Five Parsecs Campaign Turn 8 - Raiders of the lost Argh!

Upkeep cost a full 7 credits this turn.

Nat and Noah both spent time training, gaining +1 XP each, which was enough for Nat to level his Combat Skill up to 2.

Reece and Anul went trading.  Reece used his ‘Trading’ skill to re-roll one result, resulting in gaining 2 credits in local currency and more trade goods.  They also traded in one lot of alien relics for another roll on the trade table, gaining a repair kit (could have done with that at the end of last turn…)

Kari continued to try and track down the raiders, but with no luck (despite her new skill bonus).

Jak and Mila went exploring.  Jak had a nice time, seeing the sites, a change from training.  Mila, however, had a different purpose in mind.  In the aftermath of the raid on the cult compound, she’d noted a familiar looking symbol on papers scattered around the compound, and sought out an information broker to answer some questions...

Mila found Reece with Kari, checking over the ship's growing armoury. "I know this might be difficult, but I need some help from you all...".  Mila then laid it all out for Reece.  How, when she was still part of the Church of New Horizons, she'd had a sister; and the day that sister had been dragged away by the church's inner circle, while the rest of the congregation, including their own parents, did nothing.  And about the symbol her hooded abductors had worn, one that she had never seen again until that raid on the cult compound.  After the raid she had gone looking for more information, only to discover that the same group had been hiring equipment and workers for an archaeological dig site outside the city limits, and the name on the paperwork was a known fixer for the church.  Reece thought for a moment or two before speaking, "Well.  I guess we'd better round up the crew then."

The background to this mission came from Mila rolling an encounter with an Information Broker when she was Exploring, and then rolling up my first 'Quest' result for the turn's encounter, and it all seemed to fit.

The mission rolled up was a 'capture' mission, which would take place at an archaeological dig site against a group of Zealots.

Reece took the viewer off Jak and took another look at the encampment in the valley bottom, a collection of prefab huts and equipment around the remains of some old stone structure, local workers were loading up into trucks as the evening set in.  "So what have we got?" he asked Nat.  

"I tracked down where most the the workers drink after their shift" said Nat, "Local rumour is that the first settlers landed here and built some kind of church on the site.  No one knows what they're digging for, just that that's one guy in overall charge and a handful of armed guards, religious nutjob types".  He glanced at Mila and Noah "no offence intended", Mila just flashed back an almost feral grin. "The locals all shut up shop at the same time and are driven back to town every evening.  Everyone else stays on site".

"Okay.  We wait until the last truck is well away then we go in.  Remember, we want this guy alive".

The first turn was quiet, with the crew simply moving up.  Reec, Jak, Mila and Kari moved to the shelter of the earthmover ('borrowed' from the little miniature's sandpit!) while Anul, Nat and Noah moved wider to get around the flank of the encampment.

Turn two saw the crew roll 3 quick actions - Kari took overwatch by the digger while Jak and Mila moved up.  Then the faecal matter hit the big rotary thing...

"Uh, Reece?" shouted Kari, "lot of angry red bedsheets heading our way!", as a hoard of robed figures emerged from the huts and ran towards them.  Kari raised her autorifle "like they knew we were here..."

Kari, on overwatch, was first to fire - immediately dropping the nearest zealot.  Reese took cover behind the digger's blade, drew his pistol and fired.  Another robed figure fell to the ground (Reece actually did something useful in combat, finally!!!).  Nat took another shot but missed, dodging the return fire from his target.

Kari and Reece(!) hit

but Nat doesn't

The crew failed to roll any quick actions for turn three but luckily none of the zealots were quite able to reach anyone despite running at full speed (enemies with the 'Psycho' rule will always try to close to brawl with the enemy).

First blood to the crew of the envoy

Kari steadied her aim and dropped another target, and Anul blasted another zealot who was almost on top of him (the Zealots have higher toughness than normal, so this wouldn't have been a kill without Anul's blast pistol causing +1 damage).  Reece, Noah and Nat all missed shots - and Reece then took a wound from his target's return fire (reducing him to 2 hit points).

Anul takes down a Zealot who clearly shops at the same thrift store

Jak stepped up in his new combat armour, drew out the suppression mawl and promptly clubbed another zealot to the floor in a brawl. Mila steadied her aim (+1 to hit), and put down the last zealot with a single shot (the crew's dice rolling for damage in this game was pretty hot).

 "Infidel!!!"

Thump...

Where'd they all go?

The crew rolled two quick actions and Kari and Anul repositioned closer to the camp.

Unnerved by the sudden loss of his bodyguards, the church leader made a break for the last remaining truck on the site.

"Gotta get out of here!"

The rest of the crew moved to try and cut him off, but it was looked like it might be close.  Or at least it did until they rolled up four quick actions for turn five...

Reece remembered his jump belt and leaped behind the target, unloading a full clip into the ground around him (using the suppression rule from the compendium), Kari did the same from the flank. 

With two stuns in place, Jak strolled up, tapped him firmly on the head with the suppression maul and slung him over his shoulder.

Thump (again)

Job done.

Aftermath

The crew gained four credits and two rolls on the gear table in loot, resulting in one frakk grenade and a nano-doc. 

Kari and Jak gained 4 XP each, the rest 3XP.  This was enough for Jak to level up Reactions and Mila Combat.  Jak gained veteran rank three and Noach veteran rank 1.

The Campaign event saw the crew meet a shady character who traded a grenade for a credit (won't ask what they plan to do with it, I'll put than one down to Kari).  Anul received a coded message and told the crew he would have to leave temporarily but wouldn't explain why (character event, he'll be back in two turns.

The quest continues...

Getting On

I've actually had a productive couple of evenings.  After being told in response to a previous post to 'get on with it' after my accidental basing progress (thanks guys), that's what I did!

So that's about 17 Grenadier Dwarves (only about 20+ to go)...

The characters for Five Leagues from the Borderland (the archer also got a bit of repair and tidying up), more on them in a future post...

And while I was at it, a few more cultists/fanatics for the Five Parsecs from Home Campaign.

200th Post - Rosa's Hovel

Just realised this will be my 200th post on this blog, which started nearly 10 years back as a way to record the Aeronautica Imperialis games with my mate Matt (what a dismal posting rate, statistically speaking!).  During that time I've painted tiny planes and buildings, fantasy, SF, got seriously back into 1/72 WWII model making, painted a lot of old school dwarves, learnt new techniques and got my gaming mojo back a bit recently with some solo campaigning.  Matt travelled the world, so probably he may have the advantage over me there!

I also became a Dad, hence my nadir of posting in 2015-16, when I posted 7 and 4 times respectively (oh, the sleepless nights, but too bleary eyed to paint)!

But my how she's grown!  And now here she is, proudly displaying her first scenery making effort - a Hovel from Dave Graffam Models:

A little help was provided cutting and folding the walls, but otherwise all her own work!

It's now found pride of place on her farm, but I'll get her gaming yet (she already owns a fine selection of dinosaurs, so that's somewhere to start!).

Putty

You know that thing where you mix some putty to level the base on one figure?  Then realise you've done far too much, and by the time the evening is over you've done the bases on all those old school dwarves you've been avoiding thinking about basing?

Yeah, that...

The one I meant to do is bottom left.

Five Parsecs and Beyond!!!

It's been a few weeks since the last post.  Been busy with work, home and holiday (Yorkshire coast, lovely!).

I've started work on another project as well.  Now that doesn't mean I've given up on Five Parsecs.  Far from it!  I have the next 'episode' of the adventures of the crew of the Envoy in preparation; they've rolled up their first quest, and I need to get a few models and bits of scenery sorted for what I have in mind.

In fact, while on the subject, I want to cast some praise Five Parsec's way.  Not specifically for the rules themselves (which are elegantly simple, yet allowing for surprising complexity), but for what it's given me.  In the last few months I've played more games than I have played for the last couple of years before now, painted more models and built more scenery than I have for a while. 

Partly this is a matter of scale - it's such an achievable goal to say to yourself that you will get a new faction painted for the next game, or sort out a specific piece of scenery.  It's also structured well for solo play, and quick to set up a run.  Most of my solo gaming is conducted late, when my other half has dozed off on the sofa, or in little gaps of time when she and the little miniature are out with family.  Add to that the campaign phase, which fills in the gaps between games to keep the interest going, and you have a system that perfectly fits my current circumstances.

All that said, I don't want it to get stale.  With that in mind I'm planning ahead.  I think (at the moment), I'm going to let the Crew's current quest play out through a few games, then call a temporary halt.  Think of it as the end of a TV season!  Then for a bit of a change, I'm going to try out Nordic Weasel Games fantasy equivalent for a bit, Five Leagues from the Borderland.  I already have a pretty massive selection of suitable figures and scenery, which have been pretty unused for years, especially some of the older models.

I've started to flesh out the band of 'heroes' that I'll use for this.  I'll say more about them individually, and the world they'll inhabit, in a future post, but for now lets see the models and my latest bit of painting.

Here are our four main heroes.  The models reflect a pretty good cross section of my gaming career as well.  Second from right is an old citadel 'Strider' from their old Lord of the Rings Range.  He was one of my earliest models, back when I maybe had only a dozen or so, mostly used in RPGs (I used to play Traveller and Middle Earth Role Playing - MERP, mostly, and unsurprisingly).  Painted rather poorly with enamels, and now missing a sword.  The chap gesticulating on the far left is a Perry sculpted Brettonian archer from the late 80's, early 90's, who was used as a forester in the earliest incarnation of my Empire army.  The priest is of course from my later Empire army, when it was all puffy sleeves but still properhammer.  The beardy bloke on the right is of course the Frostgrave knight I did relatively recently.

Some of the paintjobs still stand up well, bit poor old Strider needed urgent TLC.  So out came the bits box.   A little drilling a pinning saw the missing sword replaced with one from a plastic Empire militiaman, and a new and improved paintjob was employed.  I have to say I am pretty pleased with the result, and it's lovely to see an old model brought back to life.

Five Parsecs Campaign Turn 7

Disclaimer - I first wrote this up last night when I probably should have been sleeping.  Oh my word!  The dreadful typos I spotted afterwards!  So I've now edited it to make sense!

Upkeep was paid, costing 5 Credits, as I had basic supplies already to cover 2 crew.

Jobs

Kari, Annul and Nat went trading, gaining contraband (+3 credits, plus an enemy – raiders, more of the blighters!), scrap (+1 Cr), and medical supplies.
Mila and Noah explored, gaining a broken duplicator and overhearing a rumour

Reece got a new job through the crew’s gang leader patron.  The gang have been having trouble with a cult in their territory, who have now made off with a truck containing something that they shouldn’t have (and that’s all the crew need to know about that...).  They have taken it to a compound they control outside the city, which could be problematic as it is outside the gang's normal territory, and they don’t want to spark a turf war at the moment. So the gang leader wants the crew to get it back for them.

The cult consists of five members, armed with pistols (and one with a brutal melee weapon).

The cult compound

The target truck

Sentry on the north side of the compound

The crew of the envoy sneak in

As five cultists with pistols may not last long against the crew with their rifles and grenades, I decided that this action would occur at night, reducing ranges to 12” so the crew couldn’t just sit at range and take pot shots.  I also borrowed some of the stealth mechanisms from Nordic Weasel’s ‘Five Men at Kursk’ combined with random movement for the two sentries.  The remaining three cult member would appear at random doors once the alarm was raised.

The first few turns were a cat and mouse game with the sentries.  Jak, Nat and Noah flanked right behind the outbuildings, to try and get in the compound from the north, while the rest approached the east wall.  Jak’s group made pretty good progress, despite moving cautiously to avoid picking up noise markers.  However the random movement of the sentry on the north caused near disaster when he came with half an inch of spotting Anul, then randomly paused for several turns, forcing Anul, Reece, Kari and Mila to  hunker down unmoving for a while for fear of being spotted.

Nat, Noah and Jak head around to the north

while the rest move to the east

Sentry on the south side

Another sentry comes around...

...and the crew have to play statues

but Jak, Noah and Nat make progress unseen

By turn 7, Jak, Nat and Noah had reached the edge of the compound and could see the truck they needed ro recover.  At the same time Reece and Kari decided to risk moving, trying to stay out of line of site of the sentry on top of the buiding.

Breaking into the compound

The sentry decides to pause

On turn 9, the crew only rolled up one quick action, which went to Jak, putting him on guard fire, watching the rooftops.  It turned out to be a good choice, as the sentry on the south buildings decided to use that moment to turn around and spot Noah in the compound.  Reaching for his pistol, the sentry started to yell for backup as Jak’s auto rifle barked, sending the hapless cultist flying back on to the roof top, out of action.  However the gunfire was more than enough to wake the rest of the compound.

Jak goes on guard fire inside the compound

First sentry down

Stealth over, everything now went LOUD!

Nat exchanged shots with the sentry on the east roof, but to no avail on either side.  Reece used his jump belt to leep onto the roof to flank him but, before he could get a shot off, Jak had joined in and dropped the sentry. (two in as many turns).

second sentry down

The remaining three cultists emerged from random doorways, thirsty for vengeance.  The lead cultist charged straight at Kari.  In the brief but intense brawl that followed they drew their first clash, then both struck (two natural sixes) but failed to wound, then finally Kari put a stop to it, putting the cult leader down.

cult leader charges...

...Kari wins

The other two cultists emerge

Noah successfully hotwired the truck with a tech roll.  The cultist with the bludgeon ran around the corner of the compound to get to grips with Nat, only to be gunned down in a hail of bullets by  Jak on guard fire.

Noah hotwires the truck

One charges Nat

but doesn't reach him

The last remaining cultist advanced, firing. Straight towards Mila along the south wall of the compound.  With her hatred of cults burning strongly, Mila took careful aim, fired...and that was the end of that.

and it's all over

A good game overall, but in hindsight a few mistakes.  I forgot that I've been giving the enemy leaders two hits for start.  Also, I think it was a mistake having the starting point for the cultists rolled individually, it allowed them to get picked off.  If they've all emerged together it would have been more of a challenge.  On the other hand stealing the stealth stuff from 'Kursk' worked really well.

Aftermath

The crew were paid 6 credits, but didn’t gain any new enemies.
The loot result gave “common stuff” – three rolls on the gear table.  The crew ended up with a suit of combat armour (!), some worthless trinkets and some trade goods (which can be cashed in for credits when they visit a new planet).

All gained +3 XP, with an extra +1 for Jak for the first 'kill'.

The crew rolled up an equipment malfunction for their campaign event and the Nano-Doc duly threw in the towel and displayed the nasty blue screen of doom.

Kari levelled up reactions to 2, and gained a new skill – Tracking (+1 to rolls to track enemies when in the ‘jobs’ phase of the turn).

Noah levelled up Tech to 1

Reece levelled up Combat Skill to 1 (he might actually hit something at some point…)

Jak levelled up Toughness to 4

Anul levelled up Combat Skill to 1

Kari, Reece and Mila all achieved veteran rank 2.