Special Scenarios
Special Scenarios represent milestones within a campaign. A campaign generally has 2 rounds of Special Scenarios. For each player, there will always be 1 Special Scenario for the campaign finale, plus 1 Special Scenario roughly halfway through the campaign. These Special Scenarios have special objectives and rules, representing something of greater narrative importance than just stumbling upon another warband within Blightmeer.
This section will describe how to set up Special Scenarios for a campaign, as well as how to play them.
Special Scenarios Campaign Setup
At the start of the campaign, the group should decide on what Special Scenarios will be played during the campaign. This is done both by determining the Neutral Heroes for the campaign, as well as a generic Special Scenario for the finale. They should do this collectively, deciding on enough Special Scenarios to cover all of the Special Scenario games to be played during the campaign.
Special Scenarios come in two types:
- Neutral Hero Special Scenarios
- Generic Special Scenarios
These types represent which Factions will partake in each scenario. So a 'Law vs Chaos' Special Scenario will be fought by one Law Faction warband and one Chaos Faction warband. For 'All Factions' Special Scenarios, this represents a Scenario that is played by three players, with one from each Faction. This is generally for handling uneven player counts.
As the final step in campaign creation, the group needs to determine the Special Scenarios for the campaign. To do so, do the following:
- Determine the required number of Special Scenarios of each type for a single round
- Multiply this by the number of rounds of Special Scenarios
- Choose the specific Special Scenarios to fulfill the requirements
Playing Special Scenarios
There are a number of ways that Special Scenarios differ from regular scenarios. For Generic Special Scenarios there are no specific selection rules, but those that are related to Neutral Heroes do have selection rules.
Neutral Hero Special Scenario Selection
When it comes time to actually play a Special Scenario, players need to determine which Special Scenario they will play, based on the Neutral Heroes that they are Aligned with. Those that have more wins across the campaign have the benefit of deciding the scenario they will play, which will also have some influence over their opponent (if there is a choice).
First, the player with the most wins picks which Aligned Neutral Hero they want to ally with for the Special Scenario. Their opponent is then decided differently depending on if that Neutral Hero is an Opposed Type Hero or a Solo Type Hero.
If players have the same number of wins, the head-to-head results of the players are used as a tiebreaker. If they are still tied, choose randomly who gets to decide first.
Opposed Type Hero Selection
If a player selects an Opposed Hero, go down the list of players from most wins to least wins that don't already have a Neutral Hero assigned. Find the player with the most wins that is Aligned with the Neutral Hero's Opposing Hero. That player can choose if they want to select that Neutral Hero as the their Hero and verse the player with the most wins, or pass.
If they pass, the player with the next most wins that is Aligned to the Opposed Hero and has not selected a Hero now has a choose to select it or pass. This continues until someone has selected the Opposed Hero. If it reaches the player that is Aligned with the Opposed Hero, with no Hero selected and that has the fewest wins, that player must select that Opposed Hero as their Neutral Hero and verse the player with the most wins.
It is possible that no player that is not yet matched may be Aligned with the Opposed Hero. If this happens, the player instead treats their choice as a Solo Type Hero for the purposes of selection.
Solo Type Hero Selection
If a player selects a Solo Hero, they are not immediately matched with anyone. The player with the next most wins then makes their selection and this continues on until all players have either been matched or have a Solo Type Hero selection.
Special Case
it is possible that all of a player's Aligned Heroes may already be taken. If this is the case, their choice is skipped for now. Once all other players have picked their Neutral Hero, this player is dealt a Neutral Hero at random from the remaining ones. If this is an Opposed Neutral Hero and someone else has selected the other one, they are immediately matched against each other.
Final Matching
At this point, the player with the most wins that picked a Solo Type Hero is matched against the player with the fewest wins that picked a Solo Type Hero. The player with the second most wins matches to the player with the fewest most wins and so on. The Special Scenario chosen is based on the Neutral Hero selection made by the player with more wins.
Where there are an odd number of players, a three-player Special Scenario is played between the bottom three players that selected Solo Type Heroes.
In general, we recommend picking Neutral Heroes that drive the narrative of the campaign and match the goals of a player's warband. However, there is nothing stopping someone from switching who they wish to try to gain the Patronage of mid game.
Special Scenario Selection Example
Your 7-Player group has the following wins and losses:
| Player | Wins | Losses | Aligned Hero 1 | Aligned Hero 2 | Aligned Hero 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alice | 6 | 0 | Blight Prophet | Shady Merchant | Demonologist |
| Bob | 5 | 1 | Blight Prophet | Wandering Knight | Pit Fighter |
| Carmen | 4 | 2 | Shady Merchant | Demonologist | Necromancer |
| Dean | 3 | 3 | Bishop | Wandering Knight | High Mage |
| Evelyn | 2 | 4 | Shady Merchant | Pit Fighter | High Mage |
| Frank | 1 | 5 | Blight Prophet | Wandering Knight | Necromancer |
| Gertrude | 0 | 6 | Bishop | Pit Fighter | Necromancer |
The following Opposed Type Neutral Heroes have been chosen:
- Blight Prophet vs Bishop
- Demonologist vs Wandering Knight
- Necromancer vs High Mage
The following Solo Type Neutral Heroes have been chosen:
- Shady Merchant
- Pit Fighter
The following steps are taken:
- Alice gets first pick and picks the Blight Prophet
- As the Bishop is the Opposed Hero of the Blight Prophet and Dean is the player with the most ones Aligned with the Bishop, he has first choice to match against Alice
- He chooses not to, so Gertrude is automatically matched against Alice as she is the only remaining player Aligned with the Bishop
- Bob now gets to choose next, but can no longer pick the Blight Prophet. Instead, he picks the Shady Merchant. As this is a Solo Neutral Hero, he will be matched at the end.
- Carmen now gets to choose, picking the Necromancer.
- Dean gets first pick to match against Carmen by choosing the High Mage. He does so.
- Dean is now skipped as he has already matched, so Evelyn gets the next pick. As the Shady Merchant and High Mage are already picked, she must choose the Pit Fighter. As this is a Solo Neutral Hero, she will be matched at the end.
- Frank now gets to pick. He picks Wandering Knight, as he has no other options. As no one is left that has the Demonologist, this is treated as a Solo Type Hero.
- Now, it is time to match the unmatched players, which are Bob, Evelyn, and Frank. As there are an odd number of players, they will play a three-player Special Scenario.
We end up with the following match ups:
| Player 1 | Aligned Hero | vs | Player 2 | Aligned Hero | vs | Player 3 | Aligned Hero |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alice | Blight Prophet | vs | Gertrude | Bishop | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Carmen | Necromaner | vs | Dean | High Mage | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Bob | Shady Merchant | vs | Evelyn | Pit Fighter | vs | Frank | Wandering Knight |
Special Scenario Rules
The exact details of the Special Scenarios are listed in the Special Scenarios List. There are however some rules that apply to all Special Scenarios.
Routing
Due to the important nature of these scenarios, a warband's rout threshold is often increased. In addition, there may even be other ways to force your opponent to make rout checks via special objectives. These will be described within the Special Scenario.
Rally Support
Everyone gets 100g of Support to spend, in addition to the usual Support received for those with less wins. This Support must be used to purchase at least one Hero for the game. The player with the most wins gets to spend their Support first. As usual, there is a cap of three additional units per warband.
Campaign Finale
The campaign finale works similarly to other Special Scenarios, except that players only receive the 100g of Support and do not receive additional Support for having fewer wins. This is a culmination of the efforts of each warband and a strong performance is rewarded by having the best chance at winning their final match!