A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 7

 I played Game 7 of "A Tale Of Two Tortles" last night. The game was something different for a change, and I had a great time with it. This would be Campaign Turn 12, with Turns nine through eleven being non-combat turns. Turn Nine was spent laying low and healing up. Turn Ten involved travelling to meet the former Mayor of Arsmkrik, and on the way we met a Sociable Mok who offered a Contract to chase away Undesireables within three Campaign Turns; meeting with the Mayor yielded a Quest to be pursued at our leisure. Turn 11 was spent travelling back to The Crossing to pursue that Contract, and something was seen in the distance and an Unknown Location was added to the map.

Once back at The Crossing, it was business as usual. There was a Renowned Scholar in town, who helped Wepi with studying and led to the acquisition of the Crafting skill. The Town Guard was helped, negating any Upkeep costs. A new bow was acquired for Drustan, and our connections led to the offer of a new Contract; it was declined, as we have one already.

And with that, Our Heroes went to fulfill their "Chase Off Group" contract. It turned out that those Roving Fiends they had beaten away way back when had returned, and in greater numbers. Their lair was located, and the Camp Raid scenario was played. This was interesting, because part of the Roving Fiends group was deployed towards the center of the table, and some over on the far table side. Further, the Unknown Enemy rule was used, so three Fiends of the nine deployed were removed and replaced with a different model that would later be revealed. And then Our Heroes spent some time sneaking ("sneaky, Charlie, we gotta be sneaky!) closer to the bad guys. Everyone made a few moves closer, and eventually Kipor was spotted by the Fiends. And combat commenced!

Things started off poorly: Tundaline took a shot and missed. Kipor rushed forward and killed a Fiend, but was pushed back in return by another. Weppi spotted the Unknown Enemy marker, and revealed three more Fiends, killed a Fiend, but then wound up pushed back and stunned, Morgan did not quite make it into combat, and Galdan was still sneaking and hadn't made it to the combat yet.

The next Turn was a "Go Big Or Go Home" moment! Tundaline killed a Fiend, Galdan killed a Fiend, Kipor killed two of them, and Wepi killed one before getting pushed back and stunned. Morgan engaged a Fiend, but was pushed back. There were only two Roving Fiends left, but they were holding their ground!

Those two Fiends were tough! They felled both Weppi and Morgan before any of Our Heroes could act. Tundaline missed her shot, Galdan made it to the combat but only pushed a Fiend back, and Kipor pushed the last one back as well as stunning it.

The fourth Turn was similar; the Fiends acted first but without hitting either Galdan or Kipor, Tundaline shot a Fiend with her crossbow but had no effect, and both Galdan and Kipor pushed back and stunned their opponents. And once again, the Roving Fiends failed to flee.

Turn Five started with a revelation: I had not brought Drustan along for the fight! We were fighting the Fiends to a standstill while missing a member of the Warband! Oops, my bad... Anyway, there was a wonderful initiative roll and everyone activated before the Roving Fiends! Tundaline missed her target again, Kipor killed a Fiend, and Galdan pushed the last Fiend back. The Fiend in return accomplished nothing, and finally broke and ran away. Hopefully this would be the last of those horrible things!

But what of Weppi and Morgan? The dice would tell... Weppi was thought dead, but with the judicious use of a Story Point turned out to only have a broken weapon. Morgan was fine, having only been knocked down. As for loot, well, let's see, there was a Soul Sphere and an Old Dusty Manual, so now I need to look those up and see what they do. We also got a lead to a new Location, and after returning the The Crossing a letter from a Friend added +1 Story Point. The Contract itself paid three Gold, and now I am kind of sorry I didn't take that other Contract that was offered earlier.

I am noticing that ranged combat is fairly ineffective for Our Heroes. This game had only a few hits by Tundaline, and I had entirely forgotten to bring Drustan and his bow along. It might be time to let them go, and bring in some fresh melee troops instead. As I play on a 2'x2' board, there is less time for fire and manuever than in the Before Times, when I played on a 3'x3' board. Hmmm... I will ponder this.

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game Two

 OK, so I played my second campaign turn of Five Parsecs From Home, continuing the Voyages Of The Century Flamingo. Our Heroes spent some time Training, with O and Aim both gaining an experience point. There were five Credits paid towards the ship's mortgage, we now only owed 19 Credits on it. And general upkeep for the crew cost us one Credit. Asvyaxke was still recovering from his slight injury, and so would not be participating in any crew shenanigans.

And shenanigans were had! The guys were hired to patrol a parking lot out in the wilderness (why there was a parking lot out in the wilderness remains to be seen!) There must have been something important there, because while they were approaching their area of employment, a three-person Black Ops team was approaching from the opposite direction. O quickly chittered directions so they could meet their checkpoints while engaging with the enemy.

In the first Turn, Aim aimed and found his target, a nice shot made at range into cover, rolling a 5 to hit and a 6 to wound, he dropped the Black Ops girl in her tracks. The other two Black Ops women moved forward, and one took a shot at Iruurla (but missed.) Iruurla and Aaur returned fire, with Aaur killing another opponent. Khirki then moved over to check on the first vehicle and O ran towards a checkpoint next to a plant, of all things. Weird place to have a checkpoint! That last Black Ops girl, though, she held her ground.

Turn two saw Aim aiming again, and while he got a solid hit, he did not meet or exceed his target's toughness and so only caused a Stun. She in turn shot at Aaur, but missed. Aaur returned fire, causing another Stun, O reached his checkpoint and also shot at the final Black Ops target. While he hit, again there was no wound but another Stun... and after three Stuns, a mode is removed! Woo! We did it! We held the field and could complete the mission at our leisure!

Post-battle, it did not seem like there were any Black Ops team members left to become Rivals. A curious data stick was found on of them, yielding a Quest Rumor. Another had a Glare sword... shiny! And we were paid three Credits for our trouble.

I was pretty nervous when I rolled up the Black Ops team as the opponents, as we were down a crew member and we might need to move around a lot for this mission. I was lucky there were only three of them... six might have wiped out the whole crew. And this had to be the shortest game ever at two turns!

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: First Game

 So, yeah... I played out my first Five Parsecs From Home campaign turn for the crew of the Century Flamingo. Our Heroes, two Droyne and four Vilani humans had recently arrived on Windsor (Glisten 0305 for the Traveller fans) and were seeking some work. There were no licensing requirements to set down and work. The pink vegetation covering the planet did tend to get into everything!

They had an opportunity to deliver a (most likely illegal) package to a remote survey installation in the wilds. Unfortunately, their delivery trip was noticed and acted upon by a criminally-minded group of Raiders who went to intercept the crew as they approached the station.

The package itself was being carried by O Oymsse, the Droyne Sport and second in command. Asvyaxke Dre and the four humans would provide covering fire while O rushed to the station door and knocked. That was the plan, anyway. As it turned out, it worked pretty well.

In the first Turn, Asvyaxke and Aim Iashna both moved into a clump of pink, pink foliage for both safety and for Aim to get off some good shots. Everyone else moved forward, Khirki Nishekke moving slower so he could take a couple of shots (both useless, by the way.) For their own part, the Raiders moved forward but did not shoot.

Turn Two had O scooting ahead, trying to use the station itself as cover while the Raiders advanced, squeezing off a few ineffective shots of their own. Aim aimed, and failed to hit his target despite his multiple bonuses to hit. Khirki shot again without effect, and Iruurlaa Kheug took a shot at the Raider with a clingfire pistol, dropping the criminal in his tracks. Aaur Iigunim fired as well, albeit ineffectively. Asvyaxke moved out of the foliage to try and get closer to take a shot at the bad guys, a decision he would later regret.

The third Turn had everyone except Asvyaxke advance as one, squeezing off shots or, in the case of O, knocking "shave and a haircut" on the station door and getting ready to flee. Of those shots fired, Aaur found his mark and killed another Raider. Aim really was not living up to his name! The Raiders returned fire while cautiously moving closer, but found no targets.

In Turn Four, O scooted off to investigate a shiny pink carapace ("Curious Item") growing out of the ground, and Asvyaxke killed another Raider with his hand cannon. In return fire from them, he went down as well, becoming the first casualty for the crew. Aim finally found his mark as well, making two Raiders down this turn.

Turn Five started with O fiddling with the pink growth and extracting some valuable samples from it. The Raiders then fired on the crew, but without effect. Our Heroes returned fire, and Khirki killed another Raider.

In Turn Six, there was a great Initiative roll: four "1"s and a "2" The entire would be able to activate before the last Raider. With both the package delivered and the anomaly investigated, the crew of the Century Flamingo began to withdraw. They had not held the field, but they fulfilled their mission and found something of interest to sell later on.

As it turned out, the Raiders would not become Rivals... with only one survivor of the gang, perhaps he learned the error of his ways and went off to Law school.... Asvyaxke looked like he might need some immediate surgery, but as it turned out the human doctors were ignorant of Droyne physiology, it was just a minor wound and he only needed a Turn of recovery to get back on his feet (a Story Point was spent to re-roll the injury.) And that anomaly O investigated? The samples were worth 1 credit. And the crew was paid 4 Credits for the delivery.

What will our next adventure be?

Saga: Age of Alexander

 The noble Persians defeated the hedonistic Greeks at the farmstead of Testicles and the fires to Ahura-Mazda shall burn long into the night!

OK so Kurt and I played some Saga 2nd edition Age of Alexander, his Greeks against my Persians in a 4-point game. We were still learning the rules and made a few mistakes, but the Persians eaked out a win with one unit left to generate a Saga die.

The opening strike by the Greek cavalry on their right flank was repelled by the Persian horsemen, and then the Greek riders were destroyed. It was a rather impressive opening for the Persians, but after that neither side really generated much momentum. The Persian archers in their Combine Units really swayed the day, with the mutual annihilation of both Warlords sealing the Persian victory.