Sushi for Two - Carnevale AAR

While up in Pennsylvania, earlier this month, Carl and I met up for some gaming. After playing Muskets & Tomahawks, we then set up a table for Carnevale. 

Having seen my previous blog posts about Carnevale, Carl was curious and wanted to try the game himself. So I used the forces from the "War" scenario from the introductory booklet included in the two player set and we had another simple bash-up in the streets of Venice under the strange lights of the Rent in the Sky. 

I let Carl use the Guild, since I was familiar with them, and I took the Rashaar.

Guild
Capedocina
Fisherman (Harpoon Gun)
Fisherman (Pole Spear)
Gondolier
4 Citizens

Rashaar
Magi-Rashaar (Wild Magic - Cantrip of Justice, Healing, Groundsnap, Sunder Armor)
Raadru
2 Lesser Ugdru
3 Slaves

With almost twice as many Command Points as me, Carl won the initiative roll. He used his Gondolier and Harpoon Gun armed Fisherman as a mobile gunboat, rowing up and unloading on one of my Lesser Ugdru. The beast had to eat a Slave to heal its lost hit points. Meanwhile the Raadru and the other Ugdru swam through the canals to reach the Gondola.

While my Raadru was able to take out the Harpoon Gun Fisherman, it was then surrounded by members of the Guild. Between the damage that had already been done, the Capodecina, and the other Fisherman, the Raadru was skewered and left floating in the canal. The Ugdru's engaged where they could as the Magi-Rashaar slung spells left and right.

Meanwhile, a number of Guild Citizens climbed to the top of the nearby building, right behind the Magi-Rashaar and accompanying Slaves.

By the end of the third round, the fight wasn't going well for the Church of Dagon. They lost one of the Ugdru to the Capodecine (who hadn't even been hurt yet) and a Slave to the Citizens' surprise dive-bombs. While the other Ugdru had managed to drag the Gondolier of his boat, I decided to call the game at this point. The Magi-Rashaar was out of Will to cast spells, and the Capodecina was more than enough to handle anyone left on the table. So the Dagonites beat a retreat to their watery lairs, hopefully to venture out again when such formidable opponents weren't around (and maybe when they're painted!).

 I do regret not taking different spells, or maybe another Discipline altogether! Blood Rites may have helped me do some more damage at range with my Magi-Rashaar.

Carl had a great time with the rules and was able to pick them up fairly quickly. He even got the hang of using Will to boost dice pools when rolling for damage or protection (something Kevyn and I still forget to do). Carnevale still provides a good looking, and fun playing, game.

Backwoods Brawl - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

This past weekend I was back up in Pennsylvania and met up with Carl for a couple of games at 7th Dimension. I had finally finished painting up two 400 point forces for Muskets & Tomahawks, and Carl was interested in trying out Carnevale. 

So we set up a table for a French-Indian War bash. The scenario was fairly simple - two small scouting forces encounter each others by a local settlement. The goal was to reduce the enemy force to half its original number, which would then cause the enemy to flee. 

The French and British forces were nearly identical: 2 officers, 2 units of regular infantry, 2 units of irregular infantry, and 2 units of Indian allies. The British irregulars were Rangers with the Marksman skill (making them better shots), while the French irregulars were Coureurs De Bois, which gave them the Native skill (making them harder to hit).

The area surrounding the buildings was clear terrain, while most of the rest of the table was light cover. The larger trees denoted areas of dense cover. 

Most of the fighting in the woods was between the British Rangers and the French Coureurs De Bois and Indians. The Rangers got lucky with their card draws, and were able to fire and reload at the right moment to force the enemy to retreat to cover before the tomahawks and knife blades came out.

In the settlement, one of the British-allied native units was harried by French Irregulars, until they were charged in close combat. In some serious dice rolling, the natives were able to slaughters the irregulars, leaving a single man in the unit left to flee the battle.

Meanwhile, the British regulars advanced and exchanged volleys with their French counterparts.

The undergrowth was sticky with blood as the British and French fought in close combat. It seemed like the Rangers might be able to hold out against overwhelming numbers...

But Carl was able to prevail, with only a single Ranger left in the melee.

And then, disaster! It had seemed like the British had a good grasp of victory even with the mounting casualties. But Carl had positioned his French Regulars to fire two volleys into a unit of British regulars, with ghoulish results. While the first round of shots only killed two men, the second round killed two more. This meant the resulting Reaction Test had so many negative modifiers, the remaining British infantry routed!

With that, it only took Carl a couple more casualties to force the British to their breaking point, and the Redcoats turned tail and fled into the woods.

We had a great time. Our only regrets were missing that 400 point games were played on a 6'x4' table, which may have offered a little more maneuvering during the battles, and forgetting to bring cotton swabs to mark which units had fired for visual effect.

Hopefully I can get M&T to the table more often now that I've got painted forces, which will also let Carl and I use more of the advanced rules that we skipped in this game - random scenarios, Officer traits, blinds and dummy markers.

A Short Skirmish - Carnevale AAR

Kevyn stopped by last weekend to drop off some 3d printed terrain and movement trays I had requested, and we took the opportunity to get a quick game in. 

Since I had finished painting all my Carnevale miniatures, we decided to play another 100 point game of Gang War. Kevyn brought his Doctors, while I had my Guild.

The gangs were:

Doctors
Doctor of the Mind
Alchemist Doctor
Unleashed Madman
Warden
Carrion
Madman
Madman

Guild
Prince of Thieves
Baroni
Black Lamp
Gondolier
Dog Keeper
Dog
Dog
Bottled Courage
Climbing Tools

Kevyn started with his gang spread out, while my Guild members were mostly gathered around the Black Lamp and his anti-magic abilities. My Baroni was taking a ride with the Gondolier as a moving gun platform (at least, that was the idea).

The two gangs approached each other cautiously at first. For this game, we tried using Agendas. I drew one that required four actions to successfully make 4" jumps in one round, and I tried that before the Doctors could reach me. However, my dice weren't going to be very helpful for this game, so a few of my gang took a quick bath in the canal before struggling back onto dry land.

Kevyn's Doctor of the Mind stood back as his accompanying Madman and Unleashed Madman engaged my Dogs. The Doctor decided to cast Mother Hydra's Claws, but only realized after casting that the spells affected all models in range, not just enemies. Which hurt his own meat shields at the same time.

While the Unleashed Madman tore into the Dogs with its eldritch tentacles, the Prince of Thieves slipped past, cut down the Madman and then attacked the Doctor. Not enjoying the close ranged fighting, the Doctor disengaged and hit the Prince with a couple casts of Blood Drain, regaining his lost hit points.

Meanwhile, my Baroni was trying to use his pistols from the Gondola. Not satisfied with the result, he jumped off to attack the Carrion, but only then realized how difficult to the demented patient was. Then the Warden lumbered in and started laying about with his club, throwing out Stun counters left and right.

The Baroni had to back off to reload his guns as the Gondolier rowed up and swung at the Warden with his oar. While the Warden took some damage, the Gondolier was hit in return and Stunned. Then the Alchemist Doctor arrived and started throwing bombs into the mix.

We decided to call the game at the end of Round 3, with Kevyn winning with his 2 Victory Points to my 1 (neither of us managed to score any Agendas). To be honest, I realized that I had taken too many supporting Characters, so Kevyn was likely to take my gang apart if he had more time.

We had less questions and books diving for rules in this game compared to the first, which bodes well for future games. Hopefully Kevyn and I can meet up in the future for more games of Carnevale.