En Garde!: Witchfinder 3, Sir Oliver Crumbles

The plotters behind the Witchfinder's presence in the North have been revealed. Sir Oliver Crumble, Squire of Shiney Row, Sheriff of North Durham and his boon companion Master Stanley Lorrel, of no fixed abode are ardent Parliamentarians and disestablishmentarianists.  Both have been heard to shout "Down with the King!"  The whole plot is treasonous.

Sir Oliver and his men adopting the "mince," a fencing stance reliant on the hand on hip pose...

Sir Oliver served as one of the Duke of Buckingham's men before being caught up in the terrible events of the Calais expedition.  He had a shouting row with the Duke as well as the King, before retiring back to his estate in Durham swearing that Parliament should hold the power in the land.

He was appointed (purchased the office of) Sheriff of North Durham, and has begun recruiting and training soldiers, ostensibly against incursions by the Scots, but in reality to challenge the power of the King.

Sir Oliver is behind the plot to bring Witchfinder Price to Durham in an effort to discredit the King, and it's been working.  The problem is that the customers of the Queen's Head Inn have been instrumental in destroying the Witchfinder's warband.

Lee and his men enter the Courtyard

With the discovery of the plot point at the ruined abbey the Bishop's Guard have finally been alerted.  Captain Lee and his men have joined the survivors of the Queen's Head and are set to raid Sir Oliver's Manor House at Shiney, armed with a writ for the Witchfinder's arrest.

Because Sir Oliver will have  trained soldiers at the manor, his "New Model Company," Lee must be careful... He has no idea how many men will defend Witchfinder Price...

Occupy 
In this scenario, warbands battle to occupy a building or feature in the centre of the board.

Inside the manor, the Witchfinder..

SET-UP

• Forces: Equal points value

• Terrain: Only one piece of terrain on the board, placed right in the centre of the playing area.

• Weather: Rain is falling.

• Time of Day: Dawn

• Deployment: opposite sides.  Only the Witch Finder and Sir Oliver are in the Manor. 

Master Tybalt keeps watch from the Manor balcony, Blunderbuss in hand.

VICTORY

When the game ends, each side gets Victory Points equal to the Rank of all of its models that have their bases inside the manor. The winner is the side with the highest number of Victory Points. If there is a draw, then use the number of wounds on still living models in the drawn warbands as a tie-breaker.

Sir Oliver's men are lead by Master Stanley Lorrel, but except for the evil John Stearne, they are not loyal to the Witch Finder and will automatically waver if Stearne or Sir Oliver are Greviously wounded or killed.  Their Minor objective is to kill 75% of Lee's men.  Lee must take a prisoner for the Bishop's court.

GAME LENGTH

I will fight this game until one sides morale causes it to break.

Sir Oliver's men line the edge of the building

The fight develops as both sides advance.  The fat Knight and ancient Pistol are slow, moving at only 4", (one is very old and the other very fat, so a movement penalty is applied.)  Kinsky rushes to engage Stearne and Lee takes on Sir Oliver declaring a duel.  

Kinsky attacks with his sword rolling 11, plus his Fight factor of 3.  A Mighty 14.  Stearne rolls 5+1, 6 and adds his fight score of 4.  A 10.  Stearne suffers a grievous wound.  

In the second round Stearne fails to hit, and Kinsky follows through with his dagger to give Stearne a light wound.  Stearne drops, unconscious.

Lee wins initiative and uses a mighty blow ploy. (a few of my combat pool markers have "MB" and must be used for this if drawn.  Remember I draw them blind, so I don`t know how a fight will go.  He discards the two, giving him 5+5 plus his fight score of 4.  A strong 14.  

Sir Oliver uses a defence Combat at pool counter to parry 3+1 plus his combat score of 4, 8.  With a difference of 6  Sir Oliver is killed.  The Parliamentarians must roll morale at the end of this turn

With their leadership fallen the Parliamentarians fail their morale.  They are wavering.  

They may be wavering but Fenton fires his dry matchlock from the doorway at Perkins.  He rolls 6+4 and adds his shoot score of 1.  (11)  -6 is taken from this to give a final hit score of 5.  Perkins staggers as he is grievously wounded.  In the rain he can`t shoot back

Pistol and the Fat Knight close in on the bodies of Stearne and Sir Oliver, and promptly begin looking for loot.  This sort of thing is always likely with this pair since under my solo rules they follow their character traits just as much as following orders.   (I had to roll a 3-6 to avoid their looting and rolled a 1)

Bardolph and Nym take on Feeble. Bardolph rolls 4+4, and adds his fight score of 2.  Feeble parrys with a 5+5, plus his fight score of 2.  Bardolph's attack fails. 
Feeble rolls his attack, 1+1, the dreaded double.  He fumbles and drops his sword.
Nym rolls his attack, an unpromising 3+4, plus his Fight score of 2 (9)  Feeble has no defence counters left and rolls a single d6 in defence.  A 2.  With a difference over 6 Feeble is killed, more by his own ill luck than by Nym`s swordplay.  

The Fight moves inside the Manor as the wavering Parliamentarians retreat.  Sir Huge and Ancient Pistol continue to loot the fallen...

Non combatants, Lady Crumble and Jim the pot boy, innocently block the way to the Witchfinder.

Tybalt has finally reloaded the Blunderbuss.  He sprays the great hall with half a dozen pistol balls, but fails to hit anyone.  He is clearly drinking sack, and that seems to be affecting his aim...

Kinsky vaults the table (he is an agile character and ignores terrain)  He joins Lee in the Fight against Master Price the Witchfinder.  Lee's mighty blow is 1+5+5 (he discards the one)  Plus his fight score of 4, a 14. 
Price rolls 6+1 as his parry.  The difference is over 6, a kill.  Price falls to the floor with a pithy quote, "Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand... bugger..."

The Parliamentarians are routing.  Only Tybalt still stands.  He has somehow managed to reload the Blunderbuss again... a double 1.  He drops the weapon in a misfire, as Solomon Whitemoore climbs the stairs towards him.  Down in the main hall Master Stanley Lorrel vanishes out of a rear door. 

Tybalt, dead drunk, ignores all morale, but he throws himself on Solomon's mercy, promising to "be his man for life."  Solomon remembers the minor objective, to take a captive, and renames his new servant "Tipple."

Lee takes Lady Crumble... the newly created Widow Crumble, a well propertied and proportioned woman, as his prisoner for the Bishop's court.  It seems that the strange affair of the Witch Finder is done...  All of the plotters have been dealt with except for Master Stanley Lorrel, who has gone missing.  
Little do they realise that Solomon Whitemoore is soon to be appointed Witch Finder to the Bishop's Court.