Five Parsecs from Home: Turn 23 - Get off Deon B!

 EARL had contacted a local trawler captain who was offering to get the settlers offworld. She arrived in good time at the excuse for a landing port on this sector of Deon B. The plan was to fly off together and reach the Moon of Biitas 12, location of a pretty well established, almost official, transit hub. The hope was to aqcuire a freighter and fly off to the fringe in the hope of another chance at a new life. A dust storm was beginning to whip up, reducing visibility quite considerably.

Thanks and goodbyes were underway. It was emotional.

A shot rang out, a settler crumpled. Nova Cartel wasn't done yet! With visibility so low, they had to be almost on top of the escapees!

Baratski fired into the dust at some vague figures. Brenko charged off firing her shotgun. One cartel member was killed and another was sent scurrying under a hail of buckshot. 

Furious laser and plasma fire burnt the ground, put holes in Brenko's coat, and set the scrub ablaze. Brenko was desperately hugging the ground!

Mao had been keeping watch and shot off some accurate needle fire at the attackers, killing one and making the others think twice. One of them did not look like a cartel member! Who was this?

Using her arm implants Phillips lobbed a grenade. The explosion sent parts of one cartel member flying while the other had to duck and hide.

Augustus Holmes flanked around the building and finished the final member of this group off. 

Ulrich Nolan and Phillips started firing on the other squad, pinning one of them down.

Mao jumped out of cover and shot one of the cartel members down, then redirected his fire to the strange other figure.

A cartel member, even though pinned down, managed to fire off some accurate plasma blasts, knocking Ulrich down in a cloud of  burnt-flesh-smelling vapour. That was going to hurt!

Mao startedtaking fire so had to duck back behind the cargo. That cartel member used that opportunity, Mao having his head down, to scarper. He had had enough.

Phillips then started taking accurate machine pistol fire and had to duck. There was just one person left to fight.

In response Holmes snuck around the corner to open fire on the final remaining figure, pinning him.

Mao then charged out and opened fire, killing the remaining enemy. Upon further investigation this person was probably just a gun for hire, looking for a pay day. I guess it didn't pay that well then. Ulrich Nolan was carted back to the Pelican. He was going to have to spend a while in medbay, and even then he might not fully recover. It was going to be touch and go. Those plasma weapons are pretty rough on the human body. 

It was time to launch and get away from Nova Cartel. Life was too short to stay on this rock, and Tonia Wildner and co. would have had to spend the rest of their lives escaping capture. Time to settle elsewhere. Luckily nutripods can be grown in most climates, and there are many, many planets similar to Deon B out on the edge of known space. 

Some time later both the Pelican and the freighter, known as Old Bertha found a place to land on the Moon of Biitas 12. Luckily for the Pelican crew they had a stash of fuel so it didn't really cost them. Both ships clanked down to the ground, groaning and showing signs of their age. While landing one of the landing strut hydraulic systems malfunctioned. Baratski rushed to hold it together and took quite an injury, busting up her leg. She was going to have to spend time in medbay along with Nolan. 

Before looking for work, it was time to set the settlers up with a ship or a flight out of here. While looking for a ship Augustus Holmes decided it was time to upgrade the Pelican. He organised the installation of a merchant link - a device that would allow easier access to some of the more established and perhaps legitimate traders when planetside.  

Welcome to Back Water outpost.

 A tiny outpost. An unregistered freighter. This can only mean hijinks are afoot. I finally flocked and did some drybrushing on this. I have been dormant in this hobby while the building work has been going on. It is now the Christmas break and I intend to spend a few evenings and early mornings doing some painting and building. I have quite a backlog to clear of half finished stuff. 

New work laptop. I can't seem to edit photos on it, and I refuse to boot up my personal laptop which will take 40 minutes to load, then crash. 

Five Parsecs from Home - Turn 2.1. The first turn with the new Five Parsecs rules.

 Having gone back to their renegade patrons, the group was paid a few credits. This would be enough to cover the crew upkeep costs and to pay off a little bit of the debt on The Pelican. When checking out the battlefield they found what looked like a stash of jewellery that seemed quite unique. They decided to keep hold of it and put it out on the Net that it had been recovered. 

After consulting with each other, the crew decided to stay on Launia for a little while. With any luck they could earn enough with another couple of jobs to upgrade The Pelican. Launia has some well established shipyards and there is enough ship related infrastructure to make upgrading a starship cheaper. 

Aralay Brenko was sent out to find a job, which she managed to do. Augustus Holmes went to a local dive, in order to find someone to join the crew, he came back with a machinegun armed Lars Nicolau. Lars was looking to get paid and get off this planet asap, so it seemed like a good fit to him.

Aralay came back with a job from the Scappers Guild who needed help dealing with some pirates who were proving especially difficult and resourceful.

Left to right: Estelle Phillips, Augustus Holmes, Lars Nicolau. 

Left to right: Oslan Baratski, Aralay Brenko, Mao Yung-Zu

The job was simple: gather information on a shipment of important scrap parts, from a station that had a pirate problem. The idea was to speak to the attendant, get the information, then push through, past the pirates in order to bring this info to the Guild's contact across the city.

The crew came from the southern district, intent on quickly grabbing the important information and making off with it with minimal stress. The pirates, on the other hand, had other ideas. They wanted that scrap and would fight to get it.

Brenko and Mao were able to get the drop on the pirates and advanced up towards the west. The plan was to split into two teams and sneak through the cluttered freight yard, in order to meet up with the attendant.

Brenko has a Reaction value of 2, while the rest are on 1. So only two were able to move in the "Quick Moves" part. Next would be the enemy, then the rest of the team. For this game I changed all measurements into centimetres and while it was a bit fiddly moving my tiny figures around, it worked and meant I could have a nice, busy looking game area that fit in a 1x1 square.

The pirates advanced swiftly, keeping a tight formation, hoping to be able to hose any hostiles with enough fire to drive them off. The front left there is a sniper with a hunting rifle, while the front right has a pirate with a handheld flamethrower. In the back, third from the left is the leader, who is also known to the authorities and has a not insignificant number of warrants out for his arrest. If my crew eliminate him there is a reward. There is also a bounty out on any members of this pirate crew as they have been causing quite a few problems to a few organisations. 

Pirates are and Aggressive opponent, so they generally would always advance into combat, or advance to find targets. Heavy weapons (the kneeling sniper figure) would not move if they had LOS to a target. I get 1D3 credits for eliminating the leader, and 1D6 credits for winning a battle against these guys.

With the freight yard so cluttered, there was little room for line of sight. The crew and the pirates all advanced and closed in on each other. It was only a matter of time before bullets would be flying.

With no shooting they are all adding +2cm onto their moves as they are dashing.

Brenko made it unnoticed to the shipping containers, her plan was to dash over to the logs and again into slicing range! Her blade humming, ready to go.

These pictures might be in the wrong order.

Mao and Baratski dashed along the outskirts of the freight yard, while Phillips advanced along the northern edge. Lars was positioning himself to cover the entire area with machinegun fire and Holmes found himself a nice firing position nestled in cover.

The first shots rang out with Lars attempting to lay down some heavy fire. Unfortunately, the pirates not being in close range, and some having cover, he missed his shots, although one was pinned and dived deeper into cover.

Pinned is stunned. I just prefer the term pinned. 

Return fire from the pirates sent Lars scurrying for cover, but  there had been no blood spilt so far. 

It was at this point that I think realised I was doing shooting wrong. I wasn't adding the character's combat value to my attack roll. I was also rejecting any damage roll that wasn't 6 because I misread the rules. I just have to equal or go higher than their toughness value, which for pirates is 4.

The flamethrower-toting pirate decided to sneak behind the buildings, in order to surprise anyone who would try to advance up into close combat.

It was at this point I realised I had been playing the pirates wrong and not following the Aggressive AI properly. With no LOS they should be advancing max move. With LOS they should be advancing (to cover if possible) and shooting. I read that as advancing out of cover to new cover, or to the open no matter what. Their goal is to close the distance and brawl if possible.

Brenko's quick reactions allowed her to advance further, in the hope she can get her blades working on someone's face. She was, however, all out in the open! It is a good job for her that the pirates couldn't shoot for anything in this moment and some bullets bounced harmlessly around her.

Advancing out of cover, Holmes attempted to take down a pirate, but his shots went wide, leaving a handful of bullet holes in the rear of the train. Hopefully it would buff out...

Estelle Phillips had managed to sneak around the top and was hoping to hold off the pirates who were also sneaking around the back of the train.

Brenko advanced again, while the pirates laid down some withering fire, which was mostly ineffective ... mostly. Lars went down in a hail of bullets, clutching his chest, blood seeping through his fingers. He quickly stopped moving.

So upon figuring out how fire should really be, the first casualty was my newest recruit. Great. He is out of the battle and afterwards we will roll for his injury or death.

The flamethrower-toting pirate jumped out and tried to burn Brenko up, but launched the flames too high. It was ineffective. This may have had something to do with Brenko's sonic emitter, which works to disorientate opponents who are in close proximity. Meanwhile Mao leaned around the corner and blasted his shotgun. Two shots, to hits, two pirates went down in a flurry of buckshot. 

It absolutely had to do with Brenko's sonic emitter. Enemies within 5 get -1 on their hits. Quite a nice bit of tech. Brenko did no combat this game, so didn't get to take advantage of the Battle Visor she was wearing, which lets her reroll 1s. 

Holmes laid down some fire on the flamethrower. It was a scary weapon and he didn't want to be on the end of it! His shots struck true and the pirate went sprawling across the floor.

This was a quick, deadly exchange of fire. It was really cool to see it work.

Seeing the pirates huddling up to sneak past the train, Phillips advanced and threw a grenade. A puff of black smoke, a muffled boom, and all that was left were a couple of red smears on the side of the train and on the tarmac, as well as one remaining pirate who was rethinking her life choices. Two of the remaining three pirates rethought it enough to run away and tell the rest of the crew about what was happening. They would be back.

It was at this point that I remembered I should have been rolling for morale. I think I had missed one round of morale? I honestly can't recall. I took the risk and advanced Phillips, which meant throwing the grenade had a -1 penalty to hit, but because they were in the open, in close range, I went from needing a 3+ to a 4+ which I still got. Ironically Phillips had an Arm Booster, which gave +2 to grenade throwing range, meaning she didn't even need to move!!

Quick reactions again allowed Phillips to fire at the last remaining pirate with her shotgun. The pirate crumpled and fell, blood dripping through gloved fingers as they clutched at her chest. 

With no remaining pirates to worry about, Holmes and Brenko found the attendant and got the relevant information from him, the crew then picked up Lars and took him to a local med-centre were they had to spend 1₹ to get him through some emergency surgery. Oslan Baratski stayed at the freight yard and found 2₹ worth of scrap parts. These would sell easily on the grey market. The crew also managed to get their hands on another damaged Distraction Bot and a damaged grappling gun. These might be worth repairing, they might not be.

With Lars stabilised, the crew went over to their contact in the Scappers Guild. It was time to get paid. They managed to walk away with 4₹ along with an extra 2₹ for taking care of that particularly nasty pirate leader. A meeting with local lawmen earned the crew another 2₹ for the bounty on these pirates. It was time to regroup, rest, train up and decide what else to do next. Brenko also completed a side job trading some tech, which earned the crew another 2₹.

Meanwhile, across the city some pirates met. This would not do. The time would come where this off-worlder ship crew would have to pay. That time would be soon. Revenge would be swift, messy, and final.

Lars gained 1xp as he was a casualty. The others all gained 3xp as they held the field. Mao earned 4xp as he got the first kill. Mao spent 10xp on 1 Luck point. Baratski spent 7xp to improve her Toughness by 1. The rest must wait, although in the next campaign turn Brenko will train, earn 1xp and spend it all improving her Toughness or Combat. 

In total they earned 11₹ which will be useful to pay off a chunk of their ship debt. After one more mission I hope they will be able to buy a ship upgrade with a discount of 4₹ . They get a discount of 2₹ for being on a shipyard world, and another 2₹ for something they found last game. 

I really enjoyed this game. Having it all in one book helped. Changing the measurements to 1cm worked well and I had a really small sized game. The combat worked well once I figured it out. It felt like I could lose my team, which is scary and makes me think of XCOM Enemy Unknown and how sad I get when I lose soldiers in whom I have become invested.

Looking forward to next game.

The Defense of New Charon pt. 5

 I managed to get off my butt and play a spontaneous game the other night. It was quick, a little bit lame, half hearted by myself, and stopped when I started paying more attention to the TV show "This Is Us", that my wife was watching, and I was kind of half keeping up with. Great show so far (2 episodes in). 

New Charon Militia:
P2 Mech HQ Unit
P2 Mech - heavy hitters
P3 Heavy cavalry
P1 Light infantry x5

NCU
P2 Mech HQ unit
P2 Mech
P2 Light cavalry
P2 Light cavalry
P1 Light infantry x4

A frontier on a frontier. That is how Natalya Phillips would describe this place. New Charon was meant to be an escape, a fresh start for so many. It was out of the way enough to avoid UCS attention, and for those who wanted to avoid even the centralisation of a few settlements coming together to govern each other it was possible to pack up and drive off into the sunset, find somewhere, irrigate, grow, harvest and live a simple life. The handful of locals left in this community called it Sprucewald, but did a landing pad and a few prefabs really need a name? 

As part of the ongoing hunt for the mysterious invaders, Natalya's job was to rest here, refit and await resupply. Her militia were weary of the seemingly endless skirmishes, wary that there was no end in sight, and hoping to be taken off the line (if it could really be called a line). 

Suddenly shells begin bouncing off a prefab. The sentries within jump on the comms back to Natalya. 

"We need you up at this end, incoming fire".

Natalya responds, ordering all of her militia up to the edge of the settlement to return fire. 

An exchange of fire between the sentries and the enemy vehicle causes a little damage and a casualty, but nothing too serious.

Dunn Harrison, prowling on the left flank sends HEAT rounds punching into another enemy vehicle, smashing through the armour, damaging important components.

The enemy responds by trying to get out of sight and close the gap to make their armour piercing chain guns more effective. Infantry rushes forward in an attempt to flank Sprucewald and take the militia in a wicked crossfire.

The militiamen garrisoning the prefab keep the enemy armour engaged in long range sniping, shells bouncing off of the outer walls. They just need to keep them distracted until Natalya and the rest appear.

Natalya and some more footmen arrive, Natalya charging into the village to support the infantry, while the footmen move up to support Dunn.

Dunn exchanges fire with the advancing infantry, taking some damage to his vehicle, but manages to lay down enough HE to scatter an enemy squad.

Natalya lets rip with her CSMP, sending off rockets that tear the enemy vehicle to pieces. No-one was seen leaving the wreckage. At this point the remaining enemy withdraw. This short, sharp skirmish just another in the seemingly endless short, sharp skirmishes taking place out beyond the Reaches. Another firefight, another report for Natalya to write up and send off to Command. Just what she needed on a Tuesday.

Not the most exciting game. It was more about having an evening where I wasn't playing World of Tanks Blitz and didn't feel like painting. This was a fun game to put together, but I want to work harder on making better scenarios.

Bug Hunt with 5Core

When did I buy 5Core? Not sure. Within the past few years. How many times have I played it? None times. Starport Scum is my go to small action fighting, and recently I thought I would bust out Clash on the Fringe, the original sci fi rules that I bought...and have since never used. But, while re-reading it, my copy of Five Parsecs from Home (also unused) fell out of the folder. I started reading that...then realised it is only a campaign making book, and the skirmishes need to be played via 5Core. So I set about reading those. To be honest, there was a lot in there, and I am not sure. I like some elements of it. Maybe even loads of elements. I am just unsure about it. Maybe I am scared of trying something new. 

Thus I decided to go bug hunting. Next game I will try and do a bounty hunting thing.

Another day, another hunt. Across the galaxy there are countless small settlements, where people from all backgrounds eek out an existence on the fringes of society. This place is another nameless-armpit-of-the-galaxy settlement. A few families with a ship and a dream. Places like this draw little to no attention from anyone other than the odd pirate or slaver raid. That is, until they do draw attention. 

In a room, in a basement, on another planet, equipment beeps. Listening posts like this are all over the galaxy, programmed to flag up certain words, phrases, or strings of code. One such string of transmissions contained enough to be sent on to an actual human. This desk jockey in turn pushed it up the line. And so on, and so forth and here we now were. A detachment of marines sent to the ass-end of nowhere to investigate.

Two squads of marines advance through the woods to find the small settlement.

At the lee of a mountain range, the small settlement seemed deserted. It was time to move on in, searching each building and the spacecraft.

I set it up that each turn, the marines would have a turn, then I would roll to see if a xeno spawned somewhere. Then, when they search a building, a roll of 1 would find a civilian, whereas a 6 would find a xeno.

One squad advanced up to one of the buildings.

One squad advanced cautiously up to the settlement spacecraft.

For activation then, to see what I would be able to do this turn, I rolled 1, which is "scurry". All my squad can activate and move, but may not fire or anything.

While searching the building a xeno burst out of the wall! Contact! 

So the marine who made a search action rolled a 6. Searching is instead of firing.

One marine backed up and opened fire, sweat dripping! It was Johnson's first combat mission. The xeno scurried for cover.

Hutchins, 1st squad's plasma gunner crept around the building to open fire again on the xeno, causing it to climb behind the building to shelter from the high powered fire.

In game terms, I rolled a 1 on a kill die, which means it was "knocked down" and would need to rally if it wanted to activate.

Suddenly the xeno ran up to Hutchins, causing him to panic and retreat into the woods. 

This was a brawl. Each rolls, and if attacker wins by 1, then the defender panics (retreats 6 inches). Attacker can then move 3 inches and brawl again. The xeno has the ability where it can roll two dice and pick the highest.

The xeno then moved on to attack Johnson, causing him to fall back behind the building.

This was a "follow up". It is quite powerful. I asked Ivan from NWG on Discord and he said that technically you can "follow up" as many times as the dice allow, so I could have done it a third time, but didn't.

Seizing the initiative again, the marines open fire...

This was actually because the turn type that the xeno rolled was a "Firefight" meaning no-one moves and everyone who can shoot shoots, on both sides. Because xeno can't do ranged fire, I allowed him to charge and attack. Four marines had LOS to the xeno so could fire. You can't shoot over another character's base. Time to get smaller bases amiright?!

...knocking the xeno down.

Xenos have an ability called "tough" where if they are knocked down, or out of action, then they can re-roll the kill die and if they score 1 or 6 then they aren't knocked down or out of action. If they get 2-5 then the original result stands.

Taking advantage of this momentary respite, Martinez unloaded almost an entire clip, splattering the alien across the sand, acid blood sizzling around its disintegrating corpse.

This might be the point at which I realised that if you are shooting at a target in the open and are within 12 inches then you add another 1K to your roll, doubling the chance of a kill.

With the immediate threat gone, second squad regrouped and carried on advancing to the building on the western edge of the settlement. 

Likewise, the main part of first squad advanced to the landing pad to take a closer look at the space craft. It looked like it had been mid-unload and the colonists are just...gone.

Second squad searched the building only to find a terrified settler who explained that he thought all the others were dead and he had been essentially holed up inside for two standard months eating nothing but ration cubes, waiting to be found and...well it didn't bear thinking about. He then scurried off, the isolation having done a real number on him. Poor sod.

While searching the spacecraft first squad again found another xeno! It was time for another showdown, but this time with a traumatized civilian in the mix!

Almost reflexively, Martinez let rip with another few bursts of fire! It caused the xeno to pause, and look for an easier target!

Again, the xeno was knocked down, but that doesn't sound too good in battrep narrative speak.

Recovering quickly, the xeno stormed over the half loaded truck right at Smith and Brown. Smith tried vaporizing the xeno with his plasma gun, but missed wildly.

This was reaction fire, when I discovered that you can only react to an action with one other figure. Shame.

The xeno leapt at Brown dismembering him without even a second glance!

It then pounced on Smith who also went down under a flail of limbs and assorted other members.

Johnson and Martinez both opened fire on the xeno as it approached them, both falling back with discipline, covering each other.

The xeno managed to catch Hutchins, who managed to fight free and fall back in an attempt to join his comrades. More marines joined the fray and this xeno was blasted apart by concentrated rifle fire.

Or at least I think it was. I don't remember it being killed, but it definitely was. Maybe even in this brawl by Hutchins. 

 

The civilian made for the mountains, likely to die of desert exposure or dehydration.

As members of first squad approached another homestead another xeno appeared! They had just gotten rid of two of them, how many more are there?!

This is the only time a xeno actually spawned. If there were no xenos on the table and it was their turn, I rolled and on 1 or 6 one spawned. Then a die roll to see where.

Lightning reactions from the Johnson, Martinez and Siebert allowed for enough fire to cause the xeno some problems, but not eliminate it.

Unable to get a break, Hutchins goes toe to toe with his third xeno, but this time in the struggle, while managing to shoot off a limb, the acidic blood sprayed all over him, killing him.

Getting better at this, second squad advanced up to the final home and uncovered another xeno. However, rapid reactions, and pinpoint fire made quick work of this one.

Upset at the loss of Hutchins, Martinez opened fire a final time, shredding the xeno in accurate fire. The settlement had been searched, cleared, and would now likely be ravaged by scavengers, picking on the corpses of the fringe worlds. There were likely enough supplies here, and a functional ship and vehicles to keep someone's crew flying for a while now. It wasn't everyday a settlement just disappeared.

I enjoyed this game. 

1. I regret facing xenos, because I would have liked to experience a real firefight. I will, however likely return to this settlement with a couple of bands of scavengers to duke it out properly. 

2. I love the 1 and 6 mechanic with dice. I like the kill and shock dice mechanic. 

3. I LOVE the activation structure. I can really get behind activation systems that limit how many you can activate, or if all then what they can do.

4. I will actually finish reading the rules to see if there are any pre-made characters that I can use. 

Nordic Weasel Games produce some good looking, run to read rules. I love the little narratives at the beginning of his books. Starport Scum is my all time favourite, but this was fun. And has potential. If combined with Five Parsecs, then I might have a game on my hands. I might also use it at school with the kids...if we ever go back.