Totengräber's Workpläce

Brian and I decided to finally play some HellDorado after having bought the miniatures a few months ago. We both only have a starter to work with right now. He has the Westerners while I have The Lost. The nice thing is all the starters for the game add up to exactly 200 points, even with the new 1635 rules. We used the English translated rules found at http://www.helldorado.fr, which seem to be everything you need except the Terraformation rules. We didn’t need Terraformation quite yet, though I do have a translated version downloaded from some friends.

My Lost Army:

• Bran Carnoth
• Sling Maiden
• Maggot Bearer
• Fangs of the Pit
• Squamata Warrior x2
• Retarius x2

Brian’s Westerners:

• Fransisco Vargas
• Anna Pavlova
• Aidan Saint James
• Sara Zingaresce
• Fencer
• Missionary
• Arquebusier x3

We started the game having not the slightest clue how to deploy. We just took a guess and went with 5″ based on some scenarios I have downloaded for the game. He had the Dominance first turn, so he made me deploy first and eventually go first.

First turn involved each of us positioning and moving forward. I found the Sling Maiden somewhat hindered by having to be in base contact with the Maggot Bearer during this portion. Later, I decided it would probably be best to run the Sling Maiden forward into her position and let the Maggot Bearer catch up later. I used Vae Soli a couple of times during this turn to keep the Retarius and Squamata Warrior teams together and to get used to using that rule.

Second turn was more positioning since being so far back on a 4×4 board didn’t get us close enough right off the bat. Remembering now, we should have marked off 30″x30″ like the game requires.

Third turn we finally saw combat. I sent the Fangs of the Pit into the Fencer just to start things off. The fight did not end well for the Fangs of the Pit. Again, I used Vae Soli as much as I thought necessary. I started bringing Bran around to the right side of the table to deal with the Fencer.

Fourth turn I started bringing more resources around to the right. Brian killed off the Fangs of the Pit with the Fencer after doing his big order. The Missionary moved up to provide healing for the Fencer and eventually, Vargas. After killing of the Lemure Brian put in the path with the Retarius, I moved a Squamata in to try and handle the Fencer again, who eventually died when Vargas came up and hit him. Vargas didn’t get away cleanly. He suffered 5 points of damage from the Squamata. Brian’s Arquebusiers tried to shoot at the Squamata on the left side of the table, doing minimal damage. The one thing that I hadn’t realized up ’til now is that you can fire further than the Range of your weapon, just with added difficulty.

Fifth turn saw Bran move up and drop his War Cry order to knock down Vargas, the Fencer, Anna, and the Missionary. The nice thing about this game is the balance it has. Bran was pretty much done for the turn after pulling off his “feat”, so I had to move in with a Retarius (thanks to Vae Soli) and kill Vargas (thanks to Vae Victus). On the left, the Squamata and Retarius squashed a couple of Arquebusiers.

Sixth turn Bran moved in to try and deal with Anna and the Retarius tried to destroy the Missionary. Some other combats were done, but we ended up calling the game due to time constraints.

Overall, the game was a blast and really a lot easier to play than I would have thought. We’ll definitely be playing this again and probably next time with using the Terraformation rules.