With the Round One fun and games all wrapped up, we moved on to the Map Stage, which is essentially a worker-placement boardgame of its own.

There are two main steps to the Map Stage:

• Teams take turns to claim territory and harvest the resources on offer in each. Some locations are more desirable than others, and teams with the most campaign game Wins logged over the course of the round get first pick
• Teams then use their Achievement Points from hobby and other campaign challenges to bid on packages of additional resources

And remember that all of the above can be disrupted by teams using their once-per-game faction abilities.

Conquering Territory

With 11 wins recorded, Stoneklaw’s Mob had first dibs:

In true swashbuckling Destro spirit, they opted to take the punt on a random Encounter, which yielded two options:

The Mob turned out to be a highly democratic group of Greenskinz, who after a series of votes went for Option 1 and the prized Realmstone.

While Stoneklaw’s Mob’s strategy seemed to be “crack on with winning a bunch of games and then see what happens”, the Drakmire Lords by contrast took a very cerebral approach which incorporated identifying their optimised behemoth loadout, working backwards from there to secure what they needed, and apparently a couple of them even read the campaign launch article. With their first pick, they loaded up on bulk Food x3.

Cult of the Third Eye were starting to see their first preferences hoovered up by other teams but secured Ore x 2 with their first pick, thanks to that cheeky draw from Clarkzium which edged them ahead of the The Giants’ Bane who had to settle for Food x1.

With their second set of picks, Stoneklaw’s Mob doubled down on hoarding Realmstone, this time via the dedicated map location. Drakmire Lords grabbed Ore x1. With the Realmstone gone, Cult of the Third Eye and The Giants’ Bane each opted to grab some more Food.

For the third and final set of placements, Stoneklaw’s Mob and Drakmire Lords both opted to Smith, which means they get to use their resources to make upgrades to their warscroll. This will happen after they’ve received all resources, including any from bidding on packages. Cult of the Third Eye stocked up on some Fuel as did The Giants’ Bane, leaving us with the following final map for Round 1:

Bidding on Resource Drops

With territories claimed, the following packages were available to bid on,. Drakmire Lords and Cult of the Third Eye had the most cash to splash:

• I’m Feeling Hungry: Food x5
• Totally Metal! Ore x3
• The Royal Sampler: Food x1, Ore x1, Fuel x1
• Do You Feel Lucky?: Draw an Encounter from the Encounter deck

And the winning bids were:

I’m Feeling Hungry: Cult of the Third Eye (6)
Totally Metal! Stoneklaw’s Mob (7)
The Royal Sampler: Stoneklaw’s Mob (5)
Do You Feel Lucky?: Tie – Drakmire Lords and Giant’s Bane (7)

Anything not spent on successful bids is rolled forward, meaning that Drakmire Lords and the Cult will be cashed up again next time around.

Resolving Do You Feel Lucky? got a little complex: the Encounter threw up two options:

It was quite funny having eyes on both chats here: Drakmire Lords were picking first and Giant’s Bane got whatever option was left. Giant’s Bane were hoping that Drakmire Lords would take the 2-for-2 trade, because they thought that was shit, and as it happened Drakmire Lords were indeed super keen to grab that forced trade and pull the biggest dick move they could cook up.

So Drakmire Lords chose that first option, leaving Giant’s Bane to grab the Fuel, since they really needed to keep their Ore.

Forced Trade

As Lethal Steve stared down the barrel of Drake Chudson’s cocked and loaded rifle, the Ogor Tyrant broke into a sweat. “I can’t just give you all that Realmstone” he complained. “The Lads will put my head on a fucking stick!”

Drake considered this briefly, seeing nothing but upsides in the various paths branching before him. Commerce had done him well in his career so far, and commerce it would be. It could also come in useful to have such a powerful creature alive and influential within the enemy camp, nused Chudson – and especially one who owed him something.

“Fine. Take some canned beans from the commissary on your way out. You can tell your idiotic kin that you krumped us over the head with the Realmstone and stole the beans if it makes your life easier. Just try not to eat them all on your way back to camp, you fat oaf”.

The Drakmire Lords used their Encounter to force Stoneklaw’s Mob to give up Ore x1 and Realmstone x1 for their Food x2. Funnily enough, Drakmire’s once-per-game ability also allows them to swoop in and force a trade in the same manner, so they’ll get to do it again at some point:

They’ve kept that one up their sleeves for now.

The Washup

So here’s a summary of what each team managed to claim in Round One:

It’s still very early and all four teams have their once-per-campaign moves up their sleeves, but it’s cool to see that teams are already strategizing their builds. Catch you soon for the Round 2 roundup.

~ Pete

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