|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 9, 2019 1:07:06 GMT
So I really enjoyed Company of Iron when it first dropped, but then I had to start focussing more on Warmachine when the WTC started gearing up and kept forgetting to bring my cards in to game nights. Finally broke that poor habit last night. I mostly like CoI as a way to kill time waiting for another opponent to finish their Warmachine game, but it had been so long that I really just wanted to focus on CoI and get back into it. With that in mind, my opponent and I took the narrative campaign from NQP # 1 and adapted it to our own forces.
The companies in question, as well as the little stories we each came up for them before the game, were:
Brun (Frontline Commander)
-Lug
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Swamp Gobber Chef
Hand Size: 5
Brun and Lug have been sheltering up in the northern mountains on their own for entirely too long. Their solitude has been broken by a rambunctious extended family of Swamp Gobbers. Lug took a liking to the excitable little newcomers (and particularly to the family chef), so Brun has reluctantly put up with the intrusion. Their antics have driven him to drink however, and supplies have grown dangerously low.
Valka (Master Strategist)
-Keg Carrier
Battle Bears and Handler
Hand Size: 4 (Weirdly, the Keg Carrier also comes as an illegal selection for the Northkin force in War Room, but we assumed this was a mistake as the Pyg is clearly stamped "Northkin").
"I'm going on a beer run" is what Valka thought he'd heard, but it turned out this damned bear-lover had actually said "bear run". Now he was somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, drunk to his eyeballs, trudging along in the wake of a pair of bears laden down with all the kegs they could carry.
Game 1
I neglected to take pictures of the first two games, so these will just be quick summaries.
There was a high-pitched screaming on the wind. Valka shook his head, trying to shake the irritating noise, noting with dull amusement that the bears were doing the same. Their Handler, a kin whose name he hadn't bothered to learn, called out from up ahead.
"Are those... Gobbers?"
As drunk and weighed down with beer kegs as they were, Valka and his compatriots had to pick their paths carefully and advance with slow deliberation across the field. They were beset on their right flank by a gaggle of excited Swamp Gobbers, who rushed headlong towards the trollin and bears. There was the sound of something heavy moving through the underbrush up ahead however, and from the way the bears were sniffing the wind it was clear that they could sense something dangerous approaching. Surely they weren't concerned about the Gobbers?
"Hurry up Lug," Brun roared at the loitering bear. "Those green idiots are going to get themselves killed unless we help-"
"Ma, nooooooo!" Brun looked over in time to see a huge, scarred trollkin barrel into the clump of Gobbers, cutting one of the Bellows Crew down in a rain of axe blows. Before he could move to help, however, the two Gobbers turned on their attacker. He seemed taken aback as the small bodies landed on him, bearing him to the ground, and eventually the body stopped twitching beneath the barrage of knife blows.
In a rather hilarious turn of events, it was a Bellows Crew member with a bunch of additional damage die who felled Valka. Unfortunately for me, they were literally too weak to lift any of the beer kegs he was carrying.
Lug was having fun. He'd found other bears, bears just like him and mother Brun! He hadn't had a good play like this in a while, but phew, they were going hard on him. His fur felt wet and it was getting hard to move his left poor. Maybe it was time to take a bit of a lie down.
The bears had been circling each other on opposite sides of a big forest, but finally they collided together. Lug left one of them injured and bleeding out, but "died" to the second one and its handler. The Gobbers, dancing on Valka's grave, ended up in a bit of a stalemate against the Keg Bearer.
There was some good booze here. Brun yanked his axe out of the dead bear's skull, picking up as much of the stuff as he could carry. The Gobbers had the last few Trollkin well and truly occupied, so it was time to get out of here. Lug might need help walking, but when they got back to the cabin it'd be time for a celebration.
|
|
|
|
Post by michael on Jan 9, 2019 1:23:37 GMT
Wait....are Brun and Lug (and the rest of the lesser warlocks + character warbeasts) allowed in CoI? I must have missed that update somewhere...or I just don't remember.  |
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 9, 2019 1:25:51 GMT
Game 2
Well, I'd managed to secure just two "Keg" tokens in the first fight of the campaign. Now it was time for an angry, not-so-dead Valka's counter-attack, and my poor objectives were sadly lacking in ablative armour. With only one tokens apiece, the objectives would go down in just two attacks.
Brun wasn't renowned for his hospitality, or his entirely stable mind. Drunk he might be, but he was drunk and paranoid. While Lug licked his wounds and slowly recovered from the fight, and the Gobbers partied late into the night, he made sure to split the remaining spoils. Half he sunk into the reflecting pool in front of his cabin, the other half he buried in the bunker out back.
Just before dawn, an unearthly howl sounded across the clearing. Brun was up and on his feet while the bedraggled, hungover Gobbers were still stirring. Time to see if his preparations had been enough.
This time around, Valka had been cunning. After he'd regenerated from the previous encounter, he'd sought out a new bear wrangler and a couple more bears to help him and his Keg Carrier get some revenge on the Gobbers who'd hurt him. These newcomers were sent wide, allowing them to flank the house and smash the stolen beer kegs. If Valka couldn't drink them, no one would.
Brun relaxed a little when he saw that his attacker was just the lone Trollkin who'd been felled by Gobbers in the previous fight, plus that Pyg who'd run off towards the end. "Come back for more?" he called out, letting a grin cross his face."
There was no reply. Indeed, the Trollkin appeared to be looking past him. Brun turned slowly, heart sinking when he saw Lug lagging behind him and turning to look off to the north. Resisting the urge to berate the big bear, Brun followed his gaze. He was just in time to see an entire pack of hunting bears come tearing out of the woods and into his precious bunker, smashing all the lovely booze and sending it spilling across the floor.
The Northkin theme force is honestly almost an auto-win on this scenario. My opponent and I both recognised that if he deployed a bear on each table side he'd be able to smash both my objectives and there wasn't much I'd be able to do about it (short of snatching more objective tokens in the previous game). We made it a game though, and all the bears arrived on the left side of the table and swiftly destroyed the objective there.
Panting, Brun tried to take stock of the situation. The Gobbers were running wildly towards the bears, but their enthusiasm wasn't having much of an impact. He and Lug were busy running as far from the bear pack as they could get. Then, all of a sudden, that big scarred Trollkin was up and in his face. An axe nearly took his head clean off, the second blow carved a furrow down his side. But then a roar sounded from behind him. Brun had a good look at the surprise on the Trollkin's face as he was battered left, then right, then bodily hurled straight into his Pyg friend. Neither of them got up again.
The Chef and one Bellows Crew member fell to slow the bears from getting to the last objective. Lug took out Valka and the Keg Bearer with his chain attack throw. It was probably going to come down to whoever got priority on the next round.
Brun picked himself up, wincing with every move. That bear had gone straight over the top of him. It was like being hit by a freight train. He looked in despair at the film of beer floating on the water of his reflection pool, diluted now beyond hope of saving.
The surviving Gobbers were burying their dead and playing with Lug, who looked far too pleased with himself after letting this happen. Brun grit his teeth. He was going to make those Trollkin pay.
After the knock down, drag out fight of the first game, this one played like a desperate race. I made a few desperate stalling tactics to try and give Brun and Lug time to deal with Valka quickly enough to then turn and face the bears bearing (hah) down on them, but it wasn't quite enough. Lost both my objectives to rampaging bears, and Brun himself went down before the end.
On to round three!
|
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 9, 2019 1:27:57 GMT
Wait....are Brun and Lug (and the rest of the lesser warlocks + character warbeasts) allowed in CoI? I must have missed that update somewhere...or I just don't remember. Yup. One of the No Quarters, but I forget which one specifically. The Rules Addendum download on the PP site has been updated with all the mechanics you need since then. I think it was around the same time Khador was given permission to use Berserker chassis Warjacks in COI, and Weapon Crews became legal? |
|
|
|
Post by michael on Jan 9, 2019 1:36:00 GMT
Hmm. I need to re-read that stuff. Last I checked the addendum didn’t have all the new rules in one place. Maybe I downloaded the wrong file...
Edited to add: yeah that is weird. Google “Company of Iron rules addendum” and the first likely file is a PDF from 2017. I must have grabbed that last time I grabbed the file.
|
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 9, 2019 1:56:39 GMT
Game 3 Brun checked his "troops" over one more time. These Gobbers had lost a lot of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins... he'd lost count honestly. Those that were left now hefted flaming torches in their hands and, despite his best advice, in their teeth, and eyed the Trollkin village below them with malice. Dropped torches had already sparked spot fires. The Trollkin had to know they were coming, and those blasted bears were probably laying another ambush already.
"You all know what to do," Brun said. He tried to think of some sort of inspiring speech, something from his mercenary days that he could call on to inspire the Gobbers. After a few seconds, he shrugged. "Whatever. Burn all the houses down." Brun, Lug, and one of the Bellows Crew members are each carrying two burning torches. The other two Gobbers are carrying one apiece. The bears are choosing to ambush in again. Round 1 Valka strode forward, arms spread wide. The dwarf and his bear were back, along with their chattering idiot friends. Between them, they were responsible for more new scars on his body than he cared to count. They wouldn't add another.
"Come and get me," he bellowed, loud as he could. Somewhere, lurking unseen, his own bears were waiting.The Gobbers ran forward howling, hanging just outside of Valka's Countercharge range. Brun moved up with Stonehold up, Lug ran to control the centre of the table.  Picture taken slightly after the beginning of round two. Round 2 The lurking bears didn't wait long before springing their trap. Lug bellowed, half-happy, half-in pain, as a particularly nasty specimen barreled into his left flank. The Gobbers pushed forward, seemingly oblivious to the big, battling mammals all around them. They began hurling torches onto the closest buildings they could find. One, sprinting ahead of the rest, tossed his only torch before racing to confront Valka. Chest puffed up, he stared down the massive Trollkin and prepared to make his family proud.
Brun, meanwhile, was trying to decide where to join the fight when a bear appeared in front of him. Staring at the tooth and claw, he braced himself for a fight when a second bear came flying out of the air and collided with the one in front of him. He glared at the far-too-smug Lug, and then raced to bowl over the Trollkin Bear Handler who was sneaking up behind Lug.In the midst of the chaotic melee, with bears being thrown and a Stumbling Drunk Valka failing to so much as hit a Gobber, I managed to land torches on the central and bottom building. Neither of them burst into flames at the end of the round, however.  Round 3 Rasafasaronamul grit his teeth. The big, scary Trollkin would feel his wrath soon enough. He raised his knife, ready to do some real damage, when a beer keg struck him in the back of the head. It knocked him over, more dazed than anything, and then he saw the Trollkin running away! He'd scared him off! Sure, the big guy was trying (and failing) to kill Ras's sister, but the important thing was that the Trollkin was scared of him.One bear bled out from his injuries, but mostly the Battle Bears vs Brun and Lug contest was a locked down stalemate. It was giving me time to get more torches into buildings, however. The Chef tossed his token onto the top-left structure, while the Bellows Crew who'd survived Valka's swings put a second token onto the central one. I still needed one more building with a torch on it to even have a chance to win, however.  Round 4 Lug was the best bear! Both of his playmates were sprawled out on the ground. He looked over to see where Mother Brun had gone, in time to see him vanishing among the buildings of the Trollkin village. Lug could smell smoke, the entire village was covered in it. But one of the Trollkin was chasing Brun, and Lug did not like that. He moved to follow, when something clobbered him in the back of the head.
That second bear had only been faking it! No fair. Lug's thoughts swam as darkness closed in. He'd wanted to be the best bear, but he'd been cheated.In a pretty brutal sequence, the last Battle Bear killed Lug, Valka killed the Bellows Crew member he was fighting, the Gobber Chef knocked down the last Battle Bear, allowing Brun to charge and kill Valka, and the Bear Handler to charge Brun (but failed to do enough damage to get through Stonehold and 13 health). The last Bellows Crew member and the Keg Bearer just flailed against each other ineffectually.  Fire finally started spreading, beginning with the central house and top-left house. Round 5 Brun strode among the smoke, breathing deep. It was a shame Lug was passed out somewhere on the field, he'd have enjoyed this. For the moment, he was inclined to take his time and enjoy the sights. He had a burning village at his back, and a pyg fighting a gobber for his entertainment. Now all he needed to do was find out where these trollkin had stashed their beer.The last bear bled out, the Bear Handler died to the Gobber Chef, and Brun was able to use a Command Card to set fire to the top-right building and make a full advance down towards the bottom of the board. The Bellows Crew Gobber burned through the rest of my Command Cards and managed to win his duel with the Keg Bearer, leaving the Pyg bleeding out on the ground. And the last two buildings I needed to win went up in flames!  This entire campaign, start to finish, played out in under three hours. Not bad for a single evening of gaming, and we had a blast as this story got ever more ridiculous. Good dice plus a ton of action cards left even Mat 3, P+S 5 Bellows Crew Gobbers coming off like champions, and that Gobber Chef with his Backstab turned out to be downright terrifying...[/i] |
|
|
|
Post by Soul Samurai on Jan 9, 2019 8:13:02 GMT
That was a fun read, thanks for posting it!
|
|
|
|
Post by The Snark Knight on Jan 10, 2019 12:04:02 GMT
Wait....are Brun and Lug (and the rest of the lesser warlocks + character warbeasts) allowed in CoI? I must have missed that update somewhere...or I just don't remember. It's in No Quarter Prime #5. They basically play like 'jack marshals that can run multiple beasts/jacks and cast spells by discarding cards. |
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 10, 2019 23:43:23 GMT
They can also boost using any card, which is occasionally useful. If I learned anything from these games though, it was that you lose a lot of output on a heavy Warbeast in Company of Iron. Lug felt roughly on par with a single bear in these games. On the other hand, Brun with Stonehold up is a pain in the butt unless your opponent grabs a few additional damage dice cards.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Snark Knight on Jan 11, 2019 4:47:05 GMT
Does Lug get to activate twice? I'm trying to remember the wording on that rule.
|
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 11, 2019 4:48:47 GMT
Do you mean Brun? Technically Lug is a Cost 0 model who comes free with the 16 point Brun.
But sadly, no. The four Minion Lessers with Companion Warbeasts are exempt from that rule. A bit of a shame, since the idea of Rorsh activating twice a turn to lay down an entire unit's worth of gunfire is enormously entertaining. But on the flipside, the activate twice rule was a silly addition, so no harm done.
|
|
