AAR: Stardust Ground - Space Marines and Space Bugs

 Well, my trip to Southern Front was cancelled. Sick mom, sick father-in-law. Stuff happens, whatcha gonna do? Well, what I did was get in a game of Stardust Ground with Mark. He's played more SDG than anyone but me, so he's always a good opponent. Since I just finished up those new Space Marines, they were of course on the short list of forces to be on the table. The Bugs, Mark's favorite, were an obvious second since their abilities had been tweaked since their last outing and they had a couple new units to test out. 

The Marines and the Bug forces are searching the area for lost relics scattered from a recent dropship crash.

I set up a 4' x 4' battlefield. Forces were deployed in opposite corners with three objectives diagonally across the table. Only two of three objectives would count, but we wouldn't know which until the game ended.

My deployed forces, the bugs have begun their moves. 

And after our first moves. Man, those bugs are quick.

Blue Bugs (the basic chompers) smash into my Marine squad on the right in no time. My Rhino had managed to zot one of them with its Storm Bolter. This made the close combat quite manageable. 

I have more coming in the center though!

The fuzziness of victory on the right!

But on the right, the Fire Bugs crash into my Terminators. The Termies are tough but were outclassed by the big swarm. Stardust Ground skews close combat in favor of larger units and those bugs getting a +8 to my +5 on the close combat roll was a tough pill to swallow.

But I've got buddies! The Assault Marines arrived in a convenient location to help and the Dreadnought charged into the mess as well. The Dread embarrassed itself getting immobilized by the bugs. I also lost a Termie.

Shit's about to get real though, as the bugs have reinforcements heading up the hill... Blues and a damn Doom Scorpion.

My squad in the middle is in for it. Chaplain Charlie does his best to keep the boys motivated.

Hazzah! A second Dreadnought arrives as a reinforcement for my Marines. Convenient location, it spews rounds at the Purps. Sadly, it only manages some pins. 

Driven by whatever drives a gigantic space bug, they absolutely crush the remains of the center squad shortly after. Ugh, what a loss!

Not to be outdone, the Doom Scorpion's first round of close combat goes remarkably well, absolutely dismantling the Assault Marines. What a terrible turn for the Marines!

The crap continued as those Purps who survived the Assault Cannon fire from the Dreadnought gobbled up a Marine stand and Librarian Dan.

Super Rhino gets a measure of revenge killing another stand of bugs with its Storm Bolter.

The Godforsaken Scorpion does what the Blues failed to do finishing off the immobilized Dreadnought. 

At the end of the game, my Marines had been thoroughly whipped, but I'd managed to nab two of the three objective locations, and wouldn't you know it, they were both the "live" objectives! Mark won a military victory by all measures, but the Marines had managed to secure the relic components. 

     That was a blast, even though I got completely wrecked. I was overconfident with the Terminators and they paid the price. The Dreadnought that was with them was also a stinker, but it had cursed dice. The other Dreadnought, functionally identical, had a terrific battle. The Assault Marines were brilliant but simply overwhelmed by the mighty Doom Scorpion which worked as well as I'd hoped. The Bug "Reinforcement" rule that was added which allows them to recycle units that have been wiped out worked very nicely and didn't feel too dominating. More games will need to be played to confirm that.

     The Bugs are good. Very good. They no longer require tweaks whatsoever. When we talked about the game over lunch, Mark had a good idea that Bog enemies should be able to disrupt the Hive Mind, so we came up with a mechanism to do so, which should allow Marine, Cultist and Robot Armies to throw a wet blanket on the Bug party from time to time. The Red Guard and Dawgs will simply need to outnumber the Bugs by 2-3 units at the start of a game in order to keep up since I don't envision either of those forces having the right technology to disrupt Bug communications. 

This Week's Work!

 So, a bit of a mix this week. First up are some 15mm Space Marines. Pretty sure the minis are from Khurasan. I had enough to make a full Assault Squad and three small-based special characters. This assortment will add a lot of Space Marine flavor to my Stardust: Ground Space Marine force. 

A group shot, sans light box. 

And close ups. These are the pictures that will end up on the game cards.

A stand of Assault Marines

A Librarian (psyker). The mini was customized with a cape and Force Staff, removing the chainsword.

A Chaplain

And a Veteran Sergeant to round out the squad.

So, if you're at all familiar with GW Space Marines you'll be immediately familiar with those titles and their functions. I'll have their cards together in no time... I've already done all the formatting, I just need to insert the pictures.

Next up, and I started these late yesterday afternoon, so I've made quick progress...

Some huts for the pulp game I'm hosting in North Carolina in two weeks! Main construction material is cashew and almond cans with cereal box cardstock roofs. One of the minis I need for the scenario is posed in front for scale. She's a 32mm Bombshell Miniatures explorer who's already been named Dora.

Construction of the three huts nearly done. Room thatching is simply white paper but with a frilly edge. I spackled the outsides of the walls to add texture.

And after a couple blasts of spray paint. More pictures to follow later, plus the minis I need to finish with the quickness.

Oh, since Brigade Games fouled up my order, I ordered suitable replacements directly from Bombshell Minis. Everything is of course in stock and shipping was quick. Thanks so much Bombshell!

Tanksgiving 2023

 It's been a while since I attended a Tanksgiving event, but made the trek on Saturday for an afternoon of gaming with a group. I didn't actively play anything, I just GM'ed a game of my Stardust: Ground sci-fi battle game. I set up a four-player game, in teams of two. The setup...

Investigation at Spiritreach

Or

The Spiritreach Standoff

a Stardust: Ground scenario

Miners at Spiritreach outpost have recently uncovered ancient tablets containing Contaminant markings. The people of Spiritreach have slowly succumbed to the dangerous whispers released by the unearthed tablets. Not only have civilians in the mining community been turned by the powers of Contaminant, but the Red Guard posted nearby have been twisted and see nothing wrong with what’s going on. Outsiders of course have sensed the change and know it cannot be allowed to continue.

Dawgs of course are naturally quite sensitive to the Contaminant and after a few weeks of being released, Khanate forces were aware of what was happening at Spiritreach. Likewise, Brother-Chaplian Tobias of the Imperial Space Marines also sensed the disturbance. Both forces dispatched troops to investigate and end the threat. The erstwhile foes encountered each other en route. The leaders met and it wasn’t long before BigDawg Moonrunner and Space Marine Lieutenant Secundus entered into an agreement to enter the outpost and eliminate the threat.

It’s dusk so expect it to get dark soon.

Defenders’ Orders and Situation

Why can’t those nosy troublemakers leave us alone? We’re doing our own thing and they’re still getting their shipments of unobtanium. Well, it looks like they want a fight so we aim to give ‘em one!

Your forces are deployed around the mining outpost. You might be able to play a bit of cat-and mouse hiding among the buildings for the early parts of the battle. The Red Guard have two VTOLs that each carry a squad of infantry. Those enter the game as reinforcements and should catch your opponents by surprise. The VTOLs are transports, not fighter-bombers, so be careful with them!

The Cultist Demolishers and Red Guard Lancers are both very capable heavy tanks. The Harrier is more of a specialist and the Catapult tanks are rocket artillery vehicles more useful against infantry than vehicles. The Python Walker is quite strong, particularly in close combat and targeting the flanks of enemy vehicles. Its Elite status can allow it to activate twice in a turn, a very rare capability. Keep it hidden so you don’t lose it quickly to lucky shot.

Yadin played the Red Guard and David commanded the Cultists.

Attackers’ Orders and Situation

These rubes never learn… you play around with ancient writings, you get mutated and lose your eternal soul. What’s so hard to remember about that?

Aside from neutralizing any resistance, there are three locations within the outpost that are likely to house the unholy tablets. Finding those tablets is a high priority. The GM will let you know those locations that should be searched.

Your forces include Space Marine Terminators. They can deploy onto the battlefield via Teleporter. When you’re ready to deploy them, give them an Order and place the Terminators anywhere on the battlefield in base contact with one another and not within 5” of any friendly or enemy unit.. Yeah, it’s just that easy. They may immediately take their action. This sudden appearance should be a nasty surprise for the defenders! The Captain must remain with the squad; unfortunately this means his Elite ability won’t be available.

The Dawg’s Brawler tanks are very powerful heavy tanks, but your force, overall, is quite outnumbered in the tank department. Terminators are good for anti-tank work in close combat as are the Dreadnoughts. Keeping the Dreadnoughts healthy during their transit could be difficult.

Disembark the Space Marines from the Rhinos once they’ve made some good progress onto the battlefield. Marines are quite difficult to kill while on foot due to their Veteran status.

 Wayne B was the Dawg Commander while Ziggy ran the Marines.

 

Our battlefiled. The Cultists and Red Guard occupied the big hill and buildings while the Marines and Dawgs joined the battle from the far end of the table.

I didn't take many pictures, especially early into the game as I was GMing and helping my players understand the process.

Ziggy's Terminators teleported in atop the hill and assaulted a squad of cultists in the large building. The terminators were in-turn assaulted by a second group of cultists. Terminators, being the most powerful infantry unit in Stardust, were able to handle the challenge without much trouble. They entered the gray building a turn later and searched for the tablets they were hunting. Of course, they found them sitting right there on the coffee table being used as coasters!

The battle continued to rage all over the tabletop. Batteries must've been weak and gunpowder wet because for all the shooting, there were remarkably few casualties. 

But melee was a different story. The Python walker vehicle was manhandled by a unit of Space Marines!

In the attacker's backfield, the Red Guard sent two airborne infantry units. One of the VTOLs was hit by AAA and crash-landed, but only one of the infantry stands was taken out. Not pictured... moments later, the Dawgs called in artillery on the downed VTOL, wiping out the squad except for the medic! 

Darkness fell and of course visibility was now a major issue. True to form, weapons fire was still almost completely ineffective.

Dawgs and Cult Fanatics mix it up!

It was a bad day for fliers! The Red Guard airborne troops assault and destroy the immobilized Marine Dreadnought. They'll take all the kills the can find.

The last shots of the game. The Guard's tanks fire another barrage of plasma at another immobilized Dreadnought. More misses. More failures to cause meaningful damage! Yadin had spent 3/4 of the game shooting at that thing all all he could muster was a mobility kill. It truly was amazing.

We decided to call the game. The attackers, Wayne B and Ziggy won handily but all the players enjoyed themselves. The two who'd never played before (Yadin and Wayne B) both were quite happy with their choice of a day's entertainment so that makes me feel good as a game designer and scenario maker. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

StarDust Ground AAR - Recover the Data Crystals

 Wayne and I got together to a game of StarDust Ground Saturday afternoon. For those of you not in the know, SDG is my 15mm game designed for platoon / company sized engagements. This battle featured the Dawg Khanate battling the Robot horde. I used the Kings of War Vanguard "Recover the Plans" scenario as inspiration. 

We played on a 48x48 table and deployed in opposite corners. The initial objective location is in the center. Each of us only started with two infantry squads with a compliment of leaders and weapons teams. Reinforcements would arrive as the game progressed. Game length was set for 10 turns. 

My Warbots among the buildings in my deployment zone.

A couple turns in and we started trading shots. I managed to kill a stand of Dawgs right off the bat. I assumed Wayne's dogs would be on the objective quickly since his troops were moving quickly and robots don't run. 

Not my first choice of reinforcements, but fate is fickle... a couple stands of Superbots. 

Wayne's big squad closes in on the objective. 

Feh. His first reinforcement unit was a Predator Walker. It fires up the jump jets and drops into melee with my squad closest to the center. My 'bots held up well, thanks to their numbers. I still lost a stand in the process though.

But a lucky break in communications allows me to call in an artillery barrage! The big dog squad get hammered. No casualties but a tremendous amount of confusion is heaped on them, making them take pause.

As the firefight in the center continued, I received a few more reinforcements in the form of Hoverbots and a Repair Hoverbot. Handy! Hoverbots are stupid fast.

But Wayne's forces had received another new unit as well. In the upper left you can see that a Seer Attack VTOL has shown up. That thing is bad news and without any AAA resources, it's going to be a rough ride.

One of the more interesting features of this scenario is that once a side has claimed the central objective, it might just be directions to the real objective. That's exactly what happened when the big Dawg Squad moved up through the rubble. The actual data crystals were really located in the ruin to my left and I was fortunate to have some quick troops nearby to capitalize!

The Repair Hoverbot also can put out smoke screens making it useful for more than just keeping units in operation. Here it has masked the little Hoverbots which are making their way to the data crystals.

It's mine! Huzzah, although that VTOL has taken out one of the stands in that squad. NOT good.

My last reinforcement unit arrived, more quick units, in fact two Heavy Hoverbots! They'd be useful at anti-infantry duty as well as checking that godforsaken VTOL.

Back on the other side, my last Superbot stand which had been making its way around the central hill chasing one of the two Dawg squads that started on the table is beset by the Predator. The Superbots were brought into Shutdown state by the walker's firepower and were easy pickings for the monster's fists at that point. (Robots which are shut down by receiving twice as many pins as the number of bases in the unit cannot fight in close combat and are automatically destroyed)

Dawgs need a miracle, they get a miracle. Their third reinforcement arrives on turn 9. They arrive in the proper corner to utterly change the game! A squad of Battledogs appears and advances on my Hoverbots holding the crystals, destroying them! 

Adding insult to injury, the Seer knocks out one of my frisbees of death; the remaining Heavy Hoverbot, although it lands three solid hits on the infantry squad, manages only one kill. Turn 10 and the Dawgs have the crystal and I have nothing left in the tank. Khanate Win!

That was a mighty fine game and battle. It was a closely-fought affair with good drama and some heroics. Wayne's only played SDG once I think and this was his first time solo, so he got a good, deep look at the rules and gameplay. He was rather pleased with how the game plays.

The tweaks I've made to the 'Bots have helped them a lot. They're much more reliable from an activation and reliability standpoint. I've treated them like a shambling undead horde, with a relentless, unflagging advance. They don't run, they can't go prone. They just grind forward and shoot like the dickens. They're way more competitive compare to previous outings now. The Dawgs need no tweaks, they've been solid from day 1 as one of the "original two."

A fine afternoon of gaming. Next weekend I'm off to Southern Front for a weekend of dice and toy soldiers! Be well and good gaming.