It
was one of the hottest, sunniest, most beautiful days of the year. One can’t
take these things for granted in Britain. The problem? Four of my oldest
friends were converging on my little house for the weekend to play some
wargames, and wargaming isn’t a famously outdoorsy
pursuit. The solution?
Take
the table outside and play on the patio.
We
even made an awning/parasol by stringing some bedsheets off the clothesline,
although gravity and our drive-by workmanship meant that it didn’t last. Sunburn
and sheer relentless heat eventually forced us back inside, but the important
thing was that we had very civilised fun.
And
which scenario should we choose to play in this glorious sunshine but something
set in the dead of night, of course. I shall describe it here in the hopes that
it might provide some inspiration for anyone looking to do something outside
your standard garden-variety Warhammer battle.
It’s
pretty much impossible to tell what’s going on in the photo above, so let me provide
some context.
In
Bad Day on the Old Forest Road, a previously unknown and thoroughly
vicious tribe of goblins known as the ‘Bittermoons’ claimed dominion over a
chunk of Northwestern Hochland, and proceeded to beat the snot out of the first
proper army sent in to clear them out. I blame the massive spider. Anyway,
during my humiliating defeat, the Powderkegs broke from combat, and Blind
Alfred the standard bearer was taken captive. Sad face.
Captain Brandt, being rather attached to the old codger, asked for volunteers
to assist in a (rather optimistic) rescue. This rather swiftly got the approval
of Count Ludenhof, who liked the morale boost that would come from an officer
being seen to risk his neck for a few common soldiers. As such, he asked Dwalin
to send Cedric Sneakfoot to ensure the mission’s success.
 |
| Cedric scopes out the Bittermoon encampment |
With
the help of Amelia, Fabian, and Stefan Rainer – a captain of Nordland whose arrival
in Hochland seemed to put Amelia on edge – Oskar managed to sneak into the
Bittermoons’ camp. Jeff acted as GM and set up a full six-foot table for us to
sneak through, ensuring that roving patrols and sentries made life somewhat
fraught. Mostly we avoided sentries so as not to risk raising the alarm, but at
various points the heroes set ambushes for any patrols that were just impossible
to avoid.
 |
| The heroes wait for the moment to stab a passing patrol in its collective back. |
Jeff
maintained a properly goblin-y atmosphere; the campfires all used the animosity
rules, and several of them occasionally broke out in punch-ups over servings of
mushroom soup and ratbitz. Likewise, the sentries suffered from Goblin Quality
(TM), in that they’d roll a scatter dice and a D6 each turn to determine where
they were looking during the rescuers’ turn. If their dice rolled a 1, there
was a 50/50 chance – on a subsequent roll of 1-3, they’d fall asleep. On a 4-6,
they’d think they heard something coming from whatever direction they were now
looking in, and would call a false alarm. This was amusing when the sentries
had all the patrols running over to check out some empty woodland, but it was
totally hilarious (and/or terrifying) when a goblin accidentally pointed at the
copse in which all the heroes were standing and sounded the alarm.
 |
| Once it became clear they'd been spotted, Amelia was quick to do really terminal things to Joodi, the Bittermoon shaman, thus ending the ritual and heralding the start of two rather frantic turns. |
Having
gone ‘loud,’ Amelia cast the boosted version of Soulblight, reducing the effectiveness of the rabble of goblins
running towards the rescue party as they sprang from cover to grab the
prisoners. The area effect was somewhat charmingly represented by the shadow of
Tom’s umbrella:
Consequently,
the two captains sent the goblins packing, and the prisoners were saved. Like
all well-run stealth scenarios, it was tense as hell, and just as amusing when
the sneaky part went unexpectedly to pot. Thanks Jeff!
Over
the rest of the weekend, we played a fair few campaign games (if you’re new
here, and don’t know what the campaign is but enjoy narrative-type stuff, HERE
is a good starting place). The resulting campaign updates, in brief, are as
follows:
-
The de Crécys have been hiding in Hovelhof after Amelia did a number on
Phillippe. That said, they didn’t want these new goblins to destroy their crop
of perfectly drinkable humans. Etienne and Mallick went south thinking ‘pff, goblins, how hard
can this be?’ which is, of course, exactly what I thought until I fought
Raggatt Neckchoppa for the first time. They lost almost as hard as I did.
-
Next up on the Goblin chopping block were the Hochlanders, coming back for a
second try. This time, the Empire secured a thoroughly phyyric victory in which
only five models – Erhard and four of the Silver Drakes – saw off half the
goblin army single-handed.
-
We also fought our first subterranean battle, ramming together enough rock
scenery to make a tunnel in which the Stormbournes fought to shore up one of the
underground approaches to Karak Hoch. Turns out the goblin shaman living under
Karak Hoch has become so desperate to shift the Stormbournes that he’s resorted
to bad, bad magic. Jeff had this to say about the scenario:
Jeff says: Well, well, by far the most curious part - story wise - was what the hell the possessed/mutant/vampiric Goblin creature Hafnir fought. The challenge combat was ace, one of those where we were both using the dice rolls to tell a story. Wound up with a mutant creature hanging from Hafnir's shield and the big man, hauling him off and smashing him down onto a table of shields raised by his men before finally, desperately, decapitating the creature. More scenearios will be needed before I find out what the hell the Blue Moons are doing underneath MY mountain!
-
Back down south, Raggatt got overconfident, and decided to expand his already
substantial territory. He marched on the ruins of Garssen, not realising that
it had been fortified by reinforcements from Middenland. Turns out, massive spiders
aren’t cannon-retardant. Heh, heh.
As
of now, then, here’s the updated campaign map. Note the increasing numbers of
re-inhabited Empire towns. Hochland may yet endure!
~Charlie
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