Beachhead Diaries
I recently attended the Run Forest Run campaign held in Bournemouth at the annual Beachhead gaming event. This being my first campaign and first two-day event I thought it would be fun to keep a diary of what I got up to.
Quick bit of background on myself: I’m Ben Owens and I have been playing Moonstone for two years, after falling in love with the models (Doug the Flatulent and El Capitano were the ones that sold me on it). I attended my first tournament six months later (my first tournament of any kind), and have now competed in eight total, winning one of them, taking best painted in another, and with an overall record of 15W 13L 1D.
I'm not generally a competitive gamer, but really enjoy the challenge of building a tournament list for this game and playing it against a variety of opponents.
As a quick note - what you are about to read is adapted from a post I originally made in the Moonstone Players Facebook group. If you're reading this and aren't a member I wholeheartedly recommend you join, it's a great community.
Campaign Intro
This campaign is a series of 5 games; 3 on the first day, 2 on the second. We'll be playing 2-hour games, with 6 models per side, starting with a pool of 6 models and one upgrade. Two further models and upgrades will be added to the pool over the weekend, and between rounds we will be scheming and plotting.
I'm playing Leshavult, and my list is:
Klaus, Raegan, Chubs, Jackalope, Boris the Bunny Summoner and Eric the Enlightened
Kavanagh and Brother Daniel in reserve
I've upgraded Eric with ‘Leshavit's Vessel’, which allows him to come back to life the first time he dies, so my three main beat-sticks all now have some kind of way to potentially re-join the game when they die. The main game-plan is to throw Eric in the enemy's face as quickly as possible, with Klaus following behind to assist. Jackalope will either be harvesting stones or assisting in melee, while Boris throws out bunnies to control the board, and Chubs and Raegan hang back in support. Let's see how it goes!
Day 1
5:15am - Yes, apparently 5:15am on a Saturday does exist. Early start because my car is still off the road so it's trains for me this weekend. Double check my stuff, take the dog for a quick walk, then it's into the car so my long-suffering fiancée can drop me at Winchester train station.
6:50am – On my delayed train. Should have booked online and saved £20. Silly Ben.
8:15am – After wandering the deserted wasteland that is Bournemouth early on a Saturday morning, I plonk myself in a nice little cafe to replenish my energy tokens with a coffee and almond croissant.
8:50am - On the way to the venue I meet several squirrels (all of whom reaction step away from me) and a particularly vicious looking seagull that must be on at least +4 piercing in melee. I know I've found the right place when I spot some 40k Warlord Titans sat on the street, waiting to be wheeled in. I wonder if the regular folk of Bournemouth realise they're walking past literally thousands of pounds worth of resin?
9am - Our campaign is in the foyer area of the BIC this time, which is nice as we're tucked away in a corner away from the heaving crowds, and have plenty of space. 14 players this time, some I've played before, and some new faces which is always nice to see. Plenty of prizes on offer, including best in faction - and with all three factions being evenly represented competition should be tough!
9:30am - Game 1
Opponent: Andy T (Dominion – Faeries)
Andy’s Faeries
My campaign cards:
‘Bolt From The Blue’ – Deals 3 magical damage to a model in the replenish step
‘Reverse Fate’ – Flip the originator and target of an arcane ability
Andy is running the campaign event and had to step in to play last minute as someone dropped out. Luckily, he is not very familiar with playing his Faeries, as he's a very good player and I've never beaten him! The campaign cards I've chosen seem strong against Faeries and I'll need all the help I can get. I try to convince other players to pester him with rules questions during the game to distract him!
Game ended 4-2 to me, Andy had some awful luck with his arcane cards, and my plan of pushing Eric and Klaus up the centre worked well. I was disappointed to only get a Green 1 on Raegan's first ‘Verdant Growth’ of the game, but it ended up paying off as it meant Klaus was in range of the wooded patch for a ‘Malachite Ritual’ later in the game, when the Faeries had already sapped his energy, and allowed him to storm in with a nice ‘Hold My Beer’ and hand out some catastrophes.
‘Bolt from the Blue’ finished off a wounded Wasp, but I didn't get a good opportunity to use my other card.
11:30am - I have a little wander of the main hall and have a chat with the writer of Be Like A Crow, a cute little paper and pencil RPG which my aforementioned fiancée plays. I buy her a crow miniature wearing a top hat and monocle.
12:30pm - Time for lunch and, with plenty of time to kill, I find a brewhouse in town and get myself a pint of American Pale brewed onsite and a big burger to see me through the afternoon. Bit pricey but I’m trying to avoid just going to the usual chain places this weekend.
2:00pm – Standings are up and I’m 8th out of 14, despite a strong win, I need to stop thinking like it’s a tournament and start paying attention to campaign points! Before the next game:
I add Brother Daniel to my roster.
Andy T supports me, giving me an extra campaign card in my next game.
I sabotage Andy T’s opponent, Andy R.
2:30pm – Game 2
Opponent: Ellie (Commonwealth – Soldiers)
Ellie’s Commonwealth
My campaign cards:
‘High Road’ – Gives me Machination Points if I win
‘Furry Fury’ – Animals deal +1 damage
‘Tangle Tree’ – Deals wounds to a character near a wooded patch and locks them in place for the turn.
I won this one 7-0 as Klaus and Eric were able to smash their way through the soldiers (including Klaus hitting a monstrous 11 impact damage in one hit) while bunnies and Jackalope ran interference. I was worried about the tandem of the opposing Jackalope and Hogswash making a beeline towards me turn 1, but I used ‘Tangle Tree’ on the Jackalope to basically prevent a whole activation, while I stayed out of its range and dealt with Hogswash first. There is a campaign card that gives you lots of extra points if you have all 7 Moonstones, but you're definitely tempting fate if you take that!
Andy R wins the battle of the Andys so my sabotage backfires.
4:30pm - Another scoot round the hall, including eyeing up The Cursed box. I also grab a handful of resin bases to serve as objective markers as I forgot to bring any. Coffee and cake to give me a boost for round 3.
5:00pm - Standings are up after 2 rounds, and I'm now 4th. I add the ‘Leshavit's Favourite’ upgrade to Jackalope to allow her to ignore the first damage of the game. And I learn that basically every Leshavult player takes the two upgrades I have chosen, I'm so unoriginal! Before the next game:
Five players support me for the upcoming game, so I'm on 3 cards again.
I support fellow Leshavult player Ant.
6:00pm - Game 3
Opponent: Andy R (Leshavult - Spirits)
Andy’s Leshavult
My campaign cards:
‘The Hunt’ - +1 energy to an animal or faun each turn
‘Turn the Tables’ - +1 VP if I activate an objective marker, and -1 Machination point to my opponent
‘Nefarious Bargain’ - +1 VP and +2 Machination Points to another player
Andy is my old nemesis… We are currently tied 2-2 across our various tournament games. Apparently, half the people in the campaign chose to support me this game, so no pressure, as I'll have a lot of angry people out for my blood if I fail and cost them Machination Points!
Luckily I pulled off a 4-1 win in a very fun game, as our games always are! I've only played against the trees once, when they were still in playtesting, so I'm not super familiar with them. I managed to deal with them fairly well by tying Gump up with murder bunnies, putting Ruwt down to a couple of wounds so they can’t come back to life and then ignoring them, and smashing into Snag as quickly as possible before they hand out too many curses!
I drew a handful of 2s for my first Murder Bunny summoning of the game, and managed to bait Andy into calling my bluff twice, so I get 3 bunnies in one go! Highlight of the match though was the final activation which saw Raegan fishing for the pink 3 from a 3 card draw to finish off his 3-wound Boris so he'd drop 2 stones...and she pulled the pink 3! Couldn't believe my luck, always remember folks that in Moonstone that it ain't over ‘til the Norse Giant sings!
Ant loses his game, so once again my Machinations backfire, I've never been much good at gambling!
8:00pm - End of day 1 and I won all my games and am hopefully in a good spot heading into day 2. My plan of staying on to play boardgames is out the window as I'm shattered and my brain power is fading (a 5:15 wakeup will do that to a person), so I stomp off to find my hotel.
8:30pm - Found a woodfired pizza place nearby and sat in my hotel shovelling it into my face like a dirtbag, while writing these notes. Pointless is on in the background and there is a question about Dungeons and Dragons that I definitely would have got wrong. What I do with the rest of my evening is none of your business... (falling asleep, I'll just be falling asleep)
Day 2
7:30am – My alarm goes off. I have already been awake for two hours after about just a few hours’ sleep; thanks to the lovely folk at Premier Inn putting me in the room right by the foyer so I constantly had people passing my door not using their indoor voices. Who needs sleep anyway?
8:00am - I find a cafe on the way back to the venue for a hearty breakfast and some much-needed coffee.
9:00am - Set up for round 4 is under way and I'm currently ranked 1st! Before the next game:
I add Kavanagh to my roster.
No one supports or sabotages me this time.
I support Sam and Andy T
9:30am – Game 4
Opponent: Aaron (Commonwealth – variety pack)
My troupe
My campaign cards:
Plant Propaganda – If my two objective markers are active at game end I gain 2VP and cost my opponent 2 Machination Points
Antagonise – 1VP at the expense of giving my opponent an extra campaign card
I've played Aaron once before and he tabled me, hopefully this time goes better! The moonstones are mostly clustered around the centre so it's going to be a dogpile.
I scraped through with a 4-2 victory on stones, and a fundamental misunderstanding of how objective tokens work (turns out they can be deactivated - guess who didn't see that bit in the rules!).
His Loubard managed to take out my Jackalope and Eric, and also leave Klaus on one wound before finally being put down. Then his Murder Bunny finished Klaus off... twice! The duel of the Erics saw his little Eric strike down my resurrected big Eric. The final moonstone was locked down and neither of us could grab it, and so ended a very gruelling game, and I am now 4-0 overall.
One of my supported players wins and the other loses, so at least they balance out this time!
11:30am - Another scoot round the hall sees me pick up some terrain and basing bits, and a Valentine’s card (what, you don't go to gaming events to do your valentines shopping? And why not?)
12:00am - Still plenty of time to kill, so I pop into town for some rather disappointing tacos and some scalding hot donuts (I'm 37 years old and have yet to adequately learn the 'don't immediately put the hot thing in your mouth' lesson).
1:00pm – I've now dropped way down the rankings due to not making good use of the Machination mechanic. Before the next game:
I add the ‘Beastly’ upgrade to Eric to give him +1 damage in combat, as I was finding I wasn't drawing piercing cards enough.
I'm forced to support Ant this round, and also support Andy R.
We also have to vote on Best Painted, there's a lot of amazing looking troupes and picking one is probably the toughest moment of the weekend, but in the end I vote for Amelia's pirates as I really like how creatively she leaned into the pirate theme.
1:30pm – Game 5
Opponent: Josh (Dominion – Goblins)
Josh’s goblins
My campaign cards:
‘Gribble Bog’ – Place two wooded patches on the board
‘Decoy’ – Place dummy objective markers and gain +1 Machination points with a win
‘Dawnlight Robbery’ – Gives a model the ‘Robbery’ ability to potentially steal a moonstone
Myself and Josh are both 4-0. We realise that neither of us are likely to win the event, but are both within grasping distance of the Most Moonstones award (I am on 19, he is on 17).
I immediately threw my wooded patches in front of his supercharged Firespitter and Ribald to give me some much needed cover and to slow his advance.
I managed to push up the board fairly quickly with my beat-sticks and kept him contained to his half of the table, while Jackalope and Boris run around picking up stones. My stupid colour blindness reared its head again, as I confused a blue card for a pink, but Josh being the gentleman he is allows me to correct my mistake, as it was the card number that was important not the colour. The sportsmanship of everyone I played this weekend was fantastic, and something I really love about this game.
My prize
As with the previous time I played Josh I managed to get Klaus into his lines to trigger ‘Hold My Beer’, this time it didn’t work out so well for me as Ribald’s catastrophe took out Eric and left 3 bunnies on one health each! It allowed Raegan to remove two catastrophes from the deck though, so I was feeling pretty confident that Klaus would survive the inevitable ‘Tubthumping’ – which he did, before getting splatted by the Goblin King! Ribald’s explosive ways continued when I tried to hit him, and he drew the single combat card he needed to go BOOM and splash out loads more damage.
Final result 5-2 to me, and I end the weekend 5-0 overall.
Once again I'm 50/50 with my supports so they cancel each other out.
4:00pm - It's the awards ceremony and I finish in 5th, but I take the ‘Keeper of the Stones’ trophy for collecting the most moonstones over the weekend, along with some limited edition combat cards, so that's a result I'm very happy with.
It's goodbyes all round after a fun weekend of games, and Andy R kindly drops me at the station to save me trudging back across town.
Hopefully this gives you a taste of a Moonstone event, if you've never attended one I strongly recommend it, even if you're new to the game. It's always a great atmosphere and I've enjoyed every single game I've had at them.
Maybe I'll see you across the table at some point!
Want to try out a Moonstone tournament? Head over to the Moonstone Players page to see what’s coming soon in your area.
