For a while I've been playing through a campaign of Nordic Weasel's 5 Leagues from the Borderland (v2).
Like most of the "Five" series of games, this provides a simple tabletop skirmish against programmed opponents and a set of campaign rules to cover the activity between fights. I have experimented with other skirmish campaign systems, often mixing campaign rules from one source with skirmish rules from another source. For example, Joe Lengan's Platoon Forward provides campaign rules to use with a platoon-level skirmish game. For the amazons I'm using 5 Leagues for both, as designed.
So far I've stayed with version 2 of the rules, which look like something typed up in a word processor. The latest version (v3) published by Modiphius has suffered the attentions of graphic designers, so the text seems smaller and harder to read, with two columns on a page and coloured backgrounds for tables. I may move forward eventually, but for now I'm sticking with the printer- & eyeball-friendly presentation of v2.
Alkippe's band of amazons is attempting to stabilise three villages in Lower Caria against the threats of outlaws, border incursions and the dark secrets of sorcery. The Amazons begin in Idomenea, and will later move on to Heste & Galatessa.
The initial party consisted of:
- Alkippe, the leader, armed with a hand-and-a-half sword. Her endurance allows her to recover quickly from wounds
- Bremusa, a loyal defender of Alkippe, armed with a short bow
- Calaeno, Alkippe's loyal ally, lighter-armoured but with another great sword
- Derinoe, a fully-armoured hero with a spear
These heroes (heroines?) are accompanied by two followers:
- Eriboea, a former soldier in light armour with a short sword
- Phoebe, a deranged wretch with a short bow
Over the course of 10 campaign turns, the amazons have cleared Idomenea of all threats and developed into a tougher band of warriors. The followers have become heroes and the group has been joined by further followers and hangers-on.
In keeping with the spirit of the game, I use what models I have available. My amazons don't all look as Greek as you might expect, the border incursions are Egyptians, and when the campaign called for undead enemies then they were mummies.
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| Chapter 11 - approaching the roadblock |
Chapter 1 - Arrival in Idomenea
Bremusa buys drinks for the locals and recruits a follower, Jack. The amazons buy him a sword. They also recruit a villager, Kouros.
No fight this time, but the amazons meet a peasant who offers to do them a favour when they need it.
Chapter 2 - Egyptian raiders
On the road the amazons meet an entertainer who ignores them and brushes past.
The amazons patrol a local farm and bump into a group of 4 Egyptian soldiers. The amazons win the fight, but Alkippe is hit with an arrow and lightly wounded.
Chapter 3 - Jack the earner
Jack goes out to work and makes some cash for the group to pay for lodgings while Alkippe loses a turn recovering from her injury.
Chapter 4 - Mummy, Mummy!
The amazons bump into a group of three undead at close range and the fight is quickly joined. All the mummies are killed, but Alkippe and Jack are both wounded and are lucky not to be seriously hurt.
In this encounter the amazons learn to work in pairs, to gain an advantage over tough opposition like the undead.
Chapter 5 - Chilling
Alkippe recovers, the party stays in town & sells some spare gear they picked up
Chapter 6 - Nutters
The group buys full armour for Calaeno (although I continue to use the same unarmoured model for her).
On patrol they find a group of fanatics in a cave complex, including a bridge over an underground river. There are seven of them, and two leaders.
Eriboea nearly died of her wounds (I used a story point to save her). She will be out of action for 5 campaign turns. Also her short sword is damaged and must be repaired or replaced before it can be used.
Calaeno killed both the leaders and receives bonus development.
Jack is promoted to a hero for his part in the fight.
Significant loot from the fanatics includes a scroll allowing one of the group to learn a spell to use in future, and a quiver that is never empty.
The amazons also find evidence of what has been going on with the fanatics, leading to a wider investigation and removing the threat completely.
Chapter 7 - Her again!
On the road the amazons meet an entertainer who ignores them and brushes past. Again.
They don't find anyone to fight
Chapter 8 - Smugglers' Hole
On the road the amazons meet a scholar who treats them with disdain. He turns out to be an agent of a neighbouring kingdom, working as part of some conspiracy. The border threat increases.
Later they encounter a group of 4 smugglers with a lieutenant leading them. They are found at a storage shed by the edge of the woods through which the smugglers travel unseen with their contraband.
The amazons use their superior numbers (even without Eriboea) to quickly defeat three of the smugglers, at which point the other two flee.
In the shed they find ledgers and records of the smugglers' business, which allows the rest of the gang to be caught and another threat removed.
Chapter 9 - The keep on the borderland
The locals have heard about the scholar making trouble and want the amazons to deal with him. They offer free upkeep for a turn.
Derinoe still hasn't managed to track an enemy, despite having studied tracking
The amazons explore a farm near a ruined tower on a hill, and discover a military patrol of 4 Egyptians.
They defeat three of the Egyptians and the fourth runs away. They didn't find the scholar, but were paid a bounty for the patrol.
Later, the fourth Egyptian comes into Idomenea and asks to join the amazons, rather than go home. His name is Likuris.
Idomenea is now clear of all threats, so the amazons decide to move on.
Chapter 10 - Moving on - start of Season 2
The amazons leave Idomenea and travel to Heste. On the way, they meet Makarios, the friendly peasant who still owes them a favour from chapter 1. They arrange to meet in Heste.
Along the road, they encounter 8 outcasts with a captain to lead them. They are camped around an abandoned temple building at the roadside and the amazons stumble right into them.
In an untidy melee, Calaeno take out a couple of the outcasts, Phoebe takes one by archery and right from round one individual outcasts start running away. However, at the climax of the fight, Alkippe duels with the captain, with support from Likuris, and loses. Fortunately she is only lightly hurt and will not take long to recover. Likuris is briefly left to fight the captain on his own, until the captain breaks off and runs away.
They also find a prisoner in the old temple: a craftsman, who is polite, but not really interested.
Chapter 11 - Welcome to Heste (new meetings and a sad farewell)
The locals take pity on Alkippe's wound and provide free lodging for a turn.
Derinoe Tracks some enemies, and finally succeeds. She is still the worst tracker in history!
Kouros does a few days of honest work and brings in some cash.
Alkippe is seen by the town healer, and returns to full health.
The amazons go out on patrol and encounter another 9 outcasts, led by a lieutenant.
The outcasts have set up an ambush in the deep forest, with fallen trees to act as road blocks and slow down any travellers.
The amazons spread out and advance in pairs to the flanks, with the archers and Kouros taking the centre. Movement through the dense woodland is slow, and melee is only joined at the end of round 3.
Likuris has moved ahead, ready to be joined by Alkippe, but is caught on his own by an outcast and goes down.
Phoebe takes down two outcasts with the bow. Derinoe defeats one in close combat. One outcast makes the mistake of closing with Calaeno and meets his end.
Alkippe takes revenge on Likuris's attacker. The lieutenant crosses the fallen tree to come grips with the amazons. Two outcasts flee the field.
In the 5th round Bremusa finishes the lieutenant with an arrow. Calaeno defeats another outcast, and yet another makes the mistake of closing with her, the last mistake he'll ever make.
The amazons held the field, the outcasts all down or fled. However, Likuris did not survive his wounds. He is the first that the group has lost. The outcasts had no loot, but the amazons reduced the threat level in Heste thanks to Derinoe's tracking. Alkippe, Derinoe and Eriboea go up a level and gain in stats or skills.
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| The end of Likuris, Alkippe will avenge him |
Chapter 12 - the blackest knight
After the drama of losing Likuris, the next chapter descended into farce, given my shameless abuse of the programmed actions of the enemy.
A wandering healer visits Heste, on a rare occasion when none of the group is injured.
Derinoe succeeds in tracking enemies again. She may be getting the hang of this tracking.
The party explores the local area and finds a monster lair, but with no indication what kind of creature it is. They decide to rush into the lair anyway. In the middle of a maze of walls they find a Death Knight.
This is a daunting opponent, with 3 "lives" to lose, immune to wounding and so terrifying that the amazons need to roll high to even close with it.
I arranged the main fighters (Alkippe, Calaeno, Derinoe) with backup (Jack, Kouros) covering the archers (Bremusa, Phoebe), while Eriboea acted as rodeo clown. She is the fastest of the group, quick enough to outrun the death knight. She runs up, to be the closest enemy, then moves away to distract the monster as it pursues.
While the death knight chased Eriboea, the archers shot at it. Most of the time it was out of sight, but Eriboea ran around in a circle, returning to areas where the archers could get a bead on her pursuer. In theory this could have gone on indefinitely, until one of the archers got lucky and hit a vital spot. In fact it only took twelve rounds, which was extremely lucky as my calculation of the odds suggests it should have taken 81 rounds. Phoebe ran out of arrows, but Bremusa had the ever-full quiver and passed it across to Phoebe as the more skilled archer.
To create a maze of walls around the monster, I rolled 1d12 for clock-face direction, 2d6 for distance in inches and an odd-even die for orientation (N-S or E-W) to place each wall segment. There were enough openings for Eriboea to find a circuit to run around.
There's plenty of loot in the death knight's lair. 16 gold coins, 2 bottles of fine ale, and an enchanted weapon, which is ideal for Bremusa, so that she now uses her bow at +3 (although her natural combat ability is only +0). It's the perfect companion for the never-empty quiver of arrows.
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