Burrow & Badgers campaign - 2) The slaughter at the Stones

The second game of our campaign also took the form of a three-player game of the Witch Hunt scenario from the Burrows & Badgers main book. All three warbands from the first skirmish returned, hoping to claim the bounty on a squirrel witch who was loitering among some standing stones. Above, the witch is in the centre - Force 8.5 from Newtownards (Roger) is in the upper left, the Special Animal Service (Andrew) is upper right, and the Dirty Paws (Nic) are lower centre. Both the Dirty Paws and Force 8.5 had a secondary objective to loot the dead, while the SAS had a secondary objective to search for treasure among the terrain features.

The opening turn saw the Dirty Paws advance slowly, dropping into hidden positions ready to ambush the squirrel if she moved, and avoid her firey blasts if she didn't.

Force 8.5 moved as rapidly forward as they could through the thicket, all except for Inch-high, the mouse crossbowman, who tried to get into his own ambushing position with a clear shot towards the stones.

The SAS were still mourning the loss of the little mouse nun, and chose to play a different game. Rather than focus on the witch, they chose to focus on the treasures she was said to have hidden. Ignoring the witch and the other two warbands, they proceeded to methodically search terrain pieces. 

Robyn Longtooth and Old Broc (standing in as the warband's second while Osgood the otter recovered from earlier wounds) were the first to strike out at the squirrel. We forgot all about modifiers for ambush roll offs and both subsequently failed their sneak attack, causing a pitiful two wounds between them.

As Gypsy the mouse danced into the melee, they were soon joined by Force 8.5's badger leader, and Black Maw the raven. all wanting to have a go. Gypsy struck at just the right angle causing another 10 wounds, but it was the badger who struck the killing blow, bagging the bounty before the witch managed to do anything destructive at all. It made us start to question who the real monsters were...

And at just that moment, the bastard SAS snuck up and actually attacked Tibbot (who had been very much minding his own business shooting at ravens).

Down at the stone circle, the struggle now began between the Dirty Paws and Force 8.5. Robyn managed to loot the witch's corpse, Force 8.5's leader shrugged off all attacks. Meanwhile, Seren, the wee bat, used her newly learnt lightning spell to finish off Black Maw, before being taken out herself by a well-placed bolt from Inch High's crossbow.

Looking for an easier kill, Broc took a massive swing at Dodgy Dave, the Newtownards rat, causing 15 wounds.

Old Broc was then surrounded by Force 8.5 and engaged in a snarling tussle of teeth and cornered fury...

... before succumbing to Dodgy Dave's heroic sacrifice. Scian Dubh, the newest member of the Dirty Paws was doing her best to make up for lost time, stabbing here, looting there, and managing to finish off Tufty the squirrel.

Then the SAS abandoned their scavenging and joined the fray properly. Lady Briar made quick work of her opposite number from Newtonards, forcing Force 8.5 to flee the battle.

Despite having lost more than 50% of the Dirty Paws by this point, I didn't want to voluntarily bottle, and the bold buggers refused to fail their morale tests. Thus began a brutal game of catch the rogue. Gypsy was surrounded and dispatched.

And then Robyn himself was cornered. While he went down fighting, he failed to take any of the SAS with him.

So, after two games, the royalist SAS have one both - but with mixed after game results. This time, Force 8.5 had four of their warband taken out of action (three by me, one by Andrew), and all six of my rogues were knocked down as well (three each to Roger and Andrew). The surviving members of Force 8.5 found a sunken treasure ship and yet another slave trader in their exploration. The Special Animal Service ran into a money lender and found some magic stones. The lads were good enough to allow Osgood the otter to go exploring on my behalf. He found a wandering priest but decided against asking for his blessing.

The SAS now have enough shiny pennies for one or two new members, Force 8,5 picked up a new mole from the slave trader and another with their loot, while the Dirty Paws used their new wealth to  recruit Knut Twitchtail a squirrel with a bow. That said, there's an awful lot of permanent injuries...Robyn the fox has injuries to both his hand and foot, Broc has a serious arm wound, Seren the bat is now horrifically scarred, and poor Gypsy the dancing mouse has a chest wound...