[Anno Domini 1666] Free Wilhelm

The Veterans of the Tertios moved unnoticed onto the board, silently taking up positions at the door, ready to break it down.

Catalina expertly kicked the lock and the battle was on. Eisenhans immediately jumped up to intercept the intruders. To his surprise, he was charged from behind, as the El sneaky Baratero had managed to infiltrate the building and jumped out of a shadow at him. Niel's Hidalgo fought Matthias's Eisenhans (a combat skill of 1 against Eisenhans' 3), but here is where this game is really interestingly designed: successive card boosts pushed the final score to 13 against 8, and a last card effected 9 points of damage on the Hidalgo, which killed him.

With the door broken, the Order of the Broken Cross' members were now fully aware of the attack, and shouted for reinforcements. Sister Ada appeared down the waterfront, and another Knecht right behind the building.

With El Capitan having moved into one of the boats, a Knecht targeted him with his crossbow. Even though there was a −1 modifier for darkness, the top card from the deck turned out to be a skulls 8 - headshot, which hurt El Capitan badly.

In melee, Eisenhans engaged Catalina to prevent escaping with Wilhelm — a dead-even tie even after both sides boosted, forcing Eisenhans to fall back – he retreated into the corner, still threatening the square in front of the door. With Eisenhans being out of reach now, Catalina used the opening for a half-action to free Wilhelm from his ties, then moving one square diagonally to engage Eisenhans.

El Capitán then found the range with his musket, crippling one Knecht outright — the check at the end of the round was passed and the crippled Knecht fought on - for now.

Wilhelm engaged El Baratero, while the Knechts took formed into a solid firing line. Sister Ada advanced towards the fight. Niel had moved Catalina diagonally in front of Eisenhans, engaging him while keeping an escape route for Wilhelm open. When Wilhelm wanted to slip through, Matthias remembered the 'Living Barricade' trait of Eisenhans. Normally, when a character is engaged, he looses its zone of control. This would have allowed Wilhelm to escape as Eisenhans was distracted by Catalina. But 'Living Barricade' makes Eisenhans keep his zone of control even when engaged, so Wilhem needed to stop in front of Eisenhans.

Eisenhans attacked Wilhelm rather than Catalina, causing 3 damage to his chest, and Wilhelm pulled back – of course to the outside of the building, this making his escape after all, albeit being wounded now. Catalina answered in kind, causing 6 damage to Eisenhans, cut to 4 by his armor — enough to force a strength test to stay on his feet, which he made on an 8. Still, Eisenhans was also crippled now.

El Capitan advanced, engaging the outer Knecht. Sister Ada, whose 'Inconspicuous' trait lets her move freely as long she hasn't been uncovered, she is just a harmless nun after all, moved behind El Capitan, so he was engaged diagonally in a straight line from fornt and back – which would grant a bonus in the coming melee. Wilhelm moved towards the escape boat. While El Baratero moved though the door on his left, Wilhelm moved through the door behind him, and engaged El Baratero again on the outside.

Catalina pressed Eisenhans hard, dealing damage that required a strength test at 8+ just to stay standing (made, barely).

El Capitan had the initiative and attacked the Knecht, somwhat negating the outnumber effect by attacking the weaker of his two foes. Hi killed him easily.

Ada now lost the best Bonus Matthias had planned with, both sides boosted with a number of cards, the totals climbed as high as 12 against a defender's 5–6, crippling Ada and forcing a retreat – the game winning out-of-inconspicuous-back-stab hadn't worked quite as planned, after all…

Siegfried lsot against El Baratero and had to retreat.

El Capitan, El Baratero and Catalina all converged on the two Knechts and Siegfried.

Sister Ada lashed oput with her whip at Wilhelm — needing an 8 total between darkness and him already being hindered — and landed it clean. Unfortunately the card drawn did not cause damage, but Wilhelm came away only entangled.

El Baratero was pushed back.

Wilhelm bravely moved to angage Ada, who was blocking his escape over the jetty. A Knecht moved in to support Ada, but was in turn engaged from his back by El Capitan.

Eisenhans nearly finished his sprint around the building.

Ada lost the fight against Wilhelm, and with it her last point of live. The Knecht then tried to kill Wilhelm, and barely managed it, after all, El Capitan tried to pierce him from behind all the time – with which he succeeded eventually, too.

With the hostage dead, it was down to attrition. Eisenhans went after Catalina with the odds tight and a point of support on her side; the fight ground up to a 1-over result for 3 damage, cut to just 1 by her support — she held her ground. El Capitán traded blows to a tie, broke it by 2, and put 3 damage (reduced by armor) into the Knecht, who fell back out of the line.

Then, with Siegfried free to activate and Catalina sitting there as the obvious target, Matthias chose not to press the attack, as his card hand was empty.

The game ended there.

The rescue itself failed — Wilhelm never reached the boat, and died in the wrong side's hands to boot — so the final score came down almost entirely to the fighting around him.

Both players agreed it was closer than 4–2 suggests: Niel said flatly that if Siegfried had gone after Catalina in the last round instead of holding back, he thought he'd have lost outright.