Hi!
As promised, I managed to play another game last night featuring Inquisitor Fisher and her loyal retainer Geralt the Wolfbane who encountered some old foes in the slums of Freeport City!
The Background
Inquisitor Fisher has heard rumours of more Orks than usual being sighted in the rundown slums of the capitol of Farpoint, Freeport City and has decided to investigate. While it is not uncommon to see several of the more 'civilised' clans such as Bloodaxes, Badmoons or even Deathskulls, the rumours identify the Orks as Goffs and such warlike Xenos infiltrating the Orkish enclaves no doubt is a sign of trouble to come.
While heading to meet with a local Ork representative in one of the less salubrious parts of town, Fisher spots furtive movement and as the Inquisitor and Geralt draw their weapons, a group of Goff Boys burst into view, their ambush spoiled by Fishers keen eye and charge forward bellowing warcrys and firing wildly.
The Forces
As I am using a bit of a hodgepodge of rules, I put together a sample of the forces stats and feats that they can carry out by using Hero Points.
Inquisitor Fisher is accompanied as always by Geralt the Wolfbane while the Ork force consists of four Goff Boyz all armed with bolt pistols and axes.
The Setup
The game takes place in one of the slums of Freeport City. It is a warren of dark alleyways, buildings constructed from a plethora of materials ranging from adobe to plascrete and scrap. The street, such as it is, is littered with junk and smells vaguely of boiled cabbage, a sure sign of Orkish inhabitation.
Fisher and Geralt begin the game on the southern edge of the board whilst the Orks begin at the north. The Inquisitor needs to survive the encounter and if possible exit the board's northern edge. The Orks are out for blood and must kill Fisher but will settle for Geralt if the opportunity allows it.
The Game
As I already mentioned, I am using a bit of a random mix of gaming elements, some of which may get bodged further as I play.
Each turn begins with a dice roll to see if any Hero Points are generated using my old Space Crusade dice with the red dice being the Hero's and the white the Villains. These points can be used to perform feats, be they impressive attacks, extra moves or in the case of Fisher, glaring.
Turn one begins with Fisher seizing the initiative and moving confidently forward towards the approaching Orks, snapping off a shot at the distant figures with her las pistol but failing to hit the leering xenos. As the Orks move towards the Imperial agents, Geralt uses his Move It! feat to sprint forward towards one of the Boyz who has foolishly split away from the rest of his companions.
Turn two sees no Hero Points rolled and the Orks take the initiative with the lone boy on the flank rushing towards Geralt firing wildly with his pistol but failing to damage the Wolfbane. In return, Geralt bellows his clan's warcry and charges the Ork.
A stellar couple of dice rolls sees the surprised Ork badly wounded by Geralt's blistering attack and things may be looking up for the Imperials.
The second Ork, seeing the approaching Inquisitor, opens fire with its bolt pistol and despite her armour, Fisher takes a point of damage.
Cursing as blood begins to trickle from the graze on her cheek caused by the shell exploding on her shoulder pad and hearing Geralt's warcry, Fisher activates her power sword and lunges at the Ork who fired upon her. Unfortunately, she fails to damage the Ork who nimbly ducks under the glowing red blades swing and loses the spike from the top of his helmet instead of his head.
The remaining two Orks rush down the alley on the western flank, determined to get behind Fishers party and attack from the rear.
The Imperials win initiative in turn three and roll a Hero Point too and Geralt runs his blade through the Ork he had been fighting. As he kicks the corpse of the greenskin off his blade, he hears hobnailed boots pounding down a nearby alleyway and hurries towards Fisher, aware that she's about to be outflanked.
Fisher uses a Hero Point to perform her Imperious Glare feat on the Ork as it tries to swing at her and her piercing ice blue eye makes contact with the red of the Goff and he quails under the judging stare (he had rolled a really good attack dice and the re-roll resulted in him rolling poorly!) Taking advantage of the creatures momentary pause, Fisher sweeps her power blade and sends the beasts head flying from its shoulders.
Unfortunately Fisher doesn't get chance to savour her victory as the two remaining Orks burst out of the alley behind her and one opens fire with his pistol at her unprotected back and sends the Inquisitor sprawling. Bellowing in victory, the greenskin rushes forward to finish the job brandishing its axe but is surprised to find the supposedly deceased Fisher pull herself to her feet and meet his charge with a curse.
The second Ork, sees Geralt emerging from the other end of the alley, covered in green blood from the Ork he slew and opens fire but Geralt avoids the shells and they scream past his head before ricocheting off a nearby wall.
Turn four begins and once again no Hero Points are rolled. Inquisitor Fisher and the Goff in melee with her exchange a flurry of blows but fail to find their marks but Fisher is keenly aware of the fact that the shot to the back has pierced her armour and she is bleeding pretty badly.
Geralt rushes the Ork that fired on him and in another brutal attack wounds the beast, driving it backwards with a flurry of swings with his punisher sword. In response, the Ork fails to damage the Wolfbane.
Turn five one again sees a decided lack of Hero Points and the swirling melee that continues sees Geralt stagger as the wounded and now throughly enraged Ork smash his axe into Geralt's side, cutting through his armour and into his flesh. Grunting in pain, Geralt swipes at the beast, failing to damage it but driving it back somewhat.
Things are looking equally grim for Fisher as the Ork fighting her proves that a wounded Ork is a dangerous Ork as it scores another wound on her and she fights down the pain and snarls at the beast, determined to wipe the sneer off its face if its the last thing she does.
Turn six begins with no Hero Points being rolled once again but Imperial pluck wins out as focusing all her rage into a well timed thrust, Fisher runs the sneering Ork through and disembowels the greenskin. Pausing to kick the dying creature in the head, she staggers towards the Wolfbane who is bleeding like a stuck pig as the Ork he is fighting scores another hit, breaking his sword arm.
Before the creature can celebrate, Geralt lifts his pistol and sends an explosive bolt into it's head sending it sprawling to the ground, skull shattered and quite dead.
Conclusion
Geralt slumps and groans, not sure where hurts more, his cracked and broken ribs or his badly mangled arm but sees an equally bloody Fisher glaring down at him. "Come on Geralt, there's no time to lie around feeling sorry for yourself. I'm sure there are more of them out there so suck it up". Sighing, the Wolfbane pulls himself to his feet and painfully follows his boss towards the safety of a local agents compound wondering if he can have a day off after this and plaintively wishing for a drink or ten.
So there we go! Fisher and Geralt have avoided an ambush but what are the Orks motives? Is this a simple attack of opportunity or is there more at work than it appears. Hopefully once they've both been patched up, the Inquisitorial team will be able to get to the bottom of it!
The bodged rules went pretty well and it was a good fun game with the two heroes fighting off a group of goons and my only regret was I didn't get enough hero points to perform any really powerful attacks but I had great fun playing the game and will need to play another soon!
I'm really enjoying playing games with only a handful of figures a side as I can get a game in quickly and don't have to paint too much to get a new force into play either which is a definite bonus.
I've got today off and have a vague plan of playing a game of Planet 28, one of Song of Blasters and one of Brutal Quest which will give me lots to post about in the coming days so watch this space but until then, All the best!
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