Rescue

It seems like ages ago that a number of unfortunate halflings were taken captive by a pack of gnolls. Well, finally a brave hero or 2 has come along to try to rescue the captive halflings.

Today, using the Very Simple Generic Miniatures Rules that I used previously, with a few "house rules" for scenario-specific flavor, I had a dwarf hero armed with a crossbow and ax attempt a rescue. He went in alone and didn't get off to a very good start (lots of poor dice rolls!). First shot missed, and then he got knocked down by the first gnoll he acme in contact with.

Eventually he killed that gnoll. The dwarf made it to the rocky area where most of the halflings were being held by several of the gnolls (the rest of the gnolls and halflings were scattered a bit). After some back and forth fighting the dwarf was overcome and captured by several gnolls ganging up on him.

Well, that wouldn't do! Enter an heroic wood elf archer, friend of the dwarf hero. Again I created a few "house rules"/stats for the wood elf and the scenario. The gnolls were now on alert, in defensive positions among various rocky outcrops, and keeping watch on their captives. The wood elf entered the area, promptly shot one gnoll and freed a couple of halflings.
Moving along, the wood elf shot another gnoll and freed another halfling. Then the wood elf moved towards the main group of hostages. Shooting more gnolls. The previously freed halflings had moved up to the rocky area and were able to knock down some of the gnolls and eventually free up more halflings and the dwarf. In the end the elf, dwarf and halflings dispatched the last of the gnolls. Another triumph for the forces of niceness.

One thing I like about simple rules like the ones mentioned above is it's easy to learn the base rules and then add a few variations as desired for specific scenarios.
In this game the main differences between the dwarf and elf were the dwarf was better at hand to hand combat (hitting/killing on a roll of 3-6), while the elf was better at missile combat (hitting on a roll or 3-6 at close range), and the dwarf got armor protection (canceling hits against him on a roll of 4-6).