Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#18) - The Emperor of the Waves IV

My PC had an OS failure on Wednesday evening and I spent all day Thursday trying to rebuild it. I just about managed to get logged in in time for the game last night - they had literally just got under way as I logged in...

Day 23 continued - aboard the Emperor of the Waves

The party lit some torches and descended into the dark cargo hold. I cast Light onto one of my holy symbols and brought up the rear as I was feeling so beaten up. The rest of the party cautiously advanced through the calf deep, film-slicked water and began to prod around in the smashed caskets and chests that littered the hold. The air smelled terribly. I stayed by the down ladder to keep lookout.

The Emperor of the Waves - all decks

After several minutes of searching, Navda found a large metal box with the initials AD etched onto it; these initials matched the name of our patron, so we decided it would be best that we retrieved it. He tried to open the box to see what was inside, but could find no egress. So, he tried move it, but it proved very heavy.

Suddenly a pale, white skinned creature emerged from the film-coated water nearby and proceeded to attack him. The rest of the party joined the melee, with Gladreth and I shooting at it from a distance to try to help out. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side and Druss got poisoned from a nasty bite. Just as we were beginning to think things could get no worse, a second, similar, creature emerged from the water-logged debris surrounding the party.

A foul, watery ghast

Dharion, Navda, Gladreth and I continued to pile on the missile pressure, eventually wearing down the ghastly beings, but no sooner was the first one struck down, than a third one emerged from beneath the murky waters. Whilst the others managed to kill the second being, I managed to finally hit the last one standing with my sling.

Player's aside - in this combat I managed to roll 1,3,1,1,3,2,3 before finally hitting something, which happened to be the killing blow - the others faired only slightly better. We made this combat very much harder than it should have been.

After the final ghast fell, we noticed that it didn't float in the water in the same way as the others. Navda and Dharion managed to purloin a silver necklace from around its neck. Whilst this was going on, the rest of us explored the debris but found only a golden amulet with an icon of a sun-like image on it. Everything else was spoiled by being in the water for too long - costly silks, spices, herbs and so on.

As we had found nothing else of value, I decided to head on up the ladder. Just as I reached the top of the ladder, the ship was struck by another massive impact. I was flung across the lower deck cabin, hit my head and don't remember a thing until I came round on one of the Soul of the Winter's dwarf-crewed cutters.

This is the story I gathered from my fellow adventurers...

As the ship was impacted, the debris got shifted around and several of the party got hurt. Druss managed to pick up the metal box that Navda found and began to carry it out of the hold. The ship slowly righted itself to the sounds of many thousands of small spiders scurrying hither and thither trying to avoid their impending doom. Just as the party reached the lower deck, there was an even bigger impact and wooden fragments flew everywhere. Everyone was thrown off of their feet and suffered more injuries.

They all managed to get to the lower deck, where I was picked up and carried further up inside the listing ship.

Dharion wondered what was happening to cause such a ruckus, and being far ahead of everyone else, went out onto the deck to see four enormous tentacles thumping away at the ship in order to reduce it to drift wood. Looking around for any form of potential rescue, he espied a dwarf-crewed rowing boat cutting through the waters towards us. Thinking that they were mad for doing so, but also praising their bravery, he hollered to gain their attention. The boatswain spotted him and headed for the port side of the ship. In the distance he also noticed that the Soul of the Winter was almost ready to set sail.

Signs of a Kraken?

The party had all just managed to get to the stern cabin on the main deck when the four massive tentacles pulled the ship lower into the water. The hold was already flooded and Gladreth screamed that the lower deck was now almost full - the ship was rapidly taking on water and going down. Dharion yelled back that the ship was being dragged under from below. He called that we should abandon ship on the port side and dived into the water.

In the main cabin, Navda jumped through the port hole, Druss passed me through and followed on himself. Druss and Dharion kept me afloat whilst I was unconscious, and slowly dragged me to the approaching ship's boat, whilst Navda hung around waiting to aid anyone else entering the water,

Once I was delivered, Dharion swam back to aid Navda and Drakkon, who had just jumped in with the metal box, closely followed by Gladreth. Drakkon got struck and knocked out by one of the flailing tentacles, so Dharion grabbed Drakkon's water breathing helm, and with the aid of Gladreth and Navda pulled both Drakkon and the metal box towards the cutter.

The thrashing tentacles managed to catch a few of the party with glancing blows, adding to their injury woes, but everyone made it back to the ship's boat. It was at this point, when the crew turned the boat to head back towards the Soul of the Winter that I came around.

As we watched the final moments of the Emperor of the Waves, the kraken's tentacles finally broke the ship's back and slowly pulled the two halves beneath the waves.

Day 24-25 - the journey home

The journey back to port was uneventful, so we headed to Albrich's place to hand him the monogrammed metal box as soon as we docked in port. He waved his hand over it and it began to glow; it opened to reveal many loose leaves of parchment. He was very happy with us returning his property and mentioned that he would keep us in mind for future jobs as we were so successful in this venture. He asked what we managed to salvage. The room went silent. We made our excuses and left to divvy up the small amount of treasures we had gained.

The end of this adventure allowed us to level up - we are now all 5th level.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#17) - The Emperor of the Waves III

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of real life getting in the way of our regular weekly D&D Saltmarsh campaign. We discussed amongst ourselves that at some point we may play a big catch up game over a weekend; maybe at the end of this month? Anyway, despite the recent difficulties we were able to get a game in last night to get the campaign rolling again.

Day 23 continued - aboard the Emperor of the Waves

The third room (continued) - The webs in this room contained hundreds of tiny spiders. We burned the webs and the spiders either scuttled off or perished in the controlled conflagrations. A search of the dresser revealed a strange quill, an empty ink bottle and a stained piece of blank parchment, which we stowed in our packs. A search of the wardrobe revealed a dusty hat that Navda took a shine to and plonked upon his head.

The fourth room - opposite the entry curtain to this part of the deck, was easy to get into. The door opened readily with a bit of a creak and revealed a room similar to the others; lots of webs and smashed furniture but nothing of value.

Whilst most of us were searching the room, Navda returned to the main corridor and burned off the excess webs in a controlled way, uncovering a large, two-door hatch in the floor. After a bit of prodding, he realised it was quite rotten and therefore probably unable to support the weight of any of us walking upon it. He made us all aware of his findings.

The fifth room - behind the lower "east" door, was again full of smashed furniture and spider webs. On a bookcase, I managed to find a hollowed-out book with a jewelled letter opener within it.

The sixth room - the last door in the corridor, was very heavy, but it opened quite easily. The floor was covered in runes, written in what appeared to be blood. Hanging from the ceiling at the far end of the room were two cocoons that were writhing and covered in small spiders.

Drakkon advanced into the room but was attacked by a quarter-staff wielding half-orc covered in blood and spiders. I was able to get a slingshot to hit the half-orc but soon after his skin turned very tree bark-like and he became more difficult to injure. He was also able to cast a Thunderwave spell which knocked a few of us off our feet.

Half-orc wizard - image from Fantasy Grounds module

Just as we regained our footing and began to attack the half-orc again, two very large spiders dropped from the ceiling; one covered Druss in sticky webbing that bound him completely and the other attacked Dharion. Just as we thought it could not get any worse, a transparent spider suddenly appeared in the cabin, bit Dharion, who then became paralysed, and disappeared again.

Seeing two of our comrades put quickly out of action, Gladreth decided that she had had enough of this and cast a Magic Missile spell at the half-orc. As he crumpled over, his final words were "She will come and take me." 

The combat against the spiders ground on and we gradually weakened against these formidable enemies. My final Prayer of Healing gave us some temporary respite from the damage we were taking but Gladreth's Magic Missiles helped save the day by weakening the arachnids enough so that our fighters, Drakkon and Druss (who finally escaped his sticky bonds with Navda's help), could finally take them down. The transparent spider gave me a severe bite when it next reappeared, but, for some reason after its latest appearance, it failed to disappear again. Navda was able to kill it quite quickly.

Once the combat was over, we went over to investigate the cocoons. Navda slit open part of one of them and a brown gooey substance leaked out, before a half-digested arm emerged. We decided to cut them down, take them on deck and throw them overboard as we would not be able to burn them in any controlled way.

Whilst the cocoons were dealt with, the rest of us examined the corpse of the half-orc. He was covered in spider-related tattoos and had somehow managed to fall upon a small altar with his dying movements. We shifted him off the altar and found a small wooden box beneath. Inside the box was a rich velvet cloth protecting a few pouches of gold and two small vials that looked like potions; one seemed to be evil in nature but the other seemed "good". We picked them up for later use.

Just as we thought that all was beginning to go right for us the boat rocked violently to port as if hit by a very heavy force or object. I went flying and barely escaped with my life after hitting the bulkheads. The ship righted itself and all went quiet again.

The only door to explore on the lower deck now was the one most astern. It was made of rusted iron and was covered in spikes that would make it too dangerous to try to force open. We decided to go back up to the main deck and see if there was an alternative way down. We discovered a stairway in the aft cabin on the main deck but the cabin was full of webs and debris like all the other rooms. It also contained a rough stone altar surrounded by dried mud that was accompanied by several skulls on spikes and what appeared to be chunks of rotting flesh.

As we made our way across the cabin towards the stairs, a horrid stench assaulted our senses - it appeared to be coming up from the deck below. Our movements obviously disturbed something as we crossed the cabin, as the piles of rubbish began to move and a swarm of spiders erupted from the debris along with another of those spider-like humanoids we had previously encountered.

Gladreth and I kept out of the close combat (but we both aided using our sling and bow) as I was so close to passing out through my injuries and poison, and we were both now out of spells. Luckily, the rest of the party managed to overcome the arachnids without too much bother, although it seemed to take a lot longer than it should have done. We were all beginning to feel the effects of the last few hours.

Once the spiders and spider-being were dealt with we gave the cabin a quick once over and managed to find a pouch of sparkling rubies (worth quite a bit from an initial perusal), a dusty, cobwebbed black cloak, and the captain's log in amongst the broken furniture and other debris. It was difficult to make out most of the writing due to the damage, although luckily it was written in the common tongue. We were able to determine, from what we could read, that a storm threw the ship off course and separated it from the rest of the accompanying fleet. The ship was then attacked by a vessel full of goblins, orcs and other assorted vermin. Although the crew were able to beat off the attack, the captain feared that they were also being pursued by a very large creature. We tucked these treasures away into our backpacks and descended the stairs to the lower deck again.

The horrible stench got worse as we entered what we now knew was the galley; rotten meat was all over the place. We noticed that the spiked door that had stopped us from entering from the other side was decorated in much the same way.

The Emperor of the Waves - getting to the final level?

As there was nothing of any real interest in the cupboards and cubby holes we explored, we headed over to the hatch in the far corner. The ladder descended into darkness and the sound of dripping water - the hold had been breached and was slowly filling up with sea water.

SoBH Battle Report : Quest for a Magic Item

I had a second day working from home yesterday, so my lunch break was spent running another Song of Blades and Heroes battle with my youngest son. This battle was over much more quickly than the previous one, so we didn't have to take a break mid-point during the game to continue in the evening like last time.

We both decided to use the same forces as last time as we had become familiar with them (and it saved time by us not having to devise two new warbands). My son was the defender so he set up the board and then rolled the scenario - Quest for a Magic Item. We then placed the three magic item tokens (purple counters) by each of the terrain pieces and kicked off the game.

Starting set up - orcs to the left, humans to the right

We both moved up our forces as quickly as possible to try to gain the magic items. The human archers decided to have a bash at really long range (at a -4) and only just missed out by one point on killing one of my orc archers!

In the second turn, the orcs moved a few but then double-failed to activate. The humans managed to get into the woods and found that the magic item was located there. It was a magic sword (+2 Combat until a 1 is rolled). The orcs would now need to run full tilt to try to stop the archer getting off the table.

The humans find the magic sword

It was at this point that we forgot about the 2AP required for actually picking it up. The orcs managed a few triple activations and got closer to the archer with the magic sword, who was able to get within one move of the board edge and safety. The rest of the humans moved to block the orcs from trapping the archer.

The orcs advance rapidly to stop the archer with the magic sword

I was having a lot of luck with activation rolls, so my orcs advanced very quickly and managed to slay one of the human archers. The humans double-failed to get the archer off and had no other moves this turn.

Victory is in sight

The orcs managed to close the gap and would most likely have caught the archer next turn if only he would double-fail. He didn't and got off the board with the magical treasure.

The final result was a win for the humans.

Victory Points : 

Orcs = 1 point (1 for 25pts of kills)

Humans = 3 points (3pts for getting the magic item off the table)

Campaign total : Orcs = 7, Humans = 9

It was a fairly easy win for the humans, but if we had remembered the 2AP treasure pick up rule, it might have turned out differently.

 

Next game, now that we are becoming more familiar with the rules will be the start of a proper campaign hopefully. The humans will keep the sword as a reward and the orcs the treasure from last time. I will try to work out some campaign rules for treasures and reinforcements.

Midgard : Scenario 4 : Prelude

Carrying on with my Midgard campaign, I have just had time to collate my thoughts and get something down on the blog ready for the fourth scenario, Take the High Ground (Scenario 3 from the rulebook). I need to do a fair bit of preparation for this scenario as it requires a few things to be sorted before playing. I need to source the new commander figures to replace those that were lost in the previous game, some kind of markers to represent the special zones on the playing area, and also find a way to represent the hill.

Britons advance uphill towards the Romans

As I don't have enough figures for the reinforcements rolled for at the end of the last game, I have had to replace a few units with alternatives of around the same value. I think this makes for a more "realistic" mix of troop types, that is, more basic troops and not too many specialist troop types...

 The Briton army for scenario 4 (97/210=307pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Magunum 1 (18pts)
• 2x Warriors 3 (@22 = 44pts)
• 4x Warriors 2 (@17 = 68pts)
• 2x Archers (@15 = 30pts)
• 2x Slingers (@10 = 20pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
• 2x Mounted Warriors (@16 = 32pts)

This force is now just over the 300pts limit, but I am OK with that. It is more than enough to enable me to play Take the High Ground - I want the Britons to appear to be getting the upper hand whilst Romans to appear a little weaker and desperate for reinforcements.

The Roman army for scenario 4 (85/161=246pts):

• Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher 3 (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 2x Legionaries (68pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)
• 2x Cavalry (40pt)

I had to fudge my normal way of trying to run this game by adding extra troops to the list otherwise the Romans would have been seriously outnumbered and it would not have made for a fun game. This change works quite well for the Take the High Ground scenario as some of the defending force is held off the table until later in the game; this would represent the later arrival of the cavalry reinforcements.

SoBH Battle Report : Treasure Hunt

This week is half-term week. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any time off work whilst my youngest son is over. However, we decided that we would try to play a game or two in the time we have available.

This lunchtime, and for a bit after work, we were able to put together a small game for Song of Blades and Heroes. My son had a bit more time available to ponder his plans than me, so he created a fresh human warband, whilst I used my already extant orc rabble.

Apologies for the picture quality - they were taken very quickly on my phone as I had limited gaming time to fit into my lunch break. Also, I didn't get time to take a picture at the end of each turn, so this is a brief summary of the skirmish.

The human warband (2 archers, 1 heavy infantryman, 5 barbarian warriors)

The orc rabble (3 archers, 1 orc warlord, 5 orcs)

My son set up the table, we rolled for a scenario (Treasure Hunt) and set to.

Starting positions - orcs had priority

The game didn't start out too well for me as the orcs refused to do what I wanted of them. I moved half of them up to try to get to the objective treasure token by the building, which worked, but ended up stringing the other half of them out with no force cohesion trying to get around the building to flank the humans. One of the archers failed to move for several turns and one of the rabble always failed the activation (I activated with 3 dice to get to the hilltop treasure token at the end of each turn and he failed every time).

The humans moved up nicely in a shield wall formation with archers on the flank who would try to get the treasure token in the forest and use the shield wall as cover for on the way back. They took a few pot shots at the orcs by the building but their arrows failed to find their marks, except for one (see below at the end of the post).

Turn 2 - The orcs reach the 1st treasure token

The orcs continued to fail their movement rolls but eventually got to the treasure token on turn 4. They were shot at all the time, but the humans failed to make any impact, especially when they failed to activate on the first roll of their turn 4. The treasure token turned out to be Fools Gold, so the orcs tried to head over to the second treasure in the woods as the humans seemed to be stalled. However, one was shot along the way, which left it open for a human archer to check out the token; it too turned out to be Fools Gold. The orc trying to climb the hill failed his activation yet again.

Turn 5 - the 1st treasure token turned out to be false

The orcs on their flank were slowly getting too close for comfort, so a couple of human warriors peeled off to deal with threat. They piled straight in and took out an orc warrior.

Turn 6 - the melee begins in earnest

The next turn saw the orcs cut down in great numbers, including a couple of Gruesome Kills. The orc leader did, however, manage to kill the human heavy infantryman for a slight bit of retaliation. All the orcs retreated towards their base edge, and one of the orcs left the board (rolled a triple 1). This took the orcs below the fifty percent mark so a Morale check was carried out which meant further retreats.

Turn 7 - the orcs take a battering

This actually panned out well for the orcs as it returned them to very close to their board edge and the final treasure token on the hill. The humans, thinking that their adversaries would get away with the treasure, ran pell-mell after the orcs - you would not believe how many triple activations happened over the next few turns for the humans.

Turns 8 & 9 - the orcs go after the treasure - the humans chase them down

Turn 10 - the orc leader grabs the treasure

The orcs, having grabbed the treasure headed towards their board edge, but the humans closed in on all sides trying to cut them off. Again, triple activations all round whilst the orcs barely managed single activations. However, at turn 12 the luck began to run out; a double-fail on their second roll stopped the human advance.

The final turn began with an orc triple activation which got both the leader and the archer off the board with the treasure.

Turn 13 - The orcs leave the table with the treasure

The final result was a Draw.

Victory Points : 

Orcs = 6 points (5 for the Treasure, 1 for 25pts of kills)

Humans = 6 points (150pts of kills - if 2 more points value of orcs had been killed, victory would have gone to the humans - i.e. if the archer was a warrior that was left, then the humans would have won)

It was a close run game to begin with, but then the tide suddenly turned and a whole swatch of orcs got Gruesome Killed in one turn leading to all but two of the orcs leaving the table. The orcs were on the back foot then (with lots of poor activation rolls to add to their woes - so many 1s), but the humans' luck ran out on the 12th turn and moved to the orcs to get them home with the treasure on the 13th turn.

 

We encountered a weird thing that we could not find covered by the rules - an archery attack led to an orc  rolling a 1 with a -1 penalty = 0. The human archer rolled a 3 with a -2 penalty = 1. The rules state that a Kill needs the attacker to double the defender's score. Unfortunately, any value above 0 is infinite - so was this a hit, a Kill or a Gruesome Kill? We decided that as the scores were so low we would just count this as a hit. If the scores were higher, we decided that a difference of 2 would mean a Kill and a 3+ would mean a Gruesome Kill.

Orctober

As much of the fantasy gaming blogosphere seems to do something for Orctober, I thought I would add my efforts into the mix...

A few months ago, against my gaming fiscal limitations, I purchased a bunch of figures from Australian miniatures producer Medbury Miniatures. I had happened to come across the Good Beans! blog a few months earlier that detailed a Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game that really piqued my interest. As a result, I looked up the figures used in the skirmish battle and that led me to a small purchase of 21 orc miniatures.

I already have a largish collection of (unpainted - eek!) Lord of the Rings Mordor orcs, but they are in very limited poses. From the 30ish grunts I have (about three sprues), there are only 12 unique poses (14 with a couple of weapon swaps), so a lot of repetition - not good for a rabble-type army. So, for the figures over the 14 count, I will try to do a few hand-swaps and maybe some green-stuff mods to give a little more variety, but it will still leave me with a fairly small number of unique individuals. This is where these wonderful Medbury orcs come in handy - they boost the numbers of unique figures quite significantly.

So, without further ado, here is my first batch of 14 unique GW orcs...

Orcs with hand weapons and shields

Two of these orcs are built from the same original dolly

Two weapons + two bodies = 4 variants

Orc archers

And here are the Medbury orcs - I have only got as far as preparing them in readiness for undercoating. Many were single piece figures, but a few required adding a shield, a few needed their hands drilled for the polearms (metal spears were included, as well as some resin polearm heads) and the banner to be added, and one still needs an arm sticking on - the superglue just wouldn't work on this one for some unknown reason. A little bit of extra work and a punctured thumb - ouch! - later and here we are...

Orcs with 2-handed axes

Orcs with axes and separate shields (arm needs affixing)

Orcs with hand weapons and some separate shields

Orc archers

Orcs with polearms - metal hafts with resin heads

Orc banner bearer

They scale in pretty well (one or two individuals are a wee bit larger) and certainly look the part. As there are still a few more packs available, I am probably going to order them at a later date to make even more unique poses for my orc rabble. I would like to get these painted and based before making any more purchases.

Including my orc leaders and heroes, and maybe by adding in my GW Morannon Orcs and Uruk Hai, I should have a handy sized force for skirmish gaming, whether using Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, Dragon Rampant (2nd Edition on its way - and onto my Christmas list - soon), or Midgard: Heroic Battles.

 Now, who do I front them up against? 

RPGs or Tabletop Battle Games?

I was lucky to be the right age when D&D first came to the UK in the mid-late 1970s. A couple of school friends introduced me to the game (Basic D&D - the Blue books), but also many gaming clubs formed in local church halls etc. at around the same time. These venues allowed like-minded teenagers to get together and play in the realms of our imaginations with the plethora of Role Playing Games (RPGs) that then came out at that time.

It was with my school friends and at local clubs (where I met some very dear friends) where I played a huge variety of those RPGs; mainly D&D, Runequest and Traveller. I tried others, but these were the main three I stuck with.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

So, although I generally played in games classed as RPGs, where most of the action took place in what is now termed "Theatre of the Mind", occasionally with a handful of miniatures thrown down on a hand drawn map, I became aware of others playing what were termed "wargames", where dozens or even hundreds of miniatures were laid out on what were to me as realistic a table as could be made at the time.

I have played many iterations of wargames over the last few decades, from small skirmish level games (5-10 figures on a table) up to battalion level wargames that involved several hundreds of miniatures. I was always drawn towards the spectacle of the big games with all that wonderful eye-candy, but found I kept coming back to the smaller games. I guess that this was due to a number of reasons; I was used to small-scale gaming with RPGs, I could only afford a handful of figures a week on my pocket money allowance and a game could be got going if fewer miniatures were required, and finally, the prep for large-scale games must have been mountainous what with all the cleaning, glueing, painting and basing that had to be done for the miniatures, not forgetting all that wonderful scenery that had to be purchased or made.

So, as time wore on, and real life got in the way (work, family etc.), my exposure to gaming gradually decreased to the occasional play-by email game often set up by one of my earliest gaming buddies from the first wargames club I attended; although I managed to run a few games during that time too. I also kept up a long distance rapport with a few friends via weekly emails where we would chat about gaming and other related subjects.

Once I had become a dad, I often thought about gaming with my kids but the opportunity never really arose until the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films came out and a new game was released and supported by Games Workshop via the Battle Games in Middle Earth monthly part magazine. I bought a copy each time one was released and subsequently built up a large collection of figures. This prompted me to (re)paint a horde of my old RPG figures, which meant that I was able to play a few tabletop wargames with my kids.

This re-introduction to gaming led me to eventually join a local gaming club where I started to get back into RPGs (mainly D&D) again, but I didn't really get into playing any wargames other than Lord of the Rings at home. Since then I have moved away from that area, but losing one RPG gaming group was remedied recently by joining a new one. So, my RPG gaming itch is being scratched. However, I still hanker after playing with miniatures on the tabletop.

I like all aspects of tabletop gaming but due to my current situation, I am only really able to play online RPGs and, on occasion, a wargame or two with my sons when they come to visit. A lot of my sparse free time is spent procrastinating and playing solo games, of which thankfully there are now quite a number (Five Leagues from the Borderlands, Rangers of Shadowdeep, and game books like Lone Wolf and so on). I have also started a sporadic Midgard campaign (yes it is still running in the background but it takes a lot of prep, so I have to choose my days to play carefully), and I keep toying with Frostgrave and its stable of companion games amended for solo play.

I think that most of my game style choice is circumstance, but despite that, over the years, I have also tended to gravitate more towards RPGs and smaller skirmish tabletop games where progression of troops and characters plays an important part in building a narrative rather than the more static emphasis on troop and leader stats in wargames that tend to re-enact certain historical battles - although large wargames do use command and control it is at a more over-arching level. I guess I want to be a hero in my gaming experiences rather than seeing if I was a better general than an historical counterpart? My large-scale wargames therefore tended to be more along the lines of "What if?" scenarios that do not involve famous generals or battles.

This blog post started out as just a random idea and I just splurged my thoughts onto the page. I haven't really gone into the whys and wherefores of the various aspects of each style of gaming as that was not really my aim. I guess this is just a procrastination piece, trying to develop an argument as to why I like both styles of game and how I got to the situation of having to choose between the different styles.

Summary? Purely from my own perspective, large-scale tabletop wargames are great if you belong to a club and/or have a circle of friends and family that wish to play continually in order to get some value from the preparation and numbers of minis required, whereas RPGs excel for small groups of friends to get together anywhere (including online) and begin to play as literally nothing is required except a character sheet, a few dice and maybe a copy of some kind of Player's guide. I guess I am kind of in the middle with my current situation, playing mainly RPGs and small scale tabletop wargames. That said, I guess it all depends upon personal circumstances and not any real preferences as to game type?

Historical Holiday Interlude - Warwick

My partner and I got away for a mini-break to Warwick last weekend. We spent four glorious days exploring the quiet town of Warwick and the much busier home to William Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon.

We had a few walks around Warwick town during our long weekend stay; we had the time to look at the two "gates", the Lord of Leycester's house and the castle. We also spent a long, leisurely day in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon where we went all Shakespeare by seeing his Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's House, and paid a visit to the RSC theatre to see a modern rendition of Measure for Measure.

Apologies for the lighting - it was a very sunny day

As this post is to be mostly about the medieval things we got to see on our visit to Warwick, I have only included photos, for my reference purposes, of Warwick Castle itself. The castle, and its grounds, is great for a family day (or two) out; we barely scratched the surface of what was on offer as there are plenty of things to do and see. We watched a rather spectacular falconry display that involved birds of prey from all over the world (the Andean condor is simply enormous), a trebuchet demonstration, and took part in a couple of guided talks which included a potted history of the castle and tales of a few of its ghostly residents.

Inside the castle - Guys tower, barbican and Caesar's tower

The castle started out as a typical Norman motte and bailey fortification completed in 1068. From an information post on the mound, it seems that it was built on or near the site of an Anglo-Saxon burh - I have yet to read up more fully on that. The wooden keep and palisades were rebuilt in stone at a later date and then fell into disrepair before the barbican and gatehouse were constructed in the 14th century. The castle was then added to, and left to go to ruin, at various times over the intervening centuries, culminating in what we see today. 

On this visit, I wanted to find out a bit more about Guy, Earl of Warwick. The reason being is that before I moved to where I currently reside, I lived in Kent. One of my local pubs was called the Guy, Earl of Warwick and there were several other pubs on, presumably, a similar theme - The Bear and Ragged Staff being one of them for instance. Unfortunately, I was unable to get around all of the exhibits, so missed out on that particular period of history. That said, I am assuming that one of the main towers is named after him - happy to be proven wrong if anyone knows if the tower is linked to the pub's namesake...

Guy's Tower

Zoomed in a bit

Guy's Tower from the castle battlements

Our walk around the walls, combined with the potted history tour, led to the other main tower, currently named after Julius Caesar (some kind of Victorian style renaming to make it sound more grand apparently). It was originally named after Poitiers, the site of a battle that one of the earls of Warwick was rather successful in and made a huge fortune in ransoms at, but that was deemed too much of a linguistic mouthful so was changed to something easier to say apparently.

Caesar's (or Poitiers) Tower

I have just noticed that most of these photos are on the wonk. That is my fault as they were taken with my phone camera and it was a very bright day, so I literally could not see my phone screen whilst taking them.

We didn't get to do our usual 4 hour marathon tours of each display and museum within the castle; that will have to be left for a return visit one day. As a result, a lot of the history that I normally pick up on did not get filed away in the old grey matter. So, apologies for the history-lite report.

It would be remiss of me to not include a picture of the rather spectacular trebuchet found within the grounds of the castle. There is a short interactive show about one of the sieges of Warwick castle that included the use of the great trebuchet. The show was a bit meh in terms of the acting, but I guess it was aimed at families with kids. However, the loading and firing of the siege engine itself was good to watch.

Trebuchet

Warwick is a very quiet town (well, it was whilst we were there), so it is a good place to visit for a relaxing weekend away. There is just enough to do to take up your time in an enjoyable way. As we missed a fair bit due to our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, we decided to leave some of the things to do in Warwick until the Monday, but, unfortunately, almost everything was closed. There are a couple of interesting museums, a number of medieval gates/houses, as well as easily two days worth of perusing at the castle itself to fill your time.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#16) - The Emperor of the Waves II

Day 23 continued - aboard the Emperor of the Waves

Navda scouted ahead, he crept down the stairs to below decks, but just scant moments later we heard a cry of alarm. He had become entangled in an almost invisible web. Dharion cautiously approached the entangled rogue and began to cut him loose, but within moments of Navda's arms becoming free a giant wolf spider dropped onto him and bit him. A sling stone from me and a Firebolt from Gladreth killed the arachnid.

Thinking that the danger was over, we began to cut Navda free again but another of the weird gribblies we had previously seen in the cabin on the deck dropped down and sprayed Navda in the same gossamer thin web. Luckily, we were prepared for this and Navda was able to break free almost instantly. I attacked the beast with my mace, but Druss clove it in two with his great sword.

We passed through the curtain at the bottom of the stairwell, and filed into the main area below decks, only to be confronted with a huge swarm of smaller spiders, scurrying hither and thither. They spotted us and made for us so we had to use every means possibly to squash them before they bit us. Unfortunately, our encounters with their giant cousins were not at an end, as another wolf spider dropped onto Dharion. Luckily he was able to finish it off before it caused the party any greater concerns. Drakkon and Navda finished off the spider swarm between them soon after.

Whilst we regained our breath, we decided to carefully burn away any webs we could see and take stock of our surroundings. Around the main corridor/room we were in, we could see six doorways and a hatch in the floor directly below the grate above. We decided to investigate the doors one-at-a-time starting with the one in the left wall, and determined to move around them in a clockwise fashion.

More action aboard the Emperor

A quick look at the large hatch in the floor before we started showed us that it appeared to have been unused for some time. 

The first room was full of leaf litter into which was intermixed a fair amount of human bones. We ignored the grisly contents and after a little searching found a stone-tipped spear and a small wooden shield with a spider-like design on it. We decided to take these items with us and resealed the door.

The second room's door was difficult to push open, much like the door on deck above us. The room was again full of webs, which made progress through the room very slow. We burned the webs as we went and eventually found four cocoons hanging from the ceiling. We decided to cut one down to see whether they contained innocent victims or more spider-like critters that we would need to destroy.

Unfortunately, the cocoons contained grotesque blue-skinned beings with four red eyes, long tongues, and very sharp teeth. As soon as the first was cut open, the other cocoons began to wriggle. Not liking this one bit, I decided to use my Burning Hands spell to destroy them if I could. As fire seemed to have a goodly effect upon the spider webs elsewhere on the ship, I thought that maybe this would be no different. My hunch turned out to be sound as the spell I cast upon the two cocoons within range caused the demons within untold pain as they struggled free from their bonds.

A frantic melee erupted wherein Druss killed one of the beings just before I was struck unconscious by another.

From the tale told after the fight, the demon that struck me down Rampaged and also almost killed Drakkon, but the barbarian struck back at it and killed it. Navda shot the third one and the final demon was killed by Drakkon. Gladreth's Shocking Grasp spell appeared to do very little damage to the demons, so she spent most of the rest of the combat trying to revive me.

Once the demons were destroyed, I was finally brought round and given a Healing draft. I regained my wits and said a Prayer of Healing to restore the rest of my companions.

We searched the room and I was able to find a pair of gold earrings and a jewelled necklace; both appeared to be worth some money.

The third room appeared to be a wrecked bed chamber. The bed and dresser were in pieces and there were more webs everywhere.

Navda realised that clearing out the ship was going to take quite a lot longer than the three hours we were allocated, so he returned to the deck to instruct the dwarf rowers in the jolly boat to return to their ship and inform the captain of the situation.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#15) - The Emperor of the Waves I

Day 23 - Salvaging the Emperor of the Waves

The rest of the night passed without further drama. We managed to get a little rest before being roused by the captain to honour the fallen and bury them at sea. The captain lost eight of his crew to the sahuagin raid. He wrote a heartfelt obituary to each and every member of the lost crew members in his log.

Not long after the burials had taken place, a heavy fog rolled in. We feared the worst but all seemed calm until there was a shout from aloft "Ship Ahoy! Off the Starboard bow". The captain furled the sails, not that they were doing much any more, and brought the ship to a halt 500 yards from the ghostly outline of a damaged ship leaning to port. He dropped anchor, and he and his crew studied the ship for several minutes before confirming it was indeed the Emperor of the Waves, the ship that we had come looking for. It was looking a bit worse for wear, with two masts being broken off completely, the guard rails on the decks appeared to have been crushed as if from something large grabbing hold of the ship, and many very worn and damaged hull planks.

We all jumped into a jolly boat along with three dwarf crew members and were told by the captain that the ship would be soon be ours; once we have handed over the treasures requested. The dwarf crew rowed us over to the Emperor, where we climbed the grappling hooked ropes the crew had cast for us.

The main deck was discovered to have many bloodstains on it which we ascertained to be maybe three days old. We split up to explore the open air decks but found nothing of interest except for the obvious beaten-up state of the ship - the lack of two masts and the loose ship's wheel - which caused us most concern; how would we sail it back to port?

After finding out that the ship was not in good shape we decided to go look for what we had been asked to find. The large cargo grate was too heavy to move, and peering into the darkness didn't reveal anything that could be seen. Drakkon and Druss approached the forecastle cabin doors and tried to push them open but they were very difficult to budge. They did eventually manage to open them wide enough to enter the cabin beyond to find it full of large spider webs and a massive pile of junk to the right.

Whilst the two warriors searched through the debris and cleared a path through the webs for the rest of us to fit into the room, suddenly, a brutish creature dropped from the ceiling and took a nasty bite out of Drakkon. Gladreth, who was close to the doorway when the two warriors entered the cabin managed to Firebolt it, and Druss joined the melee too. 

Unknown gribbly encountered on the Emperor of the Waves

I Blessed those already in the room, and after a tough fight, the strange being was finally felled by Druss, but not before a giant spider-like creature had also dropped into the combat. By now, Dharion and Navda had moved up and were able to add their arrows to the fray. 

A nasty, poisonous giant spider thing

Not long after the giant spider dropped from the ceiling, several smaller ones also began to join their larger cousin in what they probably hoped would be an easy hunt for their next meal.

A frantic combat ensued, wherein Gladreth was bitten by the giant spider and fell to the floor paralysed. The party took quite a number of horrific wounds before I was able to offer a Prayer of Healing to get them back in the fight, but the spiders seemed to shrug off most of our attacks; our weapons seemed to cause them minimal damage.

With their renewed vigour, the fighters in the party began to take a toll on the spiders and the beasts were slain one by one; Drakkon slew the giant spider and one of the smaller ones, whilst Dharion and I managed to slay the other two, but none would have gone down without everyone being involved in the fight. 

On board the Emperor of the Waves

With the fight over, we spent some time trying to revive Gladreth. Luckily, she began to shrug off the effects of the poison after ten to fifteen minutes. Whilst she was being administered to, the rest of the party searched the cabin but found nothing of interest within the piles of wood, paper, cloth and other debris.

Midgard : Scenario 3 : Aftermath

The None Shall Pass scenario saw the Britons take heavy casualties, and whilst the Romans appeared to be relatively unscathed, they were almost at the point of being wiped out due to each units' Stamina losses.

On the Roman side, the only unit that didn't take any damage was Gaia Pomponia; Marius Pollux took a wound, the legionaries lost 1 Stamina, and both the archers and milites lost 2 points of Stamina each. The Britons also took plenty of Stamina loss, but as these will be automatically replenished, I won't concern myself with listing those details here...

The Britons' losses (136pts):

• Catuarus 1 (18pts)
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 2x Skyclad (32pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts) 

The Roman losses (77pts):

• Lucius Valerius Corvus 3 (43pts) 
  
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)

This game has thrown a spanner in the works when it comes to reinforcing each contingent for the next scenario. The Britons are not really a problem, but the Roman force is rapidly diminishing in size. I know that I wanted this to become a desperate battle for survival, but if only two or three Roman units are coming to the table then it makes things very difficult for a fair battle. So far, all has worked out OK with the scenarios, but the next one (Take the High Ground) will not work with such a big disparity between the remaining forces. The fifth encounter, Last Stand, is another 300:200pts ratio, so may work depending on the fourth battle's outcome. The final battle of the campaign will be just a straight up battle, so I can fudge the Roman army numbers by saying that reinforcements have come from the Roman lines to help with the beleaguered forces' retreat.

Scenario 4 map - Take the High Ground

The Take the High Ground scenario suggests that the defending army is reduced by 25% that then arrive at a later stage in the game. This may work if I roll that the Britons are the defenders and I can get the Romans into the fight very quickly. There are in-game bonus Reputation points to be grabbed, so this may work if enough casualties are caused very early in the game. But, if it is rolled the other way around, then the Romans will really struggle.

The Romans have the following left in their "pot" from the cohort... 

• 2 x Legionaries
• 2 x Auxiliaries
• 2 x Cavalry 

According to my reinforcements rules, to bolster the forces for the next scenario, the Romans automatically get a new leader and a unit of Legionaries due to the next map location being close to a watchtower. The Britons get 120pts: 100 plus 2x10 for their level of victory. However, this does not seem to be enough to bring the Romans up to speed for this scenario, and nor does my existing Briton reinforcement table seem to give a "realistic" roster of reinforcements for the Britons, so I have re-evaluated the reinforcements lists...

• The Romans gain reinforcements depending upon which Roman camp type they are nearest to...
• Marching camp = 2x random units (roll d6) until all are used up (2 auxilia and 2 cavalry left)
• 1-4 Auxiliary Spearmen (up to 4 units) (24pts each)
• 5 Auxiliary Archers (up to 2 units) (29pts each)
• 6 Cavalry (2 units left) (20pts each)
• Watch Tower = 1x unit of legionaries (2 units left) (34pts each)
• In the final battle they get an onager and/or a scorpio unit in addition
• Depending upon how casualties go, they may get a boost from the rest of the legion that has come looking for them for the final battle
  
• The Britons can recruit from a limitless pool of warriors...
• All removed units are lost
• All damaged units are automatically returned to full strength
• An extra 100 points awarded to spend on new units
• If the Britons win, depending on their level of victory, they will gain a bonus number of reinforcement points equal to the level of victory (0-3) x10
• subtract the points value until all points are used - any left over points are lost 
• Roll 1d6 on the table below to realise troop type...
• 1-3  Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 4-5  Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 6 roll on next table...  
•  Roll 2d6 on the table below to realise troop type (and an additional d6 if a Hero is rolled)...
• 2 Hounds (22pts)
• 3 Female Warriors (16pts)
• 4 Skyclad (16pts)
• 5-6 Slingers (10pts)
• 7 Skyclad (16pts)
• 8-9 Archers (15pts)
• 10 Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 11 Chariots (24pts)
• 12 Additional Hero
• 1-3 Level 1 (18pts)
• 4 Druid Level 2 (27pts)
• 5 Level 2 (32pts)
• 6 Level 3 (47pts)

As the next scenario is by a watchtower, the Romans gain 1 unit of legionaries. The Britons gain 120 points worth of new troops. As this creates a large points difference that is not suited to the next scenario, I am going to rule that the remaining 2 Roman cavalry units have made their way to intercept the retreating column, with the remaining infantry to join them in the next game. I am also going to rule that the reduced Stamina units are back to full strength for the Romans too - I am going to say that wandering patrols have returned, stragglers from previous battles have joined the retreating army and some of the injured have returned to service. I am going to imagine them as below full strength but, what with their desperation and nearness to "home", they have extra vim (instead of 80 green troops in each century, there are now maybe 50 to 60 classed as veterans, and there have been swaps between units to bolster each other up) and the pick of the equipment left.

The Britons' reinforcements (120pts out of a possible 120pts):

• 1x level 1 leader - replacement (no cost)
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 1x Archers (15pts)

The Roman reinforcements (74pts):

• 1x level 3 leader - replacement (no cost)
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 2x Cavalry (40pts)

 The Britons' army for scenario 4 (97/211=308pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Level 1 leader (18pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 6x Warriors 2 (@17 = 102pts)
• 3x Archers (@15 = 45pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts)

This force is now just over the 300pts limit, but I am OK with that - it is enough to enable me to play Take the High Ground (Scenario 3 from the rulebook).

The Roman army for scenario 4 (85/161=246pts):

• Level 3 leader (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 2x Legionaries (68pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)
• 2x Cavalry (40pt) 

The Roman army is now closer in value to the Briton army, so that should make the scenario a little fairer. The Take the High Ground scenario can be played with either force as the defender now, although it will be a little more of a challenge for the Romans - that said, the force without a commander being joined by the cavalry and their new Prefect might make for a better narrative. Hmm, I will ponder on whether to drop the dice roll for game roles and actually play it that way to make a better narrative.

 

For the next blog entry I will need to sort out names and miniatures for the two new leaders, and hopefully get some paint onto a few of the other bases.