Fortnight 1: The Protection Racket

First light revealed the merchants in the Sigmarhaven market setting up their food stalls. The Pork Pie Protection Racket — the halfling mafia that “keeps the peace” (and also the peas) among the settlement’s culinary trades — employs 'food inspectors' who almost always fine the merchants for not being up to food safety standards. Those who pay maintain their own personal safety. Those who refuse end up beaten like egg whites and thrown out of the market.

From the shadowed cellars and dark alleys, agents of the Gastromancers have slithered into the district. Their plan is multi-faceted but what is certain is they would rather see every merchant’s blood on the cobblestones than let them play into the Racket’s hands.

Overview

Two warbands now converge on the market square at dawn. Depending on their allegiances, they may be trying to shakedown the merchants for money, or eliminating them for the Gastromancer cause.

Allegiances

Players determine if they are aligned with the Halfling Mafia or with the Chaos attuned Gastromancers. Warbands that are traditionally evil (Undead, Possessed, Skaven etc.) should side with the Gastromancers. Warbands that are welcome in the Empire should side with the Pork Pie Protection Racket. Otherwise please choose thematically. Both players may choose the same allegiance representing infighting typical of crime organizations and cults.

Setup and Deployment

Setup the 4 market stalls equidistant from the center in an 8" square. Rolloff and take turns setting up 4 Merchants touching separate stalls. Put the 1 last merchant in the center of the table (for a total of 5).
Setup buildings around the market square to give the feeling of an open square.
Rolloff for deployment and setup on opposite board edges, within 6" of the edge.

Merchants

Use the Mercenary Youngblood statline (armed only with a dagger) for the 5 Merchants. Treat the Merchants as a 3rd warband acting after the player warbands.

Use the following to steps to determine behaviour:
1. Merchants fleeing will continue to flee away (2d6") from hostile models. If unclear then roll a direction.
2. Merchants in combat will attack back if its not their turn, but will attempt to break from combat and flee from hostile models if its their turn.
3. Merchants hit by ranged spells or ranged weapons will flee away from hostile models in their turn.
4. If none of the above apply, the Merchant will remain stationary (loading up their stall with goods).

The Pork Pie Protection Racket Allegiance

Warbands with allied to the Pork Pie Protection Racket are shaking down the merchants for money. To do so warband members must come into base contact with a merchant and take a leadership test to intimidate the merchant. If you pass the leadership test the merchant hands over d6 gold coins. Once they hand over money they are then automatically removed from the board as they realize something isn't right and have decided to hide under their market stall until its all blown over. If the intimidation fails, they continue what they were doing. The warband members can attempt multiple intimidations for as many warband members in base to base contact in any given turn. You cannot intimidate a merchant in combat. However you can intimidate a merchant who is fleeing.
Fear: warband members that cause fear test on a leadership of 10 when shaking down a merchant as they are very persuasive.
Animals, Stupid, Frenzy: models that have these special rules cannot extort money as they don't have the communication skills of a food safety inspector.

Gastromancer Allegiance

Warbands allied with the Gastromancers seek their favour by cutting off income of the halfling mafia. To do so they must kill the merchants. Merchants count as enemy models for march blocking, however they do not count as closest target for shooting.

Ending the game

The game ends when their are no merchants left on the table (dead and/or hiding). Alternatively the game ends when a warband has routed.

Winning the game

The winning warband is the one with the most points calcuated as follows:
The Pork Pie Protection Racket allied
+1 for each merchant extorted
-1 for each merchant accidentally killed
-1 for being routed
Gastromancer allied
+1 for each merchant killed
-1 for being routed

Experience

+1 Winning Leader. The leader of the winning warband gets +1 Experience.
+1 Per Enemy Out of Action. Any Hero earns +1 Experience for each enemy he puts out of action.
+1 Per Merchant Extorted. Any Protection Racket Hero earns +1 Experience for each Merchant successfully extorted.
+1 Per Merchant Out of Action. Any Gastromancer Hero earns +1 Experience for each merchant he puts out of action (this is in addition to Per Enemy Out of Action).
+1 Surviving. Any Hero or henchman survives the scenario they get +1 Experience.