Carnevale: Secure The Arms

We got back to gaming after a few weeks break when Mr T came around for some more Carnevale, I've also completed a couple of models whilst waiting for the new faction boxes and rules to arrive.

Using a model gifted to me I've painted up a second Highborn Servant just in case I want to field two in a force. They are I think an excellent utility hero with a decent ranged and melee attack and unusually for the Strigoi the ability to spend Will Points rather than Life for extra dice. The Bankroll special also encourages the use of the more expensive equipment options.

The Poison equipment is 5 points which is quite a lot for a one use item, but for something you can use once a turn, as long as the Highborn Servant is alive, it's great value. The extra damage isn't a certainty but a 60% chance to do extra damage is good and as it goes directly onto the Life Points your opponent doesn't get a save.

I also completed a second gondola, this time the funeral version. It seemed like a good addition for the Strigoi forces though they may just see it as a people carrier.

For the game we played the Secure the Arms scenario which sees 6 static objectives that must be held at the end of the game to score VP's. Each side also draws 5 Agenda cards and must complete at least 1 in order to score any VP's.

I got the El Gato down from her shelf to add onto the battlefield and no doubt we can imagine that the arms have just been off loaded from her cargo hold. We didn't actually end up fighting on her decks so I may need to see if there is a scenario that can have her placed in the centre of the table.

In order to get ourselves into the action a bit quicker we dropped the table size down to 24" * 30" and the game size down to 100 Ducats to make the rounds a bit quicker.

I went with the Noble Strigoi, 2 Common Strigoi, 1 Highborn Servant, 2 Thralls, and 1 Seer for magic support. The Seer is good at buffing friends and de-duffing enemies but you need to get the timing right so it's done in an effective manner, it's certainly something I failed to do properly so will take some practice.

The Guild went with the Capodecina, 1 Baroni, 1 Fisherman, 1 Gondolier, 2 Citizens and Baba-Yaga for magic support. Baba-Yaga is practised in Blood Magic which makes her a bit more direct in her use so she's easier to get your Ducat's worth back on.

Starting closer together meant we got into the action more quickly though The Guild spent most of their first turn completing an Agenda to fall into water so they got off the mark very early on. The Strigoi on the other hand didn't manage to complete their Agenda until almost the last turn of the game so they came very close to not scoring any VP's at all. 

The game rather revolved around the opposing leaders with the Capodecina killing off a Thrall and a Common Strigoi and allowing the Guild forces to dominate the dockside area and take both the objectives on that side. The Noble Strigoi killed the Fisherman in one turn and then badly mauled Baba-Yaga who was finished off by the Highborn Servant which allowed the Strigoi to take the two inland objectives.

The game came down to the last activation in the end (which I didn't get a picture of) which saw the Noble Strigoi bound across the board using a move and then a chain-jump to throw a Citizen out of claiming range of an objective, this allowed the Strigoi to sneak an unlikely win.