The Last War Campaign Begins...

 OK, so today I hosted my good friend Kurt for another game of "Forbidden Psalm: The Last War." Since the last time we played we were still mostly learning the rules, we considered that just a playtest game. But this time we decided to play "for real" and kick off a bit of a campaign. And with the experience of our last game under our collective belts, we both created our Scavenger Crews with the aim of surviving through several games instead of just one.

The Crew: Gunther, Glut, Klink, Ludwig, Fritz

The start of the game from my point of view

My Crew (named Kruger's Crooks during the course of the game) consisted of five members. First off, I chose a Specialist; I made her a Witch because it seemed really cool that I can have a bit of a spellcaster in a WWI-themed skirmish game. Then came Klink armed with a pistol, and Fritz who also had a pistol, Gunther with his one grenade, and Ludwig with only a bayonet. Everyone had bayonets! I had a little confusion about how some of the equipment worked, and when I had Kurt proofread my roster he spotted a few errors but we got them all figured out before the game.

The end of the first Turn

Klink and Ludwig attack the Loyalist

We replayed the same scenario we did last time, as it seemed a good idea now that we had purpose-built Crews and knew the rules a bit. Which means we were not only facing each other, but also five enemy Loyalists, poor souls not realizing the war was over and still guarding their supply crates. Based on my experience from last game, my plan was to split my Crew into two small teams that would go after a Loyalist each, and then the three who did not loot their crates would meet up in the middle to attack a third Loyalist. We knew that a random Hostile (or Hostiles!) would spawn in Turn 3, and we rolled "The Thing In The Mist" as a battlefield condition so on Turn 5 we could expect a Martian war machine to enter the battle area as well.

Fritz, Gunther, and Glut attack the Loyalist Who Would Not Die

The end of Turn 2; Klink is already out of the game with his Loot.

Things went well enough for Klink and Ludwig, they overpowered their target Loyalist with little difficulty and Klink then left the battle area with the Loot. The other three were having a tougher time with their Loyalist, who was wearing metal plate armor and was very difficult to injure. Glut the Witch cast Let The Blood Flow which caused the Loyalist at least one point of damage per turn. And both Fritz and Gunther were able to cause at least one point each time they hit with their bayonets; it is the bayonet ability to always cause a minimum of one damage regardless of the opponent's armor. But it took four game turns to kill him!

Why won't he die? WHY?

Some of Bowker's Trench Raiders facing off against a Loyalist

During Turn 3 things went Sideways. Two Ghosts spawned in the battle area, corrupted cannibals intent on picking off our Crews for some quick food. Fortunately for me, the random nature of the spawning meant that they would be more of a problem for Kurt than for me. During this time Ludwig went looting a couple of the corpses littering the battlefield, before being shot down by one of Kurt's guys who had looted an automatic rifle. I used a special once-per-game rule to remove Ludwig from the battle area with no death roll necessary. He disappeared having acquired a rifle and a trench club.

Oh, snap! The Martian war machine has arrived!

We finally killed that Loyalist, now to get out before the Martian notices us...

On the other side, Kurt was holding his own against the Loyalists and Ghosts; one of the spawned Ghosts attacked a Loyalist that had previously been shooting at one of his guys, so that gave Kurt a little breathing space. But at the end, the Martian war machine entered the table on Turn 5. I grabbed what I had looted with the trio on my left flank and left the game, getting away with another Loot crate and a suit of metal armor. Kurt was not so fortunate. He had a crate he had not grabbed and his Lieutenant was stuck in melee combat with both a Loyalist and a Ghost. In the end, the Martian war machine claimed both the Loyalist and the Lieutenant, leaving Kurt's Crew short a member as the game ended.

Kurt is having a bit more difficulty over on his side of things

The good news is that there is some Loyalist vs. Ghost action going on, leaving the Loot free to take

I always enjoy the post-game sequence during a campaign. We had to look up a few rules, but everyone was able to heal their wounds taken during the battle. I managed to accumulate 8 experience points for the Crew, and after all was said and done we had 70 Resources from the Loot. I had more Resources than Kurt, and no casualties, so I am calling this a Win for me even though it was really just a case of me doing better than him. I don't think anyone ever really "wins" in this game. I redistributed some of the existing gear amongst the Crew, bought Klink an Anti-tank rifle from the Quartermaster, got some ammo for Ludwig's rifle and Klinks big gun, and added a Bengal Cat as a Crew member. That wiped out all 70 Resources. But I have a Big Gun and a Cat! I then used five of the eight Experience points to add one to Klink's Strength ability so he can adequately wield that big gun of his. I also equipped him with the plate armor. I'll need to build a new model for him, I found a nice 'kinight in armor" from Reaper Miniatures that I can chop the arms off of to add in the Anti-tank rifle. It will make a fun conversion and add a little flavor to my Crew. Oh, and the looted Trench club? That's sitting back in the Crew's Bunker, waiting for someone else to join up that can use it well.

The Martian advances on Bowker's Trench Raiders...

This game can be purchased at Forbidden Psalm: The Last War