Robin the Rich! A Billhooks skirmish scenario

 

Gather round all ye merry folk, strike up the band and hear the minstrels sing the tale of the famous outlaw Robin B’stard and how he bested Bad Baron Harding in the deep dark vale of Shirewood Forest.

This was another playtest of my skirmish game introducing the outlaw profile. An ambush scenario.

Baron Harding has returned home from a successful chevauchee in France with a good haul of rich pickings and is escorting his ill-gotten gains on mule back to his castle home with his Retinue. The road passes through the thick Forest of Shirewood, a dense forest well known to local outlaws and a prime place for an ambush. To prevent being waylaid on the main road, the Baron has hired a guide and some local peasants to lead his Retinue by one of the many lesser paths that wend their way through the Forest.

Baron Harding is not a modest man and word of his wealth has spread through the county, notorious Outlaw and bane of the local gentry, Robin B’stard has heard tell of the gold and is determined that it should be his. He gathers his Messy Men and in small bands they patrol the Forest in eager anticipation of acquiring the Baron’s Bounty.

The trail skirts the edge of Shirewood. There are several areas of dense forest which are considered Hard Going as are the two marshy areas and the Hills. As the Bad Baron I had to get my little convoy of gold off the far edge of the table, Mark as the good? Outlaw B’stard is out to steal it!

The Baron’s men enter the table on the first turn.

they begin to spread out, alert for any danger

In the shadows, furtive figures can be glimpsed moving through the trees. 

some of them with very suspect moustaches

Moving through the undergrowth, the Outlaws in small groups move towards the Barons Retinue until…

 

…they are surrounded

The Baron’s squire sir Edward Binns leads the column…

…unaware that he is being watched

the trap is sprung!

There is the twang of bow strings and the woosh of goose quill and thunk thunk thunk three men are down

 It didn’t all go one way however, Robin was unable to hit anything and then the unlucky Outlaw walked into an arrow going the other way! Sensing a quick victory Sir Edward charged into the marsh. I completely forgot that this hapless squire also has the trait Nimble and so he stopped short of contact…

 …and soon resembled a pin cushion. I had quite bad luck with all my saving rolls throughout the game, saving on 3+ Sir Edward should have lasted longer

Willamena Scarlett, arch outlaw side kick, has caught up and joins the turkey shoot.

The portly Friar Muck ambles over to Robin and uses his Blessings trait to heal the Outlaw chief.

Willamena and her band all run out of arrows as shown by the orange markers. These plastic markers cost about a fiver for 120. I have drilled the centres and glued in 3mm magnets which attach them selves quite nicely to the bottom of the pennies we use for bases.

With eight of this Retinue down, the Baron has to test his Will to Fight. It’s not a good day for rolling dice and despite being as “Bold as a Lion”, a trait that enables reroll of the WTF roll, the Baron fails miserably and surrenders.

  “Here take the gold, much good may it do you!” 

All in all a fun game and the Outlaws seemed to work well. The Barons men were quickly overwhelmed but I would want to run the game again before making any drastic changes. I think we possibly had too many areas of Hard Going on the table making it a bit easy for the Bandits.

I wanted to make the Outlaws quite different from the other Retainer profiles and I think I succeeded. They are Nimble so pay no movement penalty in rough terrain and have the Woodsman skill which means they can find cover in any terrain that is considered to be Hard Going. They are not particularly good in melee nor are they any better than Bow men at shooting, they are not well protected but they are hard to shoot at and can move quickly through the Forest. The idea is that they rely on their Heroes who are very good having multiple skills.  It will be interesting to see how they cope in different scenarios with different terrain. I should like to write a short ladder campaign for them with maybe this scenario being the first one in a series.

John Small , a lovely kit-bash by the very talented Mark Taylor