Lead Legionaries: Halloween Bash: Squabbling Over the Hound of Hell

Keith's Mephits swarm around Cereberus, the 3-headed guardian of Hell, in our Halloween scenario

Since the next day was Halloween, I was able to convince the Sunday evening gamers to break out the Reign in Hell rules and our cabals that we had built last year. It had been many months since we'd played the rules and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Our usual host was out of town, so Jenny and I hosted. Keith brought over a special, Halloween themed battle mat. There were only five of us that evening, so we decided to play "The Beast" scenario on a 36" square mat.

My too slow Wendigo cabal advances on the first turn of the game

In "The Beast," all the players are trying to capture the hulking, namesake creature who begins at the center of the table. We represented the Beast with a three-headed model of Cereberus, the Greek guardian of Hell, appropriately enough. Players could either attack Hades' lapdog normally or they could attempt to subjugate him. To do so, the player must have an active demon within 3" of the Beast. They roll 6d6, and if they roll any 6's, they score ONE success. Once a player reaches 10 successes, they take over control of Cereberus. They may then roll one activation die for the Beast as if he were his own demon and activate him on the Initiative die he chooses.

To our left, Allen's Demented cabal of Death Angel pass around terrain, seeking out its enemies

I was playing my standard Wendigo cabal with the addition of one Greater Demon, a Serpent Knight representing the Horned Serpent of Native American lore. I had asked the players to build 150 point cabals. They could purchase one Greater demon. The rest must be Lesser Demons (not counting the Leader and his Devout, which are technically free). So, besides Wendigo my leader and Skadegamutc, my teleporting shaman Devout, I fielded 3 Armored Demons (Bear Skinwalkers), 2 Corpulent Demons (Wolverine Skinwalkers), and 1 Mephit (Great Horned Owl).

Mike S's Earthbound cabal features a Succubus which can take control of one of your demons

To my left was Allen, playing a Demented Cabal that I had created. His leader was Death Angel, his Devout was Bone Dragon, and he had a Torture Master as his Greater Demon. Otherwise, he fielded 2 Slaughter Fiends, 1 Tentacle Beast (Ent), and 3 Spined Demons (Terror Birds). Jenny was to his left with the cabal I had painted for her as a Christmas present this past December. Keith was next in the circle, fielding a very Mephit-heavy force. He wanted to see how the Demonic Air Force played out, and as we shall see, it was very effective in this particular scenario. His force was technically illegal, as he fielded 12 demons -- two above the maximum of 10. We shrugged it off as most were Mephits, which we knew from previous games, die easily.

Cereberus lashes out at his Mephit tormentors, nearly dismembering one with a swipe of its paw

The final cabal was Mike S's Earthbound cabal. Its Devout is a Succubus, which has the ability to activate and move (and attack with) another player's demon if it is within 3". This would prove crucial ability on the final turns of the game. Well, that is until Wendigo bounded over and slew the Succubus! There's no gratitude in Hell, as both Mike and I knew he had actually done me a favor right before I killed his Devout! But I am getting ahead of myself - first, setting the scene.

Jenny's massive leader roars towards the Beast, while its Spined & Slaughter demons follow

On Keith's first turn we realized his very clever plan for winning this scenario. He flew his horde of Mephits directly towards Cereberus. Each landed within 3" of the hulking, three-headed hound, and began rolling to subdue the Beast. Even though Keith was rolling under average, he was quickly racking up successes. Inside, I think all of us thought, "Uh-oh!" The Beast activates on Initiatives 12 and 6 (twice, as opposed to player-controlled demons, which activate only once). On 6, Cereberus pounced and rended one Mephit to within a point of death. That was actually a very bad roll. Reign in Hell is very bloody. You hit an enemy demon on 2+ if you have a greater Combat Value, 3+ if the same, and 4+ if the enemy's is greater. With 12 attack dice (13, actually, since he was charging), Cereberus should have scored 11 hits, on average. Saves are only on a "6" on 1d6. With Combat of 3, and thus only three saving rolls, the lucky Mephit should have been shredded!

The cabals of Jenny and Allen close in on each other in the center

On Turn 2, Keith took advantage of the ability to Attack and then Move, and had all his Mephits rack up more successes while pulling them back out of the range of Cereberus. "Stick and Move," light horse tactics in Hell?? Either way, it was working out for Keith. Mike S saw the danger right away and ignored my cabal and quickly began hurling his demons at Keith's minions. They quickly began mixing it up, with Mike's Succubus sending Keith's Corpulent Demons towards Cereberus to be eaten and draw the Beast towards Keith's other minions.

Jenny's demons keep pushing on the center, but Keith cleverly began pulling back, saving his cabal

I had split my cabal, with half moving to form a wall between my cabal and Mike S's (I never trust Mike in multiplayer games...ha, ha!). The other half moved to attack Allen's cabal. My shaman slew one of his Spined Demons with two attacks, then teleported back to the cover of rocky terrain. A wedge of one Bear Skinwalker, Wolverine Skinwalker, and the Horned Serpent moved up and ganged up on Allen's other Spined Demons. We eventually slew all three of his Terror Birds, but at the cost of being too far away to do anything to Cereberus.

A huge scrum develops in the center with demons from four cabals slashing away at each other

Meanwhile, Jenny and Allen were pushing towards the great, three-headed Beast. Jenny was racking up successes at controlling Hades hound, but Keith had built an insurmountable lead. As one, the four of us decided we needed to switch tactics to killing the creature, instead. The winner of the scenario is either the player who controls the Beast at the end or has slain it. Keith soon took control of Cereberus and showed us he had no plans to make it easy on us. He began pulling Cereberus back towards the far corner of the board. This meant all of our slower demons would have no chance at getting into the fight. Only our faster moving demons, or ones who were already nearby, had any chance at helping out in the onslaught on the Beast.

Wendigo has misjudged the situation - his Skinwalkers and Horned serpent are out of position

Mike S started away at Cereberus, and we all began to help out. I had racked up several "Soul Dice," which you get when you slay an enemy demon. You roll 1d6 and can then use that dice's score once to substitute it for the number of either your combat roll or an opponent's. I began using my rolls to cancel out the sixes Keith would roll as saves for the Beast. Mike S began doing the same. At first, we felt there was no way we would get to the 40 wounds needed to kill the Beast. However, they slowly began to pile up.

Every demon of Keith's enemies piles damage on Cereberus - but with 40 Life, its a long way to go

I moved my teleporting Shaman, my Horned Owl, and Wendigo as fast as they could go. They would be my only contribution to the fight (other than using soul dice against Keith). Mike S had the great idea to move his Succubus next to my shaman and order him to teleport and attack Cereberus. The hound was in the 30's on damage. We had only one turn remaining, though. It was an all-out attack on the Hound of Hell. I waited as long as I could to attack with Skadegamutc, because I didn't want to just soften the dog up for one of the others to cherry pick me. Finally, on my last Initiative Dice, I attacked with my Devout Shaman. I rolled a bit under average, but Keith would need to roll decently for Cereberus to survive.

Sideshow battles abound - here Death Angel & his Torture Master take on Jenny's Corpulent Demon

I missed killing the Beast by ONE POINT! Lucky dog!! A couple other players sent Mephits at Cereberus (they were the only ones that could move far enough to attack where Keith had retreated him to). However, Keith would have to whiff all his saves for them to have a chance, and he did not. The final turn ended with Cereberus having one point left. Keith's Demonic Air Force was victorious! Of course, we could have placed an asterik next to his victory since he began with 12 demons, but he earned the win. He quickly realized the advantages of his cabal in this scenario and executed his tactics perfectly.