A Tale of Two Tortles: Game 12

 OK, so I played the 12th game of my Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign, the ongoing "A Tale Of Two Tortles." This marks the 23rd campaign turn and was the third game of the current Quest. Things started well enough in the town area of The Crossing, a location so named for being near one of the few bridges remaining that cross the Wheldrake River running through Armskirk, the Ruined City. There was a Wandering Healer, you see, and that was important because Morgan was still recovering from her injuries. Between the Healer and normal healing, she was back on her feet and ready to fight. Our little band of do-gooders helped the Town Guard to avoid Upkeep fees, and did a little Hard Work to earn extra coin. Their connections panned out and resulted in a Contract being offered, but it was declined in favor of pursuing the Quest. The Quest action would, in fact, be taking place in a new area of The Crossing that Our Heroes have not yet explored. Someone with information pertinent to the Quest was in need of rescuing from some Forest Folk of the Ice Heart Court (played in this episode by Goblins, because my Elves are far from being finished.)

So the game was set up as a Raid scenario, as Our Heroes tried to infiltrate the Forest Folk encampment to rescue the captive. Wepi, my first model moved, was spotted, and the game commenced properly.

During the first turn, Plog the Elder got up a Wall Of Fire behind the bad guys in the center, hopefully cutting off any of the sentries that may try to advance into the fray. Weppi surged forward (using a point of Will to gain an extra 3" of movement) and promptly killed one of the fey goblins. Two other goblins tested their mettle against Weppi's might but both failed to injure her. Some sentries moved to go around the wall of fire, while others moved north around the ruined buildings. The remaining warband members moved in behind Weppi, albeit not as quickly.

Turn Two saw Plog the Elder maintain the Wall of Fire between the captive and the sentries, they would have to go around it to engage Our Heroes. Weppi felled another goblin.The remaining forest folk near the center surged around the fire, one felling Weppi (I removed her model before the picture!) and one shooting at Tundaline from behind the barricade. From the north, the other group of goblins engaged Our Heroes from the rear, Morgan and Brarkisy engaged in combat while another goblin took a shot at Plog the Elder. The two followers engaged the goblins in return, while Grushnag grabbed the Captive; this had the joint effect of winning the scenario and adding a set of hands to the warband for this battle, the latter point of course I completely forgot about for the rest of the game. Seeing the carnage, one of the goblins fled the scene.

On Turn Three started with Tundaline charging the archer across the barricade, with no effect to be had in this set of exchanges or later. A Goblin felled Morgan, and another shot at Plog the Elder causing a wound. For her part, Brarkisy felled the two goblins in the rear over a couple sets of exchanges.

For the final turn, Brarkisy and Tundaline both killed goblin archers, ending the skirmish.

We completed the Quest turn, and what did we get for it? Information related to the Quest and a single gold coin. Good times. Both Weppi and Morgan wound up just being Knocked Out, saving the use of the Soul Sphere for the future. Even the World Events roll resulted in nothing interesting.

A couple of items of note that happened this game: this was the first time I used my fully-3D barricades, and I really liked the way they looked on the table; also, I now have more ruined buildings than I can fit on my 24" x 24" gaming board which means not every game needs to look the same any more. Soy feliz.  

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 8

OK, so I played my eighth campaign game of Five Parsecs From Home. It was a short, bloody affair with quite a lot of payoff for Our Heroes. It started simply enough, with Asvyaske, O, and Iruurlaa all doing some Training while Aim found and passed up on a good bargain and Uezkfu definitely Does Not have any gambling problem. Khirki had a nice chat with some locals. And then it happened: all those rumors resolved into a Quest! Now we were getting somewhere! So, absinthe in hand, Our Heroes went merrily off to their fate.

They had to get a crate from the back of a truck parked out in the wastes. This seemed easy enough, except that our old friends from Tukera Lines had sent some drug-addled security forces along with a Nomad Scout to stop us. Weren't we on the same side? Or had something changed? In any case, the light was fading fast and we did not know how long we had to get the crate and get out of the area. And there seemed to be another, similar crate nearby. We'll grab that too if we have the chance!

First turn, O made a beeline for the truck. The Tukera goons and their friend moved either close to cover, or in some cases fully into it. The rest of Our Heroes moved forward, Aim dashing into cover and Iruurlaa testing out the new Shell Gun. Hit! Score! A dead goon!

The second turn was bloody for both sides. Uezkfu killed a goon, Aim killed the Nomad Scout, and then the Tukera team managed to take out Khirki and Uezkfu. O grabbed the crate while Iruurlaa moved closer and took another shot with the Shell Gun, killing another Tukera goon. There was only the Tukera lieutenant left facing Our Heroes, but she held her ground.

On the third turn, Aim moved out of cover and took a shot at the Tukera leader, dropping her dead. O made it to the other crate (scoring another Quest rumor) and with that, the skirmish was over.

After the game, I rolled well for the survival of Uezkfu and Khirki; Uezkfu got School Of Hard Knocks, landing us another Story point, and Khirki was just knocked out. We gained another Quest rumor, got 6 credits out of the whole shebang, and were able to loot a plasma rifle from a Tukera goon. In both the Campaign Events and Character Events, Quest Rumors were scored. This totalled FOUR Quest Rumors from one game. Where will our next Quest mission take us? 

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 7

OK, so I played out Turn 7 of my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. After our success for Tukera Lines last turn, we were able to get another courier delivery assignment, this time from the Subsector Duke himself. But first, a recap of time spent in the vicinity of the Starport: Asvyaske spent some time Training, O and Aim repaired the damaged weapons, and Iruurlaa and Uekzfu both found Patrons. Uezkfu had also used our last Med-patch to get back on her paws. Another Rumor was found, which resolved into a Quest. A lot is going on all at once!

One thing we have learned on this overgrown pink world of Windsor is that any time something is being delivered, someone else wants to take it. This time was no different, and a posse of Tech-gangers decided this delivery was for them. There were six of them, one a leader and one with a shell gun. The rest were armed with infantry lasers, and they were approaching the delivery point from the opposite direction from Our Heroes.

The delivery point was the main entrance door of a frontier homestead. The general area was overgrown with the damnable pink fluff that seems to cover the entire world. There was an airborne jellypink drifting through the area, and the homesteader had his car parked out in front of his dwelling.

So, to begin with, Aim moved into cover and had a clear shot at one of the tech-gangers and promptly dropped her with a well-placed shot from his hunting rifle. The Gangers then advanced into cover, and returned fire on the entire Crew, but without any effect. As the rest of the Crew moved forward, one of the Gangers decided to run away. This would not be the last time this happened.

After that, Aim took a good shot at the Ganger with the shell gun, but only caused a Stun result. O made the Delivery. Victory secured! The Gangers returned fire without effect. Asvyaske moved forward and dropped the Tech-ganger leader with a single shot from his Hand Cannon. Iruurla, Khirki, and Uezkfu were all unsuccessful in their return fire.

Next, the remaining Tech-gangers opened fire on Our Heroes, and Asvyaske took a hit! Not down, but a bit stunned. Irrurlaa finally found his mark and dropped a Ganger, Aim missed his shot at the Ganger with the Shell gun, and both Khirki and Uezkfu missed their shots. However, the hail of fire was enough to convince another Ganger to leave the skirmish.

Following on, Aim took a shot at the Shell gunner and managed to Stun her. She shakily returned fire without effect. Uezkfu managed to get into the Shiny Bits, and everyone else shot at the remaining Ganger without further effect.

Finally, Asvyaske took a shot at the last Ganger and felled her with his Hand Cannon. That was the end of the skirmish, and we had Held the Field!

Afterwards, we recovered that Shell Gun. It would come in handy! Upon returning to the Starport, we were paid our 3 credits of danger pay and an additional 4 credits for completing the job. Our ship was paid off, and our coffers were growing. Now, about that Quest...

Ruined Plaza, Part 2

I finished the other half of the Ruined Plaza from Dave Graffam Games. This time there was a lot of warping in the walls and upper floor I needed to fix, not sure what was up with that.

Barricades (Again)

 OK, so I made some Barricades for my Ruined City terrain from (mostly) leftover odds and ends from Dave Graffam Games kits. I had previously made some 2D ones from the excellent sets by Permes, but they were not exactly what I was looking for. So, between other projects, I slowly assembled crates, boxes, and a few tables and then glued them together in 3-inch sections. These are exactly what I was looking for when I started this Barricade journey so many months ago. I think they will not only find use in my games of Five Leagues From The Borderlands, but in the upcoming Frostgrave campaign as well.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 11

 OK, so I played through Turn 22 of my ongoing Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign, resulting in the eleventh tabletop skirmish. It was Market Day at The Crossing, but we did not take the opportunity to try and buy Rare Goods. We helped the Town Guard and visited the Blacksmith to repair those damaged weapons... I was hoping the Crafting skill would enhance the roll enough to let both weapons get repaired, but then I rolled a 12! Repairs for everyone! Our Connections resulted in a Contract, but we declined it. Instead, we would combat an Enemy Threat!

We had heard the rumors and seen the signs of the Gnawling Horde, but never fought them in open combat. Now, they had revealed themselves and seemed to be hunting our little warband. We would be investigating, looking for clues as to where they might be found. Instead, they found us! They were The Silenced, notorious assassins. Further, a Duskling Champion had joined them!

They got the drop on us the first turn, rushing forward in a chittering wave. There were eight of them plus the Duskling. Six of them made tracks towards Weppi, Tundaline, and Brarkisy, while the remaining three moved towards Plog The Elder, Morgan, and Grushnag. Weppi and her team moved forward, while on the other side Plog The Elder tried to get up a Wall of Fire but couldn't quite get it lit. Morgan and Grushnag moved forward to protect him.

Turn Two saw things get very messy very quickly. Weppi lunged forward to engage the Duskling Champion and felled him after a few exchanges (Meta-game: that +1 to Wound with the Bastard Sword came in handy!) The rat-men rushed forward, one knocking Weppi out of the fight and another died trying to fight Brarkisy. Tundaline was engaged, but managed to repel all of her attackers. Morgan too went down beneath the blades of The Silenced. Tundaline, now unengaged, uncovered one of the clues they were looking for. Plog The Elder was able to Summon a Construct, which then moved forward and killed another Silenced. Finally, Brarkisy leapt over her dead for and Weppi's inert body and killed another enemy. Seeing the carnage Our Heroes were causing, one of the rat-men promptly fled the scene.

On the third turn, Our Heroes gained some momentum. The Silenced were unable to effectively land any blows, and our follow ups killed three of them, including Plog The Elder's first-ever melee engagement (I think.) Brarkisy investigated the second clue, thereby securing our Victory Condition. There was one bad guy left. I rolled the dice and got three ones. He decided to leave before we could catch him.

Turn Four opened with us Hoding the Field. The skirmish was over and we had been successful in gaining some valuable intelligence about the Gnawling Horde.

After the game, we gained seven Adventure Points, and I burned one of Weppi's Luck points to survive unscathed. Morgan, however, would be out for two turns recovering from a Moderate injury. We were able to loot a Bastard sword, and reduced the Gnawling Horde Threat level by one.

Ruined Plaza

OK, so I built half of the "Ruined Plaza" papercraft model from Dave Graffam Games. I made an Amateur Hour mistake, I printed one wall as Brown Stone and the other as Red Brick. It is what it is, I'm keeping it.