The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 5

 It seemed simple enough, just take some data cards and bring them to a farmstead terminal. Except that the Digga Boyz, the notorious bounty hunter gang, showed up looking for a fight. Target practice, really. They were in good with what passed as law enforcement on this crazy pink world, so they had free reign to shoot us up as much as they wanted, whether or not we had any actual bounties on us. But, we needed the job and would get it done even under a hail of bullets...

OK, so I played through the fifth game turn of The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo. Khirki Nishekke was still in sick bay, so it would just be the other five members of the crew trying to deliver the data cards. And WOW! Did we get torn up!

The first turn went okay. Not great, but okay. Aim missed his shot at the Diggaboy with the rattle gun, but Asvyaxke and O made some good progress towards the data terminal before the Digga Boyz moved into cover and sprayed bullets all over the place. Fortunately, none connected with Our Heroes. Aaur and Iruurlaa moved into better positions and returned fire.

And then all Hell broke loose. The rattle gunner found his mark on Aim, and he went down. The Dread Digganob felled Iruurlaa. O made a mad dash for the data terminal and slammed the data card into it, while Asvyaxke took a shot at Dread Digganob and cleanly took his head off. Aaur returned fire at the rattle gunner, but failed to hit.

Turn three did not get much better. The Digga Boyz rattle gunner took down O, and the rest of their shooting landed a couple of Stuns against Asvyaxke. So Asvyaxke moved to get behind the building, and Aaur moved back into some cover and managed to hit, if not kill, the rattle gunner.

Turn four saw Aaur move further into the bushes and take another shot, but he missed his target. The Digga Boyz returned fire on him, hitting him without injuring him and resulting only in a Stun. Asvyaxk retreated further into the brush line to avoid the other Digga Boyz.

Turn five saw the continued retreat of both Asvyaxke and Aaur, while that rattle gun landed an additional Stun effect on Aaur.

On the final turn of the game, Asvyaxke escaped the board and Aaur took a well placed hit from one of the Diga Boyz, eliminating him from the game when the escape was right within his grasp!

After skirmish, we collected our pay of 5 credits and Asvyaxke had managed to snag a machine pistol on his way off the board. Aruurlaa and Aim both made their way back to the Century Flamingo, only a little worse for wear. But where was Aaur? We found out he had died of his injuries there on the farmstead. And O? O used his Luck to survive, permanently removing that point from his stats. Iruurlaa and Aim had the chance to go Explore, and came back with a job offer from Tukera Lines. Khirki has become Depressed over Aaur's death and will not be able to receive any XP next game turn.

A Data Terminal

OK, so I created a data terminal (from the Hardpoint model by Worldworks Games in the "Rezolution" cardstock terrain set,) only changing the blue hues on the sides to red/pink to blend in better with the terrain. It was a tough call as to how much pink fluff to add, but in the end I opted for less fluff to create more playability.

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 4

 MADNESS! Madness, I tell you! Two games of Five Parsecs From Home in one week? Three numbers in the previous sentence? Our House!

Anyway, I played out Game 4 of the Voyages Of The Century Flamingo. Khirki Nishekke would be sitting out this mission in Sick Bay, but otherwise everyone was available for another Delivery. We've done deliveries before, what could possibly go wrong dropping off a package at a farmstead outside town? As it turns out, a LOT went wrong. A roving band of gunslingers wanted to test their mettle against us, and they were accompanied by a Callous Merc. One of the gunslingers had a warrant out for him, so if he were dropped in the course of the delivery we could collect a bounty. And then (there's always an "and then," isn't there?) Iruurlaa Kheug and Aaur Iigunim stopped without letting anyone else know so they could chat up some ladies.

Aim Iashan climbed on the roof of one of the farm buildings to keep an eye out for the potential trouble, while Asvyaxke Dre (carrying the package) and O Oymsse skirted by the hedges trying to get to the drop-off point before trouble started. And then it happened. Bad guys spotted. Aim took the chance to shoot at notorious Amdi Gaaili and dropped him with a head shot! The Callous Merc returned fire on Aim, glancing him with no real harm but he did duck back. The gunslinger with the autorifle also took a couple of shots at Aim, but missed. The other gunslingers all tried to maneuver into better positions, while Asvyaxke and O moved ahead towards the delivery point. The gunslinger with the autorifle, having missed his shot at Aim and looking at the corpse of Amdi Gaail nearby, decided it was Miller time and left the area for a nice cool beer.

And then shots rang out from the gunslingers a few tried to get Asvyaxke but missed, and the Callous Merc found her mark on O, followed by one of the gunslingers hitting her and knocked her out of action. Aim scooted forward to the edge of the building to line up his next shot, and Asvyaxke dashed forward to drop the package in the safe-box.

Aim took a shot at the Callous Merc and killed her with another dazzling headshot, while Asvyaxke began her retreat from the area. The gunslinger with the marksman's rifle hit Aim, as well as one of the guys with a scrap pistol. Aim dove back towards the rear of the building for cover, bringing him close to the back edge. More shots from the pistoleers pushed Asvyaxke back as well.

Metagame comments: The last three turns of the game saw the slow retreat by Aim and Asvyaxke, the arrival of Iruurlaa and Aaur at the end of turn four (and I turned my Turn Marker Die to "5" before I took the picture,) and Aim getting pushed off the table by gunfire "Stun" results. O survived and gained a point of experience for his trouble, Our Heroes received 3 credits for making the delivery and a further two credits for killing Amdi Gaail. We also managed to loot a Med-Patch for the Century Flamingo. I burned two Story points to re-roll "down" results on Asvyaxke and Aim, and Luck saved Asvyaxke once as well.

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 3

 YEEHAW!!! Gaming is back on the table! After my successful Five Leagues From The Borderlands game the other day, I decided to try and get Five Parsecs From Home going again as well.

So I played the third campaign game of the ongoing adventures of the intrepid crew of the Century Flamingo, in which Our Heroes took an opportunity job to attempt to access a data terminal in the middle of f***ing nowhere on this crazy pink planet they are visiting. And it just so happened to be a "religious shrine" for a nomadic band of scavengers that were returning to the area. The scavengers would be very happy if we all just left their shrine alone and went away, but we had a job to do and it was getting done even if we were under fire!

As the scavengers were approaching in two groups, we split into two groups as well, with O Oymsse, Iruulaa Kheug, and Khirki Nishekke taking the left approach, and Asvyaxke Dre, Aim Iashna, and Aaur Iigunim on the right.

In meta-gaming terms, Our Heros managed to make a single favorable Reaction roll during the game (Aim took a shot and dropped a scavenger on that one,) otherwise acting after the scavengers each turn. Asvyaxke completed the mission at the terminal on turn three, and during the escape after the scavengers took out Iruurlaa and Khirki in turn four. All told, three scavengers were killed, none fled, and we fled the area without Holding The Field. Iruurlaa turned out to be fine, but Khirki will be out four turns in Sick Bay. We earned four credits for our troubles, as well as looting a couple of damaged weapons. As it turned out, the life support on the Centruy Flamingo blew a fuse, and it cost us those four credits to get it repaired. Asvyaske had an existential crisis being so far from the nest, and is now just trying to survive long enough to get back home instead of trying to create a certain amount of order wherever she goes.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, and the ones I did take look a little odd in the afternoon light. I also missed the "Shiny Bits" notable sight I rolled up once I was setting up the game, so the crew missed out on a potential extra credit.

In other news, after years of use and abuse, my pink alien world terrain is starting to get a little beaten up. I may need to start a Bold New Scenery Project soon.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 9

Well, it has been quite a while since my last game of Five Leagues From The Borderlands! Over three months. So during that break, I played through five campaign turns of "resting up" which included recruiting three new warband members, getting Morgan all healed, and re-equipping Tundaline for melee combat, since her ranged abilities were, well, somewhat lacking. Plog The Elder, a Tortle Mystic and Weppi's cousin, joined as a new Hero. Followers include Brarkisy the Feral and Grushnag the Duskling (of a different tribe than the group Our Heroes are driving out of Armskirk.)

I decided I wanted to play a regular game with this new team before I pursued the Quest further, so a quick check of everything yielded a Desperate Mob of eight men from The Ruin Within led by the notorious Captain Shiver, retrurning from a raid. We needed to drive them out of the general vicinity of The Crossing by Securing The Area.

The first turn saw advancement from both sides, Captain Shiver's slingers trying to move into position with Weppi and company moving forward to attack. Plog The Elder realized there were unseen combatants coming around the buildings to the left flank and began planning to delay them.

Turn two saw my first ever use of a Mystic ability: Plog The Elder created a Wall Of Fire (Barrier) between those slinkers trying to get on the left flank and Grushnag. We also saw our first combat attempt, with one of the slingers trying to hit Weppi. The shot missed, but was an omen of more deadly things to come. Everyone else tried to manuever into good position for the upcoming combat.

 
Turn three: Plog The Elder was unable to maintain his Barrier, leaving Grushnag to face three bad guys moving in on him. Weppi defeated Captain Shiver, but not before sustaining a wound. Grushnag took a wound from the slinger on the left flank, and Morgan felled one of the enemy.

 
On the fourth turn, Plog The Elder managed to get his Wall Of Fire back up to protect the wounded Grushnag. Weppi felled another cutist before in turn being laid low by a sling. Tundaline found her mark and killed a cultist, and Morgan managed to wound one. Brarkisy ran over to give Grushnag some back-up.

Turn Five included, in no particular order, Tundaline kiling a bad guy, Morgan charging towards a slinger (who then fled the batte,) the other slinger took Brarkisy out of action, and Grushnag killed the cultist revealed by the extinction of the Wall Of Fire. The enemy force now included exactly one slinger, and he didn't run away. Truly faithful to the cause!

There were a further four turns of trying to defeat this lone enemy. He managed to take out both Grushnag and Morgan, and Tundaline finally took him down. What a game!

After the game, Weppi, Brarkisy, and Morgan were all found to be just Knocked Out. Grushnag is going to require a turn to heal up from a moderate wound. We burned through 10 adventure points to reduce The Ruin Within threat level by two. We managed to get some tools and rations out of the battle, the tools sold for 2 Gold Marks and the rations have been added to the Stash. Plog The Elder made an advancement roll and gained +1 Casting.