Last Tuesday Steve and I had a chance to do a complete run-through of the Scourge Bringer campaign rules. The campaign is designed for three players, but we still managed to give it a good test.

Steve had his Madrak led Trollbloods. The army included a Mauler, Impaler, full unit of Warriors and Caber Tosser. He used the same force in all three 15pt games, as did I. My army was Thagrosh, Carnivean, Teraph, Shredder, Sheperd and Feralgeist.

After the run-through I updated a couple of rules, specifically around what happens to the Scourge Bringer marker if it is not picked up by the time the game is won, or was picked up by a faction that lost the game. I’ll update the rules on the website once the campaign has been played out next weekend.

Steve beat me in each of the three games. I think my problem may have been trying to snatch the Scourge Bringer marker early in each game. I won the starting roll in every game and opted to go first. This may not have been the best tactic as it stretched me forward and gave the Trolls the opportunity to charge on Turn 2! Here’s a brief description of each game.

Game 1
This game was very interesting for the placement of the marker – in the middle of the stone columns it was hard to maneuver around. The goal of this game was to grab the marker and take it off the southern edge (randomly determined and not on a side with a player deployment) or ‘caster kill. Steve and I forgot the ‘drag’ rules, where warlocks within 6″ of the marker may be dragged up to 2″ directly towards it. This represents the powerful lure of the weapon and would have really hampered their movement.

I managed to grab the marker with the Carnivean and it immediately suffered -1 to SPD. Doh! That was very debilitating and was going to make it difficult to get off the board. Steve surrounded my position. I managed to get through the Kriel Warriors, but the beasts and Madrak were a different matter. The only real damage I did to the trollkin warlock was from Bad Blood, which I cast on the Mauler and upkept all game. In the end Steve cornered Thagrosh and Grievous Wounds prevented me from transferring damage.

Game 2
Game 2 started much more promisingly. I grabbed the marker with the Carni again and was making a dash towards the table edge. However, here’s where this being 2-player rather than 3 caused a problem. This game is a King of the Hill scenario and Steve moved Madrak up onto the hill and started to accrue scenario points. I couldn’t afford to keep Thagrosh off the hill as Steve would win on scenario before the Carnivean reached the table edge. With so many trolls on the hill I used Mutagenesis to launch myself in for an assassination on Madrak. This is a costly assassination attempt as it costs 3 Fury to cast the spell before you even make contact with the enemy. The attempt failed. Steve won by flattening Thagrosh. I had managed to get the Carnivean within 1″ of the southern table edge (and Victory). Doh!

Game 3
At this stage Steve had two markers, both of which were assigned to his Mauler. He rolled +1 MAT and SPD for the markers making one formidable troll. This game went better for me and the assassination nearly worked. Thagrosh got a charge on Madrak, had one damage roll cancelled and another transferred before dishing out some damage on the trollkin warlock. I forgot to use my claw attack to (try to!) clear out a warrior that was in the way of my Carnivean. Had I done so Madrak would have been toast. I expended all Fury on Thagrosh in the attempt. Madrak squished me in retaliation!

Three fun games and the rules for dragging, staggering and the marker effects all work quite well.

Owen