SoBH - Fightin' Fungi Playtest #2

After a couple of weeks of no dice rolling, MacSver tripped down to the hobby shed to put some of these draft SoBH Fightin Fungi rules to the test. Again it should be noted that some of these rules are in flux, in fact since playing the game I've got access to the playtest forum and a few of the crucial rules regarding armour\shields and reactions will be slightly different. Just something to bear in mind when reading this report.

 MacSver used the same warband as last playtest as some of the rules were not exposed to play last time.

Dwarves:
Personality Points: 100 (29%) Warrior Points: 250 (71%) Total Points: 350

• Valgen Maest - Personality Points:100 Quality:2 Combat:3 Armoured, Leader, Magic Shield, Shield, Short Move
• Falster Vonlyr Points:62 Quality:3 Combat:4 Armored, Fearless, Shield, Shield Rush, Short Move
• Halgar Snowbeard Points:36 Quality:3 Combat:3 Low Kick, Shield, Short Move
• Oggi Redbeard Points:44 Quality:3 Combat:3 Shield, Short Move, Way of the Intercepting Fist
• Squint Ironsights Points:48 Quality:3 Combat:3 Crossbow, Fire Into Melee, Short Move
• Ireheart Points:60 Quality:3 Combat:4 Hammering Blow, Shield, Short Move, Steadfast

I, on the other hand, decided to try and test out some new rules, music and some magic, so pulled out some lower Quality troops to test.

Ratmen:

• Ratman Spellcaster;Points:116; Quality 3;Combat 1Fearless,Leader,Spell:Noxious Cloud,Spell:Protection From Arrows,Spell:Trip,Spell:Wall of Fear,Spellcaster
• 4 x Ratman Spearman;Points:36;Quality 4;Combat 3;Gregarious,Long Reach,Shield
• 2 x Ratman Warrior;Points:27;Quality 4;Combat 3;Gregarious
• Ratman Musician;Points: 27;Quality 4;Combat 3;Gregarious,Music

After the lessons learned last time out both sides were using the "free move" rule a sthey headed towards each other. The Rats came through the junction buildings,

Whilst the Dwarves came along the road, their progress slower as they had short move.

Valgen and Squint moved up to the corner to cover and support the main group's advance as the swarm of rats came into view.

Boosted by the leader s proximity and their gregarious nature the main body of  rats charged along the road, without even needing the reroll backup of the musician (musicians within Long of a group give them a reroll of a failed activation). Squint was immediately taken out by a warrior and long reaching spearman combo.

One of the rats trailing back with the leader failed 2 activation dice though. This not only handed the dwarves a turnover as usual, but gave Valgen the chance to get a free activation, which he got and used to move back to his main body of troops.

The other action was passed and used by Red Beard to rush forward and engage a rat warrior.

Now the Dwarves activated. Redbeards free move left him free to dedicate both his activations rolls to a power attack, and he effectively killed his. foe.

The rest of the dwarves closed in, each one picking an individual target in the close knot of rats.

The rats tried to respond. One warrior fought back on Valgen, but was knocked down. Ireheart, with his large warhammer, was attacked. He rolled a one and with his Hammering Blow trait and had to survive a free hack from his opponent. Fortunately his veteran level combat helped him, and he just suffered a pushed back result (which was soon to prove very important!)

The relative poor quality of the rats was starting to take it's toll and a lagging rat only passed one of it's two activation dice. Snowbeard moved into contact with the fallen rat in front of Valgen. Snowbeard has the Low Kick trait that let him have a free hack at a fallen foe. The free hack did no damage as the rat's shield defence roll saved him.

The dwarves now activated. Snowbeard followed up his free movement and kick wit a proper attack. With the rat having already used a shield defence this turn it did not have any extra chance to ward off the attack and was killed.

The dwarves now had their turn. Straight Ireheart passed 3 dice to charge into the Leader spellcaster and do a power attack. The match-up was already one sided, but Ireheart managed a 6 on his combat rolled that gave him a +2 bonus thanks to his Hammering Blow trait. The target was insurmountable and the ratman leader was literally hit for six.

The loss of leader coupled with the drop of force size below 50% caused the dreaded multiple moral tests for the rats and they scattered.

All except one however, who was engaged by Valgen and Redbeard before the turn ended.

With all hope seemingly lost the lone ratman moved to attack the Dwarf leader. He rolled 2 fails though, and the free activations were passed and used by Falster and Snowbeard to close into the spearman before their turn even started.

The rest is to gruesome to describe, suffice to say that the 4 dwarves just needed the gore washed from them afterwards, and MacSver was celebrating a Dwarf Victory.

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Thoughts:

Well after a promising start it all went wrong for my ratmen. My music trait went untested, but have become useful have my roll not worked. Perhaps a bit wasted on the gregarious rats, but one to consider for other low quality forces like Orcs. It should be noted that once the fighting starts the melee skill of the musician is decreased by one, so like a standard bearer, this is a "free" special rule with a cost.

After all the excitement of the new spells for magic users I never managed to test any of them. I did cast the "protection from arrows" near the start but this used action left me lagging behind my (now) unsupported troops and was useless once the dwarf crossbowman was taken out. Magic remains a situational ability. With the ranges still on the short side, the spellcaster must be at the edge of the action to cast, which is a dangerous place to be with a low combat. Also some of the more powerful area spells become useless (or at best risky) once the hand-to-hand combat starts.

It was good to see some of the dwarf chosen traits being used. Low Kick turned out to be potentially quite useful, even against shielded foes, and we saw the good and bad of Hammering Blow (although both need a bit of clarification for certain situations).

The biggest experience to be taken from the game, however, was the effect of poor quality with the reaction rule. In "normal" SoBH quality 4+ or worse is a real shackle to overcome. If you add into the mixed that every failed dice (even if it's only one) can give the enemy and extra action some really solid tactics (and luck!) are going to be needed to have an effective force. Not that it might not be fun trying however!