Art of Wuxia - The Trigram Chronicles

When we neared the end of our Space Opera campaign, I realised that I will need a 'filler' campaign for the months of February to May, when I hope to start my Blood Sword campaign. I had earlier planned on running a "The Last Kingdom" campaign using "The Hero's Journey" rules, but I didn't think it was a good idea to run a fantasy campaign right before the another. I asked my players for ideas, and one of them suggested a wuxia campaign.

Now we are all but one of us East Asian in ethnicity, yet despite that we have never played any "oriental" campaign. And the wuxia genre is not an unfamiliar one to us: I must have watched more than a thousand hours of Shaw Brothers kung fu movies and Hong Kong TV series based on the works of Louis Cha, and even read a few wuxia novels back in my childhood. Anyway, everyone liked the idea of playing something different, and so I started planning for campaign.

There are no lack of kung fu RPGs on the market. I spent several days googling and looking at various forums, and in the end I decided that Art of Wuxia was the set of rules that seemed to fit what I have in mind the best. Its full rules and default setting are still a lot more fantastical than the setting I have in mind, but it was easy to just omit all the magic and monsters and keep the rest of the rules. Perhaps I will do a more detailed rules review in the future.

For the theme of the campaign, the player suggested it to be about fighting government tyranny. What came to my mind then was the queue edict issued by the Qing government in the early years of their conquest of China - this was an order issued not for any practical reason, but solely to demand a demonstration of submission, on pain of death; tens of thousands of Han Chinese were slaughtered for disobeying the order, ironically at the hands of Han Chinese soldiers under the command of Han Chinese generals who defected to the Qing. This premise also gave me a villain for the campaign, as well as a reason for the PCs to get together: they will all be novice martial artists who have lost family and loved ones to the order, and their goal is to take revenge on the general who led the massacres, who I have decided will look like Donnie Yen in Once Upon in China II.

Over the course of the campaign, we hope to cover the usual genre tropes, with the heroes meeting and fighting mooks and villains with "evil kung fu", learning new kung fu as they level up, and eventually avenging the deaths of their families.

The Qing Conquest of China was of course a drawn out and complicated affair, and for the purpose of our campaign I will utilise artistic license and not be sticking to history, so I hope the more learned readers will forgive me.

The Party

Li Hui - Physician. An orphaned Muslim girl, Li Hui was taken in by Cripple Li, a former army physician. Cripple Li had initially taught his student only the healing arts, but after her master's death, Li began to learn kung fu.

Luo Yun - A foundling raised by farmers, Luo Yun was recruited by the White Lotus Cult and learned kung fu. When the Qing government began to suppress the cult, Luo Yun returned home to lie low but found his entire village slaughtered by Qing soldiers under the command of General Yen.

Soong Wu Qing - Soong's family ran a famous armed escort company, but when his father refused to work for General Yen, his entire family was killed in retaliation. Soong was away in Shaolin Temple studying kung fu, but left upon learning his family fate to seek revenge.

Wang Ah Hu - Wang served as a soldier under an officer in Yen's army when he was still serving the Ming emperor. Rightly concerned that the officer and his men would not take kindly to his decision to defect to the Qing, Yen ordered the unit into an ambush laid by the Qing. Wang lost his sight in the ensuing battle, and became a beggar, but driven by his thirst for revenge, he had learned to overcome his disability.

Wu Wen Xiong - Born a sickly child to a rich family, Wu was not favoured by his father. His mother, formerly of the Sword Sisters Sect, secretly taught him kung fu to make him stronger. Wu's family were arrested and executed after General Yen accused his father of sedition over a poem the elder Wu had written, and their property seized. Wu managed to escape, and had sworn vengeance since.

Zhang Ziyi - Formerly an assassin in the service of the Ming, Zhang was ordered to assassinate one of her relatives who had earned the displeasure of General Yen. Zhang refused the mission and fled, but when she reached her home village she found that her family had been murdered on order of General Yen.

Sludge Fox #4 - Tearcoat Swamp

Game 4 of the campaign was another attack on a Crown position, except this time there were no defensible features for my troops to hide behind.

The Rebels came at the Crown forces from two directions; in retrospect I should have concentrated all my units on one side and dealt with the attacks in detail, but I hesitated, and allowed the tactical initiative to pass to the Rebels. To make things worse, FG won initiative rolls on all but one of the turns, which allowed him to fire on my units before I have a chance to do so. My commander barely escaped with his life, and all supplies were lost to the Rebels.

I continue to be impressed by the scenarios in the campaign. So far all the scenarios offer tactical options for both sides with some elements of randomness to keep things unpredictable. The Sludge rules are rather unforgiving, and losing the initiative roll at a critical turn can really send your forces into a death spiral.

We are now just a third way through the campaign, so hopefully my Crown forces can make a come-back.

Deepnight Revelation #14

Captain's Log - T345

Deepnight Revelation avoided a disaster today, yet despite my relief I make this log entry with a heavy heart.

While Deepnight was refueling at the gas giant, the Amelia Earhart, under command of Chief Operations Officer Lieutenant Sequera, traveled to Prospect to prepare a camp for shore leave for the crew. With just two weeks before we reach the wormhole, I had expected it to be a time for the crew to celebrate our mission and reflect on our time together in the past year, but...

Lieutenant Sequera sent Dr Balilaika, Sergeant Ahab, and crewman Ajax on a shuttle to scout out a plateau near the landing zone as a potential site for a camp, but this turned out to be a ruse. Some 40km from the landing zone the crew received a transmission from Corpsman Wootue urging them to land the shuttle immediately. The crew did, and the engine exploded shortly after.

Corpsman Wootue explained that he, Lieutenant Sequera, and the members of Engineering team Six had decided to stop Deepnight Revelation from returning to our galaxy by destroying her and her entire crew along with her. They had taken this course of action as they believed that Deepnight's return, along with the news of the relatively lower technology of the species in this galaxy will lead to an invasion by the United Confederation, the Tazanian Empire, or both. But before that could happen, there would have to be a war for control of the wormhole. The consequence of our return, they believed, would be war that will result in millions of deaths across two galaxies.

On account of their friendship, Wootue had decided to spare Dr Balilaika and crewman Ajax, but the mutineers had taken Lieutenant Xebec (the pilot) and Technician Talon-Var, who were not party to their plot, as hostages, and they warned the crew of the shuttle to not return to the Amelia Earhart or attempt to stop them. They then cut off the crew's communication links.

Based on the information they had, the crew surmised that the mutineers were planning to disable the safety features on the Jump drive of Amelia Earhart and turn her into a nuclear bomb. This task would take many hours, which meant that the mutineers would most likely not change their location in the 16 hours before Deepnight would make rendezvous. The crew decided to travel back to the landing zone and retake the ship.

Utilising the survival equipment on the shuttle, the crew traveled through the night on the river that led to the edge of the plateau on the emergency life raft, and then improvised a balloon-glider using the life raft, hydrogen from a fuel tank, and a survival tent to make the descent.

It was dawn when they neared the landing zone, and when they encountered a spider-drone used by the mutineers as a sentry. Through the drone Corpsman Wootue once more warned the crew not to intervene, or he would kill the hostages if they approached any closer.

The crew arrived at the landing zone to find it guarded by more spider-drones. Using his psychic abilities crewman Ajax caused a herd of the native large herbivore to stampede into the landing zone, and when two of the mutineers disembarked to investigate the crew sneaked onboard and overcame the mutineers. Technicians Trevor Beal and Scott Zane and Utility Droid HE-54 were killed during the action.

The crew confronted Lieutenant Sequera and Corpsman Wootue at the bridge, and were able to persuade them to release the hostage and surrender, on the promise that they would help them receive a pardon. They did so, and then Sergeant Ahab shot and killed them both.

The Amelia Earhart had been made safe and had been recovered. Mutineers Petty Officer Milo Deems and Technician Lydia Torrent, as well as Sergeant Ahab are now under custody, pending court martial.

The command team and I now have the delicate task of dispensing justice and maintaining morale and indeed control over the crew in the final days before we reach the wormhole.

Prepping and Running the Game

The final session of the campaign was based on the classic Star Frontiers module 'Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes' - I had planned this months in advance, and had named one of the scout-ships Amelia Earhart in preparation for this.

As I mentioned before, I intended for the session to serve as a bridge to the Season 4 of the campaign, which I have tentatively named The Wormhole Wars. It seems pretty obvious that the return of Deepnight Revelation to our own galaxy will tempt the superpowers to try to establish a foothold if not a new empire in the new galaxy, if only to prevent the other side from doing so. Will the stakes be high enough for either side to break the peace and invade the Neutral Zone, where the wormhole is located? I think we all know the answer.

In a couple of weeks we will begin our next campaign using The Art of Wuxia rules. Stay tuned for a post about that soon.

Deepnight Revelation #13

Captain's Log - T283

We have made rendezvous with Commander Khomen and his team. Our mission has been successful, but it came at a cost I am not sure we ever imagined would be exacted.

Mr Khan and crewman Ajax and a small team had traveled to the city on Terminus where, crewman Ajax, following the call from the K'ul, they entered the largest of the pyramids east of the city. Here, descending to the core of the pyramid, they came upon a large chamber whose floor was covered with Gren biomass.

The Gren entity then communicated with the team telepathically, through crewman Ajax. The entity gave an account of itself as a benevolent protector of the planet and its people. When confronted with the fact that members of its species had consumed several systems in this galaxy, and had invaded our own, the entity admitted that once it too was an unthinking, all-consuming being, but had over the millions of years of its existence had learned to control its hunger and create a harmonious ecosystem that benefited all lifeforms on its planet. When told about the infected specimen of the space creatures we encountered, it offered a solution: that it, or rather a part of it, be brought into proximity with a specimen, with the hope that it can then attempt to use its psychic powers to bring it under control. The team was naturally skeptical of its offer, although professor Tsoukalos was enthusiastic about the prospects.

The team returned to Deepnight where the Mission Command Team met to discuss our next move, while we sent Commander Khomen and a team to take a scoutship to the edge of the system and await our instructions, in case Deepnight did not survive our upcoming confrontation with the entity. But our deliberations were cut short by news of a brawl having broken out in the mess area. Professor Tsoukalos had told some of the crew about the entity's offer, and while some agreed with his point of view, the Rakashans among the crew were derisive of the idea, and a fight broke out.

While some members of the command team went to break up the fight, we were informed by Helm of an unauthorised shuttle launch. Dr Cho Sen Wan and Lieutenant Nidesh had taken one of the boats and were headed for the city. Mr Johnson, Dr Balilaika and Trooper Blick took another boat in pursuit. I ordered Helm to take Deepnight out of orbit but found that the ship appeared to be held in place by some gravitic force.

On the planet, Dr Balilaika and Trooper Blick pursued Dr Cho into the pyramid. Mr Johnson attempted to gain control of the boat, but was attacked by Lieutenant Nidesh and unfortunately had to defend himself by killing him.

Inside the pyramid, Dr Balilaika and Trooper Blick were able to stop Dr Cho from reaching the core by shooting him in the leg, but before they could exit the pyramid they were attacked by what appeared to be infected specimens of the local deer. Dr Balilaika was able to carry Dr Cho out while Trooper Blick held off the attack.

Once they were outside the pyramid, the team prepared to return to the ship. With only one pilot among them, they were unable to recover both boats and Mr Johnson made the decision to set the remaining one on self-destruct. As they were taking off the team noticed that the populace were approaching the pyramid en masse.

At the same time, sensors on Deepnight revealed that massive swathes of forests were turning sickly and herds of animals were rushing to these diseased areas, and the populace of all the villages were also heading for the forests.

Surmising that the entity was consuming the lifeforms to generate more psychic power, Mission Command team decided to launch a nuclear strike on the planet. A 1 kt device was detonated over the pyramid and then ten other sites where the feeding was seen to be taking place. Then a 10 Mt device was launched into the crater where the pyramid once stood.

The attack seemed to weaken the entity, as it allowed Deepnight to break orbit and also dodge an asteroid flung at us. The nuclear explosions were insufficient to create a nuclear winter that will ensure the entity's extinction, so we further drove an asteroid into collision with the planet.

During the time we were traveling to meet Commander Khomen we were able to learn that Dr Cho, Professor Tsoukalos, and many of the crew members were in fact under the influence of the entity when they acted in the uncharacteristic manner.

Mr Ajax tells us that he is no longer sensing the entity now, and our sensors likewise do not detect any psychic emanations from the planet. The surface of the planet is still too hot for us to make a landing and determine if any of the entity survived; even if it did, it will have nothing to feed upon and it will not be a threat again for perhaps millions of years. Mission Command is satisfied that our mission is completed, and I agree with the view.

Prepping and Running the Game

After more than six months, our campaign has come to an end. Well, there is still an epilogue session to be played, but the main mission has been completed.

Due to covid restrictions, Ajax's player attended this session via zoom, which was not optimal, but I am glad everyone was able to be in the session.

Again, most of the session was role-playing, with the first hour spent making contingency plans before the crew went to meet the entity, and the second hour spent talking to the entity and then discussing with the mission command team. It was a difficult role-play for me, as I had to make the players think that I am a benevolent entity with the best of intentions - I am not sure I managed to keep a poker face when I asked them to take part of the entity to their ship. 

Much of the discussion was between the players as they tried to figure out the true nature and intentions of the entity. While a couple of players started out thinking it could be a benevolent being that has learned to curb its instincts, eventually they all agreed that it could not be trusted, The discussion then turned to how to destroy it without killing the other inhabitants of the planet. For a long time they were unable to come up with a solution, so I set in motion the events that would simultaneously cause chaos onboard the ship and force their hand.

Over all I am happy with the way the campaign went and ended. It was a difficult decision to make, and I think in the lead-up to the final confrontation I have managed to have the players see and interact enough with the people of Terminus to give a face to the decision.

I think there is still enough leg in this setting for us to play another season/campaign, and the next session will be a sort of a teaser to what it may be about. Stay tuned.

A Song of Dice and Buyer

No? OK, I tried.

Anyway, the idea for this post came when I received the faux jade polyhedral dice set that I ordered for our upcoming Art of Wuxia campaign.

I am usually a dice snob and I am an advocate of Gamescience dice, but as this would be the first time we are playing a wuxia campaign, I thought I will steer fully into it and get a set of dice that look the part. Perhaps I will save them for only the boss fights.

Several years ago I decided to cull my dice collection and use only Gamescience dice as much as possible. When I bought the new set of dice, the idea came to me to do an audit and see how far I have deviated from that goal.

These days, for the RPGs that use polyhedrals I use the Gamescience sets pictured above. You will notice that there are 2 d20s for each set to allow for advantage/disadvantage in 5E. Actually, the light green set hardly sees any action as I made the mistake of using blue crayons for the numbers and they are impossible to read against the green felt base of my dice trays.

For games that use only d6s, I have three sets of six d6s. Except one of the red d6s is missing... I am sure it will turn up soon...

Of course, some games require more of one type of dice, such as Horizon Wars, which uses only d12s, and a lot of those. I bought twelve of these, which cost quite a bit, and which is made worse by the fact that we have decided the rules aren't for us.

Then there are rules that require specialty dice which Gamescience do not make, which are:

Blood Bowl. I got these block dice many years ago, and it's a testament to the design of the game that they are still used in the current edition. The d6s have a scarab for the '1', which was something I thought fit my Khemri-themed team. I was tempted to get a set of the new GW dice for my Skaven team, but that would be wasteful.

Gaslands. I normally avoid games that require proprietary dice, especially those that are expensive (see the next entry...), but Gaslands just looked so fun I decided to get a set.

Forbidden Lands. The problem with the Forbidden Lands dice was that not only were they expensive, they were out of stock most of the time. I decided to re-create them by getting cheaper skull dice and other dice in the appropriate colours. They are not a perfect replica, but since the higher dice are not used often, the set was adequate. In retrospect I went overboard and bought more dice than I needed in my attempt to imitate the colour scheme faithfully, since I already owned...

The (not) Dice of Rolling. I posted about these before. The idea for this set of dice is that each die type was of a different colour, so it is easier for the user, particularly players who are new to polyhedral dice, to quickly identify the dice they need. The number of dice and the use of two colours for the d6s were based on the rules which I use for my convention games, which were where I expected to use these dice. I should have bought two more d20s of a different colour though.

There are some other dice in my collection which don't see a lot of action or any at all, but which I still decided to keep. They are:

The original Fighting Fantasy Heroes dice. I got these in around 1986 when I started my GMing career. As you can see the years have not been kind to them and the three are the only survivors from the original set of six.

Specialty dice. A slightly different perspective in this photo. The top row shows a d3 and two Average dice, and the bottom row shows an Artillery die and a Deviation die from GW. These hardly see any use, but are useful to have around in case you ever need them.

Gifted novelty dice. Here are three dice given to me by my friends: a home-made glow-in-the-dark d10, a d6 with Roman numerals, and a d120. The last one is pretty impractical as it rolls for a long time and is difficult to read. 

Finally, like most wargamers, I have a lot of Chessex d6s. These are useful as casualty and status markers. I got a brick of the green dice for my Night Goblin army, and the blue one for my WOTR/Empire army.

There are a few more polyhedral dice which I did not show, and which I think I should give away in the future.

What does your dice collection look like?

ZOD Tank Company and Pendraken Sci-fi Marines

 

Even though I already own a small quad mecha force in the form of my Heavy Gear Caprice mechs, and a "Mad Max" style force in the form of my Dropzone Commander Resistance force, I have always wanted a Cold War era style mechanised force with tanks and IFVs.

I looked around for a long time, and eventually I decided that the best way to get the models I wanted in the smallest numbers of deliveries was to get a ZOD tank company off ebay and two packs of Pendraken's sci-fi marines.

The ZOD models are cheap "scale-less" models sometimes advertised as 15mm, but as you can see from the photo above they are closer to 10/12mm, with the vehicles being much wider than they should be "in real life", although the aspect ratios look fine for tabletop models.

For the camouflage I used a "bands and wedges" pattern, which I created by spraying the models with brown primer, then putting masking tape over the models, and then spraying a sand colour, and removing the masks. They are obviously not practical in real life, but at this scale, when looked at from certain angles, they do break up the shape of the vehicles.

Deepnight Revelation #12

Meeting the natives of Terminus

Captains Log - T277

The Medical Division has completed their analysis of the creature that attacked our ship during the refueling operation two days ago. Our initial suspicion of the creature being an infected specimen of the same species which we encountered at DSA-1 was proven correct. The tissue specimens acquired from the dead creature and its juveniles will allow Medical Division to conduct further tests on the experimental counter-agent which they have derived from the Biologics.

That the Gren are capable of infecting a space-faring creature is indeed a worrying thought. This means that even if we are able to locate the homeworld of the Gren and destroy it, there may already be any number of creatures carrying its spores throughout this galaxy.

Captain's Log - T278

We have arrived at the system where the sensors and Mr Ajax have both identified as the source of the Gren psychic emanations, which Astrography had optimistically named Terminus.

Initial scans of the system showed only one planet capable of supporting life. Indeed with the exception of the polar regions, the planet's continents and islands and its oceans are teeming with life, although there are regions where the vegetation appear to be sickly, and some which are barren of all life. There are many settlements spread throughout the continents, with one large settlement on the main continent, and one on the polar continent.

In view of the possibility of infection by Gren spores, Mission Command has decided to minimise exposure to the crew by sending just one small team to the surface. I have asked Mr Khan to lead the missions.

Captain's Log - T282

Mr Khan's mission had given us a lot of information about the planet and its people.

The dominant species of the planet are a sentient humanoid species that calls themselves simply "the people" in their own language.

Our team made contact with two separate populations, the first of which lived in a port city in the polar continent which is now in ruins. It appears that this was once a thriving port city with a mid-level technology, but now the city is in ruins and its populace consist of rival bands of scavengers. Mr Black was able to make contact with one of these bands and trade some oil for food and furs, and from this contact they were able begin analysing the language of these people using the software from the Haix.

The second contact the team made was with one of the settlements on the main continent. This was a farming community whose people spoke a language related to those in the polar continent. Curiously, the people here were not surprised by the team's arrival, even though it was obvious they had a pre-industrial level of technology and had never had contact with an alien species.

The people were friendly and welcomed our team to their village. Here the team were able to learn a lot about their civilisation. It appears that long ago the people did possess an industrial level of technology, but had given that up to return to a agrarian lifestyle. The lands are fertile and the climate stable and the people had no difficulty growing enough food and keeping enough animals to feed themselves. The attribute all this to the K'ul, which seems to be a benign force which protects and looks after their people, and also tells them how to live their lives.

Consequently they have little desire in material goods beyond what they need for their work and lives. Everyone partakes in the work needed in the community, each doing what he is best at. They have no money, and those with surplus of food and goods merely bring them to the marketplace where others can freely take what they need. They do however wear jewelry, which they do not buy for themselves, but which are gifted to them by others as a sign of esteem.

Mr Ajax was able to discern that the people are receptive to psychic energy, although they themselves do not emit any. Here in the village he felt a call for him to visit the main city, although the suggestion came not in the form of words, but in vision and intuition.

Mr Khan's team also investigated the regions where the vegetation are sickly, and also those regions which are barren. In the former the team found that the ground was overgrown with what can only be described as Gren "vegetation" which are consuming the plants, while in the latter the ground was devoid of all biological material.

The team also discovered several abandoned cities on the main continent which have been overtaken by forests.

At the same time, Life Sciences and Geology Divisions have reported phenomena that corroborated the people's account that the K'ul takes care of them: the planet has an absence of seismic and volcanic activity, and its weather systems are unusually mild and not in keeping with what is expected based on our simulations. At the same time, plant and animal growth on land and in the oceans are at a much higher rate than expected, yet in most regions the ecology seem to be in balance.

More disturbingly, Astrography reported that an asteroid that had been on a collision course with the planet had deviated from its trajectory just enough to avoid striking the planet.

I will be meeting with Mission Command Team to discuss our next step.

Prepping and Running the Game

After some six months and 12 sessions, we have finally arrived at the last planet in the campaign.

Except for the first part of the session where the crew fought an infected "space whale", the whole session was just role-playing and exploration, with the PCs making first contact (twice) and slowly trying to piece together what the planet was all about. At the same time, I fed them information which the other Divisions have learned,

At the end of the session they had some idea of what they are facing. Deliciously, some of the players are entertaining the idea that this particular Gren might indeed be a benign entity and that its destruction may not be the only solution. This will make the finale session a lot more interesting.

The next session will see the crew traveling to the main city and meeting the Entity. I am a little nervous about role-playing the Entity, since it will be a delicate balance of trying to appear like the good guy while trying to gain information from the crew, while at the same time giving off enough creepiness for them to realise that something is off. I also have no real plan of how I can make use of the crew to get myself off the planet, so that is something that I will have to 'wing'.

Crucially, the players have made sure that they have some sort of protection against infection from the Gren, even if this only lasts 12 hours or so; but the Gren does not know that, so that adds another aspect to this whole encounter.

The finale session will be in a week - hopefully restrictions are eased by then and I can have all five players at the table.

2021 in Review and Looking Ahead

It's been another loony year, but to be fair it wasn't as crazy as 2020.

Despite the frequent lockdowns and disruptions, we managed to soldier on through our Space Opera campaign, and are now on the verge of completing it.

The terms of the lockdowns were such that in those weeks which we could not meet in a large enough group to play RPG, we could meet in smaller groups (sometimes just FG and myself) for wargaming, so over all it was a good year for wargaming compared to previous ones.

Over all, we played roughly 25 sessions of RPG and 14 of wargames, which isn't too shabby.

What I did a lot more of this year was building and painting terrain, as well as rounding out my armies, such as more terrain for my sci-fi WW1 armies, archers for my Uthuk warband, a few more units of men-at-arms for my 15mm Wars of the Roses armies, more figures for my 10mm Arab Revolt collection, of course figures and terrain for our Sludge project, and finally, one more unit of Night Goblin archers and three fanatics which you see above.

What I did this year was also to more or less decide on what rules to use for the respective armies. The lack of a satisfactory set of rules has always been a barrier when it comes to playing with the figures I already own. This year saw me try out a few sets of rules using the existing figures I own, which are: Contemptible Little Armies for 10mm Arab Revolt, Trench Hammer for my WW1 sci-fi figures, and Never Mind the Billhooks for my 15mm Wars of the Roses figures. Now these are truly "complete" projects for which I have figures for both sides, enough terrain to populate a table, and a set of rules which I know and like well enough to spend a weekend playing.

As usual there are unplanned projects which came out of nowhere. One was Never Mind the Billhook, and the other was Sludge. I suspect these two sets of rules caught many wargamers out of the left field this year, so I count myself in good company. The Sludge campaign had to take a pause when RPG became possible again, but I plan to see it through during the coming year.

Likewise, we were not able to complete our Blood Bowl league. Blood Bowl Thursdays were very social occasions for us, involving more alcohol and trash-talking than in my other sessions, so I look forward to picking it up again.

Another wargame I look forward to playing more of next year is Kings of War. Adrian and I joined a local KoW group, who seem really friendly and active, so my Night Goblins may be seeing a lot more action in the near future.

In terms of "new" project, FG and I have been buying and painting up models and terrain for a 10/12mm mecha project. I already have a bunch of Heavy Gear Caprice and Dropzone Commander Resistance figures and models painted, as well as some terrain, but the arrival of his Battletech kickstarter has spurred us to getting more - a lot more - terrain, as well as look into rules. I am in the process of painting up a more conventional force with armoured vehicles instead of mechas, and we hope to be trying out CAV and Alpha Strike next year.

For RPGs I think we did remarkably well, completing two campaigns and playing most of another. The Deepnight Revelation campaign will likely end in January next year, and the campaign to follow will likely be a Wuxia campaign using the The Art of Wuxia rules. Despite all of us being Asians (and most of us being Chinese) we have never actually played a wuxia campaign, so I am looking forward to this one. Following that, and if the kickstarter delivers on time as promised, we will probably play the Blood Sword campaign.

That's more or less it then. Lots of plans to play with the toys we already have, but no doubt over the course of 2022 some cad somewhere will come up with some fun set of rules that will sweep through wargame-dom and make us all go out and buy new figures. Let's hope it's not something that requires a high figure count...

Everything I painted this Year

Terrain

28mm Fantasy

28mm Sci-fi

Deepnight Revelation #11

 

Captain's Log - T258

Mr Khan's team had been recovered and are now onboard the Deepnigh Revelation. Unfortunately, we have lost three more crew members in the mission, and Lieutenant Nidesh has suffered a spinal injury, although Dr Cho assures me that he will make a full recovery.

The first sign that the mission was going to be more difficult than we had anticipated was when scans revealed that the asteroid had in fact been modified extensively to become effectively a 2km long starship. When the Amelia Earhart attempted to land on its surface, several metallic panels on its sides opened up, revealing themselves to be in fact weapon ports. Deepnight Revelation was forced to withdraw from its shadowing position from the mass-driver weapons, and the Amelia Earhart suffered damage to one of her wings, causing her to crash onto the surface of the asteroid; it was during this that Lieutenant Nidesh suffered his injuty.

Mr Khan led the team onto the surface to try to find a way inside the asteroid-ship to either override its controls or to plant the nuclear charge. Here they were attacked by more of the spider droids which they have previously encountered on the surface of Claimed-in-Hope. The team were outnumbered and surrounded, but managed to make it to one of the hatches that led into the ship, but we lost Troopers Trokh and Kaylan, and Nuclear Technician Feldmann in the running battle.

Once inside the ship, the crew had to overcome more spider droids, but they were able to make it to the command room of the asteroid, where Ensign Soong Jahangir was able to hack into the mainframe and disable it.

Captain's Log - T263

We are scheduled to depart Sovereign tomorrow.

The Erlines have helped us repair the damage to the Amelia Earhart. At Mission Command's recommendation, we have taken into our inventory 43 spider droids found on the asteroid-ship, which the Erlines have helped us to convert to remote-control mode. Our Draysirvian crew have been training with the Erlines on how to operate the controls - these droids will no doubt give us more tactical flexibility and reduce the risk to our crew in future missions.

With the information downloaded from the asteroid-ship, we were able to reconstruct what had happened to the Erline Homeworld. 

The asteroid-ship, named Guardian by the Erlines, was originally constructed by the Erlines to help them fend off threats to their civilisation. It possessed an Artificial Intelligence that had enormous computing powers and was linked to the Erlines' databases. It also possessed construction capabilities that allowed it mine raw materials from asteroids, manufacture spider droids and smaller craft, and eventually to create copies of itself. 

It seemed that a century ago, one of their ships became contaminated by Gren spores and unknowingly carried it back to their Homeworld. The Gren infestation spread, but the Erlines were eventually able to contain and destroy the threat. However, the Guardian regarded the threat of spread to the other Erline colonies to be unacceptable, and decided to not only eradicate all life on the Erline Homeworld, but also send copies of itself to other Erline colonies that were possibly exposed to the spores.

Fortunately for the Erlines, the Guardian and its copies did not possess the capability to create the Jump drive, so it had taken a century before one of them had reached Sovereign.

The Erlines now plan to retrofit the captured Guardian with a Jump drive, and using the information collected from it reach their other colonies and warn them of the threat, and to help neutralise them.

Prepping and Running the Game

I have been lagging in the writing of the game reports, to the extent that the two previous reports did not have a "Prepping and Running" section. I apologise for that.

The plant/biologic and the Erline arcs of the campaign went pretty much as per the modules. What I did not expect (but should have) was the players' request to take over the spider-droids remaining on the asteroid-ship. Since these were of Erline design, I found it a reasonable request, and given that the Amelia Earhart had to be repaired, they would have ample time to make the necessary modifications.

With the biologic and Erline arcs completed, we are now into the final arc and the finale of the campaign, which we will play in the new year.

Deepnight Revelation #10

Captain's Log - T188

We have detected radio signals in the Erline language during our latest refueling stop, and Mission Command had decided that we will head towards the source of the signal and hopefully make contact with the species.

Separately, I have promoted Ensign Nidesh to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade, for his performance on the mission so far.

Captain's Log - T196

We are still in orbit above the Erline world, which they call Sovereign. Sovereign is not the home planet for the Erline species. According to Minister Chazik, the Erlines civilisation once spanned many star systems, but about a hundred years ago the colony of Sovereign lost contact with the home planet and the other colonies. It was only in the past thirty years that Sovereign had managed to build up the industrial capacity to produce jump-capable ships. Since then they have managed to colonise a planet in a nearby system, but they have yet to make contact with their home world or any other Erline colony.

However, they lost contact with the colony, named Claimed-in-Hope, about six weeks ago, and all the ships they have sent since have failed to return.

Minister Chazik had been most welcoming and helpful to us, and in return for their hospitality Mr Stamper has agreed to take the Amelia Earhart to Claimed-in-Hope to re-establish contact with the colonists there and find out what happened to the ships.

Captain's Log - T223

Mr Stamper has returned and debriefed the Mission Command team on what the crew encountered on Claimed-in-Hope.

When they arrived at the system they found debris consistent with Erline ships in the asteroid belt surrounding the planet. Crewman Ajax was sensed a presence in the asteroid field, and a focused scan revealed a craft of Erline design hiding in the asteroid field.

Mr Stamper ordered the Amelia Earhart to intercept the craft, which tried to to evade their pursuit. When the Amelia Earhart got close enough to the craft, Dr Belilaika was able to hack into its computer and order it to stop. It turned out that the craft was an unmanned vessel with the command to destroy all ships which attempt to leave the system.

The crew then approached the planet, where they learned that the city of Claimed-in-Hope had been destroyed in what appears to be an asteroid strike. There were no survivors in the city.

Mr Stamper then sent a team to one of the fishing settlements outside the city. Here the crew were attacked by droids of Erline design, and Trooper Garger was killed in the ensuing fight. The crew found the populace of the settlement had all been killed by the droids, and the same was true in all the other settlements on Claimed-in-Hope. All told, some 20,000 Erline settlers have been lost, plus the crew of the ships that have been destroyed by the craft.

Mr Stamper now proposes a mission to the Erline Homeworld, to see if a similar fate had befallen them.

Captain's Log - T246

Mr Stamper has reported that the Erline Homeworld appears to have been completely devastated by a series of asteroid attacks, which explains why the Erlines have lost contact with it suddenly a century ago.

Rather ominously, the comet which Astrography detected last week continues to approach Sovereign. It is now close enough for Astrography to detect that it had been making minute course corrections. We have yet to inform the Erline about our latest findings. I shall be meeting with the Mission Command team to discuss what to do with the situation.

Deepnight Revelation #9

Captain's Log - T155

Our refueling operation at the last system was interrupted when sensors detected a large object headed for Deepnight Revelation. The object had a non-metallic "body" of low density, and a dense "tail" which emitted a signature consistent with a conventional gravitic drive. Based on the sensor readings, the Mission Command team surmised that this could be the same type of bioship which they have encountered on Wildwood.

The team decided that Deepnight Revelation would move to the edge of the system's gravity well in case there was a need to depart the system rapidly, while Mr Khan took the Amelia Earhart to investigate.

When it detected the Amelia Earhart, the bioship altered course to intercept, and when it was near enough, it launched a large spike from its hull, which struck the Amelia Earhart on its starboard side. The spike tore a hole in the hull some 2 metres across. The crew was able to seal the breach between the hull and the spike, but once cabin pressure had been restored the tip of the spike split open, and from within it two humanoid forms similar to those encountered on Wildwood emerged and began to attack the crew.

Mr Khan gave orders for the Amelia Earhart to reverse course and head back to Deepnight, but as it turned it was struck on the port side with another pike. The crew neutralised the two humanoids, and then retreated into the bridge and sealed it from the rest of the craft. Through the security camera they were able to see the other spike split open and disgorge two more humanoids. Mr Khan ordered the craft to be depressurised, and the two humanoids were vented into space.

The bioship continued to move towards the Amelia Earhart, but it appears that its acceleration could not match that our ours. Deepnight was able to recover the Amelia Earhart and enter hyperspace.

The Amelia Earhart is now under quarantine in the hangar. I have asked Life Sciences to remove and analyse the spikes to learn more about our attacker once it is certain that it is no longer active.

Captain's Log - T157

Life Sciences and Astrography has presented their analysis of the spikes from the bioship and the probable origin of the plant-based species. We have set a course for the cluster of systems which Astrography has designated as Probably Point of Biologic Origin, and plan to perform a systematic sweep of the systems once we arrive.

Captain's Log - T 180

Mr Khan as returned from the mission on PPBO Delta 3 with 58 of the inhabitants, from whom we learned that their name for the planet is Draytsirv.

Initial survey of the planet revealed a global civilisation that has been completely taken over by growth of the Biologic species. The away team was able to identify the ruins of a large city, where the only large areas not covered by the plant growth were the erstwhile starport and seaport. Concentric rings of defence could be made out, centred on the seaport. Several areas in the city were perhaps deliberately contaminated with chemicals - on these areas there were no plant growth.

The team landed at the spaceport and explored the terminal building, but found no survivors. Upon returning to the pinnace they found that the plant growth had begun to creep towards the craft. Mr Khan ordered the crew to return to the craft and depart the planet, but as they passed over the city they detected a radio signal consistent with the recorded distress signal we detected from the crashed craft on PPBO Beta 3, but this was a "live" signal.

Ensign Nidesh was able to localise the source of the signal to the seaport. Mr Khan ordered the craft to be set down at the seaport, and from there the crew made their way to a warehouse building, where they made contact with the a party of five of the local inhabitants.

The Draytsirvians are a humanoid species, and the party which the crew had made contact with appeared to be hiding from something or someone. The source of their apprehension soon became clear as Ensign Nidesh noticed many plant-like humanoids emerge from the vegetation bordering the spaceport and began to approach the craft.

Mr Khan once more gave the order to embark the craft, this time with the Draysirvians, but as they exited the warehouse the ground before them cracked and a large plant emerged from the earth beneath, blocking their path. The organism then proceeded to attack the crew with it tendrils. The crew and the Draytsirvians retaliated with their blasters and hand weapons, but the plant seemed invulnerable to their attacks.

Meanwhile, Ensign Nidesh had to take off as the ground became overruned with the plant humanoids, which were headed to the warehouse where our crew were trapped.

Mr Khan ordered the crew to retreat into the warehouse, and from there the party ascended to the upper level of the warehouse, from where they exited through the windows and accessed the rooftop, where Ensign Nidesh was able to retrieve them.

Captain's Log - T182

We have successfully evacuated all 58 of the residents of the Draytsirvian settlement. Through the translation software, we have pieced together the recent history of their people.

It appears that some 30 years ago the Draytsirvians came across a plant species on PPBO Zeta 2 that was especially efficient in producing energy through photosynthesis. The species also possessed a form of neural tissue which allowed the scientists to integrate it with the energy system the Draytsirvians were using, essentially converting sunlight into electrical energy at an efficiency that rivalled that of any solar power they had.

In an effort to provide clean energy to their cities, the Draytsirvians introduced the plants into all their settlements, and converted all their power generators to the plant-based system, eventually also using them to power their starships.

However, some 20 years ago it became clear that some of the plants have escaped containment and developed locomotion. These escaped plants displace the local plant life and even attack animals that started to feed on them. When the Draytsirvians tried to eliminate these plants the plants fought back, sending out humanoid and giant plants similar to those our crew have encountered. It seemed that their neural tissues allowed them to develop a sort of hive mind which made it possible for them to attack the Draytsirvians in a co-ordinated fashion.

The Draysirvians had some initial success in halting the attacks, but the plants began to reproduce and create more mobile specimens, and those used by the Draytsirvians for energy production began to die off. It was then a matter of time before one city began to fall after another.

The settlement which we have evacuated was one of several which fled the cities and escaped to biomes which the plants could not reach: deserts, the frozen polar regions, alpine heights. These settlements managed to survive by returning periodically to the ruins of the cities to scavenge for food and resources; they had kept in contact with each other by radio, which the plants did not seem to be able to detect, but by the time Deepnight arrived at the system all the other settlements have been silent for months, and our scan of the planet did not reveal other survivors.

We must now help the Draytsirvians to find a new home.

One good thing that has come out of this tragedy is that Dr Balilaika has reported that the plant produces a natural antifungal chemical, which he believes may prove useful against the Gren. Initial tests are promising, but we will need to obtain a sample of Gren tissue to confirm this finding.

Deepnight Revelation #8

Captain's Log - T122

It's been two weeks since Syndic Feisler has agreed to allow our crew to go on shore leave on the planet below Tradeport, and today I learned that his decision may have been motivated by something other than generosity of spirit. He has asked for our help to find the source of an alien craft that he had obtained from salvagers some six years ago.

The salvagers have refused to reveal where they had found the craft. Syndic Feisler offered to buy any further craft they could find, but the crew never returned. While Syndic Feisler was able to make an educated guess of the likely system where the salvagers have found the craft, mainly by a process of elimination, its location was beyond the range of the Haix ship, but not ours.

I have asked Mr Johnson to lead a team on the Amelia Earhart to the system to see if he can learn more about the origin of the craft, and perhaps make contact with the species that built it.

Captain's Log - T138

Mr Johnson and his team have returned to Tradeport this morning.

Arriving at the Candlass system, they detected a metal signature on the forested moon of the second planet, which led them to a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the clearing were two craft, of a similar design to that in Syndic Feisler's possession, and next to the clearing, partly covered by trees, was a Haix ship.

A team was despatched to the surface on a boat to investigate, but as the boat approached the clearing to land it was struck by an electromagnetic pulse which caused the ship's systems to shut down. Sergeant Ahab, who was piloting the boat, was able to bring it to a controlled crash into the forest.

While the crew worked to reboot the systems on the boat, they came under attack by the inhabitants of the moon: short, green-skinned humanoids. The initial attacks came in the form of arrows, which our boat was proof against, but soon the aliens began burning through the hull of the boat using some form of primitive blowtorch. The crew disembarked and attempted to fight them off, but were at a disadvantage as their weapons were likewise disabled by the EMP, and they were heavily outnumbered. Fortunately Mr Goldfone managed to get the communications system online and called for help. Mr Johnson brought the Amelia Earhart into the atmosphere and conducted a strafing run, which caused the aliens to flee.

After Dr Belilaika tended to the wounded, the crew made their way back to the clearing, and explored the Haix ship and the two alien craft on the clearing. Nearby, they found a mass grave which contained the remains of what were later ascertained to be Haix.

It appeared that the aliens had occupied the Haix ship and turned it into their homes. Inside one of the alien craft the crew found an induction coil and a primitive cannon - it appeared that the aliens had used the cannon to propel a ball of iron through the induction coil to generate the EMP that disabled our boat. Within the cargo bays of the other craft the crew found paintings on the bulkheads, describing how an insectoid alien species had arrived on the moon in the craft, exchanging technology for food with the locals. There was however no trace of the insectoid aliens other than their abandoned craft.

Professor Tsoukalos is of the opinion that the locals had developed a form of "cargo cult" after their contact with the insectoid aliens, and had converted the craft left behind on their world into some sort of temple for their gods.

The crew recovered the computers from aboard these craft, and the Haix are working on deciphering their language, and they have agreed to share their findings with us. As soon as that is done I will recommend to the Mission Command team to continue our journey.

Prepping and Running the Game

This was the first session we have played in over two months due to the lockdown.

It was quite an effort to get back into the saddle, and I deliberately kept the scenario short so as not to tax myself. Still, it was quite an enjoyable session as the players were all cool with their modern weapons being rendered useless by "primitives". Two characters actually went down during the fight, and we were looking at a TPK; fortunately Ippy Goldone had the presence of mind to restore their communications first, which allowed them to call for help, giving me an 'out'.

It was good to finally be able to gather around a table again - hopefully we will be able to advance the campaign by a bit before the next round of lockdown.

Horizon Wars Game 3

I don't know what started it, but a couple of weeks ago I felt the urge to get back into sci-fi micro/mecha gaming. I already have a low-tech Dropzone Commander Resistance force and a Heavy Gear Caprice force with 4-legged mechs, but I felt the need to own a "conventional" force with tanks, APCs, and infantry, and also a force of "traditional", 2-legged, guns-for-arms mechs.

Needless to say, several purchases were made, and I dusted off my copy of Horizon Wars, re-familiarised myself with the rules, and played a short game with FG after our Sludge game on Monday.

Despite having a better grasp of the rules this time round, we still found the bookkeeping onerous. This was made worse by the (unrelated) fact that I had chosen to mark my models using decals of 2mm tall numbers on the edge of their bases, and between the time when I made that decision to now my eyesight has deteriorated, making it a chore to see which model was which unit on the roster. 

After the game FG and I took stock and looked for other options for the rules. We found Heavy Gear Blitz and Battletech Alpha Strike too crunchy, while simpler rules like Epic required too many models, and are too tied to a background to fit what we were looking for. That's not to say that I do not harbour the dreams of one day fielding an Imperial Knight army with a few titans...

Eventually we had the idea of looking at CAV: Strike Operations ('strike' and 'blitz' are probably to sci-fi rules titles what 'eagle' and 'empire' are to Napoleonic rules titles) - we have been planning to order some terrain pieces from Talon Games, but somehow we had never taken a look at the CAV rules.

I downloaded their quick-start rules, and so far they seem to hit the sweet spot. In many ways it is like Horizon Wars: each element has two actions per activation, and performance degrades with damage, only the degradation is programmed/fixed, so you don't actually have to decide which stat to reduce, or keep track of which unit has which stat reduced.

I ordered a copy of the rules (they are not available in electronic form, sadly), and with shipping the way it is these days, the book, various sci-fi models and terrain should arrive in the mail over the next few weeks, and keep me busy for the rest of the year. If things go as planned, you should be seeing more sci-fi content on this blog next year.

Sludge Fox #3 - The Black Mingo

Crown forces defend their position

Game 3 once again saw the Crown forces on the defensive. I purchased an artillery piece as a support under the rules we use for the campaign.

The Rebel forces attack

FG had one Rebel Line Infantry unit exchange fire with my main body across the river, while the skirmishers and shock troops tried to outflank me on my right. I sent one unit of Line Infantry to intercept them - the resulting melee saw both units destroyed and left a huge pile of Gore tokens on the ground.

FG then sent another Line Infantry unit down the road, but my cannon managed to cause some casualties before it blew itself up on a misfire. The battle came down to an exchange of musket fire between the two sides, until at last the Rebels gave up and left.

Survivors of the onslaught

It was a Pyrrhic victory for the Crown forces, as they have lost more than two-thirds of their forces.

Sludge Fox #2 - Blue Savannah

Crown forces defend a roadblock

Game 2 of our Sludge Fox campaign saw my Crown forces defending a small farmstead against a Rebel force. I had my line infantry defend a barricade across a road, while my skirmishers deployed in the woods on either side, waiting for the Rebels to come down the road.

Rebel forces approach

FG had the Rebel skirmishers outflank the Crown position on the right, while the main body took their time to clear my skirmishers out of the woods, before the line infantry marched down the road to deliver a devastating volley against my position.

The Crown forces quickly lost their appetite for the fight, and abandoned their position.

This was a rather one-sided battle, as the Rebels took their time and waited for the right moment to launch their assault (Unstoppable Momentum). At the same time my dice were so poor that I failed to inflict even one hit on the Rebel forces. At the end I found myself pulling my forces back from all the Gore tokens to avoid having to make Nerve Tests at poor odds.

Finally, here is a shot of the roadside shrine which I built that FG painted for me.

Sludge Fox #1 - Skirmish at Kingstree

Crown forces form a defence line as the rebel forces approach.

With our forces completed and a test game under our belt, FG and I decided to play a Sludge campaign. To provide a framework for our campaign, I googled around for pre-made campaigns for the black powder period in the skirmish scale, and realised that Too Fat Lardies' Sharp Practice campaigns fit the bill. Specifically, we had the idea that our two forces represent the royal forces (represented by my cleaner-looking figures) and the forces of a rebel noble (represented by FG's sludgier figures). After looking through the various campaign, we decided to play the Swamp Fox campaign, renaming it our Sludge Fox campaign.

We kicked the campaign off with Scenario 2 from the campaign book, since we do not yet have a two-storey building required for Scenario 1. The scenario saw my malaria-ridden crown forces conducting a fighting retreat against pursuing rebels.

Rebel jaegers flank the crown position through the sludge.

We played with small forces and without magic, aiming chiefly to get all the rules right for our first game, which I think we managed to do. Even though there were only 3 units and 2 commander figures on each side, it was an interesting game as the scenario set-up gave both players a few options to achieve their victory conditons.

Major John Harrison is captured, and Holbein is slain.

I sent one unit on a headlong march for the table edge, while another unit and the skirmishers tried to delay the rebels with shooting. This went well for a few turns as I managed to roll higher on the Initiative rolls. However, as the game went on the greater volume of fire from the rebels started to tell, and on the last two turns I lost the Initiative rolls, and my commander was overwhelmed and gave up, while the officer who stayed behind to try to fend off the rebel skirmishers was killed fighting alone.

It was a fun game, and we plan to continue the rest of the campaign. We will still need to decide on how to translate the forces in the campaign book to Sludge units, including incorporating magic and artillery, but so far it looks workable.