Through Fire and Water - a Path to Glory Ravaged Coast campaign, part 2

Extract from Kapitan daLeeva's logbook:

The Rotmoon, in the Scorched Outskirts of the Ravaged Coast. 15th day of Graives. 

We are joining by Roggriguez and the Brutes of he Division. Roggriguez is an old acquaintances of Maximo, who convince they to join of our endeavour on the Coast. We make land, further down the coast at a ruin of temples. There seeming to be a camp there, what we planning are to ransack.

Kapitan daLeeva and El Doktoro stood on a slight rise above a wide grassy plain, dotted with the broken remains of ancient idols. A hot wind buffeted them as they discussed the plan for the day.

They had found the encampment of another warband, the Darlings of Deathrattle Tallyband - led by Rigormortis the Unmoveable, who were also searching for Emberstone. As always, the pirates intended to take that Emberstone for themselves.

The Rotmoons gathered, singing their favourite horrible sea-shanties. 

El Doktoro opened proceedings; he cast the Hand of Gork, and hurled the Weirdmoonz toward the nearest Emberstone Cluster.

Ogdrog and Roggriguez' Division charged the massed Plague Bearers that had stepped out of a stinking rent in the fabric of reality.

A mob of Rotmire Creed fired at the Weirdmoonz with diseased darts. The Wrekkaz hardly noticed though; they were entirely focused on the betentacled Maggotkin hero rounding the stone pillar ahead of them.

Meanwhile Ogdrog and Roggriguez’ ladz gleefully turned half a dozen daemons into pools of slime.

The Rotmire Creed charged the Weirdmoonz their hand weapons, and the infections they spread, took down two of the Wrekkaz. Bortagno's Watch moved up in support of their crewmates.

But the Kapitan charged the Creed from behind, Dragante's Watch on his heels - the Kapitan tore through the shocked cultists and slaughtered them all, single-handed.

The Oddmoonz arrived (a bit late, as they had become confused in the heat) and tried to loot some Emberstone. Murko's incautious haste was his undoing though - the Emberstone exploded in his hands.

The diseases and swords of the Plaguebearers took down another Brute but the hulking pirates killed a daemon. Ogdrog killed two more.

The daemons switched their focus to attacking Ogdrog. 

The megaboss laughed at them and cried, "How does it look like? You fellows don't standed no chance, eh? I send you all back to your grandfather!"

A gang Blightkings slammed into the flank of Dragante's Watch.

El Doktoro aimed a blast of sparking green sorcerous power and evaporated three Plaguebearers.

Despite that, the last Brute of Roggriguez’ Division fell. The accumulated wounds and disease started to catch up with Ogdrog. His axe sliced through nothing but empty air as his vision started to blur.

Dragante's Watch was running out of ladz to fight the Blightkings. So El Doktoro hurried to their aid.

The Kapitan fell, overcome by the vile contagions the Maggotkin spread.

Bortagno's Watch took-up an Emberstone Shard and eyed the supplies stashed at the back of the Maggotkin's encampment.

On the far side of the battlefield the Spoilpox Scrivener picked his moment and collected the last of the Emberstone. The Oddmoonz raced toward him, but he launched a thunderous and disgusting sneeze (!) at them and stopped them in their tracks.

El Doktoro realised that between them, they had a reasonable haul of Emberstone but they were at risk of losing all of it. He wanted to make sure they weren't left empty-handed, so he gave the order to withdraw.

+++

Battleplan: Ransack the Encampment (3 Objectives)

Twist: Mounting Corruption

Emberstone Clusters: 4

Points Values: 1200 vs. 990 (which meant I had 100 points in Stalled Reinforcements)

I played my 2nd game in our Ravaged Coast campaign against Jay - he was a great opponent and we both agreed it was a really enjoyable game.

The scoring seemed to favour the defender in our match-up - both attacker and defender can score 1 Victory Point for each objective controlled each turn. The attacker can also score 1 VP for each unit destroyed that turn. But all 3 objectives were at the back of the defender's territory (the closest was more 22" away from my army!) and Ironjawz infantry are not famous for being fast.

On the other hand, the 2 of the Emberstone Clusters had to be in the neutral territory either side of the defender: Much more accessible to me!

At the start of my turn 4, I was losing the game 8:4 on Victory Points but 2 if the 3 Emberstone tokens left in play. I decided to withdraw with the loot I had. 

Although there was a tiny chance I could have won the battle and taken all the Emberstone available, the chance of losing all of it was much, much higher.

So I ended up with 3 Emberstone Shards even though I lost. The Rotmoons picked up 2 during the battle and I rolled a 1 on the D3 shards for losing. I also had one left in my  Emberstone Vault from the last battle.

I recruited Palmaz, the Warchanter, and embarked El Doktoro on the Path of the Sorcerer (I selected Focused Sorcery as I'm hoping it will help his terrible track record for casting the Great Green Hand of Gork).

My updated roster now looks like this:

The Rotmoons, Path to Glory Ravaged Coast

1320pts

4 drops

Faction - Ironjawz

Formation - Weirdfist

Kapitan Alunzo daLeeva , Ardboy Big Boss [General] (120)

[Path of the Brawler, Aspiring - Dependable Assault]

- Botagno's Watch, 10 x Ardboyz (180)

El Doktoro, Weirdnob Shaman (130)

[Path of the Sorcerer, Aspiring - Focused Sorcery]

- Dragante's Watch, 10 x Ardboyz (180)

Ogdrog, Megaboss (190) 3 Battle Wounds

- The Weirdmoons, 3 x Weirdbrute Wrekkaz (100) 3 Battle Wounds

- The Oddmoons, 3 x Weirdbrute Wrekkaz (100) 1 Battle Wound

- Roggriguez’ Division, 5 x Brutes (200)

Palmaz, Warchanter (120)

Arcane Tome

Bash'Em, Ladz!

Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork

Get'Em Beat

Fixin' Beat

Emberstone Vault = 0

Total Emberstone Shards Gained = 7

Battles Fought = 2

+++

Afterwards, I made some "character sheets" for my heroes.

I was never happy with my attempts at using the Warscroll maker github thing. It's an amazing piece of work, but it's not compatible with my brain.

So I reverted to what I know well, and enjoy doing: messy stained paper, scissors, glue, and inky pens.

I made sure I left plenty of room for adding Path abilities, artefacts and enhancements later.

Through Fire and Water - a Path to Glory Ravaged Coast campaign, part 1

Extract from Kapitan daLeeva's logbook:

The Rotmoon. At sea, the Ravaged Coast. 5th day of Graives.
We finally found us a way, out of the Mists of the Karkino Sea. After being there since a month and more. When El Doktoro discovering our thurmaturgic compass was disruption, from the devices and artefacts gathered by Urak-Nal and pile-upped in the Halls of Drowned Gold. So what we was believe to sailing straight dead-south was actually the circle.

As they say: we were chasing our own goose. But it being too late and the Drowned Gold not in the Hall by then, we leaved and to sought other treasures.

The Rotmoons made landfall on the Ravaged Coast and set up a temporary encampment in a mountainous region of the Scorched Outskirts. They were unhappy to find some local fire-troggs heading for the Emberstone deposits that they'd assumed would be theirs.

They started to set up a hasty defence of the ramshackle encampment.

But there were not really enough of the orruk pirates to hold off such a horde of blistering creatures.

Kapitan daLeeva herded his crew forward.

Ogdrog didn't need to give the Wrekkaz any encouragement.

The Rotmoons were confident of how difficult they could be to shift. Unfortunately they were overconfident.

As the troggoths fell on them, the truth slowly dawned on the orruks!

El Doktoro the shaman was struggling to gather the unfamiliar power of Aqshy. He was constantly frustrated as the sorcerous energies he attempted to muster seemed to just slip through his fingers.

At last the Shaman managed to empower the nearest mob with a small amount of power that did not elude him. But it was the only magical success he had that day.

Ogdrog fell and the Dankhold that had pounded him into the dirt just ambled off, as if bored!

Leaving the Rockguts to mop-up the remaining Wrekkaz.

El Doktoro drew closer to the fighting, in the vain hope of tapping into the Waaagh! power flooding the near-by ardboys.

When the Dankhold Troggoth flattened the shaman the Kapitan called for the remaining ardboys of Bortagno's watch to fall back to the ship.

They left the battlefield to the troggs; they were a little singed, but 4 Emberstone Shards richer. The troggs held 7 Emberstone, and a lot of the Rotmoons needed "medical attention"...

+++

Battleplan: Rift in the Peaks

Twist: Mounting Corruption

Emberstone Clusters: 4

Points Values: 1000 vs. 1000 

There were 4 Emberstone Clusters and 3 Objectives on the battlefield; the orruks and the troggoths both gathered two Emberstone tokens each.

The Rotmoons took an early lead as they grabbed all three Objectives in their first turn (VP 3:0).

In their second turn they retained the right flank, contested the centre and the left (VP: 4:0).

They lost the right objective in the trogg's second turn, and the fighting was getting hotter on the other two (VP: 4:1). They also lost one of their Emberstone tokens to a mob of Rockguts.

By the end of Turn 3 the troggs were about to take all three objectives and likely wipe the orruks out, (one unit of Ardboys and a Big Boss were all that was left fighting!). So at the start of my Command phase in the 4th turn I chose to withdraw from battle, taking the lone Emberstone token I still had in-hand.

+++

In the Aftermath Sequence the troggoths got 3 Emberstone Shards for winning, 1 from a Dig Site (the others were unproductive), and 3 shards from the tokens they carried.

The Rotmoons luckily rolled a 3 on the D3 for Emberstone shards for losing a battle. With the 1 they carried I was able to recruit a mob of Brutes and have something left in the bank Vault for next time.

El Doktoro the shaman got 2 Battle Wounds, but healed them both.

Ogdrog got 3 Battle Wounds and was unable to heal any.

One mob of Wrekkaz suffered 3 Battle Wounds, and the other suffered 1.

+++

The East Warrington Gaming club Path to Glory Ravaged Coast campaign started this week, with 8 of the 20-ish players involved battling it out in the Scorched Outskirts.

We used random pairing for the first round of games, and I think that will continue, with some adjustments to reduce the chance of playing the same opponent over and over. We've decided to self-impose a soft limit of 2 campaign games per month for each player. Not everyone goes to the club every week (I definitely can't!) and we want to give everyone a fairly even chance of joining in.

After my first game my updated roster looks like this:

The Rotmoons, Path to Glory Ravaged Coast

1200pts

3 drops

Faction - Ironjawz

Formation - Weirdfist

Kapitan Alunzo daLeeva , Ardboy Big Boss [General] (120)

[Aspiring Brawler - Dependable Assault]

- Botagno's watch, 10 x Ardboyz (180)

El Doktoro, Weirdnob Shaman (130)

- Dragante's watch, 10 x Ardboyz (180)

Ogdrog, Megaboss (190) 3 Battle Wounds

- The Weirdmoons, 3 x Weirdbrute Wrekkaz (100) 3 Battle Wounds

- The Oddmoons, 3 x Weirdbrute Wrekkaz (100) 1 Battle Wound

- Roggriguez’ Division, 5 x Brutes (200)

Arcane Tome

Bash'Em, Ladz!

Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork

Emberstone Vault = 1

Total Emberstone Shards Gained = 4

Battles Fought = 1

I've also created a couple of Path to Glory resources for the campaign, that other people might find helpful:

• A Path to Glory Ravaged Coast quickstart guide
  
  
• A Path to Glory Ravaged Coast roster

+++

The Ravaged Coast, part 5

I might have said my Ironjawz Spearhead was finished, but of course that doesn't mean my pirate Ironjawz are finished! (Let's be honest - they never will be because I enjoy making them too much!)

So having 4 Brutes wasn't going to do. I obviously made the 5th!

Lakada

A stylish pirate orruk Brute, armed with a pair of choppas and a pair of pistols, with powder and shot. He wore a ruff collar like Maximo and Medrano, and the red and yellow striped trousers, black clothes and armour of the Rotmoon's crew.

And he even pushed his way to the front of the painting queue. Typical!

+++

But it's for good reasons:

EWG is about to embark on a Path to Glory Ravaged Coast campaign and even though the Brutes mob are not in my 1000-point starting army, they're top of my shopping list of things to spend Emberstone on... when I get some!

Speaking of Emberstone...

Like a lot of people, I'm planning to use the orange acrylic "crushed ice" crystals (that I bought for Mutiny's End) as Emberstone Tokens during campaign games. But that still left me needing something to use as Emberstone Clusters.*

So for now the piratey objective markers, on 40mm bases that I made years ago, with a crystal sitting in top of them are my Emberstone Clusters. At some point I might make specific Cluster markers, but I like these well enough so I might not.

+++

And then there's this thing!

The Aetherlabe

A floating sphere of metal bands and skulls. Inside is a large Aethermetre and several ghostly spirits. Used (like the Clevermaws’ Dead Man’s Chest) to store magical energies.

+++

And...

Lost Uzzog

Once a "Wardokk" in the Cleavermaws, Lost Uzzog is the cartographer and navigator for Kaptain Mogrum.

Neither Uzzog or the Aetherlabe are likely to feature in the PtG campaign, but I'm enjoying making them anyway. 

+++

This is the Path ability I chose for Kapitan daLeeva, as part of my starting army. A guaranteed 7" charges feels pretty handy to me!

This is just a sample of the new lore in the Ravaged Coast book, but I think Flotilla's Scramble is my new favourite location in the Mortal Realms!

+++

* Just in case this is confusing - there are three types of Emberstone in Path to Glory Ravaged Coast campaigns: Clusters, Tokens, and Shards. 

Emberstone Clusters are 40mm objective markers, that are placed on the battlefield in addition to normal objectives. When a unit controls a Cluster they can try and dig it up and, if successful, the 40mm marker is removed from the battlefield and the unit gains an Emberstone Token. 

The Token stays with them for the rest of the battle, unless the unit is destroyed. At the end of the battle the Token earns the army an Emberstone Shard.

Emberstone Shards are the currency for the campaign, and they're exchanged for things that can be added to the army: extra units, upgrades and enhancements, spells, prayers, artefacts of power, unique magic weapons and specialist Regiments of Renown. There are other ways to gain Emberstone and it does a few other things as well, but I've digressed enough already.