Brawl on the Block - A Stardust: Ground AAR

 One Saturday, Mark, Wayne and Ziggy came by for a bit of the old Stardust: Ground - my home-brewed 15mm Sci-Fi rules. This battle featured the Dawgs - one of my two original armies for SDG, thoroughly playtested and vetted versus my newest addition, the Cultists. This would be the Cultists' second outing, their first with vehicles. 

The Dawgs tend to be good all-rounders with a close-combat edge. They are fine in a firefight and better than average in a brawl. 

The Cultists have average infantry and vehicles but need to spend time summoning help in the form of demons. Demons come in many shapes and sizes but all are close-combat specialists and quite useful for boosting numbers.

I ended up running the Cultists army, with Ziggy's help when he arrived part-way through the game. Mark and Wayne split the Dawgs. We played on a 6x4 battlefield and set up on the short edges. There were three objective locations to fight over. Those locations also doubled as summoning portals for my crew, as long as I had cultists within 3" of one.

The table was jam-packed with terrain! Mostly jungle, but a quarter of the tabletop was an industrial zone.
 

 

 

Wayne's godforsaken Seer gunship terrorized infantry on my right flank for much of the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In what could be interpreted as a tragedy, Mark's Predator walkers assault one of the portals in an attempt to close it. The forces of evil fight dirty and suck the life force out of the suit's pilot! Heheh.
 

The Dawgs  heavy hitters arrive on my left flank. Three heavy tanks and an AA vehicle. Infantry and the remaining two walkers continue towards the town where my forces are concentrated. Note the Dawg sniper atop the yellow tower. He did a fine job of harassing my infantry for much of the game.

I had managed to summon a greater demon by this point and sent him in to mix it up with the enemy infantry. Unfortunately, they fought to a draw. 

I corrected my mistake and then sent the monster after the heavy tanks. He cleaved through the first like a hot knife.

The town was a wreck by this point. I had two big demons stalking tanks. Two of my own tanks had been immobilized but had good positions to act as turrets. I sent my two AA/scout vehicles up the center towards the central objective.

The purple worm makes a move at one of the remaining tanks. Dawg infantry start to close in. I told you it was a mess!

The Predator walkers made their way to my AA vehicles and ripped into them. Dammit. This is about when Mark's dice finally woke up.

The last Dawg tank was destroyed and a throng of yellow clawed demons rushed out of the portal! You can see some of my cultist fanatics in the foreground.

My remaining mobile heavy tank/APC blasted one of the two Predators before it was wrecked by the other giant robot.

My Cult Leader, deciding he was done summoning and ready for fightin', ordered his squad to attack the last walker. As they moved to engage, Pastor Karl loosed a blast from his plasma gun, catching the big robot's fuel cell and destroying it! Zagon is the miracle-bringer!

The Dawg infantry makes short work of my yellow demons and pushes deeper into the town. My forces are in deep kimchi.

Mark

Wayne

 

It had been quite a battle but my forces were spent. My cultists had been kicked out of town and run off. Congratulations to Mark and Wayne on their solid victory.

We had a fine time. A great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday. Wayne hadn't played SDG in years and it's gone through a massive re-write since he played last. He was very hesitant about some of the mechanics as the game began, but "got it" by the end. It's designed as an entertaining game of shoot-em-up. SDG is not a simulation by any stretch, but familiar firefight combat concepts are present - lots of gunfire can suppress the enemy even if it doesn't cause a lot of casulaties, numbers count for a lot in close combat, and being able to maneuver and order your troops is very important. I think I have a convert. 😀

The Cultists performed well. They'll get more outings soon enough against the Robots, Marines and Humans!