Setting Up
As with all things in Five Leagues from the Borderlands, there are a number of random variations when you set up a battle.
The battle was a random occurrence when we did a Ride Patrol adventure action and encountered Signs of Danger. In that entry, it says to determine a random threat, which turns out to be "The Ruin Within." We then set up a Meeting Engagement (the most common type of battle), but also using the Unknown Enemy rule.
Because we're fighting The Ruin Within, we roll on the enemy table for that threat and determine that we're fighting a Deserter Squad. The enemy stats and any additional rules are determined by that selection. I won't go into detail on the stats, but the relevant special rules are that there are +3 enemies over usual, and that one basic trooper gets upgraded to a sergeant.
To get the actual number of enemies, we roll 2d6 and take the higher, which turns out to be a 5. Then we add the +3 to get 8. (If at this point there our warband outnumbers the enemy, they have a minimum of 1 less than our warband size of 6, but that obviously isn't an issue here.) The unknown enemy rule then kicks in, and says that the enemy numbers are reduced by 3, but they get a marker that can turn into 1 to 5 enemies when it is spotted. So, depending on luck, we might be fighting more or fewer enemies than we expect.
The next roll is to see if they have a leader with them, and it turns out they are accompanied by a lieutenant. Putting everything together, we start facing a lieutenant, a sergeant, 2 bow troops, 2 melee troops, and the unknown enemy marker.
Next, we figure out the objective of the scenario, which is to Fetch Something. We decide that we come across the group of deserters suspiciously poking around a copse of trees, and as we're patrolling for activity out of the ordinary, we go in to investigate. The ex-soldiers don't take kindly to the attention and resist. We set up the battle kind of to our liking, and get something like this:
Our warband is on the near edge, and the enemy on the far side. Just as a note, almost all the minis used for our heroes are temporary... I decided to use stuff I had previously painted that don't *quite* fit the characters rather than using unpainted models that are more accurate.
Also, the unpainted (giant) crow model toward the upper left is the unknown enemy marker.
We're playing on a 2'x2' board, so combat is going to happen quickly and brutally.
The Engagement Begins
If I'm honest, I didn't take good notes about how the battle played out. Here are some of the highlights, just based on my memory.
Nothing much happens the first turn. People advance, trying to stay in cover, and the ranged characters fire off some shots that miss. (Reviewing the rules, I don't think they should have been able to fire at all, but in the end it doesn't matter.) The unknown enemy marker advances toward the center of the table, and because the table size is so small, it is instantly identified and spawns 3 more troops.
Our leader wades right into the thick of those three enemies, and due to a combination of good rolls, having a +2 combat skill, and getting counter attacks with his spear, ends up killing all three of the enemies that just spawned.
(Ignore that Garrick Thomson is represented by a Greek hoplite, please.)
Nothing much happens on the right side of the field; potshots are taken back and forth that miss, and the melee troops jockey for position.
Back on the left, Eleseth attempts to join the fray, but doesn't have nearly the skill or luck of Garrick, and she pretty much immediately goes down. Garrick has a couple of bad rolls, but still continues to more than hold his own against the remaining enemies on the left.
We decide to make a play for the objective and grab the macguffin in the center of the table. Wilfred creates a wall of flame to keep the enemy lieutenant at bay and allow one of the followers (Campbell, I think) to run up to get it.
We hold the field, and carry our spoils off the table.
Resolution
After the battle is over, we deal with the aftermath, both good and bad.
We get one "adventure point" for a victorious ride patrol encounter, and an additional one for defeating a lieutenant (poor guy never even got to attack). These are used to progress the campaign in various ways... Most importantly, we can use them for chances to lower the threat levels of the enemies. Two isn't enough to do much with, so we bank them for later.
Because Eleseth went down in the fight, we have to see how badly she is wounded. We get a "serious injury," which means that we roll 2d6, choose the higher, and she is out of action for that many turns. In another stroke of luck, we get double ones. We feed her a tonic to reduce her downtime by a turn, and she's immediately back in action.
All our heroes get 2xp; one just for participating, and another for winning the encounter. Dobbin gets a bonus 1xp for killing the lieutenant. No one levels up as a result of this, but Dobbin and Eleseth are only 1 more xp away from it.
Rolling for loot, all we find are two "misty waterflower" consumables, which help people recover if poisoned.
As an additonal bonus, a local was so impressed by our battle prowess that he wanted to join our company. We decide to allow him, and Ansel joins us as a loyal follower.
Speaking of followers, they don't get xp like heroes do. Instead, each time they survive a battle, they get to roll to see if they learn something. If lucky enough, they can become heroes. Kurt has a flash of insight and becomes a hero, but doesn't gain any advancements. Campbell was too focused on the treasure, and learns nothing.
I kind of decided that heroes have last names, and followers don't. So, Kurt earns a last name of Coleman.
We roll for end-of-turn news, and apparently nothing interesting is going on.
Back in Town...
I probably should do journal entry format for this, but I just don't feel like it this time.
Sadly, I don't remember what the random event was. It was inconsequential, since it affected something that we weren't planning on doing anyway.
We choose to help the town guard, since we still can't afford to pay upkeep. We also send Dobbin to train, giving him the last xp point to level up. His advancement is either an agility point or a toughness point. Since he shouldn't be hit all that often (we hope), we choose the agility.
We also send people out to gather information for our contract. Eleseth easily makes the expertise roll, Wilfred succeeds at the wits roll (even though he has no particular skill with it), and Campbell flubs the speech roll. Only two successes are necessary to fulfill the contract, and the warband gains 2 gold marks and another adventure point.
We check our connections, and because we now have a friend, he helps us out with a story point.
We still only have 3 gold marks, which isn't enough to buy anything useful, so it is off to make another ride patrol. Unfortunately for variety's sake, we get a lot of the same results on the tables... another unknown enemy, fetch something fight. The enemy type is different, though... we get "Duskling Warbands," and the specific group is "Prowling Renegades." They have a bunch of special rules, which could make the encounter more interesting. Further, there are far fewer of them (depending on what we roll with the unknown enemy), but they are individually more difficult foes.
We'll see how it goes in the next session...
