Category: <span>Stargrave</span>

LOVE – A Stargrave Romance

Stephen takes us on a starry-eyed journey to the, er, stars…

It turned out that a club meeting fell on February 14th this year. Valentine’s Day. There was only one thing for it – a suitably themed game of Stargrave.

Beneath the twin stars of Romeo and Juliet is the planet Romance. The major space port on Romance is the city of Verona. But the city is riven by two competing families: the Montagues and Capulets. One member of the Montague family, Tony, is due to marry his beloved – an Angel from the planet Seraphim, by the name of Maria. Tony believes the Capulets have kidnapped her and that she is being kept somewhere in the West Side of the city, where the Capulets are in control. He offers a substantial reward to whichever crew can return his dearest.

The table represented a section of the city. Heart-shaped chocolates were laid out on the table. These would either be clues to help them locate Maria or loot tokens (physical loot only in this game, to reflect the passion of Tony’s love). They wouldn’t know if it was a clue or loot until they reached it.

As well as the main mission of rescuing Maria, we also used the Side Hustle cards. In addition, there was a third objective – each player would gain an extra 25 experience points if they could compose a four line poem about Love. This would be doubled if the beauty and nature of the poem reduced any participant to an overflowing of emotions.

We’ll let the captains tell you how it went…

Captain Hertz van Rental’s Report

As Andy was off to my flank I decided to try the peaceful approach first and ignore him in order to acquire more information before entering the mayhem phase. This lasted about one turn before one of the nearest events turned into a ruddy big predator/doggie thing which proceeded to savage one of my crew; one down, several to go…

We made some progress towards the rogue robot, as I had quickly decided that only mega-mayhem awaited any ‘rescue parties’, whether from locals or each other – a semi-wise decision as it turned out. As we made our way around the back alleys of the starport, we soon spied a particularly dodgy and well-armed lot approaching in the distance, led (well, egged-on from somewhat further back), by Captain Jeremy, a veteran Pirate leader whose very name brought fear to many systems (and a good laugh to many more). This group had sped-up in their approach as it turned out that their entry point was near the rogue robot, and that it – displaying excellent taste – soon decided to start shooting them!

A deadly encounter around the back of the cantina

In the meantime I had led the bulk of my (remaining) crew further on and was attempting to engage a local (unarmed) robot in conversation, with a view to any knowledge about excess Juliets in the area. I tried the robot as I thought that, unlike any locals (whose loyalties and thus veracity I could not be sure about), it might give truthful answers. Alas, it soon turned out ZX81 was not programmed for either conversation, information, confirmation or even altercation – but the latter was then supplied by ‘Jeremy’s Jumpers’ who proceeded to open fire!

I won’t dwell on the subsequent exchange – some from each crew went down (rather more than Jeremy was expecting?), but Big-J was off elsewhere, by then interviewing, and then fighting with the personnel and customers in a large local cantina…. More importantly for my lot I had made a quick mental calculation about the remaining distance to the rogue robot vs the approximate time of self-destruct before we could deactivate it. Quickly deducing that the odds were by now near-impossible, I began to remove the crew from the area with a couple of minor bonus bits we had found en-route. This decision was hastened by the sounds of major fire-fights having broken out across town where Alan and Eric had discovered the lair of the other gang and thus the location of the reluctant Juliet.

Our withdrawal went without incident except for a small misunderstanding with Andy. It soon became apparent that, having found some other bonus bits early on, he had decided to leave a pile of them with only one guard while he took the bulk of his crew further into town. Now, I like to think I have drilled my disparate crew in their civil duties when visiting alien towns, and so – spotting this pile of (admittedly valuable) ‘fly-tipping’ near our exit, I offered to remove the stuff. The guard had no sense of humour, and objected most violently – if briefly… However, Alan had also left a specialist snip nearby, and so not all my crew reported back for supper that evening. And it was Spoo, as well – their favourite….

The stars for shame shall hide their light,
as my beloved ascends aright,
and all shall marvel at the sight,
of a new Angel born tonight.

-Cpt VanRental-

Tybalt Capulet and Greyfax see things differently

Captain Greyfax’s Report

The crew of the Lost Hope landed on planet Romance and began making their way across the city of Verona, looking for clues to the location of Mariah the “Angel”, the kidnapped love of Tony Montague. Having secured a side hustle card that would prove invaluable later in the game, the team split up, with the captain making for the local watering hole, whilst first mate Kadal took the of the crew with him scouring the streets for anything that might lead them to their prize.

Knowing that information could be traded for coin Captain Greyfax entered the bar where she spied a likely candidate who might be willing to part with some intel. The alien monkey sex worker said it would cost a fair bit for her to tell anything that might be useful. She was looking to get off-planet. Despite having a pistol held to her head and being plied with credits the alien monkey sex worker remained resolute and refused any information. Realising that either the simian prostitute was ignorant of what Greyfax wanted to know, or was too afraid to spill the beans, and a few credits lighter, she left the bar.

Meanwhile, on the street outside, Kadal instructed the ship’s Chisler, Cl4pTrP to check out a container that seemed a prime candidate for storing loot. Cl4pTrP opened the container, and once the contents were established as being of some value, began to make his way back to the ship. As Cl4pTrP scuttled off, the ship’s hacker, Devo Ranks ambled up to a nearby communication tower and casually began side loading infiltration code from his advanced deck in order to hijack the tower and force it to yield its secrets.

Kadal and his retinue then ran afoul of what appeared to be some local yahoos. A fight erupted which escalated to gunplay. Shots were exchanged and judicious use of fragmentation grenades ensued. The team drove the ne’er do wells into a nearby warehouse where the thugs desperately attempted to make a last stand. Captain Greyfax caught up with Kadal and his men and the team took some casualties due to the liberal use of grenades and a psionic fire attack in an enclosed space.

Murch the bounty hunter finally catches up with captain Greyfax

The leader of the thugs finally went down (whether it was to a grenade, bullets, a swathe of fire or a simple punch, no one could recount for sure in the confusion, but all claimed they were responsible) and with that, resistance collapsed. Once the enemy had been “pacified”, the crew discovered Mariah the “Angel” was being held captive, right there in the warehouse. What luck!

Wasting no time, the crew limped or crawled from the warehouse, where they were greeted by Devo Ranks, the hacker. He cheerfully informed them that his successful hacking of the comms tower revealed a hidden matter transport network (the result of the previously mentioned side hustle card). Wasting no time, Greyfax instructed the crew to use the network to return to the ship. Once there, they rendezvoused with Tony Montague and reunited him with his betrothed.

Now two hundred and fifty credits richer, none of the crew suffered lasting injuries although, some may have interesting scars to talk about and know to stand well clear of crewmember Espinosa when he starts loading his grenade launcher.

Roses are red,
violets are blue.
I’m rubbish at poems,
Nice ****.

-Cpt Greyfax-

Let it be stated here that Murch the bounty hunter has put a bounty of 150 credits on Captain Greyfax’s head to whoever can take Greyfax down to 0 Health. This will be doubled to 300 credits if this results in a kill. Murch wants it known that Greyfax is a cheat and swindler who took his spaceship from him after Greyfax cheated at a game of Sabacc, and should never be trusted.

Captain Blake’s Report

This was going to be an unusual mission. I wasn’t sure if it was a rescue or a kidnap, so the crew decided on a bit of caution.

The idea being to see what loot we could salvage and if there was a chance to set Mariah free to take it. We landed in a busy urban area and it was clear there were several other crews in town, the crew split up and started to gather loot and clues to finding Mariah. Good progress was made and the other crews seemed intent on the mission.

Things took a turn for the worse when what appeared to be a pile of junk suddenly turned into a fully armed and rather aggressive robot. Several shots saw a number of the crew taking damage. While taking cover several members of the crew found themselves in close proximity to a rival crew (Pete’s), meanwhile other members of the crew made their way to the local bar to start asking questions.
Things got a bit heated in the bar and Captain Blake was forced to adjust the behaviour of one of the locals. At the same time Pete’s crew were too close for comfort and with the junk robot still shooting at anything that moves we decided to fight our way through them and make good our escape.

With the clues in the bar leading to nothing, we stepped out into the town square right in the middle of a fire fight, Eric’s gang appeared to have taken out several gang members and a rogue bounty hunter. They were also about to storm a building, so we thought it was a good time to leave. The junk robot had finally finished shooting and so the rest of the crew could escape with their loot.

Captain Blake’s crew approach a broken robot

A good horde was collected that day and we saw on the news feeds later that Mariah had been rescued, so good all round.

My heart belongs to no other,
as I stare at you from cover.
Our future could have been bright,
But you’re currently in line of sight.

– Cpt Blake

Captain Reynolds’ Report

Mal had briefed the crew before leaving the Serenity in orbit around the planet Romance: “Badger told us that the Montagues have placed an open contract to find one of the family member’s fiancée, an Angel from Seraphim. The Montagues believe she has been kidnapped by their rivals, the Capulets. They believe the Angel is being held near the spaceport that the Capulets control in Verona. Whoever returns this Angel to the Montagues in good health will be amply rewarded.”

“There’s history between these two families,” he added, “a long and bloody history. We go looking for this Angel, but I don’t want to lose anyone to this family feud. So, we’re not going to dig too deep into the Capulet’s business. And just between ourselves, we have rumours that somewhere under Verona are the remains of an Independent planetary defence bunker. We have a lead on the way in, so we’re looking for an access panel on a Pylon that should let us gain entry to the bunker.”

There’s plenty of monkey love in the local cantina

Inara & Wash set down the shuttle on the landing pads of Verona West Side space port. Mal led his team of Wash, Kaylee and Derrial towards the town square where he believed the Pylon they needed could be found. Zoe’s team of Jayne, Inara and River took a different route, headed for a bar, thinking they may hear news of the Angel there. Tracey and Simon held back, Tracey climbing a tower to get into a position where he could support either team.

Mal and Zoe both activated their Energy Shields, which would give them a little added protection, and Zoe activated a drone and sent it scouting towards a loot marker. Mal encountered some locals on the way and discretely asked if anyone had heard anything about the Angel. Both looked nervously around, but confided that if anyone knew anything it would be Tybalt Capulet, the family’s consigliere and head of security. Not a nice man, apparently, but he could often be found at the town centre bar.

Mal passed this intel on to Zoe, then led his team to the Pylon. After a couple of attempts he was able to unlock it, giving them the access codes needed to get into the bunker. While he was doing this Wash managed to unlock a loot token. Zoe’s drone was heading for the loot token when it was blown out of the air by a member of another crew, one we had not encountered before. Jayne got into position and opened fire taking out the opposing crew member with a headshot. KayLee came across another loot token and unlocked it. In the distance the crew could hear an exchange of gun fire.

Having unlocked the Pylon, and seeing Capt Greyfax’s crew gathering outside a storage bunker with what looked like a group of Capulets heading in their direction, Mal sent the recall and told the crew to withdraw to the Pit, which was the way into the bunker. Zoe’s team had entered the bar when they got the recall, on exiting she deployed another drone to give cover. As the crew gathered in an alleyway Derrial was assaulted, with no good reason, by a local thug. Fortunately, KayLee and Simon came to Derrial’s aid, with KayLee administering the coup de grace to the local ruffian. Leaving the ruffian sprawled in the dust the crew made their way to the Pit and used the access codes to get into the bunker.

Come on, lets all rough up that innocent bystander

The crew found the bunker eerie but deserted, and managed to find Trade Goods to the value of 180CR. The crew made their way through the tunnels back to the starport and lifted off in the shuttle to return to the Serenity.The other loot turned out to be another Pick Caster and a pair of Lift Gloves.

Mal commended the crew, no one was injured (apart from the loss of a Drone), and there was 540CR worth of loot added to the hold. Mal decided to sell the Trade Goods and the Pick Caster, bringing in 420CR, and hold on to the Lift Gloves for now.

Roses are red,
violets are blue.
If you need minions,
please speak to Gru.

-Cpt Reynolds-

You’ve Got To Build Bypasses

Tony F runs us through a Stargrave scenario set on Planet Earth (before the demolition…).

At Maidstone we have a largish group of Stargrave players with games run regularly. We all keep track of the progress of our captains and crews (although there have been casualties along the way) in a series of unrelated scenarios that we take turns to organise. Almost all are run by an umpire who sits out the game and ensures that things run smoothly. I’m a massive fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I mean, who isn’t? – and I’ve been trying to shoehorn a Stargrave scenario into the H2G2 universe. Last autumn, I finally managed it (and it’s taken almost six months to write it all up !)…

I set things right at the start of the original book, with Arthur Dent’s house about to be demolished. I didn’t directly tell the four players that the scenario was a Hitchhiker’s one although they all twigged it from their sparse briefing notes. Two of them were tasked with ensuring that the house was efficiently pulled down, while the other two were to try and stop the destruction. But they didn’t know that there were two different sets of briefings, nor did they know that they had a potential ally, which led to some interesting results later on.

Arthur’s House, surrounded by bulldozers ready to roll.

I went rather over the top with the scenery, making Arthur’s house from a Charlie Foxtrot MDF kit and giving it a detailed garden. A borrowed Forge World fantasy inn stood in as the Red Lion pub while Sarissa Precision provided Cottington Cricket Club’s pavilion. Details such as the telephone box and bus stop were from Blotz while Debris of War were the source of bits such as the rubbish bins and bags, portaloos, traffic cones, sofa etc. I scratchbuilt details such as the hedges and fences, telegraph poles, road signs and the pond, while the post box and benches were 3D prints of models I created myself. The narrow Sussex country lanes were Early War Miniatures latex offerings. I raided my 28mm Lord of the Rings scenery for beer barrels for the pub and a high hedge round the cricket pitch, which was last seen as the defensive hedge around Bree ! I really went to town with the details (far more than was strictly necessary) but I had a lot of fun putting it all together.

Arthur’s house from the west showing the bypass roadworks.

The Red Lion pub with phone box and war memorial.

The six JCBs were cheap plastic toys from eBay – I hadn’t wanted to spend a fortune on expensive die cast ones for a one-off game. I weathered them a bit, varnished them to take away the cheap plastic shine and I think they looked fine on the table. The idea was that the two demolition-tasked players could jump in them to knock the house down, but I made them difficult for the players to control on account of their weird rear wheel steering which a character used to grav sleds wouldn’t be used to.

Closup of one of the cheap plastic JCB toys, given a bit of a paint job and pressed into service.

I had fun coming up with a long list of creatures for the random encounter table. The list had 20 different possible encounters which were triggered if a player rolled four or less on their initiative roll each turn. I arranged them in increasing order of deadliness, and rolled 1d10 plus the turn number for them which meant that the players would start off with some fairly tame and easy to tackle encounters, ramping up to more difficult ones later in the game. Since Arthur lives in a fairly rural area, Warlord Games’ farmyard animals set populated the bottom half of the table, ranging from a few chickens pecking at the players’ feet up to some cows and a 3D printed bull sourced from Etsy.

The rest of the encounter table was more interesting to put together. A bunch of drunken thugs would pour forth from the Red Lion, upset at the noise and gunfire disturbing their lunchtime drinking session – these came from Killer B. Several British bobbies with truncheons from Crooked Dice would also be investigating the noise, escalating to the Sweeney (also Killer B) in a die cast police car. A simple scratchbuilt bowl of petunias (wooden bead with a flower tuft on top) and a Sperm Whale (eBay) were primed to drop out of the sky on an unlucky captain’s head. Shotgun-armed Farmer Maggert (Killer B) and his three Rottweiler dogs Grip, Wolf and Fang (Brigade Models) would get very protective over his cabbages. There were several bases of tiny red Vl’Hurg and green G’Gugvunt spaceships (Brigade again), confused about their scale but with enough firepower to give someone a nasty flesh wound. Arthur and Ford (Denizen) could well chase a Chesterfield sofa (Debris of War) across the fields, and at the top of the list was Thor, an oversized 3D print from Etsy. And I must not forget Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, a Crooked Dice figure, and his 1960s toy spaceship which I picked up for a pound at a boot fair. If he managed to land a carefully crafted insult then it could cost a Captain a few Will points.

Sadly, after all that effort, the players (with the honourable exception of Captain Gloria/Charlotte) steadfastly refused to roll many low initiative scores, especially in the second half of the game, so many of my favourite characters didn’t appear. But fear not, I have ideas for more H2G2 universe scenarios, so they’ll be back.

I think the game ran pretty well, initially most of the players spent time hoovering up the loot tokens. But then Captain Gloria jumped in one of the JCBs and they all twigged what was going on. In hindsight perhaps I should have hinted a bit more about what they were supposed to do to achieve the main objective, but I think fun was had by all which after all is what we do this for. I particularly enjoyed Charlotte’s skirmishes with the local farm animals, she seemed particularly unlucky with them, not helped by a few freakishly good die rolls against her by the umpire.

Another overview, this time from the Eastern end.

My home-made order tracker made from a few clothes pegs and a length of dowel. Keeps track of the order that players move in during the turn.

Arthur and Ford exit the Red Lion (Denizen Miniatures).

Anyway, I’ll hand you over to the four Captains for their after-action reports.

Captain Gloria (The Rhythm)

The view from Captain Gloria’s end of the table, with one of Farmer Maggert’s barns in the foreground.

COMMENCE ENTRY

The Rhythm has kept a low profile since the last altercation at the Stairway to Heaven nine months ago, but funds were running low and I was longing to be back in familiar territory. When a job came through asking us to save fellow earthling Arthur Dent’s house from demolition, I practically broke the keyboard to accept it. It should have been a case of heading to Earth, getting in, having a word with the tío in charge (el señor Prosser) and getting out.

Díos mío. What should have been a straightforward job became anything but that. Upon landing, demolition seemed at its starting point, with JCBs surrounding the dwelling. We had to move fast and, as we did, it became clear that three other gangs had also received intel about the Dent house. I was not sure of their respective motivation, so I gave the order to make our way to the house, where I was sure either the inhabitant or the demolition tío would be, before the situation could escalate. This was encumbered by my smashed jaw and Estefan’s injured leg, which restricted his movement, and the native animals that kept attacking us. Before any of the crew had reached the house, Black had already been killed by a cow (milk-bearer), which was promptly executed.

More trouble with the local fauna – this time it’s the charge of the sheep brigade.

While Estefan and many of my crew were engaged with more dwellers of the farm where we had landed – several sheep, a farmer, and his dogs – I pressed on towards the house with Bluey and Red behind me. Across the road, it seemed that two gangs – Roj Blake’s men and The Dirty Rats – were muy ocupado fighting each other, so we only needed to exchange a few rounds of fire from the crew of the Monsoon and Roj Blake’s men. Once it became clear that Wilson of the Monsoon had the same goal of saving the house, we turned our attention to taking out el señor Prosser, Blake’s men and the crew of The Dirty Rat. In a moment of gross misjudgement, I started one of the JCBs, hoping to drive it past the house and into Blake or one of his cronies. Having been some time since I drove an Earthmade machine, I ran over Red and ploughed into the back of the very house we were trying to save. Miraculously, the house remained intact and lost only some plaster and a window, and Red managed to dive out of the way in time. In this time, Wilson’s men had managed to dispatch el señor Prosser and The Dirty Rat appeared to have suffered many casualties.

I ordered those men who were not still engaged with the farmer and his vicious menagerie to try and finish off Blake’s crew, who were by now on the retreat. We left the scene with some loot, having lost only Black and White (que descansen en paz), and having brought Bluey back to make a full recovery, and we returned to the ship with 200cr having been transferred to the ship’s account. I can only assume our client shared the same job with the Monsoon and split our pay. Qué cara tiene.

Captain Gloria leaps into one of the JCB’s and gets demolishing !

The status of Arthur Dent remains unknown to us. Communications picked up by The Rhythm suggest he may have been in the pub. I only hope he is pleased that his house remains standing and that he doesn’t send us the bill for the repairs. We press on to the nearest inhabited outpost to recruit two new crewmen; but for tonight, we’re gonna party until we see the break of day. With this in mind, Rhythm: play ‘Conga’.

Farmer Maggert and his dogs appear, dangerously near to the Rhythm’s crew

ENTRY ENDS.

Captain Kersh Wilson (The Monsoon)

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,’ said Captain Kersh Wilson to his first mate, a giant shaggy biomorph called Shoggoth.

Shoggoth grunted in response.

‘Get the crew ready,’ instructed Kersh. ‘Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the galaxy there are reports that several planets are to be destroyed to make way for an intergalactic bypass. And no one has told the inhabitants or cares about what happens to them.

We have to stop this.’

Shoggoth looked at Kersh deeply. There were many things that confused him about this human, but his kind demeanour and generosity is what had drawn him to serve this gentle and philosophical mystic.

Kersh and his crew landed on the blue and white, industrial, planet with the intent of stopping its destruction. They had discovered that it was being led by a sinister individual calling itself Planning Officer Prosser – such tyrants always give themselves grandiose titles. His elimination was essential to stopping this wanton act of violence.

Kersh and his crew approached a small house across a field of wheat. They could see large yellow machines getting ready to demolish the building. The crew’s pathfinder, Aidan Kenver, could see a large packing crate so he made a dash for it, wondering if it might have data about what was happening – the crew had secured a data loot token.

Kersh and the rest of the crew diverted around the back of the building because they’d seen more equipment stashed there and began to wonder the same as Aidan. Mallia Bygrove, an ex-army sniper, took up position at the corner of a hedge to cover Kersh and the crew in case anyone tried to come around behind (as they came into orbit they picked up the warpdrive signals of three other vessels, presumably trying to selfishly loot the planet before its destruction).

They saw movement! They recognised an individual who they knew to be a member of Captain Gloria’s crew.

‘Stay over there and come no nearer and we shall let you go in peace,’ called Kersh.

They heard no answer.

But an answer soon came because this same individual entered the wheat field and opened fire at Kersh and his men! Fire was soon returned.

Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged attempts to serve Captain Wilson with his pre-determined insult (they shot him – doubtless he’ll be back).

Things got busier, because Mallia saw a couple of suspicious looking types beside an older, wooden, building with a sign outside that said ‘The Red Lion’, so to keep them at bay he gave them a warning shot.

More shooting could now be heard. Not only shooting, but the lowing and mooing of large bovine creatures. A robot came into view, a droid that Kersh had seen before amongst the crew of Captain Roj. This robot raised its gun and the sensors on Kersh’s Threat Detector sensed it locking on. But the robot’s aim soon passed and found a different target elsewhere. Nonetheless, the robot’s intentions had been made all too clear and there was no knowing whether it may or may not come back and take a shot. So Kersh called out to Yammet, a rapid-fire gunner, to take his weapon and destroy captain Roj’s robot. Yammet swung around and let out a terrible burst of fire and the robot crumpled into a mess of wires and burnt steel.

‘Captain,’ said crewman Rannock Crowder, ‘aren’t we getting distracted? Aren’t we here to stop Planning Officer Prosser?’

Rannock was right, and Kersh knew it. He drew out his lightsabre void blade and made for the target of their intentions, leaving troopers Zanford Schneider and Brynan Jones to keep up the fight with Captain Gloria’s crew.

The Monsoon’s crew approach from the rear of the house.

Meanwhile, the fracas between Mallia and this other mystery crew had escalated. More deadly fire was being exchanged. Kersh’s droid, 2B-55, had joined in as well. The enemy crew were getting fewer in number, so that was a promising start. However, someone had hot-wired a pair of the large yellow machines surrounding the house, so Kersh, Shoggoth, and 2B-55 had to be careful.

There was Prosser! With his back to Kersh, the wicked Planning Officer was surveying his work, cackling cruelly at all the mayhem and destruction. Kersh was tempted to just strike him down, but his training had instilled in him an honourable code, and so he declared himself to Prosser. This code of honour was not shared by the Planning Officer who promptly swung around and struck Kersh with his briefcase before running off. Just a temporary setback as Kersh recovered and, braving the fire from the guns of the other hostile crew, Kersh pursued the Planning Officer before cornering him and striking him down with his lightsabre. Sorry, his void blade.

There was still a lot of upheaval to deal with. Kersh could see he’d been wrong about Captain Gloria and her crew who, like him, were out to protect this primitive planet. It was obvious that Captain Roj and this fourth crew he’d never encountered before had other plans. Mallia Bygrove made his way up, ducking behind some bins and boxes, before taking aim with his sniper rifle to shoot the drivers of the yellow death machines. He could see crew members of Captain Roj behind a hedge who took shots at Bygrove, but they missed their mark.

Realising they were bettered, Captain Roj and his crew soon slunk off like the dirty wamp-rats they were. Whoever this other crew had been was now irrelevant because they’d all been overcome and were nowhere to be seen.

Kersh made for 2B-55, who had received considerable damage, to make sure his droid was still fit to move. The droid was in bad shape, but still operable. Time to head back to their ship, though Kersh.

‘Back to the ship. Back to The Monsoon,’ he called and he and his crew made off, satisfied they’d stopped Planning Officer Prosser.

Captain Black Rat (The Dirty Rat)

It became apparent right from the off that it just wasn’t going to be my day. As I pulled my crew proudly from their storage foam, I soon realised one was absent. Where was Ratchet the Robot? Ratchet is bigger than the average figure. It has protection is akin to power armour. But he wasn’t there. I borrowed a robot from Tony, but then I found I had this old sculpt, at least fairly heavily armed, in the box. Then I realised I didn’t have my “powers cards” either. They are copied from the rule book and stuck to card. They are a handy aide memoire. I missed them.

The missing robot and cards. Alas, poor Marcus.

My crew deployed from behind a pub. We might as well have gone in and had a few drinks. The approach might have been better if we did. I split my team, then got confused about who needed to be with what to benefit from the synergy of my powers. Then, “Oh look, I can see a robot approaching.” One of the J10 (Jeremy’s Blake’s 7 analogues, not a stellar equivalent of J2O from the aforementioned pub.) Time to use the “Control Robot” power. This failed (naturally), drawing withering fire from Jeremy. His approach had been more direct too, so he ended up grabbing more loot on this side of the table. Sadly, it took us some time to get over this spat and realise we were on the same side (as much as anyone can be in Stargrave!).

The crew of the Dirty Rat deploy in the car park of the Red Lion.

My mission stated that I really needed to find Prosser and get the keys. As Steve and Charlotte had their own little spat over who’s side was who’s, Steve also sent some forces toward the cottage.
Prosser randomly moved towards Steve and got into trouble. “We are on your side you bureaucratic twit!”. Both groups from the Dirty Rat were taking fire and I could not roll a defence die for a Syrtis Major toffee and peanut asteroid bar. While the Orange kid did make off with some loot, Captain Black Rat went out of action, swiftly followed by Harriet Barber (who strangely enough, might have felt at home in a B7 analogue crew…) and others too numerous to mention. No-one had a great day. Did I say no-one?

My hacker 01-V2 jumped onto a digger, hacked it and started driving for the cottage. Meanwhile one of the crew managed to grab the cottage keys from the flailing Prosser’s dying fingers and made for the door. The diggers were far from easy to control, as Charlotte had found earlier. The little droid tried to drive the digger into the cottage. Surely it must go down! No. Another try? No..and he got shot. Ratchet 2 jumped onto another digger, and was similarly challenged in the driving department. Nevertheless, we got inside to discover… that despite all that effort, the keys were keys to the hotwired diggers not the cottage. That summed it up for the game really’ as Ratchet 2 also went down, like the rest of the crew under a hail of critical hits that not even someone who can calculate their defence rolls properly could have survived. Fortunately, a number of end game rolls later I could lick just one wound and everyone lived…for another day.

Fortunately these two made it off and made it to the site.

JCBs in the garden of the house – Arthur’s car has taken a bashing.

Captain Roj Blake (unnamed starship)

The power armour check was passed, everything was loaded and the crew were ready to roll. The first surprise of the mission was that we landed in a green and pleasant land. There were green fields, trees and in the
distance a not particularly nice looking house. The mission brief was to find a Mr Prosser.

But my immediate problem was there were other crews present and mine was out in the open, so orders were given to get a move on and head towards the house. Making it to the other side of a large hedge, half the crew
were presented with a strange view. Charlotte’s crew was locked in battle with various creatures. This battle was to play out for a while, involving chickens, pigs, cows and dogs. So the crew took up position resting against a fence and taking in the show.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew continued towards the house, only to be rudely attacked by Marcus’ crew trying to take control of robot Zen. Despite this attempt at control failing, the outrage was met in a suitable way with several hot projectiles. I’m pleased to report several hit and opened the score (appropriate given the target was next to the cricket pavilion).

Some of the Captain Blake’s crew cross the road from the cricket pitch.

However it soon became clear that the positions of the other crews meant getting to Mr Prosser was going to be impossible. Stephen’s crew were already approaching Mr Prosser while also exchanging fire with Marcus’ crew. And Charlotte’s crew had decided that despite losing to the local wildlife they would also fire on my crew by the fence. Marcus had also continued to poke round the pavilion providing a steady supply of target practice.

At this point there was a sudden change in the game. One of Marcus’ crew managed to get in one of the yellow diggers surrounding the house and was trying to get it to demolish the house. Charlotte’s crew had also prevailed against the livestock and managed to wound one of my crew. So I switched track and several crew made a dash with their loot while the remaining crew made for the diggers. And boy were those diggers hard to control. I never got close to the house and in the time I spent trying both Stephen’s and Charlottes crews were advancing on the house and I was taking fire. But you cannot say my crew wasn’t adaptable. It was time to grab the loot and make a run for it. Unfortunately one of my crew Jenna Stannis was shot in the back by Charlotte as they were retreating, and that’s where we left the other crews to it. It was a good day for loot but a bad day for the crew as, despite having an advanced medical suite on the ship, Jenna didn’t make it.

On the outskirts of Cottington – they don’t look like locals.

Society Meeting 14/02/2026

Andy rounds up the Valentine’s Day meeting

A quieter meeting this time, just three games in progress.

Paul and Colin staged a 2mm recreation of the Battle of Waterloo.

Mark J and Tony F were trying out ‘O’ Group with an early WW2 encounter between the French and Germans in 10mm.

German and French Infantry line the hedges

Germans push back the French right flank

And finally Stephen ran a Stargrave game, with a Valentine’s Day theme. Look out for the Captains’ unbiased reports in a blog post soon.

Some nere-do-wells in the streets of Verona on the planet Romance

The mean streets of the west side of Verona

Mariah – the Angel, guarded by Captain Greyfax’s crew

Captain Reynold’s crew passing quietly down a back alley.

MWS meet on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month (except the 4th Saturday in December) from 10:00 to 17:00 at Linton Village Hall, south of Maidstone on the A299.

Information about the Society, including directions, can be found here.

The diary of planned games can be found here, this is updated throughout the year so please have a look from time to time.

The Stairway to Heaven

Stephen takes us through a Stargrave adventure based around some weird dreams…

‘All that glitters is gold’

Recently a bout of Luna flu has been doing the rounds of the bars and cantinas of many-a-starport. And the less salubrious ones at that. It’s a highly contagious virus but not dangerous – sufferers mainly complain of nausea, tiredness, and delirium.

It seems that some space crews had recently been hit by the virus and the wild dreams sent them on a wild goose chase – and the Galactic Commission intercepted three messages. These come from the Rhythmic which is on record as being an ex-military freighter and captained by a veteran soldier, Gloria Fuster (Charlotte). The other is from captain Garo Braven (Tony) of the Cepheid Variable – a crew made up of mercenaries and mystics. The last is from the Serenity, captained by Mal Reynolds (Andy), and crewed by a prolific group of smugglers, murderers, and pirates.
We’ll let them speak for themselves…

THE RHYTHM: SOLDIER GREEN’S LOG

COMMENCE ENTRY

The Rhythm did not go looking for trouble, but it sure found us.

This morning, we landed in a strange jungle on an unfamiliar planet, home of a fabled Stairway to Heaven. Captain Gloria was convinced the ancient structure was hiding something valuable following a strange vision. Our mission was simple: find the item and bring it back.

Two rival crews from the ships Serenity and Cepheid Variable seemed to have the same idea. Worse, Gloria recognised the gunner of the Cepheid as the same man who’d insulted her mother a few planets over. Even worse than that: there was a shapeshifter in our midst.

Was it the inexperience of working with the Rhythmics, or was Gloria too distracted by her greed? We received orders to take out the gunner and rival crews and loot what we could while Gloria searched for the valuable item. Things soon escalated and became a free-for-all, although whether the Serenity and the Cepheid had an accord is uncertain; this soldier notes that they did not fire at each other for the duration of the battle.

The Rhythmics split at the southern hill, with half going after the Cepheid’s crew and the others facing Serenity. After two bouts of searching for loot under fire, the shapeshifter posing as Mintz made itself known. A Rhythmic duly took it down, and another killed the Variable’s gunner. That’ll teach him to call Mrs Fuster a [AUTO-CENSORED].

To the east, the Rhythmics took on the Serenity’s crew. We wounded one of their crewmen, angering them so that they took out both soldiers Yellow and Blue.

All crews fought fiercely, while Gloria focused on transferring the data loot she’d found to Simmons, fearing that the Serenity’s drone had already taken what she really came for. Soldier Squid was killed instantly by the Serenity, but we retaliated and took out one on their side.

The Cepheid crew continued their own search for loot, but took down Gloria after she’d shot at their Captain. Her first mate Estefan was not far behind her. A brave Rhythmic attempted to climb the Stairway in a last-ditch effort to find the gold and a vantage point. He was eventually killed after his carbine jammed and left him vulnerable on a rocky outcrop, not long after his good friend Han also fell to the Serenity’s guns. Remarkably, the Rhythmics survived the fearsome native creatures that kept appearing to torment the other crews throughout the battle.

The only Rhythmics left standing were Simmons and myself, who returned to the ship with data loot and physical loot respectively. There we found the real Mintz waiting for us. Gloria, Estefan, and two crew members eventually regained consciousness and returned to the ship after the battle. We head on to our next mission, to be confirmed once the crew receive medical attention. I have advised Gloria to take caution before committing to visions in future. After all, there’s still time to change the road she’s on.

ENTRY ENDS.

Gaden’s Log Begins:
Kal Gaden quickly exited from the Cepheid Variable’s tail ramp with the rest of the crew while the autopilot held it in a stable hover a few inches above the surface of the clearing. A quick command on the Captain’s wrist comlink and the ship took itself up into a parking orbit, ready to be recalled when the mission was done.

This was more like it, Kal thought – a well-trained, professional disembarkation with a bunch who looked like they knew what they were doing. Granted, some of the crew were really inexperienced, their only previous venture being the mission on the snow moon to rescue that old man in the red suit. It had turned into a bit of an easy turkey shoot (or more accurately a penguin shoot), but that was exactly what the crew had needed to shake out some of the rust. And they were looking like they had learnt from it – not like that shower of amateurs that he had been caught up with a couple of orbits ago.

As luck would have it, they came down just off of their intended position. The target, an ancient set of giant steps which apparently had a pretty fancy bit of treasure at the top, was on the wrong side of a fast-moving jungle stream. But the Captain led them towards it in close order, and they advanced with their eyes peeled. Sharal, the fastest of the crew, went ahead and hacked into an old data terminal that she almost tripped over, probably kit left behind by a previous expedition. It turned out that she had unlocked a set of plans for some pretty advanced alien armour tech – that alone would make the trip worth it.

At that point the local fauna began to make itself apparent, with a giant scorpion-like creature emerging from the undergrowth. Koor Vane, one of the newer recruits, took it down with a few well-placed shots.

Kal found the entrance to what looked like an old crypt and told the crew he was going to check it out. The inside was full of a blue-ish mist which, as he entered, congealed itself into a form which, if he was superstitious, he’d have called a ghost. But he wasn’t, and instead he peeled off a volley of shots – that went promptly straight through it. Instead he pulled his combat knife and by slicing it repeatedly through the apparation he somehow manged to dispel it, although he didn’t feel any contact with anything solid, just a sense of cold. It was worth the struggle however, as further inside the crypt was a military issue chain gun – a bit grimy, but cleaned up it should work a treat, and Kal knew that Tan Gariss, the crew’s specialist gunner, would appreciate it.

He stepped outside, and only at that point realised that the thick stone walls of the crypt must have been blocking his comms, as all hell had broken loose. The Captain had taken down some menacing bat-like creature with a single giant eye that had appeared over the watercourse, and now there was a full-blown firefight going on. It seemed that a rival mob (the Rhythmics) who held a grudge with a few members of the crew had landed nearby. It stemmed from some long-forgotten bar fight he was told later – and Gariss himself had gone down from a single nasty one, and didn’t look good. The crew was returning fire and Kal could just about make out several figures moving through the foliage a few tens of yards away. Fire from Rook and Kyorla smacked into one of them – it looked like a droid from the way it was moving – but it didn’t go down. The Captain organised the main bulk of the crew into a firing line and they slowly advanced into the jungle, blazing away as they went. Keeping tactical discipline, Sarai took down the leader of the other crew and the Captain himself accounted for their first mate. Kal had to admit he was impressed.

In the meantime, the diminutive first mate Gerbo had disappeared inside a giant stone head. No one followed him and he was vague about what he found inside, but after what sounded like numerous swipes of his void blade, he emerged a few minutes later clutching a fancy looking power sword and nursing a headache – ‘powerful it was, but conquered it I have’ he said in his weird reverse dialect.

The Captain had meanwhile been monitoring the site remotely using the Cepheid’s sensor suite and had found that a drone belonging to the Serenity – nobody had even realised that ship was on the planet – had made it to the top of the spiral stairway, and figured that the treasure was probably gone. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, the ship was recalled from orbit and the crew began to make their way back to the clearing. The indigenous wildlife had woken up by that point and tried to make life interesting – Jaon Rook was bitten by a poisonous giant river wyrm which required treatment from Gebro and his medikit, then a troop of what looked like rock apes crept in from their flank – Kal took out two with well-placed blaster rounds, Sarai and Jaon the others. Just as they reached the clearing the jungle itself came alive, and a weakened Jaon was dragged down by creeper-like appendages. Kyorla, the sniper, found her range and the plants’ weak spots and rescued Jaon and the others.

As they rendezvoused back at the grounded Cepheid, Sharal and Koor emerged panting from the other side of the clearing clutching another abandoned data terminal. In the confusion no-one had noticed them slip off into the jungle after more loot, but their diversion again proved fruitful.

The ship lifted off with Jaon and Gariss strapped into the med-bay – both were out of danger thanks to the robo-doc’s ministrations. Although the main prize eluded them there was still a decent return from the mission, and Kal looked forward to a spot of R&R somewhere a bit more civilised with his share of the bounty from the haul.

**SERENITY LOG**
“OK Wash, get us off this goddam planet, I’m headin’ down to sick bay to see how Kaylee’s doing” Mal said as he turned and left the flight deck.

“How’s Kaylee, Doc?” Mal asked as he entered sickbay.
Simon looked up from the MedSuite controls “It was touch and go, but due to the Advanced Medical Suite you had installed last year, she’s still with us.” came the reply.
Mal turned to look at Kaylee lying in the MedSuite, bandaged and with an arm in a sling.
“Well Captain, I cain’t say I’ve never been better, but I think I’ll pull through.” she said, “but I ain’t gonna be much use till this arm’s healed though.”

Mal cast his mind back to the day’s events…
He had had a series of incoherent dreams, but a constant feature in all of them had been a rock pile known as “The Stairway to Heaven” on one of the nearby planets. He was convinced there was worthwhile loot to find on or near the Stairway.

On orbital insertion the Serenity’s sensors picked up two other ships in nearby orbit, the Cepheid Variable, a ship and crew Mal had encountered before, and an unfamiliar ship, the Rhythm.
The name of the second ship prompted Mal to remember a rumour he’d heard about that ship, that one of the crew had been found unconscious on a space station, recounting a tale of being attacked by some form of alien, and seeing said alien walk away transforming into an identical copy of the crew member. Mal had dismissed this account as the ramblings of a deep space afflicted mind, but on the off chance that the crew member was telling the truth, he sent a personal “Your Eyes Only” message to the Captain of the Rhythm, recounting the tale, just in case there was a polymorph hiding amongst the Rhythm’s crew.

The shuttles landed in one of the few jungle clearings south of the Stairway, Mal lead Wash, Kaylee and Derrial towards the Stairway, while Zoe, Jayne, Inara and River headed towards a stream. Simon, Tracey and the Repairbot followed behind.

The jungle was very thick, visibility was restricted and the Stairway itself out of sight, but its position had been locked into the nav units, so they knew they were on the right track.

Almost immediately Zoe and Inara were ambushed by a couple of mobile, carnivorous plants, Zoe received a savage bite, but Inara despatched her opponent. They reminded Inara of something she read in an old novel from Earth-That-Was, “Triffids” she thinks they were called.

Zoe beat off the surviving Triffid, and Inara put it down with a well-aimed shot. Mal reached some physical loot, and unlocked it, but Jayne was less fortunate, rustling in the undergrowth revealed a Bileworm which attacked and stunned him.

Jayne somehow managed to fight off the Bileworm, Mal and Zoe opened up on it but both their guns jammed! Simon, Tracey and Derrial also shot at the Bileworm, Derrial getting in the fatal shot. Meanwhile Kaylee’s Repairbot trundled up to the loot Mal had unlocked and picked it up.

With the Bileworm dead Jayne used his medic kit to neutralise the poison coursing through his veins. Zoe’s team saw movement on the far side of the stream, and came under fire from the crew of the Rhythm.

Mal and Wash reached a Data loot near the Stairway and Mal unlocked it, as some type of rock ape appeared on a butte above them. Zoe launched a Drone and sent it towards the top of the Stairway, but Kaylee was shot by one of the Rhythm’s crew and wounded. Jayne and River returned fire and took down two of the rival crew.

More of the crew of the Rhythm appeared across the stream, firing at Mal & Wash but missing. Mal threw some smoke grenades to block the line of sight, while Wash downloaded the data Mal had unlocked. Although wounded Kaylee took a shot at the ape above Mal, but missed. The Ape descended the butte and attacked Mal.

River crossed the stream to reach a Physical loot, Simon reached Kaylee and treated her wounds. And two more Triffids appeared!

Before River could try to unlock the loot, she was shot and KO’d by one of the Rhythm’s crew. Mal fought off the ape, killing it, and Derrial despatched another Triffid. More gunfire was heard to the north, perhaps from the crew of the Cepheid Variable, but they didn’t come into sight.

Zoe crossed the stream to aid River, while Simon shot and killed another Triffid. Kaylee was slowly making her way back to the shuttles when she was attacked and KO’d by a Wraith-like creature, a swirl of blue mist. Zoe’s drone had made it to the top of the Stairway, and picked up the Treasure of the Ancients.

Mal avenged Kaylee by destroying the Wraith, while Jayne laid more smoke to block the Rhythm’s crew’s line of sight. The Drone laboriously made its way down from the Stairway with the Treasure, heading slowly back to the shuttles.

Zoe hosed down one of the Rhythm’s crew with her RFG, putting him down. The Repairbot safely returned to the shuttles.

More of the Rhythm’s crew appeared from behind the smoke screen; they shot at and took down both Zoe & Jayne.

Yet another of the planet’s fauna, resembling a Velociraptor from Earth-That-Was’ prehistory, appeared, attacking Tracey. After a sustained fight the Raptor took Tracey out of the game.

Derrial spotted one of the Rhythm’s crew climbing the Stairway (not sure why as the drone had already liberated the Treasure of the Ancients). This crewman took a pot shot at Derrial, missing him. Derrial fired back taking him out.

Inara killed the Raptor, but was in turn KO’d by a Ryakan that had been flying around seemingly at random.

As the crew fell back, they lost sight of the remains of the Rhythm’s crew, but the Ryakan still posed a threat. Fortunately, Mal managed to bring it down without it causing further injury.

Given the number of aggressive indigenous fauna and flora the crew had encountered at the start of the mission, surprisingly the remaining members of the crew made it back to the shuttles without any further encounters and returned to the Serenity.

Although over half of the crew were casualties during the mission, most only had scrapes, bruises and concussion, except for Kaylee. Whether the Wraith like creature that took her down had some lingering toxic after effect, Simon didn’t know, what he was certain of was that it was only the Serenity’s Advanced Medical Suite that let Kaylee pull through, even if she would take weeks to fully recover.

**LOG ENDS**

Stargrave: A New Hope?

Marcus fesses up to his Stargrave woes and how he’s gone about recruiting a new crew.

I’ve had some problems playing Stargrave. It’s not the game. I am sure it isn’t perfect, but we love playing it at the club. It’s not even my club-mates, who keep shooting me. It’s my crew. Well, that’s not fair. I do like my crew. But they look quite…similar. Too similar. And it hasn’t helped that I used the original Stargrave roster from the book, downloading it from the Osprey site. In the middle of a game I would find myself shuffling and flipping over sheets trying to work out which character was being fired at, or acting, and not exactly sure which one I was looking out without checking.

The concept of that crew was something like the Bynars from Star Trek: The Next Generation (the episode 1.15 “11001001”) with an added dose of psionics. The crew comprised some small Copplestone Grey’s, the brains, and the mean looking, vat-grown “Big Greys”, which were from the now defunct Griffin Miniatures. I had never managed to get around to using these before. It took me long enough to get around to painting the mean Greys, although I really like them.

The Old Crew. Left to Right: 101, or is that 110..?

I might use them in Xenos Rampant in the future, although we have been using 15mm figures for that so far. But I digress.

In an effort to solve the problems in my personal organizational abilities I needed two things:
Firstly, a one page roster so that all that stats were right in front of me. I had tried looking at creating roster cards, but they just didn’t seem to work for me. I wanted everything, the whole crew, on one side of A4. Fortunately club members, noticing my travails, kindly offered me a selection.

Stargrave Roster

(Editor’s note: If you print this roster, make sure you open the “More Settings” option in the print preview screen and have “Fit to Printable Area” selected.)

Secondly, I needed to recruit a new crew. A more individual crew of characters.

And it really isn’t that hard to stat a crew up, at least not if you can be decisive about it! In a nutshell, recruit a Captain and First Mate from the various specialities (akin to schools of magic in Frostgrave) available and spend 400 Cr. on recruiting the rest of your eight crew.

The specialities I referred to are “abilities”. The Captain chooses five, with three of four from the characters background e.g. psionics as i referred to for my first crew, or veteran. There is quite a range with new backgrounds being added in the inevitable supplements to the core rules. It makes for an interesting comparison with Five Parsecs from Home, which regular readers of the blog will know I have also been playing solo (I should really complete another episode soon!) However, in Five Parsecs the choice of crew characteristics is all based on random rolls reminiscent of the old school Traveller RPG. It’s much more about the whole crew even if the Captain is the first among equals. In Stargrave it is very much about the Captain and a little about the First Mate. In truth, everyone else is disposable to a greater or lesser extent. The First Mate chooses four abilities, with two or three from their background. Previously I chose two Psionicists, but this time I chose a Cyborg Captain and a Veteran First Mate.

Why did I make this choice? I am not entirely sure. I was looking through the core rules on character creation with the intent of choosing a new crew but the process became influenced by the models I had available or fancied using and the narrative that began to create in my head. I think that is a good thing!

I initially had the idea that I would use figures from a Kick-Starter project that I had received: Star-Schlock. This at least started out rooted in influences of the pulpy Sci-Fi TV of the 80’s. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century crossed with Star Trek and maybe a dose of Star Wars and 80’s Flash Gordon, in particular.

Some similarity occurred to me between the Star Trek: TNG era and Buck Rogers slightly more campy second season. Something akin to the rescued Borg Seven Of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. I had the idea of using some unused cyborg miniatures which I had from the old Scotia Grendel Urban War range, the VOID Syntha biomechs, making them a kind of Star Trek Borg analogue.

I had already started painting some of these after a long time in the lead pile. I was intending to put them to use in Spy-Fi games as some kind of, well, Fembot for want of a better word. Yeah Baby!

Then I hit a problem.

It was only when I compared the completed Syntha miniatures to the Star Schlock figures I noticed a considerable size discrepancy! That was pretty much the deal breaker although at this point I realized that I was in some danger of repeating the same folly using some Star Schlock rank and file figures; a lack of clear characterisation.

Repeating the same problem. Do they look a bit similar?

I was now fixed on using the Syntha as Borg analogues but the sizing discrepancy made me think about using at least some more old school miniatures. Hence a look at EM-4’s range of early Grenadier sculpts. It was a chance to pick up some older, characterful miniatures that I had regularly seen pictures of, or seen new versions of older sculpts, but had never quite managed to add to my collection. Since i was basing this crew around the escaped cyborgs I wanted a crew that at least in part were themed around interconnection, robotics and coordinated firepower. At least that was the plan.

The Black Rat

Also known as Six of Seven, Black Rat is to be my captain. She had somehow managed to escape some Authority “black-ops” experiment as government broke down. She has very little knowledge of her origins, but is on a quest to know more.

I chose to give her:

Camouflage (she is wearing a stealth suit)
Target lock (allowing her or another member of the crew to automatically hit the target of a grenade/grenade launcher attack, even if not in line of sight.)
An energy shield (absorbing some shooting damage)
Control robot (interface with a robot and take control)
Drone. I am rather partial to using drones, not that they have done me much good so far. (Draw line of sight from the drone)

She also has a carbine (2 spaces), a pistol, light armour, a deck for hacking and a filter mask.

Harriet “Harry” Barber

I originally had a figure in a beret picked out for this role, but Harry has grown on me. I first saw the figure many years ago. It normally has a truncheon and I think is supposed to be a “space police” figure. I removed the truncheon and added a small pouch in its place. In my mind there is a similarity to Glynis Barber in the 80’s series “Dempsey and Makepeace” where her character was called Harriet Makepeace. She is some kind of ex-security figure (the kind of security that doesn’t use a truncheon or wear a uniform) who along the way helped the Black Rat escape from her captors.

Fortune. (She is a bit of a Han Solo and you might call her lucky, or perhaps it is her roguish charm?)
Armoury (Harry has a way with weapons and can field power armour without the upkeep cost or increase the damage on one standard firearm)
Remote Firing (Can select a robot in the crew to make a +3 line of sight shooting attack)
Repair Robot (Yes, Harry is good with robots too)

Harry also has a filter mask (always handy), light armour, a carbine taking up two spaces and picks for breaking into physical objects.

Moving on to the Standard and Specialist figures, these are much easier to select as they are very much modular, “plug in” selections.

The “White Rat” (Three of Seven) – Commando

Naturally, also being a cyborg and a comrade of Six (or part of the same hive mind), the White Rat needed to pack a bit of a punch. They were specialist operatives after all.

Ratchet the Robot

Picked up from some abandoned facility and reprogrammed by Harriet, Ratchet is an armoured trooper. Thanks to Harry’s Armoury skill she can offset the upkeep cost. Originally I costed out Ratchet as a grenadier, making that rather large gun a grenade launcher of some kind. I changed to admittedly costly power armour as a result of choosing the armoury skill for the First Mate.

Troopers (3)

There have been various iterations of this crew, but they always seemed to revolve around having three troopers. These are Viridian, (with the green skin and yellow jacket), Sal Buco (long green coat and pistol) and Cy An (Blue skinned alien). At the outset they all have a carbine, heavy armour and a knife. Yes, I know Sal appears to have a pistol. Does anyone remember the pistols in the original “Man From Uncle”? Well Sal has picked up something like one of those. He can attach an extended barrel, long magazine and collapsible stock. Hey presto: a carbine. Originally Sal was going to be a simple recruit, but I had another idea…

Hacker – Zero One

A nod to my old crew. Zero One now stands out in a crowd. It is my hacker equipped with a pistol, light armour, a deck for hacking (of course) and a knife.

Recruits (2)

Finally, my two recruits. Originally I was going to fit in a guard dog, but the dog cost 10 credits and frankly can do less. I am not a min/maxer, but when you want to fit in certain options the free figures give more flexibility. And a bit of colour. These miniatures came from the Hydra “Retro Ray-Gun” range. It is a nice range although the figures tend to be a little larger overall. But these two are I think teenagers. I painted them up with no clear objective for using them. I watched Firefly again recently and it occurred to me that these two, the “Citrus Kids” could be analogues to Simon and River Tam (except he isn’t a doctor and she isn’t a psychic killing machine). That points to the one thing which might be slightly dissatisfying with the rules. As I pointed out earlier, if you aren’t a Captain or First Mate, there isn’t going to be much progression, beyond adding a better bit of kit. That said, I don’t think that is what this game is for and is why I like a bit of solo Five Parsecs.

Recruits have a pistol, light armour and a knife.

So that is the crew of the “Dirty Rat”. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do in an outing at the club mysteriously entitled “Oubliette”, very soon. I am sure there will be a report.

A year’s worth of gaming (Part 2)

Club member Stephen reviews the games he has played at Maidstone Wargames Society this year. This is part 2 of the article covering July to December. If you missed part 1 it can be found here.

The first meeting after the Open Day can be an important one because it would be the first ‘true’ impression of a club day for anyone returning after the Open Day. We do try to have a few games going and it’s important that games are open to any new member to help them feel included and part of the club. I had a game of Dragon Rampant with Andy.

We got in two games. Andy was using his goblins, and I used two new armies – elves in the first game and dwarves in the second. And Andy won both games. Not just won, but won quite convincingly. That’s the thing with new armies – it takes time. You have to get to know each other, trust each other, respect each other. Just like any relationship.

At the end of July came more sci-fi. Another game of Stargrave – Jurassic Moon! I’m sure you can work out the inspiration for that one. Films, TV, and books all provide an endless resource for Stargrave games. Yet again, another sci fi game in my decision to do more sci fi during the year.

In this game Tony’s captain would get killed by a pack of velociraptors, meaning Tony lost his crew and will have to start all over again. Meanwhile, Eric kept throwing grenades at everything. We also used the Side Hustle cards, which provided a great new element to the game.

We are now two-thirds of the way through this gaming year, and another sci fi game for me – Battlestar Galactica by Ares Games. This uses the same game engine as other games such as X-Wing. The game was run by Alan, so fulfilled two briefs for the year’s gaming – play more sci fi, and play more games run by other people. Best of all, though, was the chance to game with club members I seldom game with. Alan umpired with Dave and myself taking the Cylons and Pete S and Chris taking the humans. I don’t wish to gloat, but suffice to say that Dave and myself had a very rewarding day!

And then on to a bit of fantasy – Elf King Red. This is a free download set of rules by Rick Priestly. In brief, the game is based around an elf civil war, with each player taking control of a different ‘Circle’ of elves. It’s one of those games with just a few miniatures per player – a leader (or Thane in the rules) accompanied by six companions. Just seven figures per side!

We had a four player game – Andy, Tony F, Phil, and myself. We played two different scenarios (we agreed that each player must devise a scenario, but obviously never played them all). Andy’s scenario involved hunting down a rampant werewolf whilst mine was all about taking control of a temple in the wilderness.

It proved to be a nice fun game. These sort of things always work best with some kind of scenario driven game. There’s a few holes in the rules, which is OK (they’re free, after all), especially if you’re a group of friends and playing the game in the spirit of fun. We certainly coped with any hiccups and any uncertainties were easily resolved. EKR will make a great one-day session of linked scenarios.

It had been a little while, but the first meeting in September was back to our Wars of the Roses campaign – Battle of Hedgeley Moor. This was an encounter I was unfamiliar with, with newly crowned King Edward sending an embassy to the Scots only to be ambushed by the Lancastrians.

September – Sword and Spear – Battle of Hedgeley Moor

You know what, it’s just not fair! I really thought I was going to win this one, it was looking good at one point. But did I? No. You can read the full report here: Wars of the Roses – Battle of Hedgeley Moor – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)

A closer game this time, so I suppose some things are improving.

The second meeting in September was supposed to be Rebels & Patriots but Andy had to pull out at the last minute, so I grabbed some spaceships and we had a game of Starmada instead. Like Full Thrust this is a space fleet game, but it’s quicker and dirtier than Full Thrust and can handle large fleet battles better. We played three games. The first was a simple meeting encounter so we could all remind ourselves of the rules. The grey fleet won this so we decided the next battle would be an attempt to take control of a mining facility. The green fleet repelled them this time and so we moved on to the last game – a chance for the greens to consolidate their position. But the greys won again. We decided this represented a minor victory for the greys. They hadn’t managed to take control of the mining facilities but had done enough to press the greens for trading benefits.

The first meeting in October was on the 14th, which meant only one thing: HASTINGS! A few years ago we’d re-fought the battle so what we did was have a special Saga day based on the Norman Invasion. Norman and Anglo-Dane armies only.

The four of us decided to play multi-player games. Each player would keep track of victory points throughout the day and the player with the highest total would be declared winner. The day went to Tim with his Anglo-Danes with Jeremey, also using Anglo-Danes, in a very close second. It seems English resistance to the Normans is alive and well.

Since we meet in such a large hall I often wonder why we don’t do more one-on-one games. There’s enough room. So at the second meeting in October Tony G and myself had a few games of Barons War. This was Tony’s first time, so we kept it small. As such, we got in three games. Barons War provides a really good section on scenarios, which always benefits skirmish games. I won the first, then Tony won the second, which left a third deciding game. It went to Tony! The more I play Barons War the more I enjoy it. Like many rules it’s not always as clear as it could be – though not as bad as some rules out there. But as you play it the more sense it makes. A very enjoyable session.

Right then. So, November. And another ding-dong in our Wars of the Rose campaign.

This was the Battle of Hexham and marked a turning point in the war. Not only was it a turning point in the actual war but it was also a turning point (hopefully) in our campaign. Rather than give details here you can instead read about the remarkable events here.

November – Sword and Spear – Battle of Hexham

The penultimate game of the year was a bit of a 90s throwback – Battletech! This game ticked two boxes for my year’s gaming: more sci fi AND play other’s games as well. Back in the day I used to play a lot of Battletech (and Silent Death). This was Eric’s game and we played a version of Battletech called Alpha Strike which, to be honest with you, bears no resemblance to the original game at all. Which is not a bad thing. Battletech was a very 90s set of rules and I’m not sure I have the stomach for it any more. But Eric had done the right thing by introducing us to Alpha Strike because it is a much more streamlined, playable, and therefore enjoyable game. Splendid fun. And check out Eric’s fantastically painted mechs. When I used to play I would go for lurid colours (I remember doing one in purple and yellow). I much prefer Eric’s muted colours.

And so on to my final game of the year. And yet more sci fi. Another game of Stargrave, but this time with a festive feel – I called the game ‘There Ain’t No Sanity Clause’ (full credit goes to The Damned for that). Santa Claus has been kidnapped by hordes of psycho-penguins and the players must spread festive goodwill to release him.

December – Stargrave – There Ain’t No Sanity Clause

Five players took part. They had two goals – as well as collecting loot tokens they also had to collect clues that tell them what they have to do to release Santa. The culmination of the game was a group rendition of We Wish You A Happy Christmas. In addition, if the players give back captured loot tokens to Santa (the loot were presents for all the good boys and girls) then they would receive double experience for those tokens.

A suitably festive ending to the year!

So those were the games I played at the club during 2023. I did well on my pledge to play more sci fi, but not so well when it came to playing other’s games (though I did do that more than usual – so not too bad). You know what, I don’t think I played a duff game all year. I thoroughly enjoyed every game. This is the advantage with being a club member – the variety of games and the quality. I’m going to continue with my determination to join in other games during 2024.

A year’s worth of gaming (Part 1)

Club member Stephen reviews the games he has played at Maidstone Wargames Society this year. This is part 1 of the article covering January to June.

This article is a review of all the different games I’ve played over 2023 just to see, and remind myself, of the variety of games I’ve done. At the beginning of the year I made two decisions – play more sci fi, and play more games that other people put on (my general attitude is ‘I paid for these models and took the time to paint them so I want to use them!’ which means I generally put on a game at most meetings). So this year I wanted to mix things up.

The first game of the year was at the club meeting on January 28^th. This was a game of Sword & Spear and part of a campaign (which started in 2022) to re-fight the Wars of the Roses with Jeremey.

January – Sword and Spear – Mortimer’s Cross

I love playing Sword & Spear. I do. But I don’t seem to be any good at it. In all the games I’ve ever played of S&S I think I’ve only ever won twice. Surely it can’t be my superior tactics, that seems to be beyond reproach, right? This game was a re-fight of Mortimer’s Cross (you can find the full, and gloating, write-up here: Wars of the Roses – Battle of Mortimers Cross – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)). As is traditional with S&S, I lost. But you know what, I couldn’t care less because the games are always a lot of fun with plenty of pre-game trash talk and goading, and each game has a story. Playing in good company always helps as well. I’d willingly keep on losing so long as I keep on enjoying it.

February brought another couple of games at the club.

First up was a new game to me – Charlie Don’t Surf by Two Fat Lardies. I find TFL games a bit marmite. I’ve played Chain of Command – loved it. I’ve played What A Tanker – didn’t like it. And this was the first time for CDS. And I loved that as well. The game and models are all Pete S’s, and he’s done a blinding job on them. They are 10mm Pendraken models (I think) and it has just the right look for Vietnam.

We’re used to seeing 20mm and 28mm Vietnam games which focus on platoon actions. But Vietnam was bigger than that – often brigade sized actions with the company as the manoeuvre unit. And 10mm captures that perfectly. I had command of the armoured platoon. We put Mark J (newly appointed club chairman) to prove his mettle in command so he took company HQ. The game was a victory for the US side!

The second game in February was planned to be a Barons’ War game with Andy. But in the week leading up I suggested to Andy we could do a ‘compare and contrast’ and have a game of both Lion Rampant and Barons’ War to see how the two handle the same period. You can read a summary of our findings here (Lion Rampant and Baron’s War – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)).

First club meeting in March was a Stargrave game. I said I wanted to play more sci fi in 2023 and this was the first sci fi of the year. I found the original scenario online and tweaked it to be what I wanted it to be. Stargrave is a great toolbox of a game – you can make it what you want it to be. This game had both an overland and underground part, which was new for us.

I prefer running Stargrave as an umpire, like a RPG. You get a different kind of pleasure as umpire because it’s about providing challenges and running the NPCs/monsters and hopefully providing an enjoyable scenario. Well, for me anyway. In this game Eric’s crew had fought hard to get to the bunker where the Warp Sextant was hidden. But coming out he found Tony F’s crew waiting outside, guns pointed at the entrance. A brief exchange of fire and it was Tony who made off with the treasure. Poor Eric.

End of March it was another chance to lose at Sword & Spear – Second Battle of St Albans. In this campaign I have the Lancastrians which means the onus is on me to win in battles where the Lancastrians came out on top. Such as Second St Albans.

March – Sword and Spear – Second Battle of St Albans

Again, rather than go into details here, anyone wanting to know more about this game can read the battle report (Wars of the Roses – 2nd Battle of St Albans – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)). Suffice to say, it was business as usual! Tony joined me again on the Lancastrian side. I was feeling good about this one, felt I was due a win. And the early part of the game was looking good – the local militia archers engaged the Yorkist artillery and eliminated them for no loss! Yup, first blood to Lancaster. And then it steadily went downhill. Never mind.

More sci fi in April! This time it was Pete M’s Space 1889 game. A different kind of sci fi – Victorian rather than futuristic. The stand out thing were Pete’s scratchbuilt aeronefs, and we spent a bit of time playing ‘guess what bits have been used for the models’. Truly outstanding.

We played two games. I was on the human side for both games, and both games were very close. And Jeremey got a leathering in both games with his colleagues leaving him to do all the work. Excellent game.

The end of April was Salute and this coincided with a club meeting day. Naturally, it was going to be a quiet meeting with a fair few members at Salute. I ran an American Civil War game (battle of Cedar Mountain) using brigade Fire & Fury.

April – Fire & Fury – The Battle of Cedar Mountain

The Union army is in a difficult position for this battle – making an attack against a much larger Confederate army. John R took control of the Union troops and did a good job – but his artillery ran out of ammo early in the game and he never had the time or opportunity to replenish them. This left him conducting a fighting retreat, and he made a good job of it, slowing down the Confederates.

First game in May was another in our Wars of the Roses campaign – the battle of Towton. Like all the others…I lost. Now, I’m not just saying this, but the dice rolling on our side was pretty poor, compared to the other side rolling really well. No, no! Stop that! It’s true on this occasion. To read more about this game you can check out the blog post (Wars of the Roses – Battle of Towton – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk))

Next was another sci fi game – Full Thrust. Jeremey and Tony were running the game which meant only one thing: vector movement. My fluffy little head struggles with that and prefers the cinematic movement option.

A mixed bag of results. The first game was two opposed fleets with an asteroid field cutting the table in two – Tony F and myself using some of Brigade’s German ships, and Jeremey and Tony G using some of Jeremey’s scratch built (out of false nails) ships. Tony and myself came out on top in that one. We then played a couple of one ship per player games (first was cruisers, second was destroyers) and the alien nail ships won those games.

Along came flaming June and I decided not to attend Broadside since I was trying to restrict spending and if you go to a show you have to buy something, eh? John Lambert and myself had a game of Crossfire. We played this quite a bit a few years ago but then it fell by the wayside. The models for this game were from my collection – WW2 eastern front.

The scenario was a late war one – Russian advance through Poland with the Germans on the retreat. Naturally, we were re-learning the rules, but it steadily came back to us. MUST ensure we play more of this one.

June 24th was the club Open Day. My game was a Saga: Crusades games. We played two scenarios, I had Saracens and Andy had Milites Christi. Saracens carried the day and won both games. I love Saga. It’s just the right game for me.

June – SAGA Crusades – The Road to Damascus

You can read more about the Open Day here: Review of 2023 Open Day – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)

That concludes part 1 of the review of 2023, part 2 will be published in a couple of weeks.

Stargrave: The Next Generation

Tony F recounts a tale of woe but also tells us of new beginnings…

Kal Gaden’s week had been… interesting. Ten days ago he was near rock bottom, down to his last credit and had sunk so low that he was even contemplating the unthinkable – selling his armour for food. Then a chance encounter with Jenin Hosvarn, captain of the freebooter vessel the Empyrean Drifter, threw him a lifeline. He signed up on the spot as a general service deckhand/dogsbody for what could only be described as a ‘variable’ salary – but at least he was going to be fed.

Four days later the ship left port for his first assignment, on a distant moon many parsecs into the next sector of space, with everyone in good spirits. The regular crew consisted of the captain, his reptilian first mate Budfodo and the other two deckhands, Whibirt and Scogill. The former was also the ship’s medic, and his colleague was supposedly tech-savvy, a bit of a hacker. Kal assumed that he spent most of his time keeping B6C5, the ship’s ancient robo-pilot, and the captain’s aging cyber-dog Lucifer in working order. They also had a five-man guard detachment onboard from the local security agency – big burly goons clad in bright orange plasteel armour and toting carbines. Allegedly Budfodo was a bit of a dab-hand with his huge repeating plasma cannon (in a quiet moment, Whibirt told him that the giant alien had shot nine men on their last mission), while Pervol, the taciturn minigun-wielding guard, had single-handedly taken down a tentacled sea beast on a waterworld six months back. So no-one was worried about their safety.

And then they landed – and Kal had never seen such a fiasco. They disembarked into a dense jungle, where you could barely see the guy five paces in front of you. All around he could hear the cries and screeches of the local fauna, along with the heavy footsteps of something that was obviously really BIG. Then they suddenly came across the Big Thing – a genetically engineered monstrosity bred from the DNA of a long extinct giant reptile. No one seemed to know how to deal with it, so instead everyone just froze. After what seemed an eternity they skirted round it, and it wandered off back into the dense undergrowth in search of something a bit more lively.

Then they stumbled upon an old bunker covered in vines and creepers, decrepit but still sealed. Step forward Scogill, the tech “expert”, who made such a bantha’s ear of cracking the lock that in the end Kal just did it for him! Without a word of thanks (probably too embarrassed), Scogill stepped past him and straightaway tripped some ancient motion detector, setting off a self-destruct alarm. Fortunately the detonator circuits had long since expired and this one turned out to be a dud, but not before everyone had bolted in a rather unedifying spectacle.

Then came the one thing they did get right. Captain Hosvarn had struck a deal with the elders of a local village to get rid of a tentacled beast that had made its home in their water supply. The security detail this time managed to do their thing and get a grenade into the well. And as a bonus, at the same time they upset several other crews who’d been squabbling over the loot around the area (Hosvarn’s crew should have been there too, but they’d spent their time running from giant herbivores and antiquated alarm systems and missed out on any bounty).

So job done, after a fashion – time to return to the Drifter. Except that on the way back they stumbled upon a trio of vicious saurian critters, no bigger than dogs, but with very sharp teeth. The security detail utterly failed to do what they were hired for, the Captain tried to fend them off with an alien plasma pistol he’d found – but that misfired, and in the end it was Kal’s pistols and Budfodo’s cannon that did for the creatures. But Hosvarn had been badly hurt, and expired on the return flight despite the ministrations of the medic.

Thus ended Kal Gaden’s brief tenure aboard the Empyrian Drifter – with Captain Hosvarn gone, the crew dispersed to the four corners of the galaxy and he was once again out on his ear…

So that was the tale of woe for my Stargrave crew’s final mission. It really was the first mission for my new crew member Kal Gaden, and he really was witness to an utter disaster. Although I learnt some valuable lessons (don’t put your captain at the front, even if he does have a fancy plasma pistol) it was not my finest hour, and I’ve had to start again with a new crew since my first mate hadn’t reached a high enough level to take over. I decided to start from scratch with new figures since just recycling and renaming the old ones didn’t feel enough of a fresh start. Kal is a Diehard Miniatures figure who bears a passing resemblance to characters from a certain sci-fi franchise – and I decided to build the team around him. I took the plunge and bought Diehard’s two Elite Bounty Hunter packs, which are very good deals compared to buying the figures individually, plus “Nub Nub, Dark Apprentice“, also definitely not derived from the same franchise. This gave me enough for a 10-figure crew plus a couple of spares.

Let’s not beat around the bush – they’re Mandalorians in everything but name. In the series they come in all sorts of colours, so I had fun painting them in a variety of schemes. I found a Mandalorian name generator online which was very helpful in giving them all unique monikers and the crew began to come together.

Codo Dangir (recruit), Koor Vane (recruit), Sarai Qo (trooper)

Sharal Loras (runner), Tan Gariss (gunner), Garo Braven (captain)

Jaon Rook (trooper), Kal Gaden (gunfighter), Kyorla Ten (sniper)

In Stargrave terms, my captain (Garo Braven) is a Veteran – it seemed the closest fit. I made Nub-Nub (tentatively named Gebro) my first mate and a Mystic, complete with suitable powers to try and reproduce his fledgling Force abilities (including Void Blade for his lightsabre).

The make-up of the rest of the crew was dictated by how many credits you get to create a new outfit – not enough to set all of them up as I would really like, so some will have to be upgraded as and when I can earn some cash! I tried to at least pick soldier types that had the correct weapons, so apart from three specialists (a Gunfighter, Gunner and Sniper) the others are either Troopers if they have a rifle, or Runners or Recruits if it’s a pistol.

Following the release of the latest supplement, Bold Endeavour, which brought each crew’s ship more into the game, they also need a ride. Obviously this had to be some version of the Razorcrest, and after some searching I came up with two options – the Star Wars Micro Galaxy one, a smaller, fairly detailed and pretty accurate model, or the Hasbro Mission Fleet version, a more toy-like option that wasn’t so exact but was just about the right size for 32mm figures given the Razorcrest’s stated length of 80′. In the end I went for the former, as the more in-scale toy version was possibly a bit too big for the average gaming table at ~18″ long. The smaller model looks better and is still big enough to be a slightly cramped 10-person shuttle craft.

So that’s the new crew of the newly-named Cepheid Variable – their first mission will commence just after this post is published, so wish them luck!

Society meetings- August 27th and September 10th

We’ve been remiss and not posted a photo round up of several of our meetings held over the last three months. Here’s the first of these covering the first two of the missing meetings.

August 27th

Three games ran at the meeting, first up a 6mm Ancients game using Field of Glory rules.

Alan ran an Eastern Front WWI game in 15mm using “Battles with Brusilov” rules.

And finally for this meeting, Stephen ran a very wet Stargrave game, Waterworld. We should have a more detailed write up of this game soon, but you can find an article about the boat building endeavours of our members here.

September 10th

We had another three games at this meeting, firstly a 2mm Strength & Honour game.

Stephen and Jeremey ran another game in their refight of the War of the Roses, using Sword & Spear rules. There’s a full account of this battle (written by the victor, of course) here.

And finally, Eric ran a series of Gaslands races.

We’ll round off the other two missing meetings, September 24th & October 8th in the not-too-distant future.

Messing About in Boats

For our recent Stargrave jaunt to the planet of Aqua Sulis, the five players were required to bring a boat. It could be anything that floated in, on or above the water, there were no design rules. Here we run over the various tubs, buckets and hulks that were served up.

Eric

Eric went for a laser-cut survey shuttle from Blotz that could obviously float on the surface of the sea. He should have done a little better with the security features, since it turned out to be very easy to break down the back door, shoot the pilot and steal the boat.

Andy

A few months ago, Stephen said he would run a Stargrave scenario based on a Waterworld location, and asked us to build some form of maritime transport.
I did a web search for 28mm boats, and amongst the hits was a Special Operations Craft-Riverine (SOC-R) from AnyScaleModels.

The main hull is around 7” long and 2.25” wide. Plenty of room for my crew I thought.
I needed to make it look a bit more Sci Fi than modern, so I asked Tony at Brigade if he had some suitable engine nacelles I could scrounge, he came up with some from their 15mm Perseus VTOL. I also had a few other bits and pieces from Brigade in the bits box: some Sensor turrets and some Heavy Laser guns from their Mercenary range.

Both the boat and engine nacelles had a few air bubbles that needed to be filled, I used some Humbrol Model filler for this. After drying and sanding down, the boat components and nacelles were washed in soapy water and allowed to dry.
The wings attached to the nacelles were quite thin, 2-3mm at most, this required that I drill and pin the short wings to the boat hull, as a glue only joint wouldn’t be sufficient.

I decided to mount the engine nacelles roughly amidships, in line with the pilot’s seat and control panel. I drilled a hole for the sensor turret in the front deck. On reflection I might have offset the pilot’s seat to one side rather than have it central.

Once the superglue had dried, I primed the boat with Halford’s grey primer, and then gave the boat a coat of Warpaint Soviet Green.

Once the Soviet Green had dried, I painted the sensor lens, engine intakes and exhaust matt black, I painted some of the boat’s hatches Gunmetal Grey.
I then painted the detail on the control panel, matt Black dials and Crystal Blue screens. The pilot’s seat was painted Khaki Grey. The final touch was silver on the wing leading edge lights and red and green navigation lights, touching up any errors with Russian Uniform WWII, which I found to be almost an exact match for the Warpaint Soviet Green spray paint
Once the model was dry, I gave it washes, Military shader on the green areas, Dark Tone on the metal hatches and engine nacelle grills and Strong Tone Wash on the seat.

I then had a hunt through my transfer box and found some very old decals from a couple of Airfix kits; some registration numbers from a Swedish Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight and name plates “Apollo” from a Churchill Tank kit. I also found a couple of DANGER decals from another helicopter kit.
I painted a layer of gloss varnish over the areas to which I intended to apply the transfers, which, considering their age, went on easily without breaking up.
Once the decals had dried, I gave the boat a couple of coats of matt varnish, and here she is, the Apollo, ready to venture forth in Waterworld.

Phil

When Stephen suggested the Waterworld game I thought that I would pass just because it involved building a boat and I really wasn’t sure I could be bothered. Then with a couple of weeks to go he asked me I was up for the game and I agreed.

Bum, now I needed to come up with a boat.

Fortunately this proved to be a fairly simple affair. Hidden away in a corner of my cellar were a few Games Workshop kits that I had been bought as presents many years ago. Combining bits from a couple of these gave a simple boat / skimmer that could fit my entire ship’s company.

The main part of the hull came from a 40K Tau Tidewall floaty thing. The exact model doesn’t seem to be available anymore but a couple of similar ones are still on the GW website. The dome at the back game from an Age of Sigmar Grundstock Gunhauler – another floaty thing. By chance the dome piece fitted precisely on a flat part at the back of the Tau model. Nice and easy.

Painting was also straight forward. A spray of GW Zandri dust and some complementary reds and browns from Wargames Foundry. And of course the obligatory GW washes to finish. It only took a day to make which was better than I expected.

Tim

Tim was the only one to go fully scratchbuilt, with a cross between a canal barge and a WW2 landing craft made from foam card. The cogs and wheels were ‘liberated’ from his wife’s craft supplies (we wonder if she knew ?). Looks like a bit of a pig to steer, but it was a cunning move to make it this long since the prow of Tim’s boat started 6″ further into the table than anyone else !

Tony

Finally, Tony went down the Don Johnson/Miami Vice route with a full-on speedboat. It started out as an accessory for a 6″ action figure – origin unknown. It was purchased from a bootfair for 50p, so who’s complaining ? I ripped out the existing cockpit, fitted a new plasticard floor, jump seats, engine and other bits and pieces from my spares box and gave it a quick respray complete with go-faster stripes. Only it didn’t go any faster since it spent most of the game being boarded by giant frogs or dragged down by a sea kraken.

Category: Stargrave

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Society Meeting 14/02/2026

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