Campaign reboot - and then there were 3

The "First Contact" battle that was posted was meant to be the first battle in a new Dwarves vs Beastmen Songs Of Blades and Heroes campaign. But a mutual friend, Paul, had expressed an interest in the playing the game, so was invited in. As we only meet every fortnight this did leave us the quandary of how to play a campaign with 3 players, but we've decided to have a go at running a series of 3 way battles and see how it gets on. We are social gamers after all!

Now some of the scenarios in the "Songs of Deeds and Glory" campaign are not compatible with a multiplayer battle, so I've been looking at adapting or changing them so that we still have a random table to roll on. Still using the table from Songs of Deeds and Glory I've made a few alterations (in red):


Scenario Table (Roll Two Dice)

Dice Roll	Scenario Played
2	Ambush - Presplit each force into 2 groups, each group must be at least a third of the warband points total. Instead of 2 counters per figure just have 3 counters per side. One Dummy, Two real. As per Ambush instructions. Player gets to choose which warband segment is revealed if it is not the dummy
3	Treasure Hunt
4	Place of Power
5	On Difficult Ground
6	Seize the flag. Each warband has a home base with a "flag". First warband to seize and carry anothers flag off their table edge wins. Mounted figures can't carry flags. Flag carriers fight as per standard bearers.
7	Burn Them Out. - Still to be finalised
8	Assassination - All figures are numbered. Each player randomly selects (and secretly notes) one figure in each opposing warband. Winner is the player who has killed the most of their appointed secret targets. In a tie, point victory point per 20pts killed forces. If an opposition force kills your target - tough! - you can't claim for it.
9	Seize the High Ground
10	Accidental Meeting - Set up a per ambush, except that players don't know which counters represent which force. Players can position counters as per rulebook scenario. In 3 player each player can position one of their own and one from each of the other two forces. Must be more than long from another counter. Pre-split the forces with one force being as close as possible to a third of the warband size. WHen counter activates roll a die. 1 or 2, false alarm; 3 or 4 smaller group; 5 or 6 larger group
11	Take the Land
12	Holdout : organise armies as per rules. 3 VP for routing/killing an initial force before reinforcements arrive. Otherwise 1VP per 20pts

10mm Painting Comp Entry

Here's my first (rather optimistically indicating there may be a late second one) entry to the Pendraken 2012 Painting Competition. The standard of painting really makes a mockery of the scale. I'm not expecting to win anything, but am using the comp as a bit of motivation to get some painted. My ratmen, however, may be a bit too late to get finished in time, but I will get them done at least...

First Contact

Battlefield: Hill Land
Weather: Strong Wind
Scenario: Burn 'em Out
Defender: Johan's Beast Herd

Forces:

Valgen Maest's Dwarf Warband

LEADER / PERSONALITY:
Valgen Maest- Dwarf Commander (Sword, Shield, Chainmail).
Points: 95, Quality 2+, Combat 4, Special Rules: Leader, Fearless.
WARRIORS:
Falster Vonlyr - Elite Warrior (Heavy weapon & Shield)
Points: 46, Quality 3+, Combat 4, Special Rules: Short Move, Steadfast, Fearless
Harthic Urduum - Warrior (Hand weapon & shield)
Points: 34, Quality 3+, Combat 4, Special Rules: Short Move
Ovthur Whurdar - Crossbowman (Chainmail, crossbow)
Points: 24, Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Short Move, Medium Shooter
Rangar Doomquarrier: Gunner (Blunderbuss)
Points: 41, Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Short Move, Short Shooter, Blast
Glanthur Harfik - Cavalry (riding a bear)
Points: 52, Quality 3+, Combat 4, Special Rules: Mounted.

Johan's Beast Herd

LEADER / PERSONALITY:
Johan Tierpfleger - Human Leader
Points: 60, Quality 3+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Leader

WARRIORS:
Torgor (Beastman 1)
Points: , Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Forester, Savage
Kragos (Beastman 2)
Points: , Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Forester, Savage
Arax (Beastman 3)
Points: , Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Forester, Savage
Sidern (Beastman 4)
Points: , Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Forester, Savage
Jamwar (Young Minotaur)
Points: , Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Dashing, Savage
XertonJamwar (Centaur Archer)
Points: 75, Quality 4+, Combat 3, Special Rules: Big, Savage, Long Move, Long Shooter

Setup:

The beastmen had a hut in the center of the board. The dwarves were to simply burn it down (which took one action) with one of the 3 torch bearers (marked in setup photo).

The Young Minotaur heads down to meet 2 of the torch bearers whilst the Dwarf cavalry flanks round the back to menace.

The young minotaur only manages to knock down a foe, whilst the bear rider continues to harry.The ranged beastman centaur comes down to try and ward off an Elite Dwarf.

Left and right, the dwarves close in to the outlying beasts

The beastmen try to seize the advantage, either outnumbering the foe, or engaging the torch bearers.

 The beastman finally takes out a torch bearer. Meanwhile the Young Minotaur has paid his earlier lone charge out to the dwarves and they march on towards their objective. To protect them, the bear rider come up the hill and engages with a defending beastman.

The bear cavalry gruesomely kills a beastman causing half the defending hilltop force (including the leader) to flee. The remaining dwarves use the new-found space to get a torchbearer to the hut. The dwarf Elite Warrior tries to rub salt into the wounds, but only knocks back the centaur.

The beastmen desperately try to get a lin eon the torchbearer at the hut, but everyone is engaged or our of range. The Centaur uses its knocked back status to its advantage to get away from combat and back up the hill, but doesn't roll enough actions to get off a shot. The leader returns to the hill to boost any quality rolls and the final torchbearer at the foot of the hill is engaged to stop his movement and ranged fire. But all the dwarf player has to do is roll one activation for the dwarf at the hut and it's all over.

But MacSver gets a bit cocky and decides to play a bit more. The lure of his bear cavalry in range of the beastman leader with a leader bonus proves too much and he rolls 3 dice - DISASTER - 2 ones! The bear moves in base-to-base but his turn is over and the hut still stands. One more chance was what the centaur was waiting for. He charges into melee to take advatange of his big special rule and save the day, but battles poorly and is himself knocked over. With everyone else tied up in battle no-one can reach him. The torchbearer at the bottom of the hill is attacked but only knocked down, so the dwarves get a second bite at the cherry.

MacSver is a bit more canny on his activation rolls this turn. He still can't resist an attack on the leader though, but can only score a knock-back. He manages to stand his fallen dwarf back up before unleashing all his dice to torch the hut, which he manages.

A Thong and a merry dance

The party face off against the marsh dwellers.
Note the system battle mat which shows the combat stance and
not the physical position of the character

The conclusion of the introductory One Ring adventure was played out last night, with much enjoyment all round again. We actually managed to have all the players round at the same time which was a bonus! The Party managed to blunder and flounder our way through the Mirkwood forest before being forcibly drawn toward the final showdown area, what appeared to be a dis-used temple.

It never seems to amaze me how we all manage to fail what seem to be the most mundane of dice rolling tests. One such episode of head-in-hands rolling left Paul, who has only played 3 RPG sessions in his life, wondering what to do as the rest of the party wandered trance-like into a fetid pond leaving him on his own in the hostile wilderness. It's certainly keeping our GM on his toes thinking of awful consequences as we roll the "Sauron" symbol with alarming regularity. Conversely we seem to roll the hallowed "Gandalf" symbol for completely improbable innocuous searches, leaving him with coming up with a suitable, but not game breaking results. A fine example of this is one of the dwarfs rather optimistically searching for a mythril shirt in a treasure pile of gold coins. The player rolled a Gandalf (which guarantees a success) and a six in his dice making it an extra-ordinary success. So the dwarf spied a glint of mithril in the pile, but far from being the mail shirt he was looking for I think it's suffice to say that the hobbit now has the best protected "crown jewels" in the land!