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Monday 14 May 2018

Chaos in Carpathia - actually - Chaos in Cambridge

For the past few weeks strange goings on, have been - 'going on' in Little Piddling in the Marsh.

First a sheep was found savaged, throat torn out, lots of blood spilt but the carcase was mainly intact. This was put down to wild dogs, foxes or even as one or two of the older folk muttered - wolves.

They knew it was common knowledge that wolves had been eradicated 150 years ago, but in the dark of the night, with the full moon shining, what else could have made that chilling howling but wolves, big ones at that.

Then a few nights later 4 of the village guard dogs disappeared without a trace. Great big beasts they were, steady and reliable dogs. Just disappeared into the night! People were starting to get nervous, no one left their homes after dark.

When farmer Prendergast’s bull was found dead, also with his throat ripped out but this time the carcase was partly eaten things were getting really scary. This was not the work of foxes or dogs.

Word was sent to the big house.

Finally when Mary Scroggins didn’t return home after visiting her friend in the next village, Much Piddling in the Marsh in the demesne of Mad Lord Snapcase, then Sir Marmaduke Langdale the local landowner with three of his friends and comrades in arms decided they would have to intervene.

This is a game I posted on LAF about a year ago - so sorry if you may have already read it, but I have been inspired by Greg to dig out the Gothic Horror figures and continue the story of Mary Scroggins, to do that you need to be aware of the strange doins that had been done before, this is part of the story so far.

Little Piddling in the Marsh on a moonlit but overcast night. The year is 1655, shortly after the bloody Civil War, what evil still lurks there out in the dark of the night!!!


Views of the village from the south. The inhabitants sleeping fitfully hoping that daylight will arrive quickly - and they will live to see it.

Most of the farm animals are penned in the fields to the north of the village.

Sir Marmaduke Langdale (ML), Jeremiah Pile (JP) and Baxter the dog are hiding in the hut partially in view closest to us. Simon Dark (SD) and Jonathan Hawke (JH) who drew the short straw are hiding in the pig pen in the field. It is late and they are all getting sleepy, if they fail their activation 3 times in a row they will fall asleep.

These houses don’t have lift off roofs so I use a 130% ground plan of the houses to place the figures. Sir Marmaduke is in the hut lower left.

This is as usual a solo game and I am playing the humans, so to maintain my surprise and suspense I'm using a number of counters to represent the monsters, for each counter when revealed I turn over a playing card each card has an allocated monster. There are a greater number of counters and cards than monsters, so that when a card is turned over and it could denote a blind card or a monster and also which monster. Hope that makes sense. Probably not.

Usually I would be hunting the monsters but this time I have laid an ambush for them and the bait is the farm animals. If anyone has any other ideas on how to create an attacking enemy and maintain surprise shout out with your ideas.

The monsters entered the board from here, 8 counters move left through the woods and 2 to the right towards the village. Their objective was to slaughter a goat and escape undetected off the board. The humans objective was to discover who was creating mayhem and stop them.

The wind is blowing right to left, the monsters counters have been moving forward for 4 turns, they can smell the humans but are fixated on the animals up ahead.

Sir Marmaduke has failed his activation for the 1st 3 moves and is fast asleep in the hut as they go past. Baxter the dog is also asleep and because of the wind direction does not smell the monsters and wake.

In the pig pen JH and SD have failed their activation twice and are almost asleep as well, must have been the wine they all drank earlier.

Not looking so good for the Sir Marmaduke and his companions.

The start of turn 5 and the monsters move forward to within 6”, of the pen, in the dark that is finally insight. JH passed his 3rd activation and did not fall asleep so sees them to be revealed as 2 hairless werewolves (quite rare I believe) a green ghoul and 3 of the village dogs, red eyed and slavering.

Food - thinks the animals and attack.

Shit – thinks the Cavaliers and fire.

JH’s shot goes wide but SD hits the Ghoul, good start I thinks but it shrugs off any damage and keeps coming. Humm not so good.

Savage fighting ensues but even though they are so outnumbered the good guys stay on their feet and even inflict some damage on one of the dogs.

The shots wake everyone.

Hopefully you noticed there were 8 counters moving forward on the left but they resolved as only 6 monsters.

Just out of camera Baxter the dog erupts from the hut barking a challenge, which is taken up by the howl of a werewolf as it turns to face him.

SD goes down under the teeth of the dogs and claws of the ghoul but JH remains standing inflicting some minor damage on the other werewolf. It is now odds of 5 to 1, it’s a good job he said prayers before setting out today.


The werewolf charges at Baxter. Sir Marmaduke and Jeremiah emerge from the hut in time to fire at the Werewolf as it charges, they both hit and cause enough damage ordinarily to kill it, but it passes the KO test and carries on (Should have brought the silver bullets). Baxter only has to bite it once and it’s curtains for the werewolf. Not that easy as the Werewolf is 2m high and Baxter is only .4m. Werewolf wins in the melee but fails to inflict any damage.

The Ghoul and one of the dogs have left the fight against JH and are going to help against Baxter and co. The remaining werewolf and dog continue the fight and inflict some damage on JH. This is a real ding dong battle, all three of them have now taken damage.

The Ghoul and ravening dog rush to the fight, howling, not to be thought slackers ML and JP draw their swords shouting their battle cry, For King and Country (guess which side they were on in the recent war) and attack the abominations. The Ghoul is injured but otherwise the fighting is inconclusive. Not so in the background where you can just see (if you squint) the werewolf has fallen to the keen sword of JH but he is still fighting two of the dogs.

A better shot of that fight.

The hairy Werewolf and another dog start to make their way to the fight but …

Richard Howe is looking out of the window and sees the dog, but not the wolf and shoots, hits and causes some damage but not enough to bring the dog down.

Whoops, ohh bugger, Richard sees the Werewolf as it passes the window, he is trying to reload his matchlock musket but is shaking so hard (bad Resolve roll) as the outer door bursts in. Just one door between him and destiny, and he just knows that he is not going to get that gun loaded in time. It looks like he is going to meet his destiny. Oh bugger.

Meanwhile Baxter has finally bitten the Werewolf in the leg and it is down and out. Baxter moves to help his master Sir Marmaduke.

The fights have finally reached a conclusion, total victory for Marmaduke, Baxter and Jeremiah. Ghoul dog and werewolf lie dead on the ground but disaster for Jonathan Hawke, he has killed one of the dogs but the other one has torn his throat out and he is down bleeding to death.

The dog looks around, all is lost and he runs away.

The final footnote, Ki the hairy Werewolf breaks down the bedroom door and devours poor Richard, before leaving with his hound at heel.

Our heroes in happier times - from left to right Jonathan Hawke RIP. Simon Dark RIP. Sir Marmaduke Langdale. Jeremiah Pile. Baxter the dog would not stand still for his photograph to be taken, he must be off fetching some ball or bone (who's bone?).

This was my first full game of Chaos in Carpathia, a variation from my normal rule set, the fights seemed to last an age, and I amended the rules a bit, especially activation, as this was a solo game my opponent agreed, sometimes reluctantly, with every change.
For me the jury is out on these rules, the mythos is good but I'm not so sure about the combat. They are sufficiently similar to the ones I usually use that I am thinking of making some conversions to them, or to my existing ones to make them compatible.

If you are still with me – thanks for reading so far and if you did pass this way I'm always pleased to hear from you.

I'm off to Warwick for a couple of days, to look at the castle and will catch up on my return.
Cheers

34 comments:

  1. A great AAR John, the combat seemed pretty well matched so wondering what the problem is ? Enjoy your time at Warwick Castle

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    1. Thanks Dave - this was the first game with the rules so I think I need a bit more practice with them for combat in particular to operate more smoothly.

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  2. And so die all Royalists (guess which side I was on in ECW reenactment), but I guess they died bravely.
    Super little fight and whilst I have heard of the rules, this is the first time that I read an aar using them. At first I did think you were using THW rule, they mechanics of the rules seemed so familiar.
    Great set-up but what of Mary ? Looking forward to another of these scenarios.

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    1. They use similar methods of die rolling systems, I used my version of 2HW activation.

      The search for Mary Scroggins is the next installment.

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  3. Brilliant write up and a fantastic looking set-up - as ever :-)
    I was half expecting to see a "transformed" Mary turn up as one of the monsters, so as Joe says, "where's Mary?"
    Bravo sir, and I'm eagerly awaiting more tales of chaos in Cambridge :-)

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    1. Cheers Greg, that's a good idea for Mary, the search for Mary is the next installment.

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  4. Awesome as usual. Master of the 2HW Guild. ;-)

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    1. Thanks mate, although I'm not sure it's true:)

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  5. Wow!! Great report, as always, although not as fun as your western ones, since I couldn't see any decision rolls.

    Chaos in Carpathia has always sounded like an interesting ruleset, but...
    1) Maybe it's a good idea to drop the system and just port some specific rules to your own solo system. In the end, wouldn't it be easier to use one single system (yours!) to rule every skirmish?
    2) A gothic horror game with no panic tests?
    3) "The Ghoul and one of the dogs have left the fight against JH and are going to help against Baxter and co." Who decided this, was it you or was it dice?

    Great report; thank you very much, sir.

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    1. You have some good points there. The rules I use don't have a horror element to them, they do have reaction tests and these are easily adapted and added to and I'm in the process of doing that.
      Combat is between humans even if some are zombies, so I've been thinking how bites, claws, hypnotizing stares, draining blood etc can be added to fists, knives and swords. So I will maybe import the mythos into my version of the rules and keep it simple for myself.

      I've just had a quick skim through the rules and there are no panic/reaction tests, except against a few specific creatures that have a terrifying aura or something else, but it works as a combat mechanism rather than you run blindly away.
      Your last point, I can't remember and my notes don't help. These rules are intended to be used by opposing players rather than as a solo game so there are no decision making systems, the monsters are effectively just a gang, team or whatever you want to call them, and they move as the controlling player requires.
      I've looked at a few horror rule sets and they don't give me what I want from a horror game.
      This was discussed a few posts back in the comments, and there were a lot of good ideas bandied about.
      Pleased you enjoyed the write up though.
      Cheers

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  6. Hi, John. I remember reading this when you first posted it on the LAF. I enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it just as much today. Terrific writing, set up, game play and story. Your batreps are always so entertaining, whatever the setting or genre. All the best.

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    1. Thanks Bryan, I've hung on to some game reports because I knew you had read them but I wanted to set the scene with these so I can try out the adaptations I've made to my existing rules and delve a little further into Gothic horror.

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  7. a beautifully thematic board - stunning! the fight went well(ish) for the good guys, not sure of the ruleset you used as I've never heard of them, but I'm pretty sure they can be adapted if you're not a fan.

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    1. dGG there is a lot of good stuff in these rules, the Goal System is used in quite a few rule sets but I do like the speed and simplicity of Ed's rules for combat.

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  8. Compliments to the script-writer and cameraman, the costumer and the location scout! Fun report!

    Enjoy Warwick castle. I thought it was a cool castle myself, and nice gardens and grounds to explore, too.

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    1. Thanks Fitz, I'll pass your compliments on.

      Warwick castle was not quite what I expected but I didn't realise it was owned by the same company that owns lego land, Alton towers and the London eye. I expected a bit more serious castle history but we had a great time watching them fire a trebuchet, fly some amazing birds of prey and generally wandering round a stately home.

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  9. Brilliant stuff John! Great story and game - I have to also say that your tables are just fantastic, I really love how the terrain, roads, buildings, etc. all "blend" in together and looked "fixed" in place (hopefully that makes sense!) like a permanent board :)

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    1. Thanks Ivor, I really appreciate that observation. I know I've not achieved that blending but it is what I'm aiming for.
      Over the last few years I've re-worked most of my terrain to try to make it sit together in harmony on the board.
      Cheers

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  10. Loved it! What an ace battle report. Love the setting, the miniatures, the table all of it is brilliant

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    1. Cheers Simon, that's very kind of you to say so.

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  11. Another enjoyable read, seem to have been a tough time to live (and die) in. Monsters were relly real, at least in peoples mind.
    I'm so impressed with the terrain, just great stuff.
    I visited Warwick Castle a while ago, must have been... 10 years... ehr, maybe 20... (counting) well, actually 30 years ago. Oh dear, time flies

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    1. Hi Joakim - I was always a big fan of Hammer House of Horror films, probably the lowcut necklines of the dresses on some very nice ladies, but I'm digressing.
      I'd like to try and get a really Gothic feel to my games, this one isn't nor the one to come but I have some thoughts on how to get closer to what I'm after. However I don't think my irreverent writing style is suited to the macabre setting, not sure what I can do about that.
      Thanks for the observation on the terrain, I'm quite pleased with how it all looks together now but it's been a long road, the houses are very old and I never liked them, threw them out once, they've been repainted at least 3 times and I would like to redo the thatch but just can't work up the enthusiasm.
      Don't start me on time flying, it gets faster the older you get, probably because you realize it doesn't last forever.
      Cheers

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    2. When you're 10 years old then one year is 10% of your life. That feels like pretty much. 10% more experiences.
      Now... it's far less.
      But it must last forever, or else I will never paint everything in the plastics- and tin-mountain!

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    3. Well if that's how life expectancy works I'll have to buy some more figures. :)

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    4. Me and the pals are all in agreement on this, so it must be true
      It's worth a try, anyway :D

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  12. Hi John, I was away on hols but glad to get to see this before it was finished showing in the local picture house :) as always another great showing with everything looking right & dandy, unlike some of the other viewers been Irish I was on neither side of your CW so could happily route for the monsters, bring on the next chapter as I want to see if that werewolf has grown any hair & pay no heed to Joakim if he had his way we'd be all be to busy painting models to make any movies lol

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  13. Hi Frank, hope you had a good holiday, Ireland or abroad?

    Someone has been watering the werewolf and it's all grown up in the next film that should be visiting a cinima near you in the near future. :)

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    1. Yep hols were good with nice sunshine so I'll let you guess if it was in Ireland or abroad ;)

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    2. We've been having sunshine here for a while so it could be Ireland but I'm betting not.

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  14. Just goes to show, you can't trust those buggers at Little Piddling! Another of your lovely looking set-ups. Great game and report.

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    1. Cheers Martin, I think you might be wrong about the Little Piddling lot though. We will see how it pans out.

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