15mm Sci Fi project: Eden- new painted figures 11/11

[CookAndrewB]

Got a couple of my sculpts painted up.

Not Dralasite:




He is a bit shiny still. Haven't matte varnished him yet.

And my big-headed alien engineer with the power arm:


Random hazmat suit guy for 15mm comparison:






Pretty pleased with my handiwork and the pair as a whole. For now they will simply fill roles as residents of Forbear. Maybe they will get some time adventuring in the future.

I'm going to be working on a couple battle reports today, so I'll link to them when I get them done.

[Ockman]

The sculpts look great painted! I've sculpted in 28mm long ago, and I know that it's not that easy!

[CookAndrewB]

The sculpts look great painted! I've sculpted in 28mm long ago, and I know that it's not that easy!

It is weird because I think 28mm might actually be harder to sculpt. The scale gets bigger which makes it feel like you have more wiggle room, but then the details get smaller, so you are back to worrying about packing a figure full of cloth wrinkles and pockets, etc. I think I prefer 15mm. But I'm also just sculpting for my own enjoyment, so if it looks a little wonky I've still got that affection for my own creations that keep me from being too harsh.

I did start some sculpting on carbonite frozen criminals last night. That was interesting and fun. Hopefully they will turn out well in the post production/painting. 

[CookAndrewB]

New Battle Report from game #1 (of two) is now up on page 12: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/post_apoc_wargames/last-one-out-of-eden-lock-the-gate-15mm-sci-fi-t6176-s110.html

Brief highlights:

This was the game board for the scenario. I randomized the drop locations of two salvage items and two Points of Interest. I basically do this by rolling 2D4. Die #1 tells me which overall quadrant the item is going in (four tiles), and then the second D4 tells me what sub quadrant within the tile. Easy. Deployment edge is picked before salvage and POI items are laid out. I pretty much pick the near (bottom) edge as my starting point every time.


As fate would have it, salvage and POI's were laid out in 1/3, 1/4, 3/1, and 3/3. Basically all on the left side...


No contacts were rolled up, and both POI's were straight forward discoveries. Game ended in round 1  The Drop Ship Trou swoops in to pick up the team and the booty they barely broke a sweat for.


As an aside, I painted up a rudimentary background for the game. Here it is in its entirety.


Here is a better scenic shot.


Not bad considering I don't think I have painted anything like a landscape since I was in elementary school 

[Ockman]

I love that background, it's very, very atmospheric!

[CookAndrewB]

Thanks, Ockman! It did help me feel a little more into the ambiance of the game, rather than just looking at the dining room chairs across from me. 

Battle Report #2 is up from Sunday's gaming fiesta: Page 12 https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/post_apoc_wargames/last-one-out-of-eden-lock-the-gate-15mm-sci-fi-t6176-s110.html

The highlights:

The crew, once again, missed their landing mark and ended up deploying on the opposite edge of the map from their intended deployment. It is a 50% shot to land where they intend, and four games in a row they have missed. 


This also dropped them right next to two terrain features which both spawned contacts. Golden rocks spawned little more than some footsteps that were heard rushing off into the nearby bushes. The bushes next to Bubba brought about something far worse:

Gobblers!

After a brief firefight, the Gobblers were dispatched. Decaf had a prolonged tussle with one of these nasty critters, and after all was said and done we got a brief history lesson on the origin of the Gobblers:
"What the absolute funk was that?!" Decaf coughed out his words between deep panting breaths. His eyes wide and darting around anxiously.
Mel laughed "Ooooo WEE! That there is a Gobbler, friend. Back before Bakwotter was known for its mining, a group of Predator-Americans came to Bakwotter and hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. You know how much them Predator types like to hunt, so they brought some turkeys that would tear your head off! It seems some Duz scientist was hired to genetically splice an old Earth turkey with a Pandora Spiderant, and just a drop of legendary Randy Macho Man Savage DNA to give them some aggression. The Predators loved it, but Oooooo WEE those things will tear your head off! Taste good though. I like mine with wing sauce like momma always made."

With that the crew moved out to capture the first (and only) salvage, and identified the first POI as a radioactive asteroid. Maybe valuable, but too dangerous to approach.


Upon approaching the second POI (a level 2 obstacle), another flock of Gobblers emerged. This group put up a much more impressive fight. Would have landed a wounding blow on Super Salad, but his deflector field saved the day in a second game. Other brawling actions resulted in some stuns, but no wounds. Ant, after going three games without even hitting an opponent, managed to drop a Gobbler from 18" with his marksman rifle:

Top right on the hill to bottom center. Finally managed to be worth his upkeep cost!

The last POI revealed itself to be the biggest mystery. This obstacle contained a telemetry unit, which Bubba deftly removed. A new lead was found by the team. If it tracked telemetry, the team could figure out its origin!

In recap:
The crew scrapes by with only two credits and a new Lead (the discovery from the asteroid obstacle). That is a tough day, but crew upkeep has been recently adjusted so it doesn't quite make ends meet, but it won't be a financially crippling outing.

Back in Forbear, the crew sets out on their post mission tasks.
Super Salad heads out to stir up any leads, but no luck.
Bubba decides to engage in some training to brush up on his technical skills.
Bucket heads over to the starport, but the place is in quarantine. He wasn't able to see beyond the tall walls, but the distant cry of "Oooooo yeah! Ooooo yeah!" leads him to believe it could be a Gobbler incursion. No way the galactic authorities will allow those things to spread offworld. Because of this, Decaf is also denied a trip to the spaceport to look around.
Mel secures some basic supplies in a trade, and crew upkeep is reduced by one for some upcoming turn. Probably this next one considering the crew's dire financial straits.
Ant stumbles into a pyramid scheme sales meeting and decides to invest two credits from the crew's stash. The sales person wasn't completely clear on the subject, but each future turn there was a chance that the investment would grow... or be completely lost? But he ensured Ant it was a sound investment so he decided to buy in anyway. Ant is now the newest investor in a designer hair moving balm which constantly makes the user's hair appear to be swaying in the wind. The sales person ensured the small group of eager investors that this was all the rage amongst SuperDuper models (even bigger than a supermodel), and low to middle income offspring producers looking to impress the inseminators of their species. Ant really wasn't following what was going on, but could imagine his body full of hair swaying gracefully as he strode onto the Trou.

Bubba was able to convert a lead into a mission. The box he pulled off the asteroid was some kind of telemetry recorder. Why would someone want to figure out where asteroids fell? Miners have the ability to simply grab asteroids in the belt. Anyone who would care to see where they go on the planet wouldn't be able to get into space, or they would just grab the asteroid there. None of this made sense. The only thing Bubba knew was where the asteroid came from, and that would be where they go next.

In two weeks it will be time to gather up the crew and head back into orbit!

[War Monkey]

Very nice Reports, first was good cause no one got hurt, that's  aways a plus! The second  one was great as well again no one got hurt but it does  sound  like someone  needs to work on their navigational  skills and you guy close to the target area, and you gained  more clues!
I can't  wait for your next game!

[CookAndrewB]

Very nice Reports, first was good cause no one got hurt, that's  aways a plus! The second  one was great as well again no one got hurt but it does  sound  like someone  needs to work on their navigational  skills and you guy close to the target area, and you gained  more clues!
I can't  wait for your next game!

Mmmm, Five Parsecs: Salvage Team is not a military game. Truthfully it is more like Alien (First), or Something like Firefly? It is a story with some occasional shooting, and not shooting with an occasional story (or no shooting with no plot, as WH40k often appears to be). So combat moments aren't really intended to "clear the table" the way they might be in other games. The goal isn't really to wage a war of attrition in every battle. The characters controlled by the solo player are heroes. The enemy are "storm troopers." Star Wars would be a weird experience if battles ended in as many heroes dead as storm troopers. Some heroes get hurt and bounce back. Some heroes die (eventually), and we mourn their loss as a new face joins the crew. But it isn't meant to be a numbers game with point counts on opposing armies, etc.

From a tactics standpoint, I try to maneuver Super Salad into point positions as I know he can take one wounding hit and shrug it off due to his deflector field. Bubba has my highest tech score, so I try to put him on the task of cracking obstacles. Bucket has a weapon that fires two rounds at the same target on an attack. That makes him more effective in combat, and generally accounts for his kill streak. I try and play them in roles that I know they will succeed at, if I can. You don't send C3PO to fight Darth Vader, and you don't ask Princess Leia to carry C3PO like a backpack when his arms and legs get ripped off  Everyone has a role to play in the story, because it is... a story.

[War Monkey]

Thanks for the clarification, I was kind of under the impression, it was on the line of DnD, in away, where you needed to roll for chance encounters every so often, during play. It is definitely  difficult  to understand  the rules, from a far, can't  wait to get home so I can download them, so I can understand it better, it definitely sounds like the right game for me, I like the idea that it is more flow of a story and not just shoot me up all the time. Thanks again.

The background  you created looks really great, definitely  gives more of the feel to your story and more depth to your terrain.

[CookAndrewB]

In my thread on the Post Apoc Wargames site I give better details about game play. Here I just try to hit the high points.

So in regards to encounters, here is an overview of how the mechanic works:
Every terrain item (building, tree, hill, etc) has the ability to spawn a "contact" once per game. On a certain dice roll, a contact is spawned. Contacts can then be investigated. Once investigated, three things happen: The contact turns out to be "just a noise" and it vanishes from the table, it can be "footsteps" in which case the contact flees a certain distance away from the investigator and stays on the table to potentially be checked again, or the contact will turn out to be a hostile. I like to think of this as the sequence in Alien where they have the motion sensor and they can see contacts moving but can't "see" anything. Sometimes it is just a cat, or a kid. Sometimes the contact vanishes, sometimes it is a Xeno. You never really know until you investigate a bit further. Contacts that aren't explored, will move around the table, if there is enough space and no line of sight. There are rules for how that plays out, but I have had the misfortune of having contacts spawn on top of me and sometimes the contact's random move will be directly towards my crew, in which case it presses the discovery event faster than I had planned.

The other terrain types are Salvage (worth credits once recovered), and Points of Interest (POI). Each game starts with a dice roll to determine the number of POIs and Salvage on the table. I randomize placement through dice rolls, but you could just as easily spread them around.

POIs are the real objectives of the game. These also have to be investigated to determine what they are. POI's, once investigated, turn into one of four things: Hazards, Obstacles, Discoveries, and contacts.

Hazards are one of two types: Environmental (radiation leak, acid pool, poison gas, etc) which can be moved through with potential bad effects or the area can simply be avoided. The second type is a Risk, which is a one time triggered event (box rigged to explode, an electrical panel that arcs and then goes dead, etc). Environmental hazards persist, Risks do not.

Obstacles are challenges against which you test your tech attribute. Obstacles, once discovered, have their difficulty set by rolling 2d6 and picking the higher number, which is the overall roll that needs equaled or beaten in two rolls. Success #1 is a partial solve. Failure #1 is a "stubborn" obstacle. Failure #2 is the end of the attempts. Success #2 solves the obstacle and you are rewarded a Discovery and Salvage.

Discoveries end up being Loot (equipment), more salvage (credits), Data (which could create Leads for new Contracts), or items worth XP.

Contacts play out exactly like the above.

The two encounter types overall are Finds and Contracts. Finds are like stumbling around in the woods hoping that something interesting happens. Contracts are like having a map to a dungeon with a treasure at the end. Finds allow you to run away with little consequence. If it gets too hot you can grab some salvage and leave the POIs alone, or whatever. Contracts require all POIs to be discovered/resolved and any enemies to be dealt with in order to get your payout.

So, you can see by the above mechanics that encounters give you a lot of events, but it is up to the player to create the connections and thread it into a story.

[War Monkey]

Thanks Andrew,
I appreciate  that, it truly gives me a better understanding  of the mechanics  of the game, I am  definitely  going to enjoy  this rule set for sure.

I am going to swipe your sector and subsector  mechanics idea of place your POI's 

[CookAndrewB]

Thanks Andrew,
I appreciate  that, it truly gives me a better understanding  of the mechanics  of the game, I am  definitely  going to enjoy  this rule set for sure.

I am going to swipe your sector and subsector  mechanics idea of place your POI's 

Glad my explanation helped! As an aside, if my games ever spread to more tiles, etc, then I just adjust the type of dice needed. 2x3 board would be a d6 sector, d4 subsector within the tile. 3x3 would probably be an automatic POI in the center tile, and then the other POIs and Salvage would be d8 sector/d4 subsector, etc. Easy enough.

A few more figures for the game, without any real use just yet. Most likely some characters for the town/ships.

First up is the self aware vendo-tron. Not really programmed as an AI, it was intended to predict what kind of chocolate bar each person would want before they selected it. But then one day the Vendo-tron started to question "What *IS* taste? Who am I to choose what others want?" and is all spiraled downhill from there. Now it wanders the galaxy seeking enlightenment and universal truth. It can be annoying.


Next to Vendo is F33t8a11. You know, cleverly named because it is a ball with feet. It is also a roving personal entertainment system with over 5000 galactic sports channels, and none of them are football? Oh, the irony.


Look, Vendo might be a self aware appliance, but F33t8a11 is little more than a spunky cable box. It didn't really get the "turn around" cue. 

Next up is the Snatle, now painted up but horribly represented by my poor photography skills.


You ever try to photograph an angry Snatle? Not easy.


The base is still a WIP, but I'm trying to layer it up for a "pond" type of look. Snatles are water creatures after all.


Lastly is Logistics officer Clint. An avid sports fan just checking up on the box scores.


Clint has figured out his current standing in the office's Fantasy Precision Carp Slapping league. Not a great week. He grumbles as he moves onto more important duties. F33t8a11 vacantly awaits its next sports viewing related command.

[War Monkey]

Great figures! I really like their backgrounds

[CookAndrewB]

Well, I think the weekend goal is to get starship sections all painted up and ready to play. I'm also going to spend some time sculpting more. I have one sculpt near completion, and made two more wire frames last night. Going to make another not-Dralasite (maybe sans pants this time), and another humanoid of some sort. We will see how the head turns out.

[War Monkey]

Looking forward  to you work!

I'm looking to having  nothing bigger then a 4x4  table, in fact that's  my plan is a 4x4 table, then just use the 4d  all the way down  to the finial sub-sector, it might be move figures around a lot but that's  just half of the story, traveling, describing the terrain and wilderness, which goes right in to two thing a enjoy  best, painting figures and making terrain items.

Again I can't  wait  to  get  home!