Demons in the mouse house* - A Burrows & Badgers AAR

With Spring hopefully not too far away it was time to rouse my Burrows & Badgers warbands from hibernation and play another game.      

Setup

Once again arch-enemies Werdna Thunderfoot's Royalists and Mellifluous Malachi's Wildbeasts would take up arms against each other.



The Royalists.  L-R; 
Nainama the Sparrow; Beriys the Adder Mage; Werdna Thunderfoot the Hare (Leader); Apodemus the Mouse Ranger; Briar Far-sting the Rabbit Archer; Lutralus River Blade the Otter (Second)

 


The Wildbeasts.  L-R
Putor the Ferret; Woodpaw the Weasel;
Mellifluous Malachi the Fox (Leader); Salien the Toad Mage; Shakey Bart the Weasel; McGranite the Ferret (Second) 


This game is based upon Scenario 3, Defend the Haul, from the rule book.  Mellifluous Malachi's Wildbeasts have taken over a mouse house while the owner is away.  The evicted rodent has sought the help of Werdna Thunderfoot's Royalists to take back his rightful dwelling.

The Wildbeasts have the lowest Warband rating so are the defenders.  Their Secondary Objective is Break Them, so they will look to Rout the Royalists.  The Royalists' Secondary Objectives is Burn the Witch, so they will target Salien the Toad Mage.

The Royalists (R) go first as the Attackers.  

Turn One

The Royalists split into two groups with Werdna leading one half and Lutaralus leading the other as they attack from each side of the house.  Werdna is first to go and moves towards the house.  Salien the Toad Mage spots this and moves slightly to get Line of Sight (LOS) on the Hare, and then successfully casts Tangleweed on Werdna reducing his movement to 3 inches.  Apodemus the Royalist Mouse Ranger shoots and hits Salien, but the warty one's natural Toughness means there's no damage.  Shakey Bart the Weasel fires his crossbow at Apodemus but the nimble mouse easily dodges it.  Beriys the Adder Mage slithers slowly forwards.  Mellifluous Malachi the Fox also slowly moves towards the enemy.  Briar Far-sting the Rabbit Archer moves forward from the edge of the wood but her two shots both miss  Putor the Ferret.  Having had two arrows fly by his snout, he responds by moving slightly forward to bring himself within range and throwing a knife at the Rabbit.  He hits scoring two points of damage.   Lutralus River Blade the Otter moves forwards as does McGranite the Wildbeast second.  Nainama the Sparrow flies up to the top of a tree to observe the situation and the last character to move is Woodpaw  the Weasel who thoughtlessly tramples over the veg beds to move to meet the threat from that side of the garden.  End of Turn,  

Turn Two – The Royalists win the Initiative roll off. 

Briar Far-sting hits Putor the Ferret and after modifications hits for five damage and then with her second shot does exactly the same!  She was obviously well pssd off by him wounding her in the previous round!  In response he throws his remaining knife at her but his wounds have shocked him and he misses.  Seeing that the Ferret is struggling Lutralus charges him and with an almighty blow of his two-handed sword takes the hapless knife-chucker Out of Action.  Enraged to see his fellow mustelid felled Woodpaw the Weasel charges Lutralus and hits him for six damage.  Nainama the Sparrow flies forwards towards the action.  McGranite moves up to support his weasel kin against Lutralus for the next round.  Werdna tries to move but he is still feeling the effects of Tangleweed and his movement roll is cancelled out by the spell's effects.  Apodemus fails in his attempt to hit the Toad Mage.  Shakey Bart once again fails to hit Apodemus.  Beriys the Adder Mage casts Lightning on Shakey Bart causing three wounds.  Mellifluous Malachi the Fox uses a Fate point and fires his masterwork pistol at Werdna but both rolls are poor and the Hare is unscathed.  The Toad Mage holds his position and that's the end of the turn. 

Turn Three – The Royalists win the Initiative roll off again. 

Lutralus whacks Woodpaw the Weasel for six, he strikes back but it's not a strong enough blow to penetrate the Otter's heavy armour.  Briar moves so she can get LOS on McGranite.  One of her shots nicks him for three damage.  The fearsome Ferret employs his Fearless Charge ability to rush the rabbit and hits her for a whopping seven damage.  "That'll teach ye to shoot at me lassie!" he shouts.  Seeing the situation, Nainama the Sparrow swoops on the Ferret and catches him for two damage.  Mellifluous Malachi the Fox shoots Werdna, scoring a perfect roll and when its all added up inflicts nine points of damage on the Royalist leader.  Desperate to get into action and still hampered by the Tangleweed spell he tries to Sprint towards the Fox.  Keeping a cold eye on the proceedings Salien hops forward and casts Bear's Strength on his leader in readiness for any impending close quarter unpleasantness.  Apodemus Sprints forwards towards the action rolling maximum score to speed across the battlefield.  Shakey Bart the Weasel puts a crossbow bolt into Beriys the Adder Mage for four damage.  The Mage slithers forward at maximum speed to try and get out of the way.  End of turn three. 

Turn Four – Yet again the Royalists win the Initiative roll off.   

Apodemus shoots at Salien the Toad Mage.  It's a perfect roll and he inflicts a whopping nine points on the Toad.  This also releases Werdna from the Tangleweed spell's effects and means that Mellifluous loses the benefits of Bear's Strength.  Well done that mouse!  Mellifluous decides to use his pistol again and shoots the Hare for four damage.  Feeling the effects of his wounds Werdna only manages to move a small amount towards the Fox.  Beriys tries to cast Curse on his Mage counterpart but the spell fails.  Just to annoy him Salien casts Tangleweed back onto Werdna!  Lutralus swings his two hander and deals a terrible blow to Woodpaw the Weasel who falls out of action.  McGranite's attack on Briar is blocked and she strikes back a weak blow of only one damage.  Nainama the Sparrow strikes the embattled Ferret and rolls a Perfect Roll of six on D6.  With the +7 bonus this is enough to put the Ferret Out of Action.  Shakey Bart the Weasel moves up to support Salien and that's the end of the turn. As 50% of their number are Out of Action the Wildbeasts have to roll to see if they Rout.  It's close but they pass the roll-off to continue the fight. 

Turn Five– Finally the Wildbeasts win the Initiative roll off.   

Mellifluous Malachi fires and hits Werdna,  The Hare's heavy armour can't save him and he goes Out of Action.  Even though he uses a Fate point Apodemus misses with his bow.  Shakey Bart throws down his crossbow and charges Apodemus hitting the mouse for six damage.  Beriys hits Salien with the Lightning spell boosted by Elf Shot for eight damage.  Salien fails in his attempt to cast Tangleweed on the Adder.  There are no more Wildbeasts so the three unactivated Royalists all move forward.  Briar moves and attempts to shoot Malachi but both her shots miss.  End of turn.  As Werdna the Royalist leader is Out of Action this time the Rout roll is between Lutralus his second and Malachi.  The Wildbeasts Rout and it's the end of the game.  A third victory on the trot for Werdna's Royalists even though  the plucky hare didn't know much about it. 

Conclusion

I do enjoy Burrows & Badgers, it always gives an absorbing game.  This time I really thought the Wildbeasts were going to finally triumph over The Royalists, but once again they were licked.  Three of The Wildbeasts were taken Out of Action, whereas it was only Werdna the Royalist leader who suffered this fate.  I've got the post-battle sequence to do so the game isn't quite over.  Let's see what happens here and how it positions the two sworn enemies for the next game.  

*Demons in the mouse house - a title inspired by my favourite Mastodon track "Diamond in the Witch House". 

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