Idols of Torment Play-Test Game

[Dallas says: Idols of Torment is a really cool dark fantasy skirmish game that the Conscripts have been assisting in developing and playtesting. Have a look here for more information on the setting and the game itself: www.idolsoftorment.com. There's also a blog post on the post-Kickstarter "wrap party" attended by some of the Conscripts, here. Now over to Perry for the latest...]

Hello fellow Eternals!
Apologies for the slightly late post-game report! I didn't write a play-by-play log while the game was on, but I think I'll hit the highlights here. Plenty of pictures below!

The Game:

Scorn (Perry) vs Strife (Dallas) with Eternal John watching.

Rules in Play:
- Standard win scenario with 8 Lost up for grabs (i.e. most Lost reaped or Brutal Victory)
- Guardians (statues) quick setup (4 statues in the centre board)
- Portals quick setup

For those unfamiliar:
Guardians in this situation start as statues. Depending on what happens near them, they turn into demons or angels. We had 2 demons and 2 angels manifest. These "statue" Guardians harass the Idols essentially, protecting the Lost (each in their own way, for their own reasons). They manifest either during FAILED bind/reap Actions (Angel appears) or SUCCESSFUL bind/reap Actions (Demon appears).
Portals allow transport across the board, 4 set up, one in each corner. When an Idol enters one, roll 1d8, then Idol pops out at Portal #1, 2, 3 or 4 or (on a 5 to 8) choose your Portal!

Overall: Guardians were pretty kick ass, and brought a lot of "oh shit!" gameplay. Definitely need to be a bit more tactical around them, and they can definitely be used against your opponent if the situation is right. All of them manifested on round one, which I imagine may be normal, unless a player can't get their Reaper or Corruptor into a reap/bind position (which I think is pretty rare for round 1). Not sure if that is an issue or not, but good to mention, and it would come through with more gameplay.
Portals were cool, and nothing really major to note. A good, decent fun extra rule to throw down. Portals for the quick rules are set up on the corners, but you could place them anywhere the scenario desires, really.

So, here's the quick and dirty: (may not be 100% accurate, lol)

Round 1 The Idols arrive. Echo card forces the Lost to move towards Totems, and 7 of the 8 Lost move towards Scorn's Totem! A virtual bounty to be harvested!! In this first round, both Scorn and Strife corruptors attempt to bind Lost (one succeeds, one fails), and both reapers attempt to reap Lost (one succeeds, one fails): The statues thus manifest into 2 demons and 2 angels (which was good, because we only had 2 angels, lol). Several bloody melees and ranged combats, resulting in several slayers and lurkers going down for each side. An eternal power of Cataclysm slays one of Scorn's slayers as well.

 

Gankage

Round 2: The Guardians activate and move to engage Idols. One demon against a Strife stalker, who manages to escape unscathed. An angel against Scorn's Reaper who manages to survive. And an Angel/Demon teamup against a Scorn Slayer who gets ganked! Ganked I say!! The round continues to be a bloody melee. Eternal Power Cataclysm manages to destroy one pesky Angel. Various melees and bindings and reapings continue. Echoform creates a barrier to protect Strife from the Guardians.

Round 3: The Guardians continue to be pains in the eternal ass. Scorn brings a stalker to tie up the angel/demon duo while Scorn's Reaper takes a chance and high tails it the fuck out of there, and succeeds on escaping the backlash! Strife corners a few Lost and harassed them, harvesting at least one. At this point, I believe each side had harvested 2 Lost at least.

Round 4: Scorn's stalker appears through a Portal and ganks Strife's lurker. But Strife's other lurker shoots Scorn's other stalker in the back (the one keeping the angel/demon guardians tied up). More echoform barriers appear. It continues to be a bloodbath. More reapings. I believe this round is when Scorn's reaper takes a hit to the kidneys and loses 1 health (can't remember who caused the hit...angel? demon? it's all fuzzy). At this point each side has three Lost, leaving two on the board. Eternal John checks the Aeons of Fate, and decides he needs to see how this plays out (i.e. he rolls a 4+ so the game continues).

Round 5: Two demons jump on Strife's lurker and gang bang it into cosmic submission. In one corner, Strife's corruptor and reaper fight with Scorn's corruptor and reaper! Reaper vs Reaper action! It's crazy! Strife's corruptor makes a tactical decision and goes for a reaping and succeeds! Both the Lost and corruptor disappear. One Lost left! As a desperate move, Scorn's stalker tries to use a portal but comes out the wrong one! Eternal John checks the Cosmic Scales and decides that he's watched enough bloodshed and mayhem for tonight (i.e. rolls a 3) and the Echo fades away.

A great game, right down to the wire in some respects. Bloody as hell, and I was very surprised to see both teams' reapers and corruptors in such close proximity! Crazy fun!
Dalla's move to sacrifice his corruptor to gain his 4th Lost was the winning move for sure.
Thanks again to Dallas for hosting, and for John's cool new terrain, especially that board with the Lost deployment zone, so sweet and easy to set up! (the zone is the slightly reddish area of squares in the centre).

Looking forward to trying out some more scenario rules. I really want to try a few "terrain" specific ones: the gates of heaven sounds REALLY awesome. I also really want to try The Bridge as I do have some reservations about it. ;)

Till next time!

- Eternal Perry

[Dallas adds: I wanted to include a pic of John's excellent foam gameboard. He's subtly delineated the Lost deployment zone there in the middle. Most of the other terrain in the pics are also WIP by John - outstanding work man!]