The Evacuation - Scenario playtesting (The Enemy Within campaign)

We have playtested a few scenarios a while ago, which led to a bit of a rewrite of some rules.

Here is how it played out.

"The Evacuation" is a scenario designed to feature a massive town raid, with an alliance of 2 evil warbands literaly smashing and burning property and slaughering people. Against them are pitted 2 good (or at least civilized) warbands, who rush in to evacuate the last remaining refugees running from the onslaught. 

An additional plot in the scenario is that among the refugees hiding is the local Count's son and his bodyguards.

There should be 6 proper buildings on the table, which is where the refugees may be hiding: warbands will have to break in and search. There is a 1/3 chance of refugees being there, otherwise it is empty or it may hold some goods (in the form of a cargo crate).

Victory is determined by how many refugees are saved (by the defenders) or captured/killed (by the attackers or stuck inside burning/collapsed buildings), worth 1 point each at the end of the battle. Rescuing the Count's son (or capturing/killing him) grants 3 points instead of only 1. 

In addition, attackers also gain 1 point for each house destroyed or still burning at the end of the battle. To balance this, D3 refugees are placed in the center of the table at the beginning, who can be rescued quickly by defenders.

Normal routing rules are also in place, but a warband that scores more points can still win even if they rout.

Because we had limited space and only 2 players, we decided to just make a 1vs1 game, to see if at least all the rules were working well.

Each of the attacking models carried a free torch, so they could more easily set buildings on fire.

A Chaos Magister surveys the town for victims.

An elven Waywatcher infiltrates the town

Possessed invade the central square.

Beastmen and Cultists are busy tearing doors down and setting fire to buildings.

 Well, we found out that the refugees are terribly more trouble than we thought. Their behaviour is to run off, away from the closest warband model, if someone approaches too close. However, when models broke into their houses, before they had a chance to step inside (because they cant take any more actions that turn), the refugees would scurry out the windows! Windows and doors are considered unlocked for those inside, and indeed they were running from the closest threat! But it devolved a bit into a slight Benny Hill chase scene... (which is not totally out of place for this game, truth be told...).

To fix this, the refugees can no longer escape thru locked doors and windows, even from the inside: they are panicking and freaking out, because a murderous barbarian or some monster or other just barged into their house!!

Refugees escape through the back window of a burning building.

A Mutant corners a helpless villager.

A terrified villager tries to jump down a first-floor window, only to land badly and go Out of Action.

Another rules quirk relates to the "Fire rules" consolidated in Border Town Burning. The rules ask to roll at every player's turn to see if the fire worsens. In effect, what this caused was that as soon as a house caught fire, it was a foregone conclusion that it was lost: woe to the model that didn't get out immediately! They burned down too quickly.

We now adjusted it so you should only roll once every game round (after all players had gone).

A Waywatcher finds the Count's son and his retinue.

Elf warriors escort the remaining refugees out of the town.

Regarding the objectives, we found that the balance between the attacker/defender roles, of finding refugees they can save or capture/kill, was not exactly a straightfoward one to measure. Attackers can simply set everything on fire, one building after the other, much more quickly than defenders find and save refugees. However, once defender do find them they immediately gain control over them, while attackers need to chase them down. Also, each house that is empty is only worth 1 point (same as 1 refugee) for the attacker. So this forces attackers to press onto the defenders turf, to ensure they strike at any refugees they may find. It has been a good exercise on designing scenarios with asymmetric objectives.
We found that in the end things balanced out, but a few surprises may still be in store. If you try it out, feedback will be more than welcome.

Updated scenario rules: "The Evacuation v.1-2"

Next, the playtesting for "Death on the Reik" scenario! And an update on Mordheim Boat rules!