"Although we live by strife"

Two sessions rolled into one with only a single sesison report from each of them!

Chaos in the Old World

This was my second game of this hybrid of area control and wargame- previously I had played Slaanesh. Tonight I was Khorne- which meant the wargame aspect would be the primary focus for me. Dan was Tzeentch, Mark was Slaanesh, and Rob, who hadn’t played before, was Nurgle.

The game opened badly for me with the Greenskins Invade Event, which restricts all players to one combat die in three areas. I covered one of those areas- the Empire, by placing a spell that prevented in the region- hoping to dissuade people from placing there. Dan quickly seized a second Greenskins area, Tilea by placing a spell that increased costs for others to summon there. The third Greenskins area was remote and low value. Rob placed in the Empire and Kislev. Mark, looking for Nobles to corrupt, was drawn into Brettonia and Estalia- and I followed him in. Everyone advanced one dial tick after the first round.

In the following rounds the forces of Khorne spread out across the map attacking as many targets as possible. The Greenskins persisted throughout the whole game, so Dan and Rob had some protection from my troops, but Mark was particularly vulnerable. In every round after the first I had most dial ticks and so advanced two dial clicks a round. The first power I selected gave my cultists an attack die, which made it even easier to spread out. Mark occasionally took over my cultists and Dan teleported them, while the Witch Hunters event brought on Heroes who killed my demons, but I persisted. I had quite a large hand of cards- partly from the dials and partly because I tended to place figures rather than play cards. The card that stops corruption helped me slow down the game- Dan was industriously ruining regions and Rob too on a lesser scale.  I also found a spell which teleports two figures to the location it is played in useful in covering the board. In the final turn I racked up at least five dial clicks... Dan would have won on points if I hadn’t won the dial victory.

Another week, another game...

Fortune and Glory

A week later, a different game, this one co-operative (there is a competitive variant but we skipped it) The game features a world map and is set in the 30s. Two possible opponents- the Nazis and the Mob. We chose the Nazis but the Mob was to feature at the very end.

The Nazis start with a secret base, a soldier, a Zeppelin and two villains. The location of the secret base is randomly determined- in this case Australia! The Zeppelin and the soldier start in the base while the villains simply target the most valuable treasure.

Treasure? Yes- there are four or more  treasures available at any one time. They are made up of two cards and are of the form “The ... of ...” One card shows how many VPs the treasure is worth, the other how many dangers you have to overcome to find it. Their location is determined randomly. Some treasures are temple treasures and they have different rules including the risk that the temple falls on top of you.

Well we started with two treasures in Africa, one a temple in deep jungle, and one in Siberia and one in North America. When you tackle a treasure you encounter various dangers, such as Car Chases or exotic Night clubs, which require various skills to pass. Anyway Andy and Tom quickly obtained the American treasure, while Soren and I set off for the more valuable African treasure. As it was a temple in deep jungle, it had to be found first. My character found it but failed the third danger, triggering a  cliffhanger scenario for the next turn, which I managed to survive. Soren arrived later but his efforts only served to collapse the temple on both heroes and the Nazi villain. Fortunately we both escaped.

The game continued with Nazis spreading all over the world and our keeping pace with the villains. I lost a race for a treasure with a Nazi villain in Siberia and ended up being held hostage, which I managed to escape. Meanwhile Andy had invested in a rifle and picked up a dog, making him very good at combat. Entering a city, I got mugged and lost 2 VPs, while Villainous events added to our difficulty at every turn. The Nazis picked up a treasure with the death symbol, adding Zombies into the mix, and I was knocked out by them- to Andy’s amusement as I had mocked his character’s zombie fighting earlier.

Andy discovered that a Map is a handy way of avoiding a difficult danger, while the Book of Lore was purchased and lost several times. Sometimes the dangers led to fighting, sometimes to new villains appearing. When you’re excavating in the same space as a villain you have to pass a sneak test for every danger beyond the first- a rule we forgot about on a few occasions.

Eventually we ran out of Nazi soldiers, causing the Nazis to gain a VP every time one was supposed to be placed, and they were perilously close to their winning target of 15 Vps. However, we were also tantalisingly close to winning, just needing to cash our treasures and Andy to roll a 4+ for the Vps given him by an event card. Andy and I had already successfully raided a 10 point temple in a single turn- Andy tackling 8 dangers to my 2- but Tom was trying for a temple in the Andes on his own. He drew a danger- it called for a Mob Villain to be randomly added to the adventure...

Up popped “Icebox Eddie” who true to his name proceeded to riddle Tom with bullets (rolling for him I rolled 3 sixes on 5 dice, with Icebox Eddie’s special ability being 6s do double damage) and the excavate the Temple himself- giving the Nazis the necessary final VPs for the win.

“Although we live by strife” is a quotation from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan.