Something wicked this way comes...

Happy Halloween!

On this all hallows eve, I've been thinking how to get something 'spooky' into your gaming this evening, just in case you had one planned.

It is said that on all hallows, the span between this world and the hereafter is at its weakest. What if 'something' crosses over, drawn by the sounds of conflict? Something wicked this way comes...

What the actual creature is, does not matter. It could be your favourite monster, a pumpkin-headed reaper or a cute, fluffy white bunny (covered in blood, naturally!). What it does is introduce a third faction, a supernatural presence to your game.

The Entity

The following is some suggestions for the Bolt Action game. Introduce two different coloured order dice (ideally black or red) to the bag to the mission you are playing. When that colour dice is drawn, the entity activates. 

On activation, the entity enters from the middle of the short side edge of any table (roll randomly). It moves like infantry, but ignores all terrain - being supernatural, it can glide through it! Likewsie it has supernatural sight, so terrain does not obstruct what it can see or charge. 

In the first turn, it will move towards the centre of the board, unless hit by fire, which will attract its attention. On the second and subsequent turns, it'll move towards any living unit, aiming to engage in close combat.The entitly ignores pins for activation, but still has to pass a test with a morale of 10 to activate. An 11 or 12 will always fail. It can also choose to rally and remove pins as normal.

Attacks

The entity has no ranged attack, only its claws. In close combat, it counts as five models with a +1 penetration. In the unlikely event it loses combat, it will withdraw and is not destroyed. Against vehicles, it ignores armour and counts all vehicles as having a 6+ armour.

If it bleeds...

The entity is not of this world, so normal weapons, no matter how powerful, only sting it. Pins count as normal. If a weapon hits, it only 'wounds' the entitly on a 6, no matter how powerful the weapon is. Each wound counts as an extra pin marker. 

"Go back to where you came from!"

When the entity takes ten pins, it will finally return back to the hell it came from and bother the mortal world (and the players) no more. 

Other thoughts

This is a fun idea to try out in your games, but it can turn out to be massively unfair for one side. This is supposed to be a bit of fun, of course, so players might want to consider letting the entity guard an objective in the middle of the table instead. Another idea would be to have the entity wipe out a unit on one side, then head to the other side to wipe out an opposing unit.

Now, if you really want it to be fair ... introduce two... one per side!

Maybe a church (holy ground!) will offer sancturary from the entity... there's plenty of ideas you can introduce...