As Halloween fell on a Saturday
and Saturday at our place is Skirmish Saturday I planned Halloween Horror
Skirmish Special. I’ve been wanting to get all these English Civil War figures
I’ve been painting lately on the table, so the scenario used a mash-up of
Fear
and Faith and
Flashing
Steel. I was partly inspired to do this after I found a movie at my
local library called
A
Field in England. I didn’t love the film (I’m not saying it sucked or
anything… I just didn’t love it… I’m not a huge fan of horror…) but it did
provide some inspiration – the idea of blending some History and Horror!
I originally planned for up to
seven players (plus me gamemastering and running the Vampire, should he
appear)… alas no one I invited (beyond my immediate family) showed up.
So I just played with my family.
It's awesome that I have a family that will play games with me... in geeky costumes...
Yeah... we know how to party on Halloween.
1 July 1644, North Yorkshire
SITUATION
Dusk approaches on the evening
of 1 July 1644, English and Scottish armies gather around York. Prince Rupert
has lead an army to York to aid the Marquess of Newcastle who has been besieged
in York by Covanenteer and Parliamentarian armies under Lord Fairfax, The Earl
of Manchester, and Earl of Leven. Tomorrow there will be a battle on Marston
Moor – a meadow to the west of town… but this evening… an army must be fed!
SCENARIO
Each of the sides had different
briefing but more or less the same objectives and victory conditions (get the
sheep!)
Covananeteer and
Royalists
You have been tasked with
procuring supplies for your army from nearby villages and farmsteads. Your party
has spied a flock of sheep moving through a nearby pasture – they would make a
find meal for your regiment. But be careful villagers have been forming local
defence “clubs” and some defend their stock viciously. There may also be
foragers from the opposing army about…
As you approach the pasture your
band also takes note of a small stone watch tower. Rather than a crumbling ruin
– like most you have seen – this seems in fairly good condition and has a very
sturdy looking door. Clearly there must be something worthwhile inside to need
a door like that!
The Shepherdess
You were out tending to your
flock in the dark pasture beyond the Ravenblack Water. The pasture is safe
enough during the day… but at night… Unfortunately you fell asleep and just as
the sun was dipping towards the horizon. You and your dog Wilbur quickly
gathered up the flock and have been herding them back to the ford under the
shadow of the Ravenblack Tower.
Village Clubmen
Three armies are marching
through the region ravaging the land as they pass through. A local defence
league has been mobilized to defend their lands and stock from marauding
soldiers looking for supplies. All has been quiet today, but that blasted
shepherdess Fern hasn’t returned. She probably fell asleep in the pasture
again… A group has been organized to go fetch her and bring her back before any
foragers from the armies find them – or worse – he’s caught on the far side of
the Ravenblack Water when the sun goes down…
The Dark Secret
The village has a dark secret.
Across a small creek known as the Ravenblack Water resides an ancient evil in
an old stone watchtower. For longer than anyone dares guess the evil and the
villagers have maintained a live and let live policy. The villagers stay on
their side of the water after dark and pay no heed to tales of travelers that
disappear at night on that lonely road across the water that passes by the dark
tower.
Victory
Each side gets
+1 victory point for each sheep
they take off their side of the table
-1 Victory point for each of
their own side that is injured
-2 victory points for each of
their own side that is killed.
+2 points for each model that
spends a turn and two activations inside the tower (searching for and gathering
up loot!) – This was a bit of a Red Herring – I wasn’t actually expecting
anyone to succeed in this just put it there to make people think there’s
something “good” in the tower and consider trying to get in…
Special rules
The Shepherdess – if the
shepherdess is in contact with the flock she may spend activations to move the
entire flock 1 Short in the direction of her choice.
The Dog – If the dog and the
Shepherdess are in contact with the flock of sheep at the beginning of their
activation the dog provides the Shepherd with one free activation to move the
flock (i.e. the shepherd only rolls one or two dice to activate plus the one
free activation).
The Sheep – the flock always
moves as a self activated group and will always try to remain in base contact
with each other. The Sheep always move after the Shepherdess (regardless of the
number of successes or failures – i.e. if the Shepherdess rolled a turn-over,
the sheep still activate on their own). The Sheep will always attempt to
activate on three dice less the number of successful moves the Shepherd made
them do on his activation. Their Quality is 5+ and for each success the flock
move one short in a random direction – unless there has been shooting of
firearms within 1 Long of the flock then the sheep will move directly away from
the nearest model that shot a firearm since the sheep’s last activation.
To steal a sheep from the flock
a model must be in contact with one of the sheep in the flock spend an
activation to grab one and then further activations may be spent to move with
the sheep, but movement is reduced to Short. If engaged in close combat a model
will release any sheep they are holding and the sheep will immediately move 1
short towards the flock – they will then activate individually during the sheep
activation and will always try to move directly back to the flock.
Nighttime – once four turn-overs
have been rolled night falls.
Vampire! Once Night arrives the
vampire comes out to eat. He exit the door and will move towards the nearest
model and kill it and eat it. if it is ever outnumbered in combat it will us an
action to become immaterial or turn into a bat and escape combat.
The Tower – I never got to
making up rules on how to break in… I figured if anyone actually tried I’d just
make something up on the spot that was more or less impossible (give the
equipment they had on hand)
FORCES
Royalist Foragers – played by
The Boy
Officer & Gentleman
Q 3+, C 3, Leader, Rapier
5x Pikemen
Q 4+, C 3, Pike, Sword
Sergeant
Q 3+, C 3, Leader, Sword, Musket
5x Musketeers
Q 4+, C 2, Sword, Musket
Scots Covanenteer Foragers –
played by Amanda – who, despite her costume, isn't really that much of a Star Trek nerd… (that's not a vulcan Salute, love...)
(Actually what's even sadder was she was trying to be "ironic" and do a Nanoo-Nanoo like Mork for Ork... but couldn't even remember how to do that... I'm not sure what that gesture ended up being, but it doesn't look polite!?)
Sergeant
Q 3+, C 3, Leader, Halberd
5x Pikemen
Q 4+, C 3, Pike, Sword
Mosser
Q 3+, C 3, Leader, Sword, Musket
5x Musketeers
Q 4+, C 2, Sword, Musket
The Villagers – played by The
Girl
The Squire
Q 3+, C 3, Leader, Rapier,
Pistol
The Forester
Q 3+, C 3, Forester, Leader,
Musket
Villagers with Muskets
Q 5+, C 2, Musket
Villagers with Pikes
Q 5+, C 2, Pike
Villagers with Assorted
Improvised Weapons
Q 5+, C 2, Improvised Weapon
The Shepherdess and her Flock - nominally on the side of the villagers, I generally did their movement when their card came up
Shepherdess
Q 4+, C 1, Shepherd
Wilbur the dog
Q 4+, C 2, Long Move
Sheep
Q 5+, C 0, Sheep
The Vampire of Ravenblack Tower - played by myself
Ancient Vampire
Q 3+, C 4, Bat Form, Clinging, Danger Sense, Very Fearful, Immaterial, Vampire, Rapier
THE GAME
Right into the action!
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)
End of Turn One
I think the Shepherdess went
first and rolled three successes and charged the flock over halfway across the
table!
The villagers went next and this
one of their most active turns in the whole game! Both leaders activated and
issued group move orders sending the mob across the river to defend their
stock.
The Royalists went last the
musketeers surged forward and brought fire upon the Scots and villagers. I
think for the most part all they managed to do was push a few back (making them
duck and dodge and musket balls whizzed past ineffectively). I think they
knocked down the village preacher who was wading across the water with his
pike. The Royalist Pike marched forward, but didn’t get far.
I think the Scots went last and
the musketeers charged forth and grabbed sheepies while the pikemen maneuvered
to block the flock’s path and separate them from the villagers surging across
the Ravenblack Water.
On turn two some of the
villagers armed with Muskets fired on the Scots blocking the path of the sheep.
Their fire was entirely ineffective, but the Squire took a shot with his pistol
and knocked down one of the Scots Pikemen.
The Shepherdess only managed to
move the sheep once, so the sheep got to attempt an activation on their own and
when they succeeded the villagers shots drove them away from the ford and
directly towards the Royalists!
Then… NIGHT FELL…
The Vampire was the first to
activate one the first turn of full night – he flew out of the top of the tower
in bat form and materialized in combat with the Royalist Sergeant – who was the
closest to the building.
I totally forgot to make him do
a fright check… doh… Like he wouldn’t have been crapping his pants at that
point!
The Officer leading the Royalist
pike saw an opportunity and gave his men the sort of stirring speech that only
a Noblemen selflessly devoted to God, King, and Country can and set them off
after the sheep (group activation, three successes!)
The Royalists then shot at the
dismounted Scots Mosser – who had been leading the musketeers – taking him out
of action. This caused all the musketeers drop their sheep and flee!
A cascading series of morale
tests saw the Scots Pike also flee, but when they activated later in the turn
they quickly snatched up the sheep the musketeers had dropped.
The Shepherdess was not having
much luck controlling the Sheep they moved on their own away from the Royalist
shooting (which, conveniently, drove them directly towards the ford!)
Three Royalist pikemen made off
with sheep, while two of their number fought off Villagers that had swarmed
them.
The Royalist Officer charged one
of the Scots pikemen that was struggling to get away with a small lamb.
The Scots Pikeman spun around and
whapped the officer on the side of the head with his pike and knocked his ass
out cold…
The loss of the officer caused
panic among the Royalists and a cascading series of morale tests saw a bunch of
them off. One was taken out by villagers as they got a Free Hack when he tried
to flee!
The Sergeant broke away from
combat with the vampire long enough for the musketeers to all fire on him… with
zero effect… they couldn’t even knock him down!
The Vampire then leapt upon the
sergeant knocking him down.
He then took him out of action
and sucked on his blood for a bit. This set the rest of the Royalists to
flight! I think all but one fled the table at this point.
The Shepherdess got off the
table with part of her flock!
The Scots Sergeant and a pikeman
finally made if off the table with two more sheep (two others had previously
dragged sheep off).
Having finished off the Royalist
sergeant the Vampire looks about for more prey…
He swooped in on a village
pikeman (who somehow stood his ground and found off the vampire for a turn or
two – again I forgot fright checks…)
The remaining Royalist pikeman
dashed out from his hiding spot on the far side of the tower and, despite the
downed villager that he’d been previously fighting still lying on the ground
just asking to be finished off… the cool-headed pikeman remembered his orders
and grabbed one of the sheep!
Fat villager with a pike holds
off the Vampire while the rest of the villagers and sheep make their way to the
ford.
Royalist pikeman made off with
his solitary sheepie.
The villager with the pike was
eventually taken down and devoured, but the rest made it to (relative) safety!
In all the Villagers actually
got most of their sheep back to the village – NINE of them! – and suffered only
two casualties One that had been taken out by a Royalist Pikeman and crawled
away and slipped into the creek and swam across to freedom. The other was the
Fat Villager with the Pike… we said he was killed by the vampire and was never
seen again… So The Girl won the day (or… night…?).
The Scots made off with three
sheep and suffered only one casualty – the dismounted Mosser who had been shot
by a Royalist musketeer. He too managed to crawl away in the dark and was
eventually rescued by his men and patched up… only to die the following
afternoon at Marston Moor…
Only got one of the sheep.
They’d lost three in action – the Officer who had been taken down by a Scots
pikeman, a pikeman who had been stabbed as he tried to flee two villagers he
was in combat with when the panic ensued following the loss of their officer,
and the Musketeer Sergeant who was taken out by the vampire. We said the
officer eventually regained consciousness and crawled away in the darkness, as
did the Pikeman. The Sergeant, as with the Fat Villager, was never seen again.
The royalists made up a story to tell the rest of their company about a whole
TROOP of Scots horse they encountered at the village to explain their losses
and solemnly swore to never speak of the events they witnesses that night in
the dark pasture by Ravenblack Tower lest they all be labeled madmen!
All in all good fun!
Earlier in the day, while Amanda
and The Girl were out at dance classes, my friend Darrin stopped by and played
a game of Arkham Horror with me and The boy.
We battled against the Cult of
Cthulhu and, eventually, won! The Great Old One remained in his slumber beneath
the sunken city of R’lyeh.
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
I have a few more English Civil War figures I’m trying to
finish up… hopefully I’ll get to that and post some pictures later this week.
I’d also like to get a game in with the big battle ECW troops using either
DBA
Extension for 1500 – 1900AD/HOTT or One-Hour Wargames some time this
week. next weekend I’m hoping to kick off my new
A
Song of Blades and Heroes campaign.