Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 94: Skirmish in Space!

 Hi!

I managed to play another game of Planet 28 last night so without further ado, on with the battle report:

The Background

Following the encounter at WAREHOUSE EPSILON, Vulcan and Grizelda have returned to their master with the mysterious artifact that they recovered. Maximo has deduced that further clues to the item he is looking for can be found aboard the long abandoned space hulk classified Venga B9 that floats far out on the periphery of the Farpoint System.

Knowing that Vash has been interfering with his plans, he has dispatched his right hand woman, Mistress Vex with a small party to recover the clues to the Phalantir, an ancient item of Lostech that is vital to his research.

Vash has tracked his opponent's shuttle to the forgotten hulk and has followed with his own craft. Landing in one of the ancient ships landing bays and discovering the vessel still has something of an atmosphere, he determines to intercept the mystery force and glean details of the artifact for himself.

The Forces

Vash has brought his usual companions, Master Lee and Glitterberry. Vash is armed with a Power Maul, Las Pistol and Heavy Armour and has the abilities of Luck and Slow. Master Lee, following his previous games has been given a Powerfist to represent his awesome combat skills as well as Bulwark, Brawler and Throw. Glitterberry has a Heavy Rifle and Medium Armour and his skill is Coward (he's none too keen on getting up close and personal with enemies having taken a club to the face in a previous game)

Mistress Vex has brought Grizelda and Vulcan, both who have been patched up following the skirmish at Warehouse Epislon. Vex is armed with a Great Blade, Las Pistol and Medium Armour and has the skills Foul Aura and Heal (representing the smokestacks on her backpack that constantly belch smoke and her tech abilities to repair her minions), Grizelda is armed with a Power Fist and has the skills of Fast, Berserk and Unshakable as she's hopped up on combat drugs. Vulcan has a Flamer and Medium Armour and the skill Iron Skin.

The Layout 

The labyrinthine and rusting corridors and cargo bays of the space hulk Venga B9. There are four items of salvage to be found, one in each quarter of the board. The doorways to these require a 5+ on a D10 to open apart from the two accessing the central vault which require an 8+. 

The four salvage items require an action spent rummaging to find anything with a roll of a 5+ resulting in a success. 

The two warbands enter the board at opposite corners with Vex appearing on the North West and Vash in the South East edges. 

The Game

Both Grizelda and Lee make a break towards the doors to the eastern sector with Grizelda's greater speed allowing her to reach her door first but not having any actions left to try and open the rusting portal.

Glitterberry makes a run towards the nearby scrap pile, nervously glancing around the shadowy hulk as he’s concerned that his warning of multi limbed monstrosities has been ignored by Vash.

Meanwhile Vulcan strides towards the nearest salvage and starts rummaging and Mistress Vex moves forward towards the Southern doorway.

Finally Vash ambles toward the central doorway, pausing occasionally to note down some fascinating architectural element, positive that with a bit of work and enough servitors he could put the hulk back together and possibly use it as a base or research laboratory.

Turn two sees Grizelda fail to get the door open on her first try but manages on the second. Meanwhile, Lee has no similar problems, reaching his own door and opening it with ease, preparing to slip through into the next chamber.

Glitterberry reaches the nearby salvage and his keen eyes pick out an interesting shiny piece of tech which he pockets for later. (To simplify things, I decided that instead of having to lug said salvage around, it was enough for either party to have discovered it. In future games it may be fun to have them beating each other up over it but I'm still familiarising myself with the rules so kept it as easy as I could!).

Vex, her sensors detecting movement nearby realises that she must get a move on and rushes the southern door, intent on finding out who the unwanted company is.

Vulcan also discovers his own salvage among the junk and then moves towards the central doorway.

Vash’s sensor array picks up that his party is being scanned and moves as quickly as possible toward the central doorway.

Turn 3 sees Grizelda rush the third scrap pile and discovers the tech. With Mistress Vex's party having secured two of the salvage items to Vash's one, its going to come down to who can break into the central vault first to decide the outcome of the game!

Lee rushes into the cargo hold, and prepares to charge the insane cyborg next round as he wants to introduce to Grizelda to his new technique, Powerfist to Face.

Vex opens the southern doorway and peers through and realises that the salvage in this quarter has already been claimed but decides to continue into her opponents zone to attack them from the rear as her minions attack from the front.

Vulcan moves toward the central door but fails to open it, not realising it is a push door, instead pulling with all his might...

Vash moves towards the central door and prepares to open it next turn, hefting his power maul in preparation for whatever he may find within. Could it be untold riches, priceless archeotech or ancient bottles of booze?

Turn three starts with Lee catching Grizelda as she rushes back to her own deployment zone and delivers a flurry of kicks and punches, taking her down to 10 points of damage. In return, she wounds him with one successful attack but misses her second roll and the swirling melee will continue until the next turn, neither warrior able to land a decisive blow or willing to give way to their opponent.

Glitterberry moves back toward the central doorway, preparing to give covering fire to whoever needs it but unsure who to follow. Does he go to Lee whose distant combat he can hear echoing through the chamber or stick with Vash who is intent on discovering the contents of the central vault!

Vex moves into the southern zone and strides towards the eastern door, aware that at least one of her minions have finally encountered resistance.

Vulcan opens the door and moves in, ready to check the last scrap token.

Vash opens his doorway and charges towards Vulcan but his charge is just short. (Apologies as I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of much of turn three due to the excitement!)

Turn four begins and in a brutal display of insane savagery, Grizelda puts Lee out of action and sprints towards her companions.

Glitterberry flits into the central vault behind Vash and opens fire on Vulcan over Vash’s shoulder but his burst of fire flies wide, the shuriken shrieking harmlessly past the Mechanicus and embedding themselves in the wall behind him.

Vex opens the door to the eastern sector and strides in but is becoming aware that her flanking move is taking far too long and by the time she reaches the central vault, she may be too late.

Vulcan attacks Vash but his combination of poor combat skills and Vash’s heavy armour results in no damage being done to the blonde. (This was a foolish mistake as he should have opened fire with his flamethrower which would have probably torched Vash and damaged Glitterberry!)

In return, Vash swings his power maul but misses but thanks to his lucky roll, then hits and badly damages Vulcan and a second swing takes the flamethrower wielding Mechanicus out of action.

Turn five has Grizelda charge towards the central vault but only manages to get to the doorway in time to see Vash standing over the form of Vulcan.

Glitterberry, sure that his boss will take care of the lunatic begins rifling through the scrap pile and on his second attempt finds the last item. 

Vex rushes towards the sound of combat but is cautious as Vulcans icon on her display has just gone dark so caution is required.

Vash pumped up on his last combat, cheerfully charges Grizelda and manages to take her out of combat too with a single swing of his power maul.

The final turn has Glitterberry turn and glance movement behind them and moves out of the vault and seeing Vex opens fire, damaging the begowned Mechanicus but failing to stop her.

Seeing her second minions icon blink out, Vex makes a snap decision, her force has recovered two artefacts and she’s now outnumbered and has now started taking damage. She decides discretion is the best bet and makes a break for Vash’s deployment zone, aware that he has foolishly left his shuttlecraft unattended.

Vash stumbles out of the vault behind Glitterberry in time to see Vex disappear round the corner and off towards his shuttle.

Conclusion

Vash and Glitterberry find Lee and administer first aid to the increasingly scarred martial artist and send a distress signal back to The Shrike, hopeful that Inquisitor Fisher will come to their aid, especially now there is mysterious Xenos tech, rogue Mechanicus and a space hulk to investigate.

Speaking of which, Vash is fairly sure that he’s seen something moving at the edge of his sensor array so hopefully the Shrike will arrive soon before whatever gribbly is is doesn’t decide to probe them…

So there we have it, both sides got two tech items and following the Planet 28 campaign rules, I rolled to see what happened.

Vash survived unscathed and gained 20 experience, Glitterberry earned 13 and Lee survived but has been left with a shattered hand so will be taking a break while his hand heals but still gained 3 experience. 

Vex earned 12 experience and has teleported her injured to safety (I gave her an extra five due to her theft of Vash's shuttle!). Vulcan is slowly healing so will miss the next game and earned 3 experience. Grizelda is shaken but thanks to being insane and hopped up on combat drugs is fine and earned 9 experience.

As both parties took two salvage items, I decided to give both 10 points of experience.

Looking back, I should have introduced some roaming monsters to menace the parties and Vex should have stuck with Vulcan as her abilities would have aided him and hurt Vash to boot but her stealing his shuttle seemed apt. Similarly Vulcan deciding to charge the heavily armed and armoured Vash who also outclassed him was foolish and he should have torched him with his flamer. Maybe he didn't want to destroy the last salvage item in a cataclysm of promethium or acted on instinct!

I'm really enjoying playing Planet 28 as it's simple but works really well at representing small skirmishes. I'll have to see what I can get painted for my next game and both sides have earned quite a bit of experience so will see if new companions arrive and if they advance any of their stats!

The Space Crusade board worked really well and with the addition of a few more odds and ends will be making a fairly regular appearance in my games as it has proved to be rather handy for representing combat in buildings or aboard spaceships now but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 87: Bodging Rulesets

Hi!

I've got a load of figures midway through painting and sculpt just needing a coat of paint so I decided to have a look at some of my other rulebooks to see what I've got and what I can use to play some skirmishes.

Warzone

Warzone 1st edition is a great start for conversion into a small scale skirmish game as it has alternating activation, plenty of existing profiles which can be used and a good amount of customisation possibilities for characters to boot.

I've tried out a game using counters earlier in the year and think that I shall be using this ruleset for my first test as I'm reasonably confident of how to play it, despite only playing a single game in about 20 years! 

With the use of the Dark Legion gifts or the Art of the Brotherhood, I can easily introduce psykers, espers and all manner of interesting elements too.

While it doesn't have a custom force maker, it is a really great set of rules that allow you to play small skirmishes with shoot and scoot tactics, diving for cover and all manner of elements that lend themselves to a really dynamic game which I think could be perfect for my own small character based and scenario driven games.

Void 1.1

Void 1.1 is also a skirmish game at heart, although aimed at slightly larger scale than Warzone. It usually has a few squads backed up by a character or two and the odd small vehicle. 

It's also an alternating activation system and like Warzone, each model has a number of actions that can be carried out in whatever order they want making it a bit more dynamic than GW's games of yore. 

I plan on having a bash with a small force using Void once I have enough stuff painted as its more suited to a platoon level game than a single squad a side.

Again although it doesn't have a custom force generator, it does have a good variety of model profiles that can easily be bodged into whatever character one likes and I look forward to getting a game or two in using the rules!

Vor The Maelstrom/No Limits

Vor is a totally customisable game and uses action points rather than the two previous games that have a number of activations per model. Its spiritual successor, No Limits is a generic ruleset that uses the same mechanics but has refined force generation and I've played it a fair few times but not for about ten years or so.

It's a bit crunchier in style than Void or Warzone but I have fond memories of the rules and it will make a really interesting small skirmish game with only a few small modifications, such as giving characters more wounds and action points and having each activating separately.

Worthy of note, the terrain rules for Vor are really fun that allow you to roll all manner of interesting terrain and unexpected events (some of which are really destructive!) and can add a random and interesting element to games without bogging things down.

We Can Be Heroes

We Can be Heroes is a pulp style game that features bands of dashing heroes, dastardly villains and sidekicks, minions and whatnot. 

I've had the rules for ages but never tried them out and am keen to have a go of using them as the basis for a skirmish or two on the frontier. 

Having glanced through the rules, they seem to be fairly straightforward and well explained and could be just the thing for a fun character driven game.

I particularly like the fact that heroes act heroically and are able to do more than the sidekicks who in turn can do more than the lowly henchmen and feel that the system could lend itself to a really entertaining mini campaign but I need to re-read the rules and try them out a time or two before posting a battle report using them to make sure I get things right.

Aertherverse

Aetherverse came out in the early 2000's if memory serves right and I picked up a copy having read a few battle reports back in the day and it's languished on my shelves ever since.

It's a generic skirmish game that is scaleable which is good and allows you to create whatever force you like and the battle reports I read of it made it look rather fun. There's also a small scale skirmish version called Aetherverse Upheaval which is specifically aimed towards small warband style games.

Sadly my knowledge of the actual mechanics are vague as I've not really done anything with it since picking it up but I aim to dust off my copy and have a bash!

Rogue Trader

Ah Rogue Trader! The original sandpit sort of game where anything is possible. 

It's a really retro system now which isn't going to result in a dynamic fast moving sort of gaming experience like some of the other rulesets I've mentioned but I don't feel I can skip it, if for no other reason than it's retro charms. 

I've used it for sci-fi and fantasy games in the past and it's always resulted in a good game and if memory serves, it's campaign system would be fun to use for seeing how my various warbands cope between games!

I doubt I'd be using the robot programming rules and random equipment rolls or some of the other esoteric stuff from the game but one of the charms of Rogue Trader is the fact that you can pretty much pick and choose or bodge stuff and it is flexible enough to work.

Fantastic Worlds

Fantastic Worlds is another Pulp themed game, this time aimed specifically at retro sci-fi and I picked it up at the same time as We Can Be Heroes. It uses an archtype system that looks interesting and I really want to have a go at playing a game or two with it, especially as it really focuses on character and story.

Interestingly, the game has hit locations that can effect how a model activates which looks like it could be fun and decidedly cinematic but the rules are a bit dense if memory serves correct so I suspect I'll need to give it a few read throughs and games before I get it correct.

I think Fantastic Worlds will be one to try once I've got into the swing of playing different game systems and ramp up the number of games I can play a week but it's definitely one I want to try!

Laserburn

Laserburn is the granddaddy of Warhammer 40k and I've got a copy lying around that I picked up some time ago, had a flick through and put down again.

It's typed layout really put me off back then and although I'm curious to see how it goes, it's a game I'm a bit cautious about trying. However it's been compared to Inquisitor so it could be an interesting game to try out if I can summon up the courage to brave the layout.

Like many of the other games I've mentioned, I suspect that once I get the hang of the mechanics and get a game or two under my belt, it may end up being rather fun (and may result in the appearance of the Red Redemption too!)

I'd love to hear of other folks experience with the rules so if you've actually played it, please feel free to drop a comment!

Rogue Planet

Rogue Planet is a game I've heard fantastic things about but when I bought the download was a little underwhelmed due to the slightly weird mechanics. Saying that, I've not actually played a game using it so I'm keen to give it a bash as it feels like it might be akin to Planet 28 which was great fun.

It's aimed at a science fantasy setting which is just my cup of tea and I'm going to see if I can find any battle reports from the interwebs to get an idea of just how it's played.

Chaos on Cronos

Chaos on Cronos is another pulp sci-fi game that uses the Herosystem which is in turn inspired by the old Trinity Battleground game by White Wolf (a ruleset that's well worth a peek in its own right!)

I've got quite a few of the themed games using the system such as Chaos in Carpathia and the Supersystem rules but haven't actually tried them out. They feature individuals backed up by groups of supporting troops and I think it could make for a fun game that leans heavily on characters doing awesome stuff while the supporting troops get slaughtered like all good movie extras.

I must admit that I've not looked at the book for over a decade now so it's high time I remedied it and gave it a bash!

Star Mogul

Star Mogul is a great little game that relies not just on killing one's enemies but also recovering salvage and with a little bit of work would make for a great basis for the likes of competing Mechanicus teams or mercs on the frontier or pretty much whatever you fancy.

The rules are good and the campaign system is excellent but I'll need to paint a few more miniatures for each of my warbands to make the most of the game.

The flexibility of creating your salvage companies is really good too as you can specialise in combat, recovery or any number of other skillsets that give each of the teams a real sense of personality and it will be fun to play again after over 15 years!

Nuclear Renaissance

Nuclear Renaissance is by Curtis Fell of Ramshackle Games and is a more post apocalyptic sort of game featuring a more Gorkamorka sort of gaming experience with small warbands hurtling around in bodged vehicles and shooting each other up. It's writing style is quite fun and is aimed towards having fun rather than super serious grimdark which is a big plus for me. 

I backed the Kickstarter for the original box game but sadly sold much of the figures and vehicles during my Uni clearout but did keep the rules and the supplement. 

It's a good fun game to play and I suspect it would be a great way of representing vehicle combat in a scenario too and it also has the notorious Giggles Clan who will be making more of an appearance in my future games too as they are rather fun!

Now the list above isn't by any means all the rulesets I mean to try out this year as I've got at least a dozen others in my collection that really deserve a try out but these will be my initial objectives to play along with more games of Song of Blasters and Planet 28 (as well as Brutal Quest when it arrives!).

If anyone has any experience with any of these rulesets or can suggest a good battle report to read or watch, please feel free to drop a comment or link but in the meantime, All the best!