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Old November 26th, 2018, 05:39 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

A WINTRY MIX

A 2018 Holiday Heroscape Scenario For Up To Six Players

By Chas



According to legend, way up in the misty snow covered Dragonspine Mountains lie fabulous magic treasures. But winter storms and the terrain is challenging, and explorers in the past have returned empty handed, if they returned at all. Now several parties are going up there, and all hands will be against you except those of your own group!

This is a Free For All scenario for 2-6 players with armies of 650 points each of Classic or C3V/SOV figures. Treasure Glyphs may become available which will give you special abilities and be worth extra Victory Points at the end of 10 Turns if you possess them. Otherwise you earn the VP of enemies you defeat (Full Card Scoring) plus points you still have on the board at the end of the game.

Expect the unexpected! Ho Ho Ho!

***

Note: The Secret Game Master Information needed to run this scenario will be added here after the upcoming session on Saturday December 1, 2018.

***

Here are some hints about the map just sent to the players:


Guys,

The map for Saturday's A Wintry Mix Heroscape scenario is up! Since as a player I can see it and you can't, here are some hints:

Lots of glacier mountains, snow, and ice. Also pine trees, ruins, road, shadow, and bits of molten lava and water. There are three inactive widely spaced regular purple glyphs, marking the spaces where your unique/uncommon heroes can search for golden Treasure Glyphs--for which normal rules apply, although those that may become available will be my own custom TGs. The map is reasonably friendly to two space characters, but there are some tight corners! There are no limits on army building other than 650 points, so have fun making your army. I've got some ideas for mine, which I'll be assembling today!

The battlefield is easily big enough for six players, although I'm only expecting four right now. The start zones are the first two-three rows of the board edges, each of which is clearly divided into three sections by partial sight blockers.

***


A Wintry Mix—Secret Game Master Information

The Terrain and Finding Treasure Glyph basic rules are revealed at game start. Other rules here marked with an asterisk (*) are revealed to the players only as they come into the game.

Terrain: All Snow is Normal Snow. All Ice is Slippery Ice. Note the rule Landing On Slippery Ice, which means all figures landing on such a hex from flying leaping, falling dropping, etc. as well as moving must pay 2 Movement Points per Ice Hex.

*Storm of Frozen Shards: Before Order Markers are placed, at the beginning of Turns 3, 6, and 9 (of 10), roll a D20. A result of 1-14 means a deadly Storm of Ice Shards blankets the entire board! If the storm occurs, each player must roll six attack dice, and assign all wounds rolled to any of their characters as they desire. A character who dies cannot be given any further wounds. A squad figure may be killed, but a Hero many only be reduced to one wound remaining by the Storm. (Note: this phenomenon is from one of the Frozen Soul Game Scenarios from the Thaelenk Tundra expansion).

Treasure Glyphs: (+250 VP each if held at game end)
Normal Treasure Glyph rules apply (see Battle For The Underdark).

Finding Treasure Glyphs
There are three gold Treasure Glyphs (TGs) initially placed evenly along the center line of the board among the Ice Mountain passes. If a player's Unique or Uncommon Hero (only) land on these TGs glyphs, they may roll to find them. If found, the Hero must then roll for traps as normal (1-5 = 1 Wound).

*D20 Roll of 12-10 finds a glyph. If none is found, player may roll again when flipping another another Order Marker for the occupying figure.

*Custom Treasure Glyphs (Reveal individual TG properties only when found, or when the first Storm of Shards occurs for the Wand).

The Mesmer Mirror: (Proxied by the Broach of Shielding ) The carrying player may immediately steal one army card from another player, except that of the highest point value in that army remaining on the map. Any current Order Markers on the card are removed. If two in the target army have the same point value, make a random roll to see which may be stolen. Keep control of the card until it is defeated, or until the carrying player loses the MM Treasure Glyph. If another player picks up the MMTG, he may now use it, and so forth! A player can only have one mesmerized enemy card in play at one time. However, if the card is defeated, he may take another one.

The Soujourner's Stone: (Proxied by The Giant Hunter Stone) The carrying player gets +3 movement to his entire army.

The Weather Wand: (Proxied by Brandar's Chest) The carrying player is immune to the effects of The Storm of Frozen Shards. (Do not reveal this effect until the first storm!)


***

We had two great games yesterday with this new scenario, which you are free to try. Photos will eventually be downloaded so you can see how I freebuilt the board. Two separate session summaries will follow; one for each game.

Since Taeblewalker was unable to attend due to inclement weather, and another pal was ill, I gave my players two options to proceed with just the three of us:

Starting Option A:

I or someone else could run two armies. Because this was a free for all scenario that would not work as a team game, and I obviously was not going to attack myself, I suggested that they not attack each other either for the first few turns. But they felt it would be unfair to them, and so chose:

Starting Option B:

The long edges of the map had been divided by ruins into three separate sections of 8 hexes each, in case we had six players. My plan for having a four player free for all was to have each player start on a left or right section in effect in the corners of the map. For a three player free for all, should it become necessary, I planned to have two players begin in two corners on one side, with the third starting in the middle section on the opposite side, forming a triangle of starting areas. Although the player on the other side was a bit further away, the map was designed to have players need to get to the middle of the board quickly. So we gave the least experienced player that middle position. This proved so successful that the players elected to use it again for Game Two.

Last edited by chas; December 2nd, 2018 at 12:30 PM.
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