Psionic powers - all in the mind?

 I got a couple of Alternative Armies Espers to give me some psionic-type characters for games like Rogue Stars.  They remind me of some of the old "sanctioned psyker" figures that GW did back in the early 1990's.  A classic bald-headed trenchcoat look in a traditional "using mental powers" pose, what's not to like?

"Hmm... I perceive a criminal psychic resonance in that direction."

  The figure was glued to a washer and the base built up with Wilko wood filler to blend it in.  A sprinkle of sand on the base and a quick spray of grey primer and it was ready.

The body suit is Vallejo Russian uniform green, the boots, belt, pouch and coat khaki. The inside of the coat is GW, I think Mephiston Red.  After a sepia wash, I added a few highlights to the green and red, but the khaki looked OK as it was.

It's a nice little figure, I'll look forward to trying some psionics in a game some time!

Combat droids

 These Robotic Soldiers are 3d printed from Dutchmogul on Thingiverse.  I printed them at 56% original size to reduce them from 28mm to 15mm scale.

I mirrored the pose to give me 2 different versions.  It's also available as the A-TACC combat robot (separate torso, legs & arms for poseability) and in storage mode as Folded Robotic Soldier, which lends itself to a few different scenarios where characters might need to activate or prevent activation of them.

I only printed a couple as a test to see how they would come out and they have a fairly quick paint job. I will print a few more and experiment with different orientation to see how I can reduce layer lines and improve the poses.  They could probably do with red eyes too!

These are ideal for 5 Parsecs from Home or Rogue Stars and when I print a few more, they will also be useful for Tomorrow's War and other larger scale games.  I see that there also some remixes by Forgemoon which include alternative weapons arms (40K heavy bolters, flamers and chainswords) to add even more variety.  I could probably substitute some different weapons for the arms, such as rescaled versions of John Bear Ross' meltas or gatings, or even a rotary autocannon.

I've tried to reduce the appearance of the print lines on these by re-painting some of the base colours after the shading wash.  Drybrushing highlights would enhance the ridged texture of the print lines, but blocking in the panels can help hide the lines to some extent.

Rogue Stars Game 2 - The Adventures of Bajj Maranti begin!

For my second game of Rogue Stars, I got out some scenery, printed out some character sheets and quick reference sheets, plus my new plastic counters for tracking wounds, stress and pins.  This will be a game where XP is earned by holding as many pieces of terrain as possible ("Control Terrain" mission from the book).  In practice, this will probably mean trying to kill as many of the enemy as possible so that they can't contest any terrain!  Rather than rolling for location, I just used the scenery I had readily to hand.  I can't remember what I rolled as a complication for the game, whatever it was I forgot about it entirely and it never came into play.

The "Wolf Boys" have been terrorising the local population and are stockpiling stolen/blackmarket weapons, food and technology just out of town.  They've killed a family and are using their homestead as a staging area in preparation for shipping out the goods.  Bajj Maranti and her crew have been hired to recapture as much of the stolen merchandise as possible, and if the wolves get in the way, they'll be dealt with in extreme prejudice...

The "Wolf Boys"

The Wolf Boys are all BIG and have CLAWS. Most are also ALERT, AGILE, DIFFICULT TARGETS, FAST, PERCEPTIVE, STEALTHY and TOUGH to varying degrees.  The commander (LEADER) has an SMG, two have heavy blasters and one a laser rifle and medkit (plus MEDIC skill).  Total 209 XP.

A small shrine to the East.

The area includes a small shrine and the destroyed house to the East.

Some of the stolen supplies.

Cargo crates and storage pods are piled in several holding areas across the site.

Transport to the West.

To the West is a light transport being prepared to take the first shipment. A large building to the North houses more stolen goods.

Bajj Maranti and her team.

Captain Maranti's team includes Bajj Maranti herself (ACROBATIC SIDESTEP, WEAPON MASTER, AMBIDEXTROUS, LEADERSHIO, VETERAN, DANGER SENSE, twin vibroblades and a pistol), Fiorella Abbatelli (REACTIVE, STEALTHY, TOUGH, VETERAN, SMG), Yarubi el Santin (AMBIDEXTROUS, MARKSMAN, FAST DRAW, STEALTH, twin autopistols) and some local hired muscle (BIG and TOUGH with an assault rifle).  Maranti herself carries her usual preferred weapons, paired vibroblades.  All are wearing light combat armour apart from EL Santin, who wears a stealth suit. Total 208 XP.

Yarubi and Fiorella infiltrate past the shrine.

Maranti's team splits in two.  Fiorella and Yarubi move in from the North East.

Bajj and the local muscle move in through the ruined house.

Maranti and the Ogroid trooper use the bombed out ruin as cover.

One wolf is loading a grav sled nearby.

Closest to the farmouse, one of the wolves is shifting some of the crates onto a grav sled in preparation for loading into the transport.

Another prepares the transporter while 2 lurk outside the main building.

The transport is being readied for takeoff, another wolf running the pre-flight checks.  The remaining 2 wolves are outside the main building.

Bajj moves forward.

Maranti sprints lightly through the ruins to the window so she can check out the enemy location.  The Ogre ducks under the entrance lintel and lumbers along behind her.

The nearest Wolf smells something is amiss...

Abbatelli fails her activation and the nearest wolf uses the reaction to investigate.

The local muscle opens fire.

The ogre stomps over to the wall and fires his assault rifle point-blank at the wolf, severely injuring its right arm.  The wolf's heavy blaster clatters to the floor.

The Wolf reacts...

The Ogre fails his next activation and the wolf makes an excellent triple reaction roll.  Revenge time?

... by slashing at the ogre's head with his claws!

Rather than pick up his dropped heavy blaster, the injured wolf lunges, burying the claws from his left hand in the ogre's head.  The ogre drops like a sack of potatoes.

El Santin deals with the Wolf.

Yarubi El Santin trots closer and fires both autopistols, spraying the wolf with bullets.  Blood spatters the wall as the wolf is taken permanently out of the fight.

Fiorella moves up.

Their cover blown by the bursts of gunfire, time is now of the essence.  Abbatelli creeps through the bushes by the shrine, then, seeing the way is clear, dashes across the open space to the cover of the main building.

Bajj stabilises the casualty.

Maranti jogs back to the ogre.  Although he's only the hired help on this operation, she bandages his head and manages to stem the bleeding. It's too dangerous to try and evacuate him now, they need to deal with the wolves first.

Wolf boss moves towards the shooting.

The wolf boss seizes the initiative and moves to the cover of some crates.

Another Wolf moves into cover in the centre.

The other nearby wolf moves into the centre, ducking in behind some of the stolen supplies.

Bajj trots back to the doorway of he house.

Bajj reacts to a wolf's failed activation.  First aid completed, she returns to the doorway and prepares to move out of the ruined house.

The battle so far

Maranti's team regain the initiative. Time to try and take control of some more objectives.

Fiorella and Yarubi prepare to move in.

El Santin catches up with Abbatelli. He'll move through the back of the building while she probes round the front.

Bajj and the Wolf stalk each other.

Bajj runs from the ruined building into the cover of the central supply cache.  She and the wolf stalk each other between the barrels and crates.

Yarubi sprints through the rear compound.

El Santin sprints the length of the rear compound.  He wants to try and get round behind the wolves.

Fiorella leap-frogs forward.

Simultaneously, Abbatelli ducks round the end of the building and into cover closer to the wolves.

Bajj make a really bad roll.

Maranti prepares her vibroblades... and completely fails her activation.  But bad luck works both ways... and the wolf fails both reactions too.

The Wolf fails its reaction - and Bajj's next roll is better.

Maranti tries again... she vaults over the crates, a vibroblade in each hand.  The wolf stands little chance against her onslaught!

Vibroblades up! Wolf down!

Vibroblades flicker and blood sprays across the nearby barrels.  With the wolf disposed of, Maranti orders the others to move in.

Yarubi stealthily creeps into the enemy rear.

El Santin creeps in through the rear of the main building.Taking advantage of the cover offered by an inactive droid, he stealthily moves towards the boss wolf.  The wolf might have noticed him except that its nerve has failed and it drops its SMG to the ground and considers surrender! (Really bad morale roll following Maranti taking the other wolf out of action).

Only 2 wolves vs 3 of Bajj's crew.

With Maranti's crew closing in on the wolf leader from 3 separate directions, it looks like the day will be theirs... but things can change quickly.

The Wolf boss closes on Fiorella.

Having recovered both his nerve and his SMG, the wolf boss reacts to a failed activation from Maranti's team.  He slips round round the crates towards Abbatelli.

The Wolf by the transport ship dashes to join the action.

The wolf who was running pre-flight checks on the aircraft finally gets moving towards the sound of fighting.

Fiorella takes a burst from the Wolf Boss SMG.

With his head back in the game, the wolf boss guns down Abbatelli at close range when she fails another activation.  She slumps to the ground, blood oozing through her armour from a bad torso wound.

Counters go on the character sheet, not the board.

Remember, the counters go on the character sheets, not the board!  At this point in the game, Abbatelli has a couple of points of stress (-2 to activation/reaction rolls), lots of pins (penalties on morale & shooting) plus 1 wound (-1 to future injury rolls).

Another Wolf leaps over the cargo to get Bajj in sight.

Spotting his pack-mate apparently lifeless on the ground, the wolf from the far side of the game area springs over the intervening crates to close with his target.

Bajj stumbles...

Maranti prepares to attack the rapidly closing wolf but trips over the wolf body at her feet, staggering into the open.  It's a clear shot for the approaching wolf! (Natural 1 means the enemy gets a stress-free reaction or +2 to their reaction roll)

But the Wolf fails to react.

Luckily for Maranti, the wolf gets its heavy blaster tangled in its harness and fails to get a shot off. (Not a natural 1 but 3 is still an abysmally poor roll!)

Bajj fails to activate again and this time the Wolf gets lucky.

Still recovering from her stumble, Maranti loses focus for a critical couple of seconds, giving the wolf time to free its blaster and blow a fist-sized hole in her torso armour.  Knocking barrels and railings over, Maranti crashes to the ground.  She's badly hurt, but still conscious.

Fiorella manages to level her SMG on the Wolf boss and guns him down.

Though down, Abbatelli is not out.  Her hands slippery with blood and her vision starting to tunnel, she nevertheless manages to bring the barrel of her SMG up and empty the magazine at the wolf boss as it looms over her.  The first burst goes wide but the second riddles the lycanthrope and it folds into a heap on the ground.

Yarubi breaks cover and downs the last Wolf.

El Santin bursts out from his hiding place, dashing a few paces clear of the building to get a clear shot at the remaining wolf.  Levelling both autopistols he takes it down cleanly.  Silence falls across the battlefield.  Then Maranti's voice calls out "Well don't just stand there, find some bandages!"

Last man standing!

With the wolves all out of action, Maranti's crew have won the day.  The local population are safe from the wolves and the stolen goods have been recovered.  Though badly injured, Maranti and Abbatelli are both still conscious.  That's going to be 3 pieces of terrain controlled (2 XP each) plus 1 XP per enemy taken out of action (all 4 wolves) for a total of 10 XP to spend on upgrades before their next mission.

Controlling both sides in the game, it got really confusing at times, trying to keep track of all the modifiers during the game!  Stress, wounds and pins were easy to remember because they were noted with counters on the character sheets. I also managed to remember to add the modifiers for marksmen when shooting and for tough characters when working out damage because they were pretty obvious thinsg to check.  It was more difficult to remember who was veteran (+1 to act/react) or a difficult target (-skill level on ranged attacks against them).  I also wasn't quite sure what should happen to the wolf leader.  Critically failing his morale after the second wolf was taken out meant that he surrendered, dropping all weapons.  Had an enemy been within 4" he'd have been captured.  Because no-one came that close for some time, I decided that if he passed another morale test, he'd recover his nerve and pick his weapon up again, but maybe he should have just stayed put waiting to be captured?

Scenery scratch built from foamcore (buildings), MDF fences, crates and cargo a mixture of Lego bricks and 3d printed (including the portaloo!).  Vehicles are an old Imai Thunderbird 2 plus some 3d printed grav vehicles. The big yellow robot is a Star Wars gonk power droid repaint.

Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure* of Bajj Maranti!

*The author accepts no liability if the next adventure actually turns out to be terribly dull and boring. And who knows when it'll be?  Could be months...

Rogue Stars - first game

Following on from my recent review of Rogue Stars, I had a quick test during lunch break to see how the rules work.

A couple of starship crew, an IMEC (Interstellar Mining & Extraction Consortium) technician and a Mercenary bodyguard are fleeing back to their shuttle.  Their stolen grav sled is damaged and finally gives out and crashes just short of their ship.  Local scum Shades and Tough are investigating the shuttle for their gang when they hear the crash and see the column of smoke...

The playing area is 24"x6" (the windowsill by my desk, as you can see); the crew’s grav sled crashed on the left, 3 ruined buildings and several stacks of oil drums lie between that and a raised area where the shuttle (AKA Thunderbird 4) is parked on the far right. I just grabbed the under construction scenery I had to hand plus 4 figures from my "civilians" box.

The battlefield

Crew: IMEC has an autopistol and flak vest. The elite Merc has an accurate assault rifle.  Total XP value 71. 

Mercenary and IMEC technician in their stolen grav sled.

Scum: Veteran Shades has an autopistol, Tough has an SMG and a couple of frag grenades.  Total XP value 75.

Shades and Tough guard the shuttle.

Usually you'd have 4 or more figures with a combined XP of 200 but I wanted to play it quickly just to get a feel for the rules.

Shades and Tough win the initiative.  They head out to see what's happening past the buildings.  Shades walks down the slope from the shuttle then sprints (fast x2) round the outside of the first building.  Tough follows at a more sedate pace.  The Merc reacts to a failed scum activation by walking from the grav sled over to the nearest building and peeping round the corner.

Scum on the move...

 

Merc peers round the corner.

 While Shades keeps watch, Tough trots past him to the cover of some barrels towards the far end of building 2. The Merc leans out, takes a shot, misses. Tough sees the puff of dust as the bullt hits the wall above him and leaps up, poised to fire a burst with his SMG... 

Tough stands to fire at the Merc...

Showing much better aim this time, Merc takes him down (Marksman x 2) with a quick double-tap, putting one bullet through the torso and one through Tough's right arm.  Failing to live up to his nickname, Tough (Tough x 3) is knocked prone, SMG skittering away, his arm seriously injured and his torso critically injured.  He's gonna bleed out if he doesn't get some serious medical attention.

But the Merc gets his shots in first!

 

Tough goes down. Blood spatters the pavement.

Seizing their chance (and the initiative), the Merc and IMEC start moving.  Both advance down the outside of building 1 until they get to the corner overlooking the barrel stack sheltering Tough by Building 2.  Merc dashes off at 90 degrees between the two buildings and ducks into the darkened entrance of Building 2.

Move, move, move!

 IMEC clambers in through the corner of Building 1 and up to the shattered second floor.  Peeping over the broken wall, she has a good view over the street outside.

Things are hotting up!

 Shades dashes forward, rip's Tough's bandanna from his head and crams it into the gaping hole in his body to try and stem the bleeding.  

Shades considers whether his "First Aid at Work" training is adequate.

Surprisingly, Tough revives enough to try and stagger to his feet, snatching his SMG on the way up.  Snarling and angry, he pulls out a frag grenade and tosses it (Chucker) down the street towards the Merc.  Building 2's doorway shelters the Merc, who is buffeted by the blast but miraculously unhurt.  As he steps back out into the alley to take a shot at Tough, his luck runs out.  Wrong-handed and still groggy, the injured Tough nevertheless swings up his SMG and squeezes off an astounding shot, hitting Merc in the Torso and taking him out of action.

Tough's revenge!

 

Tough chuckles (then coughs blood).

IMEC gasps at the events unfolding below.  Shaken, she empties her autopistol magazine at Tough but fails to hit anything.  Reloading, she focusses on controlling her breathing, takes a steady 2-handed grip… and shoots Tough through his remaining arm.  Tough goes down again (serious wound to left arm) and this time he stays down.  Both arms will be permanently crippled and he'll need hospitalisation to deal with that torso wound.

Tough goes down again.

IMEC ducks back out of sight and drops down to the ground floor.  She dashes through the building and hops through the window opposite the doorway of building 2.

He looks beyond help.

Merc is lying in an expanding pool of blood.  IMEC thinks he's dead but there's no time to check.  Stepping over his body, she ducks inside building 2 and sneaks (stealth x3) through. A moment to climb through the window on the far side and sprint across the street and she's sneaking through the shadows inside building 3...

Shades walks back down the outside of buildings 2 and 3.  Where has the woman gone? He thinks he sees a movement inside as he passes the end of building 2, swings out, pistol up.... nothing (failed spot test).  Again, there!  Pistol up through the window, take aim... but nothing there (spot test failed again).  He ducks back into cover between the windows, cursing under his breath.

Can't see her in the shadows.

IMEC reaches the end of building 3.  She can see the shuttle!  Open ground, but she can make it, she knows.  Taking a breath, she hops down from the window sill and starts running.  Before she's gone 5 paces, Shades pivots round the corner of the building and shoots her in the back, sending her face-down onto the soil between 2 piles of oil drums.

There she goes!

It's not fair!  She's nearly there!  She can make it, come on!  Get up!  IMEC grits her bloodstained teeth and pushes herself upright.  5 more paces and she'll be in the shuttle.  She concentrates on getting there.  But that's not what she should be concentrating on.

Almost... there...

Shades steps up behind her.  He throws his arm around her neck, presses his autopistol to her right arm, just below the shoulder, and pulls the trigger.  This time she doesn't get up.

You're not going anywhere...

 Wow, what a game!  Very cinematic, action flowing back and forth, tense situations, dramatic escapes, calamitous injuries.

I know I got lots wrong, there are so many modifiers to keep track of for equipment, multiple traits, wounds/pins/stress etc.  I was always forgetting one or another, though things would have been easier if I wasn't trying to look after a 2 year old and eat lunch at the same time.  I couldn't use any proper character sheets and the dice disappeared every time I put them down, so plenty of distractions!

The action/reaction mechanic works very nicely.  In a lot of IGOUGO games with a limited number of turns, you feel you really have to be doing someting with every figure every turn to make the most of them.  In this game, it's fine to leave someone standing around watching while their team-mates carry out a whole series of actions.  It means they have no stress and are ready to intervene with a reasonable chance of success if enemy reactions endanger the main protagonist.

There were a number of occasions where character skills provided that extra point or two to score a hit or avoid an injury.  I'm still not sure whether D20 (as opposed to say a D12) is really necessary but it does allow for varing degrees of success.  As an example when shooting, the amount by which you exceed the target number will affect what body part you hit - thus an extra point or two of marksman or melee skill might tip it from only a torso hit to the atacker's choice of torso or arm.  With arms usually less armoured and more susceptible to damage (or loss of weapon), this could give you a greater chance of disabling your opponent.

It's obvious that you do need to print out your character sheets (I only used some hastily scribbled stats on a scrap of paper) to keep track of stress, pins and wounds properly. There was also a lot of flicking back and forth through the rulebook because I hadn't had an opportunity to print out the quick reference sheet.  This has already been remedied in preparation for the next game, and armed with my new bag of counters I shall be ready to track up to 50 pins, wounds and stress across both forces!

I have a narrative already running now, ready for my first proper sized game.  What were IMEC and the Merc fleeing from? Will the starship crew send another landing party to find out what happened? Will Tough be out for revenge if he survives the trip to hospital with Shades?