Legend of the Shachihoko

Off the coast of ancient Japan, raiders move in from the sea.

A fortified fishing village remains unaware ...

... until sails are sighted on the horizon.

The first raiders rush ashore, but the villagers see them off with spear and bow.

But more raiders attack. The village put up a desperate defence. Many raiders fall. More villager fall.

The village burns.

But the island shakes. The sea boils ...

... and a mighty Shachihoko appears to avenge the fishermen.

It lunges forward, crushing one of the ships beneath its massive body.

It's fearsome jaws destroy a second.

The third ship attempts to escape, but soon the monster is on them as well. They fight back, and wound it with arrows, but its jaws snap left and right and soon the crew of that ship are devoured.

The village is avenged, and the Sachihoko returns beneath the waves.

This is the 'Release the Kraken' scenario from the main Galleys and Galleons rules, and was a chance to try out the rules for both Bastions and Creatures. The attackers must destroy a fort in the centre of the table, which will trigger the appearance of a creature. They must then get as many ships off the board as they can. In this game they got the fort, but none of them escaped.

In fact my Bastion was a little non-standard, in that it had no ranged weapons beyond small-arms. But then neither did the attackers. I allowed ships to grapple the island, and launch boarding actions against the village, and that seemed to work OK, representing landing parties in an effective, playable but abstract way.

Village- Q4 C2 - Bastion, Unarmed, Veteran NCOs, Marksmen - 27pts
(The Veteran NCOs and Marksmen represent them defending their village from the walls. Marksmen was horribly effective, and I may give the Reinforced Hull if I did this again, so they have defence against small arms)

Raiders - Q3 C3 - Square Rig, Sweeps, Unarmed, Shallow Draft, Intimidating - 36pts
(Shallow Draft was a given, seeing as the ships had to run right up to the land. And, yes, they are Viking ships. I was going to add an extra bit to the story about them being lost Vikings, but they can just as easily be local pirates/raiders))

The Shachihoko - Q4 C4 - Creature, Submersible, Intimidating, Reinforced Hull, Ramming - 83pts
(The Shachihoko is a real creature from Japanese folklore, although I'm not sure they are as monstrous as the one in this scenario. It is a creature with the body of a carp and the head of a tiger, and figures of them are often used as decorations on the eaves of buildings as they are said to have magical powers to control water and defend against fire. If you made this a magical creature, it would probably be a hydromancer.)

And the most important feature of this game? It is the first I've played where all of the figures were 3D printed.

Here is a link to the Shachihoko

Here is a link to the set containing the ships - I rescaled them; the original is about 40mm long; I went for 25mm.

The village/fort can be found in this set.