ACP164 Shipboard Action

 

Ahead of painting up my ACP164 Spacers and as part of some testing for a Star Patrol(ACP164)/Cepheus hybrid I've been playing some short sharp shipboard actions. A crew of 6 critters (2 typically staying on the bridge) trying to fight off a boarding action by 3 armoured droids.

As ever the ACP164 card mechanic gave a nice slick game and the morale draws through in some nice curve balls - although perhaps the droids should have been less susceptible.

One thing I did decide was that an SMG/Shotgun close range of only 3 squares just seemed too short in the context of confined spaces, but conversely the movement rates (often 7-9 squares) were too much so I doubled ranges and halved movement and the net result was a far better game I thought.

Out of the 3 games I played I think the critters won all three, for no loss on the first one, one casualty on the 2nd and 2 casualties on the third (with a third critter curled up sobbing in the corner). Since the critters were being played as "PCs" rather than NPCs I'd given them higher Resilience and pulled them out of the fight once they'd had 3 hits so none of them died (although the auto-doc might be busy).

All worked pretty well I thought, now just need to finish off the Star Patrol(ACP164)/Cepheus idea.

Star Patrol/ACP164 take on Five Parsecs encounter

 

I played out the same Five Parsecs encounter but using the ACP164 rules - with weapon tables from Star Patrol - the "generic" SF version of Buck Surdu's Combat Patrol rules (also the basis for ACP164), and which are available as a free download from Sally 4th (although you'll need to buy a set of cards).

Things got off to a reasonable start with Toki and Squirrel going left flanking again, and Toki getting into a good enfilade position as the warbots emerged form the trees. Paddy started getting damage on the warbots, but their +2 armour meant they were slow to kill. As the third bot emerged from the wood almost right beside Toki Squirrel raced over, got a double activation and emptied his shotgun into the bot - nice weapon at close range (3 shots at 3"). The combined fire of the crew took the other two bots out, but this time the Hakshan Investigator had got itself in a better position and after a brief exchange of fire delivered a knock out shot to Frenchie. Erma then leapt up onto the roof of a building to get a good shot while Bloody went right flanking. But as Squirrel moved along the wood edge to get behind the alien the Hakshan scored a headshot on Toki and she was down. Squirrel burst round the corner behind the Hakshan, let rip with his shotgun and the murderer was down.

So more bloody than the Five Parsecs version, but how much was down to rules and how much to a better position for the Hakshan it's hard to tell. All played nicely though and I think this is the way to go with Five Parsecs - particularly given that I barely need to think about the ACP rules nowadays.

The Hakshan is about to be surrounded

The typical ACP Endurance of 3 does make characters very vulnerable though, OK for NPCs/large skirmish games but less so for PCs in an RPG, so tempted to set them to 5 or many even 7. I note that the "personality" characters in the Star Wars supplement for Combat Patrol have these sorts of values, so the precedent in there - and its something I need to sort out for another ACP164 project I'm working on.

First Game of Five Parsecs From Home

 

Finally got Five Parsecs onto the table.

Set Up

Randomly generated encounter as my teams first mission as per the book. I'm keeping an on-line record of the campaign over on my wiki at http://taunoyen.com/wiki/doku.php?id=five_parsecs_from_home.

My team of 6 (using Albedo figures, will buy some more generic spaces at Salute) were up against the 3 Warbots and the Hakshan Investigator I bought and described at http://newconverj.blogspot.com/2021/10/figures-for-five-parsecs-from-home.html.

All the team had to do was exit the far side, optionally picking up the loot box as they went.

Crew on the left, Warbots top right, Hakshan bottom right

How it Played

A good shot from Erma took the Shell Gun bot out as soon as it emerged from the wood. Toki got into a shooting match with the warbot leader and kept it stunned enough to eventually get close enough to kill it. Erma and Sciuris then took the 3rd Warbot out - some good 1s and 2s meaning that the Bots hardly got a shot in. 

First warbot down!

Frenchie picked up the loot box, a nice 5Cr. 

The Hakshan Investigator had been watching all this, but never really had a bead on anyone. She tried to pick the team off as they moved towards the wood but again the activation pattern meant there was never a clear shot. She moved round almost to the board edge and ultimately had to step out of cover to catch Erma just as she moved along the edge of the wood. Right on target and with a kill roll, but Erma's luck meant she just managed to dive for cover. The near-miss incensed the team and Paddy and Bloody just advanced forward letting loose with their shotguns, and the poor Hakshan had 5 stuns before they finally took her out. 

The Investigator takes a bead....

The crew manage to exit the far edge without further incident and the first battle is a nice success for no loss.

Rules Impressions

That all went pretty well. The combat rules are basic, D6  per shot with 3 DMs (range, cover, aim), so it moves along quickly. Results seemed more "realistic" than Stargrave (which has an opposed roll system which just doesn't seem/work right to me). The ability for some characters to activate before the enemy is a nice touch and some tactical thinking needed about dice assignment. The toughness stat and armour save seemed OK. Surprised that a stunned character could still fire with no penalty (except no aim), be tempted to house rule a -1 per stun. Having a +2 combat skill (like Erma) made a huge difference (3+ to hit not 5+).

An over-stunned Investigator as Paddy and Bloody take revenge

Broader Impressions

As a run-through all fine. It must be said that the campaign wrapper has a whole lot of dice rolling (about 15 for the post-battle!) and is calling out for an app! Combat-wise its deliberately light weight, which is fine, but I'll run the same scenario again with ACP164 to find out whether that actually takes much more time and whether it gives a better feel for the encounter.

Whilst I like the overall campaign idea of Five Parsecs I think that the fact that it is background-less, or at least the fact that I'm not invested in any background, does mean that the battles do just seem like they'll be a set of standalone encounters - even though the crew evolves between them.

I'm suspecting that the ideal system for me may be something like:

• Traveller's Third Imperium/Spinward Marches for background
• Five Parsecs for the campaign rules
• ACP164 for the combat

Would probably be a good thing to set up on Roll20/Virtual Tabletop for when I'm away from home too.

Once I've done the ACP game I'll probably do the next step on the campaign in "pure" Five Parsecs and then if I'm still of the same mind try my hybrid model out.

Return to Pebble Park

Last year I played "Raid on Pebble Park" as part of the ACP164 Jika campaign being run by Mike Wilson. I'd hoped to revisit it having bought and painted some ILR Assault Troops to act as the QRF but scheduling meant it got played whilst the figures still sat in their bubble wrap :-(

Set-Up

6' x 4' table with a 1" hex cloth. The LARC/Dropship model is a card one from Ebbles Miniatures.

The ILR were the defenders again, with two 2-critter patrols out (random start positions), another 4 guards asleep in one of the buildings, and a 6-critter QRF all tooled up snoozing on their bunks. The EDF also had 14 critters, all with good natural night vision, formed into 3 teams: a five critter assault team, with 2 demolition experts, a four critter security team to stop anyone getting in their way, and the OC (Lt Joulet) with an LMG team and a PML (think Carl Gustav) team.

Whilst I liked the idea of the patrol/noise rules in Black Ops that I used last time it struck me they were all a bit complex and gave some odd results, so this time I cut my own simpler set to control guard movement and alerting. Once the alarm is raised the QRF reacts the next turn, and the rest of the guards the turn after that.

How It Played

Everything went well in the first turn as the EDF edges towards the boundary road. Unfortunately one of the ILR patrols was headed their way. The PML team drew incredibly high for their move across the road to the building on the far side so I decided they must have charged across, smashed down the door and run up the stairs. That was a lot of noise points, and certainly enough to draw the ILR patrol on.

They run like hell in the direction of the noise, rounding the corner and get caught in a less than withering hail of fire from the support team (the OC’s gun jamming). One ILR takes a light wound. The ILR need an activation to raise the alarm, but the EDF gun group swing round and fires a burst of LMG at short range – and misses! The team i/c swings into action, rushes past the gunner and rugby tackles the second rabbit. The rabbit takes damage and pulls away – struggling to find the radio on her chest.run like hell in the direction of the noise, rounding the corner and get caught in a less than withering hail of fire from the support team (the OC’s gun jamming). One ILR takes a light wound. The ILR need an activation to raise the alarm, but the EDF gun group swing round and fires a burst of LMG at short range – and misses! The team i/c swings into action, rushes past the gunner and rugby tackles the second rabbit. The rabbit takes damage and pulls away – struggling to find the radio on her chest.

The ILR patrol gets the very first activation – can they call for help? – but  they need to make the morale test first and fails! The rabbits are spooked and run off the board before calling in support. The other ILR team activates though and with a melee and shooting there’s a lot of noise around so they make the alarm threshold easily. They call for help and then get a second activation which puts them just round the corner and just in sight of the EDF LMG team, and its not the LMG or the PML shots that take them out, but good old rifle fire from the security team. 

Some good cards meant that the assault team moved rapidly to the gap in the wire fence. The QRF was waiting for cards. The EDF made it over the fence and looked to be making a home run when the QRF got 3 activations on the trot (normal - elite card - normal) which got them into the Park and ready for a shoot-out with the EDF.

Joulet sent the LMG team off to follow the assault team, but as they dropped to the ground over the fence the bullets started flying, the LMG gunner was an early casualty and her oppo thought better of it and jumped back over the fence! 

One rabbit swings wide to get a view down the far side of the pad, whilst another takes cover by the ramp. The EDF try and react but miss. The rabbit fires, wounds the assault team OC. The assault team get a go, but draw badly for morale, the tail-end Charlie deciding to leg it back over the wall. Seeing things going badly one of the demolition guys decides to rush the rabbit. The rabbit’s buddy misses his reaction shot and the stoat piles into the rabbit, inflicting a wound and pushing him back. A second activation and the stoat empties his 1-56 into the bunny at point-blank. That fights over but the stoat with the vital satchel is now in the open in full view of two rabbits. End of turn!

The QRF activates, but in morale the rabbit with the best shot decides to run back to cover! The QRF OC and his oppo both go to fire, clean shots… but guns jam! The 4th QRF critter moves up to better cover the fence and get a bead on the bleeding LMG critter. The rest of the guard finally turn out – but into a hail of fire. On their first activation the EDF security team shoots the first rabbit out the door, and on their second activation the first rabbit out the far door. 

The assault team activate first, and both demo critters leg it for the ramp. The QRF then activates (same number) but guns jam! The 3rd rabbit (who’d run back) runs forward and stuns the demo guy at the bottom of the ramp. The 4th QRF critter has a lucky escape as the assault rear-guard’s gun also jams. On her turn the rabbit  puts two wounds into the EDF. The remaining guard activates but is pinned, so more or less out of it. The security team charges down the street. Its 2’s again, the EDF has to take a big morale test, loses cohesion and the two wounded critters charge forward in desperation but the two demo guys are stunned. Then it’s the security team again who burst through the park gate and 3 of them let loose at the back of the 3 rabbits in front of them, but in the hasty shooting only get one wound due to the heavy body armour. End of turn.

QRF activates first on Turn 9 – all over for the EDF? No, morale check, the QRF becomes stunned as they realise they’re being shot at from their rear! Almost everyone in the park is now stunned! The ILR Guard miraculously activates on a black 6! The two rabbits charge out, straight into an OOA EDF, melee and the EDF's dead! The QRF activates but can only clear its stuns, same for the assault team.  Then the assault team gets to sprint up the ramp, the o/c giving covering fire which wings one QRF, but the o/c QRF wings the second demo critter, but the first has made it to the top! The Guard fails to hit the back of the security team, but the EDF PML is nicely lined up to take the rabbits out – but draws OOA on its first shot – out of action! The security team, unbothered by the rabbits behind them, empties another volley into the backs of the QRF, one goes down, both the others are wounded and stunned. It looks like the demo critter at the Dropship might be able to set the charges!

Turn 10. The guards in the alley wound EDF security team’s tail-end-charlie who runs to cover, and their team mates, sat at the gate with bullets flying everywhere are pinned! Lt Joulet and her oppo are still firing from behind the ILR inflict wounds but not enough to stop them. The lone EDF LMG loader makes it over the fence and opens fire on the rabbit to his front, but then gets killed when the rabbit returns fire. The rest of the QRF recovers from stun, but before they can bring down effective fire the wounded EDF manages to take one of their number out. This gives the demo expert the chance to set the charge, choosing a timer of 3 turns, and then slowly starts to run down the ramp with covering fire from their oppos. The other EDF critter at the fence scores some hits on the lone QRF rabbit, but the greaves save them. Almost everyone in the park but those two are now wounded, and there’s two turns til things go boom! It might all come down to the morale draws.

Turn 11. Lt Joulet and her buddy take another guard out. The QRF boss goes into a fanatical charge, killing the assault team Cpl in a single blow. The 2nd demo critter misses, then their gun jams but the rest of the security team, although pinned brings down enough fire to take the rabbit leader out. Just one rabbit left in the park, and one outside. Looks like the EDF might make it. The demo critter and the wounded EDF round the back start heading for the fence. Just one turn left!

Turn 12. Lt Joulet takes the last of the Guard force out. The security squad gets an activation and legs it across the street to safety. Four dud activation cards, then Boom! Well not quite, the satchel slips at the last moment, the bang is enough to still destroy the ship but the blast radius is reduced. The last rabbit standing is easily saved by her armour, the bomber escapes unscathed and their oppo is just stunned. The EDF got off lightly. A morale card is drawn for the last rabbit and she decides enough is enough and legs it. The field belongs to the EDF and the Dropship is gone.

The Reckoning

In terms of victory points:

ILR – all lost bar one rabbit (13/14)

EDF – 4 killed, 2 with 2 wounds, 1 with 1

EDF Points = 10+13-20-4 = -1

ILR Points = -10+8-15-16 = -33

EDF victory, but given their losses reduced to a Marginal Victory.

Thoughts

ACP164 played really well as always and gave a great narrative feel to the game. Out-of-ammo cards still a bit frequent for my liking, and a lot of point-blank shots missed. Might introduce a few house rules next time to fix those. My new guard and noise rules worked fine, but I'll do a few standalone tests of those to make sure. All-in-all a good game. Makes it one-all between EDF and ILR for this scenario.

Figures for Five Parsecs from Home

 

Really impressed by what I've read so far of the Five Parsecs from Home rulebook. I've decided to use my 28mm Albedo figures for the crew (led by Erma and Toki of course). I rolled up the characters and then the first engagement. That ended up needing three War Bots and a Hakshan Investigator - whatever that is!

Initially I'd thought about using some Star Wars Clone Wars troopers but a hunt around the Net found these superb figures from Forlorn Hope Games. They've got a really nice Cylon vibe going, and the guy with the Rotary Cannon is just right for the Shell Gun.

As to the "Hakshan Investigator" that's described as an "odd, suited alien". Again Forlorn Hope Games had a suitable looking figure - signs of webbed feet and hands and a vaguely fish shaped head, all in a spacesuit and with a suitably alien looking gun - guess that will count as odd and suited.

Now I just need to finish off the ACP164 game on the table and set up the Five Parsecs scenario.

Stargrave

 

Having heard quite a lot about Frostgrave, but having minimal interest in Fantasy, when Stargrave came out I thought I ought to give it a go. I pulled together one team from a collection of Warhammer 40K (?) figures and another from my Albedo figures. I rolled up the Captains and First Mates for each and bought some crew. I had Pebble Park laid out ready for an ACP164 game, so distributed the loot around that, the two sides rolled to arrive on adjacent edges, and battle was joined.

How It Played

The Warhammer guys had the closest loot, and their Mystic leader took two of her team off to secure the two closest. The Albedo captain and his squad got into a firefight with the Warhammer 2ic which lasted most of the game - both seniors being killed. The second Albedo group legged it after the Mystic, took one of her team out as she got to the 2nd loot, and then a firefight (and spell fight) erupted around the 2nd loot and Albedo won. Their remaining team members doubled back to help the OC's party, with grenades being lobbed over the fencing being particularly effective. In the end the last human bought it, and the critters (well the two left) were victorious.

There must be loot near here somewhere...

Rules Impressions

The game really did dissolve into a series of to-the-death firefights. None of the fluidity and individual action I typically get in an ACP164 game. The basic to-hit mechanism is an opposed die roll added to broadly equal skill stats, so lots of exchanges gave no hits, and then with body armour lots of those gave no damage, and then damage could be soaked up quite a lot - so it did end up as a bit of a boring dice fest. The spells added a bit of colour but without overdoing it - so little chance of recreating Red Star's Warkaster type effects.

From what I'd heard of Frostgrave I'd hoped to find more in terms of the collaborative play, scenario design and campaign side, but every game just seems to be a fight for loot boxes.

Oh well, back up onto the shelf.

 

ACP164: Dead Rabbits (and other critters)

Playing the ACP164 Lockdown campaign earlier in the year I half joking suggested to the group that we needed some dead rabbit figures (I hate the look of tipped figures in skirmish games). Chris saw the opportunity and so now we have a range of dead critters to buy! I bought 6 ILR and 6 EDF, and had great fun with pliers bending arms, snapping legs and then with a drill making bullet holes!

Rumours are that the campaign may restart which would be great, and a chance to use the figures - and there's the boarding action Kickstarter imminent.

Moongrunts: Dark Side of the Moon and StarGrunt

 

With the table laid out for 15mm Moon combat I decided to try a couple more rule sets. First up was the Dark Side of the Moon set used at Salute in 2019 (I think) and later published in MW&BG (#440).

I had to invent a few things as the QRS gave no idea of distances or ranges, and the colour code/icon style whilst great if someone has briefed you on it took a bit of decoding - but I think I got the game right in the end. The only real recognition of being somewhere else was the "dust" marker with movement. Activation is by unit, each side "bidding" with a playing card for their hand for first move of the pair. Works OK. Combat is a Risk! style dice matching, with extra dice as DMs. Simple but not my favourite model. Game is too long ago to go into details but it gave a reasonable participation/fun game but lacked the detail I'd want for a regular set (not its aim) but also gave no real sense of being in space.

Next up was Star Grunts - a classic of the SF genre. In contrast to Dark Side these were way more complex (or at least look it) than I'd like, and I think the rules layout doesn't help. Activation was alternate unit and there's an involved system of unit confidence and leadership which provides friction. Movement was determined at the walk, but random at the run which is nice. Combat though was dice roll after dice roll, I think I counted 12+ as there is an opposed roll to hit, DIVIDING one score by a range factor, then another opposed roll for damage. Just way too much for me - particularly throwing a divide into the middle of it! Again nothing really to suggest that this is in space, but I guess Stargrunt assumes that everyone is in powered battle armour and so slips, trips and rips aren't an issue.

Nice to get these sets on the table, but not ones I'll revisit.

Bolt Action: Moongrunts

 

First game to christen the new war room was a spot of 15mm Moongrunt. I bought the models from GZG at Salute 2019 and painted them soon after, but taken ages to get them to the table. A nice 3' x 3' gridded cloth from Deepcut Studio, craters made from upturned lids and rocks from the drive!

I decided to modify Bolt Action as its become my go-to Platoon sized rules. I doubled ranges (treating the weapons as modern chemical ones, no fancy lasers), and also increased lethality - as any suit damage is going to be an issue. I thought about increasing movement - but watching the Apollo videos whilst the bunny hop was fast it as a) hard to stop and b) made you a cracking target. So its reasonable to expect that "patrol" speed would be little different, and a hop is just a run.

To give it a bit more of a "space" feel I decided though to add a "fumble" roll to anything that might risk suit damage - as that seems to be the big difference - particularly as we're not talking battle armour here. So any Run or Down action needs an extra Orders test - fail it and you take 1 Pin, double 6 and you lose a soldier (assumed out of game whilst doing suit repair).

I did a straight attack/defence game. Even forces so defenders won easily, but the mechanics all seemed to work. Might as ever do a few tweaks, but I think the fumble gave it just enough extra to remind you that this wasn't just WW2 in a grey desert. Tempted the write the whole thing up for MW&BG.

Seeing as I have the table set up I'll run few a few other SF rules to see how they fare.

Starships!

Again as part of the Traveller project I needed a model to represent a Free Trader and found this (right) Surcouf class Destroyer which passes muster. I thought I might as well get something to represent an aggressor (pirate or Imperial) if required and the Tshwane class Heavy Cruiser looked suitably menacing.

Who knows I might finally get around to trying out Full Thrust.

Mystery SF Figures

Needing some figure to support a Traveller RPG idea I'm working on I remembered some figures (25mm), painted and unpainted sulking around in my Striker box. No idea where they came from - possible the original Games Workshop shop in the early 80s, but I finally painted up the unpainted ones.

If anyone knows who manufactured there's I'd love to know, the adventurer figures in particular are great sculpts.

Here's the unpainted ones as I retrieved them from the Striker box.