Slaughter in the Dread Isles - Week 3

[No Remorse]

We started our Cutlass! Campaign for Game night last night.

We only had 5 guys so we had two 1-on-1 games to start and I stayed out to act as the rules judge.

We adopted the Action 8 system, using the Au roll to determine who was the active gang.

The first encounters were Orcs vs. Pirates and Privateers vs. Undead, they played Swoop and Ambush respectively.

It was quite a match between the Undead and Privateers, but in the end not one of the Privateers were on the table and the undead added two to their ranks, they only lost 1 member due Injury chart. The privateers obviously hit the shred button on their crew.

We house ruled the Campaign Injury Chart to downgrade the effects 1 =  Dead, 2 = Serious, 3-4=Wounded, 5+=Fine. We did this to make it so a d6 Con could actually walk away from a fight, without having to sit out for a game. That being said, we changed the undead Brittle Bones rule to a -1 Con level rather than just -1 to the result.

On the other table the Orcs faired not bad, but they did retreat once their leader was taken out. They were the attacker so didn't lose extra fame for doing so. The Orcs were tooled for both shooting and combat, which I think was the downfall. They were too preoccupied with shooting rather than using their action points to get into combat, where they would have excelled. Either way he rolled on the injury chart and his leader was wounded, and since he got minimal xp and his leader was going to be out for a game, he just reset his crew. The pirates got max bonus for the encounter, since the orcs did not reveal 1 token and got a little xp besides.

The orc player decided he didn't take enough punishment for one night and challenged me. So out came Capt'n Doggen Goldblood and his crew of Merry Madmen. I went with a very minimally equipped crew, but had 4 Venerables all kitted with Dagger, Club and Parrot (5d6 on attack, 4d6 on Defense), I had two pirates in the crew as well but only brought one out as it was a Skirmish encounter, odd numbers are a bad thing for that encounter. Me Capt'n's Equipment was a Great axe, 2 parrots, Hammer and Club (Great axe was 4d6 for Combat, Mwuahahaha!)

Now to be fair, I have played the game much more than the other players, so I had figured out how to use my action points wisely, where to pull reactions, and how to use my enemies reactions against him. Needless to say it was a slaughter out and out. I suffered one injury on my leader, and one on another boy, that was it. We forgot it was Skirmish until late in the game, which just means I would have won sooner, so I managed to get 2 TO's 2 Crips and a crap load of xp before the game ended. BUT....my victory was sullied, ugh.... He had been using straight Authourity rolls for his action totals ALL night! I had explained the Action 8 system at the beginning of the night and told them all we are using that but, he either missed it or was confused. My reward for the mission was a legitimate business, not very useful at the beginning of the campaign IMO.

More next week, hopefully

[Brummie]

Nice report look forward to hearing next weeks 

[No Remorse]

I noticed a lack of reports so figured I would fill in the gap and hopefully generate some enthusiasm for the game.

[No Remorse]

Last night was pretty thin for the number of players that showed up, only 2 plus myself, so we played a 3-way. Coincidentally enough it was all the winners from last week; Dwarves, Undead and Pirates.

We rolled for encounter and got Running Battle. The dwarves showed up in force with all me boys on that table straight off and looking for a fight. Both of the other crews only had 4 or 5 people show up, I think the others were still trying to make it to shore, in a drunken stupor.

I also managed to do some great rolling and got the drop on the other two with a high Au roll, unfortunately with the exception of a lot of movement I couldn't capitalize on all my action before the Pirate player stole the initiative and started shooting at me. And he had the guns to do it, almost every model was armed with both a brace of pistols and a musket!  The pirate player hit with almost every shot, but failed to do any serious damage. Once the smoke cleared and my dwarves ears stopped ringing all that he had managed to do was cause one stun on a Venerable...Capt'n Doggen kissed his goblin foot and thanked the gods of strong ale and sturdy axes.

Next up was the undead player, who sprinted up to flank my boys, which had closed in on the Pirates. He got a few models up close and person before I managed to steal the initiative back, but I only had a few action points remaining so I couldn't do much although I did manage to get my Capt'n in combat with one of the scurvy pirates and give a swing of me great axe...which did nothing sigh.

First recovery phase, a few stuns results were rolled for and two more pirates showed up on the board, but thankfully no undead.

The Au roll the pirates won and began by reloading and peppering my poor defenseless dwarves, volley after volley went into them and ended up causing a bit more damage this time. One injury, this was starting to look bad. The pirate player passed and the undead were up, they moved up to engage, but I managed to steal the initiative and move up some more boys. Then I made the fatal mistake...oh what a mistake! I moved one of my dwarves in too close to the pirates and gave him a reaction! As soon as I finished my move I knew something terrible was about to happen and it did. The rip tide began with the pirates using up the rest of their points to shoot up my boys some more causing another injury and a stun, leaving two models in very bad shape. Then the undead started ripping my boys to shreds on the other side of the battle, causing a stun and injury on all three of my boys in combat with them. Again the gods of all things good stepped in to save my dwarves and not one was taken out! I had a couple of action points remaining so tried a couple of whacks with my Capt'n's axe but once the recover phase came around I ran like only a dwarf can run! More like a quick waddle than a run lol.

The undead player was heavily outnumbered by the pirates at this point and called it a day as well, preferring to taste flesh somewhere else than to taste lead.

In the aftermath the pirate player got a big +5 fame, he is famous, and both the Undead player and I gained a little fame as well, but not in a good way. Everyone gained a little XP and had a couple guys level up, besides that no one was taken out, so no injury rolls.

All in all a lot of nothing happened but it was a fun time with nothing going on lol

[mattdros]

Sounds great, I'll definately type something up when we play this Thursday 

How are you finding that multiplayer games are working out? We tend to think it is a game designed for 2 players, although admittedly haven't tried it with more than two? Are all the encounters suitable? How does the reaction system work with two inactive gangs? I assume there could be situations where two gangs could react?

Would be nice if it turns out to be a viable option as we invariably enc up with 3 players lol

Matt

[No Remorse]

The game is designed for two players but it works well with multiplayer. We would not play more than 3 to a game though as it does get kind of draggy. You can easily modify most of the encounters to be multiplayer with a little tweaking. The simplest encounter to play is putting a treasure chest in the middle that everyone is going after, you can set the value yourself for the contents, we use (d6+number of players) * 10. Who ever gets off the board with it wins, following the usual rules for carrying loot (no sprinting etc). You could do multiple loot counters like for Swoop, alternatively.

We have never had two players being able to react, but a simple roll on each models reaction would suffice, who ever rolls the highest would be the one that got the reaction, although both players would still lose a action point for trying to react. In the event of a tie re-roll, but this would simply be to see who reacted, not stop a successful reaction from taking place.

Another thing to consider is that when a player runs out of action points or passes, the initiative passes to the player with the highest Action Total remaining, again if a tie occurs players should roll off on their leader's Au to see who goes.

I can't think of anything else right off the top of my head that may crop up, but common sense usually prevails with this game.

[No Remorse]

Week 3 of the campaign

First two battles were Undead versus the almost heroic Dwarves and sinister slippery Elves versus even more sinister Pirates.

Undead Vs Dwarves

The undead took their chance to defile the sacred chapel in town, with the dwarves rushing to defend. We catch the battle in mid action (Running Battle), with 4 of the undead fiends closing upon the chapel, and the dwarvea on the other side trying to close the distance to destroy the abominations. Unfortunately the dwarves were outnumbered, with only the leader and a trusty mate with him. To make matters worse the undead got the jump on the dwarves and were in firing range quickly before the dwarves could close any distance. The tricky undead leveled their guns at the venerable dwarf and opened fire, causing a injury and stun so he was out of the fight quickly. The dwarven leader decided to go it alone and made for the undead horde. It took a few swings but Doggen, our fearless captain, managed to down one of the befouled creatures and then stepped on his neck to make sure and good he wouldn't get back up. 1st Recovery, both of us were hoping for some more reinforcements, but the undead failed to show at all, and only one more of Doggen's boys managed to drag themselves away from the pub. Again the undead got the jump on the dwarf captain and surrounded him quickly. He managed to fight them off downing another of the creatures, before being dragged down himself by the undead captain. Thankfully the recover phase came and the dwarf captain decided a retreat was much better than being turned into lunch, or worse!

The best part of this battle for me was my lone Captain got 13 xp, 1 more than the undead Captain!


Elves vs Pirates

The Pirates decided to lay a little ambush for the unsuspecting Elves. Four of the pirates laid in wait while two of the elves made their way to the ambush spot. The ambuscade was launched and the elves were quickly overrun. The pirates opened up fire before engaging the Elves in melee. It was over quick for the Elves who had no chance to regain control of the situation.


Round 2

Next we have our now somewhat Valourous Dwarves, who decided crime just didn't pay, against the Pirate Crew, who needed to be taught a swift lesson in justice. On the other table were the Elves facing off against the Pirates of the Crimson Tide (or Bloody Puddle).

Dwarves vs Pirates

The poor beleaguered Dwarves decided enough was enough for a little while and went to contemplate their new direction in life over a well needed pint (or 5), when they ran into a ragtag group of pirates coming out of their favourite establishment. This would not do! Immediately the Pirate captain yelled out a challenge to Doggen, who answered emphatically with much shaking of his fist and yanking of his beard. The cunning pirates started things off by moving ever so carefully backwards and kept their guns holstered...for now, trying to sucker the dwarves forward. And it worked, though not in the way the pirates expected. The dwarves ran as fast as a dwarf can run at thier enemy (which is to say, as fast as a drunken elf), keeping a solid scrimmage line. The dwarves managed to get into fisticuffs without too much effort, and from there the story goes downhill for the pirates, who never got to pull a weapon. The pirates managed to land a few lucky blows on the weakest of the Dwarven crew and this so incensed the rest of the dwarf crew that they threw themselves at their enemy with abandon. Fists were pumping, feet were flying and parrots were pecking. Not one of the Dwarf even considered pulling a weapon (Stocky + Parrot =  Win in Brawl).  At the end of it all, the dwarves managed to put the boots to five of the Pirate crew including the Captain, making sure to stomp on their necks for good measure. Two of the cowardly pirates tried to run but the Dwarves pumped their stocky legs as fast as they could and hit them from behind. The last pirate left dropped on his knees and began to beg for his life Doggen, now repentant of his evil ways could not bring himself to end this coward as he would have normally, so he graciously and mercifully smacked him upside the head and walked away.

Doggen proved that day that his boys are truly heroic (28 Fame gained!) and his boys feel much better now that they had a good fight. The pirates picked themselves off the ground, ready to stab the Dwarves in the back next time.


The Pirates of the Crimson Tide vs. "The Elves"

Those rotten conniving Elves were attempting to sneak through town with the cart of stolen money, when the Pirates spotted them and decided to ambush them near the church. The Pirate Captain having only half of his crew for the attack decided to try and outflank the Elves. Unfortunately this manueuver would prove to be his downfall. The Pirate Captain and 2 of the ships crew approached the Elves from the left side of the church while the remaining experienced (aka Hardened) pirates approached from the right side of the church.

The Elven Captain had setup just beyond a small cabin and was aware of the planned ambush by the pirates. Sending two of his crew with the stolen cargo, they approached the two hardened pirates and let go with a volley of pistol fire. One of the hardened pirates was hit with a glancing blow that 'stunned' him. The other members of the Elven band approached the left side of the church where they encountered the other protion of the Piratre crew.

The Pirate Captain ordered his men to attach with the muskets and pistols, but those Elves were just too skilled at avoiding weapons fire and escaped unharmed. Continuing to fire the Humans and Elves eventually became engaged in Hand to Hand Combat. The two hardened pirates continued to let loose with volleys from their pistols, but it was too no avail and the Elven Captain found a space to creep through that allowed a member of his crew to slip past the humans and escape with the treasure.

In the end the Pirate Captain suffered a major blow to his ego while the Elven Captain was seen enjoying an evening of ill gained fortune.

[Custom_Hobby]

Nice report. Reminds me I need to get a copy of the rules.

[mattdros]

Nice report man. I didnt do a write up this week as the game was a little brutal on my guys and didnt fancy reliving it lol.

However much like, my Captain gained 10+ experience even in a losing cause, and got an accuracy uprade too! Puts him at D10 for ACC, DEX and Authority. He's becoming fairly formidable.