RoSD: The Bridge Guards

This is the third scenario in the Rangers of Shadowdeep core rule book. My kids and myself  have played the first mission scenarios, so we have successfully investigated the deserted village and have cleared out the infected trees. As they’re quite young we’re flexible with the rules, for example my 6 year old has an ogre as a companion because that’s what they wanted. We mainly use oldhammer lead miniatures, some even pre-slotta, because that’s what I have available. 

Our initial set up for the approach to the Tor Varden watchtower shows plenty of cover from the Land of the Giants terrain making up the Scree. Ample opportunity to sneak up on the gnoll/orc guards then.

Checking from the guards camp side of the table, we can see that they’re simply expecting another day relaxing by the Enthel river

Turn one saw the Rangers and their companions make their way up the board towards the river, although it’s clear one of the Rangers (controlled by the 9 year old) is intent on getting himself and his companions into hand to hand combat as soon as possible, rather than picking off the guards in a stealthy manner. The guards remain unaware of the approaching Rangers and move around randomly. At the end of the turn another gnoll/orc appears in the center of the table and meanders more or less parallel to the river across the board. 

Turn two is a carbon copy of turn one, down to the new guard appearing at the end of the turn, but this one moves up the table in the direction of the Rangers. 

Turn three is when it all kicks off. The bloodthirsty Ranger on the right of the board moves to a position where he can see a guard, and promptly takes out the guard with a fireball spell. 

The other Rangers continue to move carefully up the table, but no targets present themselves. 

However, the random movement of the guards now means they spot one of the party and the alarm is raised. None of the guard archers can get into a position to fire a shot, but the fighters that appeared at the center of the table move towards their targets. 

The one that appeared at the end of turn two is promptly dispatched with a combined attack from a Ranger and his companion in the centre of the board.

While on the left flank the ranger is injured by a shot from one of the guards and his companions close in. As the turn ends a vulture appears at the table edge where the Rangers arrived. 

Turn four sees the combat continuing. On the right The Ranger who cast the fireball now anticipates a guard arriving over the ford and casts ‘Burning mark’ (represented by a spider for some reason) in their path. The archer guard takes a pot shot at one of his companions, and immediately reduces his health to a dangerous level. The other companion moves to engage this archer in hand to hand combat.

In the center the Ranger can’t even string his bow, and fails two shooting rolls, so his companions close in on the second guard that appeared in the center of the table. 

On the left the Ranger closes in on the archer who injured him and they trade blows, injuring each other.  His companions close in to back him up, picking their way through the Scree to kill the guard. 

At the end of the turn it starts to rain. 

Turn five. 

The guard coming over the ford triggers the burning mark, and takes the full blast killing him outright, but shielding his archer companion from the blast. His luck is short-lived, however, as hand to hand combat then dispatches the luckless creature. 

But the companion providing covering fire is charged in the back and reduced to zero health. Much sulking from the 9 year old is only averted by showing him the Survival table. 

In the center of the table there’s a bottleneck being held by the sergeant from the bridge, who is able to restrict himself to one opponent. One of the companions heads toward the left, to cast healing on the Ranger from there who is coming over to get healed.  At the end of the turn a soldier who had been taken captive escapes and can be seen in the camp. 

Turn Six. On the right the Ranger crosses the ford to  the camp and gets into contact with the treasure token. His surviving companion takes revenge on his fallen comrade and kills the guard a few steps from the fallen hero. 

In the center the sergeant, the final guard, is finally killed and the party move towards the bridge. The escaped soldier moves into contact with the clue token. 

The final end of turn card is the booby trap, so we decide that the party has managed to open both the treasure and the clue token. The booby trap fails to damage any members of the party, and we find a potion of toughness and a set of keys, which we recognise as belonging to the watchtower that we now must enter. 

Finally, a roll on the survival table for the fallen companion : complete recovery. Let joy be unconfined