Otherworld Skirmish, Raid on Pembroke Part 2

Continuing from Part I....

RULES NOTES

A couple things were pointed out to me in the downtime between the 2^nd and 3^rd turns.  Anytime I play something new I always overlook some details, so I am making sure to correct these moving ahead.

It cost TWO fate to purchase additional activations not one AND you need to make that decision before the turn starts.

Using the Leader or Mob Leader rule for extra activations, you need to finish the Leaders turn first, the you can do the extra activations whenever in the turn, I played this very loosely the first two turns.

“Special actions” like searching for Adventure Tokens and Thieves “Set Traps” ability are Actions. Not Free Actions. (unless thru another ability, see below) So If I move twice, I cannot uncover an adventure token, I could only move once and do that. 

I also have an issue with my Thief and the very cool "Set Traps" ability at the end of turn 2

Set Traps is somewhat confusing as the description under its listing in the  "Abilities"  section says reads “one use per encounter”. Now, is this scenario a single encounter? or is each engagement within the scenario an encounter? 

Encounter is much clearer term if you are playing a game with easily identifiable multiple encounters, such as exploring a dungeon.  

Now the game's character "Thief companion" which is what I am using here has the "Special Power" called “Gotcha!” which lets you use  Set Traps , once per encounter as a free action as opposed to special action.  So there is no problem with how I did it in my last turn, The question is  could I do it more than once in this Scenario?., I am thinking yes, you can do it more than once, scenario depending- but until its clarified,  I ‘ll just do it once.

As result of this I am removing the second 3 inch rough ground Template I put down and moving one goblin back 6 inches and moving on, in good faith to the rules

TURN 3  INITIATIVE

As I mentioned a good roll for the Adventurers here would be key, but it shall not come to pass..I roll a 6 vs 1 in favor of the Raiders!. Given current models counts, this gives the Raiders  5 activations and  3 Fate and the Adventures 3 activations  and 2 Fate. 

A 6 to 1 initiative roll gives the the maximum fate available a 3 to one side and 2 to the other.

I buy activations for both sides, before we start the turn  and we end up with:

Raiders- 6 Activations and 1 Fate

Adventurers - 4 Activations

TURN 3  RAIDERS  

Activation 1 The Ogre.

Locked in combat with the Legendary Warrior  The Ogre has 2 actions, we can make these both attacks as the Warrior has Three hits , since the Ogre cant kill the Warrior outright we still need to try to take him down. The 1st attack Hits with a 6, the damage roll  are a pair of 2’s (I roll two dice for the "Brutal" ability ) Fate can be used to bump one of these die rolls up but Ill need at least 3, 2's wont do it., so no wound.

Second attack is I roll a “3”, I use the Fate here to bump it up to a “4” and a hit, I roll two dice to wound a 1 and 6!! The Warrior is wounded?  Not so fast! the Warrior has Heavy Armor and a Shield, giving him a 4+ Save….I roll the save and get a “4”

The Ogre has no luck here, I can see with a D6 how hard it would be to put a Legendary character, particularly a "tank" fighter down, while there are abilities, spells, etc that do more than one wound per hit , nothing like that is involved here. 

Activation 2  Goblin Leader 

Using "mob leader (3)" he is able to give the nearby group all activation tokens upping the Raider activations to 9! 

The Goblin Leader moves away for the battle but in Bow range and touches the Treasure Chest  token worth 3 VP from earlier in the game, I put the Treasure Chest card back in the Raider card hand, while this will reduce activations next turn by one, I feel the Raiders will the need the Victory Points more. 

For his second action he shoots and arrow at the Village Constable whose standing in the wide open and in range but he misses.

Activation 3  Dire Wolf 

The last Dire Wolf on the board is engaged with Berserker 3 (last of the 3 Berserkers) The Wolf has 2 actions. Action 1 is an attack, he hits but fails to wound with a “1”..The wolf attacks again with it s second action, and again misses, but Wolves have the power “onslaught” abilities which let you re roll one missed attack per turn.

I use this roll a “5” ,a hit, then roll a “6” to wound, the Berserker is down and done for much to the relief of the Tavern owner.

Activation 4, 5, 6,   The Goblins near the supply wagon, follow the Thief down the alley by the docks toward the battle. All moving double moves toward the fight

Activation 7,8,9.  The second group of goblin , do the same moving toward the Ogre and Warrior battling away All moving twice

TURN 3 ADVENTURERS  4 Activations

Activation 1, The Warrior. 

Already engaged with the Ogre , the fight continues, Action 1 = Attacks “5” hit..”2” to wound misses

Action 2= Attack “3” miss!  The Warrior has “Onslaught” as well, I  reroll, “4” this time a  hit,

I then roll a "4" to wound  just enough to remove the Ogre’s second hit and put him down!This is bad for the Raiders.

The Warriors activation also allowed his via his “Leader (1)” ability to activate the Village Constable upping the activations for the Adventurers to 5 but its doesn’t matter as only 4 models are standing on the defending side.

Activation 2  Village Constable   

The Constable Charges the Dire Wolf hovering over the incapacitated Berserker, Range and space to charge aren’t a issue. However the Constable swings and misses all 3 attacks, 2 from the Charge and 1 from his second activation

Activation 3 The Thief. 

The Thief turns and charges the nearest Goblin chasing him down  , like the Village constable but needing a “5” to hit , I miss all the “to hit” rolls, after the fact I realize the Thief has Luck (1) that get him one reroll PER TURN…which is pretty big, not to mention it can be used for any ally within 6” inches which is even better..I had already moved on before I realized this , but something to keep in mind for sure.

Activation 4- The Ranger.  Takes an aimed shot at one of the Goblin near the Warrior , he hits with 5 needing a 3, and wounds with a “4” needing a 4….the goblin gets a save via his Shield but rolls a “1” and is down, incapacitated.

End Phase- I remove the Berserker, The Ogre and the Goblin from play, and roll for the Thief's trap and again it stays in play. Although its not relevant at this point as the battle has moved to the Village Square.

TURN 4

INITIATIVE  I roll a a pair of 5’s  a tie goes to whomever went second last turn which is the Adventurers. While no fate is generate by a tie roll, each side is one model away from being shaken at turn 4’s End phase.

Activations are 4 for the Raiders but they have the Treasure Chest card in play so they lose 1, for a total of 3

The Adventurers have but 2 Activations.

TURN 4  ADVENTURERS  2 Activations

Activation 1  The Warrior.   

The Warrior Activates also again activating via his Leader (1) ability the Village Constable engaged with the last Dire Wolf

The Warrior charges the nearest goblin missing his charge attack but easily killing it with his normal attacks

For the second action I am not in base contact but 1 inch away from another goblin I use his Reign of Steel special power which allows him to attack everyone with 1” as a Special Action, this I could not move and attack again normally this turn, this allows me to attack this other Goblin. I roll to hit and miss  but again can reroll this once this turn due to Onslaught, I do, roll a 6 this time and a 3 to wound which is just enough (Str 4v s Def 3) to wound him, This goblin had shield so he get save but rolls a “5” close but not quite.  Two Goblins down.

Activation 2- The Ranger  Takes an unlikely shot at the Goblin Leader 22 inches away,  Standard bows, like the Goblin Leaders have an 18 inch range, however via the Martial Training ability, the Ranger has a proper longbow for 24” range

With the Eagle Eye ability, he only needs a 3 and I roll a 4+ wounding him is another story, as I upped the Goblins Defense to 4 in his upgrades..so I need a 5 to wound and the Goblin gets a 6+ Save via his Light Armor. The Dice say a “2” So I knew it was unlikely.. If I had rolled "4" I could have used the Thief's luck token here..but no.

Activation 3 via Leader(1)  Village Constable is last , He Attacks the Dire Wolf hits with a “6” and puts it down with a “4” 

He uses his second action to move toward the Thief to support if there is another Turn. But with Raider losing 3 models this turn that’s looking doubtful

RAIDERS TURN 4  3 Activations.

Activation 1-  The Goblin Leader.  

Things are looking grim for the Raiders but it was smart even at the cost of the activations to secure that Treasure Chest.  The Goblin takes and aimed shot at the Village Constable he still needs a 4 and I roll a 1…he got zero luck with bow today…I need to upgrade his bow attack to 4+ but opted for higher defense.

Activation 2  Goblin locked in Combat with the Thief….This Goblin hopes to get lucky but looking for 5’s The Goblin misses both his attacks. The Thief also has the Dodge ability which lets him make a Agilty test against the first melee attack per turn, and the Thief can do that on a 3+ pretty good odds of survival. The Goblins sigh.

Activation 3 Goblin, Looking to score points and realizing there is no way he can kill the thief even if he’s very very lucky as he does not have line of sight too charge, the goblin nearest the Thief vs Goblin scrap, has just enough room to skate by and get to Taverns Adventure Token in one move, allowing me to flip a card on this second action, meaning a much easier route to victory points.  So I do so.  I flip the card and its…”Saving Throw” ugh and it’s a Saving Throw for the Defenders. The Goblins groan and we move the End Phase.

END PHASE TURN 4

We remove the Raider casualties, leaving 4 Goblins on the Board, with only 4 models, they aren’t just “shaken” they qualify for  “wiped out” status. ( reduced by ¾ ) The Raiders need to make a morale check at -2, The Goblin leaders Morale is 2 meaning he needs a 5+ to succeed . The -2 is applied to the die roll, so there is no way he can possibly succeed..I roll a 3-2 =1.. The Adventures now get to removes 1d6 models from the battlefield, I roll the dice..a 6….The game ends as all the goblins flee the field.

VICTORY or NOT?

Since I didn’t place any specific victory conditions this time thru..we are working with the basics. Scoring is abstract as far as I am reading Adventure Cards in the players hand remain in the players hand regardless of the outcome.

(I don’t see any mention of discarding Adventure cards due to causalities or routing)

FINAL SCORES

Attackers- 6 VP via Adventure Cards,  but at a great loss , especially the Ogre, then the Hobgoblin Scout and all 4 Wolves.

Defenders-  3 VP for the Elimination of all Raider Unique Models, and 2 VP for pushing the other team to “Wiped Out” status, for 5 VP.

The Berserkers went down hard like they’re known to but all the key (unique) models survived.

The Raider survivors, and all their Loot!

In the short narratives end, the Adventurers slew the Ogre and probably stopped these Goblins from bothering the village again anytime soon, however it looks like the sneaky buggers got away with the town treasury, so getting paid probably isn't in the cards.

"Free Beer" says the Tavern Keep? 

The Adventurer Survivors, 

Final Result Pyrrhic Victory for The Raiders, 6 VP to 5 VP

Final thoughts.

Despite a lot of thumbing thru the rulebook and a few snafu’s I found the game played rather well.

 I actually like the activation system much more that I initially thought, I love the way the Leadership abilities and Fate work to get you the extra activations you need.

There are a few clarifications I would like to run down and  hopefully as I reach out to other players these will get  cleared up.

Key moments in the game were clearly having the Goblin Leader going back to capture the treasure chest because at the cost of an activation on the last turn  He secured the winning points for sure.

The Legendary Warrior taking down the Ogre then that pair of Goblins back to back turns clearly makes him game MVP, that was just one legendary figure, curious to how 4 or more of them play.

Next up I am going to run a couple single encounters to test out some of heavy weight monsters in combat and see how it plays out. Stay tuned my next foray into Otherworld, called “Burn, Baby, Burn” I hope to get it played before New Years.