MEST :: Mythos ~ A Fungi from Yuggoth

Overview

Lord Malik is Defender. Prince Anton is Attacker.

This is a 1000 BP MEST 2.x scenario I played recently with my nephew and my brother. It is part of
the Mythos genre with a scenario name "A Fungi from Yuggoth". There's 10 models on each side, and so this qualifies as a "Large Battle" per the terminology used in the game. It resolved in about 2 hours, which isn't too bad for three players and that many minis.

The scenario is available for download at the MEST Tactics Google Site here;
https://sites.google.com/site/mesttactics/downloads/8.5x11.mythos.migi-yuggo.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

The Situation

This is from the scenario background;

In the upper heights of Cairo, Lord Malik, wanted for murder, and his noviatiate cultists are at the Temple of Charon. They are attempting to signal a Mi-Go emmisary in order to establish a base within the area. Unbeknownst to them, one former cult member, very concerned by the turn of events after witnessing human sacrifice by Lord Malik, has warned the local constable. News got out to action-hero Prince Anton. He plus a reputable field scout from Britain by the name of Neil Dunsany the Third take with them 8 Ruga-ruga to investigate.

After Action Report

I'd say this was a very interesting turn of events. Neil Dunsany and 4 Ruga-ruga were controlled by my brother, and Prince Anton with the other 4 Ruga-ruga were controlled by my nephew. They split their forces at the frontage road before the Temple of Charon and started down the precarious terrain towards the Fountain where a Cultist with a Prayer Book is summoning the Mi-Go.

Visibility was 8" because it is Sunset, Clear. A model in Wait status allows LOS to be traced up to 24".

Lord Malik tried to stay away from Line-of-Sight but near the Fountain in order to control long-term Situational Awareness. His two Cultists with Shotguns took a high vantage behind some trees at either side of the corners near their battlefield edge in order to cover the lanes of fire coming towards the Temple grounds.

Four of the eager Cultists rushed towards a Ruined House in order to try and halt the on-coming Ruga-ruga. Two got KO'd. One of the Cultists, armed with a Semi-automatic Pistol, took to the partition wall near the Ruined House and the other went into a Tree Cluster across the way. 

Prince Anton rushed to the blind alley before the Ruined House and took some Reaction Fire from the Cultist at the Ruined House. He successfully ignored the Suppression marker and KO'd the Cultists in the Cluster.

At the other side of the battlefield, Neil and his Ruga-ruga made some way past the frontage road beyond the row of parked vehicles. There's ever so-little room for maneuver except across a large patch of Rough-going terrain. Across two precious Turns they moved towards a large outcropping of boulders while maintaining Hidden status.

Three Turns have passed, and there are two KO'd Cultists, and two Eliminated. One of the Ruga-ruga under control of Prince Anton got bloodthirsty. The constable will hear of this; it cost the Attacker about 90 BP. Not good. At this time, all of the Attackers have crossed the mid-line of the battlefield garnering them 1 VP, plus another for having downed the most BP worth of Opposing models.

However, the Defenders have completed their ritual and the Mi-go known as F4G2 arrives and sets up within 8" of the Defender's battlefield edge. It has Flight and Fear 2, plus it is armed with a Beam pistol. The arrvial of the Mi-go awards the Defender 1 VP. 

Now it is Attacker 2 VP vs. Defender 1 VP.

At the start of Turn 4, the Attackers have lost their Situational Awareness because they've divided their forces too much. The Defender's Lord Malik still maintains LOS to at least half his forces, and so wins the Initiative Test with 4 Initiative Points to Lord Anton's zero. Ouch.

As a result, there's an amazing firefight exchange with Lord Anton, and two Ruga-ruga near the Ruined house against two Cultists. Lord Anton goes KO'd and so does one of the Ruga-ruga. This awards the Defender 1 VP for the KO'd Grizzled Hero and another 1 VP for having the most Opposing models KO'd or Eliminated; Lord Anton is 260 BP ... so that was a big win.

Now it is Attacker 2 VP vs. Defender 3 VP.  My nephew was wailing at this point (he's just 10) but my brother insisted giving it a chance.

The only way for the Attacker to win is to either force Lord Malik's forces to Bottle (unlikely) or to take out the Mi-go. Unfortunately, the Defender still had one last remaining Initiative Point to spend and maneuvered the Flying Mi-go into range of Neil and two of his Ruga-ruga; all were in Hidden status. As a result, they repositioned out of Fear range though becoming Revealed. 

And here's the mistake. As its last Action Point, the Mi-go decided to gain some distance from them instead of using its feeble Beam Pistol (Damage is 2 + 2 Modifier dice). When the Initiative passed to Neil Dunsany, he rolled an amazing Range Hit Test with the Mi-go scoring zero successes. The same occurred for the Damage Test; the Grizzled Scout's Rifle does 5 Damage and the Mi-go became KO'd and fell from the sky.

Per the Victory Conditions, the Mi-go when KO'd awards the Attacker +1 VP. So it is 3 VP vs. 3 VP. However, the Mi-go is itself worth 285 BP which flipped the award for having the most Opposing models KO'd or Eliminated to the Attacker.

Final Score; Attacker 4 VP vs. Defender 2 VP.

It was a close game. Ended in 4 Turns.

The Photos

Alas, I forgot to take many pictures during the game-play but my brother did snap a few good overlooks on the battlefield.

View from the Neil Dunsany's perspective. That's a smoke beacon billowing at the left. There's a Cultist with a Shotgun in Wait status at the top-right tree. Neil and his fireteam needed to maneuver sharp-right across the Rough terrain because anything from the storm-cellar doors to the wall is in the LOF.

View from Lord Malik's perspective. This is one of two hills guarding the Fountain.

Mid-battlefield. The Ruined House has a lot of activity, with one the Cultists KO'd at the Tree Cluster. A Cultist with a prayer book is busy and needs two more Turns at summoning the Mi-go. He's got help, but they are falling quickly to the Ruga-ruga Soldiers coming down the side of the Temple.

Download

Direct download here

Scenarios Page here