DO NOT READ IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THROUGH THIS SCENARIO. IT’S
KIND OF SPOILED IF YOU READ IT BEFORE HAND. IF YOU PLAN TO GM IT THEN PLEASE
READ ON.
Blurb
A scenario for whfb3rd edition featuring a noble’s sheriff setting
up an ambush for a band of kidnappers. A band of kidnappers who were waiting
for a ransom, but were ambushed by a group of beastmen, the notorious
Bruce Dick n’ sons. A damsel held hostage for a ransom and at the beginning of
the scenario being cooked on a slow fire by the beastman big brother. And finally the said
beastman band being ambushed by a
group thinking they are ambushing some common thugs. Umm… Read on please
The good guys Briefing
“The daughter of Sir Ricky has been kidnapped and soon after a poorly written ransom note appeared at his doorsteps. The note said to deliver 50 Gold Crowns ( a
sizable sum) to old Boyd’s cottage some miles from the village in the deep
and brooding Darkwald forest.
Now Sir Ricky is not a sir for nothing and being a clever
old geezer, he quickly put two and two together. See not many of his subjects
can write and finding out the ones, that had not been around for a few days was
quickly done.
The list was short – Old Mary Nonose, Buck the village
Dentist and Guido Nogood who until recently, had a mercantile enterprise set at
the village. Since Mary was a 70 year old lady and Buck was known to be on a
provisions purchasing trip to Altdorf it was no hard for the clever noble to
deduct Guido as the probable culprit who wrote the note.
So Sir Ricky asked his Sheriff to gather up a force of
guards and some forresters and set up an ambush for the miscreants. You are
Sheriff Gunther and you will not fail!
As you approach the site early in the morning you hear the
sound of river and the wind in the branches. You also see the light of an open
fire reflecting from the trees ahead. No sound of birds or other animals can be
heard.
As planned, you send sergeant Pepper ahead with the money to
lure the bastards into the open. You can divide the rest of your force to
either trailing force or flanking forces as you wish (as per the advanced setup
rules in the rulebook except that trailing forces arrive turn 1 onwards and flanking forces turn 2 onwards). These forces do not have to have character models
associated with them, but use the highest leadership when checking if they can
get to the board."
The bad guys briefing
"You lead the forces of Bruce Dick and his extended family of
beastmen living in the darkvald forest. Bruce has a band of 12 beastmen
and a minotaur named Vo Dka who he rules with an iron hoof. The notoriety of
his Band does not stem from the fact that he is overtly powerful, violent,
clever, mutated, skilled etc He is notorious, because the moniker of his
warband, Bruce Dick n’ Sons is true.
So what Bruce does is that he prowls the outskirts of empire
towns and burgs looking for opportunities to enlarge his retinue.
An opportunity has just come. Willy Nilly - Bruce's Lieutenant - was leading a
scouting force of 5 beastmen and the minotaur brother Vo Dka, when he stumbled
into two villagers and a lady tied up in a chair in a small cottage. Willy killed the men, but not
the lady whom he thought old Bruce would like to chat with.
Being a quite stupid little mutant Willy left Vo Dka to
guard the damsel and left with the others to get the message of his findings to
daddy.
Beginning of the game Vo Dka is grilling the poor girl in
the middle of the field while feeding on the kidnappers (yeah the guys had
kidnapped the girl). Set the rest of your force into two trailing forces. One
of those forces can arrvive as a trailing force from turn 1 onwards and the
other as a flanking force appearing from turn 2 onwards. The flanking force
must be the force lead by Bruce Dick."
Specific Scenario Rules
Terrain set up
Basically use what ever terrain you want, but this is how I'm goin to do it:
- Use 4x4 feet table
- In the middle of the table set up a single cabin
- Next to the cabin set up the minotaur and the fire with the poor girl
- Set up a river blocking one flank with a ford in the middle
- Set up lots of small woods so that there's no clear line of sight (it should be woods in the middle of the night
- Set up walls and other scatter terrain, which a cabin in the woods might have
I'll try to remember taking a picture and adding here for reference, when we get to play the scenario. Hope this helps.
Tabletop from above |
The brown felt is a road. I'll try to acquire something better for that purpose, but for now felt will do. |
C |
Here's the amazing cottage from Tabletop World. And Vo Dka having a barbecue |
Vo Dka
The minotaur grilling the girl and feasting begin the game
feasting. He can not try to quit feasting, but automatically frenzy if any unit
attacks him or tries to capture the girl. Note that in this Scenario Vo Dka
does not play for the beastman team even though they are related. He just wants
to eat in peace and if he’s disturbed, he’ll frenzy and charge the closest unit
he can see. Minotaur’s get pissed if their dining is disturbed.
The Girl
The Girl is alive, but dies at a random turn if left to
roast. In the end of turn 6 she dies at 5+, In the end of turn 7 at 4+, turn 8
3+ and so on (She’s definitely dead if not saved by the end of turn 10).
The girl can be untied and rescued if a unit or individual
model spends a whole turn next to the model.
If the girl is released, she is attached to the unit and is
handled like a banner from then on (ie. She can be grabbed by another unit if
the unit holding is pushed back or flees and the. One model from unit front
rank is the “banner holder”)
Sergeant Pepper
Sergeant pepper is a single model, who takes a scouting turn
moving towards the fire next to the cabin (place the fire and minotaurs after
the scout turn).
If pepper is killed, leave a token (something representing a sack of money preferably) on
the field. It can be captured and is handled just like the girl.
NOTE. WHEN THE FIRST BEASTMAN UNIT IS PUT ON THE BOARD, GM
SHOULD SECRETLY TELL THE BAD GUYS PLAYER, THAT SGT PEPPER IS CARRYING A SACK
WHICH LOOKS VALUABLE. OTHERWISE IT IS LIKELY HE IS IGNORED BY THE BAD GUYS,
WHICH WOULD BE DULL
I’m sorry if this the concept of cooking
girls on the fire and handling sacks of money just like women seem sauvinistic.
It’s all for the sake of this scenario and the fact that I got this miniature
of a girl being roasted.
Victory Conditions
- The good guys win a major victory if they release the girl and escape the field with her
- The good guys win a minor victory if the girl dies, but sergeant Pepper and his bag of 50 GC survives.
- The bad guys win a major victory if the girl survives and they escape the field with her
- The bad guys win a minor victory if the the girl dies but they kill sergeant Pepper and take his money
The Armies
The Good Guys from Warhammer Armies Empire Army)
Sheriff Gunther lvl 10 Human
- Heavy Armour, Halberd
Sergeant Pepper lvl 5 Human
- Light armour, Halberd, A sack of 50 Gold Crowns
20 Hellblizen (Can be divided as the player wants in to 4-12
men units)
- One Banner, One musician, Halberds, Light armour
8 Forresters (can be divided into two 4 men units or fielded
as one 8 man strong unit. The forresters are skirmishers in this scenario
- Long Bows
The Bad Guys from Warhammer Armies Chaos Army
Bruce Dick lvl 5 beastman shaman (can not be associated with
a unit at game start)
- Throw chaotic attributes if you like, but try not to give him any game breakers (like athropy for instance)
- Throw spells, but the same with these - no game breakers. I wouldn't give him a fireball for instance
Wily Nilly lvl 5 beastman hero
- Throw chaotic attributes if you like, but try not to give him any game breakers (like athropy for instance)
The Boys 12 Beastmen (Can be divided into 4-8 goat units)
- Halberds Light armour
- No dominant attributes
The random element
Big Brother Vo Dka lvl 5 Minotaus Hero
- 2 Handed weapon, Light armour
Note: I decided not to post the beast men with specific spells and chaos attributes, since this scenario hasn't been play tested and also because I'm really not very good at balancing stuff. At the time of writing I haven't yet even done this myself and if you feel you could help me, I'd appreciate suggestions in the comments.
Last time I made a scenario it was unwinnable for the other side. The basic idea here is that this scenario is played with the GM playing the beast men in a RPG style (since I'm gonna play it duo with my friend) so the beast men should preferably be set to lose (even but a bit unbalanced is what I went for). I hope it works.
Last time I made a scenario it was unwinnable for the other side. The basic idea here is that this scenario is played with the GM playing the beast men in a RPG style (since I'm gonna play it duo with my friend) so the beast men should preferably be set to lose (even but a bit unbalanced is what I went for). I hope it works.
This certainly looks as though you've put a lot of work into building the scenario, it looks playable as is to me.running the Minotaur as an unaligned monster is a great idea, I can see some problems for the beastmen overcoming their cool test in order to wrestle the damsel from the fear causing Minotaur.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of 20 halberds makes sense as guards would all be equipped the same ideally but for the sake of variety perhaps a unit of duellists to break up the monotony.
The inclusion of forresters is good, their scout rule allows them to charge rank and file units with impunity even if they are skirmishing.
Good luck with the spell generation, it can be a real balancing act especially in games this small.
Looking forward to the battle report!
Thanks for the comment! The halberdier unit as with other choices in the scenario are defined also with my limited miniatures collection so I'll have to go with these. I didn't know Forresters were Scouts (I thought only Bergjaegers were), but I guess that's ok. Maybe I should give Bruce the fireball (with which he can bait the minotaur away from his feast), but then his magic points should be limited to 5 or something. Another possibility that came to mind is to give the beast men something to throw at him (throwing spears perhaps) since "shooting" at the mino does not trigger Cl test. Thank you very much for the feedback!
DeleteYou do have to take a Fear test if you're within target's charge range. Javelins have a range of only 8".
DeleteAnd I agree with the comment above, making the archers scouts would probably work well in this scenario.
DeleteOk… hmm. Well as I'm gonna play the game as a GM with the beast men, I guess it does not matter if its stacked against me. I'm mostly concerned about accidentally stacking the odds against the good guys anyway.
Delete