The Fall of Baalrakorth - Berlin summer 19 Vanguard campaign

[dabbk]

Here comes The Vanguard Summer '19 campaign in Berlin, Germany!

Campaign intro: A tale of Rordin the Dragonslayer
Countless heroes tried to sneak into the vast kingdom that was under Baalrakorth’s domination, but none came back to tell their story.
After many years, the old dragon became the stuff of legends. His power and riches were legendary indeed.
He is said to have gathered more riches than most kingdoms possess. Many lost artefacts are suspected to be in his keeping.
The pile of gold he sleeps on is said to be the size of one of the Dragon Teeth Eastern Mountains.

Countless heroes are still tempted to take their chances. Rordin the dwarf is one of them. Like many others before him,
numerous songs praise his bravery in battle. Like many others, Rordin has a special attraction to gold, and cannot resist the
amount that is to be had.

Unlike many others, Rordin came back from his encounter with Baalrakorth, with some wounds and, more importantly, new stories to tell.
He had fought Baalrakorth, and almost killed it! He had fought Baalrakorth, and survived to tell the world about it.
He had fought Baalrakorth, but had to go back to finish the job... and bring quite a few wagons to carry loot.

Weeks have past since Rordin launched his second expedition to an unknown location, somewhere south of Galahir.
Since then, his fate is the object of many rumors. Some say that Rordin has defeated the monster. Others that it was at the price of his own life.
Many fear that the monster is still alive, even if optimists say he is probably wounded. No one knows for sure.

One thing though, is known by all for certain: the amount of treasures that were under Baalrakorth’s guard is beyond imagination.
More and more brave warriors prepare for an expedition to track Rordin every day. Tension in the realm is now at its maximum,
as several companies are rumored to be on their way to the eastern fringe of the dragon teeth mountains....


Campaign info
I am coordinating our Berlin campaign, with these rules:

• 6 games of Vanguard played over about a couple of months. At least one game per fortnight. If time permits, we can organize gaming days with two or three games per day.
• Start date: June 23rd
• Campaign can accomodate any number of players ; no problem if you cannot participate for one cycle, but you must keep the coordinator informed about how things are going.
• It is best if you have already some experience playing Vanguard, but it is not a requirement.
• Standard campaign rules are used: 400pt company and 200pt battles (see rulebook).
• Standard rules from the book and FAQ apply ( http://www.manticgames.com/SiteData/Root/File/FREE%20RULES/Vanguard%20FAQ%20v1.0.pdf )
• Scenarios are chosen following the narrative… that you will discover as the story unfolds!
• Each cycle, you will receive an update on what is going on, and instructions for your next game. You must send back reports from your games: results for the campaign, but also any type of battle report with pictures will help make the campaign more than just a suit of games!
• Companies and details of the campaign will be tracked with this shared google spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FQECIZ5ZwCWG24HgNtsLt3Q5ioe24LcHlfwF9IqH5uM/ Send me a pm with your email address to be added to the list of editors of this file!
• Participants:
  • @dabbk (coordinator), with Northern Alliance Ogres
  • @John Lemon , with Orks
  • @HermanD, with Orks
  • Vincent, with Basileans
  • Florian, with Dwarfs
  • Andrew, with Twilight kin
  • @Fomorian , with Goblins
  • Sebastian, with KoM

Index of useful stuff:
Central tracking doc for the campaign:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FQECIZ5ZwCWG24HgNtsLt3Q5ioe24LcHlfwF9IqH5uM/
(to be edited)

 

[dabbk]

Cycle 1: finding Rordin
Our first cycle starts now: "where everyone is frantically trying to find information about what happened to Rordin, where Baalrakorth corpse is, and, incidentally, where his treasure is hidden"

Some spies have reported a presence of northern alliance, basileans, dwarfs, twilight kins, kingdom of men, goblins, and at least a couple of ork bands!
Who will be first on site to investiguate what has happened to Rordin... and Baalrakorth? It is still unclear, as their exact location is not known... Well informed generals have an idea of where to go for more information, but the overal situation is still quite confused.
No doubt that all of those who are rushing for gol... errr, to gloriously slay Baalrakorth or maybe rescue of Rordin will run into each other in their frantic search for more information.



We will play the Recover the Plans scenario (p54). In addition to the scenario description in the rulebook:
- Whoever gets to the 'dead spy' (which is actually "a clear sign of an epic fight against a dragon") first gets 1 XP.
- Whoever gets the plans (which are actually an excellent lead to Rordin!) get 1 XP. Several fighters can get 1 XP, but one fighter gets XP for plans retrival only once
- Whoever gets to the actual plans first gets an additionnal D8 CG! Because it looks like Rordin had started to take away some gold, but had to drop it hastily. Unsurprisingly enough, some seem to have been melted down...

 

[dabbk]

Batrep: first encounter

(pics to follow...)
Gorzaldin's boyz were foraging in a deserted town, looking for anything good: gold, weapons, something to roast and eat, something to drink to go along with it, or better: someone to kill. One of the Ax, hearing something, rushed to the house in the center of the town to hopefully catch a rat. He found even better! A large trace of burnt soil, pointing to another house of the village, and more interesting: elfs with dead wolves pelts on their backs! A group of them emerged from the forest nearing the village. Finally some action! It was gonna be a good day.

He quickly shouted to his master where to go look for more stuff about Rordin. One of the Moraxes on a pig took on himself to go there to have a look. As the Ax was shouting, the elves showered him with arrows... but not a single one hit him! A big northerner who was running toward him with a big axe ended up being a bit more accurate, and cut him in half!

The rest of Gorzaldin's boyz started to run toward the house following the Morax, half to be first there to catch some gold, half because arrows are pointy.

As the Morax reached the house, he found a cache of dwarf equipment, notes, and some gold. He was too occupied to count his gold to notice dabigboss running toward him, accompanied by a screaming half elf berserker. He got knocked down before he could realize what had happened to him!

Gorzaldin was running behind his boyz when he saw two of them fall to sneaky elf arrows. His friend the troll decided to go get some elf meat for lunch, and snacked on the arm of one of the shooters! His brother, enraged by the sight, planted two precise arrows in the troll! This was not exactly what Gorzaldin was expecting, and to avoid further harm, he decided to change his course, and run to the other side of the village, far away from those nasty northerners!


Revigored by their victory against the orcs, dabigboss and his men took all the gold they could find in the village, and went back to the base camp ; too foolish to keep their mouth shut about their recent adventure, and possibly a bit drunk, they completely mis negociated prices for more gear with a goblin' merchant caravan. No doubt that news of Rordin's cache discovery would now circulate in the whole Realm...

The orcs felt more like pillaging than fighting after all, and they found an old wizzard tower in the area: it was full of gold! It was a good day indeed...

Herman and I played the first cycle mission: recover the plans. He started quite strong, being the first on the center objective, and rolling for it actually being on the side more advantagous to him! My elf shooters also all failed to shoot a single grunt, even if I spent tons of powers on them to roll extra dice.
Then, on turn 2, I managed to shoot down a couple grunts with the shooters, but more importantly, I managed to sneak my thegn on a mount and a half elf berserker in charge distance from his morax on a mount who just had recovered the plans. Moraxes on mounts are great, but kind of the ultra glass cannon... With a couple group activation, and power spent to steal activation, I got first activation for turn 3. Too late for Herman to move his Morax out of the way. I rolled well, and stomped him.Herman decided to change his course with the group of fighters, but they were outof charge range, and within threat range from my shooters! He sent his troll clean up a bit: one hit, one dead elf. But then the troll took two wounds, putting Herman in a complicated situation... not willing to loose a large model in the first game, and in a difficult situation to get back to the plans now in the hands of my thegn on a mount, he decided to concede by the end of turn 3.

A pretty brutal first game for the campaign! But quite fun, and... if needed, a proof that those elf shooters are extremely good. For me personnally, also a sign that I know the NA list a bit too well to have fun in the campaign, so... Dabigboss will probably just GTFHome after being fooled by gobbos.... enter Beebeehoh (BigBadassOgre), the captin LEADER of my new warband Now I'm excited for the rest of the campaign with a new band, and also, to see how the story unfolds... ahem, I know where it's headed because I wrote the plot for the 6 cycles... but, nonetheless, I'm excited to see it happen on the gaming tables!