87. Feudal Patrol - Wrap up

Here is the second half of the game of Feudal Patrol I recently played.  Lots of pictures again.  You should probably read that one first to know what's going on here.

You may recall, at the end of the previous blog post, that a dragon suddenly arrived.  Not just any dragon, but THE dragon, so named Stench.  I randomly determined the board edge he would enter from, drew 3 cards for movement, and determined he would fly in a straight line.  This is where he ended up.

Bob the Bone Wizard is looking a trifle nervous, but fortunately for him, Stench was still settling in from his landing.

The Knights in Shining Armor activated...

 ...and easily dispatched the one Gnoll who had made it to their line.

Bob the Bone Wizard had a right to be nervous, because Stench activated before Bob was able to, attacked him from behind and...

...killed and ate him.  You could hear Bernie's aggrieved cry from across the battlefield, "Noooo!"  They may have really disliked each other (I mean, no one really seemed to like Bob), but he never wanted to see him eaten by a dragon.

Having eaten his foe, Stench advances a bit closer to some more tasty treats.  (The dragon won the roll-off for a tied activation.)

And he eats another crunchy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside human.

The Constabulary activated next, and one wise fellow promptly ran away.  "Fighting a dragon was never in the job description!" he shouted.  The Chief Constable was stunned, both at having his man eaten and at how quickly it all happened.

All he could do was un-stun, and his other man backed away from the monster.  The two crossbowmen reloaded, probably thinking, "What good will these pea-shooters do against that?"

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Bugbears felt they had a challenge more to their bestial liking than puny humans (especially puny humans who killed 4 in one spell-blow).

Via the vagaries of fate, the Constables activated first on the 4s.  The Chief Constable, recognizing that discretion really was the better part of valor, advanced to the rear.  As he passed the crossbowmen, he ordered them to shoot.  "Hey, keep that thing away from me, would'ja?"

They shot very well, indeed, causing a total of 8 points of damage (to a creature with 15 points total).  "Hey, maybe these pea-shooters aren't so bad, after all!"

The Gnolls won the dice-off to see which 4 went next.  You may be wondering how they were able to attack the dragon when they still have all of those morale check markers.  The next pic will explain all.

The unit charged the dragon.  I suppose, technically, the KiSA might have been the slightest bit closer, but again, I kind of felt that the Gnolls would respond to the dragon the same way as the Bugbears:  a challenge not to be missed.  Think of the bragging rights at killing a dragon!

Their attack was marginally successful:  they wounded Stench and stunned him, but the new leader Gnoll dropped his weapon.  "That dragon hide is tough!" he growled in Gnoll-speech.

The last of the 4s were the Bugbears, who edged closer.  Not particularly fast.  Apparently Bugbears are not as stupid as some might think.  Stench was only able to remove the single stun marker this turn.

With a cry of, "For Bob!", Bernie entered the magical fray.  Knowing his most powerful spell, Fireball, would be useless against a fire-breathing dragon, the Fire Wizard opted for Web.  Meanwhile, the KiSA reformed their line.  Just in case.

Bernie was successful in casting Web, thereby stunning Stench for two full turns.

The Turn ended.

The Bugbears continued their cautious advance, perhaps waiting to see how the Gnolls fared.  (Really small numbers on the move part of the cards.)

The KiSA did nothing, but Bernie decided to get behind the hedge of armor they provided.  "I can only slow him down, I can't stop him," he rationalized.

Stench, having lost over half of his life points (dragons, I'm told, are very aware of that sort of thing), had pretty much decided he'd eaten enough and would be leaving soon, if only he could rid himself of this dratted web....  (He removed one stun token.)

The Bugbears continued their cautious approach.

The Gnolls finally activated on a 6 and became unPinned and attacked again.  (Sorry, but I don't recall on which turn they were Pinned; sometime during the previous game, I think.  Gameplay is very fluid and I'm writing this a long time after playing.)

However, the Gnolls succeeded in doing nothing other than distributing morale check markers to themselves and the dragon.

The crossbowmen fired to small effect.  I think everyone had decided the dragon was the bigger threat.  Stench wasn't feeling so "big threat-like" now, however.  His inner dragonsense was telling him he only had 4 life points remaining!

The turn ended.  I decided to include this because it helps me remember the sequence of events.  I never write it down as I play, that would slow the game waaaay too much.  But I do wish I had thought of this sooner.

The Bugbears finally worked up the courage to tackle the dragon...

...to no real effect.  Stench took one more morale check marker, and Gronk somehow managed to break his weapon, the big dummy.

The KiSA did completely nothing, waiting to see the outcome of the battle between the various monsters.

The Constables re-grouped and the crossbowmen reloaded...just in case.

The Constables activated again, and the crossbowmen decided to shoot after all...missing completely.

Stench finally got rid of his last Stunned marker.  He was beginning to regret his "snacking between meals" habit and was hoping to escape soon.

The first morale check caused a Gnoll to charge.

The result was inconclusive.

But after clearing the last morale check marker, the Gnolls charged anyhow!  The could smell blood and really wanted to claim the kill before the Bugbears!

But they achieved nothing more than a morale check on themselves.  That darned crater, um, er, I mean, broken ground made it difficult to land a substantive blow.

Seizing their chance, the Bugbears rushed in to steal the kill away from the Gnolls!

They did manage to wound the mighty beast, but couldn't seal the deal.  Both sides took more morale check markers, Stench was Stunned and one of the Bugbears dropped his weapon.  Stench was getting pretty desperate to fly away now.

But before he could activate again, the turn ended.

And then Stench's luck returned.  He activated, and rather than breathe his deadly breath weapon on the monsters in front of him, or try to eat anyone else, he took off like a scalded cat and flew away across the table, in the direction from which he had originally come, in order to nurse his many wounds.  That was one expensive snack!

The Bugbears followed rather desultorily, just in case the dragon came back.  One Bug-gy stopped to pick up his weapon.

The Gnolls got Pinned when they cleared their morale check marker.  Then the KiSA activated but did nothing, continuing to watch; and the same with the Constables.  And then the turn ended.

Stench was again the first to activate, and flew away, with his one life point clutched securely in his great paw (metaphorically speaking).  The Bugbears were on the wrong side of the table, with a lot of terrain between them and their human foes, so they just decided to call it a day.  The Gnolls, severely reduced in numbers and strength, and a bit tired from fighting dragons and whatnot, also decided to exercise the caution for which they are not well known, and withdrew.

This left the field of battle, and the victory, firmly in the grasp of the humans.  Other than the casualties caused by the dragon, the human side was intact.  A few folks would mourn Bob the Bone Wizard, but probably not that many.  No one could actually remember the soldier's name who got eaten, but the Chief Constable vowed to erect a marker to honor him, someday.  Eventually.  He'd at least propose a toast to him at the feast next week.  Oh, and one Knight in Shining Armor was wounded, but the more grievous wounds were the jeers and snide remarks behind his back by the other Knights.  "Ha ha, you got stabbed by a Gnoll!  A Gnoll of all things!  What a maroon!"  Yeah, some of those KiSA are PitA's.

Hey, anyway, that wraps up this battle report.  Thanks for reading, and have a Happy New Year!