This is mostly me rambling on about the choices I made when I converted the classic Bloodbath at Orc's Drift campaign for Dragon Rampant.
The first decision was what has precedence. I decided to keep as close to the original in spirit as I could. Obviously this is a very subjective measure. I wanted to keep the Dragon Rampant rules as is, but gave myself permission to add new traits and glory conditions, and indeed to set these for each battle, as I believe they can help drive the story. I would use reduced and single model unis to cover characters and the generally small size of some of the forces, eventually I realised that a little invention for special characters might add to the play experience, but I kept that to a minimum. I also selected various of the special rules and applied them as seemed fit.
For Kachas Pass I looked at what the original gave me. 15 wood elves and one (suicidal) commander. The remaining elves and the lieutenant remain 'off table'. 40 orcs, 1 rock giant and a (cowardly) orc commander. There is also a captured spy who is intended as a GM character (because back then the game was intended to be played with a third party referee) acting as a mobile objective for both sides.
The basic troops were pretty straight forward. The 15 elves became 2 reduced model units of Light Missiles with the Sharpshooter ability added. I also gave them Fleet Footed, though in the play through this was never an issue. As the original game has them waiting for the ill fated patrol to appear, any Move activation that would take the elves out of the compound has a -1 penalty for the first 3 turns, after that it is obvious that the patrol isn't coming back. The elves do not need to take Morale tests for suffering casualties whilst in the compound, though all other morale triggers apply.
The orcs became 4 units of Light Foot and the giant was a Greater Warbeast.
The commanders were where I got a bit more creative. The Wood Elf commander is seeking a noble death to atone for his adultery (you wouldn't get that in Age of Sigmar). He became a single model Elite Foot with Wild Charge to encourage him to seek his glorious death and Missiles to represent his bow. I invented a new trait and a new quest for him; Self Motivated, allowing him to reroll a failed Attack activation test (again to get him into combat) and A Glorious Death, +2 Glory if he personally finishes off the Orc commander or the giant (cumulative) and +3 Glory if either of these units destroy him. As hoped this encouraged the elf player to really try to get Erdolas into combat with the nastiest enemy possible as soon as possible.
The Orc commander apparently 'missed' the previous battle, and wants to silence the spy who knows all about this. I thought the might be a bit distrustful of him and gave him the Insipid trait. i stated him up as a single model Heavy Foot unit, with Offensive partly to remove Wall of Spears, which is very hard to justify on one orc, and, well he is an orc commander. I gave him a special quest, Silence the Spy; Fangor gains 3 Glory if he personally finishes off the spy.
The spy was assumed to escape on his first successful move activation. he had his own phase at the end of each turn. He basically moved away from any other models, I borrowed the mechanics form Frostgrave's Monster AI.
The final bit of work was in designing the glory available to determine victory. I'll admit this bit didn't go as well, I need to rebalance the actual values. The aim is to award glory to the orcs for destroying the elven units and being in possession of the compound at the end of the battle, extra points are available for killing the spy as per Fangor Gripe's quest.
The elves get points for destroying orc units and especially the giant and Fangor Gripe. Erdolas Thringol's personal quest means they loose points if he survives, and they loose points if the half orc spy escapes.
The idea is to balance the glory so that if the elves do sufficient damage to the orcs they can actually win. They may not be around to enjoy it, but their sacrifice will help the defenders at Orc's Drift later. I'll have another go at this, but if anyone wants to make suggestions I'd like to see them.
The first decision was what has precedence. I decided to keep as close to the original in spirit as I could. Obviously this is a very subjective measure. I wanted to keep the Dragon Rampant rules as is, but gave myself permission to add new traits and glory conditions, and indeed to set these for each battle, as I believe they can help drive the story. I would use reduced and single model unis to cover characters and the generally small size of some of the forces, eventually I realised that a little invention for special characters might add to the play experience, but I kept that to a minimum. I also selected various of the special rules and applied them as seemed fit.
For Kachas Pass I looked at what the original gave me. 15 wood elves and one (suicidal) commander. The remaining elves and the lieutenant remain 'off table'. 40 orcs, 1 rock giant and a (cowardly) orc commander. There is also a captured spy who is intended as a GM character (because back then the game was intended to be played with a third party referee) acting as a mobile objective for both sides.
The basic troops were pretty straight forward. The 15 elves became 2 reduced model units of Light Missiles with the Sharpshooter ability added. I also gave them Fleet Footed, though in the play through this was never an issue. As the original game has them waiting for the ill fated patrol to appear, any Move activation that would take the elves out of the compound has a -1 penalty for the first 3 turns, after that it is obvious that the patrol isn't coming back. The elves do not need to take Morale tests for suffering casualties whilst in the compound, though all other morale triggers apply.
The orcs became 4 units of Light Foot and the giant was a Greater Warbeast.
The commanders were where I got a bit more creative. The Wood Elf commander is seeking a noble death to atone for his adultery (you wouldn't get that in Age of Sigmar). He became a single model Elite Foot with Wild Charge to encourage him to seek his glorious death and Missiles to represent his bow. I invented a new trait and a new quest for him; Self Motivated, allowing him to reroll a failed Attack activation test (again to get him into combat) and A Glorious Death, +2 Glory if he personally finishes off the Orc commander or the giant (cumulative) and +3 Glory if either of these units destroy him. As hoped this encouraged the elf player to really try to get Erdolas into combat with the nastiest enemy possible as soon as possible.
The Orc commander apparently 'missed' the previous battle, and wants to silence the spy who knows all about this. I thought the might be a bit distrustful of him and gave him the Insipid trait. i stated him up as a single model Heavy Foot unit, with Offensive partly to remove Wall of Spears, which is very hard to justify on one orc, and, well he is an orc commander. I gave him a special quest, Silence the Spy; Fangor gains 3 Glory if he personally finishes off the spy.
The spy was assumed to escape on his first successful move activation. he had his own phase at the end of each turn. He basically moved away from any other models, I borrowed the mechanics form Frostgrave's Monster AI.
The final bit of work was in designing the glory available to determine victory. I'll admit this bit didn't go as well, I need to rebalance the actual values. The aim is to award glory to the orcs for destroying the elven units and being in possession of the compound at the end of the battle, extra points are available for killing the spy as per Fangor Gripe's quest.
The elves get points for destroying orc units and especially the giant and Fangor Gripe. Erdolas Thringol's personal quest means they loose points if he survives, and they loose points if the half orc spy escapes.
The idea is to balance the glory so that if the elves do sufficient damage to the orcs they can actually win. They may not be around to enjoy it, but their sacrifice will help the defenders at Orc's Drift later. I'll have another go at this, but if anyone wants to make suggestions I'd like to see them.
I had fun playing as the elves. It was my own poor activation rolls that messed up my plans. Looking forward to the next scenario.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it, I hope the unbalanced nature of the scenario isn't too much of a problem
Delete