Blood in the Basement: Campaign Abruptly Ended

Hi everyone,
So you know that we've been playing a campaign loosely based on the Blood in the Badlands campaign released by GW.  Well, much as many campaigns do we literally managed our way almost half through the allotted campaign before it came to a grinding halt due to real life.

I re-modeled my bathroom, Ryan had a baby and our friend Josh put the real nail in the coffin by accepting a job offer in Portland, OR.  So much for finishing.  However in lieu of being able to complete the campaign we decided that hte next best thing would be to have one big mega battle before Josh leaves and so we got together on July 7th for just such a thing.

The Players

Left to Right: Joe, Dave, Josh, Dan, Chip, Ryan

Alliance of Evil
Dan : Chaos Dwarfs
Dave : Demons of Chaos
Chip : Warriors of Chaos

Alliance of Good
Joe : Bretonnia
Josh : Dwarfs
Ryan : High Elfs

Blood in the Basement: Round 2, Turn 2

Welcome back to our Blood in the Basement Campaign for 2013.  We met recently to finish up the first turn of the Summer Season.  As a refresher here is the picture of the map as we last had it.

So this turns fights are resolved.

Ryan VS. Dave
Ryan was victorious earning him 'Living in Infamy' so the next time this army and Dave fight Dave will hate all of Ryan's units.  Dave's army not only was scattered (to be re-born due to the summer phase) but Dave also gained some 'Inexperienced Leaders' in this armies next fight giving one of his units stupidity.  High Elves over Demons.

Chip VS. Dan
As they could not work out a time to get together (sadly most of us while being within about an hour of each other do live in different towns).  Dan thus having the worse work schedule conceded to Chip for this game.  We let Chip roll on the Spoils of War table as it counts as a win for him.  Chip earned 'Beneath a Proud Standard' which gives a unit in this army a free 20 point Magical Standard while Dan earned nothing.  Concession of the Chaos Dwarfs to the Chaos Warriors.

Joe VS. Josh
Since our game did not count towards the campaign (we had no reasonable way to challenge one another we simply got together and fought a fun game with the victory going to my Bretonnians over his Dwarfs.

As a final resolution to our expeditions everyone who had the ability constructed mines and took over open or undefended territories where possible.  There are only 2 mines left in the box which means they are about to become a limited resource.

After all the fortification saves and tiles switching hands our turn order ended like so:
Ryan -6
Dave -8
Joe  -8
Dan  -9
Chip -9
Josh -10

Events!
Ryan -55- Secret Tunnels - Fight whom you wish ignoring the usual challenge order.
Dave -23- Raiding Party - Pick a rivals tile without a fortress, city, mine on it and plant your flag there.
Joe  -63- Treasure Chest - Gain D3 (3) Relics
Dan  -22- Settlers - Pick an open space and place a flag in it.
Chip -32- Force March - Move an army a 2nd time.
Josh -61- Treasure Map - Gain a relic and get a mine.

Movement!
Check out the map below in correlation with the one above to see where we landed.

Fight, fight, fight!
Ryan having his choice regardless of army placement after movement challenges Dan.
Dave is forced into fighting me as he is not on another players army anywhere and I have an army in his territory.
Chip gets to fight Josh in a one off fun game.

Mines!
Rolling for mines.  This is always worth a laugh.
Ryan - Collpase
Dave - +100 Points to next fight
Joe  - +1 Relic 30 Point Item / Collapse
Dan  - +200 Points to next fight / +300 Points to next fight
Chip - +1 Relic 30 Point Item / +1 Relic 50 Point Item
Josh - +100 Points in next fight / +1 Relic 60 Point Item / +150 Points in next fight

And finally an update on the Relic Count:
Joe:  8
Ryan: 3
Chip: 2
Dan:  2
Josh: 2
Dave: 0

Blood in the Basement: Round 2, Turn 1

So we've run into another of the many grey areas provided in the book.  At least one rule we couldn't really find a hard and fast ruling for in the book to prevent issues from arising.  The guys noticed that there are a number of times in the book that you gain bonuses and negatives to specific units but due to the fact that the lists change constantly there really isn't a way for this to affect units in a perilous way.  Such as when you lose a game and get the ignominious Defeat where a unit from your army of your choice gains stupidity.  Well the next time you write a list to play with that army what’s to stop a person from simply building a list with 5 super cheap models like War hounds and giving them Stupidity to not adversely affect your primary units.  So we discussed setting our lists so that you can't do such things.  Then though we ran into the problems that there are also many things that change the lists such as if you gain the result from the Spoils of War table which lets you change your percentages of Special/Rare in your next game.

So, we've taken a vote on plans to fix these problems as well as altering a number of the rules.  In reality that’s all the campaign rules are; a set of guidelines to follow but alter to provide you and your group with a fun gaming experience.  So we've altered the rules.  We figured at the beginning of the Summer Season would be the best time to do so.  We've chosen to enact the following for our campaign.  We are setting lists for each character now.  So each of our 3 characters will have a set army accompanying them when they fight battles.  Also, all current bonuses of stats/traits and regiment of renown status will be lost.  The only things we'll be carrying over are Relics.  From here out the only way to alter your lists will be through the mines and Spoils of War tables.  Also at the beginning of each new season we may change our army lists so that we can try new units/combinations out.  We feel that this will keep the game more traceable and the players more accountable.  With that preamble out of the way let’s move on to our second season of the campaign, summer!

Blood in the Basement... Round 1 Turn 3

We got together just 3 days back and ran our wrap up of turn 2 and moved on to turn 3.  As a recap of where we ended before fighting battles on turn 2 you can see the map below.

Book keeping is getting rather difficult at this point.  The pain that comes with campaigns I suppose.  However we forged ahead!  The battles concluded as such.

Chip defeated Ryan.
Chip earned Bolstered Ranks giving him D6x50 next time the army fights.
Ryan's army was scattered and earned itself some Inexperienced Leaders giving a unit in his army Stupidity next time it fights.

Dave defeated Josh.
Dave lives in infamy giving Josh hatred against him next time they fight.
Josh's army was scattered and he gained Vengeance will be Ours! giving him hatred in his next fight against Dave!

Dan and I did not get a chance to squeeze in a game.  We both work a lot; and have kids.

Chip took Ryans space they fought over and built a mine plus earned a relic.
Joe builds a fortress.
Dave builds a mine.
Ryan earns a relic.
Dan builds a mine and takes the tower from Ryan.
Josh builds a mine.

To begin Round 1 Turn 3 we establish our turn order.
Ryan
Dave
Joe
Josh
Dan
Chip

Events!
Ryan 31: The flying fortress moves.
Dave 44: In his next battle Dave can choose to deploy 1st or 2nd.
Joe 34: I can push an enemy army off of my land this turn.
Josh 65: +1 to fortification saves this turn.
Dan 31: The fotress moves.
Chip 55: Chalange any opponent regardless of position on map.

Declare War!
Dave and Josh are fighting again as are Ryan and Chip.  This leaves Dan and myself to try again to work out a game.  You think over a month it wouldn't be hard; but Dan's schedule changes a lot and kids make things hard.  We'll do our best this time.

Roll for Mines!
Ryan: +1 Relic and a 40pt Magic Item
Dave: +250 points in next battle
Joe: +1 Relic and a 40pt Magic Item
Josh: +200 points in next battle and a mine is exhausted
Dan +150 points in next battle
Chip: +1 Relic, 30pt Magic Item and a mine is exhausted

So to give you a view after the movement of Turn 3 you can see the map below.

So you can see where things have moved about.  It should be a great turn.  Hopefully after this in Round 2 when all of the armies return Ryan, Dave and I can begin pushing back out of our own territories.  Poor luck on our parts losing 2 of our 3 armies and then not being able to expand in Round 1 really hurt us all.

Blood in the Basement... Round 1 Turn 2

So we got together last week for our 2nd turn of the Spring Season in our Campaign.  With turn 2 come some fairly hefty changes.  Primarily that one of our players (Ryan G.) has switched races.  Since its so early in the campaign we have collectively decided to let him switch to a new army he has recently acuired which is High Elves.  As such his character grouping has change to the following:

General-Slap of Meat & Spear Army Marker
Renoic (Archmage)
Level 4, Jewel of Dusk, Talisman of Saphery, Folariath's Robe, Lore of Life

Lieutenant- Helmet & Shield Army Marker
Triston (Noble)
Armor of Caleador, Dawnstone

Lieutenant- Barrel & Bow Army Marker
Nathon (Mage)
Level 2, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin, High Magic

So to continue on let's discuss turn 1 wrap up.  Let's start with the picture:

Now the battles...
Dan and Dave fought a siege with Dan's Chaos Dwarfs assaulting Dave's Demonic Capital.  The game was a hard fought one ending in a concession from Dan who could not breach the walls.  This eventually lead to Dans army being scattered for the rest of the season.

Chip and I fought over the wizards tower with the battle coming down to only about a 200VP difference in the end.  Had I fled 1" further or Chip failed 1 more armor save I would have won; but the end result was Chip taking the win and scattering my army for the rest of the Spring season as well.

Ryan and Josh's game ended with a victory to Ryan but since it was not acutally a fight over a specific tile and just so they could play we didn't count it as anything special for the campaign.

Aftermath.  Dave failed a fortification save against Dan and lost his fortress.  Ryan was scattered from the Wizards tower that he and Dan were both on reulting in Dans capture of it.  Ryan then overtook Chips starting fortress while I was scattered away from Chips encroachment into my territory as he took one of my spaces.  I took an open space on the edge of the map as did Dave.  Josh not only took 2 open spaces but built a 2nd mine.  Chip built a 2nd fortress as did Ryan.

So with the turn wrapped up, our new turn order was as follows based on most tiles controlled:
1st - Dave
2nd - Joe
3rd - Chip
4th - Ryan
5th - Dan
6th - Josh

We're all quite excited to get into our 2nd turn of the Spring round and now we can take a look at the current map after our movement.

To recap the turns events, our rolls resulted in:

Dave: Diplomacy- Declared that Dan could not attack him this turn.

Joe: Blood Sacrifice- Will be of no use this turn as I'm not playing a campaign game.

Chip: Cunning Commander- This turned Chip into the 1st player in the turn order.

Ryan: Slave Labor- Re-roll the dice for your mine results this turn.

Dan: Stacking the Odds- Fight next battle with 25% more points than opponent.

Josh: Diplomacy- Declared that Dan could not attack him this turn.

So you can see the movement from the picture above and where the battles will take place.  Having been beaten on pretty badly the group decided to take it easy and give me a reprieve from assault this phase and went out to beat on each other.  Ryan withdrew from Chips territory  as Chip consolidated his armies back home.  They are fighting over one of Ryan's tiles now along the river.  Dave couldn't let Josh have all those tiles and so encroached into his realm where they will be fighting over his northernmost tile.  Dan being 2nd to last in the turn order could ended up having to fight me as the others were occupied so, although we will not be fighting over a tile we will be playing a game for practice.

The Results from the first turns battles on the victory/defeat charts were thus:
Dave having won gained the advantage of Elite Army.  This gives this army marker an increase on his Special and Rare caps form 50-25% to 75-50% for its next battle.  Dan suffered from Inexperienced Leaders which results in one of his units in that specific army suffering from stupidity in its next battle.  This however wont take effect until Summer season as the army was scattered.  Chip gained an Elite Army as well from his battle with me which we've outlined above also not benefiting him this turn as the army receiving the bonus returned to his own borders.  I suffered a Captured Hero meaning that the Pegasus Lord has been Captured sure to be sacrificed at the end of the Season as I am relegated to only a single army left on the board and my chances of rescue are pretty much nil.  I'll be gaining a new Lieutenant next season after the eventual promotion of one of my currents to a General.

The results for the mine rolls for the turn were as follows:
Chip: Gold and Iron- Additional 200pts for next battle
Dave: Gold and Iron- Additional 250pts for next battle
Joe: Fabulous Treasures- Relic, Free 40pt Magic Item
Ryan: Fabulous Treasures- Relic, Free 30pt Magic Item
Dan: Exhausted- Mine Destroyed
Josh: Gold and Iron- Additional 100pts for next battle

As a final recap for the turn the battles are as follows:
Chip- Argost The Ogreslayer at +200pts vs. Ryan- Triston the Noble
Dave- Tarisa Man Drinker at +250pts vs. Josh- Cardinal Nikelaus at +100pts
Joe vs. Dan (non campaign battle)

As I said, we're all looking forward to the coming turn.  The excitement is high still as we move into the battle phase of our 2nd turn of the campaign.  Hopefully your all enjoying reading about it too.

Blood in the Basement... and or Garage...

So our campaign has officially begun and we’re all pretty stoked about it.  I’ve only finished painting about half of the Might Empires tile set, but I’ll keep pounding away at that and hopefully it’ll be done by the end of February.  I’d say this month, but I’m getting slammed at work and doing a lot of overtime so my painting ability has been greatly diminished.  As I said before we’re running most of the rule set from the Blood in the Badlands campaign, produced by GW.  As such we’ve each created characters for our armies that have set groupings of equipment and can be killed, etc…  So to start out I’ll list out our characters here for everyone.

Dan (Light Blue) Chaos Dwarfs

General

General Renlock (Banner Pole Army marker)

Level 4, The Blood of Hashut, Sword of Battle, Channeling Staff, Great Taurus, Lore of Hashut (Seed of Rebirth, free item)

Lieutenant

Lt. Grimlock (Horse & Skull Army marker)

Infernal castellan

Fireglaive, Shield, Black Hammer of Hashut, Luckstone, Healing Potion

Lieutenant

Lt. Menlock (Pile of Skulls Army marker)

Daemonsmith Sorcerer

Level 2, Naptha Bomb, Pistol, Channeling Staff, Healing Potion, Lore of Death

Joe (Dark Blue) Bretonnia

General

Louis the Heroic (Helmet with Pegasus Army marker)

Bretonnian Lord

Pegasus, Shield, Sword of Swiftslaying, Dragonhelm, Mantle of Damsel Elena, Potion of Foolhardiness, Virtue of Heroism

Lieutenant

Harod the Confident (Helmet with Antlers Army marker)

Paladin

Grail Vow, Warhorse, Lance, Virtue of Confidence, Gauntlet of the Duel, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone

(Sword of the Lady’s Champion, free item)

Lieutenant

Roderick the Impetuous (Helmet with Horse Army marker)

Paladin

Warhorse, Lance, Shield, Virtue of Impetuous

Josh (White) Dwarfs

General

Cardinal Nikelaus (Standard Army marker)

Runelord

Great Weapon, Shield, Anvil of Doom, Rune of Spelleating, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Stone, Master Rune of Balance

Lieutenant

Archbishop Balthazar (Stone & Pick Army marker)

Thane

Shield, Oathstone, Rune of Fury x2, Master Rune of Swiftness

Lieutenant

Benny (3 Axes Army marker)

Thane

Great Weapon, Shield, Oathstone, Master Rune of Swiftness, Rune of Snorri Spangelhelm, Rune of Fury

Great Weapon/Runes Need Fixed

Ryan (Black) Ogre Kingdoms

General

Torgarth Goreluster (Slab of Meat Army marker)

Slaughtermaster

Level 4, Ironfist, Fencers Blade, Glittering Scales, Dispel Scroll, Lore of Maw

Lieutenant

Vargett Bloodboiler (Barrel of Powder Army marker)

Firebelly

Level 2, Hellheart, Lore of Fire

Lieutenant

Gondek Mawfeeder (Blood Vulture Army marker)

Hunter

Harpoon Launcher, Ironfist, Light Armor, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Endurance, Stonehorn

Dave (Orange) Demons of Chaos

General

Ragnorox the River of Blood (Standard Army marker)

Bloodthirster

Spellbreaker, Immortal Fury

Lieutenant

Ferangul Manbreaker ( Khorne Sigil Army marker)

Hearld of Khorne

Armor of Khorne, Soul Hunger

Lieutenant

Tarisa Man Drinker (Skull Army marker)

Herald of Slaanesh

Siren Song, Sporific Musk

Chip (Red) Warriors of Chaos

General

Belenose Bloodstained (Bloodthirster Army marker)

Demon Prince of Khorne

Mantle of Chaos, Fury of the Blood God

Lieutenant

Mephisto the Red (Khorne Icon Army marker)

Exalted Hero of Khorne

Axe of Khorne, Favor of the Gods, Blood Curdling Roar, Skin Hidden Plate, Juggernaut (Skin Hidden Plate, free item)

Lieutenant

Argost the Malign (Skull Totem Army marker)

Exalted Hero of Khorne

Ogre Slayer, Talisman of Preservation, Steam of Corruption, Shield, Steed

 

We got together on Wednesday 1/9 to actually get the 1^st turn moving along.  Due to size of the map and the fact that we picked up a 6^th player whom we hadn’t intended on the starting areas were forced as opposed to being a select your own type deal.  With only 52 tiles and 42 required for 6 players to have their opening area it left only 10 spots which means if a single person had picked a placement it would’ve thrown the map from anyone else being able to place.  Also since I only owned a single set of the expansion tiles instead of building Wizards towers we placed the two onto the board in neutral spaces between everyone so they could be heavily fought over tiles.  Also we’re not using any of the other special markers that were used in the Badlands book.  We rolled off for area choice and then went in reverse order for the first turn sine there was no smallest empire we let the guy who placed last go first.  The map below is the picture of the initial placement on the map.  The fortress floated around a little bit but stayed pretty central of the map.

We then proceeded on to our even rolls for the round and boy did it see some crazy things happen on the 1^st turn.

Dan        -66-Reinforcments from Home: For the rest of the season, you gain an extra army.

Ryan      -43-Scouting Force: In your next game, after deployment you may redeploy D3+1 units and gain +1 to go first.

Joe          -16-Plague: Remove a one of your fortresses from the obard but retain control of the tile.

Josh        -41-Spies: In your next game you make look at your enemies list before you pick your own.

Dave      -11-Recalled from war: Remove one of your armies for the season.

Chip       -26-Seize the crown!: Pick an enemy city (other than his capital) and take control of it.

So you can see some seriously big drops here.  I lost my only fortress, Dave lost an army, Dan gained an army and Chip got nothing from his event.  After this the movement began.  Dan having gained an extra army and being positioned next to Dave who lost one went strong into his territory going after his fortress, capital and an open tile.  Ryan went into the same open space that contained an army of Dans and after Chips fortress.  I went into an open space and into a Wizards tower.  Josh went into two open tiles.  Dave moved into an open tile and to defend his capital and finally Chip moved to invade me and to fight me for the Tower while his final pieced stayed where it was.  You can see the map after the events and movement below.

After the movement phase we went on to the roll for our mines.

Dan        -5- Fabulous Treasures!: Dan gained 1 Relic and a free 10pt magic item for one of his hero’s.

Ryan      -3- Gold and Iron: Ryan gained an additional 300pts into his next battle.

Joe          -6-Fabulous Treasures!: 1 Relic and a free 60pt magic item for a hero.

Josh        -1- Collapse!: The mine was exhausted and removed.

Dave      -4-Gold and Iron: Gained an additional 300 pts into his next battle.

Chip       -6-Fabulous Treasures!: 1 Relic and a free 60pt magic item for a hero.

Dan chose the Seed of Rebirth which he placed on General Renlock.  I chose the Sword of the Lady’s Champion for extra dueling capability on Harod the Confident.  Chip chose the Skin Hidden Plate for the extra protection on Mephisto.  So for the turn Dan and Dave will have to fight over Dave’s capital city in what will become our first Siege game.  Nobody is fighting close enough to the Flying Fortress to play a Storm of Magic game.  Chip and I will end up fighting over the Wizards tower and while Josh and Ryan didn’t actually have a tile to fight over they are going to play a game and use their event/mine rolls to play for gaming sake.