Somewhere out there far away from the battle lines, there is a mysterious stone standing in a clearring.
Next to the Stone 4 guardians are standing in silence, as if they are waiting. For what? Or for whom?
Jeanne Jacques Raynal does not have the time for those questions. Her mission is, to unreveal the secrets of the stone.
System Used: Duel
Optional rules: Gang War along with all that is recommended: Armory, Reloading weapons, Limited Range, Melee, Dodging, Charging - all that Jazz!
Also, I'm trying something here I might want to add to the rules for the optional rule "charge": If you establish base to base contact with at least one opponent during a charge AND if your charge was at least 3", you receive a bonus of +1 on each die rolled!
Technically this is "just" an ordinary 4 Heroes vs 4 Heroes game dressed as a nice solitaire scenario.
The Scenario's goal: at least 1 Jäger must reach the standing stone and perform 1 interact action to read the runes.
The teams:
Jeanne's Jägers
Front Row from left to right:
Jeanne Jacques Raynal. Hero. Coordinate (2), Ammunition. Toughness (1), Followers (2, standard).
Estrella Nocturna. Hero. Light Armoured. Fast, Immobilize, Node, Raise, Zero Vision Attack.
Back Row from left to right:
Scotia: Hero. Guard, Mark, Precision Shot, Tactical Movement, Toughness (1).
Swallow: Hero. Coordinate (2), Volley, Toughness (1), Followers (2, standard)
(Sidenote: Yes, Heroes do have 6 ressource points and each of them only used 5. My bad ...)
The Guardians
Each of them:
Hero. Toughness (6), Heavy Armour (those fellows are exceptionally tough!)
A Guardian's movement and combat logic will be plain and stupid: Move in, smash. Their decision for a Duel Score when dodging will be determined by a dieroll: 1-2 = 2, 3-4 = 3, 5-6 = 4. Other numbers aside from 2,3,4 are not attractive enough for them for dodging purposes. In melee the Duel Score will be randomized after the Duel Score for a Jäger has been selected.
The Battlefield:
A clearring, some trees, some boulders, some logs lying around and a couple of stone pillars to make the place look more mysterious.
Jeanne's Jägers start in a corner.
They make their first move. For this scenario the Guardians don't act until they take notice of the Jägers which will happen as soon as they are attacked.
In that moment I realized, I should put some life counters next to the Guardians ...
Jeanne and her followers advance, opening fire at the first Guardian.
Explanation of the dice:
The Guardians are melee combatants. For this reason, when being shot at they will try to Dodge. Dodging, however, forces the shooter to go for a low Duel Score, as you risk your target dodging away too easily, if you pick a too high Duel Score.
Jeanne and her Jägers went for a Duel Score of 2, the Guardian went for a Duel Score of 3 - so Jeanne and her followers get to shoot, before the Guardian even can dodge!
With a Duel Score of 2 and the -1 per die rolled due to hitting heavy armour, Jeanne and her followers hit on a 6+.
That's 2 hits.
Standing next to Jeanne with her "ammunition" trait has the advantage of rarely having to reload during a battle. (Note: The reload dice are never depicted during this report!)
From this moment on, the Guardians have taken notice of the Jägers and for this turn from now on acting order will go back and forth. The Guardian that has just been shot at charges the Jägers in a straight line.
Ending in line of sight to the Jägers, another Duel occurs. The Guardian dodges on a Duel Score of 3, the Jägers would shoot on a Duel Score of 4.
The Guardian suffers a -1 on each roll resulting in rolled results of 0, 4, 2. The 5 turned 4 +3 = 7! The Jägers would now need to roll a result BELOW 7 to hit the Guardian. However, a result below 7 is no longer a hit! So they don't get to roll to see whether they hit - only to see, whether they need to reload (as they still shoot!) As mentioned before: standing next to Jeanne lets you roll 2 dice for your roll for reload and both need to have a reload result, so chances are good, you don't have to reload. (The dude on the right however still manages to have to reload ..)
Sidenote "how to read the dice depicted": The single die of a team's colour next to a model is the fighter's Duel Score. Multiple dice attached to each other are the dice rolled.
On the other side, Swallow and her followers move into range. Swallow, having only pistols, is too far away to hit, so only the followers fire. The Guardian, however, dodges the shot. The follower on the left has to reload.
The Guardian moves closer. He selects 3 for his Duel Score, as do Swallow and her follower. A Duel Score has to be LOWER than the opponent's score, if you want to dodge, so the Guardian does not get to dodge at all! Swallow and the follower on the right shoot and hit on a 5+. That's one hit and Swallow has to reload.
Scotia moves closer to Jeanne and shoots the Guardian. The Guardian tries to dodge on a 4, Scotia however shoots on a 3, scoring 1 hit.
Another Guardian moves closer, trying to dodge on a 3. Scotia shoots first, missing entirely. Jeanne and the follower on the left shoot and score 3 hits all in all.
The last Guardian moves towards Swallow's team. Only the follower on the right can return fire. The Guardian dodges on a 2 - with a rolled 6 (-1=5) he dodges whatever is rolled for the follower. The follower shouldn't even have rolled here. I don't know, why I did 😁
(Note: the Guardian with the red turban had the die still lying around. There was no participation in combat by this one!)
The 2nd Turn is over!
Initiative - the Guardians go first.
One Guardian charges into Jeanne's battle formation. Both combatants throw punches at each other simultaneously. While Jeanne manages to lower the Guardian's remaining toughness by 2 hits, the Guardian scores 3 hits, thus taking down Jeanne entirely with just this one blow!
Boom!
In return, a follower steps in base to base contact going for a quick jab, not exactly intending to score a hit but rather to stand there as a "support-in-melee" for the other follower. The Guardian, though, goes for a solid punch, taking out the follower, too.
The other Guardian draws closer, unchallenged. (Made a mistake here: Scotia as well as the follower depicted here could have fired..) The remaining one of Jeanne's followers moves in base to base contact going for a safe punch, the Guardian however is slightly faster and knocks the follower out of the game.
Scotia goes for a "Precision shot" - an ability allowing her to add +2 to each die rolled, if she does not use her movement action for anything at all.
She shoots on a 2, the Guardian dodges too slowly - and has to take 3 hits to his chest. BAM!
Scotia has to reload.
One Guardian crosses the lodges dodging too slowly and gets shot immediately by the follower - with 2 hits! GOOD SHOT!
Swallow and the other follower reload and open fire. The Guardian botches the dodge roll so Swallow and her followers fire a barrage at the Guardian. However, none of them manages to score even a single hit...
The other Guardian crosses the lodges and is welcomed by another barrage. Not only does the Guardian dodge all shots successfully (3+(5-1)=7), Swallow has to reload, too.
Estrella moves closer, trying to shoot a bolt of mystical energy at the Guardian. The Guardian however dodges once again.
Note: While naratting of a bolt of mystical energy, technically she still wields a shooting weapon and has to roll for reload. Even mystics need to recover every once in a while!
End of Turn 3!
Initiative - again, the Guardians go first.
One Guardian charges Estrella.
In hindsight: Chosing a 6 for a Duel Score made little sense here for the Guardian - he receives +1 for charging as well as another +1 for Estrella's light armour and -1 for his heavy armour. A 5 would have sufficed entirely for playing safe. The Guardian went for a 6 - whereas Estrella went for a 3, scoring 1 hit. In return the Guardian takes Estrella out mercilessly.
Another sidenote: If it hadn't been for the reload counter, Scotia could have participated in the Duel - as well as the other followers next to Swallow: In Duel each model has 360° area of vision.
However, as there was a melee ongoing, you might want to opt to not shoot into a melee, as you risk shooting your own fighters! I should note this down in the rules!
Scotia reloads and shoots the Guardian. The Guardian dodges, getting a final result of (3+(6-1)=) 8!
That's nice: After applying all modifiers, if Scotia has a result of 7 on her Duel Score + Duel Die, she scores a hit. Alas, she does not, but has to reload again.
One of the Guardians charges into Swallow. Both fighters exchange blows, none of them hits.
Swallow uses her "coordinate" ability to move the 2 followers in contact to the Guardian, so each of them gives a +1 bonus on each die rolled. Swallow and the Guardian exchange blows. Swallow scores 3 hits, the Guardian not a single one.
The follower on the right attacks, misses entirely and gets torn apart in return. (Note: The math here say: +2 for support, -1 for heavy armour = +1. 3+3+1 = 7, still a hit. I missed that ...)
The follower on the left has better luck, scoring at least 1 hit, so the Guardian goes down.
Note: I should add to the "coordinate" ability that after each model has moved, there is ONE big Duel action, where each model participates with an own Duel Score if able to.
So if 3 guys gang up on one opponent, the opponent gets a chance to attack only one of them instead of each of them!
The remaining Guardian charges Swallow. Swallow scores one hit, but the Guardian takes her out entirely.
End of Turn 4 - the situation gets nasty for the Jägers!
Upkeep: The Guardian comes back from being down - with no more additional toughness, though ...
Initiative: And again the Guardians get the first move!
One Guardian charges Scotia. However, Scotia makes him run directly into her gun butt, punching him down before he can even strike back.
She reloads her rifle and shoots the Guardian in the back that just stood up. The Guardian fails his dodge roll entirely. That's 2 hits for Scotia and one less Guardian on the table.
The remaining Gurdian and the follower attack each other simultaneously. The Guardian throws a jab a the follower, letting him go down, whereas the follower cuts a good deal of the remaining toughness away.
End of Turn 5!
Upkeep: The Guardian as well as the follower stand back up.
Initiative: As usual, the Guardians go first.
One Guardian tries to hurt Scotia good - however, he is wayyyyy to slow! Scotia attacks first, scoring 2 hits which are enough to take the Guardian out entirely.
On the other side of the battlefield, the same game: The follower attacks the Guardian too quickly - his attacks miss. So the Guardian makes the follower bite the dust.
The Guardian rushes towards Scotia, who shoots before the Guardian can dodge. 2 Hits (luck > skill)!
Scotia goes for another "precision shot", taking down the last Guardian for good.
As the last survivor of the Jägers, Scotia manages to investigate the stone - but at what price ... ???
Having the sniper in melee to the Slasher is not a good idea, so Jeanne activates - in vicinity to a Jumpscare. She, too, cannot resist the Jumpscare, so the Slasher is directly in base to base contact.
The 2 followers try to get out of melee. While one of them is beaten down in that attempt, the other one can actually dodge away, opening fire at the Slasher - and hits the Slasher actually. Scotia takes a precision shot, landing 2 more hits on the Slasher, causing him to go down.
On the next turn though, the first follower falls prey to the scythe trying to dodge away. The second follower is assaulted and overrun by the slasher who continues his hellbent chase towards Scotia.
Now follows a run-and-hide game: Scotia catches breath, then moves around the area, spending an interact action at 5 of 6 of the Investigation markers - the standing stones.
The Slasher appears one last time and makes short work of her ...
