(Gnome Wars) Cutting Once or Measure Thrice #InternationalGnomeWeek

Hiding within the drafts of my blog are dozens of cool scenarios I've saved from other blogs.  Some I saved because they look great, others because the write-ups were great.  

I finally toyed around with some gnomes on the table because this scenario qualified with the formal.   

In the original scenario write-up, French marines were sent out under the cover of darkness to recover the ship and crew of a French merchant ship that had been captured by Arabs.  It used Sharp's Practice for rules (Black Powder Era), and the Order of Battle was a little lacking.  

Gnome Wars doesn't have Arabs, but the Sikhs seem to fill in well, it's just a matter of how much of a power level do we reduce them by.  I did break out some of the ship sheets we've used for the Gnome Wars Mega-games.with a naval element.  

British Marines

Objective:  Rescue the merchant ship.

3x Units of 5 in boats trying to stealthily approach the harbor.  

(1x landing party with Captain, 1x landing party, 1x landing party with 2 grapeshot cannons).

The Pseudo-Sikhs Who Destroy

1x Units of 4  (Tower)

3x Units of 5 (1x in building behind tower, 1x on merchant ship, 1x manning a cannon emplacement, 1x manning a patrol dhow.)

I tweaked the scenario three times, for obvious reasons.

Game One:   Not only did the Sikh units constantly win initiative, but their spotting rolls were beyond on point, it was a statistical anomaly.  The British never had a chance, as their bodies floated on the water in the harbor.  Heck, the only success the British had was the boat rowing up the merchant ship, and the cannon emplacement rolled to spot (6 on a d6), hit (6 on a d6), and outright destroyed it with one shot (another 6 on d6).

An outcome so bad, I didn't even edit the photo.

Game Two:  Rolling random spotting stats for the Sikhs,  adding modifiers for darkness and range, and moving deployment of most British to far side of the harbor... didn't end much better.  The Sikhs spotting ability continued to be preternatural, and the British cannons couldn't hit the water if they were dropped into the harbor.

Game Three:  Randomly determined spotting rolls again, and the British stay out of range of the freaking tower.   Like in game two, one squad of marines would disembark on the far side of the harbor and seize the cannon, the boat to board the merchant ship stayed out of easy spotting range for the tower and distracted the Sikh patrol dhow, as the third group of British tried to waylay them in a surprise attack.  

The dhow crew was shocked as two of its crew fell to rifle fire and five marines jumped on board, but it was the marines who were shocked to find themselves quite dead.  I even broke out a cup and small tray to make sure I wasn't influencing rolls...  The Sikh rolls, even against overwhelming numbers and the British superior abilities fighting on the water, were beyond impressive. 

The British finally caught some luck seizing the cannon, suffering only one casualty from the lone Sikh survivor who ran away.  

The patrol dhow was busy reloading their gun with only two crew, which allowed the third British boat to successfully board the merchant ship.  

Oh the carnage!  

As the British tried to ready the ship a cannon shot range out.... and the patrol dhow exploded.   The marines who arrived on land realized the cannon emplacement must be perfectly constructed as another perfect shot destroyed the merchant ships closest threat.  

The merchant ship started to maneuver out of the harbor, there was no sign of the crew, but the British would take whatever victories they could.  

However even that was short-lived, as the Sikhs in the watch tower and nearby buildings finally activated and could spot the shenanigans going on in the habor, and had phenomenal rolls that manage to kill the gnomes on board, leaving only the loyal dog, Bosun, aboard.

Captain Bosun and his drifting ship.  The surviving marines rushing to the boat.  

I'll take three playtests to make the scenario workable.   We may need to revisit the ship's cannon rules, and I'm definitely need to buy new dice for my Historicon events.  We obviously took all the good mojo out of them.