The Stolen Gold

My son and I recently tested out a scenario for Sellswords and Spellslingers.  It is an adaptation of the fantasy scenario from Don Featherstones Skirmish Wargaming book.  I was originally going to use one group and we would take a couple of characters each but he, instead made a “super” ranger of 40 points so we played as 2 players and upped the firepower a bit.  The game is played on a map that has a road going north south.  There is a goblin raiding party on the road with the stolen gold.  The object?  To recapture the gold and move it off the map along the road north.  The player may split the party, entering half from the south map on the road while the balance remain on the road to the north.  The goblins are setup with a goblin hero (we used the stats for the orc brute but hobgoblin might be better) a horde of 3 goblin archers and a horde of 3 goblins carrying the treasure.  Below is an overview of the map with the setup.

Looking from the North end of the road.

The goblins may move when the appropriate card is drawn.  The treasure bearers will move directly toward the Southeast corner which is the direction of Goblintown.  Peter Jackson made me name it!    There is a scenario event.  If the event card is drawn, a troll appears in the ruins.  He is a rather intelligent troll and moves like most other monsters, not randomly moving about when characters are near.

The game played well enough despite some bad luck on my part.

The Northern group

The enemy battle line. I seem to have cut off the treasure bearers.

The ranger in the south. Not a great shot. This guy was 3D printed.

The ranger was beset upon by a couple of goblin groups including one 5 member group.  Jack had to move away and then start sniping.  The northern group, my characters seemed to roll either 0 or 1 action on 2 dice which meant that I started the game with a prolonged melee.

Cleaning up, this was the last of about 6 goblins in 3 groups.

The last of Jack’s goblins. These were a horde but one had 2 hit points (a random event) so split off from the main body.

While Jack was finishing off the southern horde, I sent my barbarian to finish the treasure bearers. The barbarian had a penalty of 1 on movement for being laden with treasure.

The troll emerged from the ruins (scenario event card drawn) and the chase was on. I decided to roll all 3 dice.

4 actions! That makes up for all those failures I rolled early on. The barbarian RUNS for safety!

It wasn’t all that simple.  There was at least one ambush and 2 other reinforcements that had to be dealt with.  Jack hit a teleportation trap that ended up moving him up the road a small amount.  Essentially it provided his ranger with an extra move.  Lucky us.  In the end…

Home sweet home!

JTT trees.  Hills are from some old company who made GW style hills.  The tower was purchased from Michael’s.  The ruins are Microtactix card stock buildings.  The roads were made by a gent selling these at the flea market at Cold Wars.  The troll is GW.  The game figures in the north are mostly Caesar with the goth archer from New Line designs 1/72 scale Goth range.   The ranger is a scaled down 3D print of Dutchmogul’s 28mm ranger on thingiverse.  The goblins are from Goblin factory, now carried by an Australian company (I think).

 

The Invasion Has Begun

I am just running my Featherstone re-write through the paces.  I’ve played a good bit and the rules work quite well.  I want to make sure all of my addenda get put into the rules as written.

I am using the scenarios from 1 Hour Wargames.  I’ve randomly determined which battles will be played.  Blue is the aggressor on the first battle.  The winner of each battle becomes the aggressor of the next battle, the counter offensive should it be the defender.  This first scenario is #26 in the book: Triple Line.  The aggressor must cross a bridge and defeat a numerically inferior force (6 units to 4).  Blue has 2 skirmisher units, 3 line units and an artillery battery.  Red has 1 skirmisher unit, 2 line units and 1 artillery battery.

I limited the artillery to 8 rounds of ammunition.  Skirmishers shoot at one range band farther though at long range they still just shoot at long range.

Turn 1: Blue advances with a skirmish screen, 2 units in line and another in column of march. The artillery comes up on the right and so is not eligible to file this turn. There is a short exchange of fire at long range with just 1 casualty inflicted on a Blue skirmisher unit.

Turn 2: The right blue unit flank marches and the unit in column charges over the bridge, driving the Red skirmishers back. Long range infantry fire is ineffective but the artillery rips through the ranks causing several casualties.

Turn 3: The assaulting line unit manages to form line but is met by a hail of musketry and artillery fire. While at 50% it does manage to hold its ground as the second line unit crosses the river and form line.

Turn 4: Blue wins a critical initiative. They are able to bring their last line unit over the river and form up. They are also able to make a retreat lane. Blue’s general moves up to help rally the wavering line unit but is killed in the process. The line unit manages to hold on but is still disordered. Artillery on both sides continues to inflict casualties.

I did not represent generals on the field since they are fast enough to move anywhere they want.   Every time they are used, roll a D6.  On a 6, they are hit while trying to influence combat.  Roll again.  On a 1-2, the horse was shot from beneath them.  On a 3-4, they are wounded and are out for D6 turns.  On a 5-6, they are mortally wounded and carried from the field.  If they are wounded while influencing melee, and their unit loses the combat, the commander is also captured.

Turn 6: red wins the initiative and tells blue to move first. Blue creeps their skirmisher through he woods on the right to gain a flank shot on red’s left most unit. red’s skirmisher fail a morale check and are obliged to retreat to the woods. Blue inflicts casualties heavy casualties on Red’s right most unit through artillery fire and some casualties on the left most with long ranged musketry. Red’s return fire is mostly ineffective though artillery managed two hits on Blue’s left most unit.

Turn 7: Blue’s skirmishers do not rally and can’t move. They press the attack on red’s right and despite taking flank fire from Red’s skirmishers manage to hold and deliver close range musketry to Red’s right hand unit. Red’s fire’s and misses with its artillery. The other side of the line is a rather even exchange of infantry fire. Both sides have just 2 rounds of artillery fire left.

Turn 8: Blue wins the initiative and orders a bayonet charge on the already wavering Red unit on the right flank of Red. Red’s unit routes and takes several casualties knocking it down to it’s last stand. However, disaster strikes and Blue fails a morale check with the same unit and routes back to the bridge. (I am off here somehow). This may be a picture after 2 turns of action. Hmmm). Blue’s artillery inflicts casualties on Reds remaining line unit as does the long range fire from Blue’s other two units. red returns with a hit or two. Both artillery units are down to the last round.

Turn 9: Both batteries inflict some more casualties with their last rounds. Blue continues to whittle down red’s remaining line unit. Red in desperation, presses blue’s skirmisher unit near the bridge.

Turn 10: Blue wins the initiative and charges Red’s wavering line unit. Red’s unit breaks and runs leaving Blue’s skirmisher and line unit close to an otherwise defenseless artillery battery. The resulting musketry fire inflicts 3 casualties.

At this point, it was clear that Blue would win.  They still had 2 line and both skirmisher units on the field and Red had only their skirmisher unit though their last line unit did rally with a ‘6’.  It likely would not have withstood the onslaught of Blue’s remaining units.  Next battle will be battle #1 which is a fight between 2 hills.  It’s a pretty uninteresting map but will test the rules on open ground.

The figures are mostly Minifigs 2nd gen with a few Minifigs 3rd generation.  Trees are by JTT trees.  Hills are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts.  The rivers and roads are craft foam flocked with railroad flock made by someone at the flea market at Cold Wars.  I am ashamed to say I did not get the gentleman’s name.  They are a clever and inexpensive way to make roads and rivers.