Galactic Heroes (or anti-heroes?): Pattus Magnus’ Sci-fi Adventures

[Pattus Magnus]

Yesterday I hosted a game for two friends who were in town for a visit. Neither had played Galactic Heroes before, but they were game to give it a try.

The game was set in a rough neighborhood on the edge of Port Amerada, the main settlement on the backwater planet of New Ellerslie in the galactic fringe. In this case, backwater is also something of a literal description, as New Ellerslie has relatively little tectonic activity, so it is flat, with little drainage, and the equatorial belt where Port Amerada is located is damp and boggy with a profusion of swamps marketed as “waterside property” in advertising holo-vids. The lack of tourist traffic (or at least repeat traffic) and it’s location makes Port Amerada a location for cargo shipments of questionable provenance.

Local government has generally left the rival gangs involved in the cargo trade to sort out disputes among themselves, following the logic that if they’re killing each other there will be fewer to cause trouble for honest citizens. That policy doesn’t always work as planned, however, and the following incident is an example of how failure to proactively intervene can go sideways.

Several weeks before, a loaded cargo shuttle was stolen from the Ban Chi Corporation by a crew operating for the notorious Rutherford gang. The Rutherfords stashed the ship and proceeded to celebrate at one of their preferred dive bars and meet a potential buyer. Unfortunately (for the Rutherfords), a gunfight erupted in the bar over a completely unrelated dispute and the gang crew was wiped out, and the location of the shuttle was lost.

Or so everyone thought. Later a rumour emerged that an associate of a Rutherford member (a girlfriend, boyfriend, cousin, details varied) knew of the location. One constant in the rumours was that the individual resided in a specific neighborhood.

Two interested parties sent teams to investigate the rumour, find the individual with the information, and convince them to reveal the location using whatever means were necessary.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

This promises to be fun.

[Pattus Magnus]

One of the interested parties was Ban Chi Corporation, the original owner of the shuttle. They did not have a local direct action branch and did not want to report the shuttle’s loss to local authorities or their clients and shareholders, so they contracted out the investigation to Foster’s Security. In addition to security, Foster’s operatives also offered acquisition, recovery and intervention services. Their personnel were recruited mainly from ethnic Briton settlers on Cascadia, a rocky planet with higher than standard gravity, and Foster’s people tended to have a squat build and larger than average hands.

The team sent to Port Amerada consisted of (from left to right) Pvt. Grant (rifleman with auto rifle and grenade launcher), Pvt. Ford (same), Sgt. Bose (blaster rifle), Cpl. Wilson (machine gun), Pvt. Martin (blaster rifle). All equipped with light armour.

[Pattus Magnus]

The other interested party was a local cell affiliated with the New Ellerslie Resistance Front. They saw claiming the shuttle as an opportunity to add some much needed strategic transportation capacity to their organization and potentially turn a tidy profit, depending on what the cargo proved to be.   While members of NERF were committed to liberating New Ellerslie from its ruling cabal of property developers, they were, like Port Amerada’s population, from a wide variety of species.

From left to right, Cell 1317’s members were Siluris, a Piscean who found Port Amerada uncomfortably dry (auto rifle with GL), Bunny a vertically challenged Lapidian (blaster carbine), Pierre (not his real name) a human cyborg (blaster pistol and cyber arm), Tonka a Tortle (shotgun), and Bug an insectoid (submachinegun, flight). They wore little armour, but carried an eclectic mix of things that go BANG.

[Pattus Magnus]

The mission started quietly, with the NERF cell moving in from the near side, past the rustic shacks, and the Foster Security team advancing from the far side. The six citizens that could have the required information were wandering around the middle of the board, going about their business, which in that neighborhood could be anything from selling property and health insurance to retailing contraband. There was no sign of the local police, but then, there wouldn’t be unless something egregious happened, like explosions or automatic gunfire. Then the police would come heavy…. Both teams advanced cautiously toward the Main Street.

(The players were told that they needed to find the person with the information and escort them off the table. Gun play would bring police intervention, but close combat would not.)

[Pattus Magnus]

Both teams met some civilians and had “friendly chats”, collecting information. (To get information, a figure would have to move into base contact, then make a task roll. If successful, I wrote down and passed a note about whether the civilian had the information. The other player remained unaware.)

In the meantime, Sgt. Bose sent Wilson onto the roof of a building, where he could cover the main street and a large area with his machine gun. There was also some rustling in a garbage heap after a NERF agent walked by. (Jokers were in the deck, when a player got one it acted as a wild card BUT it also triggered the appearance of “trash biters”, a nasty form of local varmint).

[Pattus Magnus]

Then both missions came off the rails! One of the mercenaries took exception to Siluris talking to a citizen and walked over and tried to knife him. And got decked for his trouble. Then the trash biters rushed Tonka and tried to chew pieces out of him and the citizen he was asking about the contents of his bag. Then the gun play started…

Not-Pierre and Bug also decided that borrowing a car might be a good idea. A little break and entry later, Not-Pierre liberated a Fiat for the cause. Due to marketing exclusivity agreements on New Ellerslie there are only two makes of car available on the world, Fiats and Scotia Coupes.

[Pattus Magnus]

At that point, a Port Amerada Police Department Medium Threat Unit arrived. They may seem heavily armed, but it’s all relative- adult trash biters are 300kg.

The MTU consisted of 6 patrol officers (grunts with automatic rifles), a pacifier drone (grenade launcher and sub machine gun), the patrol leader, and a plainclothes officer, who tried to arrest Tonka for firing a weapon in public.

[Pattus Magnus]

It went down hill from there for everyone. The NERF cell had figured out which civilian they had to extract. But they were taking heavy fire from the Foster’s Security goons and had two sentients down, Siluris and Tonka. So Not-Pierre drove the car over and collected the civilian, who was severely shocked by that point. Bug distracted the machine gunner by flying onto the roof and engaging in close combat, despite not being a stellar contender. Bunny did what bunnies do best (okay, the other thing bunnies do best), and tried to avoid the larger predators.

Things didn’t go to plan for the mercenaries either. They still didn’t know who had the information, but a LOT of cops showed up. So Foster’s boys took an “intervention” approach and decided to try killing everything that didn’t wear their uniform, starting with launching a frag grenade into the police. That took a few officers down and firmly identified the mercenaries as the main target for the cops…

[Pattus Magnus]

For the denouement, Foster’s machine gunner on the roof did his level best to kill Not-Pierre, the lady with the information everyone wanted, and Bunny, who was now standing in the middle of the street trying to waste the gunner, err, cover the retreat. To no avail, Not-Pierre put the pedal down and drove like hell, but not before his pet snark took a bullet and saved his life.

Elsewhere, Sgt. Bose managed to penetrate the police drone, destroying it, but opted to extract his team, rather than try explaining to the police reinforcements just what exactly he was doing in the suburbs with undeclared mil-spec weaponry (on New Ellerslie, declared mil-spec weaponry is legal, but only for varmint control, the definition of “varmint” being a matter of debate). Explaining the outcome to the client may be a challenge.

So, a narrow victory for the NERF agents. Will they be able to capitalize on their knowledge and claim the shuttle? We may see.

[Pattus Magnus]

Bonus pic: These guys didn’t appear in the game, but I had them available as an alternative team for someone to use. They’re inspired by the aliens in District 9 and are conversions based on GW Kroot bodies, with squid heads from the otherwise lackluster sci-fi troopers set that Wargames Factory made. The weapons are mainly from the Tau, with the flame thrower and laser machine gun from the Wargames Factory set. 

[mikedemana]

Great battle report and pictures! I hope your friends had fun...it certainly sounds like a good time.

Mike Demana

[Malamute]

 Great stuff. 
A lovely collection of figures too

[Spinal Tap]

Nice report, hope your players enjoyed it. The board and figures are really well done.

[hubbabubba]

Wargaming excellence.

Great scenery and I really like the pics of the various crews.

Keep them coming.