I picked up Nightwatch very early Tuesday morning during a major software upgrade at work. In all fairness, we were waiting for a backup to complete and 1:00AM has a funny way of encouraging impulse buys. Nightwatch is a cooperative fantasy skirmish game system from System7. A quick perusal of the rules and I was quite delighted with the pickup. My bride and I put together a Pact, a group of monster hunters, and Saturday gave it a go.
Our pact consisted of:
Blondie - Tracker with a Crossbow and a One-handed melee weapon
Griff - Blade with a Heavy Two Handed Axe and Throwing Axes
Esmerelda - Alchemist with a One-handed melee weapon
Greta - Mancer with a Long two-handed staff
We didn't hire any assistants in the interest of simplicity. We did learn how valuable they'd have been.
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My wife's two witches
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My high fantasy stereotypes
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I set up the terrain before selecting a mission. It became clear that the destroy / defend mission would be suitable so the witches' cauldron was placed in the near center and became the item we needed to defend from the rampaging undead horde.
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Today's battlefield. A graveyard is always cozy, right? Certainly suitable for the enemy we'd soon be facing.
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Griff has taken an oath to desecrate twelve monster entry portals over the course of six games. He of course pauses to pass wind over this one.
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And proceeds to engage some recently arrived ghouls!
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Greta and Blondie take responsibility for the far side of the graveyard as more nasties begin to arrive.
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Meanwhile, Esmerelda covers the kettle.
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Griff and the ghouls come to blows. The ghouls prove to be very dangerous opponents as the fates hastily abandon our heroes and favor the forces of darkness.
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The monstrous horde takes a strong interest in the cauldron. Sort of a mixed blessing, at least our heroes aren't being overwhelmed!
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The ghouls continue their streak of successful defense rolls. Esmerelda heaves a Stun potion at the monsters nearest the cauldron to prevent them from attacking it on the next turn. At least it affects one of the beasts!
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Griff was still struggling with one stinkin' ghoul when a real horde appeared.
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Five more baddies on the north edge too! Things have officially gotten bad.
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At least they rushed the cauldron and not the heroes!
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And just in time, our dice woke up and the dice of darkness showed some hint or normality. Esmerelda and Greta went haywire and blasted the horde with arcane energies.
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But there's more where those came from! Griff gets swamped.
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As do Blondie and Greta. Esmerelda downed an invisibility potion at just the right time, ensuring she wouldn't be targeted by the monsters.
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A healing potion and Griff's back up to fighting form, dispatching two assailants.
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Blondie and the witches use all their available emergency gear to remove themselves from their jams. The horde damages the cauldron, but it holds. The sun begins to appear in the east and with that, the night watch ends.
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Ooh, that was tense. That was a lot of fun. Simple mechanics, wonderful escalating tension. Yeah, we'll be playing this again for sure. We did a couple things wrong, some benefiting the heroes and some the bad guys so I'd say it evened out. A hireling or two would have been most useful.. next time. We didn't determine treasure or any of that and there is an advancement / campaign system so we have a little work to do before the next Nightwatch. This was a great buy for nine bucks on Wargamevault. I really recommend it. Be well!
