While I am a huge supporter of Brigade Games Gnome Wars, I have a little secret: Most of the "Stout Gnome" supporters augment their forces or personal campaign worlds with other lines of figures. I've personally incorporated the old Eureka Teddy Bears, and others have fallen hard for Alternative Armies' Flintloque/Slaughterloo figures.
Sure, Gnome Wars' Great War setting does not match up with Flintloque's Napoleonic era, but with older British Marines, and the Civil War style Americans (not to mention the Gnoman Legions), there's enough anachronism with fantasy races to make everything cool.
That being said, I'm very impressed by the amount of support material that Alternative Armies pumps out to support their lines, and not always new figures.
With a Sunday afternoon break from the kids' basketball, I took it upon myself to try out a recent scenario they posted on their blog (and a download on the website), "Stick it to the Dogs."
You can click on the link for the original version, but I managed two playtests with each of my daughters, using Gnome Wars rules and minis.
Background: Dry air and high winds had plagued most of the Imperial Republic of California, nowhere worse than the Sierra Mountains. Budget issues and a general neglect of Native traditions of forest maintenance had led to large wildfires raging across the range.
The Imperial Guard of the Republic (IGR) was the first line of defense to combat these fires. The hours long and dangerous, the support minimal. And to make things worse, there was a reason the original inhabitants induced controlled burns: They prevented the larger fires from occurring and awakening the vengeful nature demons sleeping under the mountains.
Imperial Guard (Five Riflemen and One Officer)
Set-up: Within 7 inches of their tent, no more than 2 inches apart from one another.
Objective: Kill the Tree Demon while keeping at least two IGR alive.
Special Rule: There's so much smoke that firing at any range has a -1 penalty (base for standard weapons should be 4+).
Tree Demon
Set-Up: Will randomly appear in one of the nine groupings of trees, at least 7 inches away from any IGR.
Objective: Prevent the IGR objective by killing five IGR.
Special Rule: First round surprise, Move 8", d10+2 for melee. TEN WOUNDS.
Game One: Lieutenant Ailepoulet coughed from the smoke in the air as he barked orders at his napping men. The rest wouldn't be enough, but it was all the time they had before they jumped back into fighting the fire....
Meanwhile, the Tree Demon manifested just outside the camp perimeter.
The Tree Demon swarmed the three IGR guarding the nearby wood. Two died before they knew what was occurring, the third parried a terrifying attack from the Demon's branch, breaking it (one wound!). Still, the poor Private screamed and ran away as fast as he could.
The others scurried out of their tent and fired repeatedly at the beast, barely hurting it (three wounds)
Further carnage ensued, as the Demon finally closed in (Six Wounds), leaving the Lieutenant and the poor screaming Private. The Private regained his senses while hiding behind the ruins, but what of the officer?
He was not the foolhardy type to lead into battle, rather he hid for the first few rounds, and by dumb luck, the Demon ignored him in his hiding spot.
The Tree Demon moved closer to the Private, but fell just short of being able to grapple him. A point-black shot of the rifle hurt the creature (seven!), followed by two shots to its back from the Lieutenant's revolver (nine).
Right before the beast could reach over the rubble wall and end the Private, his aim proved true one last time, striking the creature in the face and turning it into a stack of dry, gnarled wood.
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Gnome 1, Tree Demon 0
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Game Two: We switched sides. My daughter Millie (age 9) would take over the Tree Demon, and I would have a better organized (and braver) officer.
It was a slaughter. My slaughter.
The tree demon spawned a bit further away, but thanks to cover and some great initiative rolls, lurched upon my properly lined up IGR with a fury few have seen.
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Private Luis never stood a chance.
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Thanks to the smoke modifier to fire, I could not generate enough firepower to fell the Demon. I got to five wounds before it killed my fifth man, making my objective impossible.
It was determined that the Tree Demon's d10+2 melee value was too high. Removing the extra +2 would have made most of the attacks still in the Demon's favor, but would have made the fighting a bit more interesting.
Game Three: My eldest daughter, Maja (age 11) tagged in to replace Millie and took over the IGR.
The gnomes stood their ground, used the stone ruins as defense, and scored a solid victory, only losing two soldiers. This confirms the reason the only structure in the original scenario is the tent.
Game Four: We switched sides, and once again, the Tree Demon manifested far away from the camp. I had the IGR ready to concentrated fire before retreating to prepare an additional volley.
The IGR got seven wounds on the Demon before initiative failed me and the deformed maw the abomination devoured the soul of the Lieutenant.
The surviving gnomes were face to face with the creature and did what any brave Californian would do.
Fail morale and run away.
Despite the lack of leadership, I allowed two more morale checks to see if they could recover, but alas they fled the board.
To steal the slogan from Savage Worlds, this scenario was fast, furious, and fun! Each scenario took minutes and the random set-up and ten wounds of the Tree Demon really set the right amount of tension.
Plus, this should have been the weekend for Fall-In! and the gnomes needed to make an appearance.
I may have used a WizKids Treefolk to represent the Tree Demon, but the Alternative Armies one looks great, even if it's no longer the free figure with any order...
Feel free to try this scenario, mix in melee and grenadier forces, and see if the results stand true in the Swiss Alps, or Black Forest, or Aokigahara. If the Demon seems weaker, feel free to use the multiple demon optional rule in the scenario.
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