Betrayal

Something was wrong with the municipal indoor pool last night and so swimming classes were canceled- that doesn’t sound like a good thing but in reality it translated to a sudden Scape night at my house.

My daughter is a life guard now and she hasn’t played with us in a long forever. School is intense and busy and with working now too- it doesn’t leave much time for playing Scape with her silly Dad and brothers. But the pool broke! So we got out the terrain!

We were all very excited to be playing together again- first time since summer 2010. We play a pretty simple game- a two on two with three hundred points per person. My daughter has customed an army of Mirkwood Elves and she said she wanted to take on my younger son’s custom Army of Arc. So the teams ended up being my eldest son and daughter (which almost never happens) and my younger son and me.

We decided the game would be a glyph grab- all our glyphs are treasure glyphs- you simply had to recover three Brandars and bring ‘em home to win. There were five Brandars on the map as well as a bunch of pit traps, wound, heal, etc.

The map was mostly Mirkwood Forest- which heavily favour my daughter’s elves. The elves typically stay up in these tree platforms and send arrows at anybody in range. It’s a great defensive position but it doesn’t get any glyphs.

My older son chose a Marr army. He took Su-Bok-Na to help protect the elves from flyers, Ne Gok Sa, three squads of Marro Cavalry and a squad of custom Super Stingers. (everything has been repointed at our house so this was just 345 points)

I choose the cheaper Drake Alexander (thought he’d be excellent against elves in tree platforms) and dwarves. I took two gyrocopters- Blackhawks- they are a bomber/fighter combo. I also took the dwarven bolt thrower and a squad of Sky Blue Archers.

My younger son was playing with Arc- which are famous for their heavy cavalry- but he knew such a force would be folly in the forest. So he picked some Arcken infantry and some of the custom horses we have that figures can mount and dismount.

We were all excited and giggling and it held the promise of being a very funny evening.

My gyrocopters took to the air and bombed out a squad of Grok riders. Su Bok Na took one gyro down and the tree elves shot another to the ground. My daughter used her Sarskata Tosse- her custom dwarven spies- to infiltrate my army and then she started talking about chocolate. Chocolate with hazelnut paste filling. And how much she liked it.

I’m getting slower as I get older. I used to think I was quite clever but I know I’m not anymore. I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t recognize the signs. I didn’t recognize their code words- there was a plot afoot. A backstab. A betrayal. My daughter and younger son had conspired to join forces mid game. They had mostly stayed out of the fighting while my eldest son and I battled. We often call no backstabbing as a rule but it has been so long since we played no one mentioned it.

It took my eldest son and I completely by surprise. Dare I say it ruined the game? We had dedicated our forces to the scenario and our armies were weakened and vulnerable and within three turns of the betrayal our forces were wiped out. My eldest son had a shower and went to bed and I cleaned up, while my daughter and younger son tried hard not to feel guilty. But they did. They won the game, but it wasn’t hard and they both backstabbed their team mates. Backstabbing wasn’t officially banned for the game- but it wasn’t officially approved either.

I was proud of my kids- not for backstabbing- but for handling things. My eldest son played out the game and said very little though it was clear he was upset and for him the game way ruined. My daughter and younger son did not gloat and felt appropriately guilty. What more could a father want?

So last night we were reminded of two things:
Winning doesn’t necessarily make for the best game night or most enjoyable game.
And secondly, never trust an elf.