THE HARVEST

[Jr_Boyd]

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If you have any ideas post a reply with what you think would be a fun game and some details my scenario post.


Chronicles of Lycaon

The burning embers were wafting in the wind while the first rays of sun pierced through the trees. Master Keeper Lycaon had not seen the scouts in two days. Their trail and markers, however, were clear and made the route easy to follow especially with the skill and abilities of Trmon, the legendary Scavenger.

Advancing down the trail towards the scent of burning Munge root the Master Keeper and Scavenger didn't make a sound, allowing them to focus on navigating the perilous passage through the twisting trees.

As the scent grew stronger and the path widened, Lycaon whispered, “We must be getting close.”

Trmon, although revered for his tracking abilities was not always astute in his Blackblood lore. Slowing to examine the askew branch of a Wicamor bramble, he replied, “Why would the Blackbloods enter here and what could they want from the sacred grove?”

Raising a questioning eyebrow while glancing back, Lycaon responded, “They are obviously here to harvest the blood seeds.”

The Scavenger laughed at the thought, “That is impossible the casings are still not ripe and they are sealed. It would take a Lupus Axe to harvest one of those.”

“You are correct on both counts,” Lycaon elaborated. “I am sure they have brought any savagery required to meet their goals. After all, the blood seeds are a key ingredient for the alchemist.”

Realizing the trail had suddenly made a sharp turn, the Scavenger increased his stride and relegated the conversation to another time. “We need to pick up the pace and catch up to the others before they engage.”

A long piercing howl is heard in the distance. Glancing at the Master Keeper, the Scavenger knows it is too late – the encounter had already begun.

[Jr_Boyd]

DEPLOYMENT - The blackbloods won initiative and the Wolf clan deployed first. Each army was 775 Points and had one False Lead Card.

Wolf Clan - 773
Keeper Lycaon - 98 PTS
Scavenger Trmon - 72 PTS
5 Wolf Scouts - 240 PTS
4 Desert Warriors - 180 PTS
4 Desert Warriors -  180 PTS

Blackbloods - 775 PTS
Alchemist - 60 PTS
5 Caravan Guards - 142 PTS
5 Orc Swordsmen - 111 PTS
3 Ripper Beast Lancers - 102 PTS
5 Orc Assault Warriors - 232 PTS
Double Mounted Kutura - 80 PTS
1 Ripper Beast Archer - 40 PTS

[Jr_Boyd]

TURN 1 REVEAL

It was clear at the beginning that the wolves where not going to let the orcs get the Blood Seeds. All four units where placed to try and take out a plants quickly. The Orcs split their force, half to begin the harvest and half to occupy the wolves.

[Jr_Boyd]

TURN 1 (Wolves 4 Pts, Orcs 4 Pts)

The Wolves made good progress, Keeper Lycaon charged a plant and was unable to cause a single wound. 4 Desert Warriors charged a plant and destroyed it for 1 points.  4 Desert Warriors charged a plant and where only able to cause a single wound. 5 Wolf Scouts charged a plant and where able to destroy a plant for 1 point. Scavenger shot bolts at a plant and was only able to cause a single wound (I have to change this next time plants can not be destroyed by missile fire). The wolves controlled 2 table quarters for 2 additional points. Wolves 4 points.

The Orc advanced, The Alchemist moves to prepare a fire bomb but does not have time to throw it. The Assault Warriors move to try and slow the wolf scouts and manage to kill one with an arrow. Archer Ripper Beast moves to shoot at the Desert Warriors and misses. Caravan guard move to engage with he Desert warriors. Ripper beast Lancers manage to make it to a plant and harvest it for 2 PTS. The Swordsmen move to stop Trmon from destroying the plant. Orcs control 2 table quarters for a total of 4 Points.

[Jr_Boyd]

Game Pictures (More to come in a week I am traveling - Sorry)

[luckyone]

Great work on this love the terrain.

[joshuaslater]

Fantastic reporting !

[Jr_Boyd]

TURN 2 (Orcs 4, Dwarves 4, 2 Harvest Points)

Turn 2 is a tough turn for the Dwarves, the Orcs win the initiative and it all goes down hill from there.

Orc ; The orcs activate the orc swordsmen to get them closer to the scavenger and attempt to harvest the blood seed - PERFECT roll by the leader seed is Harvested (2 HP). The Ripper Beast Lancers make a break for the blood seed and do not manage to cause any damage. The Assault warriors move and launch arrow after arrow at the Desert warriors and miss. The Ripper beast archer moves to help secure a table quarter. The Alchemist throws a fire bomb at the Desert Warriors and it missed the deviation is only a inch and it lands on two desert warriors, the Alchemist gasp as the fuse fizzles out - it is a DUD. The Double mounted Kutura gallops to the Blood seed pod and shears it in half with a single stroke. (2 HP)

Dwarves; Scouts move to contest Blood pod from Lancers. Group 1 of desert warriors move to engage caravan guards they manage to only kill one and endure two fumbles. Group two of the Desert Warriors advance on the Assault warriors after surviving the arrow onslaught unscathed. Lycaon begins the transformation into a Totem. The scavenger shoots his hand crossbow at the tangled up Orc Swordsmen, Miss, Miss, Miss.

Final: Orcs 11, Dwarves 5, 6 Harvest Points

[Jr_Boyd]

TURN 3 (Orcs 11, Dwarves 5, 6 Harvest Points)

Turn 3 Dwarves win initiative

Dwarves: Desert warriors charge the caravan guard and make light work of them, three caravan guards down however they pass their panic test. The second group of Desert warriors are decimated by Assault warrior missile fire and the remaining wolf breaks in panic. The blood Totem destroys a blood seed and then advances on the next. The Wolf scouts rain arrows not he goblin lancers and remove them from play. The scavenger fights the orc swordsmen in hand to hand and sends two to the grave.

Orcs: The Assault warriors rain arrows on the desert warriors, three fall. The Lancers manage to harvest another blood seed before being cut down by the wolf scouts. The swordsmen gain the upper hand on the scavenger only to fail to do more than a single wound. The remaining caravan guard manages to strike down a single desert warrior. The Ripper beast archers breaks to one of the final blood seeds. The Alchemist moves to a better position to deal damage next turn.

Final; Orcs 17, Dwarves 11, 8 Harvest Points

[Jr_Boyd]

TURN 4 (Orcs 17, Dwarves 11, 8 Harvest Points)

Wolves win Initiative

Wolves: The Scouts turn their attention to the Alchemist and fire arrows only causing a single wound. The scavenger wounded is unable to regain his composure and cause any wounds. The remaining two desert warriors try to kill the caravan guard and he proves to nimble. The Blood Totem scores two hits on the Blood Seed but is only able to cause a single wound.

Orcs; The remaining Caravan guard slices down another desert warrior to bring their number to 2 they pass their panic test. The orc swordsmen are able to put down the scavenger with a Perfect hit. The Ripper Beast archer on his second turn with the blood seed swings his sword with both hands and is unable to break the husk. The Assault warriors take aim and unleash arrows at the beast and are able to put 3 wounds on the Blood Totem. The Alchemist begins a ritual and transfers his wound to the Blood Totem.

Final; Orcs 20, Dwarves 13, 8 Harvest Points

[Jr_Boyd]

TURN 5  (Orcs 20, Dwarves 13, 8 Harvest Points)

Wolves win Initiative

Wolves; Wolf Scouts Activate first and cut down the Alchemist with missile fire. Desert Warrior moves on Ripper Archer. Second group of Desert warrior retire to the shelter of the surrounding woods.

Orcs: Lancer archer in act of desperation take another swing Miss, Then after 5 attempts  the Blood Seed gives way (2 Harvest Points). Assault warriors put the Totem down (anti climatic due to fact he would have died next activation when he transformed back). Double Mounted Kutara Moves and Charges final Blood Seed with a single Sweeping movement Harvest the final seed with a Perfect Roll.

FINAL ( Orcs 27, Dwarves 15, 12 Harvest Blood Seeds)

[Jr_Boyd]

Okay so here is my conclusions from this session...

1) I am going to redo the scenario card to include random events for the region. For example a roll on the desert climate chart but there will be a large chance nothing happens. i also think I will add a time of day to see how many turns are in light vs Dark. These two things will add more randomness to the game and effect missile fire.

2) I liked the Blood Seed pods but I have to make some changes. First you can not destroy them with arrows. Next they count as prone +2 to hit. The Armor needs to be increased to at least 17, maybe it should be a random number unknown until you arrive (I kind of like this). Harvesting 6 out of 10 is tough to do so I might need to redo deployment or add 2 more but increasing the AR might just do it. i don't want them to be too easy to harvest. I need to play it a couple more times to get a good feel for this. I liked the destroyed vs Harvest rules it gave the orcs time to maneuver.

3) The game at first was a sprint to the pods which made it interesting. You had to look at unit match ups, consider table quarters for points and beat down your opponent

4) The dwarves are at a HUGE speed disadvantage to the Orcs. I do think the dwarves speed needs to be increased to 3 but that can be a debate for later.

5) The Assault Warriors compound bows are devastating, and the Dwarves hand crossbows are laughable

7) This game had ALOT of Perfect rolls and fumbles and it really impacted the game. The Totem on its last attack to destroy the last Blood Seed fumbled on its first attack losing all others

As a house rule we have one player make both armies and the other picks which to play. This means you always have balanced armies.

9) Never name your heroes it really makes you SAD when they get smoked!

So, what did you think?

[Manic _Miner]

 Great write up John.I do think the Dwarves are at a dis-advantage when it comes to movement.Even worse when you have so many mounted units in the other force.Maybe the Dwarves need more points to try to even things out a bit.

[Buzzu]

Hy John. A great experiment, worth the time you dedicated to.

My only objection is that I expected an easy blackblood victory just reading the army lists.
I don't know who's the one who built both of them, but I think better choices could be done for the dwarves to field.
The blackbloods are one of the strongest armies of the game, with some of the cheapest units if compared to the others. You have to be smart.
For a scenario like this, I think I had played the horned ones (most of whom got a MV of 3), with a horned rider of course.
And don't complain about the difference in shooting if you prefer the hand crossbows of the wolf clan instead of the vulture crossbowmen...
You'll always be outnumbered by the enemy when playing the dwarves, but depending on what you place on the field you can make a difference.
In a 4 armies game at 750AP each, a new player won with the dwarves against my SoK army, a stigian one and a firstborn one.
So I don't think dwarves are weak. They just require very careful choices.  

I like a lot the idea of naming the heroes. I think I'll do it too  

If challenged in this scenario, I would play the following (770AP):
- Vulture crossbowmen 4x
- Vulture marksman (Telkaar)
- Horned ones legion swordmen x4 +LD
- Horned ones spearmen x5 +LD
- Horned ones rider (Gromush)
- Firethrower team

[Jr_Boyd]

Good Feedback,

When I build armies I try to make a list that is fun to play as well as balanced. I don't always construct the "Best" army to win. Because as you have noted in a couple of your other post there are figures you will never play with. I don't have all the figures you have listed Painted but I will do it again with the list you made and see what happens. 

The reason I like scenarios is that they are objective based and it takes away the need to construct the ultimate killing force. I also like the opportunity for role play as well and use the skills that never get used like hiding,  jumping across something or interacting with an object. You will see a lot more of this in Scenarios to come. In the Scenario you just read the Dwarves had a Large advantage. They started basically next to as many Blood Seed Pods as they wanted. If they had destroyed 5 the game is a Free for all which maybe I should change to a Victory if they destroy that many. This puts the pressure on the Blackblood player to not only Harvest but to Defend the available Pods as well. Also the way I plan on using my Scenario cards is you will not know what game you are playing until you get to the table this means you most likely will not have a crafted army for the task. I have played many years of Warhammer and my favorite army is my Wood elves, which is a very skirmish heavy army. I quit playing the army because it always frustrated my opponents because I would try to not go into hand to hand unless I absolutely had to. Hit and run, in and out of woods, lots of magic and basically attrition my opponent to death moving in there big lumbering blocks until I could pounce. Lots of fun for me very frustrating for my opponent. I like clever play anyone can push to super powerful groups together and dice it out.

The hand crossbow does not bother me but It was a shock to be at 10" and see I was at -8 to hit. This means anything over 8" you have to AIM to have any chance to hit. That is brutal and thank the lord I was not shooting at a model with a shield. I knew the Assault warriors are one of the best units in the game in both hand to hand and shooting. The Composite bow is  -8 until over 24 inches. The vultures are going to be -8 at over 12 which is not much better than the hand crossbows so yes you get extra damage but, you still only have a 20% chance of hitting. Against the Assault warriors or Swordsmen you are an additional -2 to the front due to shields which takes you down to 10%. That is a hit one out of 10 shots. A cross bow has a ROF of 1/2 which means you should aim and fire so you 30% chance of hitting. Net - Net is you will only hit one time even with AIMMING and then it is around 50/50 you get a wound. Remember the range an orc can cover 12 inches on foot in two turns so unless you go twice before they do you will only get one turn to shoot. So even Vulture clan with Heavy crossbows are not that good statically speaking. Both Wolf scouts and Vulture Clan crossbowmen are good close combat but I like the Wolf scouts better with group attack and Howl.

The Scouts MV 2 is ridiculously slow I would model one with a walker if they where not so hard to get your hands on. The only reason it bothers me is they are scouts which I don't believe fighting forces choose the slowest people they can find for that job. The Legion being MV2 does not bother me as much, but that is slow.