AAR: Very 2021 Stardust Ground

 Mark, Ziggy and I got together for an end-of-year game Friday afternoon. I put together a Stardust Ground scenario and got the table set up. The setup:

The Bugs have been on a rampage over the last couple days and they're approaching the abandoned mine in Dodge being used by followers of the Cult of Personality. The Cultists have been using the mine to store supplies and sacred relics. The local chapter of the CoP has been tasked with removing everything of value from the mine and getting out of Dodge before the Bugs overrun the area. 

Mark and I split the Bug force and Zig commanded the Cult.

Our battlefield, on the shore of Lake Murkwater

The cultists are hunkered down around the mine. Presumably, the loot extraction process will be time consuming and they'll have to hang out a while.

The bugs deployed on the short edge of their choice after the cult was deployed. Half of their number was in reserve.

Cultist prayers were answered in no time. Crimminy.

Big 'Un lets cuts loose with some plas-mar. It's utterly ineffective.

The bugs move in. Skitter skitter.

The bug rush smashes mightily into the insane fanatics who popped over their defensive wall to get into close combat sooner. The fanatics show 'em exactly who's boss.

I send a couple units around the left side up the hill and in cover. A second unit of blues smashes into those fanatics who reject the offer. Good grief.

The 'roid raging fanatics finish off one unit of blues and gets to work on another, under the loving gaze of Bobby the Pit Fiend.

A mighty laser blast from a cult heavy APC craters Big 'Un's noggin. Tragic.

Those blue bugs are in a shit position. Pit Fiend, cult squad, heavy tank...

The writing on the wall is becoming clear. That Giant Scorpion ran up to one of the cult tanks and delivered a massive blow to the vehicle's paint job. The tank replied with good 10-second hosedown from its heavy laser cannon. Give that dick a second kill ring.

Short of units and activations, my worms get some action. The Brain Bug had just sprayed some very sexy pheromones on the fanatics, giving the worms a bit of a boost. Worms 1, Fanatics 0. Woohoo!

That worm unit wasn't done, as they managed to skillfully evade taking any hits in the subsequent cult turn. They turned their attention to the nearest cult unit - a Demolisher tank - and smashed it!

But it was not to be... with only two fighting units left, it wasn't ever going to happen. The cult had extracted both crates and there was nothing left in the tank. A solid win for the Cult of Personality.

Was Mercury in retrograde yesterday? Mark and I had the worst day of dice rolling in a long, long time. SDG is a d8-based system and we were riding the 1s and 2s the whole time. Time after time in melee, with a +2,3 or 4 advantage we'd roll a 1, Zig would roll a 7 or 8 and just smack our bugs down. 

In addition to the crap dice, I should have let the bugs start with all their troops on the table, they'd have been able to the that "crush" that's necessary to overwhelm a front line; as it was, the cult picked off units one at a time as they appeared and was able to deal with it very easily.

The scenario itself was good fun and worth another go with some tweaking.

Regardless of the outcome, it was a very enjoyable afternoon and a fine end to 2021. Happy New Year to all of you!