{"id":11472,"date":"2026-04-25T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/?p=11472"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:35:14","slug":"love-a-stargrave-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/2026\/04\/25\/love-a-stargrave-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"LOVE – A Stargrave Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>

Stephen takes us on a starry-eyed journey to the, er, stars…<\/em><\/p>\n

It turned out that a club meeting fell on February 14th this year. Valentine\u2019s Day. There was only one thing for it – a suitably themed game of Stargrave.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
West Side of Verona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u2019s love). They wouldn\u2019t know if it was a clue or loot until they reached it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll let the captains tell you how it went\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"
A busy town square<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n
Captain Hertz van Rental\u2019s Report<\/h5>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"
Trouble outside the cantina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We made some progress towards the rogue robot, as I had quickly decided that only mega-mayhem awaited any \u2018rescue parties\u2019, whether from locals or each other \u2013 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 \u2013 displaying excellent taste \u2013 soon decided to start shooting them!<\/p>\n

\"\"
A deadly encounter around the back of the cantina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u2013 but the latter was then supplied by \u2018Jeremy\u2019s Jumpers\u2019 who proceeded to open fire!<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t dwell on the subsequent exchange \u2013 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\u2026. 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
It all happens down the back alleys<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u2013 spotting this pile of (admittedly valuable) \u2018fly-tipping\u2019 near our exit, I offered to remove the stuff. The guard had no sense of humour, and objected most violently \u2013 if briefly\u2026 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 \u2013 their favourite\u2026.<\/p>\n

The stars for shame shall hide their light,
\nas my beloved ascends aright,
\nand all shall marvel at the sight,
\nof a new Angel born tonight.<\/em><\/p>\n

-Cpt VanRental-<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tybalt Capulet and Greyfax see things differently<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Captain Greyfax\u2019s Report<\/h5>\n

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 \u201cAngel\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A splitscreen van goes for a lot now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the street outside, Kadal instructed the ship\u2019s Chisler, Cl4pTrP to check out a container that seemed a prime candidate for storing loot.\u00a0 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Kadal and his retinue then ran afoul of what appeared to be some local yahoos. A fight erupted which escalated to gunplay.\u00a0 Shots were exchanged and judicious use of fragmentation grenades ensued. The team drove the ne\u2019er 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Murch the bounty hunter finally catches up with captain Greyfax<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u201cpacified\u201d, the crew discovered Mariah the \u201cAngel\u201d was being held captive, right there in the warehouse. What luck!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Maria is rescued<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Roses are red,
\nviolets are blue.
\nI’m rubbish at poems,
\nNice ****.<\/em><\/p>\n

-Cpt Greyfax-<\/p>\n

Let it be stated here that Murch the bounty hunter has put a bounty of 150 credits on Captain Greyfax\u2019s 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Captain Blake\u2019s Report<\/h5>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Softly, softly catchy monkey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.
\nThings 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Captain Blake’s crew approach a broken robot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

My heart belongs to no other,
\nas I stare at you from cover.
\nOur future could have been bright,
\nBut you\u2019re currently in line of sight.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Cpt Blake <\/p>\n

Captain Reynolds\u2019 Report<\/h5>\n

Mal had briefed the crew before leaving the Serenity in orbit around the planet Romance: \u201cBadger told us that the Montagues have placed an open contract to find one of the family member\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s history between these two families,\u201d he added, \u201ca long and bloody history. We go looking for this Angel, but I don\u2019t want to lose anyone to this family feud. So, we\u2019re not going to dig too deep into the Capulet\u2019s 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\u2019re looking for an access panel on a Pylon that should let us gain entry to the bunker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
There’s plenty of monkey love in the local cantina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s consigliere and head of security. Not a nice man, apparently, but he could often be found at the town centre bar.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
What’s this big red thing ?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having unlocked the Pylon, and seeing Capt Greyfax\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Come on, lets all rough up that innocent bystander<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Roses are red,
\nviolets are blue.
\nIf you need minions,
\nplease speak to Gru.<\/em><\/p>\n

-Cpt Reynolds-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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 … Continue reading “LOVE – A Stargrave Romance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What else would wargamers do on Valentine's Day than, er play a wargame. At least this one had a theme !","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,7,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-28mm-wargaming","category-science-fiction","category-stargrave"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Header.jpg?fit=1005%2C446&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9A5LG-2Z2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11490,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11472\/revisions\/11490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigademodels.co.uk\/mws\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}