Yesterday saw the first mission of our "A Corner of Mantica" campaign.
And it was a glorious battle with a suprising outcome!
Captain Erundas and his men faced the Vanguard of Biggit Crunchem for the first time, and it was a battle to be remembered!
Let me repost the prequel to the first mission from the campaign which you can find here to get you up to speed:
Erundas and his Vanguard have landed and scatter to begin to scout the area. As luck would have it, Biggit Crunchem’s troops are currently roaming the lands in search for valuables the elves might have hidden. By chance 2 small detachments crash together just as the Goblins have finally found some valuables to loot! Biggit Crunchems guts WERE right! Indeed those tricky elves had hidden some of their belongings! And now they even had the audacity to try to defend their belongings! On the elven side Erundas is surprised to make contact with the Goblins so soon. But when he sees the Elven posessions at stake he knows those would be important to secure for the expeditionary forces!
I also decide to make a change to my main Wiz: He holds on to the Stun spell and instead replaces the Zap! I decided Stun is much more important against the high-point units of the elves than Zap is!
You can read about my complete list for the first scenario here.
When I created the Campaign I initially wanted to use the first scenario of the Vanguard Rulebook as the very first game so new players could get accustomed to the rules without any "special" scenario rules.
Martin, and me already had a few games against each other under our belly, so we already knew what we were getting ourselves into.
The list of Martin came up with for the scenario looked like this. Remember, he initially had a different list with a unique mount:
1x Prince (Captain Erundas)
1x Battle Mage
1x Guardian Shambler
1x Kindred Tallspear
3x Kindred Archers
2x Citizen Levy
When I unpacked my rucksack I found in shock that I had forgotten to bring the models along!
Nooooo!
So unfortunately we had to proxy a bit.
The beautifully painted Elven Ranger (5th unit from the left) is proxying for the battle mage.
That had its good side:
When Martin decided he would not bring any KINDRED GLADESTALKER in his Vanguard company I was a bit sad, because at some point I had wanted to see that model on the table!
Now it got its chance!
My force was also ready for battle...
Find the list in detail here.
Yes I needed to proxy too...
The leftmost wolf is the mawbeast, then I unplugged one of my luggits and put it on top of the other wolf I had along with Patafix. The luggit with the squig needed to proxy for my other Luggit on Common mount...
Having settled that we were ready for battle.
After Setup
The fences gave me a bit of a headache. If he decided to move there with his archers, my Luggits on mounts would not be able to reach them because they cannot climb... luckily he decided not to do that but instead directly go in the center with them.
General Battle movement over the course of the game
In the first round we both moved forward. He was a bit too sure about the abilities of his Prince so he went in alone, lured by my proxied Luggit on Mount.I decided to charge my Mawbeast up on the flank to maybe lure another one of his models or his archers.
On the left flank I moved up one luggit to the obelisks in order to make him think twice if he wants to go with his archers there. Apart from that I stayed cautious.
The Prince takes the bait
The Mawbeast charges forward
The Luggit threatens the Archers flank
His Prince makes the mistake to charge into my Luggit. The trap closes!
Note that in the shadow of the ruin another of my luggits is lurking in the shadows... literally!
I get very lucky because the Prince makes a hindered charge against the proxied luggit on the wolf but is unable to mortally wound him!
I run and fatigue move my Troll to get in contact with the Wiz and run my Wiz up, use the SLINK of the Wiz on the troll with a boosted die to be able to reactivate him... and SUCCEED and move the rabble up to support the troll. His Kindred Tallspear ignores my Mawbeast to support Captain Erundas (the prince) but he is late to the party.
Boom! Without the support of the Shambler with his ability to soak damage, and being engaged in the back, the Troll is devastating! Captain Erundas gets thrown to the ground. The Troll is in my Retinue and has the MAULER ability which is REALLY powerful especially in combination with the POUND special rule of the troll. Captain Erundas is taken out of the game!
Its the end of turn two, the Elves have secured the middle, but their commander is down.
On the other side my other Luggit on Mount tries to reach the Archers. Martin runs out of luck with his dice, his 2 remaining archers AND battle mage first fail to kill the Luggit... at last for now!
My opponent thinks about giving up, but then decides against it. It would not be the elven way!
With the Prince gone, I get a bit too bold.I charge my Biggit into his archer that moved to
the middle and kill him.Unfortunately the archers take me out in turn... Biggit Crunchem
is gone!We both lost our commanders...
My troll decides to go for the Kindred Tallspear on the right instead of going against the Shambler:
I would not be able to kill the Shambler! Without the support of the Biggit and without a Heavy Weapon (which I usually give to the troll) the Shambler would prove to be too resilient!
A Luggit decides it would be heroic of him to help the troll against that single elf instead of moving into the middle...
2 Luggits go into position to attack or just secure the objectives
The mawbeast is in the back of the enemy
The troll has its day!
It is past midnight already. I think its at that point that his Shambler decides to charge my Wiz and I elect to flee (which is the goblins special ability). The Shambler fails the charge after that and therefore just walks forward. With the 1 short action I have I have left on the Wiz I stun the Shambler in return! I charge the hated archers battle mage from all sides... finally action for my mawbeast! The mage dies.
His shambler joins in, but because my wiz stunned in cannot hit this turn. The Tallspear falls to the Troll but kills the heroic Luggit that decided to help the troll in return.
The mawbeast, troll and the wiz go for the objectives, his archers fall left and right. but he kills my luggit on the mount in the middle!
I charge to engage his Shambler so I can claim the objective in the middle!
And it was a glorious battle with a suprising outcome!
Captain Erundas and his men faced the Vanguard of Biggit Crunchem for the first time, and it was a battle to be remembered!
Let me repost the prequel to the first mission from the campaign which you can find here to get you up to speed:
Vanguard Game 1: Supply Grab (Vanguard Scenario 1)
Erundas and his Vanguard have landed and scatter to begin to scout the area. As luck would have it, Biggit Crunchem’s troops are currently roaming the lands in search for valuables the elves might have hidden. By chance 2 small detachments crash together just as the Goblins have finally found some valuables to loot! Biggit Crunchems guts WERE right! Indeed those tricky elves had hidden some of their belongings! And now they even had the audacity to try to defend their belongings! On the elven side Erundas is surprised to make contact with the Goblins so soon. But when he sees the Elven posessions at stake he knows those would be important to secure for the expeditionary forces!
Last minute changes to the Vanguard Company
I made some last minute changes to my <Vanguard Company list> before we started.
I removed the Banggit, added a third mawbeast, added 3 more spears for the rabble that did not have them, totalling me 4 spears, bought a potion of concentration and a second heavy weapon. I figured there is no way I will field the Banggit against elves: The Banggit with his area-of-effect bomb has only 1d8, but the elves with their racial ability can force me to reroll a single die... so that would be a very ineffective at the price of 28 points!
Martin, my elven opponent was caught off guard, because his Vanguard Company contained a Unique Mount already which he wanted to field in the first mission. As I pointed out to him, Unique Items cannot be bought at the beginning of a campaign, so he needed to shift around a bit and restructure his list for the first mission.
The setup for the mission
You can read about my complete list for the first scenario here.
When I created the Campaign I initially wanted to use the first scenario of the Vanguard Rulebook as the very first game so new players could get accustomed to the rules without any "special" scenario rules.
Martin, and me already had a few games against each other under our belly, so we already knew what we were getting ourselves into.
The list of Martin came up with for the scenario looked like this. Remember, he initially had a different list with a unique mount:
Captain Erundas and his men:
1x Prince (Captain Erundas)
1x Battle Mage
1x Guardian Shambler
1x Kindred Tallspear
3x Kindred Archers
2x Citizen Levy
When I unpacked my rucksack I found in shock that I had forgotten to bring the models along!
Nooooo!
So unfortunately we had to proxy a bit.
The beautifully painted Elven Ranger (5th unit from the left) is proxying for the battle mage.
That had its good side:
When Martin decided he would not bring any KINDRED GLADESTALKER in his Vanguard company I was a bit sad, because at some point I had wanted to see that model on the table!
Now it got its chance!
My force was also ready for battle...
Biggit Crunchem and his men
Find the list in detail here.
Yes I needed to proxy too...
The leftmost wolf is the mawbeast, then I unplugged one of my luggits and put it on top of the other wolf I had along with Patafix. The luggit with the squig needed to proxy for my other Luggit on Common mount...
Having settled that we were ready for battle.
After Setup
The fences gave me a bit of a headache. If he decided to move there with his archers, my Luggits on mounts would not be able to reach them because they cannot climb... luckily he decided not to do that but instead directly go in the center with them.
General Battle movement over the course of the game
In the first round we both moved forward. He was a bit too sure about the abilities of his Prince so he went in alone, lured by my proxied Luggit on Mount.I decided to charge my Mawbeast up on the flank to maybe lure another one of his models or his archers.
On the left flank I moved up one luggit to the obelisks in order to make him think twice if he wants to go with his archers there. Apart from that I stayed cautious.
The Prince takes the bait
The Mawbeast charges forward
The Luggit threatens the Archers flank
His Prince makes the mistake to charge into my Luggit. The trap closes!
Note that in the shadow of the ruin another of my luggits is lurking in the shadows... literally!
I get very lucky because the Prince makes a hindered charge against the proxied luggit on the wolf but is unable to mortally wound him!
I run and fatigue move my Troll to get in contact with the Wiz and run my Wiz up, use the SLINK of the Wiz on the troll with a boosted die to be able to reactivate him... and SUCCEED and move the rabble up to support the troll. His Kindred Tallspear ignores my Mawbeast to support Captain Erundas (the prince) but he is late to the party.
Boom! Without the support of the Shambler with his ability to soak damage, and being engaged in the back, the Troll is devastating! Captain Erundas gets thrown to the ground. The Troll is in my Retinue and has the MAULER ability which is REALLY powerful especially in combination with the POUND special rule of the troll. Captain Erundas is taken out of the game!
Its the end of turn two, the Elves have secured the middle, but their commander is down.
On the other side my other Luggit on Mount tries to reach the Archers. Martin runs out of luck with his dice, his 2 remaining archers AND battle mage first fail to kill the Luggit... at last for now!
My opponent thinks about giving up, but then decides against it. It would not be the elven way!
With the Prince gone, I get a bit too bold.I charge my Biggit into his archer that moved to
the middle and kill him.Unfortunately the archers take me out in turn... Biggit Crunchem
is gone!We both lost our commanders...
My troll decides to go for the Kindred Tallspear on the right instead of going against the Shambler:
I would not be able to kill the Shambler! Without the support of the Biggit and without a Heavy Weapon (which I usually give to the troll) the Shambler would prove to be too resilient!
A Luggit decides it would be heroic of him to help the troll against that single elf instead of moving into the middle...
End of round 3:
2 Luggits go into position to attack or just secure the objectives
The mawbeast is in the back of the enemy
The troll has its day!
It is past midnight already. I think its at that point that his Shambler decides to charge my Wiz and I elect to flee (which is the goblins special ability). The Shambler fails the charge after that and therefore just walks forward. With the 1 short action I have I have left on the Wiz I stun the Shambler in return! I charge the hated archers battle mage from all sides... finally action for my mawbeast! The mage dies.
His shambler joins in, but because my wiz stunned in cannot hit this turn. The Tallspear falls to the Troll but kills the heroic Luggit that decided to help the troll in return.
The mawbeast, troll and the wiz go for the objectives, his archers fall left and right. but he kills my luggit on the mount in the middle!
I charge to engage his Shambler so I can claim the objective in the middle!
Total golbin victory, or so it seems!
End of turn 5, we roll, game ends! 2 enemy models still standing. Not bad. We roll for casualties and give XP!
Campaign Maintenance follows...
We roll for injuries. I do not yet have a healer as retinue but martin does.
after the dice are cast, especially me gets quite unlucky:
Biggit (Crunchem): Old Wounds -> on a 1d8, if "1" is rolled, start the next game without that model
wow... this is... unfortunate... especially for the campaign. on the very first MISSION!
even worse: i do not have a backup COMMAND unit that i could bring instead!
Martin is also a bit unlucky and we end up with a strange situation, for the elves as well:
Prince (Captain Erundas): miss next game
Its a similar situation for the elves: they do not have a backup command unit... so what happens now? because while I ROLL and even if I fail, the mission may commence. Not so for Martin. At first we did not know how this could be solved...
Martin is not allowed to field an army WITHOUT a command unit, and we both cannot afford a new one right now:
after rolling, the goblins end up with 18 gold and the elves with 10 (+2?) gold...
Probably the only way we can legally play the second game is by Martin using a mercenary commander next game! I do not own the Firebrand, but I do have Blaine from the Vanguard Kickstarter. But I will need to assemble and paint him until next game... thats a task... and it will eat up his whole savings and he will need to sell additional items worth 2 gold to get one gold to get up to 13 gold. but on the other hand... it was his gamble to not get a second command unit. As it was mine... still, its very unfortunate that the "hero" of my campaign Biggit Crunchem will be replaced on the field by a new Biggit as soon as I can afford it... a 1 in 8 chance that nearly a quarter of my points do not show up is too much risk for me! he will need to be replaced, but i will need probably 2 more games to be able to do so.
Probably the only way we can legally play the second game is by Martin using a mercenary commander next game! I do not own the Firebrand, but I do have Blaine from the Vanguard Kickstarter. But I will need to assemble and paint him until next game... thats a task... and it will eat up his whole savings and he will need to sell additional items worth 2 gold to get one gold to get up to 13 gold. but on the other hand... it was his gamble to not get a second command unit. As it was mine... still, its very unfortunate that the "hero" of my campaign Biggit Crunchem will be replaced on the field by a new Biggit as soon as I can afford it... a 1 in 8 chance that nearly a quarter of my points do not show up is too much risk for me! he will need to be replaced, but i will need probably 2 more games to be able to do so.
Other injuries
His battle mage gets "Broken Bones" after the mawbeast took him down... -1 wound on the next game
One of his archers gets killed outright, but he has enough on his roster!
another of his archers will miss the next game too
Other Goblin Injuries
The Luggit on Mawbeast surviving the attack of the Prince got permanently "Broken Bones", so a permanent -1 on wounds. Ouch...
For the other one I rolled better. The luggit on the Mawbeast charging the Battle Mage gets "Impressive Scars", meaning he is now inspiring. Alright!
in my exploration phase i find a blade of slashing (my second) while martin gets 1 lucky charm and 1 crossbow.
My Troll managing 2 kills has enough XP to level up, so I upgrade his Melee stats and will now hit on a 4+!
Unfortunately, as the campaign rules are written, we cannot make another retinue, because that phase is BEFORE getting gold, and we did not yet have gold to promote anyone... we are not sure if this is on purpose but we will stick to it... and will need to wait until after next battle!
A battle retrospective
Martin decided he would not pursue his tactic to get a unique mount for Captain Erundas... he is far too valuable to be risked and to put even more points into him. We both agreed that his brave and fearless charge into my right flank all by himself was... unwise. Erundas failed to impress when he failed to kill a single luggit!
We both imagine that my Troll will get quite some XP before the campaign ends, because he is hard to kill but is very deadly. His shambler did not see any real action this time because I opted to ignore him as a target, and that was a good decision. On my side, I was really happy with the new setup I came up with. I can threaten his archers with the two luggits on the mawbeasts and the single mawbeast. That the mawbeast ran into the back and killed his Battle Mage with the help of the Luggit on the mawbeast which in turn got burned with an impressive scar by the mage was epic!
His archer combo stays deadly, I need to make sure to threaten them in the upcoming games!
Apart from that, it was quite clear early on who the winner would be after Captain Erundas went down. Still we both enjoyed the game, because it was still interesting to see if the elves managed to hold some of the objectives!
We both imagine that my Troll will get quite some XP before the campaign ends, because he is hard to kill but is very deadly. His shambler did not see any real action this time because I opted to ignore him as a target, and that was a good decision. On my side, I was really happy with the new setup I came up with. I can threaten his archers with the two luggits on the mawbeasts and the single mawbeast. That the mawbeast ran into the back and killed his Battle Mage with the help of the Luggit on the mawbeast which in turn got burned with an impressive scar by the mage was epic!
His archer combo stays deadly, I need to make sure to threaten them in the upcoming games!
Apart from that, it was quite clear early on who the winner would be after Captain Erundas went down. Still we both enjoyed the game, because it was still interesting to see if the elves managed to hold some of the objectives!
The next scenario
The second vanguard game will be "Light the Beacon"! Captain Erundas wants to get a signal to the Elven expeditionary fleet while the Goblins will try to prevent that.
The game will probably be in about 2 weeks time. I am already exited! And I hope that the "old wounds" will not make Biggit Crunchem incapable of participating in the battle... if so, then I should probably forfeit as soon as I can!
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