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.

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.

Painting Update - Carnevale

With no gaming in the past couple weeks, I've been focusing on getting some hobby done in my painting queue.

Last year I received my backer pledge for Carnevale. I got the two player starter box and basically everything for the Guild faction. I decided to sit down and get the whole of the faction finished before moving on to another project.

Citizens are Henchmen that make up the bulk of the Guild membership. They're not great in combat, but they've got numbers and they're cheap. The crossbow-armed Recruiter is a Hero that can boost a mob of Citzens' combat abilities.

Gondoliers, Dog Keepers, Dogs and Pilferers are all Henchmen as well. Gondoliers let you bring extra gondolas when you're building a list for a game, and since the setting for Carnevale is Venice, boats are pretty useful! Gondoliers are also better at steerting gondolas compared to other characters. The Dog Keeper can use his command points to make out-of-activation actions with his Dogs, useful for intercepting enemies. And the Pilferers can steal Will Points from enemies and give them to friendly models!

Pulcinellas are essentially nihilistic, chaos-causing clowns that went mad after the Rent opened over Venice. They're usually mindless Henchmen that can't pick up objectives, but the King Pulcinella (a Leader) can direct them. And the Hero unit Ostrich Riding Pulcinella is the only "cavalry" model in the game!

The Capodecina is a Leader for the Guild who's a monster in close combat, but also dextrous enough to slip past enemies or leap from building to building. He's flanked by Guild Heroes - two Fishermen that excel in engaging the acquatic monsters that lurk in Venice's waterways, long with a Barber and a Butcher. 

Finally, the Prince of Thieves is another Leader and one of the top dogs of the Guild. He's accompanied by an anti-magic Black Lamp, a Rialto Assassin, and a pistol-duellist Baroni.

There's a few models I didn't pick up during the Kickstarter - a Madame, her Harlots, and Baba Yaga - so I'll likely add those to my collection when they're released by TTCombat. Until then, I'm hoping to play more games of Carnevale, and to get some paint on the smaller collection of Rashaar models that I also received with my pledge.

Opening Festivities - Carnevale AAR

After getting back from Cold Wars, I met up with Kevyn, who I hadn't seen in a while. After catching up, we finally got a chance to play Carnevale. 

We both backed the project way back in the summer of 2017, before I had moved away for my current job. I decided to pick up the starter set and get most of the Guild, while Kevyn chose the Doctors (I was surprised he didn't pick the Strigoi, but as he explained, plague doctors beat vampires any day of the week). 

One of the coolest parts of the kickstarter campaign (and the two player starter) was the inclusion of 1'x1' paper tiles with canals and streets on them, along with paper bridges and actual 3D paper buildings of two different heights. With these and some 3D printed barrels and crates, it created a fantastic looking area to play in.

Kevyn's Doctors consisted of a Doctor of the Mind as a Leader, an Alchemist Doctor, Morgue Doctor, and a Warden for Heroes, and a Carrion and two Madmen for Henchmen. My Guild was lead by a Capodecina, along with a Barber, a Butcher and a Recruiter for Heroes, and three Citizens as Henchmen.

The scenario was Gang Wars, and the objective was simple - kill more of the opposing faction by the end of five turns.

My Capodecina, Barber, and Butcher each leaped across the canal using a gondola, and the Capodecina easily used his speed to reach the Carrion.

On the other side of the square, my Recruiter urged the Citizens forward as the Alchemist Doctors scaled a building.

The center devolved into a bloody melee. While my Capodecina took out the Carrion, the Barber and the Morgue Doctor got into a shaving-razor-on-scalpel fight.

It was at this time that Kevyn and I decided that his Doctors needed to get their magic, and quick. We had started the game thinking that we'd give magic a miss for the first experience, but quickly realized that without some thaumatergical backup, the Guild were going to roll over the workers of the Ospedale like a tidal wave.

So Kevyn quickly put together spells for his Doctor of the Mind and Morgue Doctor (Blood and Fateweaving Disciplines, respectively), and then used that magic to shred my Butcher before he could get to grips with the enemy.

As soon as they had the chance, my Citizens charged the Alchemist Doctor. While their improvised weapons weren't strong individually, there were enough of them that damage started to get through.

Not wanting to deal with that, the Alchemist Doctor fled, leaping to the bridge and throwing bombs behind him. Two of the Citizens managed to shake off the damage and charged again, but the third missed her leap and fell into canal.

The Capodecina ran towards the Doctor of the Mind, blades flashing, while the Warden charged the Barber.

While the Alchemist Doctor escaped again and had a Madman take his place against the Citizens, the Capodecina and his twin blades made short work of the spellcasting Doctor of the Mind, killing the Doctors' leader in turn four. 

At that point, we decided to call the game, since it was only going to end one way. 

Despite having to check the books a lot, and some confusion in the wording of the rules, Kevyn and I had a great time with the game. It's fun and the rules evoke a lot of the movement and speed that the models can pull off, leaping across canals and easily clambering up and down the sides of buildings. Combat is simple but can be brutal, and the Destiny Die adds an extra twist of fun when rolling to attack, jump, or to drown an enemy!

I'm glad that I picked up the two player set, as I can also paint up the Rashaar (i.e., Cult of Dagon) that came with it. Since the Guild is one of the armies/warbands I'd like to paint up this year, it's now on my painting table.