Vanguard: Seeking Sanctuary, Chapter 2: Restlessness

Another image heavy posting today with the second chapter in the Vanguard saga.

Having escaped the city, the carriage slowed. Civilians and mercenaries alternate between walking and snatching fits of sleep inside the carriage. Morning finds them haggard and hungry. Despite the warnings from the mercenaries, the townspeople spread through the forest in search of food. Some stay along the road, others are drawn deeper into the woods, perhaps further than they ought to be...

To prep for this scenario, I gathered some paper tree kits from which I made a 'dead' tree, two large evergreens, and a log. I also happened upon eight Christmas village trees (along with two rolls of burlap the wife can use) at a thrift store. I followed the method used by YouTube channel Black Magic Craft to strip the trees of their snow flocking and stick on my own so that they don't look so blue. The hills and rock outcrops are some of the islands I made for age of sail gaming.

I started this chapter with a spawning of monsters. This time, for grunts, I also roll to see whether a ranged unit or a melee unit appears (50% chance). A boss and three grunts appear (2 ranged).

    Turn 1:

The mercenaries feel the slight rumble, then hear a familiar, unearthly cry. Two townspeople are close enough to jump on the carriage immediately. Fenrir jumps on the carriage and takes aim at a monster he can just see over some bushes. He finds some satisfaction in seeing the thing fall over (+1 to roll from proximity to Ivor).

Elan runs toward the first civilian she sees, taking a shot at the horrible creature just behind. Her shot is true, but is deflected by the armour-like shell these things have.

Emeralda, Katya, and Turok are all able to retrieve a charge to bring to the carriage.

The grunt knocked over by Fenrir's shot gets up and rushes at Katya.

A grunt claims the first of the civilians to be killed in this scenario.

Another boss and three grunts emerge from the unnatural pits.

Turn 2:

A civilian gets the carriage moving, not that the horses mind getting out of here! Emeralda and Katya get their charges aboard while Fenrir jumps off to knock down that same grunt again! Emeralda casts a buff on Fenrir's armour (+2 0n next defence roll).

The grunt that Elan had fired at charges her, but she knocks it over as she races for the civilian. Ivor steps in to take the heat off of Elan.

Two more civilians lost to enemy archers.

Ivor gets charged by the one that Elan knocked over.

Two grunts run for the carriage while a boss targets two townspeople.

After knocking over the monster he baited, Ivor joins Elan and her escortee. Turok heads for another civilian. Off camera, Emeralda casts a buff on Katya's armour (+2 on next defence roll).

A boss attacks Elan, who manages to block it.

Turok narrowly escapes an invader's shot!

A sneaking grunt...

A boss and a grunt down two more civilians!

Turn 3: 

An elite and more grunts emerge from their holes. The carriage moves close enough to Turok that he can throw the civilian up into it and run to help Elan.

Turok and Elan team up to take down a boss! Ivor ignores a grunt coming at him, yells encouragement to Elan and Turok (+1 action each), then runs off to help elsewhere.

Turok engages the grunt Ivor left while Elan delivers another civilian to the carriage. Elan then takes some shots to down a grunt.

Emeralda reaches another civilian, but can't get out of range of the nearest grunt.

Sneaky the grunt swipes at a civilian, misses.

Grunt on the right fires on the horses and misses. Fiends make their way around the rock pillars left of the carriage. One reaches Emeralda, but misses its attack. Katya runs to help her. However, three grunts in the rear catch up to the carriage. Spawned: A boss, an elite, and a grunt.

Turn 4:

Emeralda brings in another civilian. Fenrir dispatches their grunt assailant and knocks down an elite.

Elan climbs aboard an also manages to knock down one of the pursuing grunts.

And Katya runs to the aide of one of the final remaining civilians not already picked up or picked off. Turok dispatches another grunt (no picture).

The luck gods favour Turok as zero out of four shots taken at him miss and he fends off the grunt in melee. Unfortunately, a boss takes down one of the horses. 

Two of the trailing grunts also manage to get onto the carriage! Four civilians are put to the task of pulling the carriage with the horses.

Turn 5:

Fenrir knocks down a grunt on the right side of the carriage and Emeralda grabs the civilian it was attacking.

Ivor, hanging out the side door, manages to kill one of the unwanted hitchhikers and calls out to Elan and Fenrir, to get their attention to the left. They manage to knock down one grunt and kill another. Katya gets on board with the last civilian left and kills the other riding attacker.

To keep some of the pursuing enemies off the carriage's trail, Turok throws himself into their midst and though he put up a mighty defence, he is slain. If this monstrous blight can be stopped, Turok will be remembered in story and song for his bravery, strength and sacrifice.

Turn 6:

Katya jumps down with the horses to defend them, and defend them she does, as she fends off all the attacks of a boss and two elites, finally using up her armour buff. No one scores any hits. 

For some unexplainable reason, the monsters turn back and leave the fleeing carriage. 

For as bad as the rolling seemed to be for their turns, the refugee band was incredibly lucky, losing only five civilians and one mercenary. At one point my son came to watch and I let him roll for some of the encounters. He asked if I was going to play again, which I of course said yes and that he can play too, which will be great!

One thing I'm currently undecided about is what to do with the loss of Turok; whether I want to use the same figure/character in the next chapter or replace him with a new one. There's still one or perhaps two other classes I'd like to try out, so I'm leaning towards replacement. It would be more realistic, I suppose, even if realism isn't really the point of this exercise.

Anyway, another enjoyable play. Time to prep for Chapter 3. Though I might play something else before I get there.

Vanguard: Seeking Sanctuary - Part 1: Despair

 Some months ago, I came across a link for this solo skirmish game called Vanguard: Seeking Sanctuary. It consists of a simple set of rules that don't require any paper recording beyond what your characters are and their special actions/conditions. Of the 29 pages, 16 pages contain rules, the rest are scenarios for the game's campaign and a map. I downloaded it to my phone, so when I needed something to pass the time, I'd just pull up the file and read. Did that all summer! 

The premise is that monsters have suddenly begun spawning from portals/crawling out of the depths of the ground and, due to an army already spread thin for whatever reasons you wish to invent, your team of six mercenaries has been hired to discover the cause and, hopefully, stop the rising tide of terrors. Basically, each scenario is a task for your team to accomplish before being over-run by the constant stream of incoming monsters.

This is my first play of the game, starting at the first scenario, titled "Despair".

Morlok's Court, an area on the outskirts of the town where the mercenary team had just assembled and struck their deal with the regional authority, is thrown into chaos as a sudden trembling announces the imminent arrival of the hideous horde from the ground! The heroic band must save and evacuate as many civilians as they can.

Setup: the mercenary band is walking down the street on their way out of town when the ground starts to rumble. Time to gather up civilians! There are ten civilians (paper figures) randomly placed on the table, two are hidden behind the two small buildings (bottom right) and one is behind the townhouses (top left). 

From left: Turok - barbarian fighter from the north, Ivor - fearless leader, Emeralda - priestess of protection, Katya - knight errant, Elan - elven ranger, Fenrir - dwarven fusileer

Turn 1

As the mercenaries spread out to gather up civilians, the first of the monsters arrive. Three grunts and a boss. As per the scenario, roll a d6 at the end of each round and add +1 for every civilian in contact with a mercenary. A successful roll of 7+ results in the arrival of a carriage/wagon that rescued civilians need to be taken to for evacuation. No luck this turn.

Turn 2

Elan takes aim and makes the first kill.

The boss doesn't have to go far for its first victim.

This grunt, however, has a hard time pinning this one down!

Two elites and two more grunts arrive. No ride out of here yet!

Turn 3

Elan manages to knock down the boss.

Fenrir bags a grunt as it comes up a side road.

Emeralda casts an armour buff to help Katya, who attacks an elite. Unfortunately, her blow is deflected.

This grunt still having troubles with its prey!

Seeing the danger that woman was in (back in Turn 2), Emeralda cast a protection spell on her, hoping someone might be able to reach her in time. With the protection of the spell, the woman is spared a grizzly death, for now.

Thanks to the armour buff, Katya avoids being knocked down. The boss gets up, immediately attacking Ivor, but is too disoriented to land any blows. I forgot to document what spawned this round.

Turn 4

The carriage has arrived! Four civilians are loaded up. They really should go, but Emeralda thinks she has the time to get to one more civilian.

Elan takes down another grunt!

Fenrir shoots a grunt, but it keeps on coming!

Ivor and Katya keep their charges at bay while Emeralda rushes past them. Ivor actually kills the boss, but I must have missed taking a picture of that.

Those women are proving quite difficult for the grunts! Too bad they're so far away, there's just too many monsters and no chance they'll be rescued by the mercenaries. In the spawn phase, a couple more elites and a couple more grunts showed up.

Katya knocks down the elite she's fighting. Ivor moves to contend with another elite that spawned just after the boss got killed. He can't knock it down, but at least keeps it off of Emeralda as she grabs another civilian.

Fenrir takes a long shot and knocks down an elite.

Elan moves to cover Emeralda and hopefully help out Ivor and Katya. Turns to take down another grunt.

Ivor keeps the elite at bay. Turok's shadow on the right as he comes to help. Where has he been?

Katya's elite gets up and takes a swipe, catching nothing but a shield.

Our unlucky grunt finally sees a success!

Turn 5

I started to neglect the picture taking, but the previous turn spawn phase saw another boss and more grunts. As Emeralda passes through the battle line with civilian in tow, the mercenaries gather rounds and start their retreat toward the carriage, being massed by the monsters as they went. Elan is knocked down, but is luckily able to fend off any blows that come while he's on the ground.

The end is near. Either their defence breaks or the mercenaries will get to the carriage!

Fenrir is alone on the other side of the carriage as more monsters close. His heavy armour keeps him safe from this boss and elite and a ranged grunt. I had originally decided to have no ranged units for the monsters, using Tyranid hormagaunts and genestealers as grunts and elites. The boss is some kind of spider mage thing from Heroscape. I started running out of hormagaunts, so I started bringing out termagants (ones with guns), so some ranged units.

Turn 6

Thanks to Katya's knight ability, the defence holds and everyone is able to get on the carriage, along with five civilians. In order to live to fight another day, they have to leave the town behind and let fate play out its hand. 

As the heroes and their charges head into the great forest of the Svartvalt, they are joined by others who have managed to flee the town. What awaits this group as they traverse the road through the great trees of the forest? Can the monstrous horde be stopped? The sounds of destruction fade and night is coming on. The forest's darkness only invites one feeling at the end of this day... despair.