'Hurling Giants'

A Dresda Scenario by Matthew Hartley

Grummer the giant has more Groats than he knows what to do with. Surely he won't miss a few...

~

In the age before black powder rent asunder the realms of Valon, deeds were great and heroes noble, men were men and giants were BIG. Never less than 70 foot tall, these monstrosities inhabited the very western most lands of Albion, trawling the sea with their great nets and occasionally raiding the human lands for whole herds of cattle or sheep. Yet these giants were slow, for all their vastness has robbed their brains of swift thought. So a few brave and hardy souls might, whilst a giant is otherwise occupied, steal upon him and rob him of his treasure...

The party has strayed into the land of the giants, and hearing of their (alleged) fabulous wealth are determined to acquire some for themselves. Having discovered a likely victim, a 90 foot giant named Grummer, and observed that he regularly enjoys a game of "catch" with a fellow giant several miles away. The game involves the two giants standing on their respective hills and hurling rocks at each other. Games of "Hurling" have been known to last many years.

The party are aware that Grummer has a couple of huge ferocious hounds as pets, but nothing that a group of hardened killers can't cope with.

The Game

There is no map provided with this scenario. The Player should set up a table and distribute several items of terrain to represent the area of the action. At least one large hill (upon which Grummer stands) should be placed near the center of the table. The giant's treasure horde must be placed within 12cm of his feet.

Grummer is standing on his hill engrossed in his game, only his feet need to be represented on the table (remember he is huge). Grummer is for all practically purposes unkillable. The player can attack him if he wishes, but will have absolutely no effect. It will be several hours before Grummers brain registers any pain inflicted, so he will ignore any attacks.

The Treasure

In the area marked "treasure" on the map (note this entire area IS within 12 cm of the giants feet), Grummers assorted wealth lies strewn about. For each action that a figure spends looting in the area he can collect 1D6-2 Groats worth of treasure. There is no limit on how much treasure a figure can collect.

The Hounds

Grummer's Hounds are described below. Use the rules from Wilde Thinges to determine their reactions during the scenario. 

The hounds enter the table from the northern side on Turn one. They do not regard Grummer as an enemy for reaction purposes. If forced by reaction rolls to flee the table a Hound will return 1D6-1 Turns later.

The Rocks

The party face an additional hazard. Grummer's catching isn't all it could be and he frequently misses or drops rocks. Each Turn, after the Movement Phase, roll 1D6. On an odd roll, a rock comes crashing to the ground 2D6cm from the giants feet. Roll 1D12 and use a clock face to determine the direction the rock in relative to the giants feet. Place a 8cm diameter burst template (like the one you got in Grapeshotte) on the point where the rock lands. Any figures within the template are subject to an automatic hit from a large improvised weapon at range of 0cm.

The End

The game ends when the last figure dies or leaves the table.

~

What is Dresda?

Dresda was the original sister game to the first edition of Flintloque, released way back in 1996. It used the fantasy range of miniatures available from Alternative Armies and brought with it an excellent and dynamic campaign system. It also shared the same central mechanics as its older sibling. This meant we we could run games that pitted fantasy armies against Blackpowder armed Orc redcoats and see the new order on Valon storm the castles of the old.

The game saw players managing bands of mercenaries, trailing the countryside looking for work and running up against other units with the same idea. Like Flintloque, scenario driven battles were a key element in its design, coupled with the roleplaying aspect of running your unit including equipping them with things found on the battlefield and paying them from a limited supply of Groats. It was more involved and offered a richer campaign framework than most wargames from that time. A few years later Games Workshop's Mordheim came out and the world was wowed by its innovative use of warbands and campaign tracking which Alternative Armies had actually been doing for  few years already.

Dresda sadly went out-of-print never to be re-released and years later Alternative Armies went in a different direction releasing Darkstorme, offering a slightly different take on the pre-Blackpowder history of Valon using an original D6 based system.

~

Webmaster's Notes

'Hurling Giants' was first published on Mike Bauman's No Man's Land website way back in 1998.

It was first published on Orcs in the Webbe on the 7th March 2005. However, it was absent for many years due to a prior regeneration of the website not transferring everything over correctly. This wrong has now been righted and it returned as the fifth entry in 2024's Advent Calendar and is, of course, part of Orcs in the Webbe's ongoing Archive Project.

Any comments in maroon in the article above have been added by me either to provide additional information or clarity. I may also have made small changes to grammar and layout but have not marked these.