Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Fightin' Fungi/ASOBAH battle report

I have finally gotten around to playing a scenario out of the Fightin' Fungi book.  The scenario is called Trapped Under A Mushroom.  Basically a warband is traveling through some woods when suddenly a giant mushroom falls on one of the members.  But of course this was a trap, and an ambushing warband pops up from the table edges.  The ambushers' goal is to prevent the trapped model from escaping and the defending warband must free the trapped model and get him off a table edge.

For this scenario I made two warbands of similar designs, 400 points with no more than 200 points spent on Personalities.  Then I used my personal guideline on generating warbands; each band must have a Leader and Subcommander.  This will be a precursor to my planned guide to help players to use ASOBAH to play Frostgrave-like campaigns.

The first warband created is using the Fightin' Fungi from Ganesha Games' kickstarter.

From left to right:  Fungi Amazon Warrior (Q3, C3, Dashing, Poison), Fungi Warrior Elite (Q3, C3, Dashing, Expert Block), Matanagar (Q4, C4, Big, Squishy, Steadfast), Fungi Sorcerer (Q3, C2, Spellcaster, Subcommander, Spell: Blast, Wall of Worms), and Fungi Wizard (Q3, C2, Leader, Spellcaster, Spell: Lightning, Switcheroo)

From left to right:  Fungi Archers (Q4, C2, Short Bow), Axeman (Q4, C2), Spearman (Q4, C2, Block), Warrior (Q4, C2, Block)
The second warband is comprised of Orcs and Goblins.  There is a mix of Reaper Bones and Mantic Games.

From left to right:  Orc Brute (Q4, C3, Block, Heavily Armored, Heavy Weapon), Goblin Wizard (Q3, C1, Subcommander, Spellcaster, Spell: Fireball, Wall of Fire), Troll (Q4, C4, Big, Heavy Weapon, Regeneration), and Goblin Warlord (Q3, C3, Heavily Armored, Leader).

From left to right back row:  Orc Warrior w/ shield (Q4, C3, Block), Orc Warrior w/ two weapons (Q4, C3, Parry), Orc Warrior w/ big sword (Q4, C3, Heavy Weapon)
From left to right front row:  Orc Halberdier (Q4, C3, Long Reach) and Goblin Archers (Q4, C2, Short Bow)

Then rolling randomly, the Orcs & Goblins were the lucky ones to be trapped by a mushroom and the Fungi were the ones preparing the ambush.  Then rolling randomly again, the Orc Warrior w/ shield is the scenario objective pinned down by the giant mushroom and must make it off a table edge to win, or slain for the attackers to win.

The pinned Orc Warrior has the other two Orc Warriors prepared to extract him out of the giant mushroom.  

The remaining Orcs & Goblins spread out, preparing for the obvious ambush.

The Fungi spring their trap along the table edges.
 
The Fungi Wizard leader, Matanagar, and Amazon warrior appear to the east.

Both Fungi Archers are to the north.

The Fungi Sorcerer, Axeman, Spearman, and Warrior are to the west.

The Fungi Warrior Elite stands alone in the south.

Orcs & Goblins have the first turn.  The Goblin Wizard summons a Wall of Fire to the west as the Troll moves that way to block the bulk of the Fungi troops.  The Orc Warriors are able to shift the giant mushroom slightly, completing 3 out of the 5 Task actions.  The Goblin Warlord moves eastward to provide some needed leadership.

After a turn-over, the Fungi leap to action in a daring attack.  Both the Fungi Amazon and Elite Warrior spring towards the Goblin Warlord, hoping to end the battle swiftly and scatter the Orcs & Goblins.  But the attack fails.

Knowing the objective is the priority, the Orcs free the captive Warrior who uses his own actions to head towards the now unprotected south.  But the Fungi Elite disengages from her own fight and dashed to the fleeing Orc.

Seeing the open field ahead, the Fungi Sorcerer attempts to intercept.

A costly turn-over by the Fungi and the Orcs capitalize, rushing many of their warriors to help their fleeing ally.

A grand battle ensues with the Fungi Elite Warrior, who fends off many of her attackers and even knocks down the target.

The Fungi Sorcerer summons a Wall of Worms to hopefully slow down the Orc's escape.

The Matanagar rushes southwards in hopes to free the Fungi Amazon to pursue the target or perhaps to kill the Goblin Warlord, first by stomping the Orc Halberdier flat.

The brave Fungi Elite Warrior is gruesomely killed, which startles both the Fungi Sorcerer and Fungi Amazon, who are knocked prone as they saw their comrade butchered.

The Matanagar attempts to move further south to intervene with the escaping Orc but is stalled by a pesky Goblin.

With freedom in sight, the Orc Warrior and scenario objective, rolls for three actions and succeeds with all three.  Three movements later, the Orc is free!  A victory for the Orcs & Goblins.

The Orc Halberdier is the only Orc & Goblin to be put Out-Of-Action.  Rolling for his survival, he failed one, he will have -1 Quality next game.

The Fungi Warrior Elite suffered a Gruesome Death.  She is permanently deceased.

This was a fun little scenario.  Although the scenario objective seems simple enough, their was a bit of strategy involved.  The attackers needed to cover all avenues of escape, so they are spread thin and rely on their allies along other table edges to assist in a hurry once the objective is freed.  The objective model has a clear goal in mind, escape, but has four potential escape routes to choose from so has a bit of an advantage, being able to dictate where everyone will go.

Hopefully time will permit me to try this scenario again with different warbands.  Then again, I have a stack of scenarios I've been itching to play; some from the Song of Blades and Heroes books, some from Hour11gaming, and some from Frostgrave.  We shall see.