After successfully ambushing the fleeing Maggotkin, and propelling their retreat further and faster, straight out of the Blood Pines, the Sylvaneth had to stop their advance for a bit to purge the taint of Nurgle from their reacquired lands. Then the forces of Nurgle, realized the harrying force was no longer immediately on their tails, they slowed and rallied and prepared for another major attack by the Sylvaneth. When that was not forthcoming, the marched back to the Blood Pines to try and wrest it back from the feisty tree spirits...
They found the Sylvaneth busy growing a new Awakened Wyldwood...
The Force of the Maggotkin were determined to bring it down and putrify the region all over again!
Lord Blobbottom, Lord of Affliction, and his trusty aid, Anthony the Pusygoyle Blightlord, approached on the right, only to be ambushed by a flight of Gossamid Archers. Anthony's rotfly mount was pierced by a number of their arrows, but managed to stay aloft!
Fecula Flyblown, the Rotbringer Sorcerer, and her guard of Putrid Blightkings advanced on the left of the Maggotkin line.
Heglog, the Treelord, stepped out from the Awakened Wyldwoods to thrash a few of the approaching plaguebearer deamons with their lashing roots and vines.
Lord Blobbottom and Anthony chased down the harassing Gossamid Archers.
The ensuing melee was a harrowing clash of mid-air acrobatics and extreme violence.
Four of the Sylvaneth archers were cut down immediately, the final one in the flight held up the advance of the two Rotbringers.
The slow advance of the Plaguefather's legions continued.
The Putrid Blightlords were unfazed by the arrows of the Kurnothi Hunters, either deflected by their armour or piercing only the bloated rotting limbs which were numb to any sensation of pain.
The Branchwych summoned a Glade Wyrm to aid them in their time of need!
The tide of Maggotkin clashed with the defenders of the newly Awakened Wyldwood
Putrid Blightkings fought savagely with the Spite-Revenants.
...and slaughtered all but one of them in their initial clash...
Another group of Spite-Revenants butchered one of the hordes of Plaguebearers on the right of the line...
The Spoilpox Scrivener held back... thinking itself out of harms way... but then realizing it was difficult to maintain control of the Plaguebearers under its command!
Fecula Flyblown also lingered back, mistakenly thinking herself out of harms way...
until the summoned Gladeworm burst out of the ground behind her!
The terrifying beast charged the Rotbringer Sorceress and the two clashed furiously!
Lord Blobbottom bullied his way through a unit of Tree-Revenants and then started hacking away at the Awakened Wyldwoods itself!
Hearing the cries of their sorceress, the Blightkings paused. She assured them she could take care of the Gladewyrm and bade them focus on their task; destroying the Wyldwood!
The Blightkings moved in and started vigorously and violently chopping away at the young grove while the Plaguebearers distracted the Kurnothi and the Treelord!
And the Wyldwood was destroyed!
Fecula Flyblown banished the first Gladewyrm... only for another to appear!
The last of the Revenants charged Lord Blobbottom, determined to bring him down and exact some VENGEANCE!
Ceitllwyn, the Branchwych, no longer having a Wyldwood to defend, charged out of it's ruins and started hacking down plaguebearers!
The Putrid Blightkings, having succeeded in their task, turned on the Kurnoth Hunters.
The Branchwych summoned a Vengeful Skullroot to assist in exacting revenge against the befouling Maggotkin.
Heglog, having mostly finished off the Plaguebearers, and leaving the last to Ceitllwyn, turned on the Putrid Blightkings and pummelled two of them into the earth.
Ceitllwyn summoned a new wyldwood from the ground!
having unseated Lord Blobbottom from his rotfly and leaving him for dead in some low bushes, the last of the Spite-Revanants joined the assault on the Putrid Blightkings.
A second Gladewyrm had been destroyed by Fecula and the Spoilpox Scrivener... but then a THIRD showed up and brought the Rotbringer Sorceress low... the Spoilpox Scrivener fought fiercely, but was also overcome by this ferocious Spite of concentrated life magiks!
Things were turning against the Putrid Blightkings... they tried to take the Branchwych with them!
Finally the last Purtrig Blightking fled...
Having lost their newly Awakened Wyldwood, the Sylvaneth were obliged to withdraw from the Blood Pines once again and the surviving Maggotkin, once again, made it their own!
Amanda and I FINALLY got in another game in our small Path to Glory campaign (Path to Glory - Methervale Campaign). I've been quite distracted by the Ravaged Coast Path to Glory campaign, recently. I was thiking it would be nice to wrap up both by the end of the year - so we can start the Blighted Wilds campaign in the new year - but now that I HAVE Blighted Wilds and realized it's a mix of elements from the Ascension (which we were using for this campaign) and Ravaged Coast, I thought it would be easy enough to change THIS campaign into a Blighted Wilds campaign... Or... maybe mix in elements of Blighted Wilds into this campaign...? As sort of a practice run for the REAL Blighted Wilds campaign in the new year...?
So Amanda and I used a Battleplan (scenario) from Blighted Wilds (Forest Fortress) to play out this game and used the Blighted Wilds post game sequence.
As with the few victories I've had in the Ravaged Coast campaign, this one was Pyrrhic at best. I succeeded in destroying the Awakened Wildwood - the objective of the battleplan - but had nearly my entire force wiped out in the process!! At the end of the game only ONE Putrid Blightkings remained on the table (with only ONE HEALTH remaining!?). Had the game gone one more round, he would have been chased down and slaughtered...
So all but ONE of my units would suffering from battlewounds! Luckily I rolled low for most of them, and Fecula and the Spoilpox Scrivener both succeeded in their healing rituals and fixed up Anthony the Pusygoyle Blightlord and the unit of Plaguebearers that had more than one Battlewound!
I like the differences in Blighted Wilds. Instead of having to go on quests for additional spells and enhancements, you just have to win certain scenarios... (of course, it means you HAVE TO WIN certain scenarios... but it seems like a little less paper work).
The Battle Wound and Battle Scar system is similar to Ravaged Coast, which has problems... but at least there is an additional way to remove Battle Wounds - you can choose to leave ONE unit out of battle to "rest" each game and they automatically heal D6 Battle Wounds... so... there's that...
New units are added through the accumulation of Glory Points - which you gain SOME of, every game, regardless of whether you win or lose (though you gain MORE if you win!). And Path progression is based on Renown - which every unit participating gains in each game - regardless if they survive the battle or not (though they generally gain MORE if they are still on the table at the end of the game!)
It may seem like a BIT more paperwork to track, but I like it better than the Embershard system of Ravaged Coast. With new additions to the force, advancement along pathways, and the gaining of new enhancements happening through three different mechanism, all three can happen at a reasonable rate simultaneously. With the emberstone shard economic system in Ravaged Coast, we mostly saw everyone not bothering to add anything to their forces (because if you faced a smaller force, a chunk of your army might not be available for the entire game) whereas if you just put ALL of your emberstone shards into buying Pathway advances for your heroes they just got GROSS... REALLY FAST!!! I think everyone has LEGENDARY heroes at this point with just game-breaking special abilities?!
I feel like Blighted Wilds might even this out a bit - no crazy advancement... forces growing organically... I think it could be a fun campaign to play through...
Having won a Forest Fortress Battleplan, the Maggotkin forces could pick and enhancement to give to an eligible unit, OR add a new spell to their Arcane Tome, OR take a one-game ability reward... I decided to give Fecula Flyblown - my Rotbringer Sorceress - the Witherstave - an artifact of power that allows her to pick an enemy unit that has charged her and on a 4+, they have STRIKE-LAST for the turn... giving her SOME chance to hit them before being taken out!
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