Return To The Halls Of Horror

A couple of years ago I posted a Battlesworn scenario in which a group of SAVE envoys had to stop Fu Manchu enacting a dark ritual. It made use of not only of my collection of 1980s Citadel Call of Cthulhu figures, but of the wonderful floorplans GW put out at the time for horror RPGs.

Anyway, last night I played the scenario with Caesar. He took SAVE, whilst I got to be the evil Doctor.

SAVE have to get across the hallway, up the stairs, along the balcony and into Fu Manchu's chamber as quickly as possible. Fu Manchu has an endless army of skeleton minions dedicated to stopping them.

And not just skeletons; Jack the Ripper joined in the fun as well. There was plenty of fighting in the hallway.

Jack the Ripper was slain, but some of SAVE's figures were now wounded as well.

Fu Manchu's forces appear randomly, and most of them seemed to be coming from the archways on either side of the hall. This left the landings relatively free, so those agents of SAVE who got up the stairs found their way relatively unimpeded.

If you look closely, a mummy has joined the fight in the hall.

Time was running out; Fu Manchu enacted the first part of his ritual. Three successes would see him win.

The agents hit a bottleneck; a doorway. Beyond it was Fu Manchu's daughter, who could be used by him to cast spells without a line of sight. Through her he magically paralysed the mighty warrior Ranjit Singh in the doorway, delaying SAVE for a turn.

A SAVE gunman downed the mummy, but was seriously injured himself.

The Baron broke through into the corridor and engaged Fu Manchu's daughter. In normal circumstances this would have been a one-sided fight, since she is a simple, puny familiar, whereas the Baron is a might Brute, but he had been cursed earlier making  him far less effective in combat. She even wounded him.

The Baron got her in the end.

But her sacrifice hadn't been in vain. She bought enough time for Fu Manchu to complete the ritual. Even if SAVE had made the chamber in time, their way was blocked by his bodyguard, Hassan The Silent.

The final positions.

This was the first time I had played the scenario with a live opponent. It was a lot of fun, but we found that the bottlenecks are rather critical. The programmed Fu Manchu I was used to playing against didn't really exploit them, whereas I did, making Caesar's job pretty difficult. I need to rethink that part of the scenario when I play it again. But regardless of the outcome the game was great fun to play.

Geoff and Gary played HOTT, using large numbers of 15mm figures on 60mm frontages. It looked spectacular, especially at 48AP.

Gary's army was made up primarily of Demonworld beastmen, and looked awesome.

Bryan and Ralph played Team Yankee.

Geoff has been decluttering, and was giving away figures, so I now have a pile of 15mm medievals to sift through this weekend with a view to assembling a couple of DBA armies I've been keen to try. Thanks Geoff!