5 Parsecs - the new beginning.

Having enjoyed my first campaign I've pitched straight into another but this time a bit slower paced as I'll only do 1 turn a week. I've also turned-up the difficulty nob by allowing enemy respawns, stronger enemies and a chance of enemy re-deployment after setup.

The action begins where the last campaign left off - on the frozen moon of Travoris in orbit around the gas giant of Zephyron. The Hermes crew have found work with the Travoris Traders Guild, a "totally legitimate" group of businessmen who operate out of Travoris station.

Mission 1 - Recover the goods

The TTG have stashed some slightly illegal weapons at a storage site on the ice planes. The Feds are aware of the location so the crew must rapidly recover them before they are impounded. Having been transported to the site by the TTG its immediately clear the Feds are already here and will need dealing with.

Sneakily the Feds have brought a Sand Crawler with them - vicious beasts who are loyal to their owners.  

Feds and their Sandcrawler

Both sides converge on the weapons cash. The crew manage to deal with a few of the Feds but the leader and his "pet" outflank and attack. Two crew are down without one out for a couple of turns. The loot is secured though.   

The crew secure the goods

A fierce fight with 2 crew down

Mission 2 - Secure the link

The TTG become aware that the Converted (a homicidal cyborg army) have landed a small team aiming to capture Travoris main comms link as a prelude to an invasion. This must be prevented - not for public service but rather its bad for business if the whole population becomes mindless cyber zombies.

Both sides converge on the Satty uplink with the Hermes crew splitting-up to try and flank the aggressive Converted. 

The uplink

Converted raiders

There is some tense close quarters fighting around the uplink with short range fire and brawling.  

Ready to enter the compound

The crew lose their bot damaged but manage to destroy the Converted before they can capture the uplink and transmit to their invasion fleet. So a solid win in game 2. 

Converted advance

   

Sudan - nearly done

 After 5 years slowly painting between other projects I've completed the last of my Imperial units for the Sudan - mounted Camel Corps. All figures are Perry Miniatures metals.  

British Camel Corps in 28mm

British Camel Corps command

This gives me 3 Imperial armies - Camel Corps, late British and Egyptians. The later could also fight against the British in the early period.  

 Just one unit of Mahdiist Ansar and the project is done for now. 

Two more Bautzen games for Lasalle

In this scenario the Allies are falling back from a defeat at Lutzen when they are attacked and form a rear guard holding a village and ridge line. The French must capture both to win but do have a Guards brigade to help them out.

Game 1 - French vs Russians / Austrians

The French deployment slightly favoured their left frank looking to envelope the Allied right where the Russians were guarding the village.  

As the French advanced they shifted their cavalry over to their left to attack the numerically weaker Russian horse. This drew-in some Russian attention and left the Austrians on the left/centre with only limited support.  

Russians await the French attack

The isolated Austrian flank took damage and was pushed-back, forcing the Russians into a limited counter attack on the ridge. The game ended with the defending Allies losing 1/3 of their forces and with drawing. French win    

Swiss attack the ridge 

Russians untroubled but their flank has been lost

Game 2 - French vs Austrians

The Austrians deployed with one brigade on each observative and their cavalry on the left flank near the ridge. The French deployment was a version  of Ordre Mixte with the cavalry in the rear. As the French advanced on the ridge they formed into column for the attack.    

French attack

The Austrians sent their cavalry forward to menace the columns and force them into squares. Through use of the CinC's emergency formation change and clever sequencing of moves the French were able to keep advancing and not give the Austrian's any easy targets.    

Austrian horse tries to slow the attack

French attack the ridge

Several waves of attack against the hill failed but eventually the French got a flank on one of the defenders and the position collapsed. The Old Guard also managed to assault and capture half the town. The Austrians hit breakpoint with the ridge and half the town in French hands and no French routed. French win.   

Ridge falls to France 

5 Parsecs - Campaign Finale

Appropriately the campaign finale (paying off the ship debts) coincided with the completion of the quest to locate the Trillium-D sample. Equipped with the location after the last missions, the Hermes crew headed out onto the frozen side of the moon they were exploring, to reclaim the Trillium-D from a long abandoned storage site.   

Little did they know that the site was now very near a nest of Vent Crawlers (aka Aliens) who were not happy to see the intruders on their patch. As my ice-planet game mat had nt arrived I had to use a very white paper mat but did get to use my newly created ice terrain.   

Vent Crawlers

The Trillium-D waiting on a transport

The Hermes crew advanced in a large group towards the on rushing Xenomorphs Vent Crawlers, this not being a time to get separated from the group.   

Shots rang out and downed several of the attacking beasts but two still reached the makeshift barrier the Hermes crew were hiding behind. Luckily the better armoured crew at the front were able to beat them off without serious injury.       

A bit like Zulu - hold them!

So the Trillium was secured and the profits were enough to clear the remaining ship debts and so end the first campaign. The bank balance is low but crew has built some good experience and is now pretty well equipped with armour and weapon upgrades. 

Loot secured

Its been fun to play through and proves the concept of this as a retirement project. For the next campaign I'll look to ramp up the difficulty in various ways:

• Possible random redeployment of enemy forces
• Respawn of defeated enemies
• More chances of Elite enemies
• The introduction of harder Red Zone missions     

   

5 Parsecs - Trillium D

In the next two games of the campaign the Hermes crew ignore high-paying Patron missions in favour of completing the quest arc as they search for a rare Trillium-D ore sample. 

Game 1 - the caves

Information has been received that the Ore may be located on a barren moon orbiting the local systems gas giant. So the crew don their EVA suits and head into the moons cave system looking for the same. Unluckily for them a group of homicidal cyborgs (Abductors) are exploring the caves as a prelude to a possible invasion.   

The cave system - reusing some Gloomhaven tiles 

The Cyborgs

I split into two teams to search the caves more quickly and had some cat-and-mouse fun running through the caves.  

Part of the crew make a stand

Eventually I opted to stand and fight and was able to catch the Cyborgs in  a cross fire and take them down. The Trillium D was not there but there was a hint that a hermit living out on the surface may have vital data.   

 Game 2 - the Hermit

The crew proceeded to the location of the hermit hoping to gain the information he held. They were not alone as a group of Pirates had also decided to pay him a visit to extort money. 

Both sides pushed towards the hermits compound as there was no time to lose.  

Sniper is down

After an intense firefight the pirates were driven off and my sniper lay wounded, but not seriously. 

The good news was that the hermit had the vital location for the Trillium-D and was happy to offer it up in gratitude for driving off the Pirates who had been extorting him for months