Insurgent Earth - First Game

 I had an opportunity to give Insurgent Earth a go on Sunday afternoon. It's designed as a solo / co-op tabletop game where the player(s) control a band of human survivors in a post-alien invasion environment. The basic goals for a scenario generally consist of retrieving loot, completing a specific objective and staying alive against a stout alien presence. 

I set up a 3 X 3 board and kitted out four characters for the test run. I rolled up a "Locate the Survivor" mission in which I had to rescue a civilian on the tabletop and evacuate him safely without getting nabbed by the bad guys.

Ariadna Infinity models are suitable post-apocalyptic models so they made the cut. They received suitable French names.

The tabletop. The guy needing to be rescued is in the center next to the dumpster.

There he is.

The crew spread out. Pinkie heads toward the survivor. The fireman investigates a loot location (the barrels) and Jacque makes his way to the loot location in the large blue dumpster.

The Occupation Force arrives. Some low-level schlubs, but there are five of them and we'd prefer to keep things quiet.

Pinkie searches the dumpster for loot, finds a promising bag of medical supplies but rats have gotten to it. Blast! She takes Jeeves under her wing and they move along. 

Monique searches the yellow dumpster and scrounges an old power drill that looks mostly intact. That'll be useful.

JC's rooting around in the barrels triggers a flash and boom! Some scumbag trapped this thing. JC avoids any injury than notices why there was a trap. A computer-assisted targeting system! Heck yeah, that'll go nicely in the backpack. 

The sentries move forward and spot Pinkie and Jeeves. the jig is up! Pinkie heaves a smoke grenade towards them. A very lucky bounce and the smoke is right on top of the aliens! 

Those two move away from the critters in the smoke, getting behind the wall.

Moments later, an alien craft appears overhead and drops two robot warriors out. Jeeves is right there and the mechanical monsters take their shots. Amazingly, Jeeves is able to evade the incoming shots. No wonder he was able to survive out here by himself!

Pinkie's no dummy and tosses her second smoke grenade at the 'bots. That should slow them down a bit. She and the butler run for the dumpster out of sight of the rapid reaction robots.

The orange aliens are worryingly close.

The smoke clears on team orange and they're all over Pinkie and the Butler. Since the aliens now have "total battlefield awareness" they're under no automatic behavior compulsion and go into kill mode.

The two robots in the center move out the other direction and go hunting for humies on the the other side of the table. 

Jean Claude isn't "phased" and re-programs the the alien droid with his fireman's axe.

Jacque give the other 'bot the ol' "two to the body, one to the head" treatment. Impressive!

Not to be left out, Monique lines up a shot on the orange critter atop the truck and pops its noggin. Holy cow. Three for three.

 Pinkie knows what time it is and seeing as though she's a technician, not a machine-gunner, she and Jeeves scoot boots away from the orange menace.

Two more rapid reaction robots drop in. Monique realizes she's in deep kimchi.

Pinkie evades the weapons fire of the aliens pursuing her!

Likewise, Monique's reactions and body armor and are up to the task when the 'bots take aim at her.

Pinkie and Jeeves make it out alive.

Followed closely by Monique who got hopped up on some of "Pappy's Special Medicine" and ran like a scalded dog.

JC and Jacque run as well, but don't quite reach the edge.

The dodge rolls start failing, so it appears I made a good decision to flee when I did. JC takes two hits from the 'bots, but it's not enough to take him down. A turn later, Jean Claude and Jacque make it off the table.

Well that was a lot of fun! I'm much more comfortable with IE now and look forward to playing again when there will be fewer trips to the rules, etc. There's a campaign system so Jeeves needs to join the group and become a full-time member of the band. I'm strongly considering taking this to Southern Front in Raleigh in September to run a couple sessions. The games are relatively quick, and I imagine much moreso with a GM running the aliens, so it's feasible to get in 2-3 games in a single convention time block. 

Be well and good gaming!

Creepies

 I've been looking to get Insurgent Earth on the tabletop. It's a relatively new game from Stalker7, the same company that published the excellent Nightwatch. IE is of similar build and uses similar mechanics. The set up is that the player/players control a small band of surviving humans during an alien occupation of earth. The alien occupiers are handled by automatic behavior rules. 

Anyway... I wanted some suitable alien grunts and found some perfect inexpensive Bones models. Six should be plenty I think.

Of some small interest is the fact that these are the first minis I've painted in the last 12+ years that I haven't used ANY Vallejo paint. It wasn't by design, but that's just how it turned out. 

Ideas for Walls

 I found these treasures on Amazon a few weeks back - 28mm scale stone and iron walls. At $10 per kit, I couldn't resist a couple. I assembled them in about an hour and put maybe 90 minutes of painting into them. A great addition to the terrain collection for sure!

Most of those bits are two inches wide and there are a few short one inch segments in there. Handy for all sorts of games!

July Update

Happy weekend. Just posting a few pics of things I've been working on recently. 

I churned through 40 pikemen for the Ventians and Spanish over the last couple weeks. I've been painting very sporadically. These guys probably spent three weeks on the popsicle sticks. They're being based today. Finally.

On that note, my wife and I tested some massed combat rules I put together last weekend. Just a simple mechanical play test and the end result proved that the basic rule mechanics are sound. Now comes the challenge of codifying it all. 

I ordered these two Infinity models after our last game of Infinity. They're for the Starco mercs, a TAG (heavy armored mecha) with the red shoulder bits and a Mobile Brigada heavy infantry (with the yellow) who can lead the group. Frankly, that troop type is the only lieutenant option available to the Starco mercenaries that is even remotely threatening. The other options are cheap chumps that don't deliver a lot of "oomph" whereas the Mobile Brigada is a real threat.

I also picked up a couple of boats for Blood and Plunder a little while back. 

Just a dugout Canoa for the natives and a Piragua for whomever needs it. It purposefully left it very neutral, no flags or other markings so it will fit in with any operator. The sails are 1/8 inch flexible hobby foam sheet from Michaels. It's easy to cut to size, stays in shape and takes superglue well. Some thread loops and done. Rigging is for display pieces, not game pieces. I have a Sloop incoming as well, but it's a preorder and I don't think it'll arrive before September. 

I've also taken possession of some 1/300 planes for some commission painting for Wayne.

These Su-22s have some miscast noses, but they'll paint up fine. Wayne really enjoyed CY6:JA and ordered a handful of Cold War-era planes. Certainly enough to keep me busy a while. I'm looking forward to working on them. 

Goings On - Summer 2022

 The blog has been light on posts lately because like many others, I've been busy with summer time. We took a short vacation to Jacksonville and St. Augustine a couple weeks ago and had a fine time. 

In Jacksonville we went to "The Stadium Tour" and saw Joan Jett, Poison, Motley Crue and Def Leppard. The show was amazing, even though the walk to the stadium was during a torrential downpour.

Poison

Crue

Def Leppard

The next day we drove down to St. Augustine to explore an old town we've never really visited. The last time I was there was maybe around 1984 or so.

It rained much of Sunday as we toured the town, I didn't take many pictures. We did a ghost walk in the evening which was fun, those things usually are. Our guide wasn't a great story teller so that detracted a bit. The weather was much better for the evening walk though.

Monday was July 4th and since we hadn't toured the Castillo in the rain on Sunday, we visited it that morning. The weather was hot but otherwise gorgeous. I haven't been to the fort in a long time. It's in great condition and has an interesting history.

So yeah, plenty of fun stuff going on. I have done a bit of painting here and there, I'll post some pics of that at another time. Y'all be well!

Supercharger - Star Fleet Battles AAR

 Howdy all. The Space Cadets gathered for another episode of Star Fleet Battles Saturday, July 9th. This time around we played in a Starbucks coffee shop. David had a scenario idea and as I was putting the actual scenario together, he provided details and specific answers. It was a good game-building process for sure. I set the game up for five players; this time we added Wayne and Mark as additional players.

The basis for the campaign is a Klingon incursion into the region of the WYN Cluster closest to their border. The incursion is viewed unfavorably by the Klingon's enemies, particularly the Federation and Kzinti. So, while the Klingons will fighting against WYN forces, Feds and Kzinti will keep a steady flow of materiel streaming into WYN hands. We will be ignoring the WYN radiation zone "P" rules as we play. They're unnecessary for the scope of our campaign which if you didn't figure it out, if based somewhat on current events in Ukraine.

SUPERCHARGER

The Kilingon incursion into the WYN zone is proceeding well. Today’s mission is reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. The PF Tender Arceus and her escort Cudgel are to proceed to the WYN power station near planet Buckstar in invasion sector 10. The task is to remain close to the power station for a period of time to gather and transmit details back to the high command. It should be assumed that the WYN locals won’t be too crazy about this presence. Expect some resistance.

Map is fixed.  Power station in 0815  Radius 1 planet, no atmosphere, in 2015

Klingons

R3.7 E4 Escort (B, 175, Fast Drones)  Cudgel

R3.157 Light PF Tender  Arceus

3 x R3.PF1 Fast Patrol Ships (Fast Drones, Shield Upgrade)

 WYN

R12.5 KG2 Police Ship (Fast Drones)  Harp

3 x R12.PF  Fast Patrol Ships (Fast Drones)

6 x F-18 Fighters 2 Type-I Fast, 2 Type-VI Fast

 

 Mark drove the Klingon E4, Wayne, the PFT, and I commanded the Klingon PF group. Mike ran the WYN fighters and G2 while David controlled the WYN PFs.

Mike and David

Wayne and Mark

 

Looking at the map in the previous pictures, the Klingons entered the map at the far back left corner. The plan was for the E4 and PFT to haul ass to the power station in an attempt to start the timer on the information gathering requirement ASAP. My PFs would hold back a little and act as a screen, distraction and spoiler.

The WYN enter from the flank halfway through the first turn. Wayne and Mark continue their charge towards the objective while doing everything they can to deal with the drone swarm unleashed by the fighters. A second drone swarm appears from the flankers!

The E4 and PF Tender run like scalded dogs from the WYN drones, towards the power station. WYN fighters will be waiting for them. The two groups of PFs prepare to rip each other to shreds. I was fortunate to get an early heavy hit on one of David's that was not returned since he was occupied firing at Mark's vessel. This put my squadron at a slight weapons advantage for the forthcoming smackdown.

We each lost one PF entirely. I was left with one completely healthy and one at half-strength. David was left with two crippled badly and a total of one weapon system between the two PFs.

To start turn three, Mark and Wayne had posted up nicely by the WYN target base. Mike's G2 was cutting in behind them, fighters approaching them from their front. I was reasonably sure that Mike didn't realize that my squadron was still pretty dangerous so of course I charged him hard and fired the kitchen sink at him. That sure got his attention!

For the rest of turn three, Wayne and Mark defended handily against the swarms of drones while Mike and I flew around each other while our weapons cycled.

But then, Mike being the boarding-combat fan that he is, couldn't resist the urge to send a boarding party onto my better-condition PF. The PF was captured! Woe is me. Mike was ecstatic. Me, less so. No worries. As long as Mike is living out a grudge match against my PFs, the E4 and PFT are hanging out winning the scendario. My job of being a distraction and spoiler was working quite well.

When turn 4 began, a lot of drones hit the table once again. Wayne and Mark again were brilliant with their drone defense and held fast. Mike's continued to hate on my surviving PF. Even this late in the game, the distraction was in play!

On impulse 4, we called the game. The Klingons had completed their objective of keeping an uncrippled ship within 4 hexes of the power station for 64 consecutive impulses. Wayne's PFT was still at 100%. and Mark's escort was slightly better than crippled. 

Everyone enjoyed the scenario and the game itself was a lot of fun. The quantity of drones slowed things a lot so we'll reduce those going forward. SFB never fails to amuse and this outing was quite spectacular. Next mission... capturing the power station. 

Thank for checking out the blog; be well and good gaming!