The Abandoned Village: A Chaos In Carpathia Multi-Player Scenario - Part Two

Before you proceed, it's probably in your best interest to check out part one where you'll see lots of photos of the scenario objectives and the table layout.


Game night had finally arrived and the three of us were itching to get down to business - so we did. As per the explanation in the previous post, we selected our deployment zones and secretly assigned our models to their positions. Here's how things looked at the beginning of turn one.

Chris selected the Footbridge and the Church Tower for the British Monster Hunters. The Austrian Hunters were deployed in the tower while the rest of the warband prepared to cross the bridge into the cemetery.


Marc chose the Professor's Cottage and West Road for Dr. Hartstone and His Creations. Dr. Hartstone started in the cottage as he was eager to explore the library in the cellar. Delilah led the other contingent (including Marc's newly-painted Cat Monster) into town from the road.


Finally, I selected the North Road and the Marsh for the Werewolves. Bloodrunner and the Old Woodsman came in on the road with the intentions of exploring the long house and the woods across the river. The rest of the warband started in base contact with the Marsh, with Crazy Nell in contact with one of the objectives (The Pagan Stone). It wasn't wise of me to expect a lunatic to find an objective but, with the Austrians and their hunting rifles in the church tower, I didn't want to risk losing a werewolf too early.


With that, initiative dice were rolled (we thought that the card-based system would take too long with three players) and we were off. Here were some of the highlights of the game.


Emma Poundwood Finds a Clue:

The bulk of the Mannleigh expedition crossed the bridge into the cemetery. Ms. Poundwood approached the Cemetery Statue and, after some investigation, found a cryptic message scratched into the stone.



Lunatics of a Feather Flock Together:

Crazy Nell and her drooling comrade-in-arms stayed in the vicinity of the churchyard. Much to everyone's surprise (and thanks to the use of Some FATE Points) Nell successfully found the clue associated with the Pagan Stone. The other lunatic decided to enter the church and to climb the ladder to the tower so he could deal with the Austrians. In the end, the poor fellow was taken down in combat by Hans Klapp and Nell, who had almost made it to the Child's Tribute objective, decided to head back to safety with her objective intact.



Cats & Dogs:

Dr. Hartstone's henchman, French Hunter Antoine De Bellevue, made his way to the Hilltop Monument. Just before he reached it, one of my werewolves charged up the hill. This charge set off a reaction from Marc's Cat Monster (who had a held action) and, before too long, the doctor's assistant Delilah joined in the fray. Thanks to his supernatural strength, Howler held out but, in the end, the Cat Monster took him down and to add insult to injury, Antoine successfully found the clue associated with the monument.



My Kingdom for a Rowboat:

Bloodrunner (one of my werewolves) moved into the long house and the Old Woodsmen moved on towards the Forgotten Grave on the other side of the river. In retrospect, I should have sent the werewolf to tackle the river but, by the time I realized that, it was too late so I took my chances. That turned out to be a mistake. The Old Woodsman landed in the river and was lucky to make it out before he was swept off the table. When all was said and done, he found the clue on the grave and spent the rest of the game trying to inconvenience the doctor's warband with his crossbow.



A Royal Cock-Up:

After Ms. Poundwood found the clue in the cemetery, the luck of the monster hunters took a sharp turn southward. Throughout the course of the game, four members of the warband searched and failed to find the clue at the Child's Tribute.



A Quiet Night In:

Doctor Hartstone started the game by descending into the cellar to peruse the Professor's collection. After he was finished he crossed the road and discovered the clue on the Doctor's Workbench (which was quite fitting I thought)



Sniffing Around in the Crypts:

The Great Wolf climbed through the window of the hut near the marsh, descended to the cellar and found the secret door leading into the underground crypt. He spent the entire game searching and was lucky enough to find the clue in the Hero's Tomb. Furthermore, he opened all of the sarcophagi and managed to earn one wildcard victory point as well. Although he triggered a curse, he suffered no ill effects since werewolves have no fear of the dead.



Pious Sir Thrustam:

After the debacle in the church yard, Sir Thrustam made his way into the church where he stopped for a quick moment of prayer (and earned himself an extra FATE point). He proceeded down to the church undercroft and found the clue associated with the Bishop's Seat.


Dr. Hartstone's Companion's Tie Up the Game:

My werewolves were in the lead for most of the game but as we neared the end, Marc started finding clues at an alarming rate. Antoine's right-hand man Johnson found the clue in the Barrels of Produce, Delilah found one at the second Pagan Stone, and in the last turn of the game, Antoine found a clue buried under the Sacred Tree.


Here's how the objectives and victory points were divided when the game ended:

The Werewolves found clues at one of the Pagan Stones (1), the Hero's Tomb (1), the Forgotten Grave (1), and earned two wildcard victory points for successfully searching the most sarcophagi (1)and the most chests (1) for a total of FIVE VICTORY POINTS.

The Mad Doctor and His Companions found clues at the Doctor's Workbench (1), the Sacred Tree (1), the Hilltop Monument (1), the Barrels of Produce (1), and the second Pagan Stone (1) for a total of FIVE VICTORY POINTS.

The British Monster Hunters found clues at the Cemetery Statue (1) and the Bishop's Seat (1) for a total of TWO VICTORY POINTS.

The Great Fireplace (1) in the village long house and the Child's Tribute (1) in the churchyard both remained unclaimed at game's end.

Although we never discussed how to break ties, I think since I lost two members of my warband and Marc never lost any, the final victory would go to his Mad Doctor. The next time around, I would like to do a couple of things differently. First of all, I would like enemy warbands to be able to search objectives even after they have been successfully searched by others since it would probably cause more interaction. Also, next time I would allow each player to randomly choose a couple of secret objectives that would be worth double victory points to their warband. That way, at game end it wouldn't necessarily be clear who was the winner.

In any event, we all had a great time, drank lots of tea, and will certainly have a re-match sometime soon.

Thanks for reading,
JET