BSSS - Session 13: The Battle for the Undying City

Summary

We play out the big fight between the forces of Chaos and the Undying City's defenders using a tabletop wargame that I created for the scenario. 

Session Recap

Well calling this a session might be a bit wrong, but here we go. Since I could not get a full 6 player count for the wargame, I ended up participating as well. The way I have the game structured, both Chaos and Law each have 3 distinct bands of units, the control of which was split up between the players. 

Initial setup of the scenario.

The wargame itself begins mere moments after the events of Session 11. The party has just broken open the inner Gatehouse of the Eternal Bridge, and the forces of The Decomposition and their allies have swarmed into the city. With the Ritual Procession still not actually gathered in one place (various small processions leaving from different parts of the city to gather in the middle), the Chaos forces had to figure out what their general plan was going to be. 

In the scenario Chaos has 2 victory conditions. A Minor victory if they can remove all 12 Ritual Procession counters from the board by Turn 6 of the game, and a Major one if they can kill the Voice of Stillness, the otherworldly being that controls the Undying City in the name of its master The Pale Stillness of Justice. Law, conversely, only has one Major victory condition - Complete the Ritual. 

With Turn 1, things immediately went in Law's favor. The Blue band, the one that contains all the Procession counters, the Civilians and, most importantly, the Voice of Stillness itself, had the first activation. This allowed them to pull back some of the Citizens that were in the way of the Chaos forces, and bring them safely back into the Temple District. A very important move, as the Voice of Stillness needs to sacrifice a Civilians token every time it attempts to advance the Ritual, successfully or not, and it begins the game with not having enough sacrificial victims on hand to complete it. 

From there, Chaos decided to focus on the Ritual Processions then, which both works into their minor victory condition, and also makes performing the Ritual action a bit more uncertain for the Voice of Stillness. That and breaking into the temple district is quite difficult, with all forces having to be funneled through the streets and a very easy to defend gatehouse. 

The city's defenders sent out a properly huge stack of units out into the Great Market plaza to fight off the forces of Chaos, who in turn responded by summoning a rain of acid over the entire place, reducing every single unit that was in the area. This is done by placing a Miasma counter in the area, one which saps the strength of full units (or even kills reduced ones) and stays there for 2 entire turns, suddenly making the most central space in the board, the one which most roads go through, kind of an awkward place to move through. 

The beginning of Turn 2.

As Turn 2 began, Chaos was actually not looking too hot. While they had managed to take out some parts of the procession, it was not enough to actively hinder the Ritual from being advanced, and their nuclear solution at the Grand Marketplace meant that actually going around and doing anything was difficult as their own units would have been equally affected by the miasma that still lingered.  Law was generally looking in a strong position - well defended inside the Temple District, having enough sacrificial fodder to complete the ritual, and mostly just needing to bide it's time. 

Chaos, conversely, was on the back foot. They lost some of the Slime Priests, which was a problem as they are the primary way the Chaos forces could bring in more reinforcements. 

As Turn 3 started though, things changed. the Miasma had cleared, finally, and the giant stack of slimes, oozes and jellies, lead by the horrific Slime Titan now had the chance to actually move through the central market. 

Additionally, the force of Law decided to take on the offensive and, being lead by the 3 units of High Priests, rushed out and attacked one of the last remaining units if Slime Priests. However, Law's fortunes quickly turned at that moment. With the Temple district now vastly underdefended, the Slime Titan shuffled its lesser cousins through the city, devouring everything in its wake. Soon it broke through the Temple Gatehouse, and while the Voice of Stillness was hurling magical attacks at it, it only weakened the group, rather than demolish it. 

Finally, the oozes swarmed into the Great Temple. After a quick fight everyone was dead, except for the Voice of Stillness which had been reduced in strength and had to retreat away. Things were dire, but not impossible - as long as Law got to act next, they had plenty of spells that could wipe out the big green tide, allowing them to both stabilize and severely reduce the chances of Chaos to act in future turns.

That, however, did not happen. With Chaos still being on the initiative, and the Hedgehogs of Mercy, the band of player characters in the Between the Serpents of Smoke & Steel, having quietly also made their way into the Great Temple, the time of Law had come to an end. The Hedgehogs seeing the chance to end this Ritual for good summoned forth a spell and struck down the Voice of Stillness, shattering the control of Law over the Undying City. The game finished only halfway through Turn 3. 

Final state of the game as of Turn 3. The Voice of Stillness was in the Temple District Area which has a unit of yellow Archers in it.

Observations

This, I think, was a rousing success. While I am generally very pleased with how the wargame itself works, and have had several people now tell me that it just works really well as a stand alone wargame (and even 2 of my players expressed an interest in playing it again in the future, just as its own thing!), it is always nice that it actually worked on the one "official" playthrough that it was designed for.

The game definitely took way longer to play as a 3v3 team game, rather than a simple 1v1 game as I've played it so far in my playtesting sessions with other people. As people were still learning how to play this and also consulting with their team mates, there was a lot of time spent simply discussing potential moves rather than making them. That's fine, though it did mean that a 2 and a half turn game took nearly 4 hours, when 1v1 playtests I've done before took about 2 hours to complete the game (usually going up to Turn 5 or so).

The bit of game design I am most proud of, and one which my players also appreciated in having really captured the spirit of things, was how the Hedgehogs of Mercy were used in the game, being a sort of strike team that Chaos or Law can use to mess with the other side, plus the absolutely perfect storytelling beat of having the Hedgehogs themselves be the ones to land the decisive killing blow on the Voice of Stillness also really helped. 

So, with this I am now happy to have the game just be something I can play with friends now and again if I want to, and I think this helped make my campaign a fun and interesting experience for everyone involved. While the BSSS campaign is going to be winding down soon, due to other obligations on my time, it will always have this high point to look back on!