Cauldron: Beastbreaking

On the final weekend of February UMS “Agram” organised the annual Black Queen Hobby and Miniature Painting Competition in Zagreb. I was there as part of the crew and participant, and we were visited by guests from abroad. Many of them have been here before for this event or one or more of my summer gaming events. I used the occasion to play a game of Cauldron with my Italian friend Marcello. Cauldron is a 2023 skirmish game by Hill Giant, where warbands made up of orcs, goblins, trolls, and beasts clash in their swampland home.

SETUP

Marcello brought the squiglike Weirdos set he had painted for their Kickstarter campaign, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to unleash them on the table. The campaign is happening right now, go check it out if you fancy the minis. They were designed by four sculptors: Marcello, Giuseppe, Alessio, and Andrew, and are being released by Meridian Miniatures.

Anyway, there is a perfect scenario in Cauldron: Beastbreaking. The setup is simple: d12 beasts are placed around the middle of the board, with warbands deploying on opposite edges. Beasts that are knocked out may be added to the warband post game if checks are successfully passed. We deployed all 10 Weirdos as our beasts, and each of us fielded a 250 point warband recruited from our collections.

Marcello’s warband - the Old Grumpy Tired Orc Hunting Party

Vintage Warhammer orcs and a pair of goblin herders from the upcoming Weirdos set.

My warband - Ugluk, Ghorum, Zulgor, Gulag, and Cave Muncher

Orcs&goblin from Knightmare Games, Heartbeaker, and Black Tree Design. The little beast is from Goobinzgitz.

Cauldron’s setting is a swamp, for which I didn’t really have a full board of terrain. In preparation for the game I crafted a bunch of giant mushroom clusters, as well as three barrows. Combined them with skulls and bones I had from last year and the table was sufficiently coverd. I’ll write a post about those builds later this month.

THE BATTLE

Eager for a brawl, both warbands advance towards the herd of Weirdos. One of Marcello’s orcs uses the slow first turn to forage and finds a Poisonous Frog, which can be used to rub on a weapon and have it deal debuffs along with damage. My guys attempt some foraging, too. But it looks like my side of the board contains nothing interesting... My archer fires a shot at the largest Weirdo, dealing a bit of damage.

The creatures are themselves aggressive, and they rush towards the hunters. Since monsters in Cauldron are programmed to attack the nearest enemy, about a half of the herd ends up pursuing Marcello’s warband, and half mine.

The fighting rages on through the next few turns. My Cave Muncher does serious damage, but succumbs to attacks from a gang of four Weirdos. He was backed up by Ghorum, though, who eventually finishes the job on that front. Gulag the goblin dispatched another bouncy critter. My boss Ugluk struggled against the massive blue Weirdo (my favourite from the set) for a long time. It didn’t help he got shot in the back by Zulgor‘s stray arrow.

Marcello’s warband knocked out all four Weirdos on his side of the battlefield. One of his goblin herders ended up in the dirt in the process. Not wanting to hit his own boss again, Zulgor shot at Marcello’s Grumpy Old Orc all the way across the board- but it wasn’t effective.

Having cleaned up all their Weirdos, Marcello’s boys advanced towards me. Before they even got close the big blue Weirdo eventually stomped unfortunate boss Ugluk and turned his maniacal grin towards Gulag. And then finally met its demise at the end of the goblin’s rusty blade.

At this point there are no more beasts for us to hunt. We’re deciding whether to brawl with each other. Having no ranged weapons, Marcello is at a disadvantage. The only thing he can do is advance while using the cover of giant mushrooms to hide from sight. I have Zulgor the archer take pot shots at his warband while my other remaining fighters keep out of their charge range.

Getting bored of all this waiting, Gulag looks around and gets super lucky! He forages and spots a Perfect Throwing Rock, giving me another projectile to threaten the enemy with. At this point Marcello’s tired old boss is seriously reconsidering his plans. In the end our warbands agree to a ceasefire and return to their hovels with wounded members and captured Weirdos in tow.

Here are our warbands with the Weirdos they caught.

This was our first time playing Cauldron and we really enjoyed it. I’m fond of the foraging mechanic. It elegantly gives models who have nothing to do something to spend an action on, and the results can introduce a fun new moment. The game is quick and brutal, so multiple games can fit in a single evening. That’s when one is familiar with the rules; we were learning as we played so it took us about an hour to play this. We’re already thinking about wacky warbands we could make in the future. The system lends itself to all kinds of funky ideas.

BLACK QUEEN

Apart from using the event as an opportunity for playing Cauldron, there was a lot more going on. It’s first and foremost a hobby and painting competition so I brought some models to take part. There was an exhibition of the club’s work and a series of workshops/lectures during the weekend. And my friends Luka and Vane from Slovenia gave me a demo of Turnip28, which I’ll need to learn how to play for their event I’m attending this summer at Amulet D20 association. Here are some pics of the table they set up for the demo:

I had a great time with my international and domestic friends and as always can’t wait to see them again!