Brian and I decided to play HellDorado again last night. We still didn’t use the Terraformation rules and the table we used was a 2′x2′, so a full 6″ shorter than normal. The store was really busy, so there wasn’t much room for us to get a bigger area to play in. We deployed with the bases touching the back edge of the table. We set up a hill, and some cover-providing and LoS blocking terrain.
My army (Lost Starter):
- Bran Carnoth
- Sling Maiden and Maggot Bearer
- Fangs of the Pit
- Retarius x2
- Squamata Warrior x2
His army (Westerner Starter):
- Fransico Vargas
- Aiden Saint James
- Fencer
- Anna Pavlova
- Sara Zingresce
- Aquebusier x3
First round was spent moving into position for both of us. I made sure to keep the Maggot Bearer in base-to-base contact with the Sling Maiden so I was sure to get to use her this time. As last time, I teamed the Retarii with the Squamata Warriors in two teams. Fangs of the Pit moved toward the middle of the table; the plan being to charge the shooters before they could fire too many bullets into my guys. Bran advanced forward and tried to stay in cover. Brian had Sara create a Lemure with the Explosion spell and advanced his army forward. He teamed up the Fencer with the Missionary and kept the three Arquebusiers together in a firing squad with Aiden.
Second turn Brian maintained Dominance and fired an arquebus into a Squamata Warrior doing a few points of damage and then have the Arquebusier retreat a bit. He then used Vae Soli to have another Arquebusier fire into the same Squamata Warrior doing a few more points of damage and also retreat. Luckily, Squamata do not have a wounded state. I then had the Sling Maiden fire her Exploding Maggot on the remaining Arquebusier and used Vae Victus to be sure to hit. The damage from the explosion brought three of the Arquebusiers to having only a couple of remaining life points. I then used Vae Soli to have the Fangs of the Pit charge the closest Arquebusier, which inflicted damage, but didn’t kill. Brian sent Aiden into the Fangs of the Pit and did some damage and the Fangs got a few points in before dying. The Retarius closest to Aiden charged him and knocked him down and through use of Vae Soli I was able to also send int he Squamata Warrior to finish him off. The other Retarius/Squamata team charged into and killed the Fencer, who was able to get off some defensive shots and some regular damage into each of them. Fransisco Vargas charged the Squamata and failed to kill him where the Squamata was able to do a few points of damage to Vargas. Bran then charged Vargas and killed him. Brian moved the Missionary and Anna over toward the Arquebusier team. Brian had the remaining unactivated Arquebusier fire on the wounded Squamata Warrior and killed him.
In the third turn, I had Dominance where I had the Sling Maiden fire on the wounded Arquebusier amid Anna, the Missionary and a couple of other Arquebusiers. The shot hit and killed the target and one other Arquebusier, but only did 3 points of damage to Anna and the Missionary. Using Vae Soli, Bran attacked and killed Fransisco Vargas. I believe it was at this point we decided to call the game.
After the game we talked about what could have been done better. Brian suggested he should be using Anna to greater effect by teaming her up with the Missionary and the Fencer. He also suggested he might use some of Vargas’ and the Missionary’s orders. We determined that the Explosion spell is probably not the best of Sara’s two spells versus the Lost since most of the damage will be shrugged off through the Protection of most of the models. We also talked about how getting some new models might give better or at least more options for our games. All in all, I find the mechanics of HellDorado pretty straightforward once you find the rules in the book. It kinda feels a bit like Confrontation, but not so much so that it feels like a copy. I think the models are pretty inexpensive for their high quality. I’m sure Brian and I will probably play this more and I’m definitely looking forward to getting a few games in during Gen Con.
