My last (I have a few more printed, alas not painted) bugs set is using the Ungrafted by Ill Gotten Games as Tentacle Crawlers.
Several variants, mirrored for double!
Simple paint job.
One of my favourite digital sculpts from Ill Gotten Games, the Robovermin. 5 variants. The particular Ill Gotten Games support free files, (as well as the Hungry Dead from the previous post) are part of their $1 Patreon tier for Multiverse Mondays (and access to the entire MM catalogue).
They’re in 5 variants if I remember correctly, which I doubled by mirroring along the X axis.
I love the concept and execution. I’ll proxy them as Berserk Robots in Bug Hunt.
The paint job is as follows:
The next bugs are from Ill Gotten Games, the Hungry Dead. I went for a flayed flesh look, if that’s possible with FDM printed 15mm scale miniatures.
The paint job was very simple:
Since I have the table space available these days, I returned back to a physical format. I found the opportunity to address some issues I had with my rollable mats. More specifically they had immense shedding. I took each of them outside, did a thorough scrab with themselves, and shook them vigorously. After that was done, I did a layer of mat sealing spray, but because this wasn’t enough, I went ahead and coated them generously with my floor polish. It even fixed my desert mat issues (which I’ll display in a future post perhaps). I decided to use my gray rubble mat for this next game. Without further ado, let’s get to the game.
Jake: Marksman Training: Failure
For the objectives I rolled up one Critical Objective: Scout. For mission difficulty I choose Mess Me Up, which is Moderate.
I rolled for the Priority Rating and it was 3, modified to 5 due to the Critical Objective. That’s a high Priority Rating, and the Spawn Rating goes to 3.
For the loadout, I give Jake a Hand Cannon and Boarding Sword.
Let’s see what force we’ll field. I have 5 Support Points (equal to the Priority Rating) and start with one Fire Team as standard. I managed to get only a Sarge, Grenades and Sharp Shooter (even spent a Reputation Point because I got many failures).
I placed the Tactical Locations, and decided to use the Signals optional rule, rolling 2 Signals. Also added one Contact Marker to each objective and one at the centre of the table.
Finally, I rolled the battlefield edge, and had to push back one of the objectives as it was too close to my troops.
Jake was crouching in the scrapyard. He looked to his right. The sarge. He then looked over to his left, behind the fence, Fire Team Alpha. Providing covering fire to all of them, was a sharp shooter, conveniently staged on top of an energy generator.
Colony Warren in planet JK-485 seemed abandoned, but there were blipping signals on his scanner at 12 o’clock. The objective was right ahead, they had to scout the area near the communication tower.
Jake was nervous. His assignment on USS Astral Monarch was less than ideal. Other regiments would face the same foe over and over until they had eliminated the threat, but the Red Coyotes were more like firefighters jumping in to do a mission, then leave and go to another front as needed. He had faced berserk robots, shambling reanimations, and slithering horrors, he had no clue what would lie in wait here. He’d be lucky if it was just space rats. His companions were in sick bay, yet he felt like they were the lucky ones.While writing the after action report, I came to the realization that the Roll for Operational Progress (see Post Battle Report) doesn't really make much sense to my games, as the wording is relevant to a single front over a planet against what would seem, the same foe. This contradicts the Enemy Tables text which states that for each mission you roll on the table when you reveal the first Contact Marker. As explained to me the idea is to also cater to gamers who want to paint and fight a lot of different enemies, but the campaign would make sense against a single enemy type (with variants) until you roll over 100 on the Operational Force table. (Which also means I didn't need to print and paint over 100 different bugs of 6 types, but what's done is done.) All of this is why I wrote the explanatory narrative above, so that I could tie it all together somehow. I'm thinking that if I happen to face the same enemy twice, then I can make a campaign out of it. But so far, I'll consider the rolls for Operational Progress against random threats in a sector, so that they can still hold a parade if they win!
Troopers move East
Both Contact markers stay put and double
Contact! 9 Face Rippers
Sarge and Jake lob grenades killing 4, wounding and stunning the rest
Sniper stuns one
Spawn point at countdown 4 at West
No alertness
During my after action report I also realized I failed to establish the Pack Leaders rule (that's a rule that goes into place after the first two missions, and gives a chance for a stronger bug to appear along the regular ones - will need to remember to do it from the next game on).The Red Coyotes move in unison. Jake knows there’s no chance they’ll avoid the blipping signal, and as he emerges from the scrap yard he comes face to face with several beasts straight out of nightmares. Thick carapace, multiple insect like claws that could rip your face to pieces. He looks at sarge then draws the pin on his grenade and lobs it at the group of creatures, as the sarge does the same. The blast kills almost half of them, and leaves the rest disoriented. As he does, he knows the noise won’t get unnoticed, and and incoming message appears on his data pad. “Be advised, increased activity detected from 0.270.” This mission doesn’t bode too well.
Beep… Sir? No contact
Jake lobs another grenade kills another 4, last one is killed by Sarge
A contact marker closes to Sarge aggresively, the other doubles
Contact marker is revealed: stay frosty. A new one appears at East edge.
A trooper dashes to Scout the objective but he’s in contact. 9 more Face rippers!
A trooper goes to investigate the signal 3 Civilians!
A trooper moves and lobs a grenade to the face rippers killing one and stunning two
Last trooper dashes to keep squad in formation
Sniper shoots and stuns another ripper
A new spawn point appears to the NE corner at countdown 2
He pulls another grenade and throws it in the group of reeling face rippers, killing almost all of them. Sarge fires his shotgun to finish of the last one. The way to the objective is now clear. Fire Team Alpha runs forward, but their scout barely approaches the fence, when he sees another group of face rippers of similar size.
His teammate has detected a signal coming from the little guard house, and as he goes there to investigate, he finds three civilians shaking from terror. “Help us please! Save us! These things have slaughtered everyone.” The troopers tell them to take cover behind them. They lob a grenade into the yard, killing a beast, and take positions to hold a formation. Meanwhile the sniper keeps shooting and suppressing the creatures from afar.
Jake sees a new notification on his data pad. “Be advised, increased activity detected from 0.45.” He swears between his teeth and returns his attention to the battle.
Beep… Sir? A contact marker at SE corner
A trooper lobs a greande, another shoots at a ripper stunning it
A trooper lobs a grenade stunning a ripper and the last trooper shoots but misses
Face Ripper attacks a trooper who’s saved by his armor
Jake moves and lobs a grenade, doing no damage
Sarge moves and fires his shotgun wounding & stunning a ripper
Sniper stuns another ripper
Civilians run to the generators
A new spawn point appears to the south edge
Countdowns: W(2), S(2), NE(1)
The Red Coyotes assault the yard, lobbing grenades and shooting at anything that moves. The creatures scream and scatter all over by the explosions and chaos. One of them jumps from the chaos onto a trooper, but the squaddie’s armor saves him from the sharp claws.
Screaming in horror, the civilians run back towards the sniper providing cover. The objective has been scouted, but it’s still to early to shoot the Evac flare, as noone will see it yet.
Beep… Sir? Marker at S edge
Fire Team shoots at rippers, wounding one, and stunning 4
Jake moves and shoots his hand cannon at a stunned ripper, stunning it again before Sarge finishes it with his shotgun
A contact marker starts approaching
Another moves away (E)
Another doubles (S)
Sniper shoots and kills a ripper
Countdowns: W(1), S(1), NE Spawns (-)
In coordination, the fight continues. The Red Coyotes keep shooting at any of the wounded creatures that keep moving, suppressing them, and killing a few.
Beep… Sir? No contact
A Trooper lobs grenade but misses
A trooper lobs a grenade stunning two rippers
3rd and 4th troopers delay
Jake calls Evac: Failure
Here's an important thing I asked about in the discord about how Evac works. According to Ivan, the correct way is the following: A character of choice at any time from Round 5 onwards can request Evac provided they're stationary and don't ake any other actions. Objectives completed and Savvy of the requesting character (as per rulebook) add to the Evac roll. If the roll is failed, you roll again next round, but do NOT perform the request again. Also, any updates to the Objectives do NOT count either.
In other words you get one call for Evac to explain why you should be evacuated. When they come all depends on how well you were doing when you contacted HQ. I'll be running it this way in this game and onwards, and we'll see how it performs. Jake gets no Savvy bonus, but we have completed a Critical Objective which is a +3 bonus.A ripper dashes but is snapped fire upon first and is wounded and knocked back
A contact marker that was approaching moves away
S contact markers close in
Others move around
Sniper shoots and misses
Sarge shoots and kills a wounded ripper
W(4) Spawns, S(1) Spawns, NE (4)
Just a few face rippers remain. The troopers lob grenades at them. Among the explosions Sarge calls out to Jake: Call them! Mission accomplished, let’s get out of here!
Jake pulls out the flare gun, and fires straight up. The red flare illuminates the battlefield. A notification appears on his datapad. “Evacuation protocol request received. Please standby for extraction.”
The fight rages on with the last of the creatures as they try to kill the troopers, but they’re in position waiting at the ready. They open fire sending the rippers back under a hail of bullets, only to be killed by the Sarge’s shotgun afterwards.
Increased activity is flaring up all over the scanners.
Beep… Sir? Contact Marker at NNE
Fire Team shoots and kill a wounded ripper
Sarge delays
Face ripper charges at Sarge, Sarge snap shoots, wounding, stunning and sending the ripper 2″ back
All markers except one at NE move either aggresively or randomly towards the Red Coyotes
Jake shoots his hand cannon and stuns a ripper
Sniper shoots and stuns the same ripper
Civilians move back towards the fire team
W(3), S(3) Spawns, NE (3)
Evac: Failure…
The Red Coyotes have taken defensive positions at the fence. Their weapons lined and shooting at all hostiles, eliminating, disabling or suppressing them. They order the civilians to approach, as they expect Evac soon. Jake looks to the sky, but sees no sign of any dropship.
Beep… Sir? Contact Marker at E
Fire Team shoots and eliminates the two wounded rippers in front of them
Contact marker moves to sarge. 5 rippers appear in front of him! and 3 more!
Movement all over the place, appearing in front of the sarge then disappearing, then appearing W est of the sniper! more movement! 6 Rippers!
The other contact markers keep closing in
Sarge retreats and lobs a grenade into the rippers. They’re exploded to bits: 1 dead, two wounded, 3 stunned
Jake lobs another grenade to them
Sniper moves towards the Red Coyotes and shoots at the swarm behind him and kills one and stuns another
W(2), S(2), NE (2)
Evac: Failure…Again
As the Unity troopers eliminate more of the face rippers, they notice that their scanners are full of activity. All over the place. Signals approaching them, and soon they hear the growls and screeches, and more than half a dozen come to take the place on the corpses of their fallen. The Sarge and Jake don’t waste any time, they immediately lob grenades at them, and the group disperses, their multiple limbs blown to pieces.
Another half a dozen appear right behind the sniper. “Tangos on my six!” he radios in and starts retreating towards the rest of the squad. With a snap shot he kills one of them, the bullet flying straight through its head and grazing the one behind it.
Jake looks at his datapad “Extraction pending…”.
Beep… Sir? No Contact
Sarge moves to support the sniper and lobs a grenade into the swarm of rippers, stunning a couple of them, he’s out of grenades
Fire team shoots at the rippers killing one of them
Two rippers dash at sarge and he stuns them
There’s movement all over the place, some markers close in, one makes contact, 3 more rippers near the fire team
Jake lobs a grenade to the new swarm, stunning one and killing another
Civilians scream to scare the rippers away
Sniper moves back and shoots but misses
W(1), S(1), NE (1)
Evac: Failure! (REALLY?)
The troopers keep putting up a fight, retaining their composture and holding ground, as the civilians try to stay as safe as possible. Their combat rifles are smoking from the constant shooting, and they kill more of the rippers. Two of them charge at Sarge, who uses his blade with skill, slashing at them and keeping them at bay. Three more face rippers approach, only to come in contact with Jake’s grenades.
“Where the damn dropship?!” He shouts to Sarge as he sees the head of one ripper blown to pieces by the grenade fly over.
Beep… Sir? No Contact
Fire Team shoots and stuns a ripper twice
Jake lobs a grenade at the mob of rippers wounding one and stunning another
Two rippers attack Sarge but his armor saves, and he stuns one of them
Contact! 9 rippers in the comm tower yard
Sarge shoots his shotgun and kills a ripper
Sniper shoots and stuns a ripper
W(1) Spawns, S(-) Spawns, NE (2) Spawns
Evac: Failure! Unbelievable!
The Red Coyotes hold their positions as the creatures approach from both East, West and South. They shoot rifles and shotguns at them, throw grenades, and move around tactically to keep them at bay, but it all seems pointless. They kill one and ten more arrive to take his place.
Jake looks at his datapad, ready to start smash it to pieces. “Extraction pending…”
Beep… Sir? Contact marker West
Jake dashes North (I’m outa here)
Sarge defends against the swarm from the west, surviving one attack and saved by the armor against another
The horde of face rippers overrun the fire team, killing all of them and a civilian in the way, and losing only one of their number in the process
Contact markers surround Jake!
We’ve got movement all over the place & Contact: 5 rippers on the Eastern Generator!
Civilians dash North to escape
Sarge moves after them and shoots the rippers to his right, wounding and stunning one
Sniper moves in formation with them, stunning another ripper
W(-) Spawns, S(-), NE (1)
Evac: Success (Now? Really?)
Assessing the situation, Jake realizes they can’t hold for long. “We must retreat North!” He shouts, and makes a dash for it.
Sarge moves North behind him to cover the civilians from the swarm of rippers approaching from the west, and he is the barrier that holds them off.
From the east and south the rippers are an unstoppable wave. The troopers try, but they’re not enough. They’re overrun, cut to pieces by the beasts claws, a civilan that was too close to the carnage dies as well. The rest run behind Jake. Sarge and the Sniper try to cover their escape, shooting at the rippers surrounding them from all sides.
Jake listens to a ping and notices the datapad going to “Extraction imminent. Please hold.”
Beep… Sir? No Contact
Brave Sir Jake Bravely Runs away out of the North battlefield edge
Sniper is overrun and dies
Sarge fights bravely, but perishes; he manages to fend them off enough for the rest of the civilians to only be attacked by two rippers
The civilians fight back at the rippers stunning one and wounding another, they have all closed in on them, when wooooosh! the dropship arrives and picks them up!
Jake takes a look at his datapad. Then he looks to the rippers on the generator, and the colony behind him overrun with them.
“Bradley! get back here!” Sarge yells at him.
He’d rather take his chances with the unknown planet than stay there waiting for the dropship any longer. With a dash he’s gone, not to be seen.
Sarge and the Sniper fight bravely to protect the civilians. The dropship appears in the distance. The troopers fight, but are no match for the enemy’s numbers. They fall. The civilians basic insticts kick in, and from fight, fright and flight, they choose fight. To their accomplishment they manage to kick the face rippers to the face, buying them just enough time.
The dropship lands, the fires from the engine burning the creatures away. The civilians jump in, and the pilot takes the craft away.
Determine Casualties and Lost Marines
Jake: 31: Knocked out! (I saw the 3 on the first d10… and then the roll on the second… just barely)
Kato is out of the Sick Bay
Update Completed Missions
Jake +1
Check for Mustering Out
No Chance
Determine Reputation
10 Reputation, +3 (Objectives), +2 Civilians (Signal), -1 (Support): 14 Total
Experience and Leveling
Jake: +3 XP
Roll for Operational Progress
63+5= Gaining Ground: Future Rolls +5 (+10 total)
Roll for Military Life
Kato: You made a friend. Hurray!
Check Entitlement to R&R
We are entitled to R&R: Ariana is out of Sick bay
Roll for Military Life
Kato: Time flies when you’re… just playing cards in barracks.
Ready for Another Campaign Turn
Here’s the Hall of Fame and Roster
Lt. Thompsanch is on board the USS Astral Monarch waiting for the squad to unboard the dropship. He sees only three strangers in civilian clothings. He makes eye contact with the pilot who shakes his head, gesturing that there’s no one else on board. The hangar crew helps the civilians to the med bay.
Immediately he runs back to mission control. “Officer, give me any readings on the surface. If anyone is still alive I want to know it. Have the shuttle refill and ready to drop back.” He orders them and waits.
“Lt. Sir! I have a reading. A single reading. It’s faint, immobile, but still there.” the naval officer reports.
“Get a fire team down there now! Whoever that is, I want them back. Alive.” the Lieutenant orders.
Down on JK-485 the fire team finds an unconscious Jake Bradley in a creek. His vitals are steady. They load him up and return to the USS Astral Monarch.
Once medics have cleared him, Jake heads to the Lieutenant’s office for debriefing.
“Lt. Sir, I understand I am to thank you for getting me back here alive.” He starts explaining.
“It’s not personal Bradley. I’m not in the habbit of leaving people behind. Now the civilians say you fled North right before the dropship arrived.” Lieutenant demands a different explanation.
“Sir it was a calculated tactical choice. We had already completed the mission objectives, and requested evacatuation. We held as long as possible, but were about to be overrun. The dropship arsehole was nowhere to be found. We retreated North before our formation broke and I went off grid. I take full responsibility for my actions Sir.” Jake responds.
“Of course you do trooper. We all do. We’re in the Army after all. Don’t be confused by those Fleet dudes who can’t make a call on where to divert resources. Getting those civilians safe was not the objective. It’s good that two of them made it out alive, but the priority is the mission, and you did this. I’ll take a look at why this dropship took so long to get you out. We’d have many more troopers standing here today if it weren’t for this. Get some rest Bradley. Dismissed.” the Lieutenant was more understanding than usual.
The days passed quietly Kato was out of the Sick bay, rejoining his battle brothers and sisters.
Soon an order appeared for a much needed shore leave. The station they were attached to wasn’t great, but they were entitled to some much needed R&R. Ariana recovered from her wound as well.
She joined her mates playing card on board the barracks on Tumulus station. Jake, Kato and someone new.
“Who’s your new friend Kato?” she asked. She noticed that her new scar on the left side of her face was prominent, and she shook her hair to the side to cover them.
“Vikto” the young man responded. I’m not a hot shot like you, but if you need any extra ammo, I’m your guy.
“Vikto is assigned to the recquisitions.” Kato responded. “He’s alright.”
“So Jake… tell us who did you piss off this time and they left you stranded on Warren?” Ariana started showing a different personality. The battles against space horrors and getting close to dying would do that to a trooper. They’d need to joke around to scare the fears away.
| Name | Reactions | Speed | Combat Skill | Toughness | Savvy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | 1 | 5″ | +1 | 4 | +0 |
| 1 | 4″ | +0 | 3 | +2 | |
| 2 | 5″ | +0 | 3 | +0 | |
| Ariana Raschke | 1 | 5″ | +0 | 3 | +1 |
| Kato Minoru | 2 | 5″ | +1 | 3 | +0 |
| Name | Completed Missions | XP | Origin | Basic Training | Service History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | 3 | 6 | Prison Planet | Planetary Militia | Garrison or patrol duties |
| 2 | 2 | Scientific Outpost | Naval forces (Ships Crew) | Extended campaign | |
| 1 | 0 | Core Systems World | Ground forces (Scouts) | Police action (Commendation) | |
| Ariana Raschke | 3 | 8 | Trade Hub | Planetary militia | Anti-pirate operation |
| Kato Minoru | 3 | 6 | Military Outpost | Ground forces (Scouts) | Police Action |
| Name | Special Assignments | Missions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | Ep01, Ep03, Ep04 | Minor Injuries Ep03 (0) Knocked out Ep04 (0) | |
| Ep01 | Death Ep01 | ||
| Ep01 | Gruesome Fate Ep01 | ||
| Ariana Raschke | Technical Training Leadership Training | Ep02, Ep03 | Minor injuries Ep02 (0) Head Wound Ep03 (0) |
| Kato Minoru | Ep02, Ep03 | Leg Wound Ep03 (0) |
Sometimes the dice want to have their own way. I had 5! failures for Evac where I essentially needed 7 or greater on 2d6!
Bug Hunt is a lot more “heavy” than the core Five Parsecs from Home game. There’s so many more Markers, Miniatures and things to monitor, and also the game can last many more rounds. A full fledged game on its own. On the other hand it makes for so interesting games.
As explained in my comments above I would have liked to have realized the option to run this against a single enemy type for a more robust narrative for the campaign, as it would make for a more interesting backstory when (if) they’d muster out, like “this dude survived several missions fighting face rippers”. If I manage to finish this “random” campaign, I’ll see if I can switch gears later.
The table worked fine, and it’s abundantly clear that the recommendation for 15 bugs minis as a basis and that you’ll need more, is absolutely spot on. For a VTT that’s no problem of course, but for this game on a physical table I had 24 minis! for face rippers, which weren’t enough. I made the call near the end to just pick up any wounded bugs, leave their tokens on the table and recycle them as new enemies. After all wounded bugs can’t move, and the way the game was going, there was no possibility for my troopers to head their way.
This makes it quite clear my recommendation for Bug Hunt: it’s best to decide beforehand one kind of enemy and get and paint about 30 miniatures for them, running a campaign against this enemy and their variants. Of course due to the naming scheme you can roll between a few different types suitable for your minis. Vent Crawlers and Face Rippers can use the same miniature. The two types of Converted also, etc. So choose one miniature set of bugs, get plenty, and when the first Contact Marker is revealed, you can roll between what can apply.
A careful reader may notice that I have not spent any XP to advance my troopers stats. The reason is that the Special Assignments have requirements. Which means if I advance some stats I won’t be able to get the free attempt to advance them via Special Assignments. It’s a risk though as I end up having my troopers on lower stats. For stats which I can’t advance with Special Assignments anymore, I’ll advance them via XP.
And not Greeks.
There’s only one variant of a Grick from Brite Minis, but it’s quite vague, so by mirroring at X axis, the two variants are enough to create this mob feeling.
Scaled down 60% to have 15mm scale, they printed okay. I had a few failures at some of the prints at one tentacle, but I decided to keep them and not reprint, as it feels perfectly fine for them to be missing a limb. Perhaps during a challenge, a fight or mating or whatever these worm like things do.
I’ll use them mainly as Slithering Horrors for Five Parsecs from Home Bug Hunt.
For painting I did the following scheme:
I really like how they turned out.
Something that has always intrigued me is Virtual Table Tops (VTTs). There are pros and cons comparisons in the hobby (especially Solo Roleplaying & Skirmish Miniatures Gaming) about analog versus digital.
Having lived since the completely analog era, to todays bombardment of digitalization, and in the transition period (’90s-’10s), I find myself catering to both.
On one hand, with a daily job in (mostly) front of a computer, a smartphone that has become an extension of myself, PC gaming hobbies, TV Shows, Movies, I find this immense desire to escape and get into a tabletop game with physical tangible assets, pen and pencil note taking, and rulebook reading.
On the other hand getting everything setup on the board (and storing them afterwards), gathering everything, painting miniatures and terrain (a hobby on it’s own) and finding a place in the room to put them in, takes as much time as it does playing, if not more.
There’s some other reasons, like playing on travels, getting everything ready for blog posting, immersion, but I won’t go into any more detail.
The thing is, I want to have options. Sometimes I want to lay out a whole table in front of me, sometimes the home desk is occupied by my minis painting set. Sometimes I have the monsters I am about to face, sometimes they’re only available by a vendor across the atlantic without IOSS, and there’s no suitable FDM STL to print.
I’ve already tested the waters successfully with Foundry VTT (after trying out others) on the Solo Roleplaying Games front, and it was immensely helpful in taking away the load of bookkeeping and complex combat. But what about Skirmish Miniatures Gaming?
With regards to the tabletop experience, there’s a difference between RPGs and Skirmish Miniatures Games (SMGs?) as to the information and number of assets. In order to allow for a larger number of assets on the board SMGs store less information behind them (usually no stats or wound tracks, few things to keep track of) and rely on the visual experience to rule the outcome (a wall provides cover, a hill provides height advantage etc) but they have to be on the table somehow. In an RPG you will rely more on character sheets and stats, while in an SMG you’ll rely more on tokens, markers, minis and terrain. Both types of games use both options; it’s not black and white, there’s a whole spectrum, but just stating out where each of the above leans.
So, a 2D VTT like Foundry, with a very strong engine behind it to calculate complex rules and character sheets, isn’t the right tool for the job. Plus I’d completely lose the Z axis. I needed something in 3D. There’s a few options there. One of them was 3D Canvas which is a module for Foundry VTT; however this comes with a subscription model, and I’m not too fond of that. The other popular option is TableTop Simulator, followed by a less popular more modern software, The RPG Engine. Both are on Steam Sale right now half off, and I was balancing between them, when I stumbled upon Talespire. And I was wowed. Top notch graphics, some innovative features like Slabs and Boards, importing your own models, different types of rulers for measurements; more or less what I wanted in a modern format, and in discount (smaller) also!
I decided to take plunge and try it out for my next session in Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt. Since TitanCraft exports custom miniatures to Talespire, and it has a more affordable and reasonable pricing scheme (pay for the assets) than HeroForge (pay per export) which also exports custom miniatures to Talespire, I bought the sci-fi assets and spent the day designing some Red Coyotes in the Character Creator. My references where the Five Parsecs from Home: Complendium cover and interior art, and the description of the Unity forces uniforms from Unity Field Agent. Did the entire player forces roster so that I can use them anytime in the future.
I wasted a lot of time researching boards, terrain generators, slabs. But then I found a 2×2 Living Dungeon board, which was perfect for my Bug Hunt game, and an excellent opportunity to test the waters without spending another day building the board.
I also used a lot of the community assets (there’s a lot of modders who did the work of “painting” the STLs meant for 3D printing to use them in Talespire), mainly for alien scatter. But I think I’ve talked a lot about the setup. It’s time to get into the game, and I’ll talk some more afterwards, summarizing how it all played out.
Ariana attempts to join Leadership Training: Success: +2 XP.
Jake attempts to join Marksman Training: Failure.
Kato attempts to join Survival Course: Failure
For the objectives I rolled up a Retrieve, Scout and a Secure objective. For mission difficulty I choose Mess Me Up, which is Moderate.
I rolled for the Priority Rating and it was 1. That’s a really low Priority Rating, and the Spawn Rating was 1 also.
For the loadout, I give Ariana a Hand Cannon and Boarding Sword, Kato gets a Combat Rifle and Jake gets a Shotgun.
Let’s see what force we’ll field. I have 1 Support Points (equal to the Priority Rating) and start with one Fire Team as standard. I managed to get a Precursor Explorer.
I placed the Tactical Locations, and decided to use the Signals optional rule, rolling 2 Signals. Also added one Contact Marker to each objective and one at the centre of the table.
Finally, I rolled the battlefield edge, and had to push back one of the objectives as it was too close to my troops.
In the dropship Jake Bradley took a good look at his new teammates. He was locked up in the brig during the last mission when they had battled against some AI virus infected bots running berserk on an alien planet. They even saved some civies along the way. Some sort of scientific exploration team who as it seems were the reason for the whole mess, as they had been experimenting with alien virus coding into machine. They were meant to try this on bots, in order to keep the virus isolated, or at least that was the plan…
They hadn’t seen his mates get slaughtered by shambling reanimations, but as he looked at Ariana, he noticed a scar along her neck. They hadn’t escaped unscathed either. Then he noticed two coloured stripes on her uniform, a gray and a white one.
“Technical *and* Leadership training” Jake pointed out. “Brace up troopers, we have a Leader among us!”.
“I’ll be an officer before you know it. Then I’ll be able to boss you around Bradley”. She responded in kind.
“Hold it troopers.” Kato intervened. “We still have a mission to do. Landing is imminent.”
“Yeah, what hellhole is this time around?” Jake asked.
“If only you had paid attention at the mission briefing…” Ariana sighed.
“Lay it down for me. You want to become an officer, here’s your chance to get a taste.” Jake answered.
Ariana was up to the challenge. “Alright. Fringe Planet PC-551. Long-distance scanning shows alien flora and fauna, but nothing concrete, no evidence of sapient life. A Precursor scout ship was sent to investigate, but for reasons unknown it crashed. We have to drop in, retrieve the black box, secure the area, and scout the surrounding region. This is a low priority mission, that’s why we only have these four grunts with us.”
“And that mysterious dude over there.” Jake gestured towards the Precursor Explorer. She hadn’t said a word since they were introduced.
“We’re landing boys and girls!” the pilot’s voice echoed distorted via the shuttle comms.
The Red Coyotes split into the cavern system. The troopers order the Fire Team down the slope, while they take the route towards a naturally formed balcony overhanging towards the centre of their target objective.
The whole place gives them eerie vibes, fingers twitching.
Onibaba are discussing. I just realized that Google Photos integration in WordPress.com doesn't exclude them from the Storage limit which I reached also. There also isn't a way to view the file size of uploaded media (perhaps I could replace some high-quality uploads with smaller ones). So I'll be using Flickr embed from now on. Hope this doesn't cause any viewing issues. Since this a free blog that doesn't provide any significant monetary incentive (apart from the DTRPG affiliate links which are minimal) I can't justify a subscription to the pro model of wordpress, and I'd rather not migrate to another platform and start over. I'll look further into the available options, but for the moment I'll proceed with this.
The Precursor jumps down from the balcony. “Wait!” Jake shouts over the comms. He had noticed blips in his scanner towards this direction, but he’s too late. Alerted by her presence, a swarm of alien horrific monstrosities start slithering towards the Explorer.
“What are these things?” Ariana shouts.
“Slithering…. things!” Kato responds.
“More like Slithering Horrors!” Ariana adds.
“I don’t care what they are! just shoot them!” Jake intervenes.
He fires his shotgun and wounds one of the creatures which screeches in pain. Kato aligns his sights on his combat rifle, and kills another. Ariana fires her hand cannon, but she doesn’t have the same aim, and misses.
At the same time, the Fire Team turns around a corner in the cave, aiming to secure the area, by holding this location, when they come face to face with four of the slithering horrors. They open fire without second though, suppressing two and wounding another.
Turning into the cave has given the emergency signal buried in the ground enough strength to reach the Fire Team. They can listen to the screams of the Precursor scout cautioning anyone who came afterwards about a passage to the South, behind them, from where the Slithering Horrors emerge.
“We need to block their entry!” Ariana mentions.
“What about these things in front of us?” Jake responds. “Let’s kill these first before bothering with whats coming from the rear”.
“Low priority, huh?” Kato wonders.
The Precursor Explorer moves to the West as far as the plateau allows, and shoots back towards the swarm, but she misses. A Slithering Horror dashes towards her, and chomps her down.
A few of the alien swarm that are closest, climb quickly and attack our heroes. Jake kicks one back, stunning it, while Ariana draws her blade and digs it deep into its body, turning it into a carcass.
The rest slither onwards, under the overhang.
“Feels like we’re on stage and they’re our fan crowd huh?” Jake mentions.
“That’s not a good time to joke around!” Ariana replies.
“Well, let’s give them a good show then!” Jake open fires, but he misses.
Ariana and Kato shoot as well, and they kill two of the creatures.
The Slithering Horrors on the other side initiate close combat, killing a trooper after three of the creatures jumped on him. After the initial shock, the Fire Team responds in kind, with Unity Firepower, killing three of the creatures, almost securing the area.
Kato takes a look at his scanner. “That’s… not good, they’re coming at us from everywhere. I can see so many contact signals all over the screen.”
“Yet once more Intel screwed up.” Jake adds.
Ariana fights back against 5 Slithering Horrors! stunning them, before falling down next to her companions.
Jake takes another shot at the swarm, killing a Slithering Horror, moments before the start climbing up, en masse. Quickly our heroes are overrun, Jake falls first, then Kato, then Ariana. They put up a brave fight kicking, stunning and dazing about eight of them, before perishing.
The Fire Team had suppressed and wounded the Slithering Horrors in front of them, and they eliminate two more. They have all but Secured the area.
There was a chance for the Fire Team to Secure the Objective. However, since they didn't manage to do it in Round 4, the Slithering Horrors swarm quickly entered the 6" range of the objective. In the meantime, the Contact Markers and Spawn Points kept overruning the table, and despite the Fire Team making a valiant last stand, there was no point running the game further, and I stopped at Round 7 with two Fire Team troopers still alive. With the Main Characters already being a Casualty there was no point calling Evac or trying to escape from the table edge. I called it a day and went to the much disgraceful Post Battle Report. I'll post some pictures below, and write a short narrative, but won't detail everything step by step.
But it’s too late. With noone to hold them off at the Southern balcony, the brunt of the alien swarm turns towards the few standing troopers.
They kill three horrors advancing from the entrance, but more come. They fire and suppress them, but they jump them another trooper is down. They keep shooting. The Slithering Horrors keep coming, with no fear. The scanners are filled with blipping signals all over the screen. Behind them, in front of them, at the other objectives. The swarm is endless. The troopers are not.
Pay the piper
Jake: no court martial.
Determine Casualties
Jake: Minor Injuries: 1 Turn
Ariana: Head Wound: 2 Turns
Kato: Leg Wound: 1 Turn
I’ll spend a Reputation Point to have Jake receive Advanced Care and be ready to fight for our next battle.
Update Completed missions
Check for Mustering Out
No chance
Determine Reputation
Received 0, spent 1, Reputation Total is 10.
Experience and Leveling
Jake gets +2 XP
Ariana gets +1 XP
Kato gets +1 XP
Operational Progress
Vital Operation: no Objectives completed.
Roll for Military Life
Kato Got in a Fight, but due to his Combat Skill roll he wasn’t wounded further.
Check for Entitlement to R&R
Not entitled yet
Ready for another Campaign Turn
Here’s the Roster and Hall of Fame.
| Name | Reactions | Speed | Combat Skill | Toughness | Savvy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | 1 | 5″ | +1 | 4 | +0 |
| 1 | 4″ | +0 | 3 | +2 | |
| 2 | 5″ | +0 | 3 | +0 | |
| Ariana Raschke | 1 | 5″ | +0 | 3 | +1 |
| Kato Minoru | 2 | 5″ | +1 | 3 | +0 |
| Name | Completed Missions | XP | Origin | Basic Training | Service History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | 2 | 3 | Prison Planet | Planetary Militia | Garrison or patrol duties |
| 2 | 2 | Scientific Outpost | Naval forces (Ships Crew) | Extended campaign | |
| 1 | 0 | Core Systems World | Ground forces (Scouts) | Police action (Commendation) | |
| Ariana Raschke | 3 | 8 | Trade Hub | Planetary militia | Anti-pirate operation |
| Kato Minoru | 3 | 6 | Military Outpost | Ground forces (Scouts) | Police Action |
| Name | Special Assignments | Missions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | Ep01, Ep03 | Minor Injuries Ep03 (0) | |
| Ep01 | Death Ep01 | ||
| Ep01 | Gruesome Fate Ep01 | ||
| Ariana Raschke | Technical Training Leadership Training | Ep02, Ep03 | Minor injuries Ep02 (0) Head Wound Ep03 (2) |
| Kato Minoru | Ep02, Ep03 | Leg Wound Ep03 (2) |
The Search and Rescue landed in the overhang, and quickly recovered the Red Coyotes after the Slithering Horrors had settled to rest.
In the Med Bay, they met with a very angry Lt. Thompsanch. He was hovering over Jake.
“Trooper Bradley, can you explain to me how did you manage to accomplish ZERO objectives in this mission? No black box retrieval? no securing the location? no scouting the area?” He demanded.
‘The man surely has in it for me’ Jake thought for a moment, and he opened his mouth to respond, however Ariana jumped in.
“Sir, if I may, given my training, I had seniority in the mission. Responsibility is mine.” She said.
The Lieutenant turned his back to Jake. “Seems you have a knight in shining armor to save your precious butt Bradley.” and turning to Ariana, looking at the bandaged head, he continued “And since you want responsibility so much Roschke, care to explain why you failed the mission?”
“Sir, intel was inadequate. The oppposition was not analogous to the priority rating given during the briefing and the support we received. We didn’t go down there in reduced strength because we needed troops elsewhere, we did because someone thought this would have been a walk in the park. Sir.” She responded.
“Alright trooper Roschke. I’ll talk to intel to find out who screwed up. Get yourselves patched up, we’re gonna need you soon enough.” The Lieutenant turned and left.
“You earned some points in my book Roschke.” Bradley told her. She cracked a smile, before wincing in pain.
“Hey nurse!” she called. “Give me something for the pain, and get trooper Bradley in Advanced Care. The Lieutenant said he’ll need him combat ready for the next mission.”
As she lays her head back for a moment, she heard a ruckus down the hall, and saw nurses and troopers running, soon enough a very angry Kato is being drawn into the med bay by two nurses asking him to calm down.
“Everything alright Minoru?” Jake asked.
“Had to settle a difference in opinions with an idiot from intel.” Kato responded.
Jake looked at him, waiting for more details.
“Let’s just say, he’ll think twice before sending us ill prepared down there.” Kato continued. “And not because Lt. Thompsanch came asking for explanations a few moments later.”
“Did he…” Jake was worried that Kato would also end up in the brig.
Kato shook his head negatively. “We’re good. Seems the Lieutenant was in our side for once.”
That was a total disaster in terms of mission deployment. I made an operational error, and decided to have a Precursor Explorer (and I just realized I didn’t re-roll initiative as described, but I doubt it would change much) instead of something with greater… numbers? I should have gone for a second Fire Team at least. Also I need to learn to use those Reputation Points. I’ve gathered 10 of them, time to spend them. No wonder the Red Coyotes have a good Reputation since they always go in ill-armed. I did a quick check versus the previous edition of Bug Hunt (2ed) and noticed that Spawn Points did not exist. Yet another reason that I should go in better prepared.
With regards to Talespire and using it run Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt. Overall I really enjoyed it. Setup with a prepared board was really easy. Moving miniatures around, using Initiative to track down activation order, using the rulers to measure distance, it all worked like a blast.
Things I liked:
Things that were less than ideal:
The good stuff are pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t dwel on them.
I see there’s some things down the road that will resolve some of the issues. I worked around the processing topic by swithing to a windowed version instead of full screen as I needed to alt-tab to write down things for my report, and this solved most of the problems.
Custom scatter terrain being a “miniature” asset means it gets picked up and moved around if you’re not careful (as would happen with a real table, ha!).
I found some useful Status tokens from someone who made them for Savage Worlds, and they’re essentially a little bigger than bases, which you can overlay on top of a miniature to show the status. Not bad, but need to be a bit careful moving them around. There is also a mod available to add icons on the base of a miniature, which could also work. Not out-of-the-box though.
Chat doesn’t retain it’s history and is very basic at the moment. It would be nice to have a date and timestamp, history, ability to clear it, and also filter and search.
Overall I found that it worked as well as a physical board (on some parts even better – measuring distances for example). Which is absolutely great!
I didn’t find myself constrained in any way, and the good thing is that I could pick it up anytime, without it collecting dust somewhere. The bad thing is that after a few hours playing and writing my report, I got fed up with the screen time and needed a break, but that’s not Talespire’s fault!
If I have any feedback about what needs to be improved to work better for Skirmish Miniatures Games, it would be Foam Terrain combined with a Terrain Generator (because all you need sometimes is a quick battlefield to place stuff on top), more Statuses (there’s Knockdown now, but we need Wounded, Stunned, etc), an improvement in handling Initiative for multiple miniatures (perhaps grouping them together, and a way to send to “Start” or “End” to sort them quickly), and objective markers that are visible on the normal view and not only with the Tab view.
Nice report i understand the need of make the work easier but the tabletop experience it’s something else
Thanks!
Yes, it is, and my next game is back on with a physical board. I just wanted to see available options, and it’s great to have the choice.
I don’t have a dedicated gaming space, so the table space isn’t always available for setup or for leaving it unattended to pick it up the next days.
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I’m picking up the campaign in Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt from where I’ve left it. Since Jake Bradley is in the Brig, I’ll only have two Characters for this next mission. According to the game, again, I set up the board first, and then I started the mission without knowing which enemy I’ll face (though if it’s an enemy I don’t have in physical miniatures, I’ll re-roll).
In the meantime between the two games I went ahead and printed several tokens to use and assist with the game and bookkeeping. This helped immensely. The main tokens I used were Stun and Wound tokens, Contact markers, Objective markers, Signal and Tactical Location markers, and Spawn Point markers. It took some effort, but even without an AMS, you can switch filament colors between layers, so I printed some multi-colored tokens using Black, White and Red.
During play I noticed several mistakes I made (especially in the previous session) which I corrected this time around. They more or less balanced each other out, so the experience wasn’t skewed in one direction or another.
Seeing how none in my team has any Savvy points, I decided to go ahead and attempt Technical Training for Ariana and Harsh Environment Training for Kato. Ariana got her assignment and earned +1 XP and +1 Savvy. I ruled that Jake couldn’t get a Special Assignment with him being in the brig and all.
For the objectives I rolled up a normal Retrieve objective, and a Vital Scout objective. For mission difficulty I choose Mess Me Up, which is Moderate.
I rolled for the Priority Rating and it was 6! That’s a high priority mission and my squad is green and at reduced strength. Which in turn this means a maximum Spawn Rating at 3.
For the loadout, I give Ariana a Hand Cannon and Boarding Sword, Kato gets a Shotgun.
Let’s see what force we’ll field. I have 6 Support Points (equal to the Priority Rating) and start with one Fire Team as standard. I managed to get a second Fire Team, a Sarge, a Hyper Blaster which I gave to Kato, a K’erin Squad, a Recon Patrol, and failed to recquisite Grenades.
I placed the Tactical Locations, and decided to use the Signals optional rule, rolling 3 Signals. Also added one Contact Marker to each objective and one at the centre of the table.
Finally, I rolled the battlefield edge, and had to push back one of the objectives as it was too close to my troops.
Kato was in the dropship double checking his gear, as they did their descent in the dropship. He had heard that K’erin were too eager to avoid any hint of a challenge. He decided not to put the rumour to test and was doing his best trying to avoid to look at the K’erin next to him, and spent his gaze switching from the Hyper blaster to the Sarge, and then to Ariana and back.
She didn’t know Kato, but she could feel he was nervous. “Everything alright?” she asked.
“Yeah, just double checking everything. We don’t know what we’ll be facing down there.” Kato replied.
“We’re trained for this, don’t worry. Pick up the soil sample, scout the immediate area, and head back.” She tried to look confident. “We got this.”
Kato nodded.
“And if we don’t, we got the big dudes to help us.” She smiled to the K’erin who growled in accord and bumped his chest with his fist.
Kato felt the sweat running down his brow. And to his relief, the dropship landed, and the Sarge ordered everyone outside. The mission was about to start, and he could focus on something other than the warrior hunters next to him.
Quick Action phase
The K’erin move first. Contact! 3 Berserk Robots. The K’erin shoot at them, killing one and wounding and stunning another.
The Recons and Sarge move from the North side.
Kato moves and fires his Hyper Blaster to the wounded robot, killing it.
Enemy Action phase
The remaining robot attacks the closest K’erin. K’erin wins the brawl stunning and knocking the robot back.
A Contact marker stays in place and doubles, while another moves towards Sarge.
Slow Action phase
Fire teams and Ariana move onwards.
Spawn phase
A spawn point appears at our rear. Countdown not determined yet.
With a chilling dedication, the K’erin move like the hunters from mankinds primordial age towards the blip in their scanners. Digital bzitz and trills are heard, and a trio of berserk robots appears in front of them. Before the robots have a chance to lash out an attack, the K’erin open fire, blasting one of them to dust, and damaging another.
“Rogue AI virus infecting bots. I’ve heard the stories but hadn’t seen one until today.” Kato went over the comms, as he lined up his Hyper Blaster and destroyed one more robot.
“Yeah we just learned about them in our Technical Training. You should have been there.” Ariana responded.
“There’s no better experience than a good old fashioned shootout.” Kato replied, as the last robot tried to attack the K’erin. The hunters though quickly evaded, and slashed at it and sent it reeling backwards.
In the meantime, the rest of the Red Coyotes moved forward towards their objective, trying to navigate the maze of alien flora.
Kato looked at his datapad. “I’m picking up a lot of movement on our six, we may need to control entry.”
“Negative, the only thing that matters is the objective.” Ariana countered.
Quick Action phase
Recons move forward near contact marker: We’ve got movement all over the place! (moves further away and another Contact marker appears to closest edge).
Recons also check the Signal: 3 Civilians. I’ll earn 1 Reputation for each that I manage to evacuate.
Sarge moves forward.
Kato tried to investigate the Tactical Location and fails.
(note: I forgot about the Alertness rule for Signals on Round 1, I'll make a mental note from now on)Enemy Action phase
Stunned robot removes stun marker.
Contact marker moves in LOS of Recons: Contact! 2 Berserk Robots
Contact marker moves randomly in front of Ariana: Contact! 4 Berserk Robots.
The Contact marker that moved away from Recons before (See We’ve got movement all over the place!) returns aggresively: We’ve got movement all over the place!
(another note: in the previous game and in this, I didn't notice the "What the Beep Sir" rule, I'll make another mental note from now on)Slow Action phase
K’erin shoot at the Robot in front of them and merely stun it.
Fire Team shoots at the Robots that appeared, but cause no damage.
Ariana charges at a Robot with her boarding sword and merely stuns it.
The civilians are in the way, so the other Fire Team has no Line of Fire, and the one trooper that does, misses.
Spawn phase
Countdown not determined yet for existing Spawn point. A new Spawn point appears at Southern edge, with a Countdown of 3.
The recon troopers move forward towards movement, and as they do, they notice that the blip in their scanner moves further away, and another one appears from the North. However, as they turn around the alien pathways, they stumble upon their initial target, and find three battered civilians, two humans and an alien. They look scared. “We’ll get you out of here. Stay behind us and you’ll be safe.” The recons order the civilians back towards the Fire Teams.
Kato tries to activate an old device he found buried in the dust, but he can’t figure out how exactly it should operate. Then his attention is drawn to the radio. As one by one the Fire Teams report “Contact, Contact!” 6 more tangos in front of them. The fight is becoming more intense.
The K’erin shoot at the robot, but only manage to suppress it.
Ariana, frustrated charges at a robot that arrived through the alien plants, and kicks it back, knocking out its circuits momentarily. At the North the Fire Teams try to stop the advance of the robots, but with the civilians in the way, they can’t get a clear shot.
Reports arrive that the South West edge is also compromised as enemies are due from that side of the battlefield as well.
Beep Sir: 2 new Contact markers. The second is detected by Fire Team: Contact! 3 Robots: and shot upon by both teams. 1 robot wounded and 1 killed.
Quick Action phase
Recons move to the side (to allow LOS for the Fire Team behind) and shoot at the robots.
But they’re within LOS of a blip: We’ve got movement all over the place! 1 robot is stunned
Kato fires his Hyperblaster at the robots next to him and wounds it.
Enemy Action phase
Stunned robot removes marker.
Wounded robot attacks Ariana who is saved by her armor and knocked back.
A robot attacks Kato, who overpowers it and it’s saved by it’s armor and knocked back.
A robot attacks Kato and Kato saved by his armor is knocked back.
A robot dashes at a recon and kills him.
A wounded robot attacks Fire Team Bravo and kills a trooper.
A robot attacks Fire Team Bravo and kills another trooper.
we’re getting slaughtered
Contact marker at centre stays put and doubles in size. Contact marker at edge stays where it is. Contact marker at edge moves towards recon aggresively and is detected: Stay Frosty. Contact marker at North edge moves randomly. Contact marker at South edge moves NorthWest.
Slow Action phase
A K’erin charges at robot but is knocked back, his armor saving him.
Another K’erin attacks and he kills the robot!
we have an opening to the objectives!
The other two K’erin dash towards the objective.
Fire Team Alpha shoots at the robots assaulting Fire Team 2 and stunned one wounded robot.
Fire Team Bravo shoots at the robots and they kill the wounded stunned robot.
Sarge attacks the robot next to the recon patrol and stuns it.
Ariana shoots her Hand Cannon at the wounded robot nearby and kills it.
Spawn phase
The unknown Countdown remains unknown, the other lowers to 2, and the new one appears at 3 at East edge.
There’s fighting all over the battlefield. The Recon patrol shoots at the robots but merely daze them momentarily. They charge back at them and the fire team, leaving two troopers and a scout casualties in their attack. The troopers lead by the Sarge fire at will, killing only one berserk robot.
Kato shoots his Hyper Blaster, damaging a bot, and then he counters successfuly the melee attack of another one, knocking it back a couple meters. His attack leaves him exposed to another charge by a bot, who hits him, it’s strike deflected by Kato’s armor.
Ariana is too close to a damaged robot which uses it’s upper limbs to jump at her. She is hit, but the trooper armor is strong enough to keep her safe for the moment. She shoots back at it with her hand cannon and destroys it.
The Unity force scanners light up as contacts move all over the place, some come closer while some move away, and another one disappears.
The K’erin manage to eliminate a robot in their way, and they have opened a path to the objective, two of them dashing towards it.
Beep… Sir: 1 Contact Marker appears at North side
Note: I had failed to take under consideration the Team Formation rule will make a mental note to use it from now on.
Seems my missed rules kinda balanced themselves out, as it usually happens.Quick Action phase
A K’erin moves to Scout the Vital Objective, two Blips in range: Contact x2! 8 robots!
A K’erin shoots at them and stuns one.
Another K’erin moves to Retrieve the other Objective.
Two more K’erin move to shoot at the robots and mark a second stun.
Kato will navigate through the tactical location to reach the K’erin and attempt a second time to activate the location: Block! He succeeds. The area becomes impassable to enemies within 2″.
Note: another mistake in my first game: investigating a location and activating it are two separate actions, but the first one doesn't require a Savvy roll.
So the previous time, Kato investigated it successfully.The Recon trooper shoots at the stunned robot and misses.
Enemy Action phase
Robots remove stun markers.
Robot attacks Fire Team Bravo: it’s a draw: the trooper is killed and the robot is stunned
A robot dashes at Sarge: it’s a draw sarge saves and he wounds the robot: They’re both knocked back 1″
Robots attack Ariana: it’s a draw she’s a casualty! and the robot is stunned.
The other robots attack Fire Team Bravo: it’s a draw, and also a 1, so the enemy receives a hit (another rule I had missed....) both are saved by their armor.
Another robot against Fire Team Bravo: the trooper is wounded.
Robots attack the K’erin scouting the vital objective: he stuns the first one, and wounds the second one, and is killed by the third one.
We just lost the Vital Objective and must send another one to Scout it.
The rest of the robots charge at the Sarge (3/4 are in range): the Sarge is down.
Then they attack the Recon: the Recon is down
Two more robots dash closer.
A Contact marker moves randombly to the North edge.
A Contact marker remains in place and doubles.
A Contact marker moves randombly along the North edge.
A Contact marker moves aggresively towards the civilians.
The last Contact marker at SouthEast remains in place and doubles.
Slow Action phase
The only hope for the civilians and fire teams is to move south, as any evac will try to get to the objectives, and they must hope that the Spawn Point won’t bring any enemies (or try to disable it in time) however the passage is riddled with berserk robots, they’ll have to go around…
The troopers move and turn to shoot at the robots behind them: they kill one and stun twice another.
The civilians dash behind the fire teams.
Spawn phase
The unknown Countdown is set at 3.
The others reduce to 1 and 2 respectively
Alertness: no alertness
Tactical location Block: No longer blocks
The K’erin push aggresively towards the objectives. One of them picks up the data case they were after. They come in contact with 8 bots, and fighting commences, leaving many of them stunned and damaged. But the robots know no fear, and the relentless wave, cannot be stopped. The vanguard of the K’erin perishes as he was about to scout the area.
Kato manages to activate the buried device he found. An EMP field is generated, ionizing and holding in place any robots nearby. This should buy the Unity forces some precious time.
However the robots attack at the core of the Unity Force, the Recon patrol is eliminated, a trooper and the Sarge fall as well. Not even Ariana escapes their cold calculated attacks. She’s buried in the sand. The civilians scream in fear, trying to take cover behind the last remaining troopers, whose escape route hangs by a thread.
Contact signals again cover the entire battlefield. It’s looking bleak for the Red Coyotes.
Beep…. Sir: A new Contact Marker appears at the East Edge.
Quick Action phase
2 K’erin shoot at robot: stunned.
A K’erin moves to Scout Objective
Kato will attempt to call Evac (Savvy +1, 1 Objective Package in hand): Success!
Evac will appear end of next round, we just need to hold on until then.
Enemy Action phase
Wounded robot attacks nearby K’erin: Kerin hits, armor saves, wounded robot is knocked back.
A robot attacks wounded Fire Team Bravo trooper: the robot receives 2 stuns.
Another one attacks him and kills him.
A robot attacks Fire Team Alpha trooper who stuns the robot.
Another one attacks: his armor saves him.
Two more robots dash close.
Removing stun markers.
A Contact marker has random movement SE, in LOS of Fire Team Alpha: we’ve got movement all over the place.
A Contact marker has aggresive movement towards Fire Team Alpha: in LOS: Contact! 3 robots.
A Contact marker doubles but stays in place.
A Contact marker moves a bit randomly along the North edge.
A Contact marker moves randomly South.
A Contact marker along the East edge doesn’t move.
A Contact marker in SE corner moves aggresively towards K’erin.
A Contact marker in SE corner moves randomly West.
Slow Action phase
Civlians dash South.
Fire Team Alpha acts as a shield to Civilians and moves South and attacks the robots: one shot hits, no damage.
Spawn phase
A Spawn Point is at Coundown 0: a Contact Marker spawns: Countdown goes to 3
The other Spawn Points go to 2 and 1 respectively.
Alertness: no alertness
The Vital Objective is Scouted successfully.
The EMP field fizzles, and the robots can move again. Kato knows time is of the essence, he calls HQ. “This is Trooper Kato Minoru! We have retrieved the Objective, we’re being overrun by berserk robots! Force is at 50% strength. Arrange for Evac!”
A short silence ensues that felt to Kato like hours. “Roger that Trooper. Hold tight, dropship should be there in 5.” The call came through. Relief drawn to Kato’s face. He knows he must coordinate with the K’erin. But now he feels so much better to know they’re on his side. They move in a wide formation and reach the second Objective. This time, they hold their position against the robots. Constantly providing suppressing fire and damaging any robot coming closer.
On the other side of the battle, the Fire Team tries their best to keep the Civilians alive. It would have been so much easier if they had to save just their own skin. Another trooper perishes as they fight, but they still hold, and as fast as they can without losing cohesion, they move with the Civilians towards the rest of the force.
The entire map is blipping all over with hostile movement. There is no escape but up.
Beep… Sir: a new Contact marker appears to the North edge
Quick Action phase
A K’erin retreats to the rest of the squad and shoots the robot next to him and stuns it.
The K’erin with the Package retreats a bit and shoots at the other robot, while maintaining close range: it’s armor saves it.
The other K’erin shoots also but misses.
Kato moves and shoots his Hyperblaster at the robot near the civilians and kills it!
Perhaps we’ll manage to evac the civilians too?
Enemy Action phase
A robot attacks the K’erin: both K’erin and the robot are wounded.
Another robot attacks the wounded K’erin and the K’erin perishes.
The rest of the unwounded/unstunned robots charge at the Fire Team: 1 trooper stunned, 2 troopers are killed, 1 robot stunned, 1 robot stunned and wounded.
3 more robots dash closer.
Removing stun markers from the rest of the robots.
A Contact marker moves aggresively towards Fire Team Alpha.
A Contact marker moves randomly South.
2 Contact markers double but stay in place.
The rest of the Contact markers move randomly, nothing detected.
Slow Action phase
Civilians dash towards Evac.
Fire Team Alpha dashes towards Evac.
1 trooper is Stunned he can Move or Shoot, so he moves hoping for a Quick phase next…
Spawn phase
Countdown of 1 to 0, Spawns marker, back to 1, the others are at 1 and 2 respectively.
Alertness: no alertness.
EVAC!
The K’erin, Kato, Civilians and 1 trooper Evac.
1 Trooper remains alone.
In position, the K’erin uses his scanning binoculars to gather all the necessary information for military intelligence in order to have a clear strategic advantage for the entire region. The K’erin fight furiously to hold position and save their objectives. One of them is lost in the fight against the robots, but they manage to suppress the rest of the robots, and hold them off.
Kato shoots the robots, to the West, making a clear pathway for the Civilians supported by the Fire Teams, who fight for their lives. Man against machine, blood and oil mixed cover the sands. But then the sound of the dropships engines covers all the noise of battle. Quickly the K’erin jump in with the package and information. Kato covers for the Civilians and troopers who join, and jumps inside as well. Yet, one Troooper stands in the battlefield alone, as the mechanical sound of robots walking, crawling, treading resonates all over.
Enemy Action phase
The first robot attacks him, but his armor saves him: he’s knocked back into the dropship!
A robot jumps at the Trooper, hitting him on the chest plate. The strike is strong, but no vitals are damaged. The force of the hit send the trooper tumbling back and into the ramp of the dropship, which closes and flies off.
As it was the end of the battle and I was tired, I realized I missed the rules and I didn't roll for Beep... Sir, but also didn't use the LMG of the dropship to lay down covering fire to the trooper. One cancels the other out, and he survived by rule of cool!
Determine casualties
Ariana: Minor injuries: 1 turn in sickbay:
I’ll spend a point of Reputation to speed it up to 0 with advanced care
Update Completed Missions
Check for Mustering out
No chance
Determine reputation
5 + 2 (for 2 Objectives) + 2 (rolled) + 3 (for civilians) – 1 for advanced care: 11 Total
Experience and Leveling
Ariana gets +2 XP
Kato gets +5 XP
Operational Progress
Heavy pressure, but we achieved 3 objectives, so no ill effects.
Roll for Military Life
Ariana: Time flies when you’re… just playing cards in barracks.
Check entitlement to R&R
None
Ready for another campaign turn
Here’s the Roster and Hall of Fame.
| Name | Reactions | Speed | Combat Skill | Toughness | Savvy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | 1 | 5″ | +1 | 4 | +0 |
| 1 | 4″ | +0 | 3 | +2 | |
| 2 | 5″ | +0 | 3 | +0 | |
| Ariana Raschke | 1 | 5″ | +0 | 3 | +1 |
| Kato Minoru | 2 | 5″ | +1 | 3 | +0 |
| Name | Completed Missions | XP | Origin | Basic Training | Service History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | 1 | 1 | Prison Planet | Planetary Militia | Garrison or patrol duties |
| 2 | 2 | Scientific Outpost | Naval forces (Ships Crew) | Extended campaign | |
| 1 | 0 | Core Systems World | Ground forces (Scouts) | Police action (Commendation) | |
| Ariana Raschke | 2 | 7 | Trade Hub | Planetary militia | Anti-pirate operation |
| Kato Minoru | 2 | 5 | Military Outpost | Ground forces (Scouts) | Police Action |
| Name | Special Assignments | Missions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Bradley | Ep01 | Ready | |
| Ep01 | Death Ep01 | ||
| Ep01 | Gruesome Fate Ep01 | ||
| Ariana Raschke | Technical Training | Ep02 | Ready |
| Kato Minoru | Ep02 | Ready |
The ride back in the dropship was silent. The Red Coyotes had managed to gather some of their fallen comrades from the clutches of the robots. Ariana was among them. Blood was trickling down her arm. She noticed Kato looking her way.
“Hurts, but I think it’s just a flesh wound.” she said. Kato forced a smile.
As the arrived in the hangar bay, medical teams immediately gathered around the wounded, while the intelligence officers headed directly to Kato and the K’erin.
Lt. Thompsanch was there to debrief them. “Good work troopers.” He said. “This was one of the top priority missions we had, and you made it. Go rest. You deserve it. Dismissed.”
He turned to the medics. “Send Raschke to Advanced Care.”
“See? Thompsanch cares for us.” Kato whispered to Ariana.
“Or perhaps he wants us in fighting shape as soon as possible.” She answered.
The next days passed quietly. Ariana recovered quickly, Jake got out of the Brig, and the three of them spent their time playing cards in the barracks.
The printed tokens helped immensely, but still Bug Hunt has a much bigger overhead in playing and reporting than the core game. I will need to change my actual play report style to something even leaner. Perhaps I’ll need to write down only narrative prose as it happens, with bullet points of important meta effects. Since I’ll have the tokens to monitor for everything else, I think that’s feasible, but I still need to cut down on the time spent because at this moment it takes an immense effort to take pictures and write everything down.
This time I fought a different enemy than in the first episode, and the different statistics made a difference. I think I’ve learned most of the rules by now and in the next Episode I won’t make any major mistakes. Part of the reason I made these mistakes is because I had played Bug Hunt in the past, before it went into the Compendium, in the previous ruleset. As they say it’s easier to learn something from the start, than to re-learn it. It’s also evident that the new ruleset is a lot harder on the player than the previous edition. I’m having a hard time getting my troops out in one piece, and I may have trouble getting a single character to muster out to Five Parsecs from Home.
Inspite of this, I always enjoy a challenge, which makes this endeavour even better.
ps. In this blog post I ran out of the free space for images, and I started using the Google Photos interface (it has this option), if you have any issues loading the pictures please let me know.
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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