This week Mr T and I played through our first two Carnevale games. The starter set comes with a six part introductory campaign for the Rashaar & Guild models which come in the box. These consist of increasing complex scenarios which introduce new game concepts in each battle.
The first scenario is a simple move to the other side of the board with no combat mission, it pits 2 Guild Citizens against a Rashaar Ugdru and Slave. In much the same way as in Deadzone the terrain on the table isn't just to get in the way or provide a bit of a cover against shooting it's something that should be central to your plans and acts as a third player in the game.
Most actions in the game involve rolling on against a target number and then consulting a table to check what the resulting outcome is. We found that once we'd jumped a few times we didn't need to some back to the table very often unless we got a Critical or a Fumble. In the first game we had some gondola posts in the water so the non-aquatic characters could chain jump across the canals. To make a jump you roll a number of dice equal to your Dexterity value (4 for a citizen) and then add up all the Ace's (successes) to see what happens. Each time you make a roll you have one Destiny dice and then the rest of the dice are normal. You use the Destiny dice to determine if a result is a Critical or a Fumble, in order to get a Critical you need to roll 10 on the Destiny dice and get one other Ace, you get a Fumble if you roll 1 on the Destiny dice and get no Ace's.
In our first game Mr T managed a might 8" jump with one of his Citizens who was chain jumping across the canal sending that model zooming across the table.
The second game introduced combat into the mix with The Guild fielding three Citizens, a Gondolier and gondola and the Rashaar fielding two Ugdru and two slaves. I forgot to take a photo of the starting positions but the forces started in opposite corners. The gondola was swiftly propelled by the Gondolier and one Citizen around the canals and was pretty much across the board at the end of turn one.
One Ugdru stayed in the canal to welcome them whilst the other and the slaves moved towards the central piazza. One of the citizens had also scaled a building, leaping / falling into your enemies gives a big negative to the number of dice they role to protect from the attack that follows.
Carnevale has a couple of ways to damage your opponents force with both a direct attack and a drowning action. The Fumble outcome on the Combat table was quite nasty and we both managed to Fumble an attack during the game.
At the start of the second turn my Ugdru swam up to the Gondola and managed to knock the Gondolier out (by causing 3 or more wounds) and then drown him almost to the point of death, when the Gondolier tried to escape he provoked an attack of opportunity and sadly lost his life, first blood to the Rashaar.
The Citizen scampering over the roofs tried to get a better position by leaping between buildings and ended up 1" short on his leap so plummeted down to the ground and took some serious damage whilst the other Citizen and a slave duked it out.
The fight in the piazza was a bit of a slugging match with the superior Citizens wearing down the Slaves whilst taking a few hits in return. Whilst that was going on the third Citizen was being chased by one of the Ugdru who pursued him onto the roof tops.
The Citizen then flung himself off the roof and managed to fall onto the other Ugdru causing five points of damage but suffering four points in the fall.
Once the second Ugdru jumped from the roof into the melee it was all over for the Guild forces as the superior melee ability of the Ugdru swiftly took them out.
All in all we had two good games with both offering some memorable moments via the Critical / Fumble results and the way that you can climb up over and bounce off terrain making movement more than just a case of measuring out a 4" line.
Mr T was impressed with the rules and how quickly we got into them so we plan to play through the rest of the starter scenarios and see how things go with some extra options and abilities thrown into the mix.
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