Chaos In Carpathia Battle Report - Jordin's First Game

So there's Marc (Mad Doctor & Creations), Chris (British Monster Hunters) and Yours Truly (Hungarians Hunters, Werewolves, Romanian Vampires). However, in the fairly near future there will be a fourth player in our CinC group.

Jordin came to the group earlier this year from a WH40k background to join in on our Warmachine gaming. After some exposure to CinC, he asked for a learning game (which I was only too happy to provide) and walked away an instant fan of the game, ready to procure models for a warband.

Scenario: Seek & Find

The center of the table was dominated by a church

on one side of the road and a graveyard on the other.

Warbands: Romanian Vampires (Jordin) vs. Hungarian Monster Hunters (me)

Special Events: None, but we tried out my new Indoor House Rules (see below)

Synopsis:

With five objectives at-large (four in buildings, one in the graveyard), the race was on to (a) find and (b) retain the majority of the objectives. There were also VP's to be awarded for killing a Master of Evil (the head vampire) and protecting/capturing the Female Victim (Ms. Grunberg). After it was all said and done, there were many casualities, but only a minor victory to the Monster Hunters (Which didn't actually count since Jordin wasn't clear on one of the victory conditions... my fault)

The Hunt:

Some members of the vampire warband advanced towards the church with the hopes of thwarting the hunters while their companions were in the two buildings on their half of the table searching for objectives.


The Vampire Lucretia (blue dress, previous photo) used Shape of the Beast to transform and then charged towards the terrified Ernst Holdt. Unfortunately, after rolling an AGILITY goal roll, Jordin didn't roll any successes (he only needed one) so the charge ended at the fence. You can also see Hester in the background (green dress), a Vampire Acolyte who is shown here after successfully finding one of the objectives in the building behind her.


This series of photos shows the altercation that took place behind the church. After failing her charge, Lucretia turned back into her vampire form and charged into the Slayer Helmut Von Krumm. After an exchange of blows, Helmut (with the help of the Hungarian hounds) defeated the diminutive vampire and moved up to the fence where he dispatched the Vampire Acolyte Bella as well. Things were clearly going well for the monster hunters on this flank.


The fight on the other side of the road was another story. Bjorn charged into Count Brechtenstein and Hester. His chopped down Hester but the Count retaliated with a fatal counter-attack.


After defeating Bjorn, the Count charged into combat with Hungarian Slayer Lazlo the Wanderer (who had just failed to find the objective in the sarcophagus). The fight ended poorly for Lazlo, leaving the Count free to search the sarcophagus for himself.



The Objectives:

While the battle raged in the center of the table, members of both warbands were busily scouring the table for the hidden objectives necessary for victory. Lyleth flew towards the sarcophagus early in the game and transformed into a vampire. Unfortunately, she failed to locate the objective and doubled back in search of another one.


The vampire's despicable human servant, Dolf, moved back to hide from Ernst and his crossbow. Thanks to the Pack Mule ability, Dolf is able to carry items that exceed his STRENGTH limitation without incurring a movement penalty. Jordin put this to good use by having Hestor "pass" her objective to Dolf for safe-keeping before she headed into the fray.


Lyleth (it was clearly not her day) also failed to find this objective. In a surprise attempt, Dolf (with a feeble MIND score of 2) rolled two successes and found the second objective for the vampires. He was now carrying both of the vampires' objectives. As a human, he was also allowed to search the cupboard. He did so but, with a D6 roll of 1, found nothing.


The good Dr. Grunberg spent the entire game inside this tiny cottage. After making it to the door in the cellar, he was unlucky enough to roll a "6" for the door's condition (meaning it was locked). It took a little doing for the old fella to kick the door in (and a couple of FATE Points as well). Of course, with MIND:4 and Scholar x3, he found the hidden objective easily.


Protecting Emmalina Grunberg:

My Expedition Leader, Count Konrad Von Krumm, was the guardian of my Female Victim, Emmalina Grunberg. He had to keep her within six inches at all time and as far away from monsters as possible. The Count also has MIND:3 and Scholar x1 so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by sending him off to find an objective in the undercroft of the church and then using the enclosed space to keep Ms. Grunberg out of harm's way.


The Count and Ms. Grunberg descended the staircase after which the Count had no problem finding the objective behind the door.


Since he was down here anyway the Count searched the bookcase and rolled four successes. He learned something of value about his enemy. In game terms, he could re-roll one ATTACK or DEFENSE goal roll against the vampires this game.


While rummaging about below the church, the Count was unaware of Lyleth sniffing around outside. As a vampire, she had to pass a TN:3 RESOLVE roll to enter the church (which she did).


Lyleth made it to the bottom of the stairs and, later that turn, Helmut Von Krumm successfully detected her and charged from the main floor down the stairs. Lyleth suffered a savage blow from Helmut's sword.


The Count, after ordering Ms. Grunberg to stay hidden, charged in to help his son. His knife found its mark and the child vampire went down.


At this point in the game (the last turn) it was up to the Count Brechtenstein. To recap, the Hungarians had two objectives, the Vampires had two objectives, the Master of Evil had not been killed, and Ms. Grunberg was still safe. The final unclaimed objective was in the sarcophagus. The Count rolled four dice (i.e. MIND:4) and needed two successes to find the objective. He only rolled one, however, and the game ended then and there in a bitter draw.


Result: Draw

First of all, what great fun we had trying out my new Indoor/Furniture rules. They were especially helpful in dealing with doors, windows, stairs, and trapdoors/ladders. We also did a little searching, and it was neat to see how less combat-oriented characters could still be quite useful in a game where fighting is typically the focus.

After re-reading the scenario victory conditions, I noticed that 1 VP goes to the warband who "holds the Female Victim" at the end of the scenario. We never realized this when we were playing, so I discounted that VP, hence the draw. Outcomes aside, the real winner here was our Gothic Horror group. With Jordin jumping on board we shall be four-strong. That means two games running consecutively or perhaps a larger team game in the near-ish future.

In any event, I will have the interiors and furnishings for my crypts painted in time for the next game night so, with any luck, we'll be able to pick up the Curse of the Dertflinghans campaign where we left off, with the Mannleigh expedition heading towards the Old Graveyard.

Thanks for reading,
JET