Widower's Wood, Chapter 4

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope all festivities and such were satisfactory and many games were had.  2018 is starting with a bang, and I can't wait to get in my first game of the new year!  Over the break I managed to get a lot of things painted, and built a few more, making me feel pretty productive!  Now I just need to decide who my second caster is going to be, and which theme force I'm going to use for the Testament of Menoth!  I know the tournament seems a long way away, but if you keep in mind that we only get in games once a month, it's a mere 9 meetings until go time!  But before we jump into today's games, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Privateer Press' No Quarter Prime magazine, the new incarnation of No Quarter.

At the end of last month I received my second issue of No Quarter Prime, and I can't seem to decide how I feel about it.  It's completely different from the old magazine.  The first article in issues 01 and 02 were back story to the current timeline in the Iron Kingdoms, both to bring new players up to speed on the battles and story lines from the past, and to remind older players about what happened.  But that's not all!  They add new stories about what famous characters were doing during those time periods.  It's been some pretty good reading!  Then an article on Company of Iron, the new skirmish game of Privateer Press.  I don't play COI, but it sounds pretty interesting, and a lot of what they mention in the articles can be adapted for all Warmachine/ Hordes games.  And then some painting tips, color scheme ideas, the new CID information, and a final article on the newly released Theme force.  All in all, I like it!  Good articles, good photos, good ideas.  BUT!  and here is the big but... they cut a lot of the things that I liked a whole lot about the original magazine.
1) And for me, most important... the Battle Report.  There is no longer a battle report at all.  I used to love reading about the new models and units, or about the combinations of units and abilities that I hadn't thought of before.  It was a great way to learn new things about the game.
2) Current Events...It was always nice to hear about the conventions and tournaments that people around the world were having.  Special events like the Orange Crush Challenge also were often featured, and I'm going to miss that connection to the community.
3) Painting Challenge... every month they had a painting/ modeling challenge, and though often the same few people won, it was still great to see all the different ways people had of making models look great!

All that being said, I think the new incarnation of the magazine has a lot of really great stuff, and I'll continue to enjoy reading it!

Announcements:
The Fukuyama gaming club has two meetings coming up!
     January 21
     February 11
Save the date and come get a game on!

At our last meeting of 2017, we continued to follow the adventures of Agata, Skarg, Olo and Vaskis as they made their way through the Widower's Wood.  When last we left, we had just finished chapter 3.5, a Kickstarter exclusive mission.  Four chapters and two more Kickstarter exclusives left to go!  We rolled a dice to see if we were going to play the floating exclusive chapter, but the roll was against us, and so we moved on to Chapter 4!

The story so far...
When last we left our amazing heroes, they had just stopped several crates of weapons from falling into the claws of Rasheldonak the crazy Witch Doctor with an insane desire to control the Widower's Wood.  Instead, our valiant four took the loot for themselves, in the way of an Oroboros Dagger for Olo and a Bone Fetish for the Queen of Carnage, Agata.  Leaving the banks of the river where the loot had washed ashore, the adventurers continued on to their goal. The Bog Trogs that they had helped before had revealed to them that a group of Swamp Gobbers are being used as messengers to coordinate Rasheldonak's forces.  The only way to keep everyone from being overrun will be to stop the Gobbers!  The Queen of Carnage of my Heart of course came to me, as did Skarg on his continuous rounds between DTB, Leland and I.  Olo went to DTB, and Leland again took control of Vaskis.

Chapter 4, Gobber Stoppers

Ready to go!

On our board today are 6 location tokens.  These are the locations that Gobbers may possibly pop up and run amuck across the area.  They pop up and down all game twice a round, and are pretty much going to be a giant pain in the swamp.  Also, for the first time, we have perils to face!  Two event cards this time trip the perils, which in this scenario is going to be Stranglevine appearing in the tree spaces that are scattered across the board.  After the first Swamp Gobber is incapacitated, the finale begins... spawning a Gatorman Warlock and two viper Tatzelworms.  To win the game, we have to kill off both Gobbers and the Warlock, and we've got 10 rounds to do it in!  Let's go!

Love the colossal hand terrain

Our group had to split into two teams on opposite ends of the board, so we had Vaskis and Skarg on one side, and Olo and Agata on the other.  We had another amazing start, pulling the Perilous Journey card that spawned Stranglevines on a tree space near Olo... how do we always get starts like this???  Anyway... the Gobbers spawned, and while Olo made a run for the Side Quest card closest to him and Vaskis cast some magic voodoo to help Skarg kill off a nearby Trog, Agata took a charge at a Gatorman and Trog, killing them both.

The Warlock

Aaaaaand round 2 brought ANOTHER PERILOUS JOURNEY!!!  Stranglevines popped up around Agata, but she fears NO VINES!!! She continued her killing spree, and Skarg and Vaskis followed her lead.  The next round brought Swamp Gasses, but it didn't bother anyone, and Olo managed to kill off the first of the Swamp Gobbers, triggering the finale and spawning the Warlock and 2 Tatzelworms IN AGATA'S SPACE!  She used 2 great powers (take down and savegery) in order to kill off both Tatzelworms, a Bog Trog, and put two damage on the Warlock, but missing an incredibly lucky Gatorman TWICE!

I can't tell if this was lucky or really really bad

A Mist Speaker came within attacking distance of Vaskis and Skarg, who were being a bit overrun with trogs and gators!  The Mist Speaker sprayed it's venom blast at Vaskis... and missed!  But he managed to kill off both of the villians in the square with the blackclad, hahahahaha!  That Mist Speaker must be afraid of the Warlock finding out about that!  Hide your head in shame, Speaker!  A Patrol card brought a Gator running toward Agata, but he got caught in the Stranglevine and had to make a tough roll to not get incapacitated!  Wow, this turn is really going our way!  The Warlock took a swing at Agata but missed her, and she in turn did one more damage to him!  Three down, three to go to win the game!

That's a lot of bad guys!

Menacing Ripples brought a Gatorman in the waterspace near Agata... ooohhh, it's starting to look a little desperate for our porcine heroine... I mean, she's been the finisher for us every game, but at this point, it may be a little hard for her to close the deal... she's down to 3 health, and no one else is close enough to help out!  In good news, Olo got to his Side Quest, and came away with Improvised Traps, which is a perfect fit for Olo!  Skarg killed off one of the Bokor skulking around, and Agata did another damage to the Warlock... 2 to go!

Gobber 2 goes down

Skarg took out the second Swamp Gobber... that'll teach them to dodge around and cause trouble!  We have three rounds to kill off the Warlock and win the game!  More Menacing Ripples brought another Gatorman within striking of Agata, and even though the Warlock missed her, she took one damage from the Gatorman before dealing one more damage to the Warlock... One to go!  Noticing the danger, Olo tried to make it to Agata to help out, charging a Gatorman himself for the extra movement and trapping another, but will he be able to make it?

Oof... my heroine is down

Oooohhhh, and the answer is no...Agata goes down to an attack by the Club Gatorman... and without anyone nearby to help out, our options are a bit limited... the Warlock has only one damage left, but he had tough, so to make sure that he dies, we need super damage to make sure he goes down.  I don't know if Olo can do it, but he's the only one close enough, so we have to hope for the best!  On the other end of the board, Vaskis and Skarg have everything under control!  Villain after villain spawns near them, but they're a great team and are killing off everything that comes near them!

Nooooooo!  Agaaaaaataaaaaa!

Yikes!  That does not look good!  Round 8 event card time... Buzzard Beetle Swarms!  Anyone (villain or hero) that is in a space with at least one other model has to take a hazard roll or be covered in flesh eating beetles and take a damage.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  What are the chances that the Warlock, in a space with three characters, may take beetle damage?  Nah.... But just in case, we decided to start at the other end of the board.  Skarg and Vaskis were fine, though some Trogs went down to the beetles... Olo was alone, so he was fine... the two Gators made their rolls... then the Club Gatorman who knocked out Agata fell to the swarm, eaten alive in a most horrible way.  Agata was already passed out, so she didn't have to make a roll.  Finally, the Warlock was the only one left... DTB rolled his hazard roll... 6!!!!!!!!!  AAaaaaaahhhhhhhh!  The Warlock, too focused on dealing the finishing blow to the Queen of Carnage, didn't notice the beetles as they swarmed over him, and failing his tough roll, they proceeded to munch upon his soft fleshy bits until there was nothing left but a rough hide and bone.

Wait.... did that really just happen?

Victory!!!

Conclusion:

Some beaten up heroes here

Yikes!  This was a hard fight!  At the end, everyone had two or less hearts... the closest we have ever been to all going down.  Phew!  This was also the first time that we faced a 6 heart villian, and he was tough as nails.  Luckily, because of all the Gatormen, Bokor, Mist Speakers, Trogs and Tatzelworms that Skarg and Vaskis were keeping under control wracked us up a huge amount of XP!  We came away with 17 each, and I can't wait to spend them!

Can't wait to get our new year started with some games this weekend!  Catch up with us at the community center behind Fukuyama Castle on Sunday!