Happy Thanksgiving!

 Let us give thanks for the blessings that Lord has granted us.

Enjoy your day, wherever you may live!

Whirling, Transient Nodes of Thought

I've had time off and should have been gaming. But instead, I've just been lazing around letting my thoughts drift.

Anywhere, here is where my mind has been going.

Inspiration from the Matchbox Challenge

I recently learned from Bob Cordery's blog about a wargame in a matchbox challenge.

I have no intention in participating in the challenge. Even for me, a matchbox seems just too small.

But, I have been thinking about a super quick play game set of some sort akin to the matchbox challenge. A kind of micro game. I'd like something that I can quickly pull out, play for 5-10 minutes or so, then put away. (Actually, I've been thinking about this concept for a long time)

Anyway, I've found something like that. Sort of. Lately, I've been using Demonslayer to fill that void. The problem is that the components are all on my computer. I'd like something physical instead of virtual. I think that Demonslayer would be too large, with the encounter book and the map.

My idea is to create a quick dungeon crawl game, with the character sheet and encounters on index cards. Still mulling over how to do this.

Squad Based Skirmish Counters

In my previous post, I mentioned the idea of creating more counters (like I need more) for squad based skirmishes. I'm still toying with the idea. Here is the sticking point right now - do I want to do specific factions, like I did for my single figure skirmish, or so I want a more generic approach?

Skirmish Campaign Ideas

So far, Snorin has had 2 successful outings. Question is - where do I go with all this?

The Snorin Campaign

I'd like to create a campaign system for Snorin where the party's experiences enable them to grow in prowess. There are a couple of different approaches to take,

The RPG Approach

I would track experience and loot. Individual characters would level up and gain equipment, becoming more powerful in the process. As they do so, they can face bigger threats. This is an approach taken by RPG-style skirmish games like Nordic Weasel's Five series.

The problem with this approach is that it get fiddly keeping track of loot and experience for all the characters. That happened to me with Five Klicks from the Wasteland - I got a little burnt out tracking all that stuff.

The Captain's Approach

Basically, I'm only tracking the experience of the captain of the warband. An example of this approach is Pikeman's Lament. As he progresses, Snorin will gain traits and be able to select better followers. I'll also give luck points, enabling rerolls. This is my preferred approach.

What About the Others?

I happened to look over my previous posts where I showed my other skirmish figures. This made me feel a little guilty that I have not got them in action yet. I really should do something with them.

Back to the Arena

This is the most obvious approach - do an arena tournament. I could make it an elimination tournament. Let's see who's best!

Other Campaigns

Another option is to choose another pair and stage a campaign a la Snorin. I thought about using the Imperial army, setting a campaign in my LARP world, and seeing how the legion does.

The Imperials are the middle row

Squad Based Skirmish

As a captain or even a lieutenant, Snorin should be commanding more than 3 other warriors. I thought about doing a squad-based approach. The captain and perhaps some specialists would be individual figures and the rank-and-file would have multiple figures on a base.

For squad battles, I could re-use my big battle bases like these.

When I created them, I put a lot of figures on a base. I was going for a big battle look and I think I succeeded to well. There are just too many figures for me to accept this as a skirmish. For example, there are 96 figures per heavy infantry base!

For skirmish, I would prefer maybe 6-8 on a heavy infantry base. But that would involve creating new bases. Ouch! So this idea will just rattle around in my head for a while.

More Snorin

The Adventures of Snorin the Dwarf

Previously, we met Snorin the dwarf. A young dwarf lord, he is in charge of a scouting party that patrols the dwarven mines. On his first patrol, he ran into a band of goblins and defeated them.

Once again, we find Snorin on patrol.

Set Up

Snorin's patrol starts from the bottom edge. It consists of (clockwise from top left)

• Snorin - a captain
• A bannerman
• An archer
• A regular soldier

Captains and bannermen have advantages in combat.

The patrol is returning from its mission when it runs into a band of goblins.

Note: I am short of goblins so I am using some pig-faced orcs. I treated them as goblins for the battle.

Snorin's party must breakthrough the enemy and escape from the top edge.

The Skirmish

The soldier advances up the middle as a diversion while Snorin leads a flanking maneuver to the right.

The soldier wounds a goblin.

The flankers kill 2 goblins.

The patrol makes progress to the exit.

As Snorin drives off a goblin, the soldier gets surrounded.

He falls to the goblin.

Snorin and the bannerman run off another goblin. The last goblin warrior and the shaman hang back, allowing Snorin's command to escape.

Victory for Snorin.

Aftermath

I'd like to create a campaign framework where Snorin and his party advance with successful missions. I don't have anything specific yet.

I did roll to determine the fate of the lost soldier. I rolled a 6, which I interpret to mean that they were able to rescue and revive him.

Another One Bites the Dust

After my initial success at Demonslayer, I decided to press on with a campaign. Roderick continues his adventures, but I reset the game somewhat. I bumped Roderick's hp back to max, chose a new starting point, and pressed on.

This turned out to be a short adventure.

Rod started at the star and ended at the shield
Crosses are places he visited

Here is Roderick's diary of encounters.

As you can see, he met a demon lord on turn 7. This time, it is Maldrath, the Soul Reaper

But Roderick has an advantage. He wields a magic sword that he acquired from a skeletal knight. This sword slices easily through Maldrath's shadowy form. The demon lord bellows in rage as Roderick successfully strikes again and again. Meanwhile, Roderick easily dances away from Maldrath's scythe. Until Roderick grows careless. Maldrath slashes and wounds Roderick. Worse than that, Roderick feels his willpower fading. He needs to end this battle. He charges and lunges. His blade pierces the demon lord's chest. With a wail, Madrath disintegrates into nothingness.

Roderick has killed another demon lord. But now he carries a scar - his Will is permanently lowered by a point. 

Thank You

Thank you veterans for your service to our nation. God bless you.

Roderick Victorious

I continued with my Demonslayer campaign. After some more wandering, I had the opportunity to summon a Demon Lord. I decided to chance it, and end the campaign for good or ill.

Roderick vs. the Demon Queen

Roderick began having ghostly visions. Using his knowledge gained from his adventures, he was able to challenge the demon lords. I used clues to cause a demon to appear.

Suddenly, Inthara, Queen of Flames, appeared.

Image created using Gencraft

Roderick attacked using his new axe. He managed to inflict a number of wounds upon Inthara. However, the heat of the flames that surrounded her threatened to overwhelm him. Then she managed strike him with her burning staff. Roderick was close to death. But he took a mighty swing, and chopped off her head!

Game Notes

This was an incredibly tense battle. 

• Roderick (Rod) used all his healing potions prior to the battle, but he still was down to 24 hp. Inthara started with 26 hp.
• Inthara had the chance of doing up to 6 hp of damage per turn - 4 from attacks and 2 from heat damage. Rod only had an axe that did 3 hp.
• Nevertheless, things started well. Rod managed to get in a bunch of hits while avoiding damage.
• But then the heat began to takes its toll, slowly whittling away his hp.
• Finally, both were down to 2 hp. Rod got first attack, and hit! Down went Inthara!

What Next?

• The rules state that you can play an ongoing campaign, keeping your character and going after the remaining demons.
• However, Rod's down to 2 hp. Should I reset the game? Rod won't last long otherwise.

Straying Instead of Slaying

I've been playing Demonslayer when I have spare moments. As I predicted, it's a neat little filler game when I don't want to set up something formal.

I like that the rules are simple and straightforward. Encounters are incredibly easy to adjudicate. I can usually complete one in a minute or so.

My First Campaign (So Far)

I created a hero named Roderick. He has Intelligence 9, Dexterity 8, Might and Will 7, and 4 Charisma (on 2D6).

Here is Roderick's progress so far.

I started at the red star and have visited the locations marked with a black X. The shield represents Roderick's current position.

Here is the log of his encounters. You can see it's quite a varied list.

But I Have A Quibble

When don't I? I have completed a lot of encounters, but I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I'm straying but not slaying.

As you can see, I've gotten over 30 encounters under my belt, 25 of which are set encounters. That means that I have finished about a quarter of the set encounters. Yet I am not any stronger than I was to start. In fact, I'm weaker because I've lost a lot of hit points. Sure, I have some healing, but I want to save that until I meet a demon lord. In the interim, I can't find a town to heal and sell some of my spoils. I recently managed to find a slightly stronger weapon. It doesn't seem enough.

Given that there are 6 demon lords, I figured I'd level up enough to confront one after exploring about 1/6th of the map. That hasn't happened. Perhaps I haven't hit the right places yet. I'll keep going but I am getting a little frustrated.

Snorin's Tale

Prelude

After my first arena battle, I mentioned that I was thinking of doing a skirmish campaign set in a dwarf-goblin war. Well, the campaign has begun.

I don't have enough goblins printed, so I decided to press some orcs into service.

The Story

Snorin is a young dwarf noble. Recently, the elders have given him charge of a squad of troops to patrol the dwarf mines.

Snorin receives word that a mining detail has gone missing. He leads his squad to investigate.

Setup

I'm using my arena as a chamber. Snorin's squad enters from the bottom. Snorin (upper left dwarf) is accompanied by 2 soldiers and an archer.

They spot 3 goblins in the chamber. Two more goblins and an orc are hidden behind a wall (I'm using one of my hills as the wall).

The Battle

One of the goblins rushes the party. He does not last long.

Snorin takes on the goblin leader (middle left).

The goblin leader dies. But the goblin shaman (upper right) keeps the rest fighting. 

The orc wounds a dwarf warrior. Snorin kills the goblin archer.

The dwarf soldier counterattacks the orc, wounding it.

Then the dwarf archer kills the orc.

At this point, the goblin shaman weaves a mist that allows it and the remaining goblin grunt to escape.

Victory for Snorin's first skirmish!