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[Cadfan]

The Traitor in the Coven

Samael: 300 points
Church: 300 points, including the Traitor.

The Traitor must be either a Wanderer or a Samael character.  The Church list may violate the regular rules of force composition only in this one way.

Table Set Up

This fight takes place in an underground Samael lair.

There should be mystic equipment and furniture, perhaps lab equipment as well, strewn about the edges of the map.  The very center should be open, perhaps with an inscription carved into the floor. 

The top right should have a staircase so that the top right corner is an elevated door, and the stairs descend downwards towards the center of the room.  There is a "Gate" at the top of the stairs.

The center of the upper edge of the table should have a Portal.  To its left is a Switch.

Make sure that the map is large enough, and enough objects obstruct sight, so that no direct line of sight can be drawn from the southern deployment zone to either the Switch or the staircase.

Deployment

The Samael force must deploy at the south edge of the table, except as noted below.  Also, one Samael character deployed at the south edge begins the game holding the Artifact.

The Church force must deploy at the top of the staircase, except for the Traitor.

The Traitor must deploy at the Switch.  The Church player may force the Samael player to deploy one character of the Samael player's choice within 2 inches of the Traitor.  This may not be the character holding the Artifact.

Special Rules

The Artifact: The Artifact begins the game in the possession of one Samael character as noted above.  The Samael character may transfer possession of the Artifact between characters if the two characters involved are within 2 inches of each other, and one of them spends one action.  If the character carrying the Artifact dies, another character may pick it up by moving within 2 inches of where the carrier fell, and spending one action.

The Portal: Any Samael character may retreat through the Portal.

The Gate: Any Church character may retreat through the Gate.

Retreat: A character which passes through his side's retreat object is considered out of the game.  This affects victory points as listed below.

Victory Conditions

Samael gains 1 victory point per point of enemy troops killed.
Samael gains 1 victory point per every 2 points of enemy troops which retreat. Samael also gains a bonus of 25 victory points if the Artifact is carried through the Portal.

Church gains 1 victory point per point of enemy troops killed.
Samael gains 1 victory point per every 2 points of enemy troops which retreat.
Church also gains a bonus of 25 victory points if the Artifact is carried through the Gate.

Round Limit: After 10 rounds, automatically end the game.

[Cadfan]

Don't worry too much about "proper" scale in creating this map.  As long as its fun, go with it.  In "proper" scale, you can't really have a fight inside a room because everyone can run laps around the room each round, but if you just ignore that and go with it, the game plays fine.

There's no reason this HAS to be samael v church, but it seemed more thematic.

[Cadfan]

I'm going to try for an ASCII sketch of the map.  This post may look bad for a while until I figure it out.

 __________
|  BC     ....D|
|        .......  |
|   x x x ....  |
|    x x  ...... |
|         .......  |
|___A______|

A: Where Samael deploys.
B: The Switch that opens the Gate.  The Traitor has lured a victim here in hopes of quickly dispatching them at the moment of betrayal.
C: The Portal.  Samael wants to get the Artifact through the Portal, and may retreat characters through it rather than let them be killed.
D: The Gate at the top of a Staircase.  The Church raiders are waiting outside of it, and as the Switch is pulled, the charge in to hunt the inhumans creatures within.

The x's should be an area of open ground.

The periods are just there as spacers to make the ASCII work right.

[RedMonkey]

Hi Cadfan - this sounds interesting, but I have a question about VPs. I take it the aim of the scenario is to leave with the artefact for which you get 25VPs, but your opponent wins VPs if one of your team flees. So, for example, I have a 50 levels character who retreats with the artefact - I would gain 25VPs for the artefact, but lose 25VPs for fleeing. Net score = 0VPs.

Am I understanding right?

[Cadfan]

Hmm.  You're right, obviously.  Let me think about that.

[Gimp]

Simple solution: there is no VP loss for a Church force model that leaves carrying the artifact.  They aren't running, they're carrying out their mission.

[RedMonkey]

Yeah - that would work, although you would need to impose the same rule on Samael.

Also, maybe once the artefact has left the game, there are no longer any penalties for fleeing - after all, your people have completed their mission, and sticking around would be a bit daft. It would also lead to a bit of a scramble as the side with the artefact tries to leg it, while the other team does everything they can to stop them in their tracks.

Maybe you could introduce some special rules to make the artefact a bit "killy" (+1/+1 or something better), so that when you are in control of it, you have a tactical decision to make - do you leave for the VPs, or do you stick around to use the artefact (but risk losing it in the process)? If the artefact was "killy" it would also even up the score for Samael, who risk losing a character on the very first turn from the traitor attack.

The VPs for the artefact might also be higher - as far as I know, the lowest cost character is 35 levels, and I am not sure it is worth sacrificing 35 levels of killing power for 25VPs. If the VPs for the artefact are too low then the game might just turn into a head-to-head annihilation game rather than a proper scramble to seize control of the item.

Sorry - I'm just kicking around ideas because I like your idea of a team of Church purists bursting into a dark cellar to bust up a coven - it's very Lovecraftian, and it plays out nicely in my head

[Cadfan]

Here we go:

1: A character who Retreats while holding the Artifact does not grant any victory points to the other side.
2: The artifact grants Raphael's Gift.

The goal is supposed to be to defeat the invasion, and to retreat only if you need to flee the field.  Now the user of the artifact has a greater incentive to stay- they're useful, and they'll heal some of their injuries.  But staying is a gamble.  If you don't heal enough, and you die, the artifact could be stolen.