The Clash of the Exiles - A Sword Weirdos AAR
Background
The Garden of Statis in the Eternal City. Two ancient enemies, exiles in time, exiles from their homeland confront each other.
The forces
The Lost of Byzantias - Five hardy warriors led by Nikolais the Spellsword.
The Elfkin of The Dreaming City - Agile and fast Elven warriors led by Dyvim the Commander.
The full stats for both forces can be found here.
Table Set up
I played the game on a 2ft x 2ft board, standard size for a 75 points game of Sword/Space Weirdos. The terrain was set up to represent the symmetrical nature of the Garden of Stasis.
The Byzantias win the Initiative roll. Stephanos the crossbow armed Hunter takes one action to move up and gain line of sight (LOS) on Dyvim the Elf Commander. He then fires at him but the shot misses. For his third action he spans his bow to begin the reload process which will take two actions. Activation now passes to the Elfkin.
Hashgan the Elf Fighter activates and uses 1 action to Move to bring him in range then fires his pistol at Stephanos the crossbowman. The dice are rolled and it’s a draw so there’s no effect, the pistol ball clipped the wall by the crossbowman’s head.
Balakros the bow armed Hunter moves 1 action and then fires at the Elf Commander – Kill the King seems to be the strategy at play here! He also misses and straightway he uses his remaining action to notch another arrow ready for the next round.
Sick of being a target, Dyvim the Elf Commander takes two actions to Move into better cover and support Hashgan the Elf Fighter.
That may have seemed like a good idea, but Christiana the Byzantias female Fighter now takes two actions to Move up on his left side and fire her crossbow at him. Even though she suffers a -1DT and the Elf Commander benefits from a +1DT due to them both having moved twice, she scores an impressive 10v3 on the dice roll. With a +3 modifier Dyvim the Elf Commander is Staggered.
Grigore the Byzantias Berserker now charges Saramal the Swashbuckler. Using two actions to Move base to base, he takes an almighty swing with his greatsword. The Elf spends a Manoeuvre point to make a Parry but the Berserker’s Might is 2d10 with a +1DT taking it to the maximum 2d12. To make matters worse he rolls a maximum 24 against 10. The roll on the Attack Results Table is a 9 with a +1 for double it’s Out of Action for the Swashbuckler.
Valharik the last Elf to activate uses an action to Move and then takes his other two actions to fire both his pistolets at the Berserker. The first shot scores a hit and is double the defence roll, the roll on the Attack Result Table is a 9 and with the pistolets +2 Grigore the Berserker is rendered Out of Action. What drama all on the same few yards of ground!
The final model to activate is Nikolais the Byzantias Spellsword who takes a move forward and then casts the spell Icy Blast at Valharik the Elf pistoleer. It’s a success and it knocks the Elf Down. (11:38)
 |
| Metal vs Magic |
Round Two
The Elfkin win the Initiative roll which is just as well as they’re not in a good position with their Leader staggered and one Elf already off the table! The Elf Commander spends one action to Recover which he does successfully then Moves on the Byzantias crossbowman and Melee Attacks him with his sword for his third and final action. He must still be recovering as his attack is unsuccessful.Stephanos the crossbowman uses an action to Interact dropping his crossbow and drawing his axe and with his final action he swipes at Dyvim, but his attack also misses.
Hashgan the Elf uses two actions to Move and charges the Byzantias bowman. His Melee Attack is a success and the Balakros is staggered. He successfully Recovers and using an Interact action he drops his bow and draws his axe, and with his third action he attacks the Elf. Hashgan shrugs off the attack with no effect.
The final Elf to activate is Valharik the pistoleer. He is down so must make a Stand action, He then moves and attacks the Byzantias leader, but his attack is shrugged off by the Spellsword.
Nikolais the Byzantias Spellsword is the last to activate. He uses two actions to take advantage of his axe’s powerful attribute and gain a +1 on his Melee Attack. He swipes down mightily and staggers the Elf.
Round Three
The Elves gain the Initiative again. The Elf pistoleer tries once, twice and finally on his final attempt he succeeds with his Recover action. But that’s all his actions used up for the round.
Seeing his chance Nikolais the Spellsword uses two actions to take advantage of his axe’s properties to enhance his Melee Attack and swings at the Elf pistoleer again, but his dice are poor and he fails.
Stephanos the crossbowman responds in kind, using two actions to take advantage of his axe’s properties. He hits but the roll on the Attack Result Table is Defensive Strike so the Elf commander strikes back immediately albeit without effect.
Hashgan the Elf fighter presses home his attack on Balakros the bowman and hits. The result is that Balakros makes a Defensive Strike which has no effect. It’s now Balakros’s turn and he attacks but misses. Using a manoeuvre point the Elf makes a riposte and renders the Bowman staggered.
Round Four
Initiative switches to the Byzantias. Balakros the bowman successfully recovers from being staggered and unsuccessfully attacks Hashgan . His responding attack also has no effect.
Nikolais the Byzantias Spellsword makes another boosted attack which also misses. Tiredness seems to be setting in among the combatants. The return attack from the Elf pistoleer hits and with the +2 boost from a piercing weapon he strikes the Byzantias leader down putting him Out of Action.
Stephanos the Byzantias crossbowman attacks Hashgan the Elf fighter but misses. However, the return attack is more effective, and the Crossbowman is staggered.
The Byzantias have now lost their Leader and they have also been reduced to less than 50% of their starting number. Either of these conditions would have required a Will roll. They fail the roll and the remaining two fighters have broken and will be reduced to rolling d4 for Initiative.
Round Five
Unsurprisingly the Elves gain Initiative. Dyvim the Commander attempts to take advantage of his adversary’s staggered condition but amazingly the dice are even so nothing happens. Stephanos the crossbowman fails all of his Recover rolls so the Gods alone know what the Commander was doing that he couldn’t finish him off!
Valharik the Elf pistoleer moves to support his comrade and gain the Gang-up bonus on Balakros the Hunter. His attack is a success and Balakros is staggered. Balakros successfully Recovers and strikes back to no avail.
Hashgan now successfully attacks Balakros with a Knockback and the Bowman is moved and down.
Round Six
The Elves gain Initiative. Hashgan moves to Balakros while he is down and hits with double the points. The roll produces Down and Staggered. As Balakros was already down he is now Out of Action.
Using all his actions and on his final attempt Stephanos manages to Recover only to face an attack from Dyvim the Elf Commander which misses.
Valharik the Elf pistoleer now moves to attack Stephanos , who is now outnumbered three to one. He decides that now is not his time to meet his ancestors. He lays down his arms and offers his service to the Elves.
Conclusion
Following on from my recent Space Weirdos game I was itching to try out Sword Weirdos. I enjoyed this just as much. There’s some slight differences in the mechanics, but mainly along the lines that Space Weirdos quite naturally focuses more on ranged combat and Sword Weirdos is more melee focused.
Sword Weirdos reminds me of the games of D&D that I used to play as a lad where we just rolled up Level 1 characters and used original (mostly unpainted) Citadel figures to have a free for all. This was all pre-Warhammer days.
I was pleased to give some of my Khador Warmachine figures a run out. They’ve not been used for a long while. They fitted the bill very nicely as the Lost of Byzantias.
I used Black Scorpion Pirate Elves to represent The Elfkin of the Dreaming City. I’ve had these about 12 years or so and this was their first outing! I don’t believe they're available anymore. Like all Black Scorpion miniatures, they are lovely, absolutely incredible sculpts.
The buildings and pool are PDF’s that were available free when the original version of Carnevale was out. I had the rules and some minis but the game disappeared for awhile around 2016 so I moved them on. It’s since changed hands and I’m pleased to say that it’s gone from strength to strength. I do have a look now and again but I’ve yet to revisit that particular rabbit hole.
Comments
Post a Comment