Learn from yesterday,

 live for today, hope for tomorrow. — Albert Einstein

With 2019 just around the corner, I'd like to wish all my fellow bloggers a magical time in the New Year!

An Encounter at Arithdale continued

I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas, and as well as plenty of festive cheer you were all deemed to have been good enough to receive some goodies from Santa!

All went according to the "grand plan" here at TWA Towers, and I managed to get some gaming time (albeit in short sessions) to continue the game from the previous post: Part One


The group of musketeers who had left the lane made their way forward - and promptly encountered the first PEF which was skulking along the hedgerow

the hidden enemy turned out to be Old Mother Bankes "pets" - Rogue and Josh, her pair of hell hounds!

As the first men rounded the corner of the hedge, they were charged by a pair of vicious looking barghests, mauling the nearest of the men who tried fighting them off with clubbed muskets..
Meanwhile, the remaining ("remains") of the villagers were staggering along the main street of Arithdale towards Sergeant Jones' position at the mouth of the lane (and unseen PEF's lurked on either side of the street)

The fight with the barghests was brutal and very one sided, as the beasts tore into the surprised soldiers. Rogue decapitated his hapless victim, but Josh's opponent managed to fend the beast off - suffering a badly injured arm (which would impede his later actions)

With their blood up, Rogue and Josh followed up their attack (using the barghest "Pounce" ability) with Josh trying to finish off the wounded musketeer and Rogue attacking the next nearest human along the hedgerow.,

and at this point, the Dice Gods decided to intervene in spectacular fashion!
"Fisticuffs" in WfG involves opponents both throwing a pair dice. Red 'Attack' dice (plus appropriate modifiers) are then compared against white 'Defence' dice (plus modifiers) as the combatants "have at it".
The barghest following up on the wounded musketeer threw an appalling pair of 1's and lost the fight despite of the minus 1 modifier due to his wounded arm, while the other Hell Hound had decent dice but the musketeer had a pair of 6's!

Beaten off by their opponents musket butts, Rogue and Josh recoil from the fight.....(ending their go and handing initiative over to the men of the Trained Band)

...giving the two musketeers chance to take aim and fire while their nearest companion also moved into a firing position

Obviously hampered by his mutilated arm, Jeremiah's shot was wide of the mark. Thomas however had inflicted another wound on Rogue

While Jeremiah and Thomas began reloading their pieces, William, now with a clear line of sight, took aim and fired - another hit on Josh, and both abominations were now badly wounded.
How different things would have been if their attack hadn't been stalled!

The second PEF moved into view as it joined the zombie villagers making their way towards the lane

Two more foul abominations step into view,

and Sgt Jones directs the fire once again,

and once again musket balls clearly find their mark but the foul creatures are not killed by them! (three hits but no headshots)

The zombies continue to advance, and the second rank now give fire.

Meanwhile, the third PEF had moved forward along 'back' of the village, and was spotted and identified as a nocterlinger by Hugo -

who returns to the lane to warn Captain Jessop, as another shot is fired at the approaching horrors in the street,

leaving only one zombie standing -

but the nocterlinger has reached the hedgerow and is getting close!

Over to their right, the remaining musketeer now has a clear shot atone of the wounded beasts

From the village, Old Mother Bankes sees her beloved pet fall and frantically calls off Rogue to save him

With his men reloading their muskets Sgt Jones attacks the remaining zombie with his halberd (they don't like it up 'em), and Rogue pelts along the hedge and presents a difficult target (moving fast and in cover) so the parting shots from the musketeers are futile.

Just then the terrifying nocterlinger bursts from cover and charges sergeant Jones,

and once more the God Of The D6 decided to be fickle - the nocterlinger failing to land a blow on the valiant sergeant, who in turn was unable to strike his foe and the round of Fisticuffs was a stalemate.

Then a single musket shot rings out.....

....and Old Mother Bankes took to her broom as the corpse of the noctelinger fell among the carnage in Arithdale.

After the action, Captain Jessop's men searched the village for survivors but found none - which explained the lack of communication with All Hallows that the recently deceased Preacher Samuel was so concerned about.
After burning the afflicted bodies on Hugo's advice, and finding a hand cart at the millers cottage, the Trained Band loaded up the corpse of the musketeer killed by the barghest and set off to give him a burial in sacred ground back at All Hallows.

Hugo spent the whole journey pondering the best course of action to deal with the scourge afflicting the area, and agreed with Captain Jessop that they needed the assistance of a Witchfinder........ but where does one find a Witchfinder in these troubled times?

Many thanks for reading post number One Hundred and One, and what will probably be my last post for 2018, so may I take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the coming New Year - I'm off to pour myself a glass right now and shall be raising it to toast you all!!

An encounter at Arithdale part one

What follows is a true and faithful account of the action at Arithdale, a skirmish which resulted from the events recounted here: The Road To Arithdale

Captain Jepson and part of his company of Trained Band musketmen accompanied doctor Hugo back to the bridge near Arithdale, but finding no sign of the enemy, continued to the village itself with muskets loaded and matches alight,

though the precaution seemed unnecessary since only a few disheveled looking villagers were to be seen shambling around the streets.

(Old Mother Bankes remained out of sight at the end of the street)

With the arrival of the soldiers, the nearest "villagers" turned and made their way awkwardly towards them - the plague doctor quickly recognizing, by their corpse-like complexions, that these were no simple village folk and raised the alarm.

Stepping forward, the front rank took aim and fired.........

...... all three musket balls found their marks, yet only two of the abominations fell dead in the street (only two headshots), while the third continued on, the gaping wound clearly visible in its chest.

Sergeant Jones charged into the black powder smoke to attack the creature with his halberd,

and only just managed to get the better of the beast as it fought back with tooth and nail!
What on God's earth were these foul beings?

At this point dear reader, the skirmish must pause. This is as far as I've got before both sides declared a time honoured truce, so they can share a pipe of tobacco and engage in a traditional game of foote the ball on the village green.
Hostilities will resume after the festive celebrations.

Merry Christmas

A Place To Lay Your Weary Head part 2

The previous encounter was played on an old board with just the warehouse building on one edge - the fenced yard area was represented "off table", but would be needed for this game. This has meant using my old (warped) cork tiles for the sequel and I can only offer my apologies for the continuity error!

Knowing that the Winnebago was going to be tricky, if not impossible, to maneuver into the yard, Brad arranged for all essential items onboard to be transferred to the Jeep and pickup.
Travis and Amy then waited with those loaded vehicles while Brad drove the rest of the group in the RV to the intersection and opened up the gates for them to drive straight into the yard.
Brad had planned to use the bulky mobile home to block the intersection if there was signs of trouble, but things looked relatively clear and he opted for parking alongside the night club.

The sound of the engines (plus the groups arrival 'on table') acted as a dinner bell for the zombies in the area, but the slick operation saw the group safely inside the yard with the gates closed and chained before the walking dead could cause any problems.

Dave was left to keep an eye on things at the gate, while Brad, Zac and Travis went over to check out the security office. Hannah and the rest of the girls made their way up the yard, making a visual check of the warehouse on their way towards the other outbuilding.

Keeping things as quiet as possible, Zac forces open the door, breathes a sigh of relief, and then points out the stash of coffee and biscuits left by the last security shift!

Having cleared the security cabin, the guys head over to join the ladies and check out the larger, garage-like building. Brad notices that the light is fading - and it feels like it's been a long day.

At the same time, the zeds are gathering outside the gates, and Dave spots a PEF through the wire mesh.......

.... which turned out to be yet more (group + 1 = 9) of the undead attracted by the promise of supper.
Dave immediately ducked out of the zombies line of sight and hid behind the Jeep.

The rest of the group opened up the roller door, and found it empty apart from some cleaning equipment. Hannah pointed out that "Blue Roll" makes for great Loo Roll though, and Brad also noticed a side door to the building which he made sure was locked and secured.

Since the light was fading pretty fast, Brad sent Hillary to join her husband at the gates (standard military practice to "double up" sentries during the hours of darkness).......

........ before tackling the side door into the main building. It was locked, so he used the tyre iron to force the door open -

and it turned out that the ground floor was occupied! A single zed, which didn't gain "zombie surprise", and was set upon by the three members of the group who were with Nate earlier in the day.

The trio piled into the creature and burned off some of their pent up anger as the flurry of blows downed it.

Venturing upstairs revealed it to be empty, apart from the abandoned clutter.

Brad spotted the fixed ladder giving access to the roof hatch, so went up to make sure all was clear.
Evening was drawing in and he could see the horde generally milling around out front of the gates and fence. The group had managed to keep the noise down enough to not give away their location, and Dave and Hils had kept out of sight.

Before heading back indoors, Brad spent some time surveying the surroundings from his vantage point and weighing up the options for their next move. Taking a full inventory of what rations, ammo and water they'd actually got would be a priority - it was now too dark to worry about what was beyond the fences - could he smell coffee downstairs??

Many, many thanks for reading - not a lot of "action", but by crikey, there was some tension during this game and I just wish I could have spent more time with the write-up to try and put some of it over.
My apologies to fellow bloggers whose recent posts I'm yet to comment on, but once I'd started this little series of linked encounters, I just HAD to use my spare time to get them played to a natural "break point".