Prowling Marauder Scenario AAR

[LilNewbie]

SWLion and I played an SBH game last night using a scenario he adapted from the DDM Miniatures rulebook called Prowling Marauder (I'll post the scenario later). We played using units from the DDM lists that SWLion has been working on (while I finished the LotR army lists ) We both came to the game with pregenerated Good and Evil warbands of 400 points (200 point personalities) and used the All Out Battle rules for setup (as stated in the Prowling Marauder scenario). I won the roll for attack/defending choice and chose to have SWLion be the defender and also rolled that I would be using the Evil Warband.

(Please excuse any bluriness in the pictures)
Here is the board at the start of the game. SWLion did a good job of placing terrain from the terrain pool and then setup his warband first:


The evil warband moves on the field ready to start:


A note on the terrain: We played the forests and ruins as rough terrain and the pond as impassable (the water part only). The hills were normal terrain but count as rough while going up the elevations (going down is normal).

The Prowling Marauder rolled was a Dire Bear and it would be entering on the Attacker's Left side.

First round: The Evil Warband moves up into and around the ruins while the Good warband postitioned a little but failed to move far due to a bad group activation roll. The Dire Bear seemed to hunger for Orcflesh as SWLion won both Marauder control rolls.




Second Round: The Skullcrusher Ogre has enough of the Dire Bire and knocks it senseless but can't finish it up due to some activations difficulties. The rest of the Evil Warband continues to skirt the ruins leaving one lone Orc Warrior picking flowers near the start zone. The Good guys move forward and start spreading out trying to get some ranged shots on the nearest Orc.



Third Round: The Skullcrusher Ogre eventually dispatches the bear (the bear's skull will look good hanging off his belt) and the Evil warband starts to move forward to get into range of the Good guys. A Dire Boar is rolled as the next Marauder and it decides that the Elves look tasty. Bad decision by the Boar as it is taken out by a combined ranged volley from the elves and then a quick killing stroke by the Barbarian. The next creature rolled is a Dire Ape and it starts to move toward the bad guys but has second thoughts and goes after a lone Elf Archer near the pond. The Orc Archer is killed by a shot from the other Elf Archer.




Fourth Round: The Evil Warband has a bad turn and barely activates anything. And has a few of their big hitters knocked down by some good rolling from the Good guys. BUT the Good Warband loses an Elf Archer to the Dire Ape and then the Dire Ape moves into the fallen Half-Ogre that had just been rattled by the attack of the Skullcrusher Ogre. The Elf Wandmage tries to entrance the Skullcrusher Ogre several times but the Ogre is in full bloodlust mode now and pays no attention to the silly hand-wavings of the elf. The Evil Leader is surrounded by three good guys and only survives by his Heavy Armor.



Fifth Round: The Evil Warband gets a lucky Gruesome Kill on one of the Good Guys which also takes the Good Warband down to half. Several of the good guys decide they have had enough and flee or are dispatched by their opponents as the try to leave combat. The Dire Ape is finally taken out by the Skullcrusher and he adds another skull to his collection. The Evil leader is knockdown during his turn and barely survives again by his Heavy Armor when attacked by the good guys on their turn. A Dire Boar is rolled for the next Marauder and it makes straight toward the flower-picking Orc in the center of the battlefield.



Sixth Round: The Evil Warband has some bad activations and does very little to the Good Warband. The flora-inspecting Orc manages to rattle the Boar on their initial contact. The Good Warband positions and attempts to take out the Evil Leader but fails to damage him again even with him being on the knocked down (his sacrifices that morning seem to be paying off).


Seventh Round: The Evil Leader recovers and attempts to remove the presence of the Good Leader but fails to do antyhing. He is attacked again by the two remaining good guys and gets knocked down again. The Boar recovers and attacks the flora-orc and manages to get pushed away from him...must be the aroma of daisies that does it.


Eighth Round: The Evil Leader recovers again and takes out the Good Leader which causes Warforged Bodyguard to run. The Leader fails to do anything the Bodyguard (WBG) as he leaves combat. The remaining Evil forces follows him and attempts to surround him. The Boar decides that the Warforged looks like an easier target and goes after him also.


Ninth Round: The Ogre Mage attempts to mystify the WBG but he just shrugs off the attempt. The Skullcrusher and the WBG fail to hurt each other but the Boar gets knocked silly by the WBG.


Tenth Round: The end is near as the WBG gets pummeled by the Skullcrusher Ogre and the Evil Warband decides to roast the wounded Boar in a victory party.



This was a great game and the Good Guys had the Evil Guys on the ropes twice with their attempts at taking out the Evil Leader but he is a one tough guy and survives each attempt. This was the third time we played this scenario and we really like how the Marauder adds an unknown dimension to the game.

[LilNewbie]

Here is the Prowling Marauder Scenario:

A prowling marauder has interrupted your battle. Before the battle select a single marauder model, or pick a mix of models that can be diced for during the game (have a model to represent each model in the table). For example (using Dungeons & Dragons miniatures as an example) you set up a table that will use a 2d6 roll during the game (a 1d6 table can also be used):

2d6 Name Quality Combat Skill 1 Skill 2 Skill 3 Skill 4 Skill 5 Skill 6 Cost
2 Bluespawn Lizard 4 4 Animal Big Shooter (Medium) 36
3 Bullette 4 3 Animal Big Burrowing Heavy Armor 33
4 Dire Tiger 3 4 Animal Big Long Move 60
5 Dire Ape 3 4 Animal Big Forester 46
6 Thundertusk Boar 3 3 Animal Big Dashing 36
7 Dire Wolf 3 3 Animal Big Long Move 50
8 Dire Bear 3 4 Animal Big Beserk 48
9 Dire Lion 3 4 Animal Big Long Move 60
10 Owlbear 3 4 Animal Big Beserk 48
11 Fiendish Girallon 3 4 Animal Big Forester Savage 52
12 Fiendish Giant Preying Mantis 4 3 Animal Big Flying Long Move 53

Setup is the same as an All-Out Battle in the Song of Blades and Heroes book.

When both warbands have been set up in their starting areas on the table, place a Marauder (the single model you have selected, or have the Attacker dice off on the table you have created) on the table. The attacker rolls a d6. If an odd number is rolled, the Marauder will be placed in the center of the left side table edge of the Attacker. If an even number is rolled, the Marauder will be placed in the center of the right side table edge of the Attacker. The game begins as normal, with the attacker taking the first turn.

At the end of a players turn or after a turnover and prior to the next player taking a turn, the players dice off to gain control of the Marauder. The winner can activate the Marauder. The Marauder does not count as being in your warband (and does not benefit from being within Long distance of a Leader), and its activation is outside the normal sequence of a player’s turn. The Marauder must always attack the closest enemy model to it (enemy to the player activating the Marauder). The Marauder can’t leave combat once engaged, unless is possesses a skill that allows it to do so. Also, the player controlling the Marauder can simply choose not to activate it, and leave it where it is for that turn. Once the Marauder is finished with its activation, the next player takes his turn normally.

If a Marauder is killed, determine a new Marauder and starting position as outlined above during the next Marauder activation.

All VP’s for figures destroyed by the Marauder go to the player controlling the Marauder at that time.

Victory Conditions: 1 Victory point per 20 points of killed opponents.

[theswlion]

The game was a blast!! Newb and I are getting the hang of the activation rolls, and they are the most strategic parts of the game.

It was great to get the D&D Mini's on the table. Some of those figures have been sitting in storage for a long time. I've been converting the majority of the figures (using stats from SBH, SGD, SWW, and SDG as a base and adding extras to capture the flavor of the D&D setting), so the D&D setting can represent on the SBH table.

The Marauder added a great X-Factor to the game. It fit the setting, and forced us both to utilize activations to deal with the Marauder.

I think the highlight of the game was Newb's Lord Blades standing up to my Inspiring Marshal and Warforged Bodyguard for 2 rounds. If I could have killed the LoB off, I probably could have won... Next time!!!

[A-Train]

Very nice report Newb. You have some nice terrain. I really like the pictures in the middle, when the Dire Ape appeared, and it looks like just about every figure is crammed into a big melee. Looks intense.

[LilNewbie]

Thanks! The terrain comes from various places. The forest and water pond come from BFM Terrain and the ruins are from Miniature Building Authority. The Mosh Pit was hilarious and the Marauder was a PITA for both sides which made it a lot of fun.

Newb.

[verytallian1]

Brilliant AAR, not seen many D&D prepainted minis before, they look quiet good. Where are those counters from? Have you made them yourself as they look really useful.

Ian

[LilNewbie]

Thanks! A good portion of the DDM figures are great looking and SBH lets the figures be used in a way that the orginial DDM game should have used them. Those tokens are from Litko Aero Custom Token line. You can design your own tokens using their catalog of colors and token styles. Each token can have up to 12 characters on them. Here is the link to the site:

www.litkoaero.com/

Newb.