Thursday 19 December 2013

Warhammer Wagon Train

After a lengthy Warhammer hiatus my chum and I reconvened for a game.

I devised a scenario, based on an idea I've been toying with for a while. The original genesis is from a Charles Grant scenario based on valuable wagons getting across the board. In my version it was a Dwarf wagon train trying to get from the brewery to the safety of the hold. I had wanted to use the Grudge Pony from the old Skull Pass WFB starter set, but ran out of time, so substituted some Dark Age scenery bits instead - cattle and beer barrels, which seemed Dwarfen enough.
As I'd been toying with this as a solo scenario the greenskin attackers would be randomly generated using cards and appear at random locations - I was hoping for a Hollywood Wild West  effect with the Dwarfs holding off relentless attacks from the greenskins the Dwarfs also got a unit of Longbeards to ride to the rescue from the hold and a cannon in the hold to provide covering fire.

Unfortunately my camera is on its last legs - if Santa doesn't come up with a new one I think it'll be time to bite the bullet and go the sales - so the pictures I got are very poor. Here's the only three salvageable ones and they're pretty bobbins.

 The wagon train pulls out

 Stout dwarf warriors bear down on a goblin idol

The Red Cap tribe bar the way

So how did the scenario play? 
We actually managed to get two games in.
In the first I took the role of dwarfs and the random roles quickly saw me surrounded by some of the green elite units. Stymied by the enemy's rapid deployment and outpaced my wagons were quickly overrun and my warriors cut-down.
So we swapped sides and tried again. This time the random deployment saw my troops scattered far and wide and what did arrive was generally the weaker elements of the force, so the Dwarfs were able to wipe them out piecemeal and keep up a steady advance and in the end easily made it to the hold with all wagons intact.
So the scenario is clearly balanced - against me.

On reflection I think removing some elements of the randomness would help the Goblin player to make a better fist of it, whilst restricting the proximity of goblin deployment would at least give the Dwarf player a chance to get some momentum.

That said it was good to get the WFB toys out again and the table looked pretty good with all the scenery and pretty much entirely painted forces.
We've both just bought the Sigmar's Blood campaign book and hope to have all the forces assembled to play through that in the New Year. I think it'll suit us - smaller units, a narrative and limited and restricted magic items suit our style of gaming a bit more than the full WFB experience.

1 comment:

  1. A good old standard scenario getting a new twist, excellent stuff. Though obviously the dice gods were against you. :-)

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