EotD - 4 man campaign continues

My friends and I got together yesterday to continue our 4 man campaign. My injury ridden Supernatural Branch would be pitted against the strong Brotherhood, while the Zendarian Officers Club would do battle against the Vampires.

Again we had my two boards (both 3' x 3') - London Docks and Sewers to play on. Here are some pictures of them just after they were set up.

Game 1 - Prisoner:

Brotherhood vs. Supernatural Branch
In my game against the Brotherhood, the Supernatural Branch ended up being the defenders, thus I had one of the brothers in my control. We played on the sewers board and thus I had no buildings which would grant me cover. Once the Brotherhood had deployed I found myself pretty much surrounded from all sides by hunting rifle wielding brothers, the Knight Marshall and the Deacon. As the attacker the Brotherhood had the choice of who had initiative in the first round. So the Brotherhood started and the Knight Marshall with his 12" Flight charged one of my Firearms Constables. My DI, who had then been shot and had a Wound removed, then charged the Knight Marshall and thankfully passed his Bravado check. The rest of the round was spend taking shots at each other, none resulting in casualties though. In the Combat phase the Knight Marshall quickly disposed of my Firearms Constable, and despite the charging bonus my DI was unable to wound the Knight Marshall.

In the next round more shots rang through the sewers and my Police Sergeant was hit for a Wound, another was Removed from Play and another was shot Down. I decided to move my PC who was controlling the prisoner away from the Knight Marshall and he ended up being charged by a brother. Incredibly my Detective Constable shot a brother with his light pistol removing him from play. In the Combat phase my DI managed to win against the Knight Marshall and removed him from play. The Knight Marshall was however wielding swords and with Riposte and put him Down.

In the maintenance phase both my DI and a PC rolled Removed from Play, thus I had reached my Break Point. Of my three characters only my PS managed his Bravado roll, the other two fled. At this point I conseeded the game, as I saw no way for me to change the outcome.

Vampires vs. Zendarian Officers Club
While my game with Michael was quick and intense - Chris and Frank's game was very different. The Zendarians would be the defenders while the Vampires would try to get one of their own back. Once again the Vampires were being hit by it being daylight. Since I was playing at the same time, I don't really have any details of the game.

We could hear that the game turned sour for Frank. This only being his third game he was not entirely sure of how the Combat rules work (we play with a house rule of adding the Cbt score of the characters to the d10 roll). The problem was that they ended up in a situation of 4 different minis having charged each other. The one inch rule also got a lot of stick from them. Both of them only play Malifaux and that style and level of rules is what they are used to. Michael then acted as more or less an umpire for the remainder of the game, and despite Frank saying that he would never play the game again, he ended up changing his mind as the game went on.

The problem as I see it is that they have difficulty in accepting the game for what it is. It is not a tournament game with strict rules and detailed enough rules to take every situation into account, like they are used to with Malifaux. I always try to follow the concept "that logic must rule", our concepts of logic is not always the same.

We had a long discussion about the game and decided that we would play on. So after tallying up our earned shillings, spending them, and finding out what had happened to our fallen troops, we had another game.

Game 2: Lost Artefact

Supernatural Branch vs. Vampires
There would be three artefact markers on the table, and when I won the roll for who would place a marker first, I placed it directly in the center of the board. Frank followed my example and place the second marker and equal distance away from both our deployment zones. The last was placed in the other corner, again an equal distance from our deployment zones. I had 7 minis while Frank's Vampires had been severely hampered and had two thralls missing the game because of injuries, reducing his faction to only 4 minis. Frank decided that he would attack instead of trying to get to the artefact markers.

This meant that I my tactics would be try and engage him with most of my models while the others went for the markers. It was nighttime and thus the Graf would be a formidable opponent in Combat.

My Supernatural Branch moved forward and I positioned my minis so that they were in good position to get to the markers. The first round ended without anyone getting in position to do any shooting. In the second round I got to two of the markers, but the failed to locate the artefact. The Vampire Graf was beginning to make his presence felt and with a bow he shot one of my Firearms Constables. In the third round the Vampires once again won the initiative and the Graf charged my remaining Firearms Constable. My DI and PS were still moving forward towards the last marker, with the DI taking shots but not hitting the Guardian and a thrall.

In the next round my PS finally got to the last marker and it proved to indeed be the artefact. The Graf continued his killing spree and charged my DC. One of my PCs then charged a thrall. In the combat phase the Graf easily won against my DC and he was removed from play. My PC won against the thrall also removing him from play. I had however once again reached Breaking Point, and after Bravado checks I found myself with only my DI still on the table. My PC and PS had fled, the PS dropping the artefact in the process.

When the next round started I finally won initiative. I knew that there was no way that I could escape his Graf, so I decided to charge him head on, hoping that the charge bonus would swing combat my way. Frank responded by charging with his Guardian, meaning that I was in a lot of trouble. At this point the dice finally helped me, and I removed his Guardian from play. I lost against the Graf but he was unable to damage me.

Going into what proved to be the final round, the Vampires had to make Bravado tests having also reached their break point. The Graf succeeded while the remaining thrall fled. This meant that the final round would consist of a Combat phase between the DI and the Graf. Against all odds the DI won and despite the Graf's The Eternal skill I rolled a 10 on my Wound Level roll and got him Down. In the maintenance phase he rolled and 8 and the Graf was removed from play. What a game!

Brotherhood vs. Zendarian Officers Club
In a dissimilar way to how Frank and I had placed the artefact markers, Chris and Michael placed the markers in the most advantageous postition they could. This resulted in Chris's Zendarians reaching the first marker at the beginning of the the second round and it turned out to be the artefact. Michael had no chance of reaching him as the marker had been placed on the board edge as far away from the deployment zone of the Brotherhood. Thus their game was over at before reaching round 4. As I was still play I have no idea of whether they actually took any casualties.

After the game we again discussed the concept of the rules. We agreed that they have some flaws, but that everyone is enjoying the campaign system. My Supernatural Branch is by far the faction that has earned the least shillings and while the Graf, the Deacon and the Zendarian President are increasing their stats I find myself spending most of my shillings on trying to cure injuries and replacing unhinged and eye injured PCs. It does not matter to me however as I don't feel that I'm at a terrible disadvantage at each game and I'm just pleased that we got this campaign going.

Here are some images from our games. I did not get that many pictures as I sometimes forgot.