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.
Wow that sounds like a lot of fun! Love the write up and the dwarf minis!
ReplyDeleteThe one game of Five Parsecs from Home I played felt like a bit of a cake walk, but that was okay... I learned the rules and had fun and honestly, if it had been a TPK I probably would have been too discouraged to ever play again.
Reading this definitely has me feeling like I need to play again... or maybe revisit the plan I had for an Age of Sigmar based campaign of Five Leagues from the Borderlands...?
Thanks for sharing this!!
Yeah, the Fives games (Parsecs, Leagues, etc.) battles can be cakewalks, but can also go poorly, at least from what I have seen on YouTube reports (and I could see where they could). I did make a lot of choices to keep this battle low key, and I also got lucky. For example, these shatter-form bugs managed to take out some of their own guys.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that it helps to start out light like that, at least for me, and for learning the game and some of the ideas, quirks and nuances (such as the fact that with Bug Hunt you have to have someone on your team within 6 inches of a contact marker to detect what it is so you can engage with it - until it's revealed you can't shoot it, hence the exchange about the crappy detectors; ha ha).
That said, for people who want the games to be tougher, there are ways to make that happen, options provided in the rules. People can make them really hard if they want.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of TPK. I was in a play-by-forum game where it was a TPK and that bummed me out. It didn't even feel like we were given any clues or chances to avoid it.
Yeah, the Five Paratroopers in Normandy campaign I started came to an ABRUPT end in the second game when the mission I rolled up was defending a crossroad against an overwhelming force of Germans... All but one were killed in action or injured and captured (the one that did "survive" to fight on had been taken out of action during the game and when I rolled to see what actually happened, he was lightly wounded, so I said he'd rolled into the bushes and crawled away during the firefight...)
DeleteAnd thanks for the kind comments!
ReplyDeleteFun little game. I like the look of the scratch built tank, though it still needs a bit of work!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack!
DeleteOh, it needs a lot of work! ha ha
And figuring out how to do the things I want to do with it. :)
Lovely looking game and sounds like fun, nice way to ease into a game system, I remember Tim's Normandy campaign going south pretty rapidly!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks, Iain! Yeah, next time I'll probably dial it up just a notch further, but not too much. Some may like to dial it right up to eleven. Not me. :D
Delete