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New Member and first game for long while.

Started by wargame_insomniac, July 17, 2011, 08:04:01 PM

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wargame_insomniac

Hi everyone. I have just found this forum.  I initially was a member of old Specialist game forum way back, but did nt migrate across. I have'nt played Inquisitor apart from a couple of games when game was first released, so long time ago. I got my first game in today which was great to blow off the cobwebs and struggle to remember long-forgotten rules. Hopefully will be able to play semi regularly going forward, which will help make the rules stick. Today was a struggle and very slow game but sure will be better with more practice.

I had lost my Eisenhorn minature when I moved house so I borrowed my opponents Dannica model for the day. He took his Covenant warband with Josef and Delphan Gruss, plus he borrowed my Slick Devlan. I took Severina & Sevora, Damien, and Barbaretta (but without mastiff to even it up slightly). We knew that I would have a slight numerical advantage but figured that slightly offset by his stronger shooting, and was close enough for a first game.

The board was cluttered with over a dozen small one storey buildings, with a couple of them having stairways up to roof. We decided to do simple scenario of taking and holding  a distinctive central building. First turn was relatively uneventful with everyone moving up behind cover of buildings or climbing onto roof.

Second turn saw the twins move forward. Severina tried to leap majestically from 1 roof top to another to attack Covenant. Feeling quite confident due to my Acrobatic ability I promptly rolled a 1 for additional jump distance, missed the other rooftop by a fraction and plummeted. Luckily Catfall meant that did'nt take damage but that ended my activation, out in open below Covenant and not in combat! Sevora was more sensible and advanced to edge of her roof, crouched and hit Slick with a throwing dagger.

Then Covenant shot at Severina, hitting with one shot and doing some damage. Delphan Gruss also advanced and blasted away at Damian, winging him with one shot. Slick blazed away at Sevora but most of the shots hit the cover she was crouching behind doing only minor damage. Dannica rilled low for activations and so just moved forward and pinged a shot at Covevant for no effect, triggering Damian as she did so. Damian rolled great for his activation rolls and bounded forward with all combat drugs surging through his system, charging Delphan Gruss and injuring him.  Josef and Barbaretta both failed to do anything more than single advance.

Turn three saw the boosted Damian act first. At speed 7 he managed to get another 5 successful activation rolls and tore into Delphan Gruss with a frenzy. The first attack was parried but the rest all struck home- Delphan was no more!!  Severina again tried to leap gracefully onto rooftop and again failed by a single inch, falling on her feet. Sevora shot her inferno pistol at Slick having got up from prone and aimed first, knocking Slick prone.

Covenant then shot at Severina, hitting 3 times which she dodged twice so therefore took minor damage. Slick got back up and again blazed away at Sevora, again lightly damaging her but again seeing most of his hits strike the intervening cover.  Again Dannica did little other than deactivating Damian, but this time Barbaretta shot Slick wounding him- after the 2 hits from Sevora Slick was looking worried.  Josef did manage to get a charge in on Severina, but failed to hit with all 3 melee rolls.

Turn four saw a pile in on poor Josef. First Severina and the Sevora slashed at him repeatedly with their sword and daggers respectively, doing 4 separate wounds on differing locations and stunning him. Covenant shot into combat, one shot missed due to close combat minus and Severina dodged one of the other two hits, doing some damage but not enough to put her out of action.

Slick decided discretion was better part of valour, retreating out of line of fire of Barbaretta and trying to recover from injuries. Then Dannica belatedly woke up and charged Josef with a flurry of attacks. The last one was a critical and i rolled head location- with her power halberd she got 25 damage, decapitating Josef in the process!!

We called a halt at that point. I had barely scratched Covenant, but seriously damaged Slick and taken out both Delphan Gruss and Josef. Both Severina and Sevora, and also Damian had taken heavy damage but were all still fighting.

The end result probably ended up more one side than the game felt. Severina and Sevora were saved a lot of damage by hugging cover and thus were both still functioning. i was also lucky in that in 2 crucial turns of back to back activations, Damian managed to get 5 successful activations both times, totally shredding Delphan Gruss. Josef was also unlucky with his 3 failed attacks in a row on Severina. So I did think it could easily have gone the other way.

Thanks

James


MarcoSkoll

#2
Yes - Hello, and indeed: Welcome to the Conclave.

I think the reason people have shown a lack of interest in this is that it's just a list of how two sides beat seven shades out of one another. It hasn't got setting, backstory or motivations. Inquisitor wasn't written as a skirmish game - it's all about the story. But here, you don't give much of an answer to the question of why Dannica and Covenant were fighting in the first place.

As an example of how we normally play and write up Inquisitor, this is a game I played in Dec 2009. The differences in both game play and writing style should be fairly apparent.

As far as the game, there's objectives beyond simply killing each other; the characters start by talking to each other rather than shooting; my psyker spent time trying to attack a less tactically important target because it was a hateful (to him) Pariah; and most importantly, none of us were trying to win at all costs - we were just playing the characters and how they'd act/react in their situation.
And the write-up tells you so much more than just who shot at who - it's almost like it's a short story, adding depth beyond just the dice rolls.

If that's how you like to play the game, then I wish you the best with that, but you'll probably find that an inelaborate report of your style of play is unlikely to get much in the way of forum response.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

wargame_insomniac

Hi- thanks for replying and thanks for the link. I will read through it in detail and take note.

Apologies for the length of battle report. Maybe it was just excitement about having first game of Inquisitor for about 6-7 years, and maybe I should nt have let it overtake my typing. I had intended just to post a short post introducing myself and saying hi. I guess enthusiasm got the better of me. Sorry.

I quite understand what you mean about objectives for the game. Please bear in mind we were two players feeling our way around the rules, neither of us really knew the rules well. I had played 2-3 games when game was first released, it might have been my opponents first ever game! We decided at outset to try something simple- with objective being to take and hold the central building.

This was just to get playing the game, blow away the cobwebs and get up to speed so future games will go hopefully a bit smoother.

I do have some questions about warband selection and campaigns. Where is the best place to ask?

Thanks

James

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: wargame_insomniac on July 19, 2011, 11:14:14 PMWe decided at outset to try something simple- with objective being to take and hold the central building.
Sorry, missed that one. You never really make mention to attempts to achieve that in the main body of the report, so it did just come across as an objectiveless bloodbath.

QuoteThis was just to get playing the game, blow away the cobwebs and get up to speed so future games will go hopefully a bit smoother.
Certainly. But don't let yourself get into the habit of thinking of it as a skirmish game - it's overcomplicated if that's all you're doing with it, so it's important to savour the role-play elements as well.

As far as smoothness, you might be better off playing with fewer characters each, at least until you're a bit more experienced. 4 or 5 characters each might make turns a bit long if you're out of practice, and it's best to keep the game pacey so as to keep up with the action.

QuoteI do have some questions about warband selection and campaigns. Where is the best place to ask?
Stuff about rules/backgrounds for characters/warbands normally goes in the "Inquisitor Rules section".
Campaign questions will probably go there too, but campaign reports will go in the "In the field".
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

wargame_insomniac

Thanks- I should have made it clear that the closing combats were all around the central building, so at the close I had control of it.

Yes you are right on number of models- we played with our entire respective collections having swapped Dannica over to give me an Inquisitor. It would have been quicker with fewer models but at least we got to see what various characters could do on the tabletop.

I did try to go for more cinematic options- I sent Severina twice to try to leap majestically across to next rooftops when I probably could have walked around to stairs or climbed. It did nt help in that both times she failed her jump by one inch despite her Acrobatic skill.

Ok- will head over to rules section to ask my follow up questions.

Thanks

James