A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 25

 ...and so the Story went. This is the report of the 25th game of my solo Five leagues In The Borderlands campaign, and marks the final episode of A Tale Of Two Tortles. But fear not! The survivors of this game will return in an all-new campaign in the near future!

The story started, as it often does, in town. The Crossing, in particular, which passes as the regional center of Armskirk, the Ruined City. There was a Gambling Craze sweeping the area, but Our Heroes are very boring and strait-laced and did not participate. Instead, they helped the Town Guard and Weppi did some Training. This gave her enough experience for another Advancement roll, and she now has an Agility of 3. Not bad for a big, clunky tortle! We had to research the location of the Gnawling Horde's hideout, wagered 5 Adventure points with a roll of 2, indicating that we found it! It's in the Wilderness, though, so we will need to Travel to get there. We also used the remaining adventure points to Gather Money, spending the last 6 to gain 5 gold. Once upon our trip to the Hideout, we encountered Unfriendly Locals, who were Conspirators with those Gnawlings. We succeeded in a Wits roll, though, and gave away no information. And with that, we were there. There were 11 of them, 9 Ascended (again, randomly rolled) led by a Lieutenant and a Captain. Let the battle commence!

After the approach to the hideout, in which Weppi, Tundaline, and Myrrh all snuck forward before being spotted and the alarm being raised, I rolled quite well for Initiative on the first turn. Weppi and Tundaline advanced further, Myrrh shot and killed a Gnawling, and Rukacta moved up next to Myrrh. And then the Gnawlings were upon us! Remember, Weppi now has a War Spear, allowing her the Counter-attack ability. This resulted in two dead Gnawlings. The Lieutenant, Captain, and two more Ascended were closing fast on Weppi and Tundaline. On the other side, more ratmen were running towards Myrrh and Rukacta... one struck down Myrrh. Quicktoes lunged forward to avenge his fallen friend and was promptly taken down for his trouble. Plog The Elder moved to back up Weppi and Tundaline. One of the Gnawlings realized he'd lost three companions already and made a run for it. As far as first turns go, it could have been better; we may have eliminated a third of their numbers, but we had lost a third of ours as well.

Turn Two saw Weppi and Rukacta moving forward against their respective opponents; Weppi killed the Captain, while Rukacta found the Harness Of Vengeance he wears to be very useful in finishing off wounded ratmen. As the Gnawlings retaliated, Tundaline was able to turn the tables on two of them and kill them as they attacked, while Rukacta again had luck from his Harness to kill the last Ascended attacking him. One of them managed to cast a Bolt Of Energy at Weppi, who made a successful Devotion test to shrug it off. Plog the Elder summoned the Scary Clown Construct which then attacked the Lieutenant without effect. Tundaline for her own part then attacked the Lieutenant felling him on the first blow. The final Ascended became enraged and moved towards Weppi, ready to attack!

On Turn Three, Weppi activated first and killed the last Ascended Gnawling. We had won. The threat of the Gnawlings had been broken in Armskirk, the Ruined City. We had previously eliminated the Duskling Warbands and The Ruin Within. The city was safe, and could re-build in peace now. Our job here was done.

Quicktoes was seriously injured, but will be back on his feet by the time our Next Adventure begins. Myrrh was dead. He will be mourned and missed. We were able to loot a suit of Fine Light Armor, and we found some evidence of a plot, now thwarted with the elimination of the Gnawling Hordes threat.

This game should have been harder. I rolled a LOT of 6's to hit and to wound against the bad guys, which mitigated their overall toughness a lot. Weppi's War Spear worked better than expected, so I am going to get one for Tundaline as well for the next campaign. Next campaign? Why, yes! Stay tuned for "Tortles In The Dust," wherein Our Heroes travel to The Land Of Ancient Dust. To be continued...

Space Wolf Blood Claw

Way back in August I picked up a free Space Marine Blood Claw for free at the GW store. I have been working on it here and there on the intervening time, and I finally finished it today.

I painted it using panzer camo colors, two out of three at least. I've tried this before with all three, and it's just a mess on a 28m Space Marine. I've always thought a Space Marine was a walking panzer anyway, so the concept fits (at least to me.) The Dark Yellow is a little more yellow in the pictures than in real life, but other wise the pics do it justice.

Once upon a time, I had started a whole force of these guys, back when Space marines were smaller and significantly less expensive. I called them the Coyote Knights. I sold them off about 15 years ago. I might do up another four of these guys as a Xenos Rampant army, but I'm not sre on that yet.

Weppi Wields A Warspear

 Weppi wields a Warspear!

OK, so after we looted a Warspear after Game 24 of my ongoing Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign, I decided to equip it on Weppi. She has been armed with a Balanced Bastard Sword for quite a while, but I always forget that the enemy cannot Counterattack while she wields it. But I regret not having a Warspear every time she becomes the Attacker in an exchange during the enemy phase. So, I equipped it on her, and created a conversion to reflect it; I trimmed off the great axe-head and replaced it with an old Dragyri polearm head I had in the bits box. Not only do I hope it works better game-wise, I think it looks much better than before.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 24

 Well met, fellow travelers on the Borderlands! This battle report is of the 24th tabletop skirmish game in my Five Leagues campaign, which is itself the 46th Campaign turn. But before the battle proper was joined, we did stuff in-town. There was a bit of a Gambling craze going on, but we didn't do any gambling. We helped the Town Guard in lieu of upkeep costs, and Weppi did some Training, gaining another Experience Point which pushed her over the threshold for another advancement roll; she now has an Agility of 3. We spent some time researching our Connections and were offered a Contract, but we declined it. We wanted to smash some Gnawlings! Our focus would be Scouting an area where they had been recently seen, trying to discern where their Hideout might be. We were close now, very close...

We found five Ascended in the ruins, led by a Sergeant. These would be tough opponents, but fortunately there weren't many of them. Plog The Elder cast his Barrier across the street, blocking the primary advance of one of he Gnawling groups. They scurried forward, one taking position on the upper level of a building to better sight his bolts of energy. Myrrh shot a Gnawling, but only wounded him. Quicktoes and Rukacta moved forward to scout the fountain at the intersection. Weppi and Tundaline moved up to intercept the enemies moving through the building to the left of the Barrier.

On the second turn, Weppi blocked the hole in the wall the Gnawlings were advancing toward, and Tundaline followed right behind her. As the Gnawlings attacked, Weppi managed to turn the tables on the sergeant and struck him down, and managed to push back the other two attacking her. That bad guy on the second floor shot his bolt of energy at Tundaline, Wounding her. Rukacta survived the attacks the enemy made on him, and turned around and killed one of them. Plog tried to cast "Foresee" but did not get it off. Somehow I managed to completely forget about Quicktoes, who just froze in place and did nothing this turn.

Turn Three went poorly. Weppi was felled by a Gnawling. Rukacta took a wound. Myrrh only wounded his target rather than killing it outright. Plog the Elder couldn't get his "Foresee" to cast again, and now he was out of Strands. Tundaline was able to kill the Gnawling that took down Weppi, and Quicktoes Scouted the fountain. There were still three Ascended left, and one was powering up another bolt of energy.

On Turn Four, our fortunes looked up. Myrrh killed that Gnawling he had previously wounded. Tundaline turned another's attacks back and killed him, too. She also passed a Devotion test to shrug off the effects of the bolt of energy cast at her. She moved forward after that, followed by Quicktoes who Scouted the building. The last Ascended decided to leave the scene quickly. We had fulfilled our Objective and Held the Field.

For our trouble we gained 5 Adventure points. We wagered four to reduce the Gnawling Threat, rolling a 1. The Threat Level was now 0, and would require a Hideout Raid to eliminate entirely. Weppi appeared dead, but luckily turned out to be alive after all! This permanently depleted one of her Luck points. We looted a War Spear, and gained a lead to a new unknown area. Finally, News Travelled that there was a community in need of assistance. If we travelled there within two Campaign Turns we can gain +2 Adventure Points. Would we go? Probably not, we have a hideout raid to conduct, and that will be the end of the Campaign.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 23

 We came, we saw, we got our asses kicked! This marks the general result of the 42nd campaign turn and 23rd game of my solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign. Rather than randomly determine the opposition from the table in the rulebook, I decided to give my warband a bit of a challenge by choosing a rough opponent, give them the maximum numbers and leadership, and then add an Ogre to their forces. It was bound to get me out of the rut of lining up and killing the enemy so the victory condition could be achieved at our leisure. But first, we spent some time at The Crossing doing town stuff. There was a weapon shortage, which didn't affect us much. We helped the town guard to offset the high cost of living, and Rukacta did dome Training. Through our Connections, Roysa the Herder Maid sent us an Adventure point. And not much else happened in town. 

Those scheming Gnawlings were now known to be actively hunting us through the general area of The Crossing, with the goal of eliminating us and creating a larger presence for themselves in the region. This particular group was composed of their Hate Sworn, eight rats including two with poisoned crossbows. They were further led by a Lieutenant and a Captain, and accompanied by an Ogre (I've got a Rat-Ogre model somewhere, but no idea where to even start looking for it, so a regular Ogre had to do.) This was a chosen force, not randomly rolled, and I hoped that it would provide a challenge, if not a massacre, for Our Heroes.

So the plan was to have Quicktoes backed up by Rukacta and Plog The Elder to make a dash for the further building we had to scout out, and then get away before any trouble reached them. The right flank had Weppi, Tundaline, and Myrrh ready to roll up and tackle the Ogre head on, with a side trip by Myrrh to scout the closer objective. And the first turn ran according to plan. Plog The Elder was unable to get "Foresee" to cast, but no rush yet on that. Upon reflection, the barrier wall of fire might have been a better bet, but hindsight is always 20/20, right? The bad guys surged forward, and both of the crossbow rats made it to elevated positions.

Turn Two is where everything started to go wrong. Our initiative rolls were so bad that no one got to act before the Gnawlings closed for combat. Quicktoes was taken down by the lieutenant and Rukacta was out of action from a poisoned crossbow shot before we even had a chance to act. At the same time, a couple of the Hate Sworn attacked Weppi, and were promptly slain for their trouble. Myrrh ran up the stairs and scouted the building while doing so, Plog The Elder backpedaled towards Weppi and Tundaline while successfully casting his "Foresee," and Tundaline then brought up the rear. One of the crossbow rats ran away at this point.

On Turn Three, we again had poor initiative rolls. The remaining poison crossbow rat took a shot at Weppi, but failed to penetrate her armor. The Captain and Lieutenant both bounced off of Weppi, and several other Gnawlings were closing fast. Weppi and Tundaline tried to kill the Captain and Lieutenant without effect. Myrrh found his mark and killed that pesky crossbow rat. 

Tundaline acted first on Turn Four, charging and killing the Gnawling Captain. She was pushed back by the Lieutenant but killed two more ratmen as they followed up. Plog The Elder was also pushed back by the three Hate Sworn attacking him. Weppi attacked the Lieutenant, but was pushed back for her trouble. The Ogre was unable to engage Our Heroes due to a distinct lack of room for his big feet. Myrrh wanted to make a leap of more than 2" from one building to another, but there are no rules for this particular heroic action; only 2" leaps as a normal part of movement are covered. So I decided a 9+ Travel test would be required, otherwise he would miss and fall to the ground. He made it! And with this, we had fulfilled the scenario objective of scouting two randomly determined locations before turn 7 (normally, 6, but Plog The Elder had cast "Foresee.")

On the fifth Turn, the Gnawlings again acted before any of Our Heroes. Plog The Elder went down, the Ogre was big enough to attack Myrrh on the second floor, so he went down as well. Four ratmen attacked Tundaline and two died for their efforts. Tundaline was pushed back by her follow up against them, and Weppi was pushed back after her attack on the Ogre. She also suffered a Wound in her exchanges with the monster.

Turn Six saw both good fortune with initiative and a bit of a disaster. Tundaline and Weppi both attacked before the bad guys, and the dwarf felled the ratman closest to her. Weppi engaged the Gnawling lieutenant and was pushed back. The lieutenant attacked Weppi and was pushed back. The Ogre attacked Weppi and struck her down! Tundaline was alone against the lieutenant and the Ogre!

On Turn Seven through Turn Nine, Tundaline had a lot of back and forth with both the lieutenant and the Ogre. I forgot the "Stalwart" rule preventing her being pushed back, but in the end she triumphed over both of them. She got a bunch of Experience and is now Loyal.

But what of the rest of the Warband? They all survived! Weppi and Quicktoes were both just knocked out, Plog The Elder and Rukacta had moderate injuries and would need to spend some time healing, and Myrrh had a serious injury that would have him out for a while as well. We gained 7 Adventure Points, and wagered 5 of them with a roll of 4 to reduce the threat level of the Gnawling Horde by one. We looted some Rations, an enchanted Harness Of Vengeance, and a standard weapon of Fey Steel. Finally, News Travelled that a Travelling Stranger was at a random settlement yadda yadda we aren't going to meet him in two turns because we are this close ---> <--- to eliminating the threat of the Gnawling Horde from Armskirk, the Ruined City. They have a Threat level of 1 now, and we are going to crush them! I mean, after we heal up and all...