Npl round 2 - Hillfolk v. Freebeasts - "I'm sure I left it around here"

Round Two of the NPL was Recover the Paychest, Not a quest with many XP at stake but one which the Freebeasts were well set up for as even if they fail in recovering the paychest all survivors walk off with two XP compared to the Hillfolk who if they fail only get 1 XP each. The Freebeasts rolled Isolate which was going to be tough while the Hillfolk were luckier with Deliver a message which Eun the bird was well capable of with Flight.

At game start the table looked as below with the freebeasts in the SE corner and the Hillfolk largely out of site behind the tree and reuined cottage in the NW corner. All walls and fences count as less than half height to any figure on a medium or larger base. The patch of woodland on the dark green base counted as line of sight blocking unless physically at the edge when it allowed partial LoS but it was not considered difficult terrain - imagine open ancient woodland. The stream was difficult terrain. The line of low trees in the North was the table edge there as my tiles are 2' x 2'. The paychest is currently balanced on the small round building in the centre!

After a disappointing start against the Rogues the Freebeasts were looking to bounce back, especially Volpe the magic user who had been as much use as a chocolate fireguard in game one. To aid this she now had a lovely mages handbag with bear tooth to help cast Ftes Twist when it was really important. Both the other foxes had sadly underperformed in game one and were hoping for better especially Zorro who now had Lapin's bow and and d8 Ranged. Spitze and Spero were both looking for walk on/off parts to pick up 2 XP and Advance so were keen to do as little as possible.

Broc and Feorag had done very little in game one, Broc went OOA to a killing blow before even wielding his pole arm and Feorag had turned up late then stood around spectating. Fiadhaic and pipes had carried the Hillfolk game one but after buying Heavy armour for Broc to help his survivability there was little cash to go around and all there was went on a mages pouch for Feorag and some ingredients.

The Hillfolk plan was straightforward, Pipes would get up into the ruined cottage to get a firing bonus to provide shooting into the centre, he would play his tunes as needed with run faster(burst of speed) and run away (slippery) being the most useful probably. Feorag would take position in cover but central to knock out Cure or Haste (probably on Broc). Lugh and Faidhaich were the searchers/attackers around the paychest and Eun was to attempt to grab an objective for the what seems impossible Hillfolk quest. If this was contested he was to fly off with the message and at least get an XP for everybody. Broc was being held slightly back ready to be Hasted into action if when needed.

The Freebeasts very much wanted Volpe to get her act together a cast at least one spell per turn as both are powerful in a dice dependent game. Lapin was to get into the tower and use the +2 for height on his new fangled Caliver with Broc being a priority target. A mistake was made here though as the caliver range is a mighty 36" not 18" as played here. Renard was to be the paychest runner with his armour while Zorro to position for an ambush. Fleder who had done well against the rogues was tasked with getting Pain off on Broc or Fiadhaic and as already mention Spero and Spitze were happy with walk on parts. Perhaps Spero might score Isolate if possible but that seemed unlikely.

Turn 1

Pipes won the initiative roll played 'run faster' and scampered a full 6" into position by rolling well on his difficult terrain roll. Here we see her piping away merrily. Volpe then successfully cast 'Fates Path' and managed an 8 on a d8 which was useful though the other dice were meh! As she had focussed she stayed where she was. In fact she did not move for the entire game.

The rest of the turn was all movement. Lapin entered the tower and took up position with his movement. From here he could hit almost everywhere if he had realised it...

Lugh moved near the Paychest building and Feorag hid behind the tree. For simplicity the base of the tree is counted as blocking terrain as it is too much of a pain trying to see through trunks and low foilage and for me detracts from immersion. Makes sense that a figure using a tree for concealment hugs the trunk.

Fleder flew up towards the centre but kept the tree base between herself and pipes up in the ruins. This was a poor move in retrospect as she did not need to go as far and could have move/focussed instead.

Fiadhaic also used the tree base here to get cover from an early turn 2 shot by Lapin, the base of whose tower is visible in the background.

Broc instead just moved once and focussed ready for a possible turn 2 Hasty triple action... As per game one hill contours block line of sight to everything except units on the same hill. A second contour would provide enough height for a height advantage. This is an imperfect solution but easy to remember.

Zorro, Renard and Spitze all moved into their positions in partial cover.

Finally the two birds headed off to either opposite edge using flight. Eun moved up to the LoS blocking woods ready to fly and interact with the nearest objective if possible and Spero headed for the ruins in the west looking to live out the battle!

Turn 2

Turn 2 began with Volpe once again successfully casting, this time Fates Twist which would be able to force three enemy rerolls in the turn. A very useful spell cast early.

Lugh then ran out to the Paychest building and took cover hiding as far as possible from Lapin and Zorrow. This was not entirely possible even for a small mouse!

To 'waste' an activation in the hope of forcing actions from the Hillfolk, Spero focussed and moved about an inch, apparently fascinated by the stonework in the ruin below. Once again the plan here was firstly to survive and secondly to grab the Isolate quest if an opportunity arose.

In response Eun did a similar move in the forest section admiring the mossy boughs...

Renard decided to trust his armour and moved next to the Paychest building (hereon known as 'the beehive' and focussed. At this point both sides were being cagey and Faidhaic moved into the forest out of sight and Spitz moved and put up Guard. Two important moves did then happen. Deciding that Broc was going to touch the beehive this turn Pipes played 'dodge' to give him a bit of missile cover and focussed in case a Freebeast target appeared. Then Fleder decided the fight was way too close and retired just far enough away that Pain would still affect the Beehive area and then focussed.

Enter Broc. He move / moved up to the Beehive but was too big to claim anything but partial cover. Lapin fired and interacted to reload. Smoke exploded from the tower windownand Broc was hit bad with a perfect 6. His defence was also good though on a 5 but the black powder weapon and height advantage cancelled out both partial cover and then his armour and toughness. Broc was in trouble. That trouble became worse when Volpe's Fates Twist caused a reroll to a 4. All in all Broc took 8 points of damage even with dodgy in play.

Feorag then had to move and cast a quick cure without focus needing 4-6 and luckily rolled a 5 so Broc was back to 3 and avoiding any minuses. Huzzah! However Volpe then asked for her second reroll.... hiss, boo! Tension was high as feorag rerolled and got a 4 so the spell was cast but Broc was now on -1 so good call by Volpe.

The turn then ended in anticlimax as Zorro just did a sneak hoping to catch someone next turn.

Turn 3

Drama straight away as Lugh move / charged Renard! This was less to damage but pin him until the big hitters arrived and stop him successfully searching and running off with the paychest which was a decent chanceas had a focus and had just gained an extra fate point in the roll off for initiative. However lugh rolled perfect and Renard only average. Renard was looking at going to -2 on all rolls going forward as there is no heal in the Freebeast crew. However disappointingly for Lugh he used the fatepoint gained at initiative to reroll and hit a perfect 6 swatting aside all damage. Huzzah for the Freebeasts! Liberty or ..leg it!

Volpe then tried an early turn focus/ cast but failed. Head hung in shame. Not even a photo.

More Dramas. Faidhaic took his chance and move charged into Renard whilst he was in contact with Lugh and would get +3 mods in total. But wait Zorro emerged from Sneaking and countercharged rolling a massive charge roll and then using the 8 from Fates Path on turn 1 to absolutely batter Fiadhaic who rolled poorly and rerolled identically. Fiadhaic was close to OOA on 13 damage. His subsequent attack on Renard had lost its impetus with so many minuses cancelling the +3 and only did 2 points after toughness. This was not good and now it was Zorro's turn to actually activate!

Zorro attack/attacked the wounded Fiadhaic but rolled badly and even using a reroll did only 1 more point of damage leaving Fiadhaic as a dead cat walking but still walking!

Step up Feorag. Moving closer and casting Cure with a perfect 6 she restored 13 points back to Fiadhaich who was back in the game thanks to Squirrel of the match (Sotm) Feorag.

Sotm Feorag saves Fiadhaic with a 13 point Cure spell!

Lapin now shot and reloaded at Broc again as Feorag was all out of Cure! He rolled a perfect 6 and there was much rejoicing amongst the Freebeasts but Broc also rolled a perfect and the lead ball pinged off his armour to no effect! Some called it lucky, and they were absolutely right!

However his luck did not hold forever and Fleder rashly moved from her safe place to get a LoS on Broc to cast Pain and it went through forcing Broc to act as Stunned until Fleder takes damage. In other news Eun flew off to interact with the objective but at this point realised there was more to be gained from just flying off the corner so had wasted a move. Worse she was move/charged by Spitze which was as unlikely across the difficult terrain stream as it was unwelcome and Eun took 5 damage unnecessarily.

Broc decided to charge Fleder to remove the Stunned by killing her and made it. However due to stunned it all went wrong and he totally failed due to Stunned! He was left standing over Fleder like angry but incompetent badger. Which he was.

The turn ended when Renard turned his attention to Fiadhaic and attacked him twice but with the actual 9 lives of a cat Fiadhaic escaped with a mere 4 damage.

At this point the Freebeasts somewhat lost their heads and Spero for literally no good reason flew/charged Feorag. This would have been a weak unarmed attack had it succeeded but obviously it did not only doing 2 damage.

And so ended turn 3 in the balance.

Turn 4

The turn started with Volpe and Pipes duelling for initiative and Volpe again winning but then again failing her focus/cast roll. It's no wonder she has no mates as she is pretty useless. Pipes then played Slippery as the hillfolk plan this turn was to retire and reform with Eun flying off as it now seemed unlikely they would get away with the paychest. Pipes also fired his first shot at the day risking a shot at the Fleder/Broc shenanigans to try and remove the Stunned from Broc. This was all successful hitting Fleder and inflicting 8 damage which was more than enough to seal her fate.

Zorro now went for the Freebeasts and attack/attacked Fiadhaic once again doing a ton of damage despite Fiadhaics apparent Shieldmastery (Ha!). Fiadhaic was now on 13 damage again and looking to pure luck to survive. Luck paid a call and no more damage got through! Before luck changed it's mind Fiadhaic activated and using Slippy - played by Pipes - move / moved as far as he could away from danger!

Spero then once again made the poor decision to hang around and attack/ attack Feorag again but this time with the spear but even so managed only 3 more damage. In case Renard decided to follow Fiadhaic and finish him off Fiadhaic unselfishly focussed and cat Cure on Fiadhaich again successfully putting 6 life back onto him. At 7 he would be unlucky to die to a single attack now.

In the East on the far bank of the stream Spitze tried to finish off Eun who's plan was now obvious. However it seemed he had used his good fortune in the previous round and did zero damage, twice. Eun laughed in his face and using slippy flew / flew off the Freebeasts' corner gaining an XP for everyone plus one for himself and 10gp into the bargain. The photo is blurry due to the speed of the actions...

Lapin tried once again to shoot Broc but at this point it was realised he needed to pass a fearsome test as Broc is Fearsome. He did not and as a result missed the shot because of the -2 and reloaded. The inability to take a focus due to reloading was telling.

Broc then mashed Fleder. No ifs or buts doing almost enough to take her OOA without the earlier damage. In fact so pleased with himself was he that he forgot his second action.

Renard could perhaps have focussed and searched the Beehive but instead decided to work over Lugh with two attacks but only did 6 in total and Lugh decide it was 'slippy time' move moving into contact but not combat with Spero to help out Feorag.

At this point both sides were reasonably happy, Fiadhaich could look forward to another Cure and return to combat, Broc was free of stunned and unpinned (though still incompetent apparently) and the look out was poor for Feorags assailant as pipes would again play slippy and shoot Spero. The Free beasts were equally content only Spero looked in danger now Fleder was OOA and they had also realised the Caliver was 36" range. Renard was likely to get the paychest away covered by Zorro and Spitze.

Sadly variable turn length intervened on a 6 and the game was over!

Post battle

So who won? I think I am calling this a draw as neither side achieved the quest and essentially they walked off with 1 point difference in XP earned with the Hillfolk shading it 13 to 12. Some might say the Hillfolk were winning having taken one Freebeast out of action but on the other hand the Freebeasts were definitely more likely to win had the game continued. So 2 points each seems a fair result.

Hillfolk

The Hillfolk did pretty well this game as all gained 2 XP through the main Quest and Eun completing the side quest. As a result all advanced in Experience and gained a skill (in red) or in the case of Feorag an especially lucky stat rise in Fortitude. In monetary terms they only received a total of 36 GP after Eun's message delivery and wanderings but did get a Caliver from the overly generous gunsmith. this wealth provided Fiadhaic with a light shield and light armour, a sword for Pipes (just in case) and his buckler. Eun surprisingly gained the Caliver. Pipes is always going to be piping so cannot afford the interaction required to be reloading the caliver. Upkeep was avoided thanks once again to the welcoming hamlet.

Freebeasts all (except Fleder) gained 2 XP, one for taking part and one for existing. Three of them Renard, Zorro and Lapin spent post game training to them the 5th XP needed for advancement while the other 3 went wandering. As such all but Volpe and Fleder Advanced with a mixed bag of results (in red), some stat increases and some skills. This meant little cash was raised in the wanderings allowing only a sword and some arrows to be purchased though Volpe did scam free upkeep. The sword went to Lapin and the arrows to Zorro. On the plus side they all passed their health checks except Fleder who was enfeebled and had to sit out wanderings. 20 Gp went to pension.

The main points learned here was that a caliver is a beast of a weapon but will be almost impossible to focus due to moving or reloading. It can break heavy armour easily and should be set up turn one to cover as much as possible.

Secondly the pipes are massive for the Hillfolk, Slippery and run faster are key skills however I still think their Hillfolk sidequest is nowhere near as good as the other quests. Had they not rolled Deliver a message the plan this time was to grab an objective and try and chain move it back to their own corner but realistically this would involve such opportunity costs it would require abandoning the main quest entirely. It would be better if they just gained an XP for a mini that took an objective off any edge.

Thirdly the Freebeast side quest is just way too good and unbalances the post game sequence. Essentially they would be in the same or better position at this point in terms of XP if they had just stayed in their corner and wandered off at the earliest opportunity. All would now be advanced without doing anything. That seems like a problem unless I am missing something?

Next game - Rogues v Royalists, same table, same quest!