Jungle Hunt: A survival skirmish

Hey fellas,

I'm running a Lustrian-based campaign with about 4 other players, and need some advice.  The players have learned that a great treasure is to be found on the other side of the island they all are on, and have two options:  The first is a pretty simple boat-race that should be pretty straight-forward.  This option is going to take longer, but likely much safer, but a couple of my players wanted to go the other route through the jungle, which is infested with all kinds of nasty things:  Here's the scenario I'm planning for them.  (FYI, these warbands are pretty advanced, ranging from around 325 to 400 rating.)

The board is set up with heavy woods/jungle and a slightly winding path through them, with no other features, save a river running laterally through the middle of the board.  I figure the length of the path should be around 60 inches, with a bridge over the river about halfway through.  The warband must get from one side of the board to the other.  Movement along the path is unhindered, but the jungle terrain itself is difficult, and movement through it is cut in half.  

The defenders consist of 6 chameleon skinks with poisoned blowguns and 2-3 Carnosaurs (how many will depend on how high the attacking warband's rating is.  I'm thinking 1+1 for each full 100 warband rating over 200).  These start the game hidden among the jungle anywhere on the board as long as it is at least 12 inches away from any enemy model.  To represent the hidden threat, the defending player will have 24 tokens/poker chips to represent not only the defenders, but "dummy sounds" that the jumpy attackers might mistakenly pay attention to.  The tokens will be marked on one side with what they are to represent, placed face down, and not revealed until they are within an enemy's Initiative in inches.   The defending player may move these freely through the jungle (they're used to it) up to 8" while hidden.  The skinks can shoot through the jungle with no penalty, and shooting will not give away their "hidden" status.  Once a skink has been revealed, it may become "hidden" again under the normal hiding rules, but Carnosaurs cannot hide again once they have revealed themselves.

The stats for the defenders are as follows:
Skinks:
M6 WS2 BS4 S3 T2 W1 I4 A1 Ld7-Armed with poisoned blowguns (Wound automatically on a to-hit roll of 6), spears, and their chameleon skin gives them an additional -1 to hit from shooting.  Skinks possess the "Trick Shot", "Aquatic", and "Jungle Born" skills.

Carnosaurs:
M6 WS4 BS0 S6 T5 W4 I2 A5 Ld7-Has Scaly Skin 4+ Armor, Large Target, Fear, and the "Jungle Born", "Strike to Injure" and "Bite Attack" skills.
Taking a Carnosaur Out of Action will net the Hero/Henchmen group 2 XP.

If the attacking player can get at least 2 of his warband members to the other side of the map without routing, they will have broken through, and will win the scenario, giving them an advantage in exploration, since they have beaten their rivals to the objective.  If they fail, they will have to take a longer way around, and will arrive at the other side of the island when the boats do.

What do you guys think?  Is this too nasty?  I warned them that it was going to be a tough scenario, but I don't want it to be broken.  Any critiques/suggestions will be most welcome.

Interesting. So how's the campaign going? Why have you not shared a battle report or two?
I like the idea of a player versus the NPCs scenario, although I'm not sure how you intend it to work.

Does the defender set up his chits randomly or does he look at them first? What does 1+1 mean?

If the road is clear terrain and everything else is difficult, why would the Attacker leave the road? I would lose the idea of a road, but that's me.

Chameleon skinks=a good chance of easy experience. Zombies are easier, but I do love hunting those T2 skinks. I have no respect for blowguns as written. Most useless Mordheim weapon ever. (You notice no one ever writes a topic on changing it though. Everybodies got it in for slings and handguns.)

The Carnosaur(s). Are pretty tough although I would give them at least 5 wounds. If the scenario set up is randomly generated, the Attacker may never see them. If the Defender is active the Attacker will always have a bit of a hard time.

This is my pet peeve, but why are there skinks and Carnosaurs? Do the skinks control the Carnosaurs? If not, why don't the Carnosaurs hunt the skinks down? I know that's a bit more thought than necessary, but why not replace the skinks with events like a tar pit or scary native totems that slow the Attacker down or un-nerve him as the big beasties stalk the Attacker through the jungle. Man-eating plants are always good.

Or say the skinks control the Carnosaurs and shut me up. 

Guess I should clarify a bit:

The chits are set up by the defender, but only he knows which ones are dummys and which ones are his real models. It's supposed to represent them setting up decoys or other sounds to throw the attackers off their trail.

The campaign has been going on for about 5 weeks or so, but my new job keeps me more busy than I'd like, and battle reports have not been high on my "to-do" lists, much as I enjoyed it in the past.

The idea of the road is that it is the only thing that does not limit the attacker's movement, but the defenders can move freely anywhere, upping the challenge and danger to make up for the advantage it could give in the next scenario.

The skink blowguns will have S3 and a 12 inch range, but with their hidden abilities, a smart player will be able to maneuver them so they cannot be located easily. The Carnosaurs are ridden/controlled by a team of skink riders, but they are too busy controlling the beast to do anything else! Although I do like the idea of man-eating plants/traps/delaying tactics instead of the skinks. Hmm...  

The # of Carnosaurs would be 1 minimum (up to warband rating 200 for attackers) +1 for every full 100 rating over 200 the attacker is rated. Something like that.

One thing I was thinking of was having the path be laden with booby traps, and for each model that ends their movement on the road, roll a D6. On a 1-2, they have triggered a random trap, like snares or pits. There's an example in the Warhammer Skirmish booklet that is kind of a source of inspiration for me.

Again, I'm looking for input on this, so any advice/critique is welcome!

I, too, think you should use traps as a disincentive for using the road. Not necessarily made things like deadfalls, but things like quicksand, tree-snakes, etc. in addition to the usual log-on-a-rope, whip-snare, and so forth. Or possibly combo them like the skinks would - a log-on-a-rope trap that knocks those that fail their I test *into* the quicksand they were going around (you *did* say it would be a difficult scenario).

You could represent the jumpiness of the people by something like every time a token is revealed (real or fake) they take a Ld test. If they fail they are -1 Ld for the rest of the battle.

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You could represent the jumpiness of the people by something like every time a token is revealed (real or fake) they take a Ld test. If they fail they are -1 Ld for the rest of the battle.

I like that idea.

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Guess I should clarify a bit

Ah, that's different then.