While we haven't been able to play Man O' War in a little while, here's a battle report from a game in August.
For this game, John set me up with a Skaven fleet, to once again face off against the Orcs & Goblins.
The Skaven have a ton of special rules. The Doombringer, the rat-race's Man O' War, only carries a Great Bell, but it's a very scary ship. The Great Bell starts by rolling 2d6, and then adding a volume counter every turn the bell rings (or removing one when the bell stops tolling for a turn). Each volume counter adds an additional d6 to the Doombringer's attack, which range is equal to the total pips of the dice rolled. Any doubles rolled is a result on a chart, which can range from the Great Bell destroying itself, or every enemy ship in range taking one automatic critical hit!
The other Skaven ships are almost as wacky. Deathburners have a massive burning Incense Burner which smashes enemy ships like a plague-infused mace. And Warp-Raiders belch out columns of warpfire, setting enemy ships aflame.
John (not the host) and I would control the Skaven, while John (the host) and Steve would control the Orcs & Goblins.
The mission was a smash-and-grab, with the central fort holding five treasure tokens. Ships could dock with the fort and roll to find the treasure.
Also in the game were Chaos Terrain that could damage ships or harm their crews, and a couple random monsters. Out of the deep came the mighty Kraken and the sinuous Gargantuan!
The 3d6 movement speed of the Orc Drillakillas meant they were able to quickly land on the island, get into the fort, and grab the treasure. In short order, the Greenskins were in possession of four of the five tokens, with the Skaven only able to grab one.
The fighting then came down to a close quarters battle. The Doombringer's Great Bell managed to get some hits against the Orc fleet, but broke before it could do any real damage. The MVP of the game was the Kraken. John and I diced for control of the Kraken, and I managed to keep control of it for most of the game.
Its long tentacles swept the decks of the Greenskins ships clean of their crews, which meant John had to move his other ships' crew over to keep the Skaven from claiming the treasure.
(Skaven) John lead his Deathburners in a frontal charge against the Orc Hulk, and between the nasty plague incense and good dice on a boarding action, the Hulk was quickly de-crewed.
In fact, the Orc fleet was looking dangerously low on crew members. Still in possession of four of the treasures, (Orc) John and Steven began backing the Drillakillas out of the danger zone and back towards their board edge.
Three of the Drillakillas were close to escaping, but the Deathburners were in hot pursit.
Fortunately for the Greenskins, two of the Drillakillas managed to escape off the table with their treasure, while the rest of the ships in the fleet were either burning or lacked crew.
The game ended with the Skaven eventually securing three tokens on their ships. However, had we put a time limit on the game, it would have taken far too long for the Skaven to move their tokens off the ship, so the game was decided as a victory for the Orcs!
This scenario inspired John's next game, which which see two fleets attempting to navigate some nasty terrain to get treasure, instead of just rolling up to the fort.
We also decided to allow the Orc Bigchukkas to move and shoot, instead of the move or shoot that the rules allow. This gives the Orcs a little more dependability with a somewhat lackluster overall roster. Although one suggestion from the Man O' War Facebook group was to treat the Bigchukka like the Empire Hellhammer, which can move and fire but has to spend a turn reloading.
Overall, another fun game of Man O' War. Still missing from the game are Flyers and Magic, which John may add in soon.
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