Monday 22nd October saw Nephew Nick and I indulge our latest gaming passion and finally have a couple of games of "Burrows & Badgers", the first of which is covered here. I set up a 4 foot by 4 foot table, Nick chose a table edge to play from and we set to. Nick could not be bothered to name his band of knightly types, though the collective was known as the Knights of the Order of the Bloody Lily (or the Army of the Republic of Florence as I call it - look at their shields!) and I used my Witch Hunters for this inaugural game.
Cast of Characters:
Witch Hunters:
Rufus Hopkins - Leader - Light armour, two swords, WEAPONSKILL, STRONG (2), TOUGH (1), an English Cocker Spaniel;
Fluvius Poole - Second in command - No armour, bow, sword, FAST SHOT, STRONG (1), SWIM, an Otter;
Pancho Keennose - No armour, axe, STRONG (1), a Beagle;
Rosie Cottontail - No armour, Bow, Dagger, LEAP, a Rabbit;
Ginger Baker - Light armour, buckler, sling, sword, a Dormouse;
Mickey the Ranger - No armour, bow, sword, a Mouse.
As Nick had not named his characters, we shall call them Hare Knight, Terrier Knight, Mouse Knights 1 and 2, Dormouse Archer and Mouse Ranger.
Before I show the game, it is worth looking at some of the characteristics of "Burrows & Badgers", which may help better illuminate some of the points below.
SKILLS - many animals within the game have innate skills, such as a rabbit's ability to LEAP (which enables them to scale difficult vertical terrain more easily amongst other things), or an otter's ability to SWIM (so water obstacles are not difficult terrain at all). Leaders and seconds in command get skills too, which they choose by way of some characterisation. I chose WEAPONSKILL for Rufus (better at fighting basically) and FAST SHOT for Fluvius (shoots twice with his bow if he does not move).
PERFECT ROLLS - the game uses different types of polyhedral dice to show how good a particular animal may be at something, ranging from a d4 (the worst) to a d12 (the best). A PERFECT ROLL is when you roll the highest number on that particular dice in a combat situation be that shooting or fighting or casting a spell. If you do so, you add 7 to your overall score, making attacks very deadly and defence very strong. NICK IS VERY GOOD AT PERFECT ROLLS...
ROLL OFF - the rules work on an attack going against a defensive trait, with both players rolling relevant dice and comparing overall scores to see if something may be wounded and, if so, how severely, by an attack, for example. These are called ROLL OFFS. So, if I wanted to shoot at something, I would roll my Ranged dice type (d8 for an otter, d6 for a mouse), my target would roll their Nimbleness dice (d8 for an otter, d6 for a mouse), we would compare the scores, add or deduct minimal modifiers to achieve a number of wounds, which is then reduced by armour and TOUGH skills.
FATE POINTS - you get 10 to spend in the sequence starting with the pre-game set up, through the game itself, to the after game round up. They give you an extra dice to roll of relevant type thereby increasing your chances of rolling better, as you pick the best score from the dice rolled.
OBJECTIVES - in addition to the scenario objectives, you roll on a table for secondary objectives, which, if achieved grant extra experience points for your team. This is supposed to be a campaign game, where your band expands and grows in number and skill as you play. So long as you do not lose heavily.
Now for some photos and captions, which I hope show the course of the game.
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| Nick chose to play from the right of the picture, behind the small, prism-shaped house, so I started on the left of picture. |
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| The opening turn saw both sides sprint towards the cover in the centre of the table. Here Rufus is flanked by Pancho the Beagle and Mickey the Ranger. |
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| The Hare Knight, leader of the Florentine Republic forces! |
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| And Mouse Knights 1 & 2. The carnage started with Fluvius Poole laying into Mouse Knight 2 with the cloak, grievously wounding him with a volley of well-aimed arrows, Rosie Cottontail adding more damage with another careful shot. Rosie took damage in response from the Dromouse archer, but it was first blood to the Witch Hunters and the Florentines headed for the safety of the wood on their extreme left flank to get away from the archery they faced. |
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| Aha! PERFECT ROLL PETE, aka Terrier Knight. This guy got into combat with Rufus eventually. Rufus was and is far superior in a fight. Nick rolled so many perfect rolls in succession (he counted 5, but I reckon it was more!), that he not only held Rufus in place but rubbed it in by taking out others whom I had sent in to try to kill him off! The Florentines suffered more missile wounds this turn, but got some revenge when the Mouse ranger hit Pancho for 11 wounds with one arrow - another PERFECT ROLL did the trick!!! |
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| I made the mistake of leaving Fluvius taking pot shots for too long and, with Nick winning the roll off for who started this turn, he charged the otter with Hare Knight. He also piled in with Mouse Knight 1 and the two of them set about Fluvius with some gusto. No perfect rolls for me...Rufus was busy trying to take chunks out of Terrier Knight, but those Perfect Rolls saw the hound not only survive the onslaught but do so intact! |
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| The belated intervention of Pancho did nothing, as he and Fluvius fell, leaving Rufus outnumbered, but still holding his own. That was until Hare Knight bounded across to save his Terrier buddy and, with another perfect roll, battered Rufus into the dirt. I only had the two mice left at this point and, without leadership, they routed automatically for a Florentine win. |
In truth, I had got Terrier Knight, Mouse Knight 2 and Mouse Ranger down to just 1 wound each from their starting figure of 16 and the Dormouse archer was over half way to her demise too, but the loss of four of my own was obviously a grievous blow. Animal of the Match was definitely the Terrier Knight and his perfect rolls...
The after match event involved me checking what permanent damage may have been caused to those four taken out of action. Fluvius and Pancho each had a niggling injury (1 in 6 chance of missing the next game if this was a campaign), Rufus got a hamstring injury which made him less Nimble, but the highlight was Rosie the Rabbit getting hideous scarring which made her FEARSOME (other non-fearsome animals have to take a morale check before they can attack) and a head would which made her FEARLESS (does not fear fearsome creatures). So, if this was a campaign, I would have a rabbit archer with a serious sense of menace!!!
We switched the terrain around and played again and I won game 2 handsomely. The highlight came when Fluvius used his FAST SHOT skill to let fly at the Hare Knight and rolled two perfect rolls! Hare Knight took grievous wounds and headed for cover and would have been killed had he not defended one of the shots with a perfect roll of his own. To top it all, Nick checked on the injuries table for his casualties and it turned out that both knights died in the game!
One all and much fun had by both players. We shall return!
G
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