My playgroup started a campaign using Hot Spots: Draconis Reach on Wednesday and I thought it might be fun to keep track of it here on Tumblr! The post with my list is here, our other players are representing the Draconis Combine, Federated Suns, and another merc crew.
Le Blanc, Federated Suns, 3151
“The job wasn’t exactly glamorous, but working for the Draconis Combine rarely was. The Dracs had been forced to abandon Le Blanc, an arid border world, to the Federated Suns in 3150, and the newly re-opened hiring hall on the planet had promptly become a coordinating point for FedSun-sponsored raids into the Combine. It was a reliable, predictable angle for enterprising lucrewarriors - but we were going to be working the other side of it. Tai-i Rebecca Anderson, the most overworked and frazzled mercenary relations officer I’ve ever seen, was working with the yakuza clans still on-world to destablize merc activity on Le Blanc, maybe even make a go for the FedSun headquarters or the hiring hall if things went well. All she needed was some mercenaries of her own to provide the muscle - and that’s where we came in. The job probably wouldn’t make us popular with the region’s small-time merc crews (and I despise desert planets), but that was a risk I was willing to take. The way I figured it, we’d dust off with a fat influx of sea-bills well before anyone could even think about retaliation. No Guts, No Galaxy, like that kid on the holoshows used to say.”
“Our first two months on the job were spent planning the raid from orbit with Tai-i Anderson (who, for the record, never let on that she was ISB, but definitely was) and the major oyabuns and then being smuggled onto Le Blanc by the yakuza and preparing our positions. Come March, everything was ready for us to make our attack on the city of Port Paix. With some enthusiastic yakuza at our back, all that stood between us and those juicy supply depots was a Lance or so of greenhorn scrubs. And a surprise sandstorm, which forced us to pay our techs for overtime. Did I mention I hate desert planets?”
- Corbin “Blackguard” Beckett, Captain of the Varangian Guard
Battle Report under Break
Pregame
My opponent (the other mercenary) and I ended up taking our first contracts on Le Blanc, one of the recommended starting planets, while our House-affiliated group mates duked it out…elsewhere (I really don’t know). Since he said he didn’t care which half of the contract he did, I claimed the “raid” half of things, figuring it would probably favour my speedy, close-range oriented force. I used rep to get a higher base pay, as i was satisfied with 50% transport coverage and wasn’t really planning on doing too much salvage from my opponent anyways. The first Track on our contract was the Raid objective, with the caveat that I was supposed to destroy the two indicated buildings rather than steal things from them. I would receive 50 bonus SP for each building destroyed with the caveat that more than half of my starting units needed to cross the center line, and he would receive 100 SP for each non-support unit of mine he destroyed or crippled. This seems like a more balanced objective than the base Raid at first blush, since the attacker can’t be screwed over by a lack of hand actuators, but the fact is that defending buildings (especially 30SP buildings) from a human opponent is basically impossible since BT lacks any kind of aggro mechanic. I doubt I would have fared any better on the defense than my opponent did.
We started off by rolling for maps (we ended up with two copies of the Corporate Center map sheet, which the Draconis player graciously provided) and complications. I was on Liason command rights while my opponent was Integrated, which I regard as basically a death sentence. I rolled a result that meant I was caught in a sandstorm - I had to spend 25 SP per unit deployed or else have that unit take -1MP for the entire game. Given my list and objective, this was not an option, so I burned the full 125 SP. ouch, considering that I was already in the red from transport costs. My opponent though, proved my view of Integrated correct when he rolled a result that gave me a “small” force of Yakuza allies - 4 BSP galleons and 4 BSP motorized infantry. These were ultimately too slow and weak to be much more than initiative sinks, but they were a welcome addition regardless. After setting up the map, my opponent designated two adjacent buildings as the objectives and deployed his force.
His mercenaries were a very artillery-centric list, consisting of an Archer ARC-5W, a Battle Cobra I, a Kit Fox V, a Mad Dog V, a BSP LRM Carrier, and two BSP Warrior copters with tag. This was slightly bullshit since Tag on the BSP units meant he could dodge the BV tax, but I still wasn’t especially worried. Arrow IV is nasty, but my ‘mechs were fast enough to get under them and the city would afford me ample cover. I should clarify here that while I overall like my opponent, I was a little annoyed by his sportsmanship here. The main thing was that despite having brought a list with Arrow IV launchers (and TAG), he knew basically none of the rules for artillery, down to whether or not Arrow IV does damage in clusters (it does). I understand that BattleTech has a lot of weird niche mechanics and I’d certainly never expect anyone to know all of them, but I think if you’re going to build around something and have access to the rules you should at least look it up ahead of time. That and one other thing I’ll get to later in the game made me raise my eyebrows a little, but it was still fun regardless.
Round 1: Clay Pigeons and High Explosives
I ended up winning initiative for the first round, which meant little to my opponent as he was happy to keep his ‘mechs mostly immobile behind partial cover and staring down firing-line avenues. I started by cautiously moving my yakuza meatshields allies up behind buildings where they could hide from destructive Arrow Iv, while his machines either stood ready behind height one buildings or lined up angles down long streets. As my actual ‘mechs rolled up into the field, he sent his TAG-copters down aggressively to hopefully mark targets for the rockets, trusting in their +5 TMMs to keep them alive.
The board at the end of the first movement phase - note that his black lanner is a proxy for a Mad Dog, and I have two of his unpainted scouts proxying for galleons. The red dice at the far end of the map represent my objective buildings.
This shooting phase ultimately went pretty well for me - my Maxim peppered the battle cobra with SRM shots, forcing a PSR (which the Battle Cobra failed on a 4 - a harbinger of its poor performance overall this game), neither copter landed its TAG, the Kit Fox did some indirect shooting that ultimately did nothing, and the archer whiffed its shots against my firefly. By some miracle, Captain Beckett popped the fuck off when firing his large laser into one of the Warrior copters to activate TSM - he hit box cars and the fragile craft careened down into the roof of a corporate building. It wasn’t all rosy, though - that goddamned Mad Dog rolled an 11 and dropped an Arrow Iv rocker right onto my poor firefly - fortunately it survived with no armour breaches and Mechwarrior Tau passed her PSR, but that was tough. I would have to be especially cautious with the light ‘mech going forward. I held off on activating TSM with Foley’s Ostsol (I now believe this to have been a minor mistake), but the Neanderthal bounced up to 9 heat and prepared to smash. With first blood drawn and a strong aggressive position, I was very confident going into round 2.
Round 2: Requiem for a Battle Cobra
I lost initiative this round, and this is where having the insane numbers I did really started to pay off. Without expendable brave Yakuza backing me up, it would have been easier for my opponent to blunt the advance of my melee death machines, and possibly set up some truly punishing response fire. As it was, I had to play cagey for another round, doing my best to figure out where I could let my TMMs cover for aggressive positions. My opponent kept his mechs largely in the same positions, every unit standing still except for the Battle Cobra, which rose to its feet before holding its ground, and the surviving helicopter, which moved into position to hunt some yak. For my part, I ran my Ostsol right up to get to fisticuffs with the Battle Cobra, managing to get just under the guns of the Kit Fox, while my Neanderthal took cover behind a height one building to set up a next-turn advance on the objectives. The Maxim quickly ducked behind the same building the enemy Archer was using for shelter, hiding it from the eyes of dangerous enemies, and my Starslayer and Firefly jumped ahead to back up the Neanderthal’s upcoming attack.
Shooting here was a little bloodier, with the Mad Dog managing to blow up one of my Galleons and put some damage into my Neanderthal with secondary attacks while the Kit Fox used the AoE effect of artillery to target the space *behind* my Ostsol and still deal damage to it - fortunately, neither of the 5-damage groups found my Ostsol’s rear torso armour. Also on that front, the Battle Cobra missed both its point-blank LRM shots while the LRM carrier itself managed to put a 9-damage hit into the heavy’s center torso. The helicopter whiffed its TAG yet again, but the Archer brutalized my Starslayer slightly, which managed to make its PSR and keep its feet. On my end, the Ostsol dumped all its pulse lasers except one into the Battle Cobra (which did not repeat its pratfall from last turn), the Galleon and infantry utterly failed to shoot down the copter, but my Neanderthal managed to dump both a regular large laser and large pulse laser into the Archer's center torso, continuing a dominant performance by captain Beckett. The starslayer whiffed its own shots into the helicopter and the firefly did the same whilst trying to put ER medium lasers into the Battle Cobra. In melee, the Ostsol and Battle Cobra kicked one another with neither going down - while I kicked myself for not activating TSM on it the previous round. Had I hit the right leg instead of the left on the Cobra, it would have been forced to eat pavement for the remainder of the game.
The board after turn two (not shown - two slow units of yakuza bikers who are still in the back of the map. Fortunately our GM ruled that forces added by complications don’t count towards things like positioning orders).
Overall, things were still looking bullish going into turn 3 - I planned to get right up into my opponents teeth and end the game in explosive fashion while bloodying his nose on the way out.
Round 3: I'm Too Broke To Die!
I won't bury the lead here - that's basically what happened. Winning initiative here especially sealed the deal, as I used the bursts of TSM-enhanced speed from my heavier mechs to get right into my opponent's backline while he moved perhaps one unit. My Neanderthal got nose to nose with the objectives and very close tohis Archer, the Maxim scooted well into the backline, the Firefly kept heading into a flanking maneuver, the Ostsol ran past the Battle Cobra to get to grips with the Mad Dog, with the Starslayer taking position on the road to exchange fire once it became clear that the Cobra would be holding position. As before, my yakuza stooges buddies advanced steadily up, ready to sweep up the spoils.
This *could* have been a very costly turn for me - it was for the Yakuza, certainly, who got two Galleons turned into burning husks by the Kit Fox. The Archer missed its lasers while sending its SRMs (and, hilariously, a NARC that was immediately rendered useless by the Neanderthal's ECM) into the Neanderthal for a grand total of 8 damage, but the Mad Dog clutched way up here as a result of the copter finally landing tag onto the Starslayer. It proceeded to fire a homing missile into the Starslayer for 20 damage while throwing blistering pulse laser-fire onto Foley's Ostsol - triggering two PSRs that I had to spend Edge to pass. Then came the second weird etiquette moment.
My opponent began asking why I was still attacking him when I started to declare targets, given that I was obviously going to take out the objectives this turn. I was kind of taken aback by this - it was asked in an overall neutral tone but the implication that I would be an asshole for returning fire and costing him campaign money kind of paralyzed me to the extent that I couldn't even come up with the reason that he had shot me up that same turn - let alone the reason of blunting him up for next track, which would be the same in-game month. So I just kinda stumbled into agreeing to withdraw, my Neandethal blasting apart the first objective with an alpha strike and then hatcheting the second down while my firefly whiffed shots (that he questioned why I was even making) into the Archer. Like, I don't think he was trying to wheedle for advantage intentionally, but it was just such a strange moment that I was left with a slightly sour taste. Looking back, I should have at least *tried* to punch some structure damage into the Mad Dog - next game I certainly will.
An overall shot of the board with a close-up of the action - note the Neanderthal about to go to town on the objectives.
But I'm still happy with the victory for certain, only my Starslayer ended the bout with structure damage (1 pip done to the left arm) with my Maxim being entirely fresh. Even with that sandstorm and armour repairs, this track has paid off handsomely - and I expect the next one will do even moreso. The Neanderthal was a real all-star here, landing some lucky hits and taking out both objectives, but I’d also like to spotlight the Ostsol for its blistering speed (seriously, this thing becomes a 7/11 with the TSM up) and the Maxim, which I half expected to die immediately but ended up knocking a Clantech medium on its ass - all in all, an excellent showing.
“My lasers melted the first supply depot into slag as the nearby enemy Archer futilely plinked missiles against my Neanderthal’s armour - the cockpit, already sweltering with activated TSM, grew noticeably hotter, and I blinked sweat out of my eyes before bringing the hatchet down on the second depot. The enormous blade crashed through the roof like a meteor, jagging to one side and cutting a deep furrow into the pavement as the building collapsed in a cloud of dust and debris. I had just yanked the weapon free to point threateningly at the Archer when their Captain, over in that Mad Dog, radioed in a surrender and request for mutual withdrawal. I was sorry tempted to refuse and pound these fuckers into scrap - they’d been happy enough to lob artillery at us after all, and it seemed unsporting to call things off now that we were finally at handshake range. But the yak were getting torn up, Molly’s Starslayer showed a gaping breach, and we’d still have another engagement. I accepted, watching these rocket enthusiasts power down weapons and retreat as my people did the same. Foley actually made his Ostsol wave at the retreating Mad Dog, calling out “have a nice day!” to its receding back as we took stock of the damage and regrouped. There wouldn’t be time for full repairs - Anderson wanted us to move on the Feddies’ headquarters, and we were eager to oblige. The sea-bills were sweet, but the prospect of round two was even sweeter.”
- Corbin “Blackguard” Beckett, Captain of the Varangian Guard
Yesterday's game started off like it always does for my space marines, which is to say, disastrously, with a single shot landing a critical hit on my super-heavy tank and blowing it to pieces. At start of turn two, I teleported my terminators behind the enemy supreme commander's battlesuit squad, then I lost the roll-off to go first (which I should win 83% of the time), and he chained several activations to slaughter them.
(pictures taken seconds before disaster)
Ouch, that's my two heaviest-hitting units gone. This was when I began dousing myself in gasoline, but he talked me down and play continued.
I noted that he blew his main hitting power activations and had ended up with a bunch of units right up close to me, close enough for me to charge sequentially but not close enough to give much supporting gunfire to each other. This is not where Tau generally want to be, so I tried to make the best of it.
The basic space marine infantry formation is a dreadful unit, with only six bases worth of space marines and three toothless APCs; they get swamped by almost any other infantry formation. However, I'm playing a variant list that can add crew served guns to the formation, each coming with an APC carrier, which vastly improved their bulk and hitting power, and this "big fucker" tactical formation proved to be my MVP this game.
They charged and broke one enemy scout hovercraft squadron, advancing to give supporting fire for my entrenched infantry assaulting the enemy battlesuit squad, which we smashed, bagging their supreme commander.
Turn three was dominated by my big fucker tacticals engaging his intermingled heavy battlesuit and infantry, which we narrowly won, while his bombers importantly failed to arrive and other units accomplished little.
The superior space marine morale importantly let me rally a bunch of units at the end of turn three, while the cowardly Tau lost heart. One final assault from the tattered remnants of my big fucker tacticals smashed his tanks and established themselves on two objective points.
At this point, I had fulfilled too many victory conditions for his few remaining forces to drive me off the points I held, giving me my first victory against a veteran Epic player.
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I'll be honest - I was pretty ecstatic at winning. Not just against a very good player, but after having two massive gut punches right off the bat. Felt very cathartic and earned in a way I don't usually celebrate wargaming wins.
Epic is much better balanced than about any other GW game I've ever played, and this does not seem to come at much cost to the narrative feeling of a good match. I'll probably write a follow-up post soon on my views on whether miniature wargaming can ever be "good" because Epic Armageddon 40k has made me substantially reassess this.
The Kickapoo
By the 1860s, the Kickapoo, who had originated in present day Illinois, were settled in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Uncomfortable with the ongoing American Civil War, several groups of the Kickapoo decided to go to Mexico, where they had been offered land in return for defending the area. Late in 1864, three groups of Kickapoo started south from Kansas. Among them was No-ko-aht, who would later recount what happened on that journey.
Indiens Kikapoos, Présentés á S.M. Maximilien 1t. | Indios Kikapoos, Presentados á S.M. Maximiliano 1o. 1865. | Indian Kikapoos, Presented to H.M. Maximilien 1. Propiedad del editores.| Lit Decaen y Debray, editores, México, Portal del Coliseo Viejo. | A group of Kickapoo and runaway slaves being presented at the court of the Austrian Archduke Emperor of Mexico Maximilian. [source]
Confederate Mistakes
In December of 1864, a Confederate scouting party found an abandoned Kickapoo campsite about 20 miles southwest of present-day San Angelo. The state militia and a unit of Confederate regulars were dispatched to deal with what were assumed to be hostile Indians. Lack of communication plagued the Confederates from the beginning of the operation. The militia was delayed and the Confederate regulars set out without them. The regulars found the Native camp on Dove Creek, though they erroneously assumed them to be Kiowa or Comanche. When the militia arrived on January 8th, the regulars had already begun plans to attack. The militia, though exhausted from the forced march, was quickly incorporated into the plan. The attack was carried out despite seeing no signs of hostility from the village. Unfortunately for the Confederates, the Kickapoo had carefully selected their campsite and held a good defensive position on the high ground.
Battle
Though the Kickapoo were peaceful towards the Texans, they were well prepared to defend themselves and an estimated 400 to 600 Kickapoo easily repelled the not quite 500 Confederates. The Confederates split into several sections, with one capturing the Kickapoo horses and another two attacking the camp from opposite sides. The battle raged for most of the day. The Kickapoo were able to repulse every attack on their camp, though not without casualties, including women and children. After nightfall, the Kickapoo recaptured some of their horses from the Confederates and the Confederates retreated from the battlefield. After spending several freezing days in their camp, the Confederates would retreat back east.
Aftermath
The Confederates reported 22 dead and 19 wounded and estimated that the Kickapoo had suffered over one hundred casualties, though the Kickapoo themselves reported 12 dead in the fight and 2 who later died from wounds. Brig. Gen. McAdoo later investigated what had happened, and his report was scathing.
"The evidences seemed abundant to all with whom I have conversed that they were civilized Indians and there was nothing discovered that led to the belief that they were unfriendly, further than the simple fact that they were Indians traveling upon the soil of Texas without any notice being given to the civil or military authorities of the country...A brief conversation was had between the two commanders, after which, without any council of war, without any distribution of orders...without any communication with the Indians or inquiry as to what tribe or party they belonged to, without any knowledge of their strength or position, the command 'forward' was given, and a pell-mell charge was made for three miles...No fire was made by the Indians until after they were fired upon...An Indian went out from the encampment with two children...unarmed, with his hands raised, and told Captain Fosset that they were friendly Indians. Fosset told the Indian he recognized no friendly Indians in Texas... and thereupon ordered him shot, which was done. He also, it is said, ordered the children shot, but the men interposed and they were taken as prisoners."
You can read the whole report in the War of the Rebellion records, vol 48, Part 1, pages 26-30.
The Kickapoo continued on their way to Mexico, unable to even stop and bury their dead. They later sent a message to the Texas army repeating their friendly intentions and suggesting that the men who attacked them were lawless and not authorized by the government. McAdoo worried that, without an explanation to the Kickapoo by the government and a treaty with them, they would "return to avenge their losses in the attack." McAdoo proved correct. The unprovoked attack at Dove Creek had enraged the Kickapoo and would lead to years of raids on Texas settlers. An expedition by the 4th US Calvary in 1873 to punish the Kickapoo would more or less bring an end to the raids. Many of the Kickapoo returned to the US after the Civil War was over. Some returned to Kansas while others settled in Oklahoma. Today, the Kickapoo are one of only three federally recognized tribes in Texas. They have a small reservation on the border with Mexico just outside Eagle Pass, in addition to those in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Who else remembers the days of proper battle reports, a list of stores you could draw on a map, and sickly yellow High Elves with extreme black outlines?
Touch of Evil is a board game by Flying Frog games that follows the same mold of classic Fantasy Flight Games like Arkham Horror and Runebound.
In it, you play heroes coming to a small New England village in the wake of the American Revolution. If you've seen Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow it's basically that (in fact I once accidentally played through the plot of that movie down to having a chase scene from the Windmill to the Olde Woods as the final battle while playing the Lord's Daughter and the out of town skeptical police inspector as characters.)
This is a real-estate devouring game so even though I play it solo, I haven't physically had room to play it for a while.
But recently, I got some new tables. So here we go.
I choose the villain randomly, decided to play four heroes, and chose those randomly as well.
The Villain Ended up being the Bog Fiend.
With four heroes, it's wound total was multiplied by four. It also regenerated, caused swamps to appear around the map, when it showed up it left trails of Investigation (the currency of the game filling in for both money and experience). It was also stronger at swamps and would spawn annoying mosquito swarms.
For heroes, I ended up with Katarine, the Outlaw; Lucy Hanbrook, Inspector Cooke, and Heinrich Cartwright, the Drifter.
Katarina is always a strong character to have, she gets hits on 4+ instead of 5+ and she has a high honor so if you get her the Dueling Pistol, she gets even more deadly.
Lucy Hanbrook used to just be an ally you could find exploring the board, but they released a hero version of her eventually. She starts at the Manor rather than Town Hall and begins with 4 Investigation rather than two. Her other two abilities are Youth (allowing her to heal 1 wound at the start of each of her turns or showdown round) and Lucky, allowing her to force an enemy to reroll one die per fight round.
Inspector Cooke's only ability is a powerful one, whenever he gets Investigation from any source... he gets one extra investigation. Which let him build up lots of currency to get stuff.
Heinrich Cartwright's ability is two fold when he draws Events (the hero cards) he draws two and chooses one. And he starts at the Crossroads rather than Town Hall. Side note, this company also has games set in the 1930s and 1990s and a Cartwright using the same actor for the portrait and a profile bio that is almost exactly identical appears in both of those. Fan theory is it is the same person and he's somehow immortal. He wouldn't be the only one, there's a heroic vampire available in a Touch of Evil expansion.
I had an initial early upset when a Mystery (monster cards) caused the discard of the top two cards of every location deck. Among the discarded cards were two of the best items in the game: The Dueling Pistol (which I was actively looking for to give Katarina) and the Rogue's Rapier which enhances three stats: Combat, Honor, and Cunning.
Fortunately, almost immediately after Inspector Cooke drew two copies of an event card that let him grab an item from any discard and since the carry limit is 3 Town/Monastery Items and 1 Item from each Location, he could carry both since they were from different locations (Manor and Abandoned Keep). Then it was just a matter of getting Cooke and Katarina to the same location.
This was also fortuitous as they met on the same part of the board where Heinrich was who was sitting at one wound point left when a card caused the Bog Fiend to attack the hero who rolled the lowest... that being Heinrich... fortunately either Cooke or Katarina had a card that allowed them to prevent hits done to another hero in their location... so Heinrich got away without being KOed and the Shadow Track wasn't advanced as a result.
I also ended up being lucky with Investigation. Lucy had a couple of lucky fights with Angry Trees in the Olde Forest and something else, I forget what, as well as picking up other investigations here and there which let her afford a Crossbow, investigate the secret on one of the town Elders (her mother) and eventually buy a Lair card very early.
(Early game, Lair cards are expensive but the monster is weaker. Late game, Lair cards are cheaper but the monster is much stronger)
Beyond Lucy, I also had Cooke eating up Investigation everywhere allowing him to buy some good gear as well as other things. Likewise, Heinrich was able to buy the Padded Jacket and Pistol from the Blacksmith as well as finding an ally at the Monastery in the form of Brother Darius.
Event cards were also lucky. When I came to sites that generated event cards, I managed never to have a Mystery pop up to make things worse... so I had tons of Event cards going around for generating Investigation, preventing bad things, canceling bad things, placing out Militia tokens, and peeking at Town Elder Secrets.
The Town Elder secrets I also looked out on.
Lady Hanbrook and Magistrate Kroft's secrets were that they were "On the Hunt" and actively moving around the board hunting the monster.
Sophie the Midwife turned out to be a hero of the people and while her ability isn't terribly useful in a fight, it helped to block a Mystery card or monster-event from the Minion card.
Lord Hanbrook's secret was that he was a voyeur, which is a bit gross unless he's setting that up with his wife as a group of consenting adults. It's one of the "Little Secrets" that has no gameplay effect.
Doctor Manning's secret was that he was performing witchcraft. Which is another Little Secret. (There are heroic witches you can play in the game, but overall witchcraft is still a bit frowned on)
Reverend Harding's secret was that he was a War Criminal... which is also a "Little Secret" because while it makes him horrible, it doesn't affect the monster situation.
I never actually got around to finding Doctor Manning's and Reverend Harding's secrets. So they ended the game without their secrets becoming public knowledge.
Then it was a matter of getting everyone enough investigation to get into the Showdown together. (They don't have to get to the location on the board, if they have enough Investigation to pay the cost when someone else starts it, then they get pulled to the site for the fight)
Lucy found the lair at the Blacksmith's and it was a cheap entry cost with a start of combat that is potentially good for the heroes. I made sure everybody was healed before I started the fight as well.
Another note, Lady Hanbrook, Lord Hanbrook, and Sophie all had Resolve Tokens which could either be used to prevent them dying once, or spent to give +2 Fight dice when working with them.
I had already determined that Lord Hanbrook had a harmless secret (for purposes of fighting the monster) and had discovered Lady Hanbrook and Sophie's secrets. I then spent to look at Magistrate Kroft's secret (because his bonus ability gives +2 Fight Dice for fighting enemies with the Beast type... which the Bog Fiend is).
So that gave me the four Elders I needed (1 per hero). I also was lucky enough to be able to place more Militia after buying the lair card so was able to dispatch a Militia to the Blacksmith (one militia token per location, btw).
In the fight, I started with Heinrich since he paid the initial cost (Lucy found the Lair but in a co-op/solo game anybody could pay the cost).
He had a Teamwork event that I used right away after making sure I couldn't just give it to Katarina with her Deadly ability. So that gave him another 6 dice (2 per other hero) and another 2 from having Magistrate Kroft on his pile for a total of 12 dice (the number of dice the game comes with). Rolling those, he managed 7 hits.
Lucy went next, I gave her Sophie and the Militia. She unfortunately lowed roll and only got a single double hit with her crossbow. She might have been KOed but one of the other heroes had a card to prevent her from taking hits.
Katarina then went, with her 7 honor rolled it, and every die was a hit.
Inspector Cooke went next and Katarina spent a card to give him +2 Cunning for one round for a total of 8 and he managed several hits himself.
Coming back around to Heinrich, the monster healed some health and then Katarina played one of her event cards to let him add his Spirit to his Combat for one fight roll. He managed to take the monster out and was spared being KOed simultaneously by Lucy playing a Near Miss event.
Every year I count down the days until GenCon, excited for the adventures waiting to be experienced. Ten consecutive years have taught me that no two people go to the same convention. With more than 17,000 events to choose from, your adventure is entirely unique from everyone else’s. Over the next few days my posts will share some of what I did between Wednesday at 1pm and Sunday at noon of…
Well, that was messy. Just played through the Battle of Vedros boxed set twice - once with just the box, once with reinforcements - 10 grots and a runtherd for Nika’s Boyz, and 3 tactical marines for the Salamanders.
Both times, the Salamanders got pasted by turn 4. Few factors - one, the dice hated them. The second battle had tacticals not scratching grots, and losing three marines in return. Two, no terrain or anything to control line of sight - and the fact that the BoV has you set up 12″ away did not do the more ranged-based marines any favors. Three, sheer numbers. The Salamanders had better saves, but the Orks had a ton more wounds, and a ton more attacks - especially in melee. Four, the rules streamlining did not help the marines. I know there’s something like overwatch against charge attempts, which, let me tell you, would have let the marines get more than two shots off.
I should get both forces written up in Battlescribe, and see how things play out in 8E.
