Turnip28 Battle reports from the Octogône

 

Hey all ! A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to attend to The Octogône, a gaming con in Lyon (France) where I got to meet some pals amongst which the most excellent Jean Peinture ! 

I had brought a few models in case there was an opportunity to play some Forbidden psalm but I was especially eager to try Turnip28 after reading the rules (which you can find HERE)

From what I read, the rulesfelt simple, fast and most importantly FUN, with just enough random events and silly outcomes, strategic potential to stay interesting for a while with all the cult rules and scenarii, the kind of balance I'm after really.

Good thing for me, my mate Adrien and a friend fo his had brought an army each with plenty of options to do several different cults so he quickly assembled two regular armies (without any of the Cult rules) with the same units on each side, just for me and another player to get the hang of the rules !

Here's the Army I was facing:

And just below some of my units for the game (I warmly encourage you to go have  proper look at them on Adrien's Instagram HERE !

Some of the Brutes I had :

The fodder :

And the Chaff along the snobs

First Scenario

The first game was fairly simple and we had a number of objectives (3) on the table to hold, with similar armies, we actually came up with a mirrored army setting !

My Fodder were placed right in the middle of my table edge

The chaff were going to take the left flank

And the brutes would try and take the right with a little more cover to help them

I was lucky enough to get the initiative so activated my Toff to make the fodder move forward.

With their poor stats, I still felt confident the fodder could do something with sheer number so I pressed them to protect the advance of the rest of the troops. Since they had managed to fully understand their leader's orders (Snobs activate units with orders which they must test to realise as intended, failures meaning not everything might happen as intended) so while we were at it, both fodders from each army fired at each other with a slight advantage for mine ! FIRST BLOOD (or was it just nauseating beetroot juice ?)

An exchange of fire between my Chaff and my opponent's clearly indicated me that shootig wouldn't be the option with 7+ rolls to hit !

And in a move that's very unlike me, the brutes actually thought about taking an objective in the reserve phase (which happens after all the snobs have activated)

Obviously, my opponent had the same idea !

I really like the mechanics where shooting a unit can trigger a counter fire, it's probably a familiar mechanic for historic games players but I love the dynamic. Along with the panic and retreat moves, it actually makes the game flow rapidly with ebbs and flows, not a static shoutout until someone is wiped.

With only 4 turns to work with, I moved my fodder to the central objective

They were stopped by my opponent's chaff though, those guy might look weak as hell on paper but their vanguard trait makes them really had to get rid of (you basically hit them on 7+ on D6's)

My brutes came in to save the centre though and the last objective was almost in hand !

Unfortunately for me, the last turn was my opponent's and he managed to rally his fodder and take the objective back with an inspired mix of bravado and happy die rolls !

This game could have gone both ways to the last minute and it was immensely fun, I had a great opponent (I had never met before), real gentleman and in about 4 turns, we had the mechanics well enough in hand to worry about the what's more than the how's.

I have to say I wasn't expecting such a dynamic game with some units moving about twice the table's length over the game, the very simple stats and profiles, the limited modifiers and the fun consequences of failed rolls and all made it a joy, the game was played within an hour whic for a first game is very encouraging !

Second scenario : Steal the Bacon!

This game, I would be facing Adrien and after learning the rules on the most basic scenario, I was (sort of) ready to play a scenario from the Taster campaign book : Steal the Bacon

Some twisted swine has eaten all the objectives and our mission is to capture it (or at least keep it our at the end of the game) while it randomly moves across the board at any slight provocation!

I was playing the Red Ribbon Society cult, who basically have some farmer growing wicked vegetables in the hazardous terrains to grant me special powers depending on the number of vegetables grown.

Adrien was playing the knights of Shellwood with their monstrous snail riders and their formidable move stat of... ONE !

After seeing the stats of the snail riders, I was terrified of them and fell into the trap of getting rid of them at all costs so I sent the Chaff to prepare the ground

Now here's an example of what not to do in this game, with classic warhammer reflexes, I hid the chaff behind the fodder to use them as a screen. Problem being that chaff are already pretty well protected against shooting with their inaccuracy bonus (making them hit on 7+), but the reak thing is that if my opponent somehow managed to make the fodder retreat (and it's not that hard), they would flea throughthe chaff... right into the hazardous terrain swamp behind !

Hopefully my fodder stood and I wiped a huge sweat drop from my forehead, learning a valuable lesson in the process !

The snail riders were my nemesis, their stats made me fall into the trap of focusing on them entirely at first, they might have a move of 0 but they can trigger bowel movements giving them formidable speed on a couple of occasions and that's all it takes to wipe a unit out !

My own cavalry would try to outlank them from the left and take some Snobs in the process to reduce their reactivity

After getting the swine on their side, the brutes ceased the opportunity to charge one of the snail riders and make it retreat !

My cavalry tried to go wipe the second one but quickly reconsidered their life choices to turn over back to where they came from ! Luckily doging both their own colleagues and the hazardous terrain ahead !

With the help of their friends, they did manage to grow some guts and come back !

With most of the opposing units taken down, I had to go take the swine back into my control though !

My last brute decided to go berserk and charge the ennemy on his own, taking the opportunity they were still reloading their black powder weapons !

It was the moment to try and behead my opponent and take their leader down, it wouldn't do much at this point and unlike what I thought then, this wouldn't be an instant victory but it still felt like the right thing to do !

My bouys managed to regain the swine right before the end and with so few units left, we decided to shake hands on this game which made me victorious !

I made plenty of silly mistakes, all very informative, I was saved by very poor dice rolls from my opponent and and an intense use of my cult's powers, basically giving me bonuses to hit, more attacks or activating units twice, it's the kind of powers that suit ow I play, on the other hand, the knights of Shellwood, struck me as potentially leathal but requiring a solid thinking to make them work.

It had been 4 years since I last went to this convention and it is ever growing ! I'm always happy to see how the public is getting more and more varied with an increasing number of female players, age ranges widening and profiles changing.

Like always, it's almost impossible to come out of such an event empty handed so I got this RPG hom to play with the kids, the rules seem tight and appropriated for a young audience with still some room for seasoned players, the artwork is splendid and it's kitten characters so what more would you want ?

My mate Adrien had also brought a Forbidden Psalm table which I unfortunately didn't have time to test but it looked amazing.

I also noticed a huge Netepic table which made my epic itch a bit !

I also learnt of the existence of a Lego bases wargame, the rules of which I need to check to see how it goes and if we could play that with the boys at home.

All to say, a great time was had, got to see a few guys I like and hadn't seen in a while, play to games that directly made me place an order at Perry miniature's, gave me projects for another year, all you want from a con right ?

Happy painting and gaming to y'all !