it might get worse if Zorro were to die.
However Zorro now had some luck. He focussed and legged it rolling a perfect on his nimbleness and for once it was not matched by Aethelred. It was literally the best result possible as it meant that there was no opportunity to use 'Lucky' for Aethelred so the bleeding and hurt Zorro limped off unscathed this turn.
Foiled in his attempt to gain a killy XP by Spitze's departure Edward moved and charged Spero inflicting a healthy 7 and leaving it to the Stag beetle to finish off the bird. Once again the beast was distracted and did no damage. It rolled no better than a 3 all game and clearly needs training.
Aedith moved and focussed in preparation to actually do something useful in the game having been a spectator to date.
Renard decided to force Aethelred to use 'lucky and took Volpes d8/8 for his attack. After rolling low Aethelred was forced to use 'Lucky' which he had been hoping to use v Spero but still took a couple of damage. Renard was now faced with the decision of whether to attack again now 'Lucky' was used or make his escape. He obviously chose escape as a true Freebeast leaving Spero to his fate!
With Spero ' and about to take two free attacks when it flew as it was 'pinned' by both Aethelred and Edward the Royalists now made a mistake and went with Edwyn who move / moved in order to get line of sight tp Volpe tucked away behind the hill/cliff in the corner. This was a major error as the Freebeasts suddenly remembered that a mini can move out of contact up to 2" and not be attacked. Why it took so long to remember is a mystery but it was the saving of Spero who wibbled about an inch away from her attackers and headed for the exit easily making it with 12" flight. Curses!
Effectively the game was over as at the start of turn 4 Volpe won initiative and stepped off the board leaving the Royalists to amble off the corner whenever they wished but unable to kill anything else for their support quest and having failed the side quest.
Situation at game end
And so the game came to an end which was a little disappointing for both but shows the assymetric nature of Burrows and Badgers quite well. From the start the Freebeasts knew they were not going to win the main quest but had they not left Fleder hanging after choosing to definately kill Athelstan by putting Pain on him they could have walked off with 2 XP each. Had Aethelred not rolled a d8/8 for his terrain roll the damaging melee would not have occurred either.
Harold the tank does now seem pretty invulnerable and in the second half of the season it will be interesting to see what approaches magical or otherwise the opposing teams take against him. The Freebeasts have been unlucky so far and will be hoping to turn things around after the NPL winter break!
Freebeasts
The Freebeasts all gained 1XP due to their support quest except Fleder which was a shame as they would have gone up a level but having rolled blinded in one eye had to miss out on training to rest. This gives a new slant on blind as a bat... Spero also missed wanderings due to Lacerations and will miss game 4. It is possible he might retire to a monastery and be replaced I suspect. Volpe did advance via training and in a good way as she realised that her fortitude stat was wrong and should have been an 8 all along. She then rolled and advanced this stat to d10 which should help.
Despite only having only Spitze, Lapin and Renard a-wandering they managed todo really well avoiding Upkeep and getting 6gpas well as generating 31gp to add to the19gp they rolled from the main quest for 56 gp Some of this will be used to buy anti- Harold tech. They decided to save all to add to whatever mid season bonus they would receive.
The Royalists had less to do post game. Athelstan was laid up but did advance gaining d8 Strike. Aedith also advanced and was able to chose a new spell taking Purifying flame which might not be the best choice but we will see. Everyone else gained 2XP except bully Harold who took an extra for killing Fleder! Wanderings were unimpressive bringing in only 15 GP to add to the 27 GP they had won from the quest but did reduce upkeep by 10 so ended up with 42 GP and the ability to reduce equipment spending by a whole d4 on 4 items...Shopping at Aldi. They also picked up another Caliver from the guy who is giving away guns! This might be sold to add to the mid season transfer budget!
At the mid season break when everyone has played everyone else the table looks like this
Clearly the Hillfolk have done better than expected and the freebeasts much worse. Fortunately the mid season balancing kicks in at this point which seeks to make sure the second half of the season remains competitive. Each team will receive subsidy depending on their position which those at the bottom recieving more than those at the top ie 40 Gp for the Freebeasts but only 10 for the Hillfolk with 30 and 20 for the Rogues and Royalists respectively.
During the mid season transfer window the Hillfolk having invested heavily in tunnels will only have 10gp. The Royalists will have a healthy 52gp, the Rogues 30 gp and the Freebeasts a whopping 76. Before the second half of the season we will see who is retired and replaced and what will be bought to counter the oppositions' strengths.
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