New Year's Eve Battle

It has now become something of a tradition for the HAWKs, that Buck Surdu and his wife host a New Year's eve party and gaming day for the club on December 31st. This year we had two miniatures games and two card games while waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. I volunteered to run one of the games, and brought the Father Christmas Letters battle that I had been working on (see previous blog entry). I ran the battle using our GASLIGHT rules. Buck ran a 1920's gangster game as the other miniatures game using our Blood & Swash rules. We finished out the night playing Munchkin and then Kung Fu.

The small town of Granville, IL was the scene for this gangster battle pitting two rival mobs and the police against each other in a three way contest over stolen money, and a kidnapped Senator's daughter

All seems quiet as my gang enters town.


Another street scene, as innocent civilians stroll about, unaware of what is brewing in the back alleys. For more detail on this game see Buck Surdu's blog:
http://www.bucksurdu.com/blog/

A view of the North Pole and Santa's compound as the battle begins.

Some of the forces of good arrayed for battle.

Some of the Goblin army bent on stealing Santa's presents and spoiling Christmas.

Buck's daughter, Sammy, moves her toy soldier guard to defend against the onrushing Goblin horde.

On the other side of the compound, the teddy bear battalion and cannon brace to receive a charge from Goblin cavalry and infantry. A clockwork Santa bomb wobbles up to explode on contact with the cavalry, as Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble move up in support on the left.

Goblin archers and their catapult and troll take their toll on the toy soldiers. In the upper right Santa and his friend Polar Bear move up to offer support.

The teddy bear and cavalry battle continues and Rudolph joins in

Santa battles a Goblin Hero on his spider mount and is killed by a freak Save roll of 20. In future games we may rule that whoever kills Santa has to put on his outfit and become the new Santa.

The North Pole Elf Militia (NPEM) moves up to support the teddy bears. Meanwhile, Rudolph has fallen to a goblin cavalryman's attack.

The elf cook's hot chocolate catapult moves up to support the beleaguered bears.

Close up of the Elf Cook's Hot Chocolate Catapult

The carnage continues as the goblin cavalry is eliminated as is the bear cannon, and most of the bears.

A view of the thick of the battle.

The end is near as goblin infantry and evil snowman poor though the undefended main entrance. In the end it was an overwhelming goblin victory. In retrospect it was decided I had set up the goblins too close to the compound so the North Pole Defenders had not had sufficient time to move into defensive positions before getting hit. We also felt that I had under rated the stats for the North Pole Characters.