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Author Topic: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)  (Read 5619 times)

Offline The_Baron

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6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« on: February 05, 2015, 02:57:10 AM »
Greetings,

I finally had a chance to play my first Five Parsecs from Home mission on the weekend, what follows is the rather detailed battle report. The post will be in two parts, the first the set up and storey, and the second the actual report. This was a solo game, and I used Tiny Solitary Soldier's 'Gunstorm' Enemy movement table to help make decisions for the enemy. I also randomised who would activate out of the enemy each turn, unless it was extremely obvious (i.e. a clear shot, about to be charged etc.). I am setting my campaign in the 40K universe, and am inspired by Eisenhorn and Ravenor. 
 
I am almost certain I am not playing the mechanics entirely correctly, does anyone know of a detailed 'How to Play' guide on Fivecore / Five Men in Normandy? I struggled with the 'Flinch', 'Peek' and cover mechanics, I think these could be better explained with a short how-to. I wanted to start off with a fairly simple battle, so just rolled up an enemy and a mission.
 

Return to Logan's World
Logan's World has the dubious fame of being cut-off from the Imperium for much of its existence. Warp storms wrack the space around the planet, and it is only when these subside that it is accessible. It is said that these lulls in Warp activity occur when the Eye of Terror 'blinks', however the duration of the calm is unpredictable and fickle. Thus the Imperium generally only exerts a minimum of control over the planet; when the Eye blinks, Space Marines and Imperial Guard are sent to the planet in the guise of restoring civic order, although such missions are usually quite fruitless. It is not unknown for these forces to become trapped when the Warp storms return, for years, decades or even centuries, and must therefore integrate themselves into Logan's World's society.
 
It is not only the Imperium that uses these lulls in the storms to pay a visit; Traders from all walks of life hurriedly make landfall, hoping to offload the latest cargo the Imperium has to offer, in exchange for 
local resources, produce and other darker and more valuable cargo...
 

Kaylee gunned the engine and the battered mining ship entered atmo. Tranquility shuddered as she performed a somewhat dangerous aero-braking maneuver to kill momentum, but the anti-grav units were in dire need of replacement so were of little use. Midas gripped his seat a little more tightly. Jayne, looking nonplussed, pointed out that the comm-link was buzzing, and Midas thumbed the flashing red button. A voice crackled over the comm-link. "Welcome to Logan's World. This is the planetary defence force. You are ordered to land immediately and pay the.... landing fee.... or else we will shoot you down." Midas turned to the others with raised eyebrows, "Nice welcoming party. Kaylee, punch it, we haven't even made landfall and are running short of creds already." 
 
The voice crackled again. "Bad move". It was then that a sleek Angelus Class interceptor roared into view, and immediately begin tailing Tranquility.




"Looks like you've made your choice then. Enjoy the welcome party." The interceptor began opening fire with trails of multi-laser blasts stitching the sky. Kaylee tried her best to evade...


But Tranquility was a civilian craft, and stood little chance against the military-grade hardware the welcoming party were using.

Kaylee brought the ship down near a small settlement, flying so low that she almost clipped a moisture unit.


 
Tranquility landed with a thud outside the settlement, smoke pouring from the power core. The crew disembarked. "Power core is shot boss. We won't be flying again without one" Kaylee said.


It was then that a voice called from the entrance to the settlement. "Looks like you need a new power core there. Pity I've got the only spare."



A tall figure in a brown trenchcoat stood, apparently at ease despite being outnumbered. A glowing blue bionic eye stared balefully at the crew from above a thick white moustache, and an antique looking hunting rifle was casually slung over his shoulder. This must be the Governor. The interceptor had landed behind the high protective fences, and beyond a squad of local Planetary Defence Force troopers were disembarking and taking up cover. 

"Looks like we have no choice boss" said Slade, shouldering his needle rifle. "I've got a bad feeling about this" said Jayne. Deathskull shrugged, his impassive skull mask betraying no emotion "A couple of crooked locals? Walk in the park." 

"Come and get it" said the Governor, as he turned his back on them and strode into the compound....

To be continued...


My Blog: http://returntologansworld.blogspot.com.au/
Empire of the Dead, Strange Aeons, Old-School Fantasy and Rogue Trader, 15mm ATZ

Offline The_Baron

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2015, 07:36:12 AM »
Mission 1 
Enemy: Rebel Unity Soldiers (Corrupt Local Planetary Defense Forces) - The PDF
Mission: Grab
Location: Planetary Defence Force outpost

 
Crew Roster Sheet

 
The Objective

 
 
TURN 1
The PDF win initiative, and rolled for a Scurry turn. The Governor ordered his men forward into defensive postions, and Midas ordered his crew to do the same.



 Deathskull makes a beeline for the pilot of the PDF interceptor, who is hiding behind the wing of his craft.


I decided Kaylee needed to stay with the ship to try and repair it/stop it from catching fire (no game effect, just not part of the battle).
 
TURN 2
The crew win initiative. Normal turn.
Deathskull charges the pilot, who let out a hasty shot with his service revolver, but missed. 
 

 
The cybernetically enhanced Pit Fighter swings his axe down and almost cleaves the pilot in two.
 

 
Midas pulled the priming lock on his Tau Pulse Carbine (Blast Pistol), and advanced on Trooper Hicks firing as he went. The shots went wide.
 

 
Trooper Frak makes a move around the flank, and Jayne let off some Guard fire with his shotgun, but missed. Frak fires his lasgun (Blast Rifle) at Slade, who is hunkered down behind some supply crates, but in his haste also misses the shot, the rounds slamming into the Plasteel crates. 
 

Trooper Knox also fires his lasgun, but sends a burst of incandescent  shots over Midas' head to no effect.

 
TURN 3
PDF win initiative, normal turn.
Trooper Frak dashes further down the flank, but Jayne sees the danger and Guard fires again, send him flinching behind the moisture unit.
 

 
The Governor, seeing Deathskull advancing around the Interceptor, realises that they are going for the spare Power Core sitting near the abandoned Rhino. He dashes in that direction to intercept.

 
Slade takes careful aim with his Needle Rifle (Shock Gun), and fires at Trooper Knox, but the trooper see the glint of the ruby targeting laser and ducks just in time. 
 
Midas decides to advance further, and makes a run for cover. Trooper Knox sees him and Guard fires, but once again misses. 
 

Midas, watching the rounds stitch the ground around him, turns smoothly and drops the trooper dead with an accurate burst from his carbine.
 

 
 
TURN 4
Crew win initiative, normal turn.
Deathskull makes a Dash for the power core, and makes the distance.
 

It is then that things take a turn for the worse for the crew of Tranquility; Jayne advances on Trooper Hicks, and fires his shotgun. 

The shots go wide, but Hicks Bails under the furious barrage. He runs directly from Jayne to the safety of some Rockcrete barriers.
 

 
 
 
Hicks then sees Deathskull opening the strong case containing the spare power core for the Interceptor. He activates, is able to rally, and turns and fires on Deathskull with an accurate burst of fire. The first shot strikes Deathskull in the shoulder, who has just enough time to bring his Storm Shield (Combat Armour) around to block a couple more of the shots. 

Unperturbed, Hicks switches to full auto and continues to pour fire on his hapless target. Just as his ammo indicator nears empty, a round finally penetrates the protective corona of the shield, and neatly burns a hole in Deathskull's head. His leering skull mask shattered, his axe and shield falling from his hands, Deathskull drops to the ground dead, with a smoking crater in his forehead. [Note I rolled for Out of Action for Deathskull, however in the post-game roll, he turned up dead.]

 
TURN 5
PDF win initiative, normal turn
Seeing the Pit Fighter slumped next to the Power Core, Trooper Hicks realises what the crew are after. He remains in his current position, which provides ample fire lanes to many of the approaches to the core. Hoping for some revenge for Jayne's earlier shotgun blast, he fires back at the distant Jayne, but misses.
 
The Governor also retreats towards the Power Core, taking cover behind some crates of supplies.
Slades shoots at Trooper Frak near the moisture unit, but misses. Jayne pushes forward, braving inaccurate Guard fire from Trooper Frak.

 
TURN 6
PDF win initiative, Firefight!
The only people with clear lanes of fire, Trooper Frak and Slade let off a furious fussilade of shots at each other, but to no effect. Slade begins to think that this was a bad idea, and they should have tried to make the run into town with a shorted Power Core.
 
TURN 7
PDF win initiative, normal turn
Trooper Frak holds his position. Meanwhile, the Governor shows why he is the law in this town, and strides out into the middle of the street, pulling a large naval revolver from its holster. 

This bold move is met by guard fire from Jayne, and sends the Governor bailing back towards Trooper Hicks' position.

 
Jayne, seeing that the open street in front of the hab-units is well and truly covered, makes a dash in between the two pods, hoping to sneak up on the Power Core from behind.

Midas tries to follow, but must cross the street in front of Hicks, who sends a burst down that street which sends Midas bailing a long way back, right adjacent to Trooper Frak at the moisture unit!
 

 
TURN 8
Crew win initiative, normal turn
Jayne's gamble pays off, as he flanks around the rear of the hab-unit, and fires a shotgun blast at Hicks, who bails and makes a run for it towards the perimeter fence.
 

 
Midas tries to find the courage to rally, but decides to stay put. The adventure vids he watched on his home planet didn't say anything about such a staunch enemy, normally the heroes rolled through them easily and with style.
 
The Governor on the other hand, a hard-bitten man, rallies as he knows they are after his precious spare Power Core. They will have to come back through him to get to it. He yells at Hicks to pull himself together, as he levels his revolver at Jayne but misses. 
 
Hicks comes to his senses and also rallies, but is somewhat shaken and misses his next shot at Jayne. Perhaps Jayne's flanking maneuver wasn't so clever after all.
 
TURN 9
PDF win initiative, Firefight!
Trooper Frak, tiring of his constant battle with Slade, takes careful aim and wings Slade in the shoulder, who gets knocked down behind the Rockcrete barrier. "This was a really bad idea" moans Slade.
 

 
The Governor slams a fresh quick-loader into his revolver, and fires at Jayne, who bails off the objective and around the corner. Trooper Frak, satisfied that he has finally taken down his opponent, let's his guard down - only for Midas to rally, peek around the corner, and execute him at close range with his Pulse Carbine. 
 

 
TURN 10
PDF win initiative, normal turn
The Governor gives chase after Jayne, but doesn't quite catch up to him. Jayne yells in alarm as the imposing man in the leather duster strides around the corner towards him.
 
Hicks shifts his position slightly to take an even more commanding position near the street.
Hearing Jayne's cries for help. Slade dusts himself off and makes a break towards the centre of the settlement, intent on saving Jayne.
Jayne moves further around a hab-unit, ducking out of line of sight of the Governor; he hopes that he can ambush him with his shotgun.

 
 
TURN 11
PDF win initiative, normal turn
The Governor continues chase, while Trooper Hicks stays put in his position, confident in his firing lanes.
Midas runs towards the power core. 

Jayne spins around the corner and unloads his shotgun at the Governor, but is too hasty and misses.
 
TURN 12
Crew win initiative, normal turn
Jayne shoots at the Governor again, becoming desperate, but again misses. This guy must have guts to stand in the open taking fire like this he thinks.
Slade climbs the moisture unit, and gets a commanding view of the battlefield. He sights carefully down at the Rockrete barriers, and shoots a needle at Hicks. The laser blast stitches a neat hole in Hicks' flak vest, and the toxic dart that follows it a millisecond later embeds itself in his shoulder.  Hicks falls to the ground with a howl.
 

The Governor calmly fires back at Jayne, who again flinches around the corner.
 
TURN 13
PDF win initiative, normal turn
Hicks groggily plucks the needle from his shoulder, but the toxin has clearly already been delivered, and so he stays down.
The Governor checks his clip. One bullet remaining. It is enough, as he shoots Jayne squarely in the chest, who goes Out of Action.

 
Midas makes a dash for the objective, while Slade stays on overwatch, waiting for the Governor to show himself from behind the hab-units.
 
TURN 14
Crew win initiative, normal turn
The Governor strides out from behind the hab-units, but is too far the action to do anything.
Seeing Hicks languishing on the ground, Midas decides to hurry over and capture him - after all, this will leave the Governor by himself. Hicks looks blearily up at Midas, and says "The Governor made us do it. I'm sorry about your friends..." before Midas knocks him out with a smack from the butt of his carbine.
The Governor, realising he is the last man standing, decides discretion is the better part of valour, and legs it through a gap in the fence; after all, there is always another day.

The crew return to Tranquility. Kaylee, looking up, sees Slade dragging the prone form of Jayne, a sucking wound in his chest. "Looks real bad boss", she says, "We need to get him to a Doc, fast." She then realises that Deathskull is nowhere to be seen. "I hope it was worth it."

 
Next time, a look at the post-game campaign rolls and the next mission.
THE END
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Offline n815e

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2015, 10:06:08 PM »
 :)

skink

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2015, 10:32:46 PM »
Those minis are incredebly detailed for 6mm. Also, great scenery.

Offline Damien

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2015, 01:38:27 AM »
Great read and fantastic set up! Who knew 6mm skirmish could be possible, I think I may have to check out Angel Barracks a little closer.


Cheers,
 Damien

Offline warburton

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2015, 01:56:10 AM »
Nice photos; very impressive.

Offline Malebolgia

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2015, 06:46:36 AM »
Wowie! That is one heck of a report. So much detail and so much going on. Love it. And I think choosing 6mm is an excellent idea too!
Do you like the 5 Parsecs system so far? I'm still quite interested in the rules and would like to know more from players :)
“What use was time to those who'd soon achieve Digital Immortality?”

Offline Dentatus

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2015, 01:12:27 PM »
Awesome in any scale, but 6mm - that's epic. (erm...)

Offline Momotaro

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2015, 01:07:48 PM »
Brilliant battle report and great figures/terrain!

Five Core looks intriguing - second edition is now out as well.

Offline The_Baron

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2015, 02:39:43 AM »
Firstly, thank you all for your kind words  :D It was actually a fair bit of work to write the AAR, but scribbling down what was going on during the game wasn't too hard. If people enjoy it, that makes it all worthwhile. The models are a mix of Angel Barracks and GW, definitely check out AB if you are interested, he has some amazing stuff. All the scenery is scratch built from junk, the hab units are Eclipse mint containers! I have ordered some 15mm.co.uk '6mm more like 10mm models' (what a mouthful), to see if I can use the bigger guys as Space Marines and Eldar. Will report back when they arrive.

Ok so I rolled up my post-game results to see where to next, some interesting results, some heartbreak (poor Deathskull!), and some good ideas for the next mission.

POST-GAME
I decided that it was a win for the Crew, and rolled for Loot. The loot turned out to be a captive who wanted to join the crew - rather serendipitous, considering Midas captured Hicks! I decided that Hicks had learnt the error of his ways (or more likely sweet-talked his way out of trouble), and joined the crew. He comes with his Flak Armour and a Lasgun (although he is not technically meant to have any gear, this felt correct to me).
 
Injuries
As already mentioned, Deathskull got an unlucky roll of 97, so he was dead.... although he is heavily augmented, maybe he will reappear at some point?
Jayne also didn't fare well - a roll of 75 meant his wound was "Going to leave a mark". A bad roll meant of D6 + 3 mean he was going to miss 9 campaign turns!  He also misplaced one of his grenades while he was being dragged from the battlefield. 
 
Assign Tasks
Kaylee remained behind to guard the ship, and to fit that new Power Core to Tranquility.
Midas went into town to try and find a Patron, and spent a fruitless night cruising the slum-bars to no avail.
Jayne clearly had to rest.
Slade decided to see the sights, and went to the notorious Mutie Markets, hoping for a bargain. A smooth talking twist managed to convince him it would be a good idea to trade Jayne's shotgun for a healing draught, which turned out to be nothing more than Grox piss. Jayne was not impressed, nor did he feel any better!
The newest member of the team, Hicks, accompanied Slade to the Markets, and managed to trade some Planetary Defence Force cyphers for some local currency.
 
Campaign Event
While at the market, Slade and Hicks hear word of some strange excavations happening in the deep desert, although they can't find out much more than that. A rumour is added to the crew's data sheet.
 
Character Event
Two random characters from the crew become friends - none other than Midas and Hicks! It is clear that Hicks really is a smooth talker, and wants to get on the inside track with the boss.
 
Enemy
I didn't roll for this - clearly the Governor will make a great recurring bad guy, so he has to become an enemy of the crew!
 
Next Mission
I have rolled up the next mission, which consists of 4 Zealots, with the Crew having to defend something. Hmm, this could be interesting, and a quick dig through my Epic models gave me the Cultists. That said, I do also have another idea for the next mission....
 
Story threads
Looks like the crew may need to go on a mission to get Jayne healed in a fancy Imperial hospital, to try and cut back his injury time. The idea is already forming in my head; Hicks can talk his way past the Imperial guardsmen at the entrance, and get him to a re-juve machine. But what if someone calls the feds once inside?

Of course I would have to build some hospital terrain, but hey that is the beauty of this system - it encourages creativity. Could be a good excuse to make some modular interior scenery, ala Tiny Solitary Soldiers and Stroezie from Planet Ares. 
"We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient."
 
My thoughts on 5 Parsecs from home / 5Core.
This is a really cool system, and really for the price I think it is well worth it. I would love to see this produced with some proper production values at some point, I think the addition of some decent formatting and background images, and maybe some photos, it could really shine. At the moment it is extremely bare-bones. If you look at Blasters and Bulkheads or The Department, a nice background image, frame and formatting goes a long way to presenting a slicker product. I know it doesn't mean anything to the rules, but Shiney is always nice too :)

I am the first to admit that I struggled with the core mechanic, however on reading some more battle reports I think I have worked it out a bit better - perhaps Nordic Weasel have added some examples of play to the new second edition?

6mm turned out to be a perfect scale too - I sat at a coffee table and played this, was able to take plenty of atmospheric photos, and the cover mechanic (whereby it is assumed that everyone is trying their best not to be shot) meant that I didn't need to be particularly finicky about who was in cover or not. I halved all the range values to keep things in check, and they 'felt' about right. Perhaps the 6 inch bail was still too far, I think I might make it D6 inches in future.

Simplicity - now this could be a selling point or a detractor, depending on how you look at it. The lack of a stat line made everything pretty much a level playing field, with really only weapons and equipment differentiating the characters. But this worked very well for a Solo game, as really I didn't want to be looking up endless charts and characteristics in the heat of the moment. 

Anyway highly recommended to anyone vaguely interested, support your indie game developers and have fun making your own stories!

Cheers
The_Baron

Offline angel barracks

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2015, 06:26:03 PM »
Very cool.

I think it is fair to say, and certainly not a bad thing, that at first glance the table looks a bit messy.
In that, it is all mud and crud and slop.
However, when you stop and look at things properly it is very cool.

I mean the nose art on the ship!
Sweet.


If people are intrigued in what 6mm sci-fi skirmish can be like and assuming The Baron has no objections, I will post a link to a kind of super thread that has some nice shots in it and or my 6mm forum where much can be seen.


Size Matters!
Praise Be To Apis!

Offline Bayushiseni

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Re: 6mm Five Parsecs from Home / 5Core Battle Report (PIC HEAVY)
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2015, 08:39:15 PM »
Excellent AAR and magnificent minis and setting.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Darth Vader

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