Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Swordplay/WHAA Batrep - Fantasy Smackdown

LTL Dad is still sick as a dog so I'm gaming at half speed.  After a lot of nagging, Nick managed to get me out for a game that he designed for CR3 Swordplay/WHAA.  He had dragged out my old castle bits and built such a nice looking table that I couldn't resist.  This scenario clearly illustrates that no matter how idiotic your ideas, you can game them with the THW rules sets.  With a little experience you can blend games and hardly ever look at a chart while jumping periods and trying stupid things.
The layout.  A frontier outpost with some old ruins across the river.
The old fort hasn't been used for ages.
The new fort is manned by a small mixed force of regulars and militia.
All of a sudden a couple of bands of Goblins come filtering through the woods.  They seem to be agitated about something.
Three Rangers sprint through their ranks like a bat out of hell.  It seems these Goblins have been pursuing them for some time.  The Rangers are trying to make the safety of the keep.
The archers start providing support from the walls.
Before closing to contact, one Goblin's javelin finds it's mark in a Ranger and he goes down.  The other Goblins halt but the leader continues on and takes down the Ranger leader.  That's a tough Goblin.
Then the other Goblin group attacks from the left and overwhelms the last Ranger.  Goblins 3, Humans 0.
Finally one of the archers on the wall finds his mark and a Goblin leader goes down.  His mates aren't worried about it though.
Inspired by their initial success, the Goblins regroup and approach the keep.  A firefight ensues between the Goblin skirmishers and some Human archers.
The Goblin leader pulls out of archery range with his warriors and leaves the skirmishers to continue the duel with the archers.  Slowly, the archers begin to get the upper hand as they are in cover.
The Goblin skirmishers start losing the duel badly and the survivors decide to go somewhere else.
The Goblins are in the trees as they move up to regroup and decide what to do next.
Goblins having a conference.
The conference is abruptly disturbed as a couple of shafts come screaming in to take down a couple of Gobs.  I guess I misjudged the distance to the keep and the archers found their range.
Ok, now the Gobs are out of bow shot for sure.  They resume their wrangling and taunting.  The Humans in the keep are feeling pretty good about things.
That is until...  A Predator is hunting this region!
He steps out of the shadows and takes his victim from behind with his spear.  Then he's gone in a flash!
Another fine skull to add to his trophy collection.
Meanwhile, outside the keep, a band of Orcs has made the scene.  The Goblin leader starts to fill them in on current events.
Uh oh, bad luck for Nick.  Preddie is back and stalking one of his Heroes.
This time Preddie goes for his constricting net!  The Heroes plight is hopeless.
The Predator is really happy with this magnificent Rep 5 skull.
Even more trouble for Nick.  The greens kins have received more reinforcements in the form of a band of ogres and trolls complete with a huge catapult war machine.
They just don't make 'em like this anymore.  Darn that's a bunch of big ugly brutes.
A lot of arguing in the Goblin camp!  It seems the big boys are asking for volunteers and as none are forthcoming, the Goblins are being surrounded and made to volunteer!
 Oh no, here we go again.  Preddie is back at it again.  Poor Nick, he's the unlucky one again.
Another Human skull for the collection.
Here we are just in time to witness the Trolls first attempt at shooting a Gobbie over the walls.
Doh!  Dat won no live.  Must be week!  We try 'nodder.
Hrrrumf!  Leds try two Gobbies dis time!
Wun liv dis time!
But with a timely activation the Humans are all over the hapless Goblin and he goes down!
Okie, dis time Ogre try aim.  Too more Gobbies coming!
Ha ha! Dis time bof live!
But once again Nick's Humies activate and take out the Gobbies.
And finally a little good news for Nick.  His archers' fire arrows are starting to take their toll on the immense war machine.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, another bulls eye!  Burn baby burn!
Ugh, we out uv Gobbies!  We start uze Orksies now!  So the Goblin leader and the first of the Orks goes over the wall.
Only the Ork survives.
Back in Green skin camp the Orks are not happy campers.  The Trolls have put a guard on their munitions supply.  None of the Orks make their courage test to try an escape.
That last unlucky Ork doesn't activate in time and the Humans are all over him.
Tu more Orksies on da way!
And one survives.  You know, those Gobbies and Orks are pretty darned tough.  They are surviving the trip at about 50%.  Not too bad.
But once again, the Human defenders are really on top of things.  They get over and whack the Ork.
The big lads aren't giving up.  They are keeping up a barrage of flying Orks and trying to get them all over before the catapult collapses from the fire.
One Ork makes it again.  yep, we are definitely looking at about 50%
The last Orks went over as the catapult collapsed from the fire.  One of the Trolls was temporarily stunned, but he'll be alright.
 The Humans activate yet again and get to the last Ork.  The poor Orksies jsut can't get a break today.
The big lads decide to rush the castle gates.  Some superb shooting from the wall drops an ogre dead.
Trolls, Ogres, and Ork Shaman all closing in for the assault on the gates.
The shafts are flying thick from the castle and the Ogre leader goes down just as he gets to work at the gate.
The Ork Shaman goes down too while the others pound the gates.  The gates hold, but just barely.  It is getting critical.
Now a troll goes down to the archers fire in the desperate battle at the gate.  Oh, and the Preddie makes another appearance, but this time it looks like he will finally pick on the Green Skins a little.  he takes out the Troll..
And then he runs down the last Ogre who flees into the woods.
Whoa dude!  Those last skulls were awesome!

 This foolishness was just kind of a test game for some upcoming Fantasy stuff we have planned.  The Predator was designed to be a random nemesis that could strike anyone, anyplace, making it very difficult to plan ahead.  This was all just something that popped into my kids head and the only twist from me was the bit about using the catapult to fling Gobbies and Orks instead of rocks.  Obviously I made them very hardy to survive the impact.  We used elements from CR3 Swordplay, WHAA, and ATZ in this game.   From the sick bay, LTL Dad signing out..