Fantastic Scuffles playest - Itinerant adventurers vs the restless dead

After too long of a hiatus, Andrew and I set out to start testing the campaign rules for Fantastic Scuffles this week. We each started with a 100 point party. 

My group of murder hobos known variously as Itinerant Adventurers Inc. or the Blue Company, had only three members - Lyra Halfcraft, the halfling rogue, Balthazar the Blue, the human seer, and Crom (just Crom), the ogre warrior. Andrew's restless dead had five members in the party - the King, a skeleton warrior, the Priestess, a mummy seer, and three minion skeletons with swords and large shields. 

Rolling for individual objectives, we had each been commissioned to take out the other's seer - a straightforward enough prospect. As the restless dead shuffled forwards, Lyra turned herself invisible and snuck forward, hoping to get behind the enemy lines and remove the mummy seeress with a well-placed bolt to the rear of the head. Crom stood to one side, as Balthazar readied himself for the joy of a chain lightning spell.

Lyra ran forward, only for the undead to move on past her position and out of crossbow-pistol range! The skeleton king advanced towards Balthazar, receiving a blast of lightning for his troubles. Crom then launched himself into the bony warrior, taking him out of action with a flurry of blows with his great axe.

What happened next, happened quickly. The skeletal minions swarmed around the ogre, landing multiple blows, but struggling to cause more than superficial wounds. The priestess then advanced and cast her life-drain spell - sucking the very life forces from Balthazar with such aptitude and skill that Crom was left horrified, causing him to break from combat and flee back. 

By turn three, the undead had achieved their objective, scoring 1 VP for taking a character out of action, and a further 2 VPs for taking down a seer. The adventurers were certainly on the back foot.

Turn three saw another dramatic turn as Lyra gave up on the crossbow idea and launched herself into the rear of the priestess, landing a most adequate blow with her dagger. Crom then steeled himself to return to action and charged the skeleton minion at the end of the line. With one blow he reduced it to an inanimate pile of bones and then carried on into the priestess. One more attack saw her taken down and, without her leadership, the last of her minions fled.

So, the adventurers ended up with 4VPs (1 for killing each of the character models, and 2 for the objective), while the skeletons remained on 3. A narrow victory for the Blue Company.

In the post encounter sequence, all out of action and wounded models survived to fight another day. One of the undead characters - the king I think - sustained a permanent leg injury, and Balthazar suffered a permanent hand wound making him even worse in combat than before.

Both parties earned loot for achieving their objectives, and the adventurers topped that up by looting the dead for a tidy little sum that should allow them to hire a new character to join them next time. The undead have enough loot for another minion, but if they save that up for something more powerful, then our next engagement should see us being able to test the balancing bonuses for uneven encounters.

Also... I'm delighted with my new initiative counters custom made by Warbases!