Five Parsecs From Home: Bug Hunt: Battle

 Right, Lads. Here's the plan. Scout, you and the fire team (that's you four with the combat rifles), head over to objective 2 to secure that location. Bungo, you get up high in the middle so you can take potshots at any bugs you can see. Kid, you and I will take the other side and activate the tactical point amongst the crates, then get you to objective 1 so you can hack it. By then we should be ready to activate the beacon at objective 3.

Chorus of "OK Sarge!"

(for reference, here's the map again)

Hey Sarge?

Yeah Kid?

What do you suppose that grotty pile of junk there is?

Looks like someone is trying to cobble together a tank?

Do you think they will ever succeed?

Time will tell, I suppose.

Sarge and the Kid head towards the tactical marker amongst the crates and activate it. It blocks bugs until a 6 is rolled on D6. Meanwhile, Bungo gets up on top of the grounded spaceship that is farthest north. And Scout and the fireteam head towards objective 2.

Bungo Longshot perched in position atop a grounded spaceship.

Hey Sarge?

Yeah Kid?

Did you hear something?

These blasted scanners don't have much of a range do they?

First contact! It's the kind they call "shatter-forms". It is said that when you kill one it shatters, and any other life forms nearby, including other shatter-forms, could take a hit. There are four of them in this group. Sarge blasts at them with his hand cannon, killing one. That causes two others to take hits and die, leaving only one alive.

Meanwhile, over on the other side, Scout and the fireteam reached objective 2 and only encountered a single bug, which they quickly dispatched.

Leaving the fireteam to hold that objective, Scout headed over to see if Sarge and the Kid needed any assistance.

Another group of 3 bugs had shown up on their detectors near objective 3, moving towards the crates. Luckily, the tactical marker was still operational and blocked them from getting through, so the bugs had to go around. Sarge and Bungo and Scout fired at the last bug from the first group, inflicting 3 stuns.

Sarge and Bungo dealt with the latest 3 bugs. Meanwhile, way off on the westside another blip had appeared.

Hey Sarge?

Yeah Kid?

Why do you think there is a terminal out in the middle of a used vehicle lot?

Who knows.

The Kid was free to hack the terminal at objective marker 1 (which, contrary to the map was south of the crater).

Hey kid?

Yeah Sarge?

Is it done?

Yeah, piece of cake.

All that remained was for Sarge to move over and activate the beacon at objective marker 3.

Hey Sarge?

Yeah Kid?

That's a beacon? Looks kind of like a moisture vaporator, don't it?

Never you mind; the mission briefing says it's a beacon.

Hey Sarge?

Yeah Kid?

What's with all of these tires?

What do you mean?

I mean, none of these vehicles in this lot use tires.

So that's the end of the battle. I did make things as easy as I could and a lot of things went right, probably more than I had a right to. 😄 One turn I rolled enough low rolls all of my side went in the quick action phase! I'll do another post-battle report later (sometime in the next few days I hope).

Hey lads?

Yeah Sarge?

Let's get some lunch!

Sounds good. But Sarge?

Yeah, Kid?

Let's not go to the lobster joint, eh?

Sure Kid.

Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt: Intro

 

Hey, Sarge?

Yeah, Kid.

Why is our badge a cat sleeping in sunbeams?

We're the Solar Cats, yeah.

Oh. Right.

Solar Cats is the unit name I rolled up on the tables in the Five Parsecs from Home Compendium, from Modiphius, which includes the Bug Hunt rules. Those rules have you create a small crew of soldiers to combat aliens ("bugs"), which come in various types (the soldiers and the aliens). As with the core Five Parsec rules there are campaign rules and various rules for what happens before any battles/skirmishes and what happens afterwards, too. This post will be about the setup and pre-battle stuff.

I created cards for my crew and support and a list of their gear for ease of reference during play. The crew includes Sarge, Scout, and Kid. Support consists of a 4 member fire team of basic combat troops (Able, Baker, Charlie, and Durok), and a sharpshooter (a halfling name Bungo Longshot). Then I set up the battlefield, with the objectives, locations, etc. It's a used vehicle lot, made up of Lego Star Wars vehicles and smaller ships. Here is a reconnaissance photo.

And an official map (no laughing back there, this is a serious military map)

Oh, that objective marker 1, well, we came in from the north and found out it was actually south of the crater rather than north of it.

As for the cats, it seems the "bugs" shied away from them. A couple of the cats just lazed around where they were, but the others wandered around (move 1d4 inches in a random direction each turn). "Bugs" have to stay at least an inch away, if cats move closer than an inch then "bugs" are moved back out of that range. (just a little house rule I threw in to make things more complicated to keep track of, and to have fun with some cat minis)

I am using all of the rules to make this first game as easy for me as I can, including the "I'm too Pretty to Die" option, lowest priority, etc. 😄 We'll see how that works out for me.

Now I just have to make time to actually play the game and then write it up.

Goblin Pirates

 These are from Meridian Miniatures, and were sculpted by Kev Adams. They were fun to paint!

I figure they can be used for sci-fi as well as for fantasy games.

Starcadia Quest Heroes

 I guess these were the first minis I finished this year. I hadn't realized that, until I saw time stamps on pics and posts. I have prepped quite a few other minis, mostly from various Kickstarter projects, but hadn't gotten any further with any of those.

At any rate, here are various heroes/characters from the game, Starcadia Quest, which I have not played. I mainly like the minis from the game.

Silent But Deadly

 Sci-fi halfling snipers from Warblade Miniatures Kickstarter.

I love these little guys and how they look like some of the early GW/Citadel fantasy halflings. Funny, cartoonish, and not very "realistic", just the way I like them. I think they fit in well with other minis of this style, such as the space pirate orks I painted recently, or old school GW space goblins. A bit of whimsy for "grim dark" science fiction.

All 12 together. Should have been a baker's dozen. 😄

Night Goblins from Warblade Miniatures

 I wasn't sure what colors I wanted to use, so first I thought I'd test a few ideas and settle on which one to go with. But then I decided to keep them all and just go with variations. They didn't need to all wear the same colors of robes and hoods.

Did I need more goblins? No, not really. ha ha

Orc Space Pirates Raid Again

 I finally finished painting these "Orc Space Pirates by Renegade 93, from the hands of legendary sculptor Kev Adams", as the Kickstarter put it. Just a bit late for Orctober. They are lovely metal miniatures, and just what one might expect from Kev Adams. Fun.