Miss Faversham and Fu Manchu

Oh no! Miss Faversham is in trouble again. Once more she is in an isolated building ...

... in an almost, but not quite, symmetrical terrain setup.

Yes, once again I've been trying out solo Battlesworn, this time using the Finding Miss Faversham scenario I played on holiday a couple of weeks ago.

And hunting for her this time - the Fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu, and his esoteric minions, assembled from various boxes of painted, but mostly unused, figures.

The warband consists of:

Dr. Fu Manchu - Leader/Witch
Lin Tang, his daughter - Familiar (Rabble/Rogue)
Giant Naga - Giant/Tank
Reanimated Skeletons x 4 - Fighters
Ghoul - Assassin/Rogue
Rats! - Swarm
The Giant Rat of Sumatra - Rogue

Opposing him were the Envoys of SAVE, with one new member - Ranjit Singh with his trusty shotgun.

Baron Adler - Brute/Chaos Warrior
Josephine Carfax - Sniper/Rogue
Reverend Philips - Witch-Hunter
Ranjit Singh - Arquebusier
Hired Muscle x 4 - Fighter
Hired Guns x 2 - Shooters

As you can see I decided to try some new classes from the Knights and Knaves book - Giant, Assassin, Witch-Hunter and Swarm.

I played SAVE with Fu Manchu being run by the solo system. This got him off to a great start, with the Naga and the Giant Rat being sent to secure Miss Faversham. I ruled that the Naga couldn't enter the building thouh.

In fact the Baron got to the building first, ducking past the Naga. The Naga has survived various shots fired from other Envoys without a scratch on his scaly hide..

The Baron rescued Miss Faversham, unopposed.

Why, you ask? Well, for turn after turn the NPC bidding for Fu Manchu's minions lost them the initiative, preventing them from charging and pinning the Baron in combat. They could move figures around, but lacking any firepower other than Fu Manchu's spells couldn't do much in response to SAVE's moves. Paralysis spells were tried, and failed.

As SAVE got the initiative again, the Baron slipped past the Naga, and headed for home.

Any chance of Fu Manchu intercepting him was thwarted as other agents moved to cover his escape.

So that was the end of the game. It ran for 9 turns and there wasn't a single melee. There was some shooting, but it failed to inflict any hits. Something of an anti-climax really.

So I ran it again.

This time things didn't go quite so easily for SAVE. The Baron was cursed. And again the Naga was moved up to provide muscle to cover the recovery of Miss Faversham.

This time there was combat!

Using the Giant ability, the Baron was hurled across the field of battle, seriously wounded.

The Ghoul moved in on Miss Faversham, whilst a SAVE gunman raced to intercept it.

The Naga moved to cover the Ghoul's escape, with the screaming Miss Faversham.

A skeleton engaged another gunman in combat, to prevent the Ghoul having to run a gauntlet of fire.

The Baron rushed to the rescue!

However since he was wounded and cursed he didn't stand a chance against the Ghoul, and ended up poisoned.

And the poison worked quickly, killing him and giving the Ghoul a chance to escape. Ranjit Singh moved up to try and prevent the escape. Unfortunately he had fired his shotgun at the Naga earlier, and hadn't had chance to reload.

The Ghoul ran for safety, dodging shots from Josephine Carfax. who failed to hit anything in either game.

"Miss Faversham, welcome. I am Dr. Fu Manchu'

*Miss Faversham faints*

I suspect that this scenario tends to favour the side which grabs Miss Faversham first, so I will consider changes to make that more difficult. I have considered  version where she is only being grabbed by one side. the other having her as a captive on their side of the table, but having to bring some, or all, of their force onto the board as the game progresses.

The Swarm and Witch-Hunter saw no action at all. The Giant/Tank combination was very powerful indeed, and I suspect that it needs to be brought down my lucky massed shooting, Brutes or another Giant, or that it needs to be neutralised by magic. In close combat low bids are no real use against it because of its ability to soak up damage, but if you bid high you risk it hitting you first and knocking you out of the fight. Assassin looks to be a useful ability as well.

As I hinted above, Fu Manchu's force was cobbled together from other figures I painted for our Chill games in the 1980s, and some of them haven't seen the light of day since then. Fu Manchu is from a Grenadier Miniatures villains set, his daughter is an old Ral Partha Elf Princess, and the Skeletons, Ghoul and Giant Rat are from Citadel. The rat swarm is from Essex, and the Naga is a painted resin model I picked up on a bring and buy many, many years ago and have never used until now.