93. Undead In Search of a Good Time

I'm back to using Feudal Patrol, scratching a "D&D"-style itch.  I played a fairly quick game pitting some Adventurers against a dread Necromancer and his ghastly hordes (although there were no actual ghasts in the horde).

I allowed each of the four Adventurers (Cleric, Fighter, Wizard, Thief) to use their own Activation die, whereas the Necromancer's army was more standard Feudal Patrol (each "squad" got its die, etc).

Here are some pictures of the solo game.  I did not utilize the published solo rules, I simply played both sides (as intelligently and honestly as possible).  If you click on the pics, they should enlarge.  Some of the color is odd, I am using an older camera, so, sorry about that.

An aerial magical eye in the sky shot (those wizards are amazing!), showing the general lay of the battlefield.

The Undead walk.  "Alright, everybody, line up for the photoshoot!"

Four brave Adventurers!  Look at the bravery!  So.  Much.  Bravery.

The evil Necromancer.  Boo!  Hiss!  "Hey, I'm just a guy, y'know."

The start of Turn 1.  Our brave Adventurers, having heard rumors about Undead running amok at a nearby homestead, move to investigate.  It's true!  The Dead do walk, and have already set fire to the houses.

The Mummies move into melee with the Heroes...

...leaving the Heroes a little worse for wear.

More melee evens things out a bit, especially with the Wizard zapping one of the Mummies to dust.

The Necromancer advances with his elite Skeleton guards.

More hand to hand combat, more wounds, more Morale Checks.

The Necromancer calls more Skeletons to do his bidding.

Morale markers are cleared, and while the Thief makes a break for some cover, the Necromancer charges ahead.

The turn ends, and the Necromancer get the first move of the next turn, launching a magical attack against the Wizard.  Luckily for her it misses.

The Mummies shamble into melee again, but the Heroes mostly keep the upper hand.

The Necromancer continues his irresistible advance.

The Wizard, thinking it better to get out of potential melee, follows the Thief, and blasts a potent magical spell at the Necromancer, felling him.

And thus the Undead menace was ended, with the killing of the Necromancer.

I felt this was a bit too abrupt for what I actually wanted to have happen, so I set it up the same way and played it a second time.  Just to see if things went differently.

Here we go again.

The order of Activation can make such a huge difference in how things turn out.  This time, the Fighter takes the initiative and moves into melee with the Mummies, to try to stop them from getting so close so early.

Unfortunately, he does no damage to them, but neither did they harm him.

Next, the Cleric moves up to the left to help, and the Thief heads for a flanking side, and cover.

The Necromancer and his elite Skeleton guards advance.

And the regular Skeletons also advance.

I don't know why I included the card in the picture, but the 6's activate.  The Cleric cast "Web" successfully at the Necromancer, thereby slowing him down greatly; and the Thief continued her flanking movements on the right.

The second 6 card came up, and the Thief moved ever closer to being where she wanted to be; and the Cleric moved only a couple of inches towards the Mummies (out of the frame).

The Mummies and the Fighter have once against tussled with little result, but the Skeletons have moved much more threateningly closer.

The turn ended, and with the start of the new turn, more Mummy vs Fighter melee occurred, with little change; although the Fighter holding his own against 5 Mummies should be thought of as a big deal.  (I do realize the Mummies could have separated and moved 3 or 4 of them past the Fighter, but I liked the idea of "dumb" Undead:  they were created as a group, and simply do what they're told.)

The Wizard, who had done such yeoman-like work in the previous game, so far had not been activated (such are the vagaries of the card deck).  Now her opportunity came up, and, not liking the look of those approaching Skeletons, she cast a spell to block their way.

4s activated, and there were several.  First, the Mummies attacked the Fighter, causing a wound; the Thief continued her sneaky movement, hoping to get to the Necromancer while he was still Webbed up; and the Dwarf Cleric moved to smash some Skeletons with his mace.  (There isn't a "Turn Undead" spell, per se, in the rules; and in a battle like this, I like not having it; and didn't feel like "making something fit," although the spell "Tanga Beehive" would probably work just fine.)

The Fighter activated but could only "unstun," but successfully removed his Morale Check token.  Meanwhile, the Skeletons pushed through the barrier at half speed, seemingly intent on coming to grips with the Wizard.

The Thief managed to make it into close combat with the Webbed Necromancer (who counted as Stunned)...

...but fighting for his (un)life, the Necromancer successfully repulsed her attack!

The second '4' card came up and the Cleric swiftly changed direction and smashed into the Skeletons, downing one right away.

The Thief, a determined individual, slipped into melee again with the Necromancer, deftly eluding his Skeleton guards.  He had not been Activated yet, and so still remained Stunned in the Web.  Her attack was more successful, especially since the Necromancer broke his weapon in defending and took a wound.

The Fighter and the Mummies continued to hack at each other, with the Fighter blocking their path with relative ease, although actually destroying the monsters proved beyond his skill.

I tend to play these games out over several hours (and sometimes even days), and I don't completely recall what happened here.  It seems like the 4's have had their two activations (and I don't think it's the next turn), so the Thief should not have been able to attack, and at the same time I don't think I would have had the Necromancer attack the Thief either (without a weapon), so I'm guessing I forgot the tactical situation when I returned to the game and had the Thief attack.  Which is what you see here.

And here is the result of that attack:  one dead Necromancer, and one wounded Thief.  Naturally, the Undead all dropped "dead" to the ground after this, and the Heroes saved the day yet again!  Yay!

The game continues to be fun and easy to play.  Turns happen so quickly that it's difficult to document the game without slowing it down tremendously.

After this game, I had some discussion with the author about adapting the Feudal Patrol weapon damage ratings and melee aspects for a more modern, firearm-based fight; because I wasn't quite as fond of the rather-a-bit-more-vague close combat method in Combat Patrol (his modern rules title).

The next game I will post about is the result of that line of thinking:  the French Foreign Legion in the desert of North Africa!

Thanks for reading!

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!