Friday, April 1, 2011

Tiny kobolds, huge elemental

I have recently created and played another solo scenario for Song of Blades and Heroes. This time, a kobold scout spots an uncontrolled -- and huge -- earth elemental moving in the woods, near his village. The kobold village chief consults with the shaman and finds out that he has an amulet that may hold the elemental in place, so that his archers can safely destroy it from a distance.
Forces
Kobolds (controlled by the player):
1x Kobold Chief (Q3+ C2, Leader)
1x Kobold Shaman (Q3+ C0, Magic-User)
2x Kobold Archer (Q4+ C2, Gregarious, Shooter: Long)
The Elemental Threat:
1x Huge Earth Elemental (Q2+ C5, Artificial, Huge, Savage, Tough)
Deployment
This scenario uses a 60x30cm table, for 15mm miniatures (or a 90x45cm table for 25/28mm). The elemental is placed in the middle of one of the narrow sides and the kobolds are deployed within 1 Short of the opposite side.
Victory conditions
The kobolds win if they manage to destroy the elemental. They lose if all models are removed from play, or if the elemental reaches the border they were deployed on -- meaning it has reached the kobold village and will proceed to destroy it.

Additional rules

The kobold shaman is equipped with an amulet that allows him to cast a Magical Trap spell once. This requires one action and creates a magical trap in base contact with the shaman. The trap is a 1-Short radius circle that counts as broken terrain for the elemental. Furthermore, while the elemental is inside the trap, it suffers a -1 penalty to quality rolls and a -1 penalty to its combat score. The trap area cannot be moved but it lasts until the end of the game.

Elemental behavior
At the beginning of the game the elemental is "calm". On its turns, it will activate with only one die. If successful, roll a die to decide what it does:
1-3 = Move 1 Medium towards the kobold village.
4 = Move 1 Short towards one of the long edges of the table, if possible. Otherwise, move 1 Short towards the village.
5 = Move 1 Short towards the other long edge, if possible. Otherwise, move 1 Short towards the village. NOTE: before starting the game, pick which edge the elemental will move to on rolls of 4 and 5.
6 = Don't do anything.

If any model gets within 1 Medium of the elemental, or if it is attacked, it becomes enraged until the end of the game. NOTE: the model does not have to end its turn at 1 Medium of the elemental to enrage it. It can move in with one action, then move away with another.
- If the elemental became enraged due to an attack, its last attacker becomes its target.
- If the elemental became enraged due to a model approaching, the closest model becomes its target.
The enraged elemental will always activate on three dice and pursue its current target.
- Any model that attacks or casts a spell on the elemental becomes its new target.
- If the current target is defeated, runs off the board or is more than 1 Long away from the elemental when it next activates, it will pick the closest model as its new target.

Variations
For an easier scenario, change the magic trap to cause a -2 penalty to quality rolls.
Adding obstacles to the board may make the game easier or harder, depending on their position. In this case, the elemental may move in diagonals, always favoring the direction of the kobold village, in order to clear obstacles.

Closing remarks
Although both forces have the same number of points, the elemental can easily overwhelm the kobolds. Winning this scenario requires careful maneuvering to take advantage of the magical trap and some luck.

3 comments:

Slorm said...

Hello,
I as looking for those kobolds in One Monk, but I can't find them.
Could you share the link to download/buy them?

Thanks

Ricardo Nakamura said...

I'm afraid that those red kobolds aren't back yet in the OneMonk store. However, you can get the blue variant in the free Forum Hoard #43:

http://onemonk.com/component/content/article/7-forum-hoards/6-forum-hoard-41-60

Slorm said...

OK, perfect!
I was looking for the goblins too :D

Gracias