Larry Bogucki
Designer of Warparty Series
We attended Ellis Con in Danielson, CT this Saturday, Nov 14th. Warparty was on the agenda at the Con and when I arrived a few minutes late (family obligations) there were already 3 folks there waiting to play. A 4th player showed up shortly there after.
We played with the Warparty Conquest and Carnage rules.
The teams were Jon S. as Goblins with Sam playing the Undead. Mike played the Dwarves and teamed up with Jon M.who controlled the Humans. Mike had played a few times before and Jon M. is a co-designer of Warparty. The opposing players Jon S. and Sam had never played before. With the woeful imbalance of experience, I decided to become the official coach for team evil.
Good moved first and the Dwarves went straight for technology on turn 1 and for the rest of the game, researching more and more inventions each turn. The Humans took a completely different approach and invested heavily in heroes.
The Dwarves had established two expansion cities and the Humans had just one.
The Goblins also had two expansion cities and loaded up on archers, Ogres, Orcs and Ballistas. The majority of their forces were in their northern expansion facing the Dwarves.
The Undead explored the Ancient Sanctuary with Shreadmar early. After defeating a pretty tough encounter, The Elf Champion, Shreadmar celebrated by climbing to the top of the dungeon and "Howling at the Moon" - a special army quest which required Shreadmar to solo a dungeon.
Shreadmar received heaps of XP for the dungeon and the quest, but the treasure could only be used by a priest hero and so was returned to the Bone Lands.
The Human heroes explored the Haunted Ruins and easily defeated the Zombie Horde. They move west towards the Goblins, who had been bearing down on the Dwarves. The 4th Human hero, Cedron was recruited and subsequently summoned to the hero party, by Sharnella the Sorceress.
Carnissa, the Wraith Queen had summoned the Bone Dragon in the Undead Capital and it started moving south towards the Humans. In addition she had cast a Symbol of Fortitude spell on the Bone Dragon to make it more resistant to the Human catapults.
The Dwarves had two decent sized armies of Cannons, mustketeers, warriors and Bezerkers. Their force was too small to challenge the Goblin front, but large enough to push east towards the Undead.
The Goblins and Dwarves had been facing off with a stalemate stand still for the entire game.
The highly mobile Human hero force had a tough decision to make. They could either sack a lightly defended Goblin expansion or they could double back home to defend against the Undead invasion. The Undead had now built an offensive tomb to spawn more horror much closer to the Human homelands. The Bone Dragon and a force of skeleton archers had reinforced the new tomb.
The Humans made the conservative defensive decision and chose to protect their homelands. With so much invested in their four heroes, they had only a few other troops for defense.
The game pushed into quadruple inflation by the Undead. Shreadmar had looped around to join a Goblin force which was now invading the Humans on their Western front. The first city of the game was sacked by that same force.
The Dwarves created their tier 3 unit, the Airship. It had taken them the entire game, but now they had this very powerful fast moving zepplin of destruction. It joined quickly up with their army that had already been marching against the Undead.
On the 12th turn of the game, the three most massive battles ensued all across the map.
The Human heroes had previously taken over the Undead Tomb that was bordering their homeland. The Undead fought to retake it with the Bone Dragon and a number of skeletons and skeletal archers.
In the wake of mass destruction, one wounded hero, Father Stallack, survived. Upon reaching level two after the battle, he promptly resurrected Cedron the Warrior who had been toting a magic shield.
The Undead also attacked the Dwarven force in an act of desperation. They managed to thin their ranks, quite a bit, but now their only other expansion tomb was left very lightly defended.
The massive Goblin Horde finally charged the Dwarves right outside their fortress. In the end the Goblins won, but they lost a massive amount of their army in the process.
The following turn the Airship sailed into the lightly guarded Undead Tomb and leveled it to the ground. It was turn 13, and with only 1 turn left in the game and 2 Tombs (VPs) destroyed by team good and only 1 Human city burned by the Goblins, the outcome was inevitable.
It was touch and go for a while, and it did look briefly as if Evil were going to take the victory, but in the end a series of epic battles spelled victory for the Humans and Dwarves.
We played with the Warparty Conquest and Carnage rules.
The teams were Jon S. as Goblins with Sam playing the Undead. Mike played the Dwarves and teamed up with Jon M.who controlled the Humans. Mike had played a few times before and Jon M. is a co-designer of Warparty. The opposing players Jon S. and Sam had never played before. With the woeful imbalance of experience, I decided to become the official coach for team evil.
Good moved first and the Dwarves went straight for technology on turn 1 and for the rest of the game, researching more and more inventions each turn. The Humans took a completely different approach and invested heavily in heroes.
The Dwarves had established two expansion cities and the Humans had just one.
The Goblins also had two expansion cities and loaded up on archers, Ogres, Orcs and Ballistas. The majority of their forces were in their northern expansion facing the Dwarves.
The Undead explored the Ancient Sanctuary with Shreadmar early. After defeating a pretty tough encounter, The Elf Champion, Shreadmar celebrated by climbing to the top of the dungeon and "Howling at the Moon" - a special army quest which required Shreadmar to solo a dungeon.
Shreadmar received heaps of XP for the dungeon and the quest, but the treasure could only be used by a priest hero and so was returned to the Bone Lands.
The Human heroes explored the Haunted Ruins and easily defeated the Zombie Horde. They move west towards the Goblins, who had been bearing down on the Dwarves. The 4th Human hero, Cedron was recruited and subsequently summoned to the hero party, by Sharnella the Sorceress.
Carnissa, the Wraith Queen had summoned the Bone Dragon in the Undead Capital and it started moving south towards the Humans. In addition she had cast a Symbol of Fortitude spell on the Bone Dragon to make it more resistant to the Human catapults.
The Dwarves had two decent sized armies of Cannons, mustketeers, warriors and Bezerkers. Their force was too small to challenge the Goblin front, but large enough to push east towards the Undead.
The Goblins and Dwarves had been facing off with a stalemate stand still for the entire game.
The highly mobile Human hero force had a tough decision to make. They could either sack a lightly defended Goblin expansion or they could double back home to defend against the Undead invasion. The Undead had now built an offensive tomb to spawn more horror much closer to the Human homelands. The Bone Dragon and a force of skeleton archers had reinforced the new tomb.
The Humans made the conservative defensive decision and chose to protect their homelands. With so much invested in their four heroes, they had only a few other troops for defense.
The game pushed into quadruple inflation by the Undead. Shreadmar had looped around to join a Goblin force which was now invading the Humans on their Western front. The first city of the game was sacked by that same force.
The Dwarves created their tier 3 unit, the Airship. It had taken them the entire game, but now they had this very powerful fast moving zepplin of destruction. It joined quickly up with their army that had already been marching against the Undead.
On the 12th turn of the game, the three most massive battles ensued all across the map.
The Human heroes had previously taken over the Undead Tomb that was bordering their homeland. The Undead fought to retake it with the Bone Dragon and a number of skeletons and skeletal archers.
In the wake of mass destruction, one wounded hero, Father Stallack, survived. Upon reaching level two after the battle, he promptly resurrected Cedron the Warrior who had been toting a magic shield.
The Undead also attacked the Dwarven force in an act of desperation. They managed to thin their ranks, quite a bit, but now their only other expansion tomb was left very lightly defended.
The massive Goblin Horde finally charged the Dwarves right outside their fortress. In the end the Goblins won, but they lost a massive amount of their army in the process.
The following turn the Airship sailed into the lightly guarded Undead Tomb and leveled it to the ground. It was turn 13, and with only 1 turn left in the game and 2 Tombs (VPs) destroyed by team good and only 1 Human city burned by the Goblins, the outcome was inevitable.
It was touch and go for a while, and it did look briefly as if Evil were going to take the victory, but in the end a series of epic battles spelled victory for the Humans and Dwarves.
