We have concluded our sixth week. There are another eight scheduled missions to go. We have one more session with the three current missions (Warmachine, Bounty Hunting, Defend the Fine) before we take a month-long hiatus. Real life is stepping in for most of the month of May. This works out fine for me. It lets me set up some more terrain items, build more scenario pieces, and apparently more Hired Swords
Speaking of which, I am supplying the Hired Swords that are available. I have many, if not most, of the standard Hired Swords that are out there, painted and ready to go. The main ones being seen are the Tilean Marksman and the lycanthropic Ogre Bodyguard. The other ones available are found in the first Town Cryer. Since there are a limited supply of Hired Swords, I have incorporated a bidding system for them. I have the players send me their single bid. It must be at least the minimum required to hire the guy. The highest bidder then gains their services at standard upkeep prices. If for whatever reason a warband has to drop the Hired Sword, I keep the stats and make them available for other warbands.
I understand that not every campaign manager can provide the Hired Swords for all players or even NPC warbands. Why do I do this? Why not just have the players go at it? I am trying to get a narrative to the whole campaign. If for some reason an NPC warband starts to grow into a real nemesis for the players they may get a real desire to avoid/destroy the warband. This can also give me a branch to follow and cultivate as well when it comes to the campaign. It also gives the players a chance to try out another warband that may be different from their own. Player X may get tired of running a 'shooty' warband and see what it's like to use a close combat oriented warband. In addition, I am rotating the opponents, the players and the warbands. Everybody will play against everybody at least once, NPC warbands too. Although, the Reiklanders have been retired, so not everyone got to play them. It can get to be really frustrating or boring to play against the same opponent every turn. Unfortunately, the map is filling up with player victories, and the unclaimed NPC locations are dwindling fast. Soon, the players will be going up against each other weekly. We are about half way through the campaign. I do have some particular missions that will have everyone involved.
 |
| Bounty Hunting Mission: Next time, I would not use Forest area terrain...Just trees |
Agreed, the Bounty Hunting Mission with the forest terrain as placed made it easy for one warband to hide in the forest unable to be shot at by the house for the entire game, negating much of the difficulty of the encounter. Said warband forced the other warband to come around the entire board just to force an engagement or nothing would have happened. This scenario should not have terrain that allows for an entire warband to take cover in a single location for the entire scenario.
ReplyDeleteJust started following your blog, found you on Tom's boring mordheim forum, really great pics! I especially like the troll. I noticed you haven't been using a lot of vertical terrain though, doesn't this make it pretty hard on your shooty guys?
ReplyDeleteLook forward to more! :)
The terrain is prohibitive to shooty warbands. Yet the Beastmen have been having a tough time of it. Most players have hand to hand warbands to start with also. The big trees from Warmachine and Thing in the Woods had platforms that the shooters did use to great effect though. And the last mission, Defend the Find had quite a bit of buildings to use. It's just the nature of this campaign, mostly wilderness.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. More to come Friday or so as we wait for a make-up game
As the owner of by far the most shooty warband in the campaign (Lizardmen), I have to say, I've been able to get pretty good firing lines and angles (with the exception of this encounter). I haven't had too many chances for elevated, pick your target firing, but I've still had pretty good success (partially because I spend 25-35 gc per encounter on skink poison to have S4 short bows).
Delete