A Day of Reckoning

Perdita could scarcely believe the report. The sinister column had shifted to a new location but yet again on the boundary of the Latigo ranch. And yet another band of Neverborn was camped nearby. Cursing under her breath she strode onto the ranch's porch. 'We ride to rid our land of Vermin!' she announced.

The posse was a small and elite group. As before Francisco and the faithful Brutal Effigy were there. The Brutal Emissary and the Death Marshal appeared once more. But with Papa Loco still suffering the effects of his head injury, Nino was there as his replacement. The Hounds were replaced by a Guild Austringer. The raptor on his wrist looked gimlet-eyed and vicious.

The Neverborn were an odd assortment; a child dragging a teddy bear seemed to be at the heart of the group (The Dreamer). A toddler with knives (Kade), a vaguely sinister old woman (Widow-weaver), and a huge pink Teddy with 6" teeth and 9" claws made up the main parts of the group. There was also a strange creature that seemed to keep shifting shape (Doppelganger).

Perdita and her band advanced, shooting at targets of opportunity, but nothing fell although Perdita felt sure she had winged the old woman. Then the air started to crackle. Other daemons began to materialise. The eternal twins - Lelu and Lelitu-  and a creepy creature with tendrils around it's face (Collodi).

Perdita's gun cracked. The old woman was killed and the Doppelganger . But the daemons advanced. The Pink Teddy viciously decapitated the Death Marshal in a single attack. Perdita shot it repeatedly then turned her attention to Lelitu, wounding her. Before the daemons reacted Francisco charged in and finished off the Teddy. Then Nino and the Austringer brought down Lelitu.

Still the daemons came on. The creepy creature headed towards the Brutal Emissary, the baby and Lelu advanced. Perdita had seen enough of the weird boy's summoning and shot him down. But her crew was now dangerously exposed. The creepy thing handed the Emissary a stone that pulsed with a sick yellow light. The Emissary released its grip immediately but the stone just stuck to it. Lelu assaulted Perdita. And then the Baby. Perdita's defences failed her and she fell to the floor pouring blood.

Francisco and the Emissary avenged her by killing Lelu. And the Austringer spotted another oddity performing a ritual behind some rocks, hidden from the sight of all accept his raptor. The bird flew straight and true, killing the creature instantly.

 Darkness fell. The parties quit the field. Francisco carried his sister home. She was breathing but badly hurt. The Emissary carried the corpse of the Death Marshal.

Tim kindly agreed to play my second week 6 game with me. For him it was a bonus game. As it turned out that was just as well because so many of his models bit the dust.

The strategy was Reckoning. I chose Assassinate and Vendetta for my schemes. I marked Teddy as the target for Vendetta and Francisco as the carrier. With no scheme running needed and Reckoning as the Strategy I went for a tough crew. So no Hounds. I was tempted to take the Judge instead of Nino but went for the cheaper model on the basis that (a) I could keep him out of harm's way, and ( the extra soulstones would be useful for removing damage.  

Tim started cagily on turn1 but on turn 2 the Dreamer started summoning like mad. 21 points of models in a turn. I had advanced to try and tempt the Neverborn out of the trees. The fact that Perdita was able to ignore cover to gun down models was the other encouragement to get them to close the gap.

The Guild firepower was awesome, enhanced by campaign upgrades. I took down two models with shooting alone in turns 2 and 4, and 1 model in each of turns 3, and 5. With Francisco taking out Teddy and Lelu in combat in turns 3 and 5, I got full strategy points.

Steve and Paul (Baker) were watching the game and in T3 I used Perdita to shoot at Teddy. Teddy was badly damaged but I switched my final shot to Lelitu, much to Paul's bemusement. I then used Companion to activate Francisco who went in and diced Teddy earning me 3VP for Vendetta. I was particularly pleased by this as the last shot at Lelitu left her on reduced wounds so Nino and the Austringer could get her.

In T4 the Dreamer got too close to Perdita who gunned him down, giving me the points for Assassinate.

Coillodi gave the Emissary Cursed Object twice. An Insidious Madness dropped lots of scheme markers for Protect Territory but the Austringer Red Jokered it at the end so Tim earned nothing for that.

My big mistake was not taking Lelu seriously enough. When he charged Perdita I relied on her native defence and he inflicted 5 wounds plus poison. So at the start of T5 she was down to 4 wounds. I intended to use Perdita to kill Lelu and then use Companion on Francisco to (a) boost her Def and Wp and ( move to block any charges. But I lost the initiative. Tim's Effigy charged in and again I relied on her native defence and took a wound. But then he used Accomplice to charge in with Baby Kade. I had 4 SS to spend so I used one to gain a positive on the Defence flip and cause a negative damage flip. Kade tied with Perdita despite this. He was on a quadruple negative on the damage flip (2 for a tied result plus one for my SS spent and 1 for the column of Kythera) but his minimum damage is 3. That would kill Perdita but I was ready to use a SS to mitigate the damage. He only goes and flips the Red Joker! Had I spent stones protecting Perdita from Lelu I would have had the wounds to withstand Kade's attack. But now the poor girl has a muzzy head and is Easily Distracted!

I'm looking forward to week 7 games. First available date - 23rd December if anyone's game.

Regards

C