Following the huge success of G.R.O.G.'s (Gloucestershire Retro and Oldhammer Gamers) first big, Halloween, game ... "The night of the living lead" thoughts inevitably turned to our next big game.
It is our plan to meet up again sometime around Christmas.
I can't help myself but to come up with another shocking pun ...
So .. the next big game will be called "T'was the fight before Christmas"
The ideas we chucked around were ... Elves (Obviously!
) and some naughty goblins generally doing what they could to spoil everyone's Christmas. But then I remembered I had converted and painted up a Christmas themed Dwarf and a unit of rangers to go with him. I had come up with a bit of background and leant heavily on "T'was the night before Christmas" for the background to this unit.
BACKGROUND/THEME: The saga of Julenissen Frost. (Yule to his friends. AKA Grandfather Frost). He is Dwarf Thane and whilst not the Lord of his stronghold he had the honour of bearing the holds standard. However, one winter on the night before the great feast, his hold was attacked by a band of marauding orks and the whilst the Dwarfs swiftly took up arms in defence of their hold Julenissen lost the holds ancient runic standard. In the same night he also lost most of his kin. As a dreadful fire swept through part of the hold. In his shame and grief he was going to shave his head and take the slayer oath but the last surviving member of his family, his granddaughter, persuaded him not to do this and instead to avenge their loved ones and regain his honour by finding, and slaying the orcs and recovering the holds standard. So it was that he, together with a small band of loyal warriors, became Grandfather Frosts rangers. (One of the most renowned bands of rangers ever formed). He is always accompanied by his granddaughter ‘Snegi rocka’. (The regiments leader and champion). They continually search the Worlds Edge mountains always appearing from the wilderness the night before battle to join any Dwarf army facing green skins in the hope of recovering the lost standard. Whist they have never found the band of Orcs or the standard which they seek they have slain so many of their foul kin in the search that they now have earned place of honour in any Dwarf hold. They return home only once a year when they appear on the eve of the great winter feast with sacks of gifts, collected on their travels, which they give to the Dwarf children.
There is a well known Dwarf Poem written about Grandfather Frosts appearances :
He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedlar just opening his sack.
His eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old El ... Dwarf
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
So this is the basic plan ...
Each player is a commander of a different troop of Dwarf Rangers.
They come on the board with just a couple of rangers they have been patrolling with each with a different objective. (Kill the Goblin King, destroy the wolf skulls, Destroy the Red Blades, Recover the captives .... that sort of thing ... which contribute to the overall team objective of kicking the Goblins ****). They 'Blow their horns' each turn to try and summon more Rangers to their position. (However they also risk alerting the bad guys to their positions ...
).
Following the success of the random event cards at the Halloween "Night of the living Lead" game.
They also have to draw a Dwarf Rune from the pouch each turn ... (I actually have a physical pouch with 25 stones in it each inscribed with a Norse Rune) and this will introduce a fantastic random element to each turn as depending on which Rune is draw ... and how it is drawn. Sometimes the effects will be good ... sometimes not so much.
Choas will ensue.
