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.

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.