Red Squeaky Toys - Empire of the Dead AAR

The Cirque du Noire faction performed well against its first two opponents. But how would the circus perform against Empire of the Dead's premier close combat faction - the Werewolves?

Once again, a look at the table. 

The werewolves split into two groups -three Packmasters and three wolves on side sides, a Beast Lord and three wolves on the other.

Since this would be an entirely close-quarters fight, I decided to jam the entire Cirque du Noire crew up the middle.

The werewolves advanced as two groups, with the Beast Lord hanging back before committing.

The Cirque pulled back a little to avoid the wolves' charge.

The initial engagement started with the wolves getting into combat, as a lone Imp Tumbler pair distracted the Beast Lord.

The Pulcinella clowns and Tumblers managed to hold the wolves, while the Beast Lord eviscerates his opponent.

A massive scrummed formed in the center of the table, while an Imp Tumbler moved to block a flanking force of wolves from getting to Tattoo and White Rabbit.

It started to look bad for the Cirque early on in the fight. Between the Packmasters and the Beast Lord, the Cirque's own heavy hitters were taking too many hits.

The Ape Man went down under the Beast Lord's claws.

Tattoo and White Rabbit were forced to get up close and personal against the werewolves' flanking attack, as the melee in the middle went decidedly in the werewolves' favor.

And in one turn, down went Tattoo and the Reptile Man, leaving only White Rabbit and a pair of Pulcinella. 

The playtesting allowed Gary to tweak a few of the factions (for example, giving all the human characters two wounds so they don't crumple like a wet paper bag). The biggest concern is likely where the Cirque sits in the game. They're effecting against factions that favor shooting, since the Cirque is fast and hits hard in close combat. But they fold rather easily when facing a dedicated melee faction like the Werewolves (who, honestly, tear through anyone in the game in close combat). The Cirque's objective for the big Halloween game will be hunting werewolves, so it'll be interesting to see how Gary hopes to balance the two factions in the context of a larger and extremely chaotic fight.