Black Scorpion Pirates commission

Another Strange Grogge Game - 13th july 2011

A four way Strange Grogge at the Reading club. The lovely Governor's daughter Mercy d'Arcy was kidnapped by Orcs while shopping. She is being held by Orc Pirates (me) in an abandoned Convent (see pic below). The Orcs are waiting to meet the Elves (Jason) who are to exchange her for Gold. The local Militia (Richard H) are trying to get her back for the Governor and the Dwarfs (Richard S) are also out to capture the lovely Mercy. All parties also received bonus points for killing other faction members.

My Grand Manner Bussaco Convent. The result of a major eBay clearout!!

Whilst setting up, Steve on the next table started making one too many Sound of Music quips. I responded by presenting a lonely goat for a lonely Goatherd who may or may not have been high on a hill!!

Jason's Black Scorpion Elvish pirates make their debut.

Black Scorpion militia under the command of Richard H.

The Dwarves led by Richard S

The Elves bring the gold to the back door of the convent where the Orcs await with Mercy.

The first Orc volley from the Convent gate at the approaching humans. What could possibly go wrong?
1 Out of range for a musketoon
2 Rolled a Critical Fail which cost me a point of Salt and a misfire
3 Rolled the misfire and got a weapon malfunction which blew up in my face costing me 2 more salt points
4 Tried to repair said damaged musketoon, another critical fail so weapon permanently knackered
Other than that, a perfect start for the Orcs...

The militia (aka Keystone Cops) lose all sense of formation and direction as they approach the front of the convent.

Orcs fall back from the gate into the courtyard to try and create a bottleneck if those humans ever get close enough.

The elves make it into the rear yard of the convent and having exchanged the gold for the girl, have to fend off a dwarf attack which leaves the elvish leader dead in one superb shot. This is very good news for the orcs as the devious elves had intended to follow the orcs and get the gold back. The dwarf attack allows the orcs to make a break for it. Just have to get past those humans.

After some tepid human shooting, the emboldened orcs charge forth and clash with the more numerous but lower quality militia.

The humans start to take casualties. Perhaps distracted by the attractive frescos on the convent gate house?

Meanwhile the dwarf and Elf bands continue to exchange pistol shots and insults at the rear of the convent.

The elves take a number of hits and casualties but they have got the girl. We now discover that she has a face only a mother (or orc ) could love!

The depleted elves keep the dwarves back, claiming one vital dwarf kill.

The Orcs put the militia to the sword, taking one casualty as they try to break through the humans.

The game comes to a close with the elves winning by that single dwarf kill plus the points for getting Mercy off the table. Orcs were a close second, taking out 5 humans but failing to get the gold off the table.

Well played chaps. Another good game with the Strange Grogge rules and nice to get more use from the convent. Ironic that we spent most of the game fighting around it, not in it!

The Curse of Pirate Rules - Strange Grogge 22 June 2011

Why the Curse of the Pirate Rules?

At the Reading club we have been looking for some time for a set of pirate rules that will cope with our stupidly large collection of pirate figures. This now includes a number of fantasy races from the likes of Black Scorpion. Throw in the fact that we like to do multi-player games, we have been left scratching our heads somewhat.

Last night we had not really organised anything so threw together a small three player Strange Grogge.

Richard H "buried" treasure under a marker and then scattered the rest around one corner of the table in an abandoned settlement. He rolled up an undead crew to defend the treasure from two marauding crews - one dwarf and one orc.

I rolled up a pathetically small band of orcs/goblins.

Richard S rolled up a numerous Dwarf crew. Stout fellows all.

Things started well for the Orcs with an initial assault storming the settlement boundary fence, although the orc in the green coat at the back took a nasty shot as he crossed the open ground.

This proved to be a high tide (!) for the orcs as they managed to drop their weapons with alarming frequency. The Skellie with the musketoon in the background kept backing off and picking away at the orcs. The double one from Richard H sealed the fate of the red coated orc in the centre of the pic. Not the only outrageous throw of the evening.

Hurray! At last the Dwarves arrive. Having taken a surprising amount of damage crossing the terrain with no elan whatsoever (they are quite tall fences I suppose).

The musketoon skellie who gave my orcs so much trouble is dispatched with embarrassing ease at the first Dwarf attempt with a critical success roll.

Devasting dwarf pistol fire keeps the boneheads at bay.

As a blurry dusk falls the dwarves find the gold and make good their escape. Well done Richard S! My orcs were down to the last two by this stage and had lost their captain (who had dropped his sword again).

I like Strange Grogge but they cannot handle loads of figure groups. Really nice for more detailed skirmish though.

The quest goes on.........