My oppo Paul got the Frenu playtest pack, we've had several games now and they are working really well with no tweaks needed at all yet, so we opted for a more tactical scenario to test them - Scavengers.
For this, we did have to have a chat with Mike on if the Frenu could actually pick up the object, we decided no, so only the two Kaopi and two Protofubarnii could do so. This resulted in the Protofubarnii role being changed from support to one of the main characters in the game, they also became a target priority. This is a massive change in gameplay and tactics, all because of a change in scenario - great stuff
The Kadeshi Swarm: 2x Kaopi Elites (Harpies), 2x small swarm (Grifflings from Arcworlde), 2x Protofubarnii, 1x Bagrun, 10x Frenu
Dhogu Raiders: 1x Warlord, 1x Captain, 3x spear, 2x bow, 1x trapper, 4x Skeratt
We drew Initiative to deploy and move our forces. I had the upper hand in Initiative so spread out forcing the Frenu to deploy in one area, I brought my trapper on last hopping to attack his Proto's in the rear.
I won initiative so set my Skerrats to work on the Proto, I knew he would be able to move away later, but at least it would slow her down for a turn. Paul charged my trapper with a Frenu loaded with 'bombs' from the Bagrun (+2 combat stones), but I went defensive to preserve her (2 dead Elites = a flee) and killed the Frenu in the actual combat phase. Paul also created a medium swarm by combining a small swarm and 3 Frenu, which attacked and killed a Skerrat, an easy kill with 5 stones V 1 stone.
Meanwhile a pair of spearfub's (new word
) grabbed a couple of objectives as did one of the Kaopi. On my left an archer and Kaopi reached an objective in the same turn, but winning the initiative allowed me to steal it and retire and take a shot, it missed but I now had 3v2 objectives.
In the center, my Warlord charged and failed to hurt the medium swarm (bats), Skerrats charged and killed a Proto and moved in to the second.
WE fought several combats with the warlord & medium swarm, myself defending heavily as he is outgunned by the swarm which can use Frenu as Stamina, even after the Skerrats had killed the second Proto and going on the offensive with their support, I still couldn't get through to hurting it. Paul then changed tactics, as the swarm does not count as using its Combat action when attacked, he then retaliated against the Skerrats and killed 2. I actually wanted this to happen as I had been unable to move them out of the way (trapper not close enough) so my warlord could get to the objective.
On the left the Kaopi killed my archer and stole her objective, they would now fly to a corner to secure them. I consolidated one Fubarnii to carry both objectives as the other 2 went to hunt a Kaopi.
My Warlord grabbed the objective an legged it, none of Pauls models could do anything now as they all have to have a handler to activate. Paul now decided to flee as we mistakenly thought my warlord would have to roll to keep his being within 18" of the table centre, who failed to.
We rolled a dice for each captured objective I rolled a total of 5 on 2 dice, Paul then rolled just 4 on 2, so I still had a chance! But he then rolled his third dice with just a 2 to secure victory. Of course had I rolled my third die I was entitled to, I would have won
This was another great, fun, tactical game and after 6 games against several factions the Frenu are showing to be well balanced, so far they seem to fare better against numerous low quality forces than smaller, tougher foes. They are particularly good at sniping weak Elites with long-range frenu Charging attacks.
