Third quarter reading

Another quarter ends, and I've not forgotten how to read, but haven't maintained much of a pace.

Richard Coles - A Death in the Parish

I mentioned [here] that the reverend Richard's first novel had rather too much about what a vicar's life involves, but I was hoping he might have got that out of his system and settle down to focus on a whodunnit.  Sadly for me in his second novel he doubles down on the ecclesastical side, by adding a second vicar to the story.  This allows for plenty of discussion about different kinds of vicar with differences in their beliefs and different views on how to serve their parish.

In contrast, the whodunnit aspect seems even thinner than the first novel.  There are two deaths in the parish (or in the next parish), but Canon Clement seems to form no theories and follow no red herrings.  It probably depends what you look for in a crime novel, but I was expecting a number of plausible suspects with motives and questionable accounts of their whereabouts, and a smattering of false or inaccurate statements, so that the reader can play along and try to work out the culprit before the detective collars him or her.  Thank goodness there's a real police detective in the story to sort things out.

Randall Monroe - What If?

I'm a big fan of the XKCD web comic [xkcd.com].  Even after such a long time, Randall Monroe still manages to find new laugh-out-loud humour for geeks like me.

The book was a mixture.  There were surprising questions like how long could you surprise in space if you were inside a nuclear submarine.  There were fascinating ideas that had not occurred to me, like the rule of thumb for how many pronounceable combinations of letters can exist in a particular length of word.  On the other hand, there were some very odd assumptions between the question and the answer: what if the world stopped spinning?  The answer assumes that the planet stops suddenly but the atmosphere continues to rotate, which raises the question of what kind of action could cause that?  Would it be more likely for the planet's rotation to slowly decrease to an eventual halt, and the atmosphere with it?

So a mixed verdict, with brilliant moments and frustrating ones combined.

Robert Thorogood - The Queen of Poisons

This is the third in the series of Marlow Murder Club novels.  We've had a story with airtight alibis, and a locked-room mystery.  Now we have a murder where all the suspects were in the room and nobody saw it.  It's great fun and my only gripe is that the amateur detectives spent too much of the novel bouncing from one suspect to another and being wrong each time.  I know it's a trope of cosy crime, because my friend David was moaning about it at the reunion, but it felt like the old saying "at least a clock that has stopped tells the right time twice a day".

Robert Thorogood always plays fair by the reader, and the murder scene contained all the clues to questions that puzzled the amateur detectives for the first half of the book.

Greg Costikyan - Uncertainty in Games

This wasn't the book I was expecting.  It was mentioned in a discussion about game design, and appeared to be a recommendation for people who fuss about what kind of randomness to use, percentile dice, buckets of six-sided ones, different shapes for different units (with bigger dice effectively adding as plusses) and so on.  But that's not what it's about at all.

Costikyan's point is that all the interest in a game is about the unpredictable outcome (or in a few cases an unpredictable route to the inevitable outcome).  That's why nobody over the age of about 10 plays noughts and crosses (or tic-tac-toe in the USA).  Some games rely on a player's skill (e.g. throwing darts at a board), or the fact that there are too many choices to analyse fully (like chess), or random factors like cards or dice, and this book is a survey of what kind of uncertainty applies to each game.  It covers board games, computer games, a broad range.  I found it interesting to read, despite being nothing like what I expected.

Tom Hindle - Murder on Lake Garda

This was a birthday present and the location (Lake Garda) was somewhere I've been on several holidays, so the description of the setting brought back memories.  There are several crimes in the story and the connections between them create an intriguing situation.  Something out of place is a clue, but to which crime?

Disappointingly for me the novel jumps about from one character's point of view to another, using maybe half of the key characters to tell the story.  It's a way for the author to tell us about the history of the characters' relationships when they reflect on how they find themselves in this situation, without having to contrive a conversation where they might talk about it.  Unfortunately, when the character wonders who could have committed the murder it becomes a way of removing suspects from that crime, which is a shame.  As a result, even with important information only being available late on, I was already shouting the solution at the main amateur detective and wondering how she could fail to see something so obvious.

In fairness the story maintains interest even after the culprit(s) are identified, because there are still armed criminals on the loose for the other characters to deal with.  But I still can't recommend this one as whole-heartedly as I'd hoped.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

Gaming reunion 2024

It's been quite a long time since a bunch of people met at university, discovered a shared interest in games and became friends.  This week one of that group has kindly hosted another six of us to spend a week at his place, playing boardgames, Dungeons & Dragons, eating and drinking too much and generally having a good time.  It's great to catch up with people that I now only see on Zoom conferences or a couple of times a year face to face.

The antiques roadshow - old geezers

Midsomer Norton is a surprising town, with the biggest Wetherspoons in England (hidden behind an unimpressive front door).  There's also a model shop, so I picked up some more static grass, since I'm running out and my local shop has gone.

big 'Spoons

Before Dafydd arrived on Friday we got in a quick game of Diplomacy (Dafydd hates that game), followed by a very long game of Citadels (billed as a quick card game, but soon wallowing in analysis paralysis).  Trevor pulled off a very close victory by playing the card that causes an early end to the game with 7 districts instead of the usual 8 when he was just a couple of points in the lead.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, although I was suffering from a hair of the dog.  Literally.  Matt's dog Rufus had been in to inspect the visitors on Friday evening.  I react badly to all furry creatures, and was sneezing with my eyes watering and generally feeling pretty poor.  As is traditional, a few of us spent the morning at the local shops to forage for provisions (and in my case enjoy some fresh air).

Lunchtime saw a first game of It's a Wonderful World, a kind of variation on Seven Wonders.  As a new thing, we all missed the point of how to play well and performed poorly.

It's A Wonderful World

In the evening, Darrell cooked pork chops for us, followed by a seriously extravagant cheeseboard (Baron bigod, Vacherin, High Moor, aged Gouda and a dozen other smelly delights)

pork chops flambée

Sunday morning we revisited It's a Wonderful World now we know how to play.  To my surprise, I came first on 61 points, followed by others on 60, 59 & 58.  It could hardly have been closer.

Then we moved on to D&D.  Massive trouble was stirred up when the party visited a friendly elf noble in Larston.  We stayed at his town house, but one of the Chaos faction raised an angry mob, supported by hired mercenaries and spellcasters.  There were people breaking in on the ground floor, fireballs cast through the windows on the first floor, the rear wall partly disintegrated, and earth elementals summoned to undermine the foundations and demolish the house around us.  Never before have I heard the expression "abandon house!"

D&D - fighting on a floorplan

Chinese takeaway for dinner, home-made Irish coffee, filler games (The Mind and Maior, see notes at the end of this post), time for bed.

Irish coffee

Monday we played a "quick" game of Starfarers of Catan in only 4 hours - not a great choice.  I languished in last place with dreadful production until one strange turn at the half-way stage when I jumped into first place and was the first one to be too successful to receive charity resources on my turn.  It still felt like I was last, right up to the final turn when Matt was in first place, needing only one more point to win.  Matt rolled poorly, couldn't score.  When it came around to me, I scored another leap forward and won.

Starfarers of Catan

The problem with the Catan games is that a bad start just gets worse, while early success allows a player to build villages and then gather extra resources each turn and push further in front.  It can be so disheartening to keep going with a bad position.  Although obviously I don't get to moan about this particular game, since I found a way to buy the victory (with fame rings, using one of the alien trade cards).

Another game of It's a Wonderful World, which Darrell won by a landslide with 93 points.

Dafydd cooked ragu with penne for dinner, followed by more cheese and port.

Then a game of Obsession, a social climbing game with worker placement for the servants and also the family.  I'd describe it as multiplayer solitaire, with very little scope for any player to affect the others.  Only one player is doing anything at a time, so the game grinds to a halt while David decides what to do.  It's not possible to all play in parallel, because we're all trying to by improvements to our country houses from the same pool of available options until one is bought and replenished.  We called it a night and resumed on Tuesday.  I'd guess that a 6-player game took us something like 6 hours, including teaching the rules, eating lunch and other faffing about.  It probably won't be back on the table very soon.

Dafydd won narrowly over David, Trevor & Darrell, commenting that he had felt like he was doing badly the whole time.  Matt almost managed a negative score.

Tuesday afternoon's D&D started at 5pm, delayed by the long boardgame.  There was a break for dinner, coq au vin by David with some serious wines and then chocolate fudge cake, after which the group were somewhat low on energy for serious gaming.

fudge cake

Wednesday - another Wonderful World (Dafydd won this time), then the new Kingmaker.  This was a great trip down memory lane, with all the usual shenanigans.  I had Scrope (as archbishop of York) & Percy with his troops, so spent my first turn travelling to York, grabbing Richard and getting him crowned.  My ally Up North was Matt, who spent his turn grabbing Durham, only to get caught by the plague straight away.  Dafydd grabbed Henry VI when we was called away to meet a papal emissary.  We had about 5 turns of fun, most people were getting nowhere, then Matt made nachos and we decided it had been fun, but we'd had enough.  Exactly how I remember it from school days.

Knights with nachos

Then we moved on to more D&D.  The party made a hasty departure from Larston and went to see the Blue Witch at the far end of the island.  She told us that Saratak had been waiting a week to speak to us, but if we had time she would like to speak to a goblin somewhere in the nearby desert, so could we find him and bring him to see her?  She's busy trying to control the growth of the desert, which is only there because she had a fight with another dragon rider, creating a mana storm and a spreading region of dead sand.  We couldn't resist, so we spent some time faffing about at the edge of the sand trying to work out why there was an army of ghostly goblins in the desert.  Faffing about letting the ghosts possess one of the party so we could ask them what was going on.  Also, faffing about trying to discover any weaknesses in the 48' tall sand elemental thing that seems to tour the desert.  No progress.

I cooked a kedgeree for dinner, the first time I've ever cooked for this number of people or in a professional kitchen, followed by more chocolate fudge cake.  People were polite enough to eat up and Dafydd even had a third helping (as well as left-over kedgeree for breakfast on Thursday).

That's a seriously big pan

We faffed about some more in the name of D&D, before deciding to go to bed before the big combat starts.

Thursday's game of Wonderful World was David's turn to win.  This has clearly become a favourite with the group.  Like Seven Wonders, each player chooses one card to build and then passes the rest around the table.  There's an additional complication that each card can be cashed in for a resource to be used for the building.  Dafydd ordered a copy today.

Dafydd also filled our downtime with The Big Knights [link here].  Highly recommended, hilarious.

The Big Knights

More D&D.  We attempt to defend the surviving goblin in the desert, while he performs a ritual to open a gate and go back to the Void along with all of his dead clanfolk (the army of ghosts we saw).  During the ritual he can not maintain the wall of fire around his camp, so the scuttling, acid-spitting beetle-things and dust dervish / sand elemental things can get in and attack him.  We would have to keep them out for three hours.  

The party has its back to a wall of ice (or cutlery) as two large sand elementals (disguised as beer cans) bring the damage. 

We fought for about an hour, when the remains of the other dragon rider turned up.  Like the sand elementals, it seemed to be made of sand & stones in a human shape.  He could throw Cone of Sand (like cone of cold) and a sand stome (like an ice storm), and when we took down all of his hit points he dissipated into a pile of sand.  Three rounds later we saw him coming back out of the dunes.  We did this a couple of times, before Dafydd has the bright idea of using holy water to cause damage that he can't regenerate.  That's another week we've kept Saratak waiting...

Friday - sad partings, with an arrangement to meet up for a pair of rock concerts in London next year.  Two of our favourite bands will be appearing on successive nights over the spring bank holiday and the tickets went on sale this week, while we were together.  It's like someone was sending us a message.

Footnotes on games

The Mind is an odd game.  The players have hands of cards from a deck numbered 1 to 100.  Without any communication, they must play the cards in order.  As the game progresses the hands become bigger (starting with 1 card each).  There are some lifelines to be earned, including regaining lives on completion of every 3rd level.  Our best score was to complete level 7 (4 players with 7 cards each) and then fail on level 8.

Maior is a bluffing game.  There are 2 dice in a box.  Each player has 3 lives.  The first player shakes the box, opens the lid to look at the dice, calls out the roll (higher number then lower) and offers it to the next player around the table.  The next player can challenge the call, in which case the box is opened and one the two loses a life, depending on whether the score was as good as the call or not.  Or the player can accept the box, may shake it some more (optional), may take a look inside (optional) and must pass it on with a call that is higher than the last call.  The order of the calls is: 31, 32, 41, 42, 43, 51, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 21 (called "maior", the highest call).  The calls keep rising until there is a challenge and someone loses a life, after which the challenger becomes the first player and starts again.  Any challenge on a call of maior or a roll of maior in the box costs 2 lives.

Crafty players like Darrell may under-call the roll, e.g. roll 65 but call 64.  After the box has passed right round the table, he can then pass it on again as 65 without shaking or looking.

Chaotic players like Dafydd do things like accept a box with a call of 61, shake the box, don't look inside, and pass it on with a call of 62.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

Joshua, a druid in 1/72

You know how sometimes people decide to gloss over why they were trying to do something a particular way.  There's even a phrase "because reasons" that seems to mean "for reasons that I won't go into just now".  Well, I've got some old D&D figures in some scale that probably wasn't even named at the time, it was just the size that Citadel and other manufacturers made D&D models.  Nowadays we might call it 28mm.  Almost everything else in my collection is 1/72 scale.

The new Joshua

I settled on just one scale, because I couldn't face collecting separate buildings, bridges, fences, trees etc in a handful of different scales.  I even have 1/72 fantasy figures from Caesar and Light/Dark Alliance.  So the last time our D&D group got together face-to-face I brought a bunch of models to use and they were 1/72 with just a couple of exceptions.  The biggest exception was an old Citadel druid for David's character Joshua.  Not only is it as tall as Umar the giant, but in 40 years I'd never bothered to paint it beyond an undercoat.

We're getting together again soon, so I was talking to David about models to use.  By the way our DM typically relies on theatre of the mind for Zoom sessions, or uses spare dice for the bad guys.  Those small dee-sixes are goblins one to six, the dee-fours are ogres.  The pile of paperbacks is the cowshed and the big cardboard box is the tavern.  The figures on the upturned tumblers are still flying down from the top of the tower.  

You can probably see where my inspiration comes from when setting up a wargames table.

Anyway, I told David I'd get a proper coat of paint on the old druid model.  Which I did, just a simple base coat.  Then I picked it up for a closer look, dropped it on a hard floor and the druid's sickle snapped off.  David was very understanding.  "That's fine", he said, "Joshua doesn't use a sickle anyway.  He's got this special Rod of the Druid that was a gift from the Elven empress after we raided their temple and ..."  You don't need the whole provenance.  But this has become a serious piece of crafting now, with a weapon to be built and attached securely to the model.  On a metal figure that's a job for a pin drill and superglue and other stuff that I never use with 1/72 plastics.

At this point it occurred to me that a conversion like this may as well begin with a 1/72 scale figure, so that it fits with the rest of the party.  So I grabbed an old Airfix Robin Hood figure and got started.  There, now I've explained why I would do such an odd thing, when D&D models are readily available in larger scales, and not just "because reasons".

Airfix outlaw

The actual conversion was surprisingly simple.  I cut off the original's sword (including the hand, so I've got something to put in the spares box).  The new shield was cut from cereal box card, with planks cut from 80gsm printer paper on one side.  A new hand is cut from a piece of sprue (white) and stuck to the shield.  The "rod of the druid" is a length cut from a paper clip, with toilet paper wrapped around the top and soaked in PVA to make the head piece.

Conversion work

Then I gave it the usual treatment of a plain base coat in each area, with a wash of burnt umber on the hair, raw umber everywhere else, to fill in the creases.  Bish bash bosh job's a good 'un.  Can't wait to get it on the table.

Druids old & new

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

Fighting Talk #3 - Grids on the tabletop

What do you think of figures games on a grid?  Are they just boardgames with prettier counters?  Do the grid markings detract from the look of the table? Or are they a convenient way to save time and avoid fiddling with rulers?  Movement and range measurement are simplified to just counting spaces, but are also contrained to specific directions by the shape of the grid.

This topic seems particularly relevant after my last report on a gridded game [link].  Obviously that grid is as ugly as anything, just like my figures and terrain, but there are plenty of examples on the internet of subtle grids and beautiful models.

Grids seem most widely used in naval and air wargames.  Perhaps the lack of specific terrain features lends itself to using a grid?  There's no need to choose specific buildings just because they fit neatly inside one grid space.

On land, there are three options for the relative size of grid spaces and units: one unit fills a grid space, several units can fit within a grid space, or units span multiple grid spaces.  The fine-grained grid (with a unit spread across multiple spaces) allows a closer conversion of distances from rules with free movement, but then forces units to align to the grain of the grid.  This seems to be the least popular approach, but I've seen it used for linear formations on land (e.g. Strength & Honour or Morschauser's original rules) and for naval games (e.g. the Portable Ironclads Wargame) where a ship fits in two spaces (fore and aft).

Image (c) David Crook

Multiple units in a grid space are more often seen, such as To The Strongest!, most Peter Pig rules or Phil Sabin's Lost Battles.  In some games the grid also forms part of the command and control system, where an order can be given to all the units in a grid space.  Effectively it's a way of affecting all units within a command radius, but without any measuring.

The Men of Company B, rules by Peter Pig RFCM

Do you get a lot of arguments in "free movement" games, when pieces are nudged, or when a unit ends its movement exactly 3mm short of the enemy's range to open fire?  I've played with people whose 6" moves were always 7" long.  Only played with them that one time, mind you.  

There are also rules that insist the players must not measure any distances in advance of announcing that a unit will move or fire, so the players have to practise guessing distances by eye.  That's a philosophy that has no place on a gridded table, where any distance is trivially easy to measure by eye.  There are also rules that use random movement distances (e.g. move 1-6 inches based on a die roll), but those are trivially adapted to a random probability of moving into the next grid space (e.g. on a 4" grid, roll 4 or higher to move one space).

What shape of grid works best (square or hexagonal, or maybe some other option)?  Square grids are easy to draw and allow 8 directions of facing (to the sides and the corners), but have the unhelpful property that diagonal moves are longer than orthogonal ones by a difficult ratio (the square root of two).  Hexagonal grids allow 6 directions of facing and movement which are all the same distance, but create a significant bias in the directions of movement.  Forming a line in one direction runs straight along the hexes, but 90 degrees from that direction and it's a wavy line that steps forward & back.  The forward hexes can be attacked from three neighbouring spaces, creating weak spots in the line.

Arty Conliffe's Crossfire is a special case.  It allows free movement by an unlimited distance into the next area of terrain.  I might argue that this is a gridded game with an irregular grid, the same shape as the scenery pieces.  It could be the perfect compromise, with no need for rulers and no need to mark spacing on the table.  Sadly it only works with a very busy table.  There have been attempts to adapt it to pre-gunpowder battles in open country (e.g. [this] and [this]), but they have resorted to measuring distances (either with a ruler or with base widths).  There may be an alternative with a grid of open terrain spaces (each maybe a hexagon 6" on a side), so that "the next terrain piece" is actually a fixed distance.

My own background of board wargames means that I am very comfortable using a hex grid, except that they are difficult to draw accurately on a tabletop for games with miniatures.  A square grid is now my favourite, counting orthogonal moves as 2 steps and diagonal moves as 3 steps.  That's close enough to the accurate distance.  This feels great for age of sail naval battles, with the wind blowing either from one of 8 directions and allowing ships to travel maybe 6 steps in a turn.  Does anyone else remember the Strategy & Tactics boardgame Fighting Sail that used this system?  There's a great game report here [link]. 

Fighting Sail

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

Braddock Down solo

Some while ago, I played the battle of Edgehill from Mike Lambo's solo Battles of the English Civil War [link].  Although I wasn't successful at the first attempt, I did manage to win the battle on my third play.  Eventually I worked out how to take advantage of the plusses that are earned for supporting/flanking units in an attack.

I still don't have any hex-grid boards or cloths to use, so this is another scruffy-looking grid made from pennies to mark the centres of the hexes.  Wooded hexes are marked with a tree instead of a penny, and coasters represent the hills. The little red dice mark demoralised units and little yellow dice are orders.  This game might actually look appealing if I put it on a big table with three or four bases in each unit.

The photography is even worse than usual, because our bizarre English weather has today flipped over to continuous rain and barely any daylight, after last week was an Indian summer with plenty of sun-block needed.  At least, that's how it was on the South coast, I hear it was the other way round Up North.

the setup

I set up Hopton's forces with the cannon on the hill and then alternating pike with shot across the line.  The random setup for Parliament put the cavalry on the flanks and a jumble of foot troops in the centre.  It all looks very plausible.  Once again, my forces are outnumbered and I need to totally eliminate the opposition within a limited time.  It sounds like a tough challenge.

The rules reflect the player's command & control issues by rolling a bunch of dice (one per unit the player has on the table) and then allocating them to units to indicate what the units will do this turn. I want to move my pike units forward, fire my cannon, and maybe advance my muskets as well.  In this scenario, dice showing 1-3 allow moves, 4-6 allow firing.  I rolled 1-1-1-3-5-6-6 which is almost perfect.  All the pikes can move with 1s and the cannon can fire with the 5.  I chose to use my leadership ability and re-roll the 6s (I can re-roll any number of dice that are showing the same number).  They came up 2&3 so all the muskets can move as well.  Sadly my cannon fire had no effect on the parliamentarian horse.

On the AI's turn, his cavalry rushed forward 2 spaces toward my lines, while his foot troops barely moved.  Turn 2 will see the battle joined.  My pikes can counter-charge into 2 of his cavalry units, then the rest of the horse will charge home.

look at those order dice!

I don't know whether you can see the order dice on this picture, but it must be my birthday.  All the pike can move, all the shot can fire, and the cannon gets to move sideways behind one unit of pike to support its attack.  On my left, the cavalry recoiled one space.  On my right, the cavalry unit fled the field completely.  My muskets provided valuable support, but didn't get to fire on their own account.

On parliament's turn, the recoiling horse continue to retire, while the remaining cavalry reluctantly charge home into my pikes (to no effect).

On turn 3, my pikes repeat their performance, sending the parliamentarian horse on my left routing back to their baseline, while completely eliminating the horse on my right.  The muskets step up into supporting positions behind them.  On parliament's turn, all their routed horse leave the field, while a lone unit of pike has advanced in the centre and closes with my centre pikemen, scoring an exact hit.

On turn 4 my centre pikes rally, while their neighbours charge the enemy unit, with all 3 units of muskets in range.  Cross off one unit of pikes from the parliamentarian force.

Turn 5 was quiet.  My pikemen formed an oblique line to the front, while my muskets took pot-shots at the leading enemy units.  One scored a hit on parliament's remaing pike unit, pushing it back one space.  Unfortunately for the pikes, two units of muskets had lined up behind them, so they had no space to retire and fled the field.  You couldn't make it up!  Then a lucky musket shot did the same thing to the pikemen at the left of my line, sending them past their supporting muskets and cannon, straight off the field.  Fair enough.

On turn 6 one of pike blocks charged one of his muskets, with support from 2 of my muskets, sending him running off the field.  In response, parliament's shooting sends two of my units back a space.

running out of time

Turn 7 presents a quandary.  With my whole force out of range apart from one block of pikes, the obvious move is to pull the pikes back into the trees while the rest rally & reorganise.  But that will only leave 3 turns to cross 3 spaces of ground and trust that I can clear the remainder of parliament's force in a single attack on the final turn.  So I chose to press ahead piecemeal and hope to withstand the concentrated musketry on the way.

I got away with it.  My leading pair of musket & pike between them managed to disorder both of parliament's musket units.  The rest of my force is running to catch up, but getting left behind.  In response, both of parliament's units failed to rally and fled the field.  Victory is mine.

I'd like to claim credit for masterful tactical play, but I think outrageously lucky die-rolling had more of an impact.

I've already commented [here] on the strange feeling of seeing separate pike and shot units at this scale.  However, I do like the combat mechanics.  If you score the target number to hit an opponent, the opponent is disordered and retreats 2 spaces each turn until it rallies.  In addition, any amount by which you roll higher than the target number causes an immediate 1-space retreat.  So a target of 8+ on 2d6 and a roll of 11 means a 3-space retreat immediately, probably followed by 2 more spaces (and leaving the field) if the unit doesn't rally immediately on the next AI turn.  There's no need to track losses or multiple levels of morale failure, and the visible effect of combat is that some formations stop advancing, some back up a bit and some run for home.  I think a similar system would work well for brigade-sized units in a Napoleonic or ACW game.

One pikeman lost his weapon in the making of this report and he will report to the repair shop tomorrow.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

Five Parsecs campaign Byakhee - turn 3

This is a continuation of my first campaign with Five Parsecs from Home [previous episode], using second edition rules, started in 2019.

Log of the strange alien vessel Byakhee, captain Anton recording.

Since we reached Garrideb-2, we've done a couple of jobs for my old acquaintance Hakon Hardpoint, but something went wrong and now he won't take my calls.  We gained a re-conditioned droid to swell our numbers and fitted it with a hunting rifle. Craig has taken up poetry and developed a crush on Dolly.  I really hope it won't affect his effectiveness in a firefight.

Between us we have Cr 20, just like we had when we started, and no useful contacts to put work our way.  I see tough times ahead.

Campaign turn 3 - on Garrideb-2

Upkeep costs Cr 4.  The two crew in sick bay recover after upkeep is paid, and they didn't need any fresh veg delivered last week.

Assignments: Anton goes to find work, taking Boris; Craig & Erica trade, Dolly & Franz are checked out from sick bay but aren't fit to take an assignment this turn, K2 explores the town

Anton meets Lana Lane, a traveller just visiting Garrideb-2.  She's trying to find someone called Mike Manton and would appreciate our help.  Her only clue is a self-store unit that Manton was renting.  I guess we'll speak nicely to the supervisor there.

Craig's trading efforts picked up some medical supplies to shorten a visit to sick bay.  Erica came back to the ship with a worthless novelty stuffed animal.

K2 meets an alien merchant, but doesn't have any alien gear to trade with him.

The backwater self-store was just a yard full of shipping containers with an office cabin and a parking area.  The whole lot is surrounded by a security fence.  This one has an ornamental pond in front of the fuel-storage tanks, but something in the environment has turned it the same rusty brown as the parking area and the footpaths.  Best not to go swimming.  Even wading is probably a bad idea.

It turns out that Garrideb-2 is home to the Macleans corporation and 90% of the surplus shipping containers carry their logo.  The minerals mined here make the cheapest toothpaste in the sector.

Anton went inside the office to talk to the supervisor about how much it would cost us to take a look in Manton's storage unit, while the rest of the crew (K2N4, Boris, Craig & Dolly) waited outside.  That's when trouble showed up, back at the main gate.

The storage depot, just as trouble arrives

Genetic renegades: geneered troopers, half as tall again as a normal man, with skin as green as their olive drab uniform, the renegades have deserted from the army and formed their own communities.  They loot and steal whatever they need to keep going.  Maybe there is something in the storage facility to draw them here and the crew are just in the way?

[as it happens, toothpaste comes in a box just the right size for a 40' container in 1/72 scale.  I just need to paint them.  The cheap army men are a different story, let's not talk about them, they cost a penny each, and they'll do for today.]

Five renegades armed with rifles split into two groups for a tactical advance.  One group can lay down suppressing fire while the other group moves.  The larger group probably includes a leader.

Boris has a clear shot at a renegade, but misses.  K2 does the same (and also misses).

The renegades run for cover behind the storage tanks and the vehicles in the parking area.

Erica sets off to circle around the pond and close with these guys. Craig follows her, looking for a clear shot on a renegade, but misses.

Anton steps out of the office to see what's going on.

Anton uses his jump belt to get onto the roof of the office, and takes a shot at a renegade, but misses.  Craig takes a second shot but misses again

The renegades manoeuvre around the tanks & containers.  One renegade shoots back at Craig.

Erica moves into cover between two containers. Boris & K2 move wide, to cover the parking area.

Craig prepares to snap fire as soon as a target moves into sight.

The renegades shift across toward the back of the containers.

Craig takes his shot as one of them dashes between cover. Misses again. Boris moves through the car park for a shot - misses.

Anton is cursing something about all this love poetry affecting Craig's ability to shoot straight..

Craig & Anton prepare snap fire. Boris takes another shot, hits a renegade but only stuns him.  The renegade returns fire, hits Boris and stuns him in return.

Another renegade crosses the gap to join the two in position behind the shipping containers. Craig snap fires at him and puts 1 stun marker on him. Anton snap fires too and adds a 2nd stun marker. K2 moves up into a firing position near Boris and takes out the stunned renegade.

Erica steps out at the back of the containers & takes down another renegade.

The renegades take 1 morale failure (their morale is 2)

Erica gets a clear shot on a renegade

K2 & Boris both fire at a renegade & both miss. The renegade returns fire at Boris but also misses.

Two renegades are pinned down behind the fuel tanks.  They can't move into a firing position without closing inside 12" and their rifles are no good as brawling weapons. Anton & Craig have no targets in sight & no clear action to take.  This is settling into a stand-off.

Meanwhile Erica continues to advance around the back of the containers

K2 hits another renegade & takes him down

Anton prepares snap fire in case the two renegades that are pinned down behind the fuel tanks decide to make a dash for it.

Erica moves up between the containers

Craig and Boris also advance

The renegades take another morale failure & run for it

K2N4 picks off another renegade

Post-battle

The renegades came looking for easy pickings and soon realised that they had chosen the wrong day to visit.

The self-store manager was so pleased we drove them away that he let us in to Manton's storage unit, where we found the rental papers for a farmhouse out in the wilds.  Job done here.  Lana Lane can go look for him on the farm.

The genetic renegades bear no grudge for losing 3 of their number. They just picked the wrong day to come scavenging.

Lana pays Cr4 for tracing Manton.

Loot: we search the bodies & get 3 items off the Trade table: an instruction manual (+1 XP), a repair kit and a load of fuel for the ship (which reduces the cost of the next journey by Cr2).  I didn't see the renegades carrying a huge fuel tank around, so maybe it was on their truck (clearly visible on the road outside the self-store depot).

Nobody got seriously hurt today, so sick bay will be empty for a change.

xps: Anton 3, Boris 3, Craig 3, Dolly 0, Erica 4, Franz 0

Although K2 scored the first casualty, Erica was the first who could claim experience points for it.  K2 is just a machine.

Anton decides to let Dolly read the instruction manual, even though she wasn't in the fight, to get her Combat skill up to 1.

Shopping: not this turn, the job paid just enough to cover upkeep. Again.

Campaign event: one of your crew seems to have had an adventure. Anton spends some time thinking about his recent adventures & earns +2 XP

Character event: Craig has a make over to look his best for Dolly.  Ditch the bomber jacket and pick out a new look.

As mentioned last time [link], this is probably a good moment to say goodbye to the crew of the Byakhee and start a new campaign with the 3rd edition rules.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

Five Parsecs campaign Byakhee

This is an introduction to my first campaign with Five Parsecs from Home, using second edition rules, started in 2019.

It was a long time ago, and a lot has changed since then.

You may ask why I bother to bring it out now, after all this time.  I'm not just planning to show how the story elements evolve in this particular campaign, but to discuss some of the changes in third edition and compare Five Parsecs with some of Ivan Sorensen's other games.

Setup

Log of the strange alien vessel Byakhee, captain Anton recording.

My crew is an accretion of starport scum, who recognised this ship as their best chance to get away from the gang boss Jax Smitheren.  As soon as we could afford the fuel and other costs, we made the hyper-leap to Garrideb-2.  Now we have to make enough credits to keep ourselves going.  There are six of us, which is a comfortable size crew to take care of local difficulties.

Franz was a bounty hunter who picked up a Wanted poster for one of Jax's gang.  He doesn't talk about the details, but Jax found out and Franz needed to put some distance between them.  Same story as my own, except that I was an agent working undercover.  Franz carries a rattle gun (kind of a squad machine gun) with a hand gun as backup and dazzle grenades (flash-bangs) in case he's outnumbered.

Erika was working on a research outpost, though it didn't pay enough for the life she wants.  She carries a shotgun and a maul for close-quarter work.  It's ironic that she had a decent salary but wanted more, while Dolly was working for peanuts on a frontier gang and only wants to get her hands on some high-tech kit like Erika was getting paid to use for research work.  Dolly has a similar weapon setup to Erika, with a blast rifle and a brutal melee weapon, plus a jump belt to get into the action.

Boris is an artist.  Seriously, you should see his paintings.  I think he only travels with us because he needs to see the sights and the action that he can paint later.  He's handy enough with a rifle, but nothing special.

Craig on the other hand is a proper soldier, with an auto-rifle and he reacts sharply when the shooting starts.  Could be because he grew up in a permanent war zone, so it's what he's used to.  Now he just craves more adventure.

Between us we have Cr 27

The crew - Anton, Boris, Craig, Dolly, Erika & Franz

Rules notes

Ivan loves to play with different systems for each aspect of the game.  Some of his games even include multiple options for a single rule in the same book.  Melee combat is a good example.  

In 5 Parsecs, each character rolls one d6, adjusts for combat skill and weapon type, then the winner scores a hit on the other.  Rolls of 1 or 6 cause additional hits.   For each hit, roll d6 + damage stat of the weapon vs toughness of the target to pushback or kill.

In 5 Leagues, a turn of melee contains 3 "exchanges" where each character  rolls one d6 and adjusts for combat skill, but one of them is the attacker and only the attacker can score a hit by beating the defender's total.  The defender can only seize the advantage and become the attacker.  For each hit, roll d6 with adjustments for the weapon vs the armour value fo the defender to cause harm; then roll again vs toughness of the target to stun, wound or kill.

Obviously 5 Leagues has a greater focus on melee, with an expectation of longer and more interesting sword fights, and also more focus on armour (in 5 Parsecs, armour simply increases toughness).

Campaign turn 1 - on Garrideb-2

Upkeep reduces the ship's treasury to Cr 21.

Anton hands out the assignments: he will get a job from the patron, Dolly will train, Boris & Erica trade, Craig & Franz explore

Anton's patron is a local pirate, Hakon Hardpoint, who wants the group to defend some guy called Istvan against zealots from the church of Jammu while he travels to a secret location across town.  Anton figures that should make some money for the crew.

Boris & Erica manage to buy a useless trinket and a repair kit (which can be used to prevent 1 item being destroyed).

Craig meets someone and has a nice chat. Franz eats some bad food and gets to spend the next turn in sick-bay.

Most of the party is fit to join Istvan and escort him to his hideout.

As the party sets off across town, they bump into ten zealots armed with rifles, apart from one with a cling-fire pistol (or hand flamer if you prefer, but that name's copyright is owned by another company), who is the leader.  They setup in a blob with 1" spacing.

Zealots have the "psycho" AI, so they will move as fast as possible towards the closest opponent and will always attempt to enter Brawling combat.

I took no pictures of this fight.  You can imagine a few streets of housing, using old cardboard boxes as buildings.  Your imagined scene probably looks better than any photographs would have done.

Anton uses his jump ability to get onto a house roof & establish a sniper post.  Dolly gets half-way to one.  The zealots approach.

Anton fires but misses.  Dolly take up position. Zealots advance (they can't be bothered to stop and shoot Dolly).

Anton & Dolly both miss with their next shots. Franz dashes up.  Zealots advance.

Anton scores a hit (but no kill). Dolly misses. Zealots advance.

Dolly blows one to pieces (6+1 damage). Zealts advance, their morale remains solid.

A zealot climbs onto the roof and brawls with Dolly. Dolly goes down. Anton takes out one zealot (remembering the "aim" rule). Both sides have good morale.

Zealots advance.

Anton scores a headshot on a zealot (6+1 damage). Zealots advance, their morale solid.

Anton stuns 1 zealot. Zealots advance and almost close with Anton.

Anton bugs out, using his jump to get clear. Craig & Erica both miss their targets. Zealots advance.

5 actions! Franz stuns one, Erica stuns one, Boris blows the leader's head off, Craig misses, Anton kills one. Zealots advance. Zealots lose 2 morale.

Anton bugs out again. Erica kills one. Zealots advance. One brawls Erica and is stunned. One brawls Craig and is stunned. One brawls Erica and stuns her.

Zealot morale breaks and they run. 

This was a surprisingly tense fight, always backing away from the advancing tide of enemies.  Breaking the morale of this particular opposition was particularly difficult. On average these zealots will only stop after 9 out of 10 of them are dead!

The zealot AI was baffling.  Armed with rifles they rush into a brawl and just use them as clubs - not a great strategy.  This has been fixed in the 3rd edition, where they use the Aggressive AI model, instead of Psycho.  Now they will stop and shoot when they see a target.

As my first play of Five Parsecs, there were some mistakes in play.  Most of the party were limited to standing still (not even acting late) while all the badguys moved every turn.  That's because the QRS didn't mention that any characters who don't get assigned a fast action will act in the Slow Action phase, and I forgot.

One rules quibble: how is a hunting rifle only accurate to the same 6" distance as a handgun? In effect, every weapon has a to-hit target for long range and an easier target for short range, but short range is the same for every weapon.  So a pistol always gets the easy to-hit target, while a rifle isn't accurate beyond pistol range.  This strange behaviour is still there in 3rd edition.

After the fight

The Jammu guys don't come after the crew as enemies, just because we helped Istvan make it across town, and Hakon pays 5 creds plus loot: an old droid "K2N4". It costs 3 Credits to repair him. Add a droid to the crew. He's straight out of the chapter on "odd-ball characters".

Dolly recovers after 1 turn in sick bay (#52) alongside Franz (with his stomach ache)

xps: Anton 3, Boris 4, Craig 3, Dolly 2, Erica 3, Franz 3

Shopping: a roll on the gear table comes up with a set of combat armour (+1 Tough & +1 React), which is a worthwhile investment in the survival of the crew

Campaign event: a tax audit costs 5 credits.  It seems Anton has been lax in 

Character event: Craig takes up an unusual hobby, poetry.  What is this, an artists' commune?  A painter and a poet on board, but not a medic.

Campaign turn 2 - on Garrideb-2

Upkeep costs Cr 4 (with 2 crew in sick bay), reducing ship's funds to Cr 16.  This is another difference between games, with upkeep in Five Leagues being free for small groups and only the excess members of the party needing to pay for their keep.

Anton hands out the crew assignments: he will find work, taking Boris with him, Craig & Erica will trade, Dolly & Franz are in sick bay

Hakon has another job for the crew, to patrol a farm and mind the animals.

Craig picked up some trade goods worth 1d6 credits at the next planet.  You know, the stuff they produce here on Garrideb-2 that could be in demand somewhere else.  Erica gets a "Fixer" (to repair something broken).

The crew shuffle some gear around and head over to the farm.

The farm.  Not all the animals appear tame

On patrol, they are attacked by 3 assassins with Blast pistols & a blast rifle for the leader

Once again it's an odd choice of weapon and behaviour pattern for the assassins.  Why do they rush in to close quarters?  At least they do all have pistols, so they face no penalty in brawling.

Also, I was confused about the mission.  It's a patrol, with a location of "farm animals", so are the assassins out to kill the animals, or us, or steal the animals, or are the livestock just in the way (like patrolling a building)?

I chose to assume the animals are just wandering scenery.

• 0-2" move each turn (d6/2-1) in a random direction.  They block line of sight and act as a walking hedge.
• Animals move at end of turn (after slow actions)
• Attempts to pass through an animal are hazardous.

The assassins arrive at the far side of the farm, outside the hedge.

Anton is on watch on the roof of the prefab-hab.  K2N4 has just started a perimeter patrol clockwise.  For some reason he looks like a space marine in this game; later on he gets replaced by a shiny metallic droid.  The others are resting inside the hab.

Anton spots movement outside the perimeter and the fight is on.  Erica & Craig deploy from the hab.

The assassins cross the hedge into the field of giant animals

K2 patrols around the pig field.  Boris deploys from the hab

Anton takes aim & shoots at the nearest assassin, rolls a 6 & hits for 3+1, taking him down!  Lucky start.

The livestock wanders about.  The Assassins make their morale roll & continue their attack

First blood to Anton

Anton waits for the other assassins to move out from behind the horse

Erica climbs over the hedge and moves up

With no clear shot past the horse, the assassins split up and go past the horse one on either side.  They don't have a target in range.

Anton reacts & shoots at the boss assassin, rolls 5 & hits for 4+1, taking him down too.  Anton is absolutely at his sharpest today.

Craig & K2 move up.

The remaining assassin fails the morale roll (a 2) - but it's irrelevant; this guy is never going to give up.

Anton takes aim & shoots at the last assassin, rolls a 6 & hits for 6+1.  Nice one!

Like shooting fish in a barrel

Post-battle

The Garrideb assassins bear no grudge for losing 3 of their number. Whoever took out the contract should have paid for a bigger team.

Hakon pays the crew Cr4 for keeping the farm safe.

Loot: we search the bodies & get 2 items off the Gear table: a 2nd fixer and some frakk grenades

xps: Anton 6, Boris 3, Craig 3, Dolly 0, Erica 3, Franz 0

Man of the match award goes to Anton for his flawless marksmanship. Bonus xp to Anton for defeating Tough enemies.

Shopping: not this turn.  The pay equals the cost of upkeep, so there's no spare cash to splash about.

Campaign event: Something's up, Hakon won't work with us any more.  If I were a fraction more paranoid, I'd wonder if he set us up with this job and hired the assassins to hit us...

Character event: Craig makes friends with Dolly. Both receive +1 XP

I guess he missed her while she was in sick bay and he was walking around some local farm.  Maybe he even wrote a poem for her.

Third Edition

This game was played with the older 2nd edition rules.  Since then Modiphius has published the 3rd edition.  There are a lot of tweaks to the rule details, and one of my gripes about these two scenarios is already addressed with new encounter tables.  On that basis alone, I'd like to recommend the new edition and switch over to it right away.  But...

There is a lot of new material in the new edition.  Specific alien races, special characters, ship upgrades, more details for space travel & creating new worlds, advanced training options for crew members, more background on the Unity setting, more options for adding a storyline to the campaign.  Mostly I welcome this, so long as it doesn't turn into the very specific setting and races that need specific models from one manufacturer.  An encounter with "renegade troops" can use any half-way military model, but if a future edition gets to cat-people in power armour with multi-barrelled pistols then I won't bother using those rules or collecting the official models.

The rulebook has had the attentions of a team of professional designers and artists, where the 2nd edition looks like it was written in a word processor package with a few of the author's photographs of games wherever a half-page at the end of a chapter would be blank paper.  On the flipside, the 2nd edition had easily readable type and didn't waste space having artwork on every page.  Here are a couple of pages from each edition to show what I mean.

2nd edition

3rd edition

The second edition combat section takes 2 pages, the third edition takes 5 pages, although the fifth page contains one illustrated example of combat and half a page of pictures of futuristic weapons (with no labels, so just eye-candy).  Overall the rules have grown from 59 pages to 182.

As a result I'll be moving grudgingly to 3rd edition, but re-typing all the important stuff like combat rules to make my own quick-reference sheets in a readable size and colour.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.