Ideas for Melee battles

[red2]

Anyone have good ideas for Melee battles? We have been doing a capture the flag where both sides (2 or 3 figures each) start equidistant to a flag which one figure needs to retrieve and return to their starting hex. I have a big map with plexiglass over it so it is easy to draw whatever you need. Any other ideas?

[hcobb]

Capture the fort
Player A: draws the fort on the map indicating arrow slits and other defensive features, along with the hex that has the treasure chest (which can't be moved). And also indicates the number of defenders and which side the attacking force will enter on.

Player B then chooses attacker or defender.

The attacker chooses a force twice the size of the defender's.

Once all fighters are chosen reveal the figures on each side and start turn one with the entry of the attacking side.

The winner is the side with the closest conscious figure to the treasure chest at the end of turn 12.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by red2

Anyone have good ideas for Melee battles?

Do you have the The Fantasy Trip 2019 Postcard Contest?

[RobW]

Originally Posted by red2

Anyone have good ideas for Melee battles? We have been doing a capture the flag where both sides (2 or 3 figures each) start equidistant to a flag which one figure needs to retrieve and return to their starting hex.

We did a 'kill the flag' version recently. Each side of 3 has a command flag with 5 health. Having ranged weapons (and LoS obstacles) meant the best path to victory was probably not just killing the other team. End of one of the games below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i37dbp9j72...0end2.png?dl=0

The bloody trail added by one of the participants to reflect getting nearly destroyed by the rapier/M-G figure.

Capturing flags sounds fun too, what is your rule for capture?

[larsdangly]

Four general principles that always result in something good:
- Diverse, challenging terrain, including multiple paths between any two points
- Diverse mix of combatants. Really open it up: one side might include a small dragon, a slime, a wizard and a duelist
- 'just right' size - 2 non-magical combatants is usually a bit dry. 15+ with only 2 players starts to feel a bit crazy.
- Goals other than murdering each other. Provide a way to win or lose that doesn't involve everyone on one side dying.

Finally, if you don't want to dream up anything clever, one of my favorite pick-up games is an all against all rumble to the last person standing, preferably using people's real campaign characters (so the stakes and bragging rights feel bigger!). Of course, in the later case, it is just for fun and everyone gets to keep playing normally afterwards.

[Shostak]

If you have the Decks of Destiny, you can deal up random characters and beasts. You can also randomize an arena and terrain with the megahex sets using dice or a grab-bag.

[red2]

These are good ideas, thanks. I like the idea of having one side setting up the defense and the other picking whether to defend or attack. The way we do the flag is to treat it like picking up a dropped weapon. That seems most logical plus puts a handicap on the figure that picks it up as they run back to their starting point.

We did one last night that worked out well. Team 1 starts at one corner of a big arena (about 2' by 3'). They have 5 turns to get to the exit which is at the opposite corner. Team 2 tries to stop them. They can start anywhere on the board as long as they are at least 11 hexes away from team 1. There is a pool of acid surrounding the exit. Any figure who is in the acid at the end of their turn takes 1 die damage. This keeps team2 from camping out by the exit.

There are 6 megahexes spread out across the board, including one in the acid, each with a number. These are teleporters. Any figure that steps in one of them is immediately teleported to the center hex of another one determined by a die roll. It is pretty fun but team 2 needs to be given an advantage in numbers and/or attributes to make it fair. I stole the teleporter idea from one of my favorite levels of doom but it worked really well in melee.

[red2]

I did download the postcard contest, but have not read them since one of my kids wants to gm them

[Aman]

A tough but interesting fight is always a cross-table [cross board?] advance & Escape. This might be titled "the caravan ambush" or something.

Caravans are interesting, filled with unusual people with hidden agendas. Who says the caravan doesn't have a couple of guards or passengers who are working for the ambushers? Maybe someone in the caravan has it in for someone else in the caravan.

Are rescuers on the way, having discovered that an ambush is planned?

There's a whole bunch of variations on this basic theme - one side must cross the table and escape. The other wants to ambush and at least capture part of it. They could be Soldiers with supplies heading, a wizard and his retinue being ambushed by The Anti-Magic League [TAML] of the next town.

By varying the strengths of the three possible sides [caravan, ambushers, rescue force] you have at least 9 scenarios.

Hope that is useful.

Another alternative would be to source out skirmish battle scenarios from a place like Wargame Vault - nearly all of them except a "total firepower" era would work just fine for Melee.

[kommisar]

I like these scenarios:

https://meleewizards.com/scenarios.html