Took me a while to get this Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt game played, photographed, cleaned up and blogged, but here it is. It was really frustrating having to play the same mission again, which delayed me in setting everything up, and then doing the work as doing something repetitive usually takes the fun out things, but I must say beforehand that I actually enjoyed it.
Mission: Re-take Star Port (sheltered)
1. Special Assignments
Ariana: Officer Training Course: Failure Kato: Marksman Training : Success Ulla: Harsh Environment Course: Success
– Planetary militia – Technical Training – Leadership Training
– Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Kato Minoru
6
5
Military Outpost
– Ground forces (Scouts) – Survival Course – Harsh Environment Course – Physical Training – Marksman Training
– Police Action – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Ulla Voight
5
6
Trade Hub
– Naval forces (Security) – Physical training – Marksman Training – Harsh Environment Course
-Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Name
Missions & Injuries
Status
Ariana Raschke
S2E1, S2E2
Kato Minoru
S2E1
Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
S2E1, S2E2
Post-battle
1. Determine Casualties and Lost Marines
Ariana: Minor Injuries 1 Turn in Sickbay Kato: Torso Wound: 4 Turns in Sickbay
2. Update Completed Missions
Done
3. Check for Mustering Out
Ariana: Muster Out! Kato: Failure
4. Determine Reputation
23 Initial -1 For Support Points +1 For Rescuing 1 Troopers +1 For 2 Objectives Completion +1 For Objectives Roll +1 For Hanie Riffin Origin 26 Final
5. Experience and Leveling
Ariana: MVP (she sacrificed herself to Hack the objective) 2 XP Kato: 1 XP, will increase Speed to 7″ Ulla: 3 XP, will increase Toughness
6. Roll for Operational Progress
1 Support Point Claimed: 7 Total Enemy swarms: Industrial Zone: Place 2 additional Contact markers at the beginning of battle
7. Roll for Military Life
Kato: You’re getting in shape, at least. You may immediately raise Speed by +1 for a cost of 5 XP (can’t…)
Session Summary
I had to use 2 Movie Magick cards: Evac Called & Reinforcements. I did not want to drag this battle out or fail it, so I used everything in my power to win.
I may have missed bringing up a Screamer or two of the variants, but I don’t think it would have much of an impact to the end result.
Well I finally got a character to muster out – and the one who didn’t have any advance to her Combat skill at that, also she doesn’t get to muster out with the service pistol, so I will have to spend her blood-earned Story Point to get it. On the other hand, she has a high Savvy score, and received Leadership training, which means she’s a perfect fit for a crew leader figure.
This means I will be switching to a regular Five Parsecs from Home campaign going forward.
I did spend some time preparing my crew for the Five Parsecs from Home campaign, and you can find a teaser shot here. I custom-designed Ariana’s civilian version using Titancraft and some digital kitbashing in blender. She also has her hair dyed differently this time – guess she didn’t want something that loud in her civilian life.
Since I commited so much time in printing and painting terrain for Bug Hunt (I burned out actually while painting my industrial zone terrain) and I really want a tough trooper like Ulla to be part of my crew (Combat skill +3!) I may continue running the Bug Hunt campaign on the side, and may get her to muster out as well. Should that happen, there’s always going to be a spot for her in Ariana’s crew.
I am still getting the hang of this comic-book approach. It takes a bit longer to edit and process, but I really like the new refreshing look.
For Bug Hunt specifically I will continue on this level of detail. As I have said before, Bug Hunt is resouce intensive on the solo player. Lots of bookkeeping which I have reduced via the use of tokens. I have also reduced the journaling of all those rolls and movements of blips as it is tiresome, and I need to have this balance between enjoyment and effort.
When I return to regular Five Parsecs from Home, I intend to perhaps have some more detailed mechanics text alongside with the comic panels, for a better understanding. It remains to be seen though, as planning doesn’t always mean it’s good in practice.
Pre-battle Roster
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Ariana Raschke
1
6″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
3
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+3
4
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Training
Service History
Ariana Raschke
7
5
Trade Hub
– Planetary militia – Technical Training – Leadership Training
– Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
– Naval forces (Security) – Physical training – Marksman Training
-Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Name
Missions & Injuries
Status
Ariana Raschke
S2E1, S2E2
Kato Minoru
S2E1
Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
S2E1, S2E2
Session Summary
Although low priority, the mission wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Since I am focusing on mustering out my team, I really take care of not placing them too much into harms way, and the rest of the troops are more dispensable. My main characters almost have plot armor in this regards, but things can always turn sour, as you never know if the dropship will arive in time. Having this bad roll on the Enemy Movement was a bit disheartening as I need to fight another battle to gain the starport sector, and this time at a higher priority level. On the other hand this gives me some extra time to prepare my industrial zone terrain (printed, primed, but not painted yet) and have a full assortment of terrain to cover all sectors.
I didn’t expect to have a second season of Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt, but here we are. I have decided on what the second season will be like, but I still need to decide some things. I’ll ask questions to the Oracle:
Q: Are the Red Coyotes disbanded? A: Yes, but the Characters stick together
Alright then it seems that the Red Coyotes were a “Special Assignment” regiment, and once their task was complete, they were disbanded. The Characters though will be transferred to a new regiment together (this is the interpretation of the but result of the Oracle.)
Q: Is Lt. Thomsantch with them? A: No, but he keeps an eye on his old comrades
Rolling at the Regiment flavour table: Solar Rats
Pre-Battle Roster
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Ariana Raschke
1
6″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
3
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+3
3
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Training
Service History
Ariana Raschke
6
0
Trade Hub
– Planetary militia – Technical Training – Leadership Training
– Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
– Naval forces (Security) – Physical training – Marksman Training
-Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Name
Missions & Injuries
Status
Ariana Raschke
Kato Minoru
Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
The Red Coyotes were sitting in the barracks, playing cards, when their datapads started blinking and notification sounds filling the room, as the troopers paused for a moment. Ulla took a look at her datapad. “Transfer order-” she pauses as she reads further “-got PY-511 in F9 V system.” “Same here” Ariana interrupts. “I am to report to the Solar Rats regiment in Colgan’s Wreck – how about you, Kato?” she asks. “Garrison duties? Why are we being sent to some frontier outpost?” He complains, then realizing the question. “Oh, yes, at least we’re together. Solar Rats. Yay” he fakes a cheer.
The door opens and Lt. Thompsanch enters. Someone yells “Officer! Attention Troopers!”. They drop whatever they’re doing and stand attention. “At ease troopers.” Thompsanch begins, takes a pause and continues. “News must have already reached you. Transfer orders have already been placed to the lot of you. The USS Astral Monarch returns to her naval patrol duties. The Red Coyotes are disbanded. I don’t know where you will end up, but I pulled some strings to ensure that tight fire teams stay together. Let me say that I am proud to have been your commanding officer. You delivered this victory, and Unity stands strong because of you.” The troopers salute and cheer “hurrah”, pumping their right fists onto their chest.
PY-511 System Map
The troopers were accepted quickly into the Solar Rats. The missions under their belt meant they weren’t addressed to as rookies. But still, it was as non-exciting as possible. Until the alarm went off. Sirens blasting at full, the troopers quickly gathered at the barracks. Their Captain, Fyodor Alekhin, gave a quick briefing. “Alright you rats. If you thought this was an easy assignment, well I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got your work cut out for you. As of zero seven hundred hours today Colgan’s Wreck is no more.” he didn’t pause for the restless murmuring, but instead with a louder voice he continued. “Face Rippers. Nasty beasts, have infested PY-511. They were sighted yesterday. Colgan’s Wreck was overrun quickly. We have credible intelligence that the bugs originated from the cavern system from the badlands to the south of the colony. Civilian Evacuation was issued at 0300 through the starport. Carpet bombing was performed at 0700H today in the city to eliminate the infestation, but it was ineffective. Since 0900H, one by one, the Starport, Farms, Industiral Zone, Waste Zone were all overrun by bugs, and contact was lost to any forces there.” “OUR MISSION” he goes with a louder voice, and the troopers stop talking. “Protect the Forward Operating Base that was set up by the Tech Corps. This will be our foothold so that we can proceed to clear the rest of the sectors one by one, to eliminate the infestation. Get your gear and dropship assignments, and get going! DISMISSED”.
Sector Map
For this game I will follow the Co-op Campaigns system from the Bug Hunt Appendix, but with a single player. After fooling around with several online generators and hex tools, I couldn’t find one to my liking, so I turned to my rudimentary drawing and photoshoping skills and delivered the above result. 7 sectors in total, and I can go only from one to the adjacent ones, unless I capture the Starport. This should give at least 7 missions which might give enough attempts to get a trooper to muster out. If I don’t manage to muster out afterwards, I’ll proceed to regular 5PFH campaign without a mustered out crew member. For each of the above sectors I rolled the following priorities and randomly assigned one of each Factors.
+ 09.06.25 + + Solar Rats dispatched West from Operational Zone. Advancement. + + Dust storm obstructing targeting systems. Dropship fire ineffective. + + Squad Musculus – Sgt Kosarev, Trooper Voight, Fire Team advancing towards Objective B – Scout the FOB. + + Squad Rattus- Troopers Raschke and Minoru towards advancing Objective C – Hack sensor data for enemy entry points. + + Intel aimed for precision airstrikes after evacuation. + + Objective A – Secure the 150 approach determined as Secondary. + 09.11.45 + + Techtrooper rescued – Fighting condition determined. Squad Musculus reinforced. + 09.16.20 + + Techtrooper rescued – Fighting condition determined. Squad Rattus reinforced. + 09.20.25 + + Hostile signals detected amassing from 185. No combat as yet.
Round 2
+ 09.27.05 + + Hostile signal detected at 100 + 09.32.00 + + First combat. Squad Rattus reports 3 aliens in sights. Face Rippers. Fire at will. 2 confirmed alien kills. + + Squad Musculus – Techtrooper rescued – Fighting condition determined. Trooper located at terrace of command tower. + + Trooper reports enemy contact. 4 aliens in FOB barricades. + 09.36.15 + + Hostile signal in OZ at 185. Signals amassing from 120.
Round 3
+ 09.40.05 + + Squad Musculus broken formation. Sarge Kosarev indicates Objective B achieved. + + Trooper Minoru reports unconfirmed alien kill. + 09.43.00 + + Face rippers closes in on Squad Musculus. Sergeant Kosarev is reported as first casualty. 4 alien kills reported. 3 unconfirmed. + + Squad Musculus reports 5 more aliens in sight. Position compromised. + 09.46.45 + + Trooper Voight formation broken. Dash to connect to Squad Rattus. Reports 1 confirmed alien kill. + + Squad Musculus formation restored. 5 alien kills reported, 1 confirmed. Casualty ratio good. So far 5.0 to 1.0. In Unity’s favour. + + Squad Rattus advances. + 09.50.50 + + Hostile signals amassing from 90.
Round 4
+ 09.53.20 + + Hostile signal in OZ, at 190. + 09.54.20 + + Squad Musculus suppresses aliens. Face rippers overrun the tower. Squad Musculus reports casualties. + + Squad Rattus reports hostile contact. 5 aliens in sight. + 09.56.45 + + Squad Rattus engages hostiles. 3 alien kills reported, 1 confirmed. Casualty rate down at 3.5 to 1.0.
Round 5
+ 09.59.55 + + Squad Musculus reports 3 alien kills. None confirmed. + + Squad Rattus reports 1 confirmed alien kill. + 10.03.00 + + Bugs engage Squad Rattus. 2 confirmed alien kills. The troopers overcome odds. + 10.04.10 + + Squad Musculus reports increasing pressure from hostiles. Enemy forces growing rapidly. 7 confirmed detections from 170. + 10.06.15 + + Trooper Raschke distinguishes herself. Wounded, she confirms a 4th alien kill. + + Evac flare deployed at F.O.B. Sector 5. Dropship en route. + + Squad Musculus reports 3 alien kills. None confirmed. + 10.08.05 + + Hostile signal detected approaching from 100. Enemy closing in from all sides. Casualty ratio back at 5.0 to 1.0. + + Objectives 1/3 Cleared. Victory is uncertain.
Round 6
+ 10.11.40 + + Squad Musculus is encircled. Firing at will. 2 alien kills reported. 1 confirmed. + + Squad Rattus reports 1 unconfirmed alien kill. + 10.13.00 + + Close combat engagement. Bugs overrun Squad Musculus. 3 Trooper casualties, 1 wounded. 3 reported alien kills.1 confimed. + + Squad Musculus reports contact with 3 more aliens from 180. + 10.14.00 + + Trooper Raschke engages data interface. Data transferred. Objective C completed. + + Squad Rattus reports 1 alien kill. Not confirmed. + 10.18.15 + + Dropship approach. Squad Rattus evacuation executed. + + Hostiles amassing from all sides. Expect wave attack imminently. Casualty ratio down to 3.0 to 1.0.
Round 7
+ 10.20.05 + + All contact lost with Squad Musculus. Casualty ratio established at 2.0 to 1.0. The price of Victory.
At the start of Round 7 I noticed that I needed two objective instead of just one to Clear the Sector. I went back and played it out with a *what if* they remained until they Hacked objective Nr.2 - because I would not leave without a victory at this point - and Ariana hacked it at the Quick Phase of Round 7. With no Bugs in range to attack her, and no Contact Markers nearby to affect the end result, I decided to go ahead with a Success instead of putting back the figures at approximate distances and running it all over again. The end result is the same.
Post-Battle
1. Determine Casualties and Lost Marines
None
2. Update Completed Missions
Done
3. Check for Mustering Out
No Chance
4. Determine Reputation
18 Initial -1 For Support Points +3 For Rescuing 3 Troopers +1 For 2 Objectives Completion +1 For Objectives Roll 22 Final
5. Experience and Leveling
+4 XP each, MVP: Ariana (+5 XP) Ulla will spend 8 XP for +1 Toughness
6. Roll for Operational Progress
1 Support Point Claimed: 3 Total Enemy Moves: Enemy swarms: Industrial Zone
7. Roll for Military Life
Kato: You’re detached on special duties. You cannot participate in the next mission, but you receive a bonus roll on the Special Assignments table.
As the Solar Rats flew back to command, they caught sight of the bombers going the other way. Ulla looked at her teammates. “For those we lost-” she spoke. “-They will be avenged.” Ariana responded. The ride back was silent. They had lost many good men and women today. An eager Captain Alekhin was waiting for them at the landing pad as they arrived. He counted heads, and instantly knew. “Well done troopers!” he yelled, to be heard over the sound of the dropship’s engines cooling down. “There will be time to mourn later. The war has just begun. Get some rest to get ready for the next mission. I expect debriefing at 1500. Early intel while you guys were pitting it against the bugs in the F.O.B. says that they swarmed the I.Z.” As the troopers disembarked, he stopped Kato, his hand, flat on his chest. “Not you, swift boy.” He looked at him. “I don’t know what strings you pulled, but you won’t be joining us for the next mission. You’re to go back to the rear for some special assignments. Brass wouldn’t tell me more.” “Yes Sir!” Kato answered, and headed for the barracks, running after his friends.
Post-Battle Roster
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Ariana Raschke
1
6″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
3
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+3
4
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Training
Service History
Ariana Raschke
7
5
Trade Hub
– Planetary militia – Technical Training – Leadership Training
– Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
– Naval forces (Security) – Physical training – Marksman Training
-Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Name
Missions & Injuries
Status
Ariana Raschke
S2E1
Kato Minoru
S2E1
Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
S2E1
Session Summary
This was a really fun battle despite the small roster, and I got to enjoy some new terrain I printed and painted. For the next fight I intend to attack the Star Port, as I don’t want to attack high priority sectors yet, which means I have to get some terrain ready for this as well – this might cause a slight delay for the next game session. I may have done a few mistakes during the session, but nothing of significant impact. It was fun, how the small roster was countered a bit by the three! troopers I rescued – almost an entire fire team. I think the new campaign style is really interesting, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it will play out. For the enemy, the next session will start seeing the appearance of variants – and I haven’t decided yet if it will be a different variant per sector, still randomly determined. On the journalling part, any of my usual readers will have noticed that I’m still experimenting. In addition to my awesome (sarcasm detected) drawing skills for the sector, and the cool planetary system generator by donjon.bin.sh, I have changed my photos, reporting and narrative of the battle. I decided to do away with the mechanical description of game parts of the combat. Bug hunt is really heavy on the bookkeeping side, and I’ve only managed to resolve this by introducing tons of different tokens and markers. Writing it all down for the report would defeat the purpose, and just make the game too tiring for me. I changed the in-battle narrative, inspired by the Space Hulk 1st Edition Missions book. I think it comes closer to the feel of the game, and is a refreshing change in narrative style. Last but not least, I adapted a semi-comic book photo presentation. I’ve seen it a few time by other players, and I always found it looked cool. However I could not find a suitable program to do it on my own. Any apps I found were clunky, riddled with ads, or had a paywall for premium features which should be standard. Then I discovered I could do it in Linux with Krita. There was a short learning curve, but eventually I got the hang of it. However when I was playing the game and taking the pictures I still had not found out about it, so the pictures were taken from eagle-eyes view, at the end of each round – not suitable for a comic-book style story. I intend to further experiment with this on my next game, and perhaps have something better looking.
Continuing on my Five Parsecs from Home – Bug Hunt campaign, a dual episode, as I played two campaign turns back to back. I also was a bit burned out and didn’t do detailed note-taking of the mechanics and rolls. Bug hunt has a lot of figures and markers on the board to monitor so it can quickly become cumbersome. Instead, using my tokens and markers I noted down the most important parts, and also took pictures at least one per round. So I intend to give an overall overview of what happened each round, in a narrative style along with the pictures.
Another topic that has to do with my slight burnout is the lack of purpose of this campaign. If you are following, it has become a bit of a tangled mess. The random enemy types per battle which give a very abstract narrative content which is in contrast to the operational progress table, along with the “let’s get it done with so I can muster out to Five Parsecs” thought that’s nudging the back of my head really push me to get it wrapped up quickly.
What I also noticed on my side of things is the terrain and setup topic. I am playing on a 60 cm x 60 cm board, and I have been doing a rough calculation of distances to make it feel larger. To this extent I have printed rulers and blast templates at 60% size to make things more true to size. After all, terrain and miniatures are scaled to 60% from the 28-32mm scale, and the base size is 15mm in my games which is 60% of the 1-inch standard grid. Therefore distances are correct now. However this means that a 60 cm table is the equivalent of a 100 cm x 100 cm table, which is 1,7 square feet larger than the typical 3′ x 3′ table. I am also missing enough linear terrain to block LOS and movement. I still need some ruins and rock formations.
I have been considering ways to improve the portability, storage and setup of my games. I am playing in 15mm scale and I should take advantage of it. Recently I went ahead and magnetised over 1000 miniatures for storage, and it has made things so much better. I no longer have to behave as if I’m serving dinner in fine porcelain, and can be a little bit more rough with taking things in and out of storarge. What I have been working with in my head is getting a backgammon box board, magnetize it and turn it into a quick solution for storage and playing. I still will need to work on the specifics, but planning is the most important part, and I am almost done with this step.
Now, on to the game.
Episode 06
I rolled up a new character to replace Jake Bradley. Her name is Ulla Voight. Like Ariana, she’s also coming from a Trade Hub, and also did an Anti-pirate operation in her service history. She had a basic training in Naval forces (security). I think it’s very likely she knows Ariana, so I’ll work with this concept in terms of background.
Special Assignments
Ariana: Officer training course: Failure Kato: Physical Training: Failure, Harsh Environment Course: Success (two assignments, but no participation in the mission, due to military life roll in Ep05) Ulla Voight: Physical Training: Success
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Jake Bradley
1
5″
+1
4
+0
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
2
5″
+0
3
+0
Ariana Raschke
1
5″
+0
3
+1
Kato Minoru
2
5″
+1
4
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+1
3
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Basic Training
Service History
Jake Bradley
4
7
Prison Planet
Planetary Militia
Garrison or patrol duties
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
1
0
Core Systems World
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police action (Commendation)
Ariana Raschke
4
11
Trade Hub
Planetary militia
Anti-pirate operation
Kato Minoru
4
11
Military Outpost
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police Action
Ulla Voight
1
3
Trade Hub
Naval forces (Security)
Anti-pirate operation
Name
Special Assignments
Missions
Status
Jake Bradley
Ep01, Ep03, Ep04, Ep05
Minor Injuries Ep03 (0) Knocked out Ep04 (0) Gruesome Fate Ep05
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
Ep01
Gruesome Fate Ep01
Ariana Raschke
Technical Training Leadership Training
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05
Minor injuries Ep02 (0) Head Wound Ep03 (0)
Kato Minoru
Survival Course Harsh Environment Course
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05
Leg Wound Ep03 (0)
Ulla Voight
Physical training
Fight a tabletop battle
For the battle I used a desert roll mat I had made myself with acrylic spackle, paint and fine sand. I had severe issues with it in the past with sand shedding everywhere, but I re-coated with floor polish and it’s much better now. For terrain I decided to do a space junkyard with an alien monolith at the centre for theme.
Rolled up two objectives, a Vital Patrol objective and a Hack objective.
Priority was rolled at 3, and Spawn Rating 2.
I spent one Reputation point to increase Support to 4.
Support Options Fire Team: Failure Sarge: Failure Colonial Militia: Success Soulless Recon Team: Failure
Loadout Ariana: Hand Cannon + Boarding Sword Ulla: Shotgun + Service Pistol
I placed the Tactical Locations and rolled 3 Signals which I placed as well.
Ariana Roschke was sitting in the briefing room of USS Astral Monarch. She looked around for Kato, but he was nowhere to be found. He had mentioned spending some extra time doing special assignments. But her gaze stopped at another familiar face.
“…dismissed. Get at it troopers” the Lt. Thompsanch’s voice echoed in her ears. She quickly made a beeline towards her target.
“I’ll be damned! If this isn’t Ulla!” She exclaimed.
Ulla turned around, and a smile appeared on her face. “Ari! Didn’t know you were stationed here!” She hugged her warmly.
“Come! Let’s get ready for the mission. We have a lot of catching up to do!” Ariana took her by the arm. Oh she also had to remember the mission objectives. Someone would have to fill her in.
Battle Round 1
Ariana and the militia move behind cover towards the vital objective that must be patrolled. We got Contact. 3 Vent Crawlers! The Fire Team shoots and kills one, stunning another. Ulla moves and fires her shotgun, blasting another crawler to pieces. Spawn Point: SE (2)
HD-603 is a desert planet of little consequence to Unity. However, that’s where the mission was. They had to patrol a space junkyard for enemies, and locate an abandoned terminal and hack it to retrieve the data. Ulla checked her gear once more as she was stepping foot on the light sand. She got point on the Fire Team, while Ariana was leading a team of Colonial Militia towards the patrol point at a huge junk pile. Spaceship cemetary someone called it, and they were right. She was hoping it wouldn’t be unity cemetary also as Ariana yelled “Contact” over comms, and some man-sized mantis-looking bugs running towards them. They had found openings through the junk and were really closed. Ulla and her Fire Team started shooting, killing two of the chittering creatures.
Battle Round 2
The Fire Team lights up the last bug One contact marker disappears, the other moves away, a new appears NE Ulla goes to investigate the signal Ariana goes to Patrol the objective, the militia dash behind her Ulla finds supplies +2 Support Patrol isn’t successfully completed Spawn NE(3), SE (1)
Ulla’s team kills the last insect, while she heads off towards a point of interest. A signal blasting on her datapad. Searching through the junk she recovers a crate of Unity gear. That should come handy for the missions to come. Might make recquisitions a bit less stingy. Ariana and her team starts their patrol for any more enemies.
Battle Round 3
Fire team moves closer The contact marker by the second objective doubles in number We move closer to the second objective Spawn NE(2), SE(-) A contact marker spawns SE Patrol isn’t complete successfully
Without ending the patrol, the squad starts moving towards the second objective. Getting ready for contact with the blips appearing on their scanners nearby.
Battle Round 4
The contact markers move towards Ariana. 6 bugs including an Assassin and a Bruiser! The militia stun a bug twice and wound the bruiser Ariana kills the assassin bug with her hand cannon The fire team moves and kills one bug and wounds another Ulla moves towards the signal but turns and shoots and kills a bug A contact marker appears at the signal: stay frosty It disappears and a new one appears at NE Spawn NE(1), SE(1)
As if they smelled them approaching, the signals move closer, and soon it’s clear that more of the insects are upon them. “Six bogeys!” Ariana calls over the comms. “Fire at will at the large one!” she orders, and the militia aim their fire, wounding the beast. It’s crippled. Ariana aims at one with some huge pincers, and blasts away her hand cannon. The bug splatters it’s innards everywhere as it dies. The troopers fire and kill another bug, and immobilize another. “I’ll go investigate this alien pillar!” Ulla shouts. But seeing the conflict, she turns her attention to them, and shoots her shotgun, eliminating another insect.
Battle Round 5
Fire Team shoots and kills two bugs Contact markers move around Ulla investigates the signal: Ambush: 5 bugs Ariana moves and stuns the bruiser knocking it back away from the objective The militia form a line and shoot at the newly appeared bugs, killing 2 Patrol still not complete Spawn NE(-) blip, SE(-) blip
The troopers open fire at the rest of the bogeys, and decimate them. Only the crippled big bug remains standing. Ariana shoots at it, her hand cannon’s bullets missing any vitals, but sending it reeling further back. Ulla approaches the alien column only to come face to face with more chittering. A handful of insects jump towards her. Does this artifact have anything to do with the bug’s appearance? She has no time to ponder. “Contact!” she yells. “Form a line and cover her!” Ariana orders the militia, who take positions and fire at will, bring the enemy numbers down to three.
Battle Round 6
Ulla dashes away from danger Fire Team forms a line and shoots at the bugs but they all miss The bugs attack and 2 troopers are slain, but the third one kills the bug attacking him Ariana attempts to hack the other objective and fails The militia eliminates the bugs attacking the fire team Patrol done at last Vital objective complete Spawn NE(-), SE(-)
Ulla runs back to the cover of the troopers. The fire team also forms a line, but the bugs now scatter quickly, and dodge any shots from the troopers, gaining ground at the same time. They reach grappling distance, and two troopers fall under the sharp pincers. The militia quickly shoot again, and make short work of them, securing the safety of the troopers. Ariana reaches the terminal. She tries to connect it to power, but fails to bring it to life. “Come on you stupid piece of shit!” She yells. “Ma’am! Patrol is done. We have enough information to get to command!” A trooper shouts.
Battle Round 7
New contact! 4 bugs near Ariana She abandons the objective and dashes away Ulla calls for evac, Success! The militia form a line and shoot at the wounded bruiser, one shot managing to end him Fire team shoots at the bugs from far and miss Spawn NE(-), SE(2)
As Ariana tries to get the terminal working, Ulla calls at her. “Ari! Four bogeys on your six.” “Screw it.” Ariana says and runs back to the group. Ulla calls for Evac. “This is trooper Voight to USS Astral Monarch. Patrol Objective Accomplished. Ready for Extraction. Enemy movement moderate.” “Acknowledged trooper. Stand by for extraction.” The response comes quicker than usual. The troopers and the militia stand their ground shooting an all enemies in sight, and finish off the crippled big bug, as the new group advances towards them.
Battle Round 8
The troopers shoot at the bugs, one dead, two stunned Contact markers move all over A bug dashes close but Ulla blasts it with her shotgun to death Evac arrives! Success Mission time: 1h30m
No orders are necessary, the fighting continues as the Red Coyotes stand their ground. Two more bugs eliminated and two suppressed. Ariana is watching the movement signals on her scanner as the sound of the dropship engines draw her attention. One by one the soldiers board the ship, and she joins them. Inside she looks at Ulla with a smile. They both made it back alive, and with objective accomplished. That’s success to her.
Post Battle Report
Determine Casualties and Lost Marines –
Update Completed Missions –
Check for Mustering Out No Chance
Determine Reputation +1 -1 Reputation
Experience and Leveling Ariana +3 XP, Ulla +4 XP (MVP) Ariana: +1 Toughness, +1 Savvy Kato: +1 Toughness
Roll for Operational Progress 31+15: Stalemate (+15)
Roll for Military Life Kato: Time tinkering. Select a personal weapon and increase range by +1″ (Service Pistol – Just in case he musters out)
Check Entitlement to R&R None
Reputation: 14 Points, +2 Support Points
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Jake Bradley
1
5″
+1
4
+0
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
2
5″
+0
3
+0
Ariana Raschke
1
5″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
2
5″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+1
3
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Basic Training
Service History
Jake Bradley
4
7
Prison Planet
Planetary Militia
Garrison or patrol duties
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
1
0
Core Systems World
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police action (Commendation)
Ariana Raschke
5
0
Trade Hub
Planetary militia
Anti-pirate operation
Kato Minoru
4
3
Military Outpost
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police Action
Ulla Voight
2
7
Trade Hub
Naval forces (Security)
Anti-pirate operation
Name
Special Assignments
Missions
Status
Jake Bradley
Ep01, Ep03, Ep04, Ep05
Minor Injuries Ep03 (0) Knocked out Ep04 (0) Gruesome Fate Ep05
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
Ep01
Gruesome Fate Ep01
Ariana Raschke
Technical Training Leadership Training
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05, Ep06
Minor injuries Ep02 (0) Head Wound Ep03 (0)
Kato Minoru
Survival Course Harsh Environment Course
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05
Leg Wound Ep03 (0) Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
Physical training
Ep06
Ready for Another Campaign Turn
Back in the living quarters of USS Astral Monarch, Kato was tinkering with his service pistol. “Hey Kato.” Ariana says as she and Ulla enter. “Meet my old friend, trooper Voight, the newest Red Coyote.” “Ulla.” She introduces herself. He nods in acknowledgement. “What are you working on there?” she asks. “Just recalibrating the barrel for better aiming. I feel like I’ll get some extra effective distance with it.” He answers. “Let’s hope it won’t come to us shooting bugs with pistols” Ariana points out. “Let’s hope not.” Kato agrees. “But better be prepared.” The three troopers continue socializing, until the next mission.
Perhaps Ariana should stop trying to become an officer and get some courses done.
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Jake Bradley
1
5″
+1
4
+0
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
2
5″
+0
3
+0
Ariana Raschke
1
5″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
2
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+2
3
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Basic Training
Service History
Jake Bradley
4
7
Prison Planet
Planetary Militia
Garrison or patrol duties
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
1
0
Core Systems World
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police action (Commendation)
Ariana Raschke
5
0
Trade Hub
Planetary militia
Anti-pirate operation
Kato Minoru
4
4
Military Outpost
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police Action
Ulla Voight
2
8
Trade Hub
Naval forces (Security)
Anti-pirate operation
Name
Special Assignments
Missions
Status
Jake Bradley
Ep01, Ep03, Ep04, Ep05
Minor Injuries Ep03 (0) Knocked out Ep04 (0) Gruesome Fate Ep05
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
Ep01
Gruesome Fate Ep01
Ariana Raschke
Technical Training Leadership Training
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05, Ep06
Minor injuries Ep02 (0) Head Wound Ep03 (0)
Kato Minoru
Survival Course Harsh Environment Course Physical Training
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05
Leg Wound Ep03 (0) Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
Physical training Marksman Training
Ep06
Fight a tabletop battle
For the battle I kept the same a desert roll mat. For terrain I decided to do an outpost with power generators surrounded by rocks (real rocks).
Rolled up two objectives, a Patrol objective and a Vital Retrieve objective.
Priority was rolled at 5, and Spawn Rating 3.
I spent one Reputation point to increase Support to 6.
Support Options Fire Team: Success Sarge: Failure Grenades: Success K’Erin assault marine team: Failure Weapons Support: Success Colonial Militia: Success
Loadout Ariana: Hand Cannon + Boarding Sword Kato: Power Claw + Combat Rifle with Mounted Launcher + Service Pistol Ulla: Shotgun + Service Pistol
I rolled 6 Signals which I placed, and must investigate at least 2 or suffer a penalty to completed Objectives.
Lt. Thompsanch had the same desert planet on the briefing screen. “You know HD-603 pretty well. Your previous mission gave us enough intel to know there’s enemy presence there. We can’t be sure as to their numbers, as the data wasn’t recovered, but patrol was definite.” The Lieutenant takes a breath and continues. “Last time it was a junkyard, but now we want to ensure that the Unity outpost that we lost contact with is secure, and if not, evaluate the status.” “Troopers! Patrol the outpost. If contact is confirmed, you must retrieve the support crates. They have vital Unity material that was sent to the outpost for classified purposes.” The Lieutenant looks around the room. “Questions?” They knew better not to ask. “Dismissed. Get your loadouts and deploy!”
Battle Round 1
It is Vital that we retrieve an item at the other side of the battlefield and also patrol the power generators Kato dashes forward to retrieve the objective He has got some distance to cover We decided to take the North route outside of the outpost Investigated a signal and found 3 civilians A spawn point appeared in our backs NW(-)
The Red Coyotes deployed to the West side of the outpost. Ulla got point of a Colonial Militia team, while Kato took Fire Team Alpha and Ariana Fire Team Bravo. They were much better armed this time around, and with more troops. “Let’s avoid entering the outpost until we know what’s going on.” Ariana radios. “I’d rather not be locked inside with no way out, and a swarm of bug coming my way.” “I’m leading the way.” Kato responds. “Ulla, I think I saw movement in the rocks, you better check it out.” “I’ll be… hey mama, we got some civvies here. Perhaps they know what’s going on. Lt. Thompsanch can debrief them after.” She gestures them to keep silent, and points them to follow in the middle of the squad. The ground shakes, and a hole opens nearby to the north. “Bug tunnel!” a civilian whispers. The troopers look at each other. They know what they have to do.
Battle Round 2
Kato moves back and closed the Spawn Point supported by a trooper! We avoided any contact with the enemy Spawn SW(3)
Kato takes a soldier with him, and they start laying explosive charges. A few seconds later, a loud bang is heard, and the tunnel collapses on itself. “That should take care of them for now.” Kato calls as the Red Coyotes continue marching along the North side of the perimeter of the outpost.
Battle Round 3
3 bugs appear next to the troopers and are killed on the spot Ulla moves forward and comes into contact with four bugs But she investigates the signal and rescues a trooper! Ariana moves and blasts to death a bug with her hand cannon The militia form a line and shoot killing a bug stunning another Fire Team moves behind them Power generator has been patrolled! 1 objective complete Another spawn point appears North Spawn SW(2), N(-)
An ambush by the mantises is quickly averted as the troopers open fire at the first sign of movement. The three insects that popped their heads out, turned into lifeless corpses. Ulla runs ahead when she hears a Unity code for SOS. She heads to the fence and finds a battle ready trooper holding his service pistole. “You have arrived? We were overrun!” He mentions. “Trooper, are you fit for combat?” She asks. “Yes ma’am!” He responds and straightens his pose. “Then get your sidearm and follow us to victory!” Ulla orders him. The chittering behind her draws her attention. “Contact!” The trooper yells. The militia form a line and open fire, and with Ariana’s support, they reduce the enemy to half numbers. “Outpost patrol complete! Move to retrieve the packages!” USS Astral Monarch radio comes over the network. “We have close oversight this time around.” Kato mentions as he turns his attention back to the battle. He notices another tunnel appearing between him and the objective.
Battle Round 4
Ulla moves and wounds a bug with her shotgun Ariana kills the other bug Contact! Bugs surround us from the North and from the Outpost The fire team forms a firing line and shoots, kills 2 bugs, stuns 2 others Militia forms a line and shoot but only stun two bugs Civilians move in the safe corridor Kato shoots his grenade launcher into the bugs He kills a bug, wounds one, stuns another, and is out of ammo Spawn SE(1), N(-)
“Bogeys North and South!” Ariana shouts, as insects appear from both sides. “We musn’t be surrounded! Form a corridor! Protect the civilians! I’ll clear the front!” Ulla responds and shoots the insect to the East, wounding it. The troopers follow their orders to the letter, allowing for the safety of the civilians who look around terrified, staying in the middle, as the Unity troops open fire. They eliminate and suppress the threat from the North, however the ones in the outpost under cover, are hard to hit. Kato aims his rifle mounted grenade launcher at them, and bug parts start flying all over, blasted by the grenade. However the launcher jams, and won’t be able to shoot again until repaired, after battle.
Battle Round 5
Militia shoots and misses the bugs behind cover Solo trooper shoots his pistol and misses the bugs behind cover A bug charges at the militia and kills him The rest of the bugs are no longer stunned Contact! 5 more bugs at the power generator, one of them an assassin bug Fire team moves and shoots at the bugs north, wounding one Ariana moves and supported by a trooper manages to disable the North spawn point Kato kills the wounded bug in front of him The civilians move in the centre for protection The fire team shoots and kills two bugs I… forgot to call for evac Perhaps after we retrieve the last objetive Spawn SE(-) blip
“Path east is clear! Move forward! Cover our rear!” Ulla orders, as the fighting ensues. Another blast is set off, this time by Ariana, and the second bug tunnel collapses. Just one tunnel remains at the other side of the oupost, unreachable, but also a lower threat. Shooting ensues, many bugs are killed, but one breaks through, taking a brave man of the colonial militia down with it.
Battle Round 6
Beep sir! 4 bugs North Two bugs are killed Ulla picks up the package Kato and Ariana shoot and kill the two other bugs The militia kill the assassin bug and stun another The bugs charge at the militia who fight bravely They kill two bugs, stun two more, and lose one soldier Two contact blips! 8 bugs One Leader The civilians run to safety The rescued trooper calls for evacuation failure Fire Teams move and shoot They kill one bug and wound another Spawn SE(1)
Ulla recovers the package as the Red Coyotes are spread thin in formation behind her. The colonial militia are at the rearguard, as bugs start swarming, coming from the outpost. Shooting and covering fire by the troopers is not enough, and the militia soon resort to hand to hand combat. Another man falls, but many bugs are killed. “This is Outpost H-603A1 garisson with the Red Coyotes. USS Astral Monarch come in! Mission objectives complete. Civilians under fire. Request extraction.” The trooper calls, but noone answers.
Battle Round 7
5 bugs appear NE Ulla and Kato kill and stun one each The militia try to hold, they shoot and kill a bug and wound another Bugs attack and the militia fight bravely. They wound the bug leader, kill a bug and stun another. But they also suffer the same. They lose a trooper, one is wounded and another stunned. Fire teams form a line and shoots at bugs, kill two, wound one, stun another The solo trooper shoots and kills a bug with his handgun Evac success! next round Spawn SE(4) blip
“Contact!” a handful of bugs appear at the vanguard. Immediately Ulla and Kato react, suppressing the threat and reducing their numbers. The fire teams retreat tactically, shooting at the enemy, while the militia put their last stand against the oncoming horde of insects. They lose another man, and their last two fighters are stunned and wounded. Alas the bugs don’t gain ground without a cost. Four bugs are dead from the concentrated fire and brave melee defense. “bzzzt bzzzt” the radio comes in. “Standby for extraction Red Coyotes. Dropship inbound.” A glimmer of hope fills the troopers and civilians. They may get to live another day.
Battle Round 8
Ulla and Ariana kill the two bugs north The militia shoot and kill two bugs One fire team retreats towards the rest of the characters and shoot and kill one bug Bugs attack now They kill the militia, but bravely the militia takes a bug down with him They also kill one fire team trooper The fire team retreats and shoots back killing a bug Evac! End of battle
The vanguard eliminates any surrounding insects. Evac is clear for landing. The militia are too far away, they make a last stand against the challenging enemy numbers, shooting two bugs dead. The insects close in. One man fights and with a knife kills the bug with his last breath before perishing alongide his companion. Another bug dashes forward, and manages to kill a trooper before he reaches the safety in numbers of the rest of the squad. A dustcloud lifts as the dropship arrives, completing the evacuation.
Post Battle Report
Determine Casualties and Lost Marines –
Update Completed Missions –
Check for Mustering Out No Chance
Determine Reputation +6 -1 Reputation
Experience and Leveling Kato, Ulla +4 XP, Ariana +5 XP (MVP) Kato: +1 Reactions Ulla: +1 Combat Skill
Roll for Operational Progress 100+15: Time to hold a parade! +1 Reputation, R&R
Roll for Military Life Ariana: You’re getting in shape, at least. You may immediately raise Speed by +1 for a cost of 5 XP. – Spent Kato: You cash in a favor. Spend 0-2 Reputation, and for each point you earn 2 XP or a +1 bonus when rolling for a Special Assignment. Spent 2 Reputation for +2 bonus.
Check Entitlement to R&R Done
Reputation: 18 Points, +2 Support Points
It’s been a few days after the last mission. The troopers are hanging around the recreational deck, relaxing, when Lt. Thompsanch appears. “I want you all tomorrow at 0800 hours at the portside hangar. Ceremonial dress. We will have a holo-parade, and the Sector General will address the regiment. Sector is secure from all roving threats boys. Seems the USS Astral Monarch and the Red Coyotes did it’s job. Shore leave is in three days. You’ll hear it from the man himself, but you can hear it from me now – Well done!” The troops cheer and start chanting “Red-Co-yo-tes, Red-Co-yo-tes.” Once the fuzz dies down, Ariana finds the Lieutenant. “Sir. What will happen to the Red Coyotes now? I understand this Regiment was formed ad-hoc to eliminate the roving threats of the sector.” “Vigilant and sharp as ever trooper Roschke.” The Lieutenant replies. “I’d like to see you get assigned to the officers training that you’re so intent on joining.” He pauses for a moment and looks around. “I don’t really know what brass intends to do. There’s a chance the core of the regiment will be transferred to another unit. We understand that we don’t want to lose the cohesion you’ve achieved, but still as you said the unit has no more purpose now. Take the win, trooper.”
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Jake Bradley
1
5″
+1
4
+0
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
2
5″
+0
3
+0
Ariana Raschke
1
6″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
3
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+3
3
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Basic Training
Service History
Jake Bradley
4
7
Prison Planet
Planetary Militia
Garrison or patrol duties
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
1
0
Core Systems World
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police action (Commendation)
Ariana Raschke
6
0
Trade Hub
Planetary militia
Anti-pirate operation
Kato Minoru
5
0
Military Outpost
Ground forces (Scouts)
Police Action
Ulla Voight
3
4
Trade Hub
Naval forces (Security)
Anti-pirate operation
Name
Special Assignments
Missions
Status
Jake Bradley
Ep01, Ep03, Ep04, Ep05
Minor Injuries Ep03 (0) Knocked out Ep04 (0) Gruesome Fate Ep05
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
Ep01
Gruesome Fate Ep01
Ariana Raschke
Technical Training Leadership Training
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05, Ep06, Ep07
Minor injuries Ep02 (0) Head Wound Ep03 (0)
Kato Minoru
Survival Course Harsh Environment Course Physical Training
Ep02, Ep03, Ep05, Ep07
Leg Wound Ep03 (0) Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
Physical training Marksman Training
Ep06, Ep07
Session(s) Summary
First of all two mistakes I’ve noticed that I did. a) I forgot to use the Beep Sir rule in Ep06, b) I forgot to use the Variants rule in Ep07 (and half the times I forgot to roll for pack leaders). This is a reminder that Bug Hunt is very dense game in a lightweight ruleset. The nice thing is that forgetting a rule or two isn’t game breaking, but as a solo game it does take it’s toll on the mental load of the player.
With this out of the way I must admit that before finalising the Post Battle Report of Ep07 I went to bed, worried about the effort to run yet more games until someone musters out, however, as it turned out, the victory result in the Operational Progress gives me a narrative freedom to reset everything and enjoy the rest of the missions without the issues mentioned in the intro of the post.
Going forward I will determine a single enemy type and a single theatre of war for the next campaign. I will also determine if the characters will remain in the same regiment, or if they have been transfered to a new regiment.
I am also considering using the co-op campaign rules, albeit solo to go at my own pace, and clear a sector instead, giving something more tanglible as a purpose.
Furthermore it is important to solve the terrain issue. I need a smaller, portable surface (as discussed before) and linear terrain. As such I may delay the next games until I have a working or in-progress solution.
Perhaps I miscalculated how much effort I would need (as a gamer) to muster a character from Bug Hunt to Five Parsecs, but I am not giving up yet!
For the table I decided to use my not-Space Hulk board (Dragon’s Rest HVAC tunnels), to see how it works with such a setup. Had some troubles, as I had to use my entire set and still it felt short at times. Perhaps I should have left some areas with “entrance points” to give it a larger vague appearance. Furthermore I was missing some clips (should have printed more!) so I had to be careful while moving stuff around, so that I wouldn’t knock terrain out of the way. With that said, I think it looks pretty cool.
I rolled up three different objectives this time, two Beacons and one Retrieve.
Priority was rolled at 3 and Spawn rating set at 2.
I’ve learned my lesson so I’ll spend one Reputation point to increase Support to 3.
Support options: Fire Team: Failure Sarge: Success Weapons Support: Success: Incinerator K’erin: Failure
I should have tried for something simpler than K’erin to ensure I had a big enough roster. Now I’m left with 1 fire team, a sarge and my characters.
For loadout of my characters I go with the following:
I placed the tactical locations and rolled 2 Signals which were placed as well.
Kato rushed to reach his two squad mates. Out of breath, he stopped for a moment.
“Survival course too tough for you?” Jake joked. You’re just in time for loadout. We’re going in. You’ve missed the briefing but Ariana will fill you in.”
“A derelict space ship was detected and we’re to check the two distress beacons and recover a black box. Its identity is unknown but its sightings and nav path are correlated with the disappearance of some fringe colonies.” Ariana listed as they started walking to the armoury.
“So, not an alien planet this time? I was getting used to the rapid drops.” Kato replied.
“Just make sure you’re not claustrophobic. These corridors are dark, narrow and full of horrors!” Ariana booed.
“I pulled some strings with my boy over at commissions.” Kato deflected. “I’ll be bringing along a nice toy.”
“Nicer than an automated pump action?” Jake laughed as he took his shotgun from the counter.
“Hellfire baby!” Kato smiles as he wears the cumbersome incinerator.
Ariana couldn’t hide a look of envy, but still she felt safe with her trusted boarding sword and hand cannon.
Kato shoots Incinerator: Kills two horrors, but not the leader Ariana investigates location: Block, she won’t bother with it further
The Sarge takes the fire team to the corridor North, heading for one Beacon and the Black Box. A blip on their scanners was just interference.
Jake leads the way East, and opens a door, only to find some tentacled slithering horrors behind it. These look tougher than the ones they had faced before. One of them has a loud meaning call. Jake shoots and momentarily stuns it with his shotgun, before he notices Kato shout “out of the way” and wooosh a jet stream of flame lands on the creatures, killing two of them.
Ariana is left a little behind as she heads to investigate something that draw her attention. It’s an ancient local barrier mechanism, which could be helpful later if they’re overrun.
Battle Round 2
Beep… Sir? Contact Marker NE Jake Shotgun at Leader: Killed Kato: Incinerator: killed horror, stunned horror Ariana joins them
Marker: moves to Sarge: Contact: 2 horrors
Sarge fires shotgun: miss
A new Spawn (2) West
Jake and Kato Lee blasting and burning at the horrors, lighting up the corridors in front of them. Click, click, Kato’s incinerator is out of gas. Ariana arrived just right behind them, but can’t get a clear shot, the narrow corridor blocking her line of sight.
The sergeant looks at his scanner, new contact markers at the north and north east, and movement towards him. A trooper behind him shouts “contact!” and he notices two horrors in front of him, he shoots, but he only scratches the tough walls of the spaceship.
Battle Round 3
Beep… Sir? No Contact 2 horrors attack sarge and he kills them
Contact marker aggresively arrives in front of Jake, Contact 4 horrors + Driver with the path clear, the Fire Team and Sarge dash onwards
Jake shoots and kills the horror Kato shoots combat rifle: wounds Ariana dithers
Spawn points coundtdown 1
The alien beasts slither with their tentacles towards the Sarge, who puts his shotgun back and draws his blade. With two quick slashes, he kills the creatures, tentacles still thrashing around aimlessly in a pool of alien blood in front of him.
He gestures for the troopers behind him to follow, and makes path towards the objectives.
Another blip moves on the other side, towards Jake and Kato. “Contact!” Ariana shouts as the signal on the scanner is next to them. From the dark she can discern tentacles slithering towards them. Jake screams, as Kato switches to his combat rifle. They shoot and kill and wound the creatures in front of them.
More movement is visible on the scanners from the East.
Battle Round 4
Beep… Sir? No Contact Jake shoots and kills Kato shoots and stuns
3 enemies attack Jake, he kills one, is stunned, and wounds the Driver
Sarge opens door and Retrieves package Trooper activates Beacon
Contact Markers at Spawn Points New countdowns W(1), E(-)
Jake and Kato continue the fight, killing two of the horrors, before Jake receives a hit and is dazed momentarily. He strikes back, wounding their leader.
Sarge and the Fire team reach the objectives. A trooper interacts with the beacon while the Sarge picks up the black box. “Package secured. Beacon operational. Mission successful.” Sarge radios over the comms.
Movement is visible from the East and West.
Battle Round 5
Beep… Sir? Marker South Jake is attacked and is a casualty! Kato is attacked and stuns horror
markers move Ariana calls Evac: 10+2+1: Success!
Kato shoots rifle at stunned horror: stunned twice fire team and sarge move south
W Spawns (4), E (1)
The horrors attack Jake and Kato, and Jake drops under their attacks. Kato fights back bravely, suppressing them under burst fire.
“USS Astral Monarch! This is Red Coyotes boarding group Alpha. Two Objectives secured. Evac requested. Mission integrity under pressure. We’re still holding for now.” Ariana calls over the long range comms. She won’t know if the message was received until later.
Sarge and his fire team retreat tactically towards the boarding point, heading to hold position until potential evacuation. Long range scanners show movement approaching from other parts of the spaceship.
Battle Round 6
Beep… Sir? No Contact Kato Shoots stuns thrice killing horror
Fire Team moves to Ariana contact markers move, one is really close to sarge
sarge dashes behind fire team Ariana joins them Evac!
Kato Kees shooting, bursts of bullets eliminating another horror.
Ariana and the Sarge and Fire team rendezvous to the boarding point. As the airlock opens. The pilot gestures them to rush inside “heard you guys needed a ride home!”. That was fast, but she ain’t complaining.
Post Battle Report
Determine Casualties and Lost Marines Jake: 1: Gruesome fate
Update Completed Missions
Check for Mustering Out No Chance
Determine Reputation +1 -1 Reputation
Experience and Leveling
Roll for Operational Progress 74+10: Break through (+15)
Roll for Military Life Kato: You’re detached on special duties. You cannot participate in the next mission, but you receive a bonus roll on the Special Assignments table.
Check Entitlement to R&R None
Ready for Another Campaign Turn
Noooo Jake died, and the mission was a walk…
I am thinking about using Movie Magic to have him survive, but I’ll hold off my decision until the next game. I did roll a 01: Gruesome fate in a d% after all, and it feels odd to cancel such a strong result.
I’m writing this post on mobile so I can’t share the roster update now, but I’ll add it in a week or so when I’m back at the PC.
The boarding shuttle is back at the USS Astral Monarch.
“Any news of Jake?” Ariana asks as soon as she set foot aboard.
“Soon after your evacuation we detected an emergency pod launch from the hulk. An S&R team is heading there now.” The hangar crew reported.
“Fingers crossed.” Ariana grabs Kato’s arm tightly. “Perhaps he survived”.
Kato nods. “We’ll know soon.”
But they didn’t hear anything about Jake anymore. Any inquiries about the whereabouts of the trooper or the emergency pod where met with secrecy. Furthermore Ariana was informed that Kato would not join her at the next mission as he would be dispatched to other assignments. No friendly faces for her next assignment. Well that’s trooper life she thought… and went on with her training. At least the Red Coyotes assignment on this sector was going well. They were facing many different threats but they were slowly cleaning house. She started seeing the big picture. Unity wanted to secure the sector for overall expansion. This wasn’t reaction to a single threat, it was pacifying, making sure there’s not a single dent, to scare any core worlders. And they were making a darn good job at it.
Session Summary
This was a fun, fast session.
Using the tiles was a unique experience. On one hand there’s a limit to active combatants, which means you can protect corridors with strong melee characters, and only have to fight a few bugs at a time. You can also create choke points to funnel them through. However contact markers are free in their movement and can appear behind your lines at any time. Overall it was a nice change of scenery, but I realised I need more pieces for a good 2×2 table, as it was borderline adequate.
I’ll have to decide about Jake’s fate. Perhaps I’ll retire him without any answers and he could make a cameo appearance at my 5P campaign later on. However it was a “failure” point for my campaign to lose all three original characters. I may have to oversee this one given the particulars of this case, and just hold on to Ariana and Kato for now, see if any of them muster out.
The campaign seems to be reaching a good score at +15, and perhaps we’ll pacify the sector. I did also come up with a good narrative excuse for the varied enemy threats, which works for me.
It’s summer break now, so I expect some time to pass until I get to playing and posting the next episode.
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.
Special Assignments
Jake: Marksman Training: Failure
Fight a Tabletop Battle
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!
Red Coyotes Deploy on West edge
Battle Round 1
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.
Battle Round 2
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.
Battle Round 3
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.
Battle Round 4
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.
Battle Round 5
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.
Battle Round 6
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.
Battle Round 7
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…”.
Battle Round 8
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.
Battle Round 9
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…”
Battle Round 10
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.”
Battle Round 11
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.
Post Battle Report
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
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
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
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
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
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)
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
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)
Session Summary
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.
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.
Special Assignments
Ariana attempts to join Leadership Training: Success: +2 XP. Jake attempts to join Marksman Training: Failure. Kato attempts to join Survival Course: Failure
Kato, Ariana and Jake on board the USS Astral Monarch
Fight a (Virtual) Table Top Battle
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.
Red Coyotes deployed
Battle Round 1
Jake, Kato, Ariana and the Precursor move to the OverhangThe Fire Team goes down the slope from the other side into the caveA signal of danger is investigated, and a spawn point appears on the rear
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.
Battle Round 2
The Precursor Explorer jumps down the overhang only to make Contact with short of a score of Slithering Horrors!Kato moves to the edge of the overhang and shoots his Combat Rifle, killing the Slithering Horror with a barrage of shotsAriana joins the shooting
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 Fire Team goes to Secure the Objective
And make contact with Six Slithering Horrors!
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.
Battle Round 3
A Slithering Horror attacks Jake who beats it back
Another one jumps at Ariana, who kills it with her boarding sword!
The rest of the slithering horrors are just out of reach, so they stop before climbing the cliff
The Slithering Horrors attack the Fire Team, who fight back bravely, stunning two of them before a trooper perishes to the onslaught
Ariana and Kato kill one Horror each, while Jake misses his shots
and the Fire Team kills three more!
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.
Battle Round 4
Jake acts quickly shooting and killing a horror, before being jumped upon by another, and becoming a casualty
The horrors continue, attacking Kato and Ariana. Kato is down, Ariana is knocked back, still standing but overrun.
Ariana fights back against 5 Slithering Horrors! stunning them, before falling down next to her companions.
Only the Fire Team stands, shooting and killing two more horrors. Only one remains, they almost secured the objective.
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.
Battle Round 5 – 7+
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.
With the heroes perishing on the other side, all the Slithering Horrors swarm towards the Fire Team
The brave troopers shoot despite the odds and manage to kill three of them!
But the swarm has no end.
The two troopers still stand, against the Slithering Horrors in front of them, but there’s 3 more Slithering Horrors slithering in from the rear cave entrance. It’s all done.
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.
Post Battle Report
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
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
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
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
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)
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
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.”
Session Summary
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:
Great graphics
Custom miniatures import
Rulers, markers
Community content
Friendly User Interface
Things that were less than ideal:
Processing heavy
Custom scatter terrain acts like miniatures
Status tokens and markers workarounds
Chat
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.
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.
I understand perfectly, I have the same problem as you and with the preparation of the table the time to play is really little, it almost becomes a job
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.
Special Assignments
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.
Fight a Tabletop battle
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.
Battle Round 1
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.
Battle Round 2
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.
Battle Round 3
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.
Battle Round 4
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.
Battle Round 5
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.
Battle Round 6
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.
Battle Round 7
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!
Post Battle Report
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
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
Holbrook Linkovich
1
4″
+0
3
+2
Allyson Stoyer
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
Holbrook Linkovich
2
2
Scientific Outpost
Naval forces (Ships Crew)
Extended campaign
Allyson Stoyer
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
Holbrook Linkovich
Ep01
Death Ep01
Allyson Stoyer
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.
Session Summary
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.
It’s been some time since my last hobby related post. The main reason is I had a plan, and I was working on my plan in a parallel versus a serial manner, yet the completion stage relied on the parallel streams to be finished before release. If this sounds too vague, let me explain. If you don’t want to read about game preparation planning, you can jump down directly to session zero.
For some time now I wanted to continue playing Five Parsecs from Home. However there were some difficulties.
First of all I didn’t remember what happened in my Rogue Fists campaign. I tried diving into my notes and the actual play reports but they all were contradictory and inconclusive.
Secondly I didn’t have the same variety in space miniatures, but I resolved to fixing this by 3d printing several minis, and also purchasing some ground zero games extras. I’ve been working on this the past year or so and slowly increasing my sci fi ranges. I’ve posted about these previously.
Thirdly my sci fi terrain was scarce, really scarce, nothing compared to my fantasy range. So I focused on the past couple of months to print and paint sci fi terrain. I haven’t made separate posts about this, since it’s a parallel step I explain above that I only recently finished.
Finally before starting my new campaign, I read through the Five Parsecs from Home Compendium, and saw the new version of Five Parsecs from Home Bug Hunt which was included in it, and how you could muster out a character to a regular Five Parsecs from Home Campaign. And then I decided I wanted to do this. But this brought along a new issue: I did not have enough variety in bugs, with the exception of some Vanguard miniatures entomorphs which I have used extensively, I have nothing else. So I set down to print and paint sets of 16 miniatures of various bugs. I finished enough to have a good variety and be able to run a game. Haven’t posted these either, as again it was another parallel step.
Having reached the point where I could start my game I decided to jump right into the action rather than make separate posts about terrain and bugs, and explain my half reasoning there. Posts about these will follow, but you’ll be able to see them on my tables until then.
Session Zero
According to the compendium, I generated three characters, and used donjon to give them names. Two men and one woman of the Unity Army.
Using the Compendiun generator, my Hunter Squad belongs to the Red Coyotes regiment.
I like how this generator gives a rudimentary backstory, I’ll try to come up with a quick background for each.
Jake grew up in a prison planet, XP-484, known as Pyre. Criminals sentenced to these planets sometimes have families there during their service. Their children grow up in a tough environment and have the chance to escape their fate by serving in the militia or garisson. That was Jake, a typical run of the mill hardass. A bit unruly, but reliable to cover your six when there’s no escape.
Holbrook had a completely different upbringing. Having lived in a scientific outpost in LD-469, known as Cartwright’s Stand, he quickly joined the Naval Academy and set off for exploring the stars. An academic mind, he saw an extended campaign, gathering experience.
Alyson was a run of the mill soldier in the recon forces. She grew up in the core worlds, in TZ-452, in a city with the name of Rat’s Nest. She did she action policing the region from criminals, and even got a commendation for her exceptional service.
I chose some suitable miniatures and went on to my first mission.
Session 1
In this game, I did detailed note-taking as I have done in the past with my Five Leagues from the Borderlands games and Forgotten Ruin. However, due to the massive amount of combat, enemies and status monitoring, the game took too long. I will therefore do myself and you, a favour and not depict all those combat rolls, and just describe the combat and if any rule or mechanism of action was noteworthy, I’ll give it the necessary mention.
Since this is the first mission, I’ll skip the Special Assignments, and jump right away to Mission Generator. I went ahead and setup the battle area, using my new terrain and board.
Fight a Tabletop Battle
For the objectives I rolled up a normal Retrieve objective, and a Vital Retrieve objective. I find that the way that objectives are place is really smart. It’s a combination of randomness and player awareness, so the objective placements make sense, but still the player can’t feel like they’re cheating. Essentially you place the objectives across the map, with whatever makes sense, and then roll to see which ones are removed and which ones remain in place.
For mission difficulty I choose Mess Me Up, which is Moderate.
I rolled for the Priority Rating and it was 5. That’s a high priority mission and my squad is green. Which in turn this means a maximum Spawn Rating at 3.
For the loadout, I give Jake a Hand Cannon and Boarding Sword, Holbrook gets the standard Combat Rifle, and Allyson gets a Shotgun.
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 a second Fire Team, a Sarge, a Colonial Militia squad, and some Intel Report (they give a bonus to activating Tactical Locations), and failed to recquisite a Recon patrol.
I placed the Tactical Locations, and decided against using the Signals optional rule since it’s my first game. 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 and the marker as it was too close to my troops.
USS Astral Monarch returned to sublight speeds as they jumped out in the Wolf-5266 system. UB-643 was in sight, alarms blared and the Red Coyotes gathered in the briefing room.
Lt. Thompsanch was pointing in the system on the star map. Mission Uniform Delta 710620-734335 was on screen. “We lost contact with the science outpost in UB-643, a few days ago. We had reports of hostilities prior, but there is no hint of any enemy forces. Your task is simple: recover the research data. As you know per regulation XC-122E critical classified data are stored in secure access cases with transmitters, so that makes your jobs easier than a subspace courier’s. We cannot let this research fall into the wrong hands. Your NCOs will give you your specific assignments. Roll out.
Allyson looked at Holbrook. “What do you think is in these data cases Mr. Nerdy guy?” she teased. “Definitely something important. They wouldn’t send us for a simple recovery mission.” Holbrook replied with a flat unexpressionable tone. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re a Soulless, Linkovich.” Jake jumped in. “Come on dudes, you think we’ll be lucky enough to see some action at last?”. “Bradley, you forget. we have already seen action.” Allyson provoked him. Jake shrugged. “Huh, I’m talking about real action.” he turned and started sprinting to the armory “Hand Cannon’s mine!” he shouted as he left them behind.
Battle Round 1
The Red Coyotes appear in the East battlefield edge. From North to South: Colonial Militia, Holbrook, Allyson, Fire Team Bravo, Jake, Sarge, Fire Team Alpha.
Quick Action phase Holbrook reached a tactical location, activated it successfully and neutralized a contact marker. Jake reached another tactical location, but failed to activate it. Allyson moved next to Holbrook.
Enemy Action phase The contact markers didn’t move but doubled in intensity.
Slow Action phase Sarge moved towards the objective, Fire Team Bravo followed. Contact Marker revealed: Contact! We’re counting 13 shambling reanimations. Fire Team Bravo closes in and shoots at the shamblers, all troopers score a hit, but only one enemy casualty. Fire Team Alpha shoots from a distance, only one trooper hits, stunning the shambler. Colony Militia moves.
For the enemy type, I rolled a couple times until I got a "bug" type I had. I have printed and painted 16 miniatures of the Hungry Dead from Ill Gotten Games, but with the numbers for Shambling Reanimations I may need to add more, taking from my fantasy Zombies range.
Spawn phase A Spawn Point is revealed to opposite table edge. Countdown: 2.
The Red Coyotes reached the outpost. There was no movement in sight. Holbrook checked his data and turned to Sarge. “I see that one of the data is further inside the outpost, seems like our initial intel was incorrect.” The Sarge nodded and passed the orders to the team, and then checked his scanners. “I’m picking up interference. Could be movement, life forms or hostiles, stay alert, troopers.” “I’ll take position in this rocky passage, I think I’ll have good overview of the area from there.” Holbrook runs point, Allyson behind him, and then scans towards the interference with his binoculars. “Seems it’s just local pests running abound. We can scratch off this interference Sarge.” He radios over the comms. Allyson looks at him “You and your toys…” she mutters. Jake takes the other side towards the trees, but his investigation doesn’t reveal anything of use. Sarge moves with his troopers along, his eyes on the scanner the whole time, the signal increasing in intensity as he approaches, and then he sees them. Bloody messes of human bodies shambling around. He’s seen things in his time, but that was a bit extreme even for his resolve. He quickly snaps out of it. “Contact! Fire at will!” He shouts, and the troopers start shooting at the enemy, stunning them and eliminating one.
Battle Round 2
The objective marker at the start of the round is surrounded by zombies, so we need to clear the area from hostiles first.
Quick Action phase Sarge fires his shotgun and blasts one shambler. Allyson moves to get a clear line of fire and fires her shotgun, killing another.
Enemy Action phase The shamblers charge into Fire Team Bravo. One trooper is saved by their armor, then stunned, then killed and turned into a shambler. A shambler charges at Allyson, but she defends herself successfully, wounding it. The rest of the shamblers dash towards Fire Team Bravo. A Contact Marker doubles, while a second one moves towards Allyson, and is revealed to be Contact. 4 more shamblers appear.
Either this is a revised rule, or I had forgotten, but it seems that enemies in Bug Hunt can dash into melee combat! Which led me to the reckless decision of closing in with Fire Team Bravo and losing one of them, as I was foolishly believing they'll be too slow to reach me even in close firing range.
Slow Action phase Jake charges at a shambler with his boarding sword. He is stunned, and the shambler is wounded. Fire Team Bravo moves to allow clear line of fire for Fire Team Alpha, and then shoots at the shamblers, killing one and wounding another. Fire Team Alpha moves and shoots at the horde of shamblers, killing two of them. Colonial Militia shoots at the shamblers, while staying in cover, hitting 4 and killing 2. Holbrook shoots at the shamblers, but misses.
Spawn phase A new spawn point appears at Countdown 3, while the first one is reduced at 1.
The fighting begins. Shotguns make short work of the shamblers as Sarge and Allyson kill one each. However the strength of their enemy is in numbers, and one by one they jump onto the closest trooper of Fire Team Bravo. His armour saves him from his aggressors claws… at first, then he’s shook, and then he’s overwhelmed and bitten by the enemies. Moments later he stands back up, growling, looking at his former team mates with a desire to kill. “Sarge! these things are infectious!” a soldier cries out. “Keep your distance boys, and light them up!” Sarge shouts back. A rogue shambler dashes towards Allyson, she kicks it back, and bashes its head with the shotgun’s stock, killing it. Then she notices her scanner, the former blip increasing in intensity, and then a warning of imminent movement. In the heat of the battle she lost situational awareness. 4 shamblers were next to her, too close for her own good. “We need to cut them down!” Jake charges with his sword, however the shambler reacts more quickly than he initially anticipated, so he lost his wind. He did manage to score a wound, cutting off it’s legs in the process. The Fire Teams deliver their training, shooting in unison at the shamblers, eliminating 3 and disabling another. The Colonial Militia fire their carbines at the shamblers closing in at Allyson, and reduce their number in half. Holbrook tries to support as well, but misses his shots. “Come on Mr. Nerdy! didn’t they teach you shooting at Navy school?” Allyson mocks him.
Battle Round 3
Quick Action phase Fire Team Alpha shoots at the shamblers, killing 1 and stunning 3 Colonial Militia shoots at the shamblers next to Allyson killing 2. Allyson moves closer to the objective, and shoots at the shamblers that became aware of her, stunning it.
Enemy Action phase All shamblers are stunned, and thus don’t move, but remove their stun status. A Contact Marker moves aggressively towards Allyson. Revealed: Contact! 5 shamblers are on her. The second Marker also moves aggressively towards her, and 8 more shamblers are revealed.
I'm missing action and status tokens. I'm all keeping it written down, which makes it hard. Also on hindsight I should have recquisitioned grenades from support, would have been best.
Slow Action phase Holbrook runs to activate the tactical location. He activates it successfully, it’s a neutralize marker. Fire Team Bravo shoots at the shamblers, stunning them all, and eliminating one via stuns.
It's not stated in the rules, so I decided to hold to the neutralize marker until when a Contact Marker appears. Decided that it would have been too harsh to let it go to waste, especially given the difficulty of the mission.
Spawn phase A third spawn marker appears right behind the player battlefield edge! At countdown 1. The first spawn marker spawns a contact marker which is neutralized, and the countdown becomes 2. The second spawn marker countdown becomes 2.
Fire Team Alpha continues their burst fire. Their combat rifles, put a shambler down, and keep the rest suppressed. The Colonial Militia do their part, cleaning up the field next to Allyson from any hostiles. “See Mr. Nerdy? the Militia are better shots than you! Thanks boys!” she radios in. “Keep the radio clear for combat related information only Allyson!” Holbrook replies. Allyson tries to get closer to the data cases, but as she does, an enemy turns to her. She immediately blasts it, momentarily stopping it. The gunshots drew the attention, and it seems that the interference detected was more shamblers, they rise from the dirt, jump down from the roof, break through the windows, and suddenly, Allyson is facing more than a dozen. “Gah… guys! Need some help here!” she calls over the comms. Holbrook’s attention is drawn to a console among some crates. He hacks it quickly and finds that it’s attached to the outposts siren system. Perhaps he could use it to direct away some enemies that haven’t arrived into the fray yet. “Common Mr. Nerdy! drop the gadgets and get blasting, can’t you see we’re being overrun?” Allyson starts getting frustrated. Fire Team Bravo in unison with Alpha, keeps the shamblers suppressed, killing one more. “Sarge! look behind us!” a trooper points at the distance, where movement is visible. “We’ll be cut off if they arrive. Get to it trooper!” the Sarge orders him. Holbrook sees movement in his scanners at the end of the outpost, and hits the sirens. He immediately notices the blip move away from their location. “That’s how operational support works. You should read a book sometime Allyson.” Holbrook calls. “What happened to keeping comms clear, Mr. Nerdy?” she retorts.
Battle Round 4
Quick Action phase Allyson moves tactically to support Holbrook. She shoots and stuns a shambler.
The shamblers reach Holbrook, Allyson supports him
Enemy Action phase A shambler charges at Jake. He is wounded and it is stunned. Shamblers charge towards the Colonial Militia and reach the barricade. The other split towards Allyson and Holbrook. 2 shamblers charge Allyson, but both times her armor saves her. 2 more attack Holbrook, his armor saves, him from the first, but not the second and he becomes a casualty. As Allyson is pushed back, the rest of the shamblers turn towards the Colonial Militia who are closer.
Slow Action phase Colonial Militia shoot and wound one shambler and stun another. Fire Team Alpha misses all their shots. Fire Team Bravo misses as well, but two troopers work on closing down the Spawn Point behind them, and succeed. Jake kills a shambler with his hand cannon. Sarge kills another with his shotgun.
Spawn phase Spawns Countdown to 1.
Allyson looks frantically around, and notices how Holbrook has been split from the rest of the squad. “Go!” he shouts, regroup with the rest of the squad. “And let you have all the glory? I’ll be by your side until we send every single of those suckers into oblivion!” she responds. “You’re stuck with me.” She fires her shotgun at one of them, stopping it momentarily. Holbrook smiles for a second, before the first couple of shamblers charge at them with an unexpected speed. They bash and growl at them, sending them reeling back. Their armor scratched, but they’re both still in one piece. They look at each other, realizing what they’ve gotten into. Their thoughts are broken immediately as another couple of shamblers charge onto them. Again, they’re bashed, pushed further back, slow to react. Allyson’s armor holds further. The green paint scratched, the metallic sheen showing underneath. She looks to Holbrook, and sees blood. Splatter everywhere. “No! You bastards!” She screams at the top of her lungs. A tear forms, but then realization hits. She is cut off from the rest of the squad, and alone. She quickly gets her shit together, and thinks her next actions through. Meanwhile the rest of the shamblers split and dash towards the militia. The barricade holds for now, but the enemy has reached them too. Frantically they shoot back, but fear has overcome them, and they miss, merely harming one of the shamblers. Another shambler charges at Jake, he fights back with his sword, fending it off, but not before becoming hurt himself. “At least it’s not a bite” he thinks as he notices the blood trickle down his leg. He aims his hand cannon at the shambler who just attacked him, and blasts it to smitherins. Another shot behind him eliminates another shambler, Jake looks to his right, and notices the Sarge smiling as his shotgun is still smoking from the shooting. The Fire Teams are too preoccupied with the enemy contact to their rear. Worried that they’ll be isolated, their aim is not where it should be, and they miss all their shots. It’s not all to waste though. The troopers Sarge sent off return quickly with news. “We placed the sentry guns to the predefined locations sir. Our aft should be secure for the moment.” the troopers report. “Well done boys, now get back to the fighting!” he orders them.
Battle Round 5
Quick Action phase Allyson jumps over the wall and runs around the tower, delaying her shooting to fire at any approaching enemies. Colonial Militia shoot at the shamblers in front of them, killing 1 and wounding 1. Sarge moves, shoots and kills the shambler in front of him.
Here I realized the plan to have Allyson herd the shamblers around, and away from the objectives.
Enemy Action phase The two wounded shamblers attacks the Colonial Militia and kills two, turning them into shamblers. The other shamblers charge but are fended off and stunned by the Colonial Militia Shamblers charge at Allyson, she snap fires at the first one, but misses, her armor saves her from the first, but she got stunned by the second. She has retreated away from the rest of the shamblers, who follow.
Slow Action phase Fire Team Bravo turns to support their flank, killing two shamblers fighting the Colonial Militia and stunning another. Fire Team Alpha shoots at the shamblers in the front of the yard, stunning one. Jake moves and tries once more to activate the tactical location, and fails again.
Spawn phase Contact markers appear in both Spawn Points. One is revealed in sight of Allyson, 6 shamblers from the North. Spawn Countdown is unknown for one, and 4 for the other.
Allyson looks at the shamblers in front of her. She knows what she has to do. “Come you bastards, come get me!” she shouts at them, jumps over the stone wall, and runs back to the base of the tower, her shotgun aiming at them. The first one charges, she fires a shot, but misses, and it reaches her. With her thoughts at shooting, she wasn’t ready for brawling, and once more it’s her trusty armour that saves her skin. A second shambler follows and hits her, sending her tumbling back. The rest of the shambling mob follows. The Colonial Militia are in a fight for their lives against the shamblers, they eliminated one and mauled another. Then they get in close and personal and they fend off some, but they broke through their ranks, and amidst the chaos the troopers lost two men who were infected and now fight their former comrades. Fire Team Bravo shoots to support them, killing two shamblers, and suppressing the rest. The militia is too busy and frantic to say thanks. On the southern side, the Sarge’s trusty skill with the shotgun destroys another shambler, Fire Team Alpha provides supporting fire to him against the few remaining enemies. The yard is all but clear. Jake is persistent with investigating the woods. He’s certain he saw something of interest, but the more he searches, the more frustrated he becomes, as the fighting rages to the other side. “Get your ass here Bradley!” the Sarge shouts. He realizes he’s no Holbrook, and should let the research stuff off to others more savvy.
Battle Round 6
Quick Action phase Sarge moves and retrieves the objective. Allyson moves to draw away the horde of shamblers, and she climbs on the building. Another Contact Marker is revealed. Contact! 7 more shamblers. She attempts to activate the Tactical Location, but fails.
Enemy Action phase Shamblers attack the Colony Militia, killing two more. Shamblers charge at Allyson. One hits, she is saved by the armour. The other is a draw, but she is a casualty. Shamblers turn back towards the rest of the battle slowly.
Slow Action phase Last Colony Militia shoots and misses. Jake calls for Evac, but fails. Fire Team Bravo kills 2 shamblers and stuns another. Fire Team Alpha moves by the building and shoots the last wounded zombies in the yard, eliminating them.
Spawn phase Spawn Point Countdown set to 2 for one marker, and down to 3 for the other.
Treading carefully between the disabled shamblers, Sarge reaches the first secure case with the data. “Objective Alpha accomplished. One more to go.” He radios in. Allyson smiles. She knows what she has done has helped the Red Coyotes bring this victory to Unity. “You go get the rest for me Sarge. And give these guys hell.” She calls, and then turns to the shamblers. “Hey dumbasses, here I am, come and get me” she shouts. “We don’t need you to be hero Allyson.” Jake calls. “Get your ass back here.” “I just need to get these maggots away from you long enough Jake.” She replies, and runs and climbs on the outpost hub. She recalls that these hubs have an automated incinerator system both to create a fire-safety zone and to also eliminate any wildlife that comes dangerously close. If only she could hack into the console from the rooftop. “Yeah but double back after. We lost many good men here today. Promise.” Jake tries to convince her over the comms. She’s trying to connect the cables, but in the heat of battle, she fails. Her hands are shaking. ‘Dammit.’ she thinks. “Promise. Same as you promised to stop smoking those cigars.” She teases, but deep inside she knows. She hears growling from the West and takes a good look. There’s shamblers all around her. The first one climbs on the rooftop, and jumps at her. She barely kicks it back, saved once more by her armour. There’s no sliver of paint left on it anymore. It’s almost all, scratched metal. Another shambler follows. She hits it back with the stock of her shotgun, but it barely flinches, as it’s claws dive into her. “Allyson…? Allyson…?” Jake tries once more to reach her, but, there’s radio silence. He turns the frequency to HQ. “Hey Thompsnach! We got your precious data! Get us out of here! We are getting decimated!” “Trooper identify yourself! Bradley? is this you? Learn how to talk to an officer first. Do your job!” Lt. Thompsanch replies, closing comms.
In the meantime, the Colonial Militia is in a rough spot, with two more of their men turning into shambling reanimations after torn by their nonstop assault. The last man of the squad, misses all his shots, but Fire Team Bravo, kills the shamblers threatening him. Fire Team Alpha eliminates the shamblers in the yard “Yard Clear.” They radio in over the comms.
Battle Round 7
Quick Action phase Sarge climbs further up, dashing to the Vital Objective. He can’t pick it up since he dashed, must wait till next round.
Enemy Action phase One shambler that is close enough climbs up and attacks the Sarge. He wins the combat, and kills the shambler. The rest of the shamblers gather around the bottom of the building. Shamblers attack the Colonial Militia who fends one off, and is stunned by the other. Another shambler removes their stun status.
Slow Action phase Colonial Militia shoots and stuns the shambler. Fire Team Bravo shoots and eliminates the shambler and stun another. Jake calls for Evac successfully. Fire Team Alpha moves and shoots the shamblers, killing one.
Spawn phase Spawn Countdown to 1 and 2 respectively for the two Spawn Points.
‘Why is it in the rooftop?’ Sarge wonders as he checks again the intel from the datapad scan. He climbs to the rooftop, and there he sees the data case, next to a relay console, probably whoever carried it there was trying to send the data before they were infected. Before he has a chance to grab it, a shambler climbs quickly up and jumps at him. With sharp reflexes and a slash of his boarding sword, the Sarge cuts the shambler in half. More shamblers start gathering at the bottom of the building. He knows he must make a quick exit. Jake calls in HQ again. “This is Bradley, permission to speak with Lt. Thompsanch sir.” “Permission granted go Bradley.” HQ responds. “Lt. Sir, our losses are mounting we already lost Linkovich and Stoyer, the Militia is down to the man.” He reports. “What about the objectives trooper?” Thomsanch asks. “Objective Alpha is secured, Objective Bravo will be in a few moments, if you time Evac correctly, we’ll have it in the drop ship. It’s vital for the success of the mission Sir.” Jake explains. “Alright Bradley, you’ll have your Evac, we’ll talk about your conduct when you’re back on board.” The Lieutenant responds. “We have Evac!” Jake calls over the comms. “Punching in coordinates now!” Meanwhile the two Fire Teams move in cohesion, eliminating slowly one by one shamblers in their sights, giving precious moments of life to the last Colonial Militia who fights for his life against the infected. Only two shamblers remain in front of him. From the West, and the North, the horde slowly approaches.
Battle Round 8
Quick Action phase Sarge retrieves the Vital Objective. Fire Team Bravo moves and shoots the shamblers at the base of the main building, eliminating one. Fire Team Alpha surrounds the two sides of the tower, shoot and stun the rest of the shamblers at the base of the building.
Enemy Action phase Shambler attacks Colonial Militia and wounds him. Shamblers remove stuns or move closer.
Slow Action phase Jake moves closer to the Evac. Colonial Militia shoots shambler and misses.
Spawn phase Contact Marker is spawned. Countdown set to unknown. The other Spawn Point has Countdown reduced to 1. Dropship arrives.
Without wasting any previous moments, the Sarge picks up the last case. “I have the cases. Provide cover!” he calls over the comms, and the Fire Teams respond in unison. Bravo finds a line of fire from the side and eliminates one of the shamblers, while Alpha in an encircling motion, suppress the rest. Jake, wounded, slowly drags himself towards Evac. He has arranged for it to come to the main compound, near the cases. The mission comes first. Always. The Colonial Militia is on his own against two. His shots miss, the shamblers charge, and he is mauled. Then they all listen to the roaring sound of the shuttlecraft engines meant for VTOL. Even the shamblers stop for a mere second and look at the sky. The troopers cheer, glad they have a chance to survive this massacre.
Battle Round 9
Quick Action phase The dropship shoots at both flanks of the shambler horde, stunning two zombies from the West. The Sarge, Jake and several troopers Evac.
Enemy Action phase Shamblers charge at Fire Team Alpha, where two troopers saved by their armor gain the upper hand, killing a shambler. A shambler attacks the last of the Colonial Militia and kills him, a shambler taking his spot.
Slow Action phase The last of the troopers move to the dropship and Evac.
Mission Complete
Under the cover of light machinegun fire, lighting up the shambling horde, the troopers enter the dropship, Jake and Sarge with the secure data cases among them. He motions for the pilots to wait a few moments as more troopers keep fighting on the ground. They see the fight from the windows of the hovering dropship. The shamblers horde closes in, but is still at a distance, however the last few shamblers are in close quarter combat with the remaining troopers. The troopers from Alpha in the protection of their unity standard issue armour, fend them off, killing one in the process, but the last of the militia falls to them. The last troopers grab the rappel lines and soon, they fly off. “You think they survived?” Sarge asks Jake about Holbrook and Allyson. “If anyone would, it’d be them.” Jake answers while looking below as the outpost vanishes in the distance. His thoughts to his lost battle companions.
Post Battle Report
Determine Casualties and Lost Marines Holbrook: Death or crippling injury Allyson: Gruesome fate
So I had to roll two new squad members.
Name
Origin
Basic Training
Service History
Ariana Raschke
Trade Hub
Planetary Militia
Anti-pirate operation
Kato Minoru
Military Outpost
Ground Forces (Scouts)
Police Action
So they have the following stats
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
XP
Completed Missions
Ariana Raschke
1
5″
+0
3
+0
4
1
Kato Minoru
2
5″
+1
3
+0
0
1
And they bring one point of Reputation with them.
Ariana grew up in the Ross-3910 Star System which has a major Trade Hub. As part of the citizen life there she had to serve in the Militia, and saw action fighting off space pirates. She’s professional.
Kato was the son of a traditional military family, going from outpost to outpost, not staying in one for long. He quickly joined the Scouts, and saw some police action against dissidents.
Update Completed Missions Jake Bradley +1
Check for Mustering out No chance
Determine Reputation With the rolls and the completion of Objectives we get 2 points of Reputation, for a total Reputation of 5.
Experience and Leveling Jake earns 5 XP
Roll for Operational Progress Break through: We pushed the enemy back in critical sectors.
Roll for Military Life I rolled that it is about Jake: You spend time in the brig. Adjust Reputation by -1 and miss the next mission.
Check entitlement to R&R Only R&R right now is the brig.
Ready for Another Campaign Turn Let’s check our Roster, taking under consideration that Jake won’t join in the mission.
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
XP
Completed Missions
Jake Bradley
1
5″
+1
4
+0
6
1
Ariana Raschke
1
5″
+0
3
+0
4
1
Kato Minoru
2
5″
+1
3
+0
0
1
Reputation 4.
They arrived back on USS Astral Monarch, in orbit. Lt. Thompsanch was waiting for them. “It was a gruesome fight down there Sir, and he lost two of his close friends…” Sarge was cut off by the Lieutenant. “The way trooper Bradley conducted communications in the mission shows that he doesn’t need anyone speaking for himself, but perhaps he needs someone to speak instead of himself. Some time in the brig will make him the principles of military life.” He turns to Jake. “Trooper Bradley, 1 month in the Brig for Unbecoming Conduct and Improper use of Communications. Dismissed” Jake suppressed the urge to spit, punch or headbutt the Lieutenant. Instead he stood face straight and calmly said “Sir, Yes Sir.” Turning to Sarge. “If you learn anything of their fate… let me know.” Two officers from research arrived to get the data, and the rest of the troops went for debriefing.
A few days later, news of the gruesome fate of Allyson and Holbrook reached Bradley. He held hope, but deep inside he knew they couldn’t have survived the horde. Any recon and scans showed no human life back on the planet. The Lieutenant and the Sergeant had a conversation. “Sir, you took one of my best troopers off the roster, and I just lost two more, how are we going to field a proper force in the next mission? The grunts are only so much good, I need this quality of troopers for battle.” Sarge asked. “Don’t fret too much Sergeant. We’re all expendable. But just so you know, we got reports that we had a break through in this sector. And with the success of your squad, and data you retrieved, I’m confident it might take a while until the next mission. Perhaps you’ll have Bradley back until then.” The Sergeant didn’t look happy. “Take a look at this.” He hands over a datapad. “We have two new replacements tomorrow, for the troopers you lost. You’ll only be one trooper short.” “Ariana Raschke and Kato Minoru…” the Sergeant reads out loud. “They look good in combat but they have no brains. I need someone to cover for the skills of Holbrook, he was a wizard with tech. Sir.” “You’re pushing it Sergeant. Get them acquainted with the squad, and let them know what happens if they speak out of order to an officer.” and with this the Lieutenant dismissed him.
Session Summary
Whew that was a long one. The battle lasted longer than I expected. Rules wise, there are a few subtle differences than the core Five Parsecs from Home, but they’re to the point. As usual, I made a mistake or two while playing, but overall it was a smooth experience. Loved the battle, the lack of balance, the fight against all odds.
I enjoyed how I had to adapt tactics according to what was happening on the field, and these tactics had as much a say to what was happening, as the dice rolls. Choices are simple, terrain and miniatures worked fine. I absolutely enjoyed using the stuff I finished.
Battle was on a 60 cm x 60 cm board, 15mm scale miniatures, based on 15mm radius bases. To accomodate for the smaller board size and terrain, I did a small conversion of distances to double the value measured in centimeters instead of inches, which gives an 80% adjustment, and I find it works well.
What I need to change is the note taking, as it took me a good while longer to write everything down, and kind of broke the flow of the play. But to do this, I need to have some proper markers. This will take away a lot of the mental and note taking load. Furthermore I’ll need to rely more on writing down stuff in a narrative prose directly, and only take notes of status and effects not actions. For the markers I’ll probably turn to 3d printing as I don’t have a regular printer.
Overall I really enjoyed the session and looking forward to playing further, in a more effective manner, by applying the lessons learned. I also enjoyed sitting down and writing the story afterwards, instead of rushing to get the content out.
I was aiming for running this session last weekend, but with Strep and Flu B in the family two weeks in a row, I just didn’t have the energy to do it. The day came though, and I set a game up for the third Field Exercise of Forgotten Ruin. It took me an entire week though to write it down and post it.
This one has the entire Squad (both Fire Teams AND the Squad Leader), but no Platoon officers, so pretty much the regular team that I’ll be taking with me during the campaign.
The enemy force is just two Orc Mobs (Warriors + Archers) of Five orcs each, which sounds easier than last battle, especially considering how I’ll have double the firepower with me this time.
However, the objective is not to eliminate the enemy, but have a troop of mine go to the center of the battlefield and spend an action there. This sounds way more dangerous than sitting in the safety of long range. I can, of course game the game and sit back and let the orcs come to me, but where would the fun be in that!?
Distance conversions Since the game is focused for a 3×3 table, and I’m going with 15mm miniatures on a 2×2 table (with the new 15mm base size, yay!), I’ll do a subtle conversion to gain a bit more room to play, but without being too fiddly to use. I’ll double the values, but measure in centimeters instead of inches, so a Speed of 5″, would convert to 10 cm.
Champions: 1,2 No Champions
The two Fire teams met, and Sergeant First Class Nielsen arrived and took command from Master Sergeant Frank Lee. “Squad is yours Nielsen, I have to get back to Platoon HQ. Tangos are 2 klicks NNE, they seem to be guarding a tower. You are to investigate and eliminate any opposition.” Lee gave the orders and left, M16 strapped on his shoulder. A short while later the 9 soldiers arrived at the point of interest. Two mobs of orcs were visible in the distance, archers sitting behind cover in some ruins. A tower in the middle of the battlefield. Nielsen gathered the squad. “Fire Team 1 take the West Side, Fire Team 2 take the East side, you’ll provide cover against the enemy. I’ll rush in to investigate and dash back to you.”
Pvt. Mays shoots his M70 at the orc archers in cover: 6+1: Great hit: 1+1/1+1: No Damage Pvt. Gibson shoots his M60 at the orc archers in cover: 3,3,4,4: Miss Sgt. Mayer shoots his M16 at the orc archers in cover: 2: Miss
Enemy Phase
The Orc archers suffer from War rage, and they move out of cover The Orc warriors move in a flanking motion from the other side
Slow Phase
SFC Nielsen dashes to the objective tower Pvt Huff shoots his M16 at the Orc archers out of cover: 4: Hit: 2: No Damage Fire team 1 moves to the rock formation
Round 1
Fire Team 2 opens a volley of fire at the orc archers in the ruined gatehouse, however the orcs are in cover, and most of the shots miss, except one aimed shot by Pvt. Mays’ sharpshooter rifle, which grazes an orc, without wounding it. Furious that they’re being shot at, the orc archers jump down from the gatehouse and out of cover, screaming war cries at the soldiers. The other group of orcs, stay in cover and proceed in a flanking movement from the west. With the enemy busy, SFC Nielsen runs in a straight line towards the tower. Pvt. Huff takes an extra shot at the orc archers, but misses, while Fire Team 1 moves in ready position waiting for the enemy to come to them, and keeping overwatch of the open ground at the west side of the tower.
Pvt. Gibson shoots his M60 at the orc archers out of cover:6,2,2,1: Great Hit: 4,1: One orc archer is down Pvt. Mays shoots his M70 at the orc archers out of cover: 4+1: Hit: 1+1: No Damage Cpl. Mayer shoots his M16 at the orc archers out of cover: 5: Hit: 6: Orc archer down Pvt. Huff shoots hiss M16 at the orc archers out of cover: 5: Hit: 1: No Damage SFC Nielsen moves into the tower: Interact: 5+1/4: Success Sgt. Welch Delays Pfc. Shaffer Delays Orc Archers Morale: 2,4: Orc Archers Stay
Enemy Phase
Orc Archers shoot at SFC Nielsen (in cover): 1,5,3: Miss Orc Warriors War rage forwards SFC Nielsen
Slow Phase
PFC Shaffer shoots his M60 at the Orc Warriors: 1,2,3,4: Hit: 6: Orc Warrior is down Sgt Welch shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 5: Hit: 5: Orc Warrior is down Pvt Murphy shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 5: Hit: 4: Orc Warrior is down Pvt. Franks shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 3: Miss Orc Warriors Morale: 2,4,6: Orcs Warriors Stay
Round 2
Fire team 2 keeps shooting at the enemy, who are now carelessly out of cover. Two orc archers are down. SFC Nielsen enters the ruined tower. As he scouts around he sees weird markings of a ritualistic nature. He notes some of them down in his notepad, before noticing the orc archers through the rubble at the dilapidated north wall, aiming at shooting at him. The arrows all strike at the masonry, Nielsen is safe for a few moments, but he knows he has to get out of there. The Orc group from the west, enraged at their enemy in the tower, rush towards him, hoping to get there soon, but they’re now out of cover. Fire team 1 blasts at them with all their guns, killing three of them.
SFC Nielsen moves out of the tower back towards the squad Cpl Mayer shoots his M16 at the Orc Archers: 6: Great Hit: Damage: 5,5: Orc Archer is down Sgt Welch shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 3: Miss Pvt Gibson shoots his M60 at the Orc Archers: 5,5,3,2: 2 Hits: 6,2: Orc Archer is down Pfc Shaffer shoots his M60 at the Orc Warriors: 2,3,3,4: Hit: 5: Orc Warrior is down Morale: Orc Archers: 3,3: Orc Archers Stay Morale Orc Warriors: 2: Orc Warrior Stays
Enemy Phase
Orc archer moves forward and shoots SFC Nielsen: 5: Hit: Damage: 1 SFC Nielsen is stunned Orc Warrior is with war rage and dashes towards Nielsen
Slow Phase
Pvt Mays shoots his M70 at the Orc Archer: 4+1: Hit: 6+1: Orc Archer is down Pvt. Murphy shoots his M16 at the Orc Warrior: 5: Hit: 6: Orc Warrior is down
Battle is over.
Round 3
SFC Nielsen is not going to stay and find out if he can defeat the orcs in close combat. He dashes out of the tower back towards the safety of his own men. In the meantime, the Fire teams don’t stop shooting. 2 more orc archers are down, and another orc warrior. Despite their severe losses, the humanoids stick to fight to the end. The last remaining orc archer has a clear shot at the squad leader and takes it, the arrow hitting the Sergeant. From the west another orc closes at him, screaming with rage and brandishing his weapons. They don’t get a chance to hurt the sergeant again though. A careful shot from Private Mays, takes out the archer, and one from Private Murphy takes out the warrior. The day is victorious, without any casualties, but they need to head back and report to HQ what they found.
Summary
As expected, the player side was victorious. I felt like the odds were in our favor right from the start. We were facing against fewer enemies, and we had more men than in the previous exercise. Perhaps if the table was more busy with terrain it could have been a bit different. During the regular campaign, terrain placement is more random from what I’ve read, and not left up to the player as in the exercises. It is my understanding that this (and of course the Aggression rule) will have severe impact to the flow of battle, but I’ll have to play it out and see for myself. The battle ended quickly and I didn’t even have to (or rather forgot because it was going so well) use the Leadership tactics. For the beginning of the campaign in next session, I’ll write down and finalize my own theme of the world, and perhaps spend a Story point to bring in Athen Smarte from my solo RPG sessions.
Onibaba are discussing. 
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Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
Onibaba 9:31 am on November 26, 2025 Permalink |
Thx for the BR, amazing as always. Good for Ariana a much earned vacantion
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giorgis 11:47 am on November 27, 2025 Permalink |
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
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