The scenario involves only TWO explorers - Taddeus the Purifier and his acolyte, Pious Vorne. It represents their first expedition into the fortress - before they met Jainus Drake and the events of the Quest for the Hidden Vault - the objective of the Core Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress box set - and the plot of the novel by Darius Hinks.
I had started reading the novel over a year ago, and didn't finish it and don't remember much... but I feel like Taddeus and Vorne's previous expedition was hinted at - in fact, I think Drake sought them out BECAUSE they'd been in and had knowledge of the whereabouts of the Hidden Vault...?
It was decided that Amanda would play the Explorers and I would just play the Hostiles.
The scenario is set up like a Stronghold Assault - there is a brief "Access Route" of two Exploration Cards (though in the fluff, they are, in fact, trying to FLEE and burn everything they can on the way out!) and then the Traitor's Fane - a combat encounter with a specific set-up and predetermined hostile groups.
The first Exploration Card was a Challenge - but it was set up like a short combat! Thaddeus the Purifier got isolated from Vorne and found himself totally surrounded by hostiles!
Who apparently all had the drop on him! He tried to use the Clarion's Special Support Ability - allowing him to make a free gambit (which would allow him to potentially change his position in the initiative line), but his Agility isn't so great and he failed...
Luckily, TWO of the Ur-Ghuls decided just to lurk in the Dark - The one that DID attack did two wounds to him! The Spindle Drones were a Threat Level Zero and didn't really do anything to him at all...
And then it was Thaddeus' turn...
By the Throne of the Emperor, he is nasty... Took out the Ur-Ghul and two Spindle Drones.
I think he went first in the initiative sequence the following turn and was able to finish off the other two Ur-Ghuls before they were able to activate and utterly shred him!
the Spindle Drones shooting was utterly useless at him, while he was sitting in cover, on the third turn he moved out and blasted the last two to bits...
Reunited with Pious Vorne, the two moved on...
The Mag-Lev delivered them to an area just crawling with Traitor Guard...
Like, ALL the Traitor Guard...
And the Guard had the jump on them...
Half the Guard rushed the pair while the others showered them with (inaccurate) Lasgun fire. The Exlorers survived this initial onslaught... and then it was THEIR turn...
Vorne lit up a bunch of Guard and retreated back into the Mag-Lev... but then Thaddeus led the charge out - feeling that the God-Emperor was on his side, and he had nothing to fear.
At the end of the first round I rolled Changing Conditions for the Event - draw an encounter card and if it has a twist, it applies for the rest of the combat...
for once, the twist was actually AWESOME!
By the end of the second round, all the Guard were down and the Explorers just went around and picked up their loot!
And then made their way to the escape pod.
Too Easy...
In the final encounter Vorne and Thaddeus faced Chaos Beastmen and a Chaos Space Marine (hostiles that aren't normally faced early in the campaign - their hostile cards only get added to the Encounter deck as part of a Legacy card... We were a little fearful of what they might do!
But Vorne and Thaddeus were on fire!
Or, more accurately, they were setting EVERYTHING ELSE on fire!! The Batsmen and their marker were burned on the first - as were a trio of Traitor Guard - in a single activation - which inspired Pious Vorne...
Then for an Event I rolled "Inspiration" and boom... Thaddeus the Purifier was ALSO inspired!
Amanda reading over the Inspired side of Thaddeus' card.
And then they both went first...
Chaos Space Marine was roasted along with the other two objective markers...
And Thaddeus and Vorne made their way out of the Traitor's Fane!
Having successfully conquered the Traitor's Fane - they were awarded the Blessed Aquila. Amanda decided Pious Vorne should have it.
Both stopped in at the Clarion - their ship - and Thaddeus traded some Archaeotech for a Hospitaller Medpack and some Stims.
Next: on with the Quest for the Hidden Vaults! I've added in the Advanced Arsenal and Endless Peril expansions (extra Resource Cards and extra Exploration Cards, respectively). I do hope we can find some time this week to get cracking on that - shouldn't be TOO hard with all of our regularly scheduled activities being cancelled!
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Working on more Chaos Space Marines....
Planning to get in more games for Blackstone Fortress...
I had started a post about Q2 plans a couple weeks ago... but that's going to need some revising now!
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Another fun report of what looks like a fun game.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
DeleteI'm really enjoying it - and hope to get in another game today!
When this Pandemic peters out, I'm looking forward to introducing it to my friend Bruce. He's interested in the fluff of the 40K universe, but has always been turned off by all the die rolling - rolling to hit, rolling to wound, rolling to save, rolling to see how much damage, rolling to see how injured (this is the process for Kill Team - the last game I got him to try out). With Blackstone Fortress it's one roll... well for Explorers hitting Hostiles - if a Hostile hits an Explorer, the Explorer gets a defence roll...
Great report! BSF does look like a lot of fun, but I don't have time for all the games I already play so I have to live it through your reports :P
ReplyDeleteOh, I know that feeling - too many games, too little time!
DeleteThanks!
Looks good, very D&D like, which is good,but without all those charts!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
My initial thought was "you and I have wildly different experience of Dungeons and Dragons"... but after thinking about it, I guess I can see it: Going through a labyrinthine fortress (or Dungeon) and killing things and collecting treasure... yeah, that about sums up the two.
DeleteThe reason for my initial thought was that, while I've ALWAYS been about the miniatures - it was the miniatures that initially drew me to D&D - almost ALL of the people I've played D&D (and most other role-playing games) with over the years have cared very little (or not at all!) about miniatures. Games and combat encounters were all played out in their heads - or occasionally involved pointing to locations on a not-necessarily-to-scale rough pencil drawn map on a scrap piece of paper to orient which character was where. So I never got to play with miniatures like THIS when I played D&D. But there was a lot more actual role-playing (in D&D) - which is one thing this game is kind of missing - so....
My only experience of D&D was with miniatures, I've never played it without, although my grandneice does with her friends but plays it with miniatures with her dad. Your game seems like it could be expanded into more roleplaying, if the hostiles role became more of a Games master and you had more than one explorer player?
DeleteBest Iain
Yeah, that could be fun... If it were more than just me and Amanda...?
DeleteThat's actually what Finnegan did with my Dad - He got the last two fantasy Warhammer Quests (Silver Tower and Something Something Hammerhall...?) and ran my dad through all the adventures, running all the baddies himself.