A tabletop gaming blog, with a vague bias towards Central/Eastern Europe and the Early Modern period.

Friday, March 5, 2021

Primavera Occulta battle report - rounds 1 and 2

I probably should have posted the deployment in the previous post, but since I forgot I'll put it here. Arturo Marenghi unsurprisingly decided to deploy in the center, leaving von Hahn and his men to deploy along any three board edges. They deployed along the North, West, and South edges since the house (played as impassable terrain owing to the unfinished inside) would make fleeing East more challenging for the defenders.



Also, I neglected to mention that any summoned spirit needs a designated master. For both warbands, I chose the Scholar character (Arturo and Father Schmidt).

(Unfortunately, due to poor phone battery charge planning, there are no more pics until the end of round 2.)

The first turn mostly involved movement and ranged attacks, as is to be expected in nearly every miniature wargame. Arturo began his side's turn by claiming the objective he deployed adjacent to (with no roll needed thanks to his spirit), while Astolfo and Adelaide struggled to make progress towards the objective up on the crag. The hound spirit did attempt to impede Father Schmidt with a magic spell, but Schmidt was able to use a card to defend.

Von Hahn's warband also moved into position, except that Schmidt and the Greek spirit decided to stay put and cast spells (there are no range limitations in the game, since the board overall is not large.) They were able to inflict one point of damage on the hound spirit. One of the halberdiers did make unexpectedly fast progress toward his foes, ending his move right next to Arturo even despite the intervening wall. However, he was unable to attack, as he had not thought to declare a charge.

The second roundopens with Arturo Marenghi feeling quite distressed at the proximity of the enemy halberdier, so he casts Blasting Force, propelling the hireling a full eight inches away. While no spell inherently deals Physical damage, the hireling takes a point of damage for being pushed over the wall. If the wall had been high enough to block movement, he would have taken five points!

Astolfo succeeds this time in climbing up to the objective, and will be able to test to claim it next turn. Adelaide attempts to follow, to provide healing support to the beefy halberdier, but is unable to negotiate the rough terrain. She's not really dressed for bouldering, I guess. 

The hound spirit attempt to use magic to pin the recently-launched halberdier in place, seemingly a safe bet since the hireling can only draw a card for defense instead of playing from his team's hand... but he draws an ace and is unaffected.

Kaspar von Hahn's turn begins with the priest and the spirit both using the Prepare action to draw additional cards from their hand. One of their cards appears to be a double-back misprint, surely an omen! for the sake of the playtest, however, the misprinted card is set aside and a new one drawn. The 6 and 7 thus received are not ideal for a game where low is better, but they'll just have to make do.

The crossbow-wielding squire takes a potshot at the remarkably prominent Astolfo, but misses outright, although he might have had trouble penetrating the armor even if he had hit.


The halberdier accompanying Dieter goes after seemingly easier prey, but his poor rolling and Adelaide's better luck result in him overshooting his charge as she sidesteps.

The other halberdier likewise charges, but Arturo's defense means that no hit is actually scored.

And so ends the first couple turns of this playtest. Most characters have suffered no damage, and none has taken serious damage. The defenders have claimed one objective, and each remaining objective will, barring bad luck, be claimed by opposing initiates in the next round.





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