The Harrowmark Twisted Oak - part 11, game 9 - Interlude

The anchor-watch of the Rotmoon were getting bored and there was a real risk that they would start killing each-other. So Bosun Red Bull picked a shore-party of the most bad-tempered bunch of Morboyz in the crew and made a run into Wortbad for supplies. He pitched it as a raid, but he expected it was going to be more like a shopping trip. He had assumed it would be an easy job; they would walk into town, take what they needed, and run away with it. Everyone would fill their bellies and get blind drunk that night and the ship would be ready to make repairs for when the Kapitan and the rest of the crew came back with the magic timber.

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Terrain: A graveyard at the edge of Wortbad.

Deployment: No Escape (I won priority and chose the blue deployment points).

Victory: Drawn and Quartered (I placed my to objectives between my deployment points).

Twist: Bitter Rivals.

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Bosun Red Bull knocked on the barrels to check they were full. He pulled out a stopper on the top one and gave it a sniff.

"It's booze ladz!" he announced happily and jammed the stopper back in. The orruk pirates all grinned and slapped each other on the back.

"Garfio, Dudoso, go and check out that stuff over there in the barn." he ordered. "Parche, Anzuelo and Bondon , you stay here and keep an eye on this lot. Walta and Pata come with me - I want to have a poke about on that desk over there."

As Garfio and Dudoso advanced they spotted a couple of figures ahead and Garfio called back to Red Bull.

"Boss! Looks we got company. Might be sylvaneth tree-gits? Or maybe aelfs? Oh, looks like they're kinda both!"

Red Bull looked up from the barrels, slightly annoyed at the interruption.

"Well? Don't just stand there a-talking about them. Go and get killing 'em!"

Keeping an eye on the big one, a Nomad Prince, as he had started shooting at them and Garfio had been hit twice already, the orruks raced forward into the barn - there was a smaller tree-aelf in there as well as a load of barrels.

Dudoso dodged behind the barrels as the tree-aelf tried to get him with the sharp-end of a spear.

Red Bull started yelling and at the crew and sent Walta and Pata forward to help Garfio and Dudoso.

Parche was left on his own to look after the barrels at the rear. He hid behind a mausoleum, "Which I was just biding my time..." he said later.

Dudoso went on an absolute Rampage as more Wanderers arrived. He killed the Eternal Guard, who had tried to impale him with a spear, and the Wildwood Ranger, who was hitting Garfio with his axe, in his fury! Garfio was much relieve as he was pretty badly wounded by that point.

Walta strode forward and planted his banner in the ground dramatically. Pata hobbled along on his wooden leg, toward the Nomad Prince, with murder in his eyes.

The Bosun went back to "check da grog wasn't leaking" or something, and cautiously eyed the Sisters of the Thorn that were pounding through the trees towards them.

But the Sisters of the Thorn headed for the Nomad Prince to protect him and rode-down Pata - that affront was met with an outburst of swearing and threats from the Rotmoons nearby.

Parche suddenly made a mad run toward the Sisters of the Thorn but they were long-gone before he got near. He later claimed he chased them off and they fled in terror of his grizzly visage.

Satisfied that the fight was done Red Bull re-joined Bondon at the desk and grabbed a handful of papers and log books that were left there. And the bottles of wine.

"Right, that'll do." he said to the rest of the party, "Let's be getting back to the ship with this here loot."

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This game wasn't part of the campaign as such, but we tied it into the narrative anyway.

Viktor and I got half way through a 4 turn game last week and ran out of time, so our models were still set up in his gaming room. David came for a game and rather than make him watch me and Viktor play, Viktor suggested I used models from the Rotmoons that aren't on my campaign roster and we played a "side quest" on another board. So my warband were:

Bosun Red Bull - Morboy Boss
Walta Rally - Morboy with Totem
Pata - Morboy
Garfio - Morboy
Dudoso - Morboy
Anzuelo - Morboy
Parche - Morboy
Bondon - Morboy

The  Battleplan cards were very much in my favour and really against David! 

I won the priority roll and chose the blue deployment points. I placed my 2 objectives between my three deployment points, and I had everyone on the board in turn 1, so I rushed one of his objectives. 

David started with just 3 models of his Shield and only got his Dagger at the start of Turn 2 and Hammer at the start of Turn 3. By the end of Turn 1, I had 3vp to his 1vp. 

At the end of Turn 2 I held all 4 objectives (which took us to 7:1, to me) and at that point he couldn't win, even if he retook all 4 in turn 3. We played on to see if David could earn a pyrrhic victory and he reclaimed two objectives and killed an orruk (who actually died in the after-battle sequence as I rolled badly). The final Victory Points score was 9:3 to me.

It was a cracking game though - there were lots of very funny moments and I finally felt like I knew exactly what Abilities to use and when to use them! I like this game a lot.