Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Otherworld Skirmish- BAIT!



This report has been overdue as I played this game a couple weeks ago , but needed to make time to cobble it all together which didn’t happen until till this week in this brief lull before Adepticon.

My latest foray in Otherworld Skirmish (OWS) is a scenario I teased after my last Dungeon Crawl  and it’s a scenario called “BAIT!” ,  its a heads up match up, featuring  two small teams. It's essentially the "straight up fight" encounter from the rulebook, with one little adjustment based on the Size of one of the creatures involved which you will see in minute. 

THE ENCOUNTER-  BAIT! Is a 150 point game, with 4 models per side, I wanted to try some of the higher point creatures,  so I picked one I had recently painted up that I thought seemed very undercosted to lead a small team against 4 Adventurers,  The premise of BAIT! Is that our Adventures here were unwittingly led to this Small Mountain Cavern in search of a quest items, but they have been duped and the cavern is teeming will all sorts of nasty creatures and a lot more dangerous than they been led to believe. 

THE BATTLEGROUND ,  I’m using my 2x2 display board  with some cork scatter terrain I made for my Mars table and then I  painted some extra  Hirst cavern pieces I had to match, the fish tank rocks have their use from time to time came out of my Pirate Terrain box. Altogether it works for me as simple cavern.

Models L-R  WotC, Otherworld, Reaper, Otherworld.


THE DEFENDERS or CAVERN OF THE WORM

-Purple Worm   8 Speed, 5 Defense and Str 6 with Fearsome, Blocker, Smash and Monstrous Bite, I feel the Worm is under costed at only 70 points, you will as the game plays out whether my hunch was correct or not.

- Roper-  Always the nastiest buggers, two tentacle attacks as a single action that can immobilize, camouflage , invulnerable…this one also seems way undercosted at 15 points

- Rust Monster- This little guy should wreak all kinds of havoc if he ever gets the chance.

- Umber Hulk-  I looked for a good mix of Cavern Type beasts that I had painted, if you’ll note the Umber Hulk is a proprietary character owned by Hasbro so you can’t legally use the term Umber Hulk, so its not in the Otherworld rulebook nor do they make a model for it. In this case its just the Troll profile were I swapped out Regeneration for Onslaught and added its Special Ability to "Confusion"  I which I wrote down as “any model engaged must make opposed morale test or suffer "weakened" status”. 
The miniature is an early 3rd edition era model from WotC..

Overall the Defenders , by book listing are 125 points , I originally was going to drop a pair of trolls 
but having used one last game, I knew a pair here where overkill so I went with the Umber Hulk and led the point deficiency stand.  I’ll let you check out the game and be the judge if you think I am correct


SCENARIO RULES  -  Standard setup, it is a small board,  I ‘m  using all treasure cards we are starting with 9 adventure tokens. Since we have “treasure hunter (1) “ in play from the Thief. The Umber Hulk is a wandering monster and since the Worm is so huge it would be chaos on the board from the get go  so I am doing a delayed arrival   for the Worm starting on a 6+, on Turn 1, 5+ on Turn 2,  4+, 3+, etc…until it comes in by bursting up thru the center of the board.



All models are Otherworld.

THE ATTACKERS or DANTE’S DELVERS..

The Adventurers are one Legend and his three companions…coming in at 154 points

Dante The Valiant Warrior-  Dante is just  the basic legend profile with bumps to Defense  and the following skills, Heavy Armor, Martial Training, Onslaught, Weapons Master, Courageous, Leader (1), He has a Longsword and Throwing Axe

Karl the Aspiring Acolyte.- Carl got the bump to his magic so those healing type spells go off, a boost to his defense and he ends up with  following skills Cure Wounds,  Magic (2), Scrolls and Potions (1), Follower, Heavy Armor, Clumsy . If you’ll notice due to activation needs I gave him the disadvantage of being “clumsy” so I could take follower, that way Ill be about activate at least 3 of my 4 models before any Fate comes into play, Carl also has a potion of cure wounds as the spells, Blessing and Healing Touch.

Neb the Brave Burglar- Neb adds a point to his agility, and picks up the skills Dodge and Luck (1)  his full skill set also includes.. Set Traps, Thieves Tools, Treasure Hunter.

Killian the Wild Ranger-  Killian picks a point of defense , light armor and Martial Training so he can have the better long bow, his other skills are Concealing Cloak, Eagle Eyes and Dodge.

Scoring will be by standard VP based on the core chart on page 20

And with that, on with the game!

 TURN 1.
Initiative-  Attackers 5  Defenders 1, - 2 Fate each

ATTACKERS- 2 Fate

Get two activations and will buy one more with their fate tokens for a total of three, with the Priests “follower” ability, it will mean everyone will activate this turn

 Dante the Warrior
Action 1 moves 6” to Adventure Token
Action 2  we draw a card and its “to hit armor class wuh?” nice boon your next attach automatically hits roll damage as normal.

Karl the Acolyte
Action 1  using follower ability moves to follow Dante
Action 2- nothing





Killian the Ranger
Action 1 and 2 moves 12” to touch another Adventure Token

Neb the Burglar
Action 1 and 2 moves 12” to touch another Adventure Token




DEFENDERS- 2 Fate

Purple Worm
Since the Worm is coming in on die roll, its totally appropriate that I can use the fate tokens to effect that roll. Since the Thief and the Ranger  are in nice spot for the Worm should it come on, I’ll take it on a 4+ with the tokens…I roll a 2!..not this turn.

The Roper

Due to its Natural Camouflage The Roper can move quite along way without being seen by the adventurers in fact the need to be within 6 inches of it, to see or shoot at it based the highest INT on the attacking team being a "3" 
Action 1-  I decide move it up two inches that’s it

The Rust Monster 

stays where it is…


Umber Hulk 

In the Wandering monster que..ready to come on when the card comes up or I want to try to force him on which isnt this turn.

End Phase  - Nothing



TURN 2
Initiative-  Attackers 5  Defenders 1, -


ATTACKERS  - 2 Fate   again we will use both Fate Tokens to purchase an additional activation token

Killian the Ranger
Action 1  Standing on the Adventure from last turn, we can now flip a card..”PIT TRAP” OOF, I roll for the agility test needing a 5+ and roll a 4+ down he goes into the pit….defense is equal a 4 but I of course roll a 6 to wound so he is damaged by the Pit.

Action 2, I assume he has to climb out of the Pit with a standard agility test..The Ranger ‘s agility is 3, I should  have bumped his Agility I think instead of defense..but he climbs out on 5 with the standard test having taken 1 wound. I drop a 40mm disk down to mark the pit location.



Neb The Burglar
Action 1  Neb also standing on the Adventure token from last turn decides to flip a card. Hoping for treasure it turns out to be a wandering monster!..ugh so the Umber Hulk is coming in on the defenders go
Action 2  perhaps hearing something coming Neb decides to get the hell out of dodge and climbs some rocks toward the center of board adventure token, I am counting the rocks here as a level so he needs to climb and makes the agility test with 4
I am forgetting about the Thiefs “Luck” ability so I place the token near his so I remember, I probably was close enough (6 inches) that I could have used luck to help the Ranger avoid that Pit…oh well I already moved away..next time

Dante the Warrior,

Action 1..Knowing the Hulk is coming we start moving that way..the Priest cannot make into base contact so we are able to heal the Ranger on the Priest Turn..this could be bad..
Dante moves toward where the Hulk is going to Appear.. but can only move 6 inches because I need to activate follower to move the Priest.
Action 2 nothing

Karl the Acolyte
Action 1 activates….moves 6 inches next to Dante
Action 2  Cast Blessing… his INT is 3 so I use both dice to hope to roll a 5 on 2D6..I roll Snake eyes..argh…not good. Attacker Turn over..no Blessing




 DEFENDERS - 2 Fate

Umber Hulk
Action 1 -
 Placing him on the board I need to put him withing 6 inches of the Adventure Token that revealed, him it plenty of juicy spots to place him so he can charge the injured Ranger.
The Ranger must morale test against the Hulks Fearsome ability…his morale is 3 so I need to roll a 4+ and roll a 5 he’s not scared…crazy but he’s not
It’s a charge so make an attack at -1  he has Rend 4+ as his only attack and that is all he really needs.
The roll is a 2 but he has onslaught so we will reroll that. And it’s a 1 so the Ranger gets a brief respite

ACTION 2…second Rend attack is a “6” no avoiding that on…Rend damage is “brutal” meaning I roll two dice and pick the best one Strength 5 Vs Def 4 meaning he needs a 3….I get a 3 and 6 The Ranger has light armor so he gets a 6+ Save….and roll a 3….if the Thief was closer I would use Luck to reroll that but he’s too far.  The Ranger Falls..being this the bottom half of Turn 2, I will not be able to save the Ranger and he will be removed from play in the turns end phase.

Falls in Pit , climbs out , get steamed rolled by Umber Hulk..what a way to go.


Killian we hardly knew ye! (seriously I am going to miss his bow coming up)



Purple Worm

Is coming on a 5+  this turn…I roll a 2+ even with the Fate I am still a point short…oh well Next turn..

The Roper

Action 1- Slides another 2 inches
Action 2-   I was hoping he was close enough to snare the Thief but he just out of range AND the Thief cannot see him.. The Ropers Turn ends.

Rust Monster
Cant activate since I only had two activation's.

TURN 2  END PHASE  The Ranger is removed from play. Presumably ripped to shreds by the Umber Hulk.



TURN 3

Initiative-  Defenders 4  Attackers 3. 

DEFENDERS 1 Fate.

Purple Worm

Time for the worm to bust out and make these guys shake in their boots!

Worms entry roll is  a 4+ now.. and I roll a 6!....the Worm comes exploding out of the ground right next to poor Neb.. Neb makes morale check and fails soiling his trousers at the sight of the Huge worm.. Neb gets a Scared token 

ACTION 1,
Its going to Spray Neb down with Poison and it needs a 4+ and rolls a 2!....

ACTION 2
Goes in for the monstrous bite needing a 5+ and rolls a 6!..off.. the damage roll is only 2+ being Neb base defense is 3 (-1) for being Scared vs Str 6!.  And it’s a monstrous bite, meaning D3 hits..and I roll a 6 so its 3..meaning Neb gets snatched up like he was in the outhouse in Jurassic Park

However Neb has Dodge and can avoid this on an agility test and he only needs a 3!.....drum roll please…he rolls a 3 so gets himself out of the way ..whew!

Only having Two activation's, I need to activate the Umber Hulk and it needs to tie up Dante and he is only one that can threaten the worm…

The Purple Worm shows up...


Umber Hulk

Action 1 The Umber Hulk is facing away from Dante and about 7 inches away..so action 1 is just move toward the Warrior

Action 2 is Charge Dante rolls the morale test and passes easily with a 5 he is not afraid
.
The Umber Hulk attacks with Rend hitting with a 5 as with the -1 for the charge its- good enough
STR 5 vs DEF 5 I roll two dice looking for 4+ and roll a pair of two’s  Dante laughs the attack off..
Fate token wont help the Umber Hulk either.. the Defenders Turn Ends




ATTACKERS – 0 Fate

Dante the Warrior

Actions 1 and 2….two attacks on the Umber Hulk with his Longsword, He's looking for 4+
However Dante must beat the Hulks confusion ability which is an opposed Morale roll both of their morales is 4, Dante wins 3 to 2 on the Dice so the attacks continue as normal

Action 1 Well use our Adventure card "To hit Armor Class Wuh?"  to guarantee the first hit..
 I get extra dice because the Longsword is Brutal. when I roll damage,  5 and 2...so the Umber Hulk takes a wound

Action 2  Attack 2, I roll a "1" but Dante has the onslaught ability so I reroll the 1 and get a 5! 
Two hits…we need 4+ to wound I roll a 6 and 1! . wow…Dante puts the Umber Hulk  down and out in one exchange , payback.

That was some luck for sure!

Karl the Acolyte
Karl is up next…using his Follower ability, I don’t have much for his to do..engaging the worm is nuts and its too far away and Neb is alive and uninjured. Unfortunately I didnt give him away to remove any statuses before the end phase. there must be some item or spell,  that’s not coming to mind right now.

Action 1 Cast Bless, target 8-4,3 +3 =10  we add another luck token to the pool.

Action 2  moves within 6 inches of Neb.

Neb the Burglar
Neb is going to try to move. He can try remove the scared status this turn in the end phase and there is an Adventure token right next to him (remember he cant see the Roper) with any luck will win initiative and he will get the hell out of there.

Action 1 move to token
Action 2 Draw Adventure Card. “bags of gold” worth 1 VP, nice…lets hope it pays off.,

END PHASE..

Neb is Scared but has all his hits remaining…I roll two dice and am looking for a 6, however I also have two luck so I can reroll – Roll 4,2   reroll 6,4, - Neb is no longer Scared.


TURN 4
Initiative-  Attackers 3.  Defenders 1   

ATTACKERS  1 Fate

Neb the Burglar
Neb is close enough now to see the Roper now..thankfully he gets to go first and is moving away there isn’t any safe place to be but he’ll use both actions to move away from all creatures but close enough to hopefully grab another Adventure Token.

Actions 1 and 2 Movement.

Dante the Warrior

Dante needs to engage the Worn and needs Karl to keep him alive while he’s fighting

Action 1. Dante needs to move into contact with the worm, he cannot charge because of terrain. And must pass a climb test and he does with the needed 4

Action 2 Charges the Purple Worm passing the Fearsome test with a 4, and attacks at -1  but this worm is Massive so that cancels out the -1 and he still needs the 4+ he rolls 3 we uses his onslaught ability to reroll and roll a 4, a hit!

I need 5+ to wound this thing DEF 5 vs my STR 4 but my attacks are Brutal so I get two dice..4,1  I use our lone fate to bump the 4 to a 5  he wounds the massive beast








Karl  the Acolyte
Action 1 try to move closer to Dante in case he has to apply any healing next turn but he has to climb to do so and Karl had the disadvantage – Clumsy. Meaning I roll 2 dice and pick the worst result,
Karl is quite lucky rolling a 6 and 4 passing on the 4 for the climb check, he move next to Dante. And is base contact with the worm too.

Action 2  Attack the worm its not a charge as I couldn’t attack last action due to LoS and climbing issues Karl needs to pass his fearsome test  and fails on 2!...oh not good  he can still make  a Normal attack with mace he needs a 5+ which drops to 4+ because of Massive  rolls a 2 and misses.

DEFENDERS ,1 Fate

The Roper

Oh Karl if only you weren’t Scared,  Karl has unfortunately moved into Range of the Ropers Tentacles. So the Roper is Activating First hoping to remove Karl  from S
supporting The Warrior

Action 1  Special Action 2 Tentacle attacks  roll 5, 5  OOF.

Karl is now immobilized as well a scared this is very bad..

Action 2  Roper Drags Karl to his mouth so it can eat him next turn.

This went bad in a hurry.


Purple Worm

Attacks Dante

Action 1  Tail Slap to try to Stun him….it needs a 4+ but rolls a 1….

Action 2  Monstrous Bite…needs a 5+, rolls a 5+  

Str 6 vs Def 5 needs a 3 to wound, and roll a 6….Dante has a 5 + save from his heavy Armor..rolls a 2 not good enough.. I roll the d3 for wounds and it comes  2 
Dante takes 2 wounds  this is where he’d be needing Karl!!.



Turn 4 End Phase

Because Karl is immobilized he is considered out of play making the Attackers – Shaken
Karl is also effected by Scared and Immobilized statuses,  I am going to  try to remove Karls scared status first which I have to do before I can even try to remove Immobilized  I roll   andget a 2 dice and reroll 1 due to Karls Luck token however I do not get the required 6.

I now have to take the Shaken Test , I would normally need a 3 due to Dante Morale of 4, however this test is at minus-1  so I need a 4 but because Dante is Courageous I can reroll that…Roll 2! Ugh…reroll another 2!! Double uggh

Since I failed I lose D3 models….I roll a 1 here and since Neb is only one not engage he flees with his bags of gold figuring his comrades are toast…Bastard!.

Taking the gold and fleeing , leaving your comrades behind...we have all seen this before.


TURN 5

Initiative-  Attackers 5.  Defenders 3    1 Fate token each

ATTACKERS  1 Fate

Dante the Warrior

Dante need to kill this thing now or its game over.

Action 1 – attacks Purple Worm.. hit with a 6…need a 5 to wound roll 4,3 we will bump the 4 to 5 with our lone fate and the Worm take the second wound.. so far so good.

Action 2 attacks again!.. hits on 4 but doesn’t wound rolling a  4 and 1, nothing we can do about it! 

The worm has one wound left., only the luck of the dice will save him now.

Karl The Acolyte.
Karl being immobilized cannot do anything


DEFENDERS 1 fate

The Roper
Action 1,  Eat Karl..auto hits….Karls Def  3 becomes 2 because of Scared
Roper is Str 5 needing 2+  ugh..
Roll a 5 Karl is wounded but gets a 5+ save for heavy Armor..I roll 4 
1 Wound to Karl
Action 2 Eat Karl some more 
Auto hits..roll to damage 4, save for heavy Armor..roll 4  again.

Karl is devoured.

Burp!!

Purple Worm

Action 1 attack Dante
Tail Slap  hits with “5” Tail is +1 User Strength so STR 7 vs DEF 5..rolls a 6 but needs a 2+
Dante’s Save is a 5+, Roll 6+ he Saves it!...

Action 2 Attack Dante with Tail again…4! Hit…, I roll a 3 to wound…the Save.comes up a 4. not good enough I am afraid, normally he be stunned and I’d have him knocked prone due to “smash” but that’s his last hit.. Dante goes down and is worm food..

Double Burp!!!!!.


Victory Points…

By the Book 4 VP ( 3 models dead + Shaken Status)  to 1 VP (bags of gold)  in favor of the Defenders…although I think you need to award VP for adventure token captured vs still on the board.. Which in this case is a net +1 to the Defenders.. then I would give 1VP to the attackers for each creature knocked out here.  So +1 to them…
so the final score is 5 VP for Cavern of the Worm vs 2 VP for Dantes Delvers

FINAL THOUGHTS
Although Legends characters are super powerful….Dante could have easily slain the Worm with Luck or extra Fate in turn 5 with that “4” die roll., the Companions are not.., the Attacking team really needed two more good fighters here like a pair of Mercenary Henchman would have rounded this team out much better and balanced that would be for another 30 points Considering the by the book points for the Defenders were already 25 point under the Attacker Total AND I never touched the Rust Monster the whole game..that means the Worm , Roper and Umber Hulk (troll) were 55 points under costed….for my own games..I’ll probably bump the worm up to 100 points…The Roper is just nasty, I am thinking 30 points at least….The Trolls at 25 might be ok..due the fire Vulnerability but the Umber Hulk without the disadvantage, I’d move up to 30 points also

The Attackers had a bit of bad luck there with Ranger getting killed before he could do a thing…
The Cleric really didn’t get a chance to do much as far as supporting and it was also unluckly getting snatched by the Roper, with a that roll of double 5's! 
I still am feeling magic needs boost  and more variety in spell choices. I didnt really get to use any of the companions support features at all, in the match..my feeling is after 3 games is that offense if is way more a priority to support.


We will see how they do next time against a horde of Undead in a scenario I call “Green Magic”
hopefully I'll get chance to play it sometime in April.

Rogues Gallery

UMBER HULK- Dead, Killed by Dante
PURPLE WORM. Full , its just ate Dante
ROPER, Full it just ate Karl.
RUST MONSTER. Bored.
DANTE- WORM FOOD
KARL- ROPER CHOW
KILLIAN- the Pile of bones you always find in any RPG as the unluckly guy that came before you
NEB, alive at the Inn, gold in hand.


Bastard!!!!

Friday, March 25, 2016

9th Reconnaissance Battalion heads to Bolt Action Nationals! (Part II)



Adepticon is less than one week away and  I’d be remiss if I didn’t do the usual and post my current army finished and ready to for the Bolt Action National Championships next weekend.  Aaron and I actually got a test game in last weekend,  I was quite happy with how these guys played even with our game being a draw.

a whole squad of these guys are the SS Charlemagne Models who come with cast on patches, did my best to make them fit , authentic or not.
For my 9th Recon Platoon incarnation of my Hohenstaufen, I had to paint 4 new vehicles and about dozen troops plus a flamer team for this current  version of my German army. While I still have some boxes on the shelf  (mainly vehicles) that need built  at this point I can field well over 2000 points fully painted on the table.




Painting this current crop of models took me awhile and a lot of  late nights, I went a high as detail as I could via my skill set, most models have at least 2 some 3 layers of highlights. I also painted a lot of badges on the new guys something I hadn’t done before and used some individual decals on the some of the plastic models that snuck their way in. With the vehicles with the weathering and decals are a patience drill, rush it and it doesn’t look right.



Despite my Best Appearance award with my Brits in the singles last year, I have no disillusions of winning it again, I am sure it being a sponsored by Warlord Games as the  “U.S National Championship”  I’ll see a pretty diehard group, I know a couple of local multi Golden Demon winning players that are now Bolt Action players, not sure if they are playing but if so there will be some serious models on display I am sure.  I’m just looking to have some fun and win some games, because unlike WFB, I am actually a pretty decent player when I roll with a decent army.




The only hiccup in my list is can’t run my Captured Humber as an actual Humber, as Warlord has had the model out for years but has not released any rules for captured vehicles, which I think is a balance issue over an oversight. So my Humber MkIV will perform as a 6 Rad German Armored car which really means I just lose the Anti Tank gun and get another Autocannon.  I hurts me a bit as I only have one AT gun besides my Panzerfausts but its should be ok. I’m not expecting a lot of big tanks,  from any experienced players.

This is SdKfz 251/10 which mounts a Pak 36 and has the command special rule my HQ roll in this


As for Bolt Action, after this I’ll be on a break from that for awhile, There is new summer tournament in July I wont be able to attend, but I’ll be back for Operation Sting in the fall, with my Germans or possibly my British, with two squads of Gorgon Miniatures excellent British Infantry waiting to be built and both a Sherman and Cromwell tank, I definitely need to give them some attention. What ever I run it will have a new display board..I wanted to do one for this event but just didn’t have the time.

HQ getting dastardly


I’ll be at the hotel hanging out at Adepticon as of Thursday night my kids are with me so Friday we are going to play some games and hit the vendor hall, and probably some demos, I am bringing my Frostgrave board and a couple of warbands for that along as well so  I hope to find some pickup gaming space since both my Daughters and a couple friends expressed interest in playing that . So if you know me come on over and say hello, and since I am not playing anything until Saturday, I might actually get some blogging going on from the event as well, its been years since I have done that. Of course I’ll be back with full write up on my exploits the week after the event.



I love this vintage filter almost looks like it could be a real picture, almost


Kradshutzen Squad!

Viktor Grabner leads the column in his Captured British  Humber MkIV armored car

Group Shot




 

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