We were celebrating Michael's birthday, and for the occasion, he organised a game using his own boats, miniatures, and scenario. As is typical with his games, there was a catch, which I quickly figured out.
UMPIRING: Michael Schneider
1. Forces.
In our game, two Viking commanders, David and Alasdair, led the Vikings. Each commander had two ships and roughly equal forces. On the shore, they faced the Norman forces, which were led by Tim and me. Initially, Michael served only as the game master. The game board featured an abbey and three villages, all abbey properties, each containing a treasure. Players aimed to collect as many treasures as possible by the end of the game.
2. The game.
First, I must acknowledge that I had a significant advantage over the other players. Remembering Michael's previous "special" games and his purchases during the last Claymore, I realised that this would not be a typical game of "reach the building, find the treasure, and escape." I expected supernatural elements, hordes of zombies, or something similar; I was wrong about the zombies. However, I was correct about everything else.
Tim and I divided our forces; I took two units of foot soldiers to defend the abbey, while Tim headed to the shore to fend off an incoming Viking landing. However, this was a ruse: my real plan was to retrieve treasures from two nearby villages, bring them back to the abbey, and hold that position until the end of the game. That's exactly what I did: I sent one unit to the village at the tip of the right-hand headland and the other to the village near the abbey.
My initial assumptions were correct. As soon as I entered the village, the first ghost—an abbey guardian—leapt at me. Instead of fighting it, I grabbed the treasure and ducked into the abbey, only to be attacked by another ghost shortly after. The situation quickly grew dire, as both ghosts were formidable foes. I decided to evacuate the abbey with the treasure. This proved difficult because of my poor activation rolls, while the two ghosts effectively decimated my unit. My numbers were eventually halved, but I finally broke free from the abbey and escaped off the table with the treasure. It wasn't exactly a heroic escape, but that wasn't the main objective.
My second unit's story didn't unfold as successfully as the first. It reached a village on a headland, but on the outskirts, Alasdair's berserkers attacked after he landed his ships on the beach. While some of his forces engaged Tim, others focused their attention on my second unit. I defeated Alasdair's men and entered the village to seize the treasure, only to be confronted by spirits. They wiped out half my unit, but I escaped. At that point, I discovered that the treasure—a golden crucifix—shielded me from the spirits, though it offered no protection against arrows. A second group of Alasdair's men gave chase, raining arrows down on the remnants of my unit and reclaiming the crucifix.
Tim chose a more heroic approach by engaging in a series of battles against David, who had just landed his ships. Instead of focusing on the treasure, Tim concentrated on combat, and before long, his forces were decimated. This left the path to the final village wide open for David, even though he was still quite far away. In the end, I won the game by securing the most treasure. The key to any victory is effective reconnaissance and, at times, sacrificing other players to distract opponents. As the saying goes: LET OTHERS FIGHT — I'LL LOOT IT ALL!
3. Links.
SESWC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/631841809210352
FLICKR:
SONG ABOUT THE GAME:
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