Sword Weirdos - Elizabethans

England 1586.  Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's spy master, has learnt that a Spanish Catholic Priest is preaching "Popish heresy" and inciting treason against good Queen Elizabeth.  He has tracked the man, Father Sebastiano, down to the remote house of Sir Roderick Greenplume, a suspected Catholic sympathiser and has sent men under Sir Sidney Hyde to apprehend the Catholics and bring them to the Tower for "hard questioning".

Introduction

This is a 100 point game of Sword Weirdos.  Sir Sidney's Priest Hunters use the Witch Hunters Warband trait, the Catholics are Fanatics.   Details can be found here.  

Sir Sidney's mission is to capture Fr. Sebastiano and Sir Roderick.  He must avoid killing them if at all possible, although this is preferable to their escape.  If the rest of the Catholics fall in the struggle so be it.  

If Fr. Sebastiano can reach the tree line at the edge of the board he is deemed to have escaped.  Due to his venerable age, he only moves 1SPD.  To add friction the aged Sebastiano must be escorted and must remain inactive for one round while he prays and catches his breath.

Start - Catholics by the house, Priest Hunters at the bottom

Round 1

The Catholics win the Initiative roll.  Sir Roderick activates first and moves to tell the Fr. Sebastiano to prepare to flee, and then he moves again in preparation for the Priest's movement.  Grey Beard (one of the Priest Hunters halberdiers) moves twice up to the wall and hunkers down.  One of the Catholics fires his arquebus at Grey Beard, but their respective Might and Defence rolls cancel each other out and the ball strikes the stone wall above Grey Beard's head, a lucky escape.

Having given away his position by firing, the Catholic is now shot at by one of the Priest Hunters.  Once again stone chips fly but no one is shot.  

The Catholic Sword & Buckler man moves in and attacks Grey Beard who successfully defends himself.  The second Priest Hunter Arquebusier shoots at one of the Catholic Arquebusiers, but it's the same result with the arquebus ball striking the wall and not the man. 

Action at the wall

Fr. Sebastiano moves back to join Sir Roderick.  Ginger the Halberdier uses his 2 SPD allowance to try and join his beleaguered comrade at the wall, but he doesn't quite make it.  

The Catholic swordsman moves to block the breach in the front wall.  Sir Sidney of the Priest Hunters moves up to support Ginger halberdier.  The final character to activate is the second Catholic Arquebusier.  He fires at the nearest Priest Hunter Arquebusier.  This time the shooting is effective and rolling a double six on the Attack Results table sees the PH Arquebusier fall to the ground and Out of Action.  

The Priest Hunters on the advance as the round ends.

Round 2

Round 2 start (with collapsed wall...)

This turn the Priest Hunters gain the Initiative.  Seeking to get the mission back on track Sir Sidney charges through the breach in the wall and attacks the Catholic Swordsman.  The force of his attack is too much and he runs the Catholic through putting him Out of Action. 

Sir Sidney (middle) dispatches a Papist!

In a bid to stop him, a Catholic Arquebusier stops trying to reload (one activation) and drawing his sword attacks Sir Sidney, who spends a Manoeuvre point to use his weapon's Parry attribute, defending the attack easily with a far superior die roll.

Sir Sidney defends himself.

Ginger Halberdier now moves to support his leader, attacking the Catholic Arquebusier, but his attack comes to naught. 

Ginger gets stuck in!

The Catholic Sword & Buckler man continues his attack on Grey Beard Halberdier, but the stalwart yeoman sweeps his halberd around to block the attack, and he now responds.  The force of the attack forces the Sword & Buckler man to Dive for Cover and he is moved back and goes Down.  

The other Catholic Arquebusier uses two actions to reload and then one action to move to the house to cover the Priest Hunters.  

The last of the Priest Hunters to move is the surviving arquebusier who uses one action to part reload and then two to move to support his comrades.  

The Priest and Sir Roderick Plume remain static this turn as per the conditions of the game. 

The positions at the end of Round 2

Round 3

Round 3 starting positions

Once again the Priest Hunters win the initiative.  Sir Sidney is after the bigger prize and uses two actions to Disengage from the Catholic Arquebusier and then his last action to fire his pistol at the Catholic leader.  He hits and Sir Roderick is Staggered.  Being next to activate, Sir Roderick makes an unopposed will roll with a +1DT for being a Fanatic and on the second attempt he manages to Recover.  He doesn't take a third action, preferring to guard Father Sebastiano.  

Sir Sidney fires at Sir Roderick

Grey Beard Halberdier moves to be base-to-base with the downed Catholic Sword & Buckler man.  Using his warband's Witch Hunters trait he uses two actions to Interact with the unfortunate warrior to put him Out of Action.  Brutal times. 

Take that! The end of the Sword & Buckler man

One of the Catholic Arquebusier fires at Grey Beard, but his shot misses.  He drops his weapon and then moves to attack Grey Beard in Melee but his attack roll isn't good enough.

Ginger Halberdier Disengages from combat and moves to pursue the Priest and support Sir Sidney his leader.  

Fr. Sebastiano sees what's happening and moves away from the action.

The Priest Hunter Arquebusier attacks the other Catholic Arquebusier.  The die roll is fifteen vs three and the subsequent roll of 10 on the Attack Results Table means another Catholic falls Out of Action to Walsingham's agents. 

The clash of the Arquebusiers (Catholic in hat)

Round 4

Round 4 starting positions

Yet again Initiative is with the Priest Hunters.  Ginger charges Sir Roderick.  Lunging with his halberd he hits and the Catholic Leader is Staggered.  Sir Roderick uses one action to Recover and them attacks his assailant, but feeling the effects of being hit he misses.

Ginger staggers Sir Roderick

Sir Sidney uses two actions to run after the escaping Fr. Sebastiano.  He just reaches him and swings the flat of his sword at the holy man.  He hits and the Priest is Staggered, falling to the ground.  He tries to Recover, failing twice and managing to right himself with his last action. 

Fr. Sebastiano is downed.

The PH Arquebusier moves two actions and then attacks Sir Roderick with his remaining action but his attack misses. 

The Catholic Arquebusier attacks Grey Beard Halberdier.  His attack is ineffectual and Grey Beard replies in kind with an equally ineffectual attack. 

Grey beard and the Arquebusier in inconsequential combat!

It's now the Maintenance Phase and having lost half of their number, the Catholics have to test for Broken Warband.  Even though they have a +1DT for being Fanatics they fail the roll and will roll Initiative at -1DT from now on.

The positions at the end of Round 4

Round 5

Round 5 starting positions

It's the fifth and final round.  Bizarrely as they now have an initiative penalty, the Catholics gain the Initiative.  

Fr. Sebastiano Disengages and Moves towards the woods and sanctuary.   Sir Sidney pursues him and once again tries to subdue him.  He strikes him and the Priest is Knockbacked going Down. 

Sir Sidney confronts Fr. Sebastiano again.

Sir Roderick Disengages and then moves after Fr. Sebastiano.  Ginger Beard charges after him and his Melee Attack Might roll is double the Catholic Leader's Defence roll,  Sir Roderick falls Staggered.

Sir Roderick is poleaxed!

The Catholic Arquebusier hits Grey Beard Halberdier, the Counter Strike result means Grey Beard can attack back but he fails to hit.  In his own activation though he scores a whopping twelve against four and the bonus points achieved boosts the roll on the Combat Results table to put the Catholic Arquebusier Out of Action

Another follower of the Holy Father is downed.

And for the last action of the game the PH Arquebusier moves up to support the arrest of Father  Sebastiano and Sir Roderick Greenplume.

"Take them to The Tower".

Summary 

Sir Francis Walsingham will be well pleased with Sir Sidney.  He has managed to apprehend the two targets, Fr.Sebastiano and Sir Roderick Greenplume.  The pleasures of The Tower and a Martyr's death await these two unfortunates.  Sidney's men also managed to slay two Papists for the loss of one of their own.

This was another very entertaining game of Sword Weirdos.  It's got such good, simple core mechanics, that once you add some period flavour you have a versatile ruleset.   My buddy Ste Ross of On Point HQ has been working on Old West Weirdos and I'm really keen to see what he's done.  

This game used a small number of my 15mm 16th Century collection. Mainly consisting of Essex Miniatures with some Grumpy's Miniatures, it's one of my favourites.  I'm currently rebasing all the figures and will be looking to give it much more table time.