Orktober Retrospective

In the first post on this blog, I described a game of SoBH played with the contents of my Melee Box: 

• 3 EM4 dwarves, 
• 3 EM orcs (all plastic), 
• a metal dwarf (Citadel, no idea about edition or type) and
• 3 metal goblins (probably Altar).

The box also contains dice, counters, Melee charcter sheets and eight tiles for Goblin Slayer, which may have seen no more than 3 games of G.S., but served well for nearly a dozen Melee games (and one SoBH test).

It is almost a year ago that I last used the above mentioned minis - since then, I indeed painted the Empire Militia and Mantic Dwarves to form two warbands, and had some fun with them and SoBH. I also put together and painted some fantasy gladiators, because a) gladiators are cool and b) gladiatorial games need only a handful of miniatures. 

In that time, the Melee box collected dust... but then, Orktober came, and with it a notion of going back to the roots - and reinforcing the poor orcs, who were always one short vs the dwarves ('cause we all know those lil'gitz don't really count). So, here they are with all the blurr my phone can inflict - do NOT click:

Da reif.. reefen... oh, screw it. WAAAGH!

They are still more or less a WIP, but I hope to use them today, either in Melee or in SoBH. I have also further modified Melee rules, like made the damage dependent also on strength rather than just on a weapon, lowered the minimal strength required for the heavier weapons, reduced damage reduction of armour and shields and their DX penalty... looks like playtesting today :)

The crowd would be there to greet him with howls of lust and fury...

This time we managed to have a four player game, with two newbies into the pit. So, this should be rather titled as "Newbie's Luck" or something like that. And yeah, the crappy phone camera stays, so please don't click on the pictures.

The games begin...

The gates of the Pit opened once more, and the crowd cheered the four gladiators entering the arena. Mario the Undead gave just a silent, ominous salute, that contrasted with roaring of Ulrich the Orc. It was rumoured that Ulrich was in fact a wayward son of nobility who had himself written his own contract in hexameter, but those rumours were quite difficult to believe. The crowd also greeted Peter, who may or may not had something to do with the Greatswords. The last one to enter the pit was Dyre, a genuine northener fighting as Chaos. 

Surprisingly, the combatants went one on one

The combatants spontaneously paired off, Empire against Undead and Orc agains Chaos. Mario, being more agile than his counterpart succeeded in flanking his opponent, while both Dyre and Ulrich took more cautious approach.

Undead was thought to be the first to draw blood,
but both his attacks and the riposte were blocked.

The crowd howled as the first sounds of steel meeting steel rang, but the first blood was yet to be drawn - in a short clash, both Mario's attacks were deflected, but the greatsword also met just a parrying khopesh.

 

On the other side of the arena, the Orc nearly emasculated Chaos
only to have his legs taken from under him.

The first to bleed was Ulrich, when hooks ripped some skin from his arm - but roaring with pain, he was quick enough to return the favour. Right there! and Dyre was staggering away, only mere inches saving him from gaining fat and singing a soprano. However, in the North, the men were real men and knew where their shield was, so a follow-up from Ulrich thudded on a successfull block. Dyre's riposte was vicious indeed, as the hooks wrapped themselves around Orc's leg - and Dyre then pulled with all his strength. The next thing Ulrich remembered was a very sharp pain as a physician straightened his bones, and then he blacked out again.

All the reamining fighters then converged on each other...

The Empire then surprised everyone with a short sprint and an unsuccessfull attack on Dyre, but Peter himself was being followed. More blood was spillt, but rather than having a three-way stand-off, the combatants went one after another.

...to form a vicious "cycle of death".

Peter attempted to break the circle of death, but he collided with Dyre, and thus exposed his back to Mario. Faults should not go unpunished, and the Undead saw to that. With Peter on the ground and only Undead and Chaos standing, the match was over.

Summary: This would be a great match - had not Peter's player been tired and slightly distracted by his cellphone, and had some players not taken so bloody long when planning their moves and attacks. The location system means that one wrong guess and you may be done for, but I wouldn't mind - if the game was as short as it should be. I think I'll postpone the PF campaign so far, focusing instead on a SoBH minicampaign with four players, probably inspired by this.