Chase Them Down – Carnevale Action Report

After an exciting first game in this small campaign, Yaum and I didn’t wait long and played the second scenario the very next week. It took me some time to finish my write-up though, so excuse me if I don’t go in full action by action details, as some of it is a bit blurry now. I wouldn’t want to write it that way anyway. Let’s jump in!

The Story

Moving stealthily away from the crowd gathering near palazzo Cattivo, Antonio Morosini thanked his legendary luck. The Contessa, in her bloodlust, didn’t finish him and quickly assaulted her next victim. The Capodecina, under the orders of Princess Castello, was to assault the palazzo and prevent this masquerata of ever happening. Sadly, one of the civilians under him, unused to dirty work like this, gave their presence away early, and paid for it with his life. Looking back, Morosini saw that some of the nobles were not getting up from their own pool of blood either, and smiled to himself. The mission wasn’t a complete failure. But he then heard the Contessa rally her remaining guests and call for a chase. It was time for him and what was left of his troop to get out of here.

Setup

The second scenario is Chase Them Down. It’s played on a 4’x2′, the long way. The Guild force is trying to flee the Patricians and claim Objectives along the way, while the Patricians want to prevent that by destroying the objectives first, but can also score by completing cycling Agendas. We used some chest tokens for the objectives. However, it made sense thematically to view them as wounded civilians holding information that the Guild was trying to learn, before the Patricians could eliminate them. We were just lacking models to represent that. The Patricians have a bigger force, with 125 Ducats, while the Guild is limited to 100 Ducats.

The Attackers – Patricians

• Contessa Jezabella Cattivo, Venetian Noble
• Foreign Dignitary
• Syphilitic Noble
• 3 Barnabotti
• 2 Cat Burglars
• Butler
• Item: Bottled Courage

The Defenders – The Guild

• Capo Antonio Morosini, Capodecina
• Rialto Assassin
• Baroni
• Fisherman
• Gondolier
• 2 Citizens
• Dog

Deployment

We used the same tiles and terrain for one side to represent the palazzo of Contessa Cattivo that was attacked during the first scenario, and from which the Patricians are launching their chase, and then expanded to make the long board. The Attackers (Patricians) are deployed on the first 4” of the board. The Defenders (the Guild) have the next 8” to deploy into. The Attacker places the 6 objectives anywhere else on the table. Yaum spread them out all over, placing multiple on roofs or on the opposite side of the board, to make them more challenging to access.

Turn One

The Patricians move slowly forward, exchanging some pistol fire with the Baroni, but also take multiple Guard actions to complete some Agendas. The Guild starts to move away from the palazzo and toward the objectives, the Capo Morosini scoring the first one on a roof. A Cat Burglar tries to launch a preemptive strike on the Gondolier that backtracked to get his precious gondola, but she fails her jump and ends up in the water of the canal. The Fisherman jumps on the opportunity – and on the Cat Burglar – wounding her severely.

Turn Two

The wet Cat Burglar disengages from the dangerous Fisherman and flees back toward the rest of the Patricians to lick her wounds. The rest of the Patricians continue to play it safe, concentrating on shooting and completing agendas, while the Guild members also move away and are running for the objectives. They leave some members back to hold up the Patricians, including a Baroni that shoots at the advancing Barnabotti on the bridge. The Syphilitic Noble cannot hold himself and launch an attack on that Baroni, jumping over the bridge railing to reach him. The Dog, seeing a friendly face attacked, joins in on the fray.

Turn Three

The Dog brings down the Syphilitic Noble, letting the wounded Baroni seek cover behind a merchant house. Most of the Guild members continue on their way to secure objectives, the Capo and a Civilian both reaching one. The Patricians complete multiple Agendas and move slowly forward, some of them reaching the far side of the bridge, including a Barnabotti that just misses the exhausted Baroni. The Butler, aiming well, takes down the Gondolier before he is able to row out of sight behind a larger boat. The Contessa Cattivo cannot contain her bloodlust and unleashes the monster behind the mask. She rushes forward, climbs the merchant house and strikes the Rialto Assassin that was lying there in wait. Wounded, he disengages and throws some knives at the Contessa, hurting her back.

Turn Four

The run for the objectives continue on the Guild side. The force of the Guild are able to reach the remaining objectives, but an acrobatic Cat Burglar is able to reach the Fisherman after pole vaulting off the boat mast to prevent him from gathering the information. The Baroni shoot at the Barnabotti but cannot finish him before the crazed lower noble runs into him and put two inches of cold steel in his chest. The Contessa and the Assassin continue their cat and mouse game, as she jumps down the building in reaction to his attacks, but climbs back up right after to reengage him.

Turn Five

While the rest of the Patricians continue to run after the fleeing Guild members, the Contessa finally pierce the defence of the Assassin and take him down. She then calls out to her party to regroup.

The Results

Attackers: 9 VP (9 Agenda completed)
Defenders: 5 VP (5 Objectives claimed)

This is a solid win for the Patricians. The Guild did complete their intended goal, and were not wiped out from the board, but the nobles gathered way more points thanks to the cycling of the Agendas. Their vast pool of Command Points, as well as some means to regain them, also let them swap some more difficult ones out, which helped them achieve such a large number.

Another fantastic game with Yaum, with lots of cinematic actions displayed on the table. With hindsight, I should probably have held back more models from the Guild to try and disrupt the Patricians’ plans to gather Agendas. Maybe even try to take the fight to them, and not wait, even if it ultimately meant throwing sheep to the wolves. I’ll know better for next time.

Conclusion

With his back to a building, hidden in the shadows to catch his breath, Antonio Morosini could hear from afar the Contessa shouting to her followers, celebrating the killing of an infamous assassin of the Rialto. “The Princess will not be happy to receive this news…”, he murmured to himself. Hearing some noises coming from an alley, he gripped his sword, but relaxed when he recognized a couple of the civilians that were part of his squad. He even managed half a smile when they showed him the envelopes they both gathered from the informants. He thought to himself, “Well, at least it won’t be only bad news. Let’s just hope we can outrun those feral blue bloods now.”