Shortshank redemption pt.7. The quay to the city?

Crashart did not know what was more disconcerting; the smell of the putrid river being carried on the stagnant air or the vision of the youngblood Ben, with his newly shaven head and self mutilation where he had sown his own lips together with leather twine.

Crash guessed the blow Ben took to the head last foray was harder then he first thought.

Crash did not even want to imagine how the silly sod ate now! Maybe he REALLY liked soup?

To add to his depression  the bloody Dwarves were following them again! Despite their bloody nose last encounter they were still making a habit of following the Reiklanders and nicking their Wyrdstone off them on the way home.

Did they not realise all I wanted to do was grab enough Wyrdstone to desert this shithole and retire to a nice, cheap, brothel in his homeland of Tilea and leave all this foolishness behind him?

Both Kris and I were foaming at the mouth to get our next game in last night. I had bought and printed the Wardenhale Docks from Drive thru RPG.com and made sure the board was all set up and ready to go.

DrivethruRPG.com is a good site for tile maps with lots of free resources.

It was a classic 'breakthrough' scenario with Kris needing to run the gauntlet of my Marksmen to break through to my back table edge.

Kris set up as far forward as possible while I keep my forces the required 14" back and put everyone into hiding. I know 'Spook' is a marked man so bunkered him down in an abandoned house on the pier to see if I could distract Kris with him and force him over to the right and away from all the cover?

 The 'Wild Bunch' set in the blocks and ready to go!

Kris charges forward aggressively and I worry if he keeps this up I will be forced to relinquish the field without causing him enough casualties to effect his Wyrdstone search afterwards.

Truth be told, once we had rolled 'breakthrough' I was more then happy to keep out of reach and let Kris charge through. My plan is to not lose any of my warband and be content to snipe at his forces as they run the gauntlet or maybe even mob any stragglers at the back because Kris would not have to force the moral check to win the game.

Because of 'Spook' and his shooting abilitiies Kris decides to skirt round the tower and run along the table edge. Sneaky sod, I had not thought of that!

I expose my Marksmen in order to fire but fail to make a SINGLE hit!

Oh man, is it going to be one of those games?

Kris sets 'Cribb' his Pit fighter after 'Spook' and then disaster!

Cribb jumps off the jetty, down to the mud, "Anything but a 5 or 6 will see him pass the initiative roll" I say. Kris rolls a 5. "Don't worry it's only a strength 3 hit", Kris rolls a 6 to wound. "Shit mate, don't roll a 5 of 6!", Kris rolls a five and takes Cribb out of the game by having him jump down a 3" gap!!

I guess Kris is going to have one of those games as well!

With the rest of Kris' forces approaching fast I decide to pull any Marksmen who do not have a shot back.

Thanks to 'quick shot' and 'trick shot' Spook manages to hit the Dwarf engineer with a plus two - wound roll thanks to a critical hit. A decent wound roll sees the Engineer taken out of action.

The bulls eye on Spooks back just keeps getting bigger!

As a nice surprise for Kris I have Crashart pop round the corner and have him let fly with his new bow thanks to his new 'weapons expert' skill upgrade.

With the repositioning of Archie and Papa to cover the Dwarves sneaking up the left of the board, Kris decides to make what I think is the decisive move of the game and pulls this strong force of 4 Dwarves back again.

This allows me to isolate and concentrate my fire on the Dwarves forcing the centre of the table as well as giving me free rein of 3 quarters of the board, rather then coralling me into a smaller and smaller area. Only two of those Dwarves had to make it off the table edge to win the game.

Another nightmare for Kris when Spook hits Dwarf Maul with a glancing shot that only knocks him down. Unfortunately Maul then fails the roll and falls from the first story and takes himself out with the injury roll.

Spook is a marked man!

I start to move aggressively up the right flank and then spot the Troll Slayer and Noble hiding behind the tower. I decide discretion is the better part of valour and pull my boys back.

I leave my two crossbowmen to cover the flank and race the melee members into the centre of the board to get to grips with the survivors in the centre.

Ale-Axe-Ander runs up the tower and pops out on the balcony to discharge his pistol into Papas face. Other then having Papa full his leggings the shot is ineffective!

Archie is sitting on BS six and only needs to roll a two to hit. . . . . . . Yep rolls a one. Will this fella ever hit anything other then the floor?

With the loss of another Dwarf Kris needs to take a moral check and fails with room to spare. Kris holds his hands up and admits he would have thrown the towel in anyway just to end the misery.

Shame the game was such a grind for him as we were both really looking forward to locking horns.

As we stand. . . . . .

On to Clock Tower next week.