Station 42: Works in Progress

We worked on quite a few projects today for the Station 42 setting. This is a simple stage I made from a Platformer kit from Pegasus Hobbies http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/. The kit is not as easy to put together as it appears and the schematics are really poor but it's a neat kit with lots of potential and it's not too expensive for what you get. This is only a small test piece and it took some time for me to put it together. Also the kit is suppose to be able to be assembled without glue so you can tear it apart and use it for whatever design you want. In theory that makes sense but I'm gluing mine into permanent models. This stage will be useful for a number of scenarios. I primarily designed it for slave auction Seniors in "Junktown".

Also I converted a sniper for my Wolfhound Freikorps mercenary unit using a sniper rifle out of the Malifaux Modern Weapons pack from Wyrd Games http://wyrd-games.net/. It took a lot of cutting to get the rifle to fit but I'm pretty happy with it. I just need to seal up a couple gaps where his arm meet his torso in the back and I'll be ready to start painting him.

Over the Thanksgiving break I also finished three more pirates for my "Bloodborn" pirate gang who have already been involved in a number of encounters in the setting. This makes 11 pirates painted and about 9 more ready to be painted. I still have more on the way. I plan to have at least 30-50 pirates for this force. These are entirely kitbashed from various GW kits.

This is a work in progress shot of the main command bunker that will make up the Bloodborn Pirates main base of operations. In addition to this larger bunker there will be three smaller bunkers and perhaps a few outbuildings and landing pads. We will also be using our underground facility which we plan to expand on in conjunction with these bunkers for the base complex. It should work very nicely when we are finished.

Here is a top down shot of the command bunker. We are considering adding a floor using window screen and a supporting structure. This is going to be a nicely playable piece that is going to be heavily weathered and trashy looking. Should make a great base for pirates!

for some reason blogger is screwing up and I can't highlight txt to create hyperlinks. I'll fix this

M.S.S.R. short range patrol unit

I picked up a few Pig Iron Productions Kolony militia from The Warstore just a few days ago. I've been eyeballing these guys for quite some time for my spaceport project. In my 3031 Sci-Fi setting the M.S.S.R. have a base near Station 42 on Titania. These guys will represent a unit of garrisoned troops at the base.

I really like the comblock look of these figures which was clearly what the folks at Pig Iron were going for. They have really expanded their Kolony range as well so I have several options for expanding this force. The figures were cast really cleanly. Very light mold lines and no serious miscast. They are sculpted in a very nice "English" style. Simple but very nice looking figures that really have a lot of character similar to figures from Wargames Foundry, Copplestone Casting, or older Games Workshop figures.

I based these figures on Renedra 25mm plastic bases. I also got these from The Warstore a few months ago. 50 bases for $4.00 was a deal I couldn't pass up. The bases are perfect for minis with cast bases since they are only half the height of a standard "slotta" base. I simply used some Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler to blend them in.

"Maxed Out" Episode 1: Shipjacked

The heavy freighter "Ugly Betty" on route to Ceres was passing dangerously close to the Hilda region of the asteroid belt. The Hilda's were thick with pirates but Captain Matambo consoled himself with the fact they were not actually passing through the cluster and an old freighter like his wouldn't draw much attention. The "Ugly Betty" was a General Space Systems G47 "Durango" class Heavy Freighter. Part of the forward section of the ship had been converted to carry passengers and there were about 30 aboard at the moment. Jennie D. Tam and Roxann "Rocky" Tomson had signed on with the "Ugly Betty" on Titania but they weren't planning on becoming permanent members of the crew. The were working their way to Ceres and back to pick up a very used "Skysweeper" patrol craft they had purchased with their combined savings. The ship was in terrible shape but Jennie was a decent mechanic and was certain they could get it space worthy again. The two had big plans to used the ship for bounty hunting jobs. Rocky was a licensed bounty hunter in the; Confederacy, Empire, and M.S.S.R. Jennie was working aboard the "Ugly Betty" as an assistant to Chief Engineer Wilson and Rocky was part of the two person security team along with another new hire named Joe Smith.

Just as they were passing the Hilda region of the belt Chief Wilson asked Jennie to check out one of the air filtration units located in Cargo Hold 2. He was getting funny readings from it. He also suggested that she take a security officer with her so she called her friend Rocky to meet her to investigate.

When they got there they found Joe Smith looking over the unit. They though it was odd that he was wearing a full face respirator. He waved them over claiming that he as found some evidence of sabotage. They came over to investigate but Joe surprised them with a blast of knock out gas. Rocky hit the deck first as she took the full blast straight into her face. Jennie took a swing at Joe with her wrench but failed to connect. Joe shot Jennie with his tazer and she fell to the deck next to Rocky. Joe then hooked his tank of knock out gas to the air filtration unit. Within a few minutes the crew and passengers of the "Ugly Betty" had all been knocked out by the gas.

When Jennie and Rocky came to they found themselves locked in a large shipping container full of boxes of junk. Some time after that one end of the container opened up. Joe was standing there with three other armed men. The red warpaint and black and red clothing they were wearing indicated that they were member of the "Bloodborn" pirates. The "Bloodborn" were a band of pirates well known to Jennie and Rocky because they were also based on Titania not far from "Station 42" where the two had met. "Sorry Ladies looks like you will be headed back home to sweet Titania". Joe laughed then threw the pair a few packs of MREs just before shutting the door.

When they arrived back on Titania the pirates had landed their ship in a remote part of the Wastelands neither of them recognized. They were loaded onto a truck with 6 other hostages. The rest of the crew were no where to be seen. On board the truck was Karl Mason one of the Geologist who worked at the Venture Star Mining company office on Titania. He knew them both from the bar "Close Encounters" at "Station 42" where they all hung out. The rest of the hostages were unknown to them and kept to themselves.

They were transported several kilometers and unloaded at an abandoned bunker. There were several such bunkers all over Titania from the war between the Empire and the Confederacy. They were popular safe houses for pirates and smugglers. The bunker concealed a small underground facility where the hostages were locked into a small room. Jennie and Rocky began plotting their escape but most of the other hostages other than Karl were not too interested. They were certain they would be ransomed.

On the second day of their captivity Karl was removed from the room for several hours. When he was returned he told them that the pirates had asked him to appraise the value of some gems they had looted on their last couple of jobs. He also told them there were about a dozen pirates at this facility.

On the third day Jennie was taken by the pirates and ordered to repair several small mechanical and electrical parts scavenged for various ships. Rocky was also taken and ordered to clean up the pirates bunk room. Both of them were guarded by a pair of pirates.

While going through the parts Jennie found a small cooling unit that still has a great deal of pressurized coolant she rigged it so that she could spray the coolant out at the pirates if she got a chance.

Ass Rocky was cleaning the bunk room she noticed that the male pirate guarding her was hitting on his female partner. Rocky pretended to ignore them as she cleaned and began searching for something that she could use to help her escape. While cleaning she noticed one of the lockers was open slightly. She saw Jennies tool kit inside the locker. She remembered Jennie used to hide a .44 Derringer inside the kit for protection. She waited until the pirates were distracted with their conversation then she quickly grabbed the kit from inside the locker. Using one of the bunks as cover as she pretended to clean underneath it she searched for the pistol in the kit. Sure enough it was right where she expected it. She took the tiny pistol and carefully moved closer to the pirates. Knowing that the weapon would only be effective at a short range she slowly made her was up next to her guards. As she got up next to the male pirate he turned to her and said "Are you done already?" then she shot him in the face. The female pirate screamed and ducked as she was splattered with blood and brains. She opened fire with her SMG but fired wildly and missed Rocky who quickly dispatched her with the Derringer's final round.

Hearing the shots Jennie decided it was time to act. She unleashed the pressurized coolant and sprayed both pirates guards in the face. The guards went down clutching their frozen faces and screaming. Jennie then picked up one of their guns ad finished them off.

Confused as to what was going on the rest of the pirates in the facility ran out into the hall way. Jennie and Rocky were in rooms at opposite ends of the hall. They both peaked out from their doorways and opened fire on the pirates.

Caught in the crossfire the pirates were gunned down in short order. Jennie took a round to the shoulder during the fire fight but Rocky managed to come out unscathed. The two quickly disarmed the pirate bodies and went to free the other prisoner's.

Only Karl and one of the other prisoners agreed to help them. Jennie and Rocky gave them both a pirate SMG and they quickly moved to the ladder to the bunker upstairs.

The combat in the underground facility had ended so quickly that the pirates up in the bunker were not aware of the escaped prisoners.

Rocky and Jennie burst out of the hatch and engaged the pirates. Rocky got hit twice in the close counter engagement but the managed to gun down the other pirates.

Rocky then used one of the pirates communicators to call the Nova Securities office at Station 42. Nova Securities sent out a squad and a medic to assist them.

Jennie and Rocky received a hefty bounty for the pirates they had killed or captured and the other prisoners also rewarded them for their lives. They were both taken to the Hospital in Titania City to have their wounds tended to. They had managed to escape from the pirates but their ship was still on Ceres. This time however they would be able to afford much safer passage than as crew aboard a tramp freighter.

Note: This was my first episode of my new campaign "Maxed Out" which is set in my home brew science fiction setting "3031". The "Station 42" spaceport project I've been working on for the past couple of years will be featured in the game quite a bit. We used the Savage Worlds role playing game for this adventure but we also use the setting for other Sci-Fi games like AE Bounty. My wife and daughter were the PCs for this adveture. Further episodes of "Maxed Out" will follow their bounty hunting adventures across the solar system.

Wolfhound Friekorps painted!

Way back in August 2010 I put together a group of Wargames Factory Shock Troopers as my "first" crew for AE bounty. Then they set on my shelf for over a year. We played several games of AE bounty and we even painted up crews for the game but I didn't get these guys painted up until a couple days ago. I painted them up with combination of drybrushing and washes mostly. I wanted them to look dark and germanic. I decided to muddy up their boots and coats which I think worked pretty well to add some interest to an otherwise grey/green paintjob. Over all these arn't fantastic paintjobs but they get the job done and I think they make a decent looking crew.

Quick and Dirty Power Generator and Miners

A couple weeks ago I posted some quick and dirty com stations where I used the tops of cheap razor handles for the arms supporting the dish. Well I took the rest of the handles glued them together and sanded the bottoms flush then mounted that on a soda bottle cap to make this small power generator.

Here it is painted up. I think this will make a nice power generator for small farm or outpost. The project took less than two hours to complete and went together fairly simply.

I also finished the Venture Star miners. These minis were giving me trouble due to a bad primer job but I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out especially since they are basically NPC types.

Klancy's General Store WIP and Station 42 setting notes.

We haven't posted any WIP shots of the spaceport project buildings lately because they are all in a state of progress. Here's a shot of Klancy's General Store and fuel station. The Clinic and bar are pretty far along as well but the security station still has a ways to go. Hopefully we can finish up the smaller buildings soon then put our full focus on the security station. With any luck we will have all the main buildings done enough to used for games as soon as the end of the month.

In addition to the main spaceport we are also looking at what kinds of things exist in the surrounding area. We plan to expand into other settlements and locations as soon as we get the main station playable. This will be a long term project.

Station 42 Overview

This is an overview of some of the locations surrounding Station 42 which is a part of my 3031 science fiction setting.

Station 42: The station itself is on Titania the largest moon of Uranus. It is a small space port servicing mostly shuttles and light freighters. The station has only been running for about 10 years although it looks like it has been around longer due to general neglect and the fact that most of the buildings have been transported to the site from other locations as is common on the outlying planets. There is no real government for the station. It is not a township but there is a Nova Corp. security station which has been contracted by the government of Titania to provide security at the station. The Station consist of a Klancy's fuel station and general store, a clinic, a bar called “The Close Encounter”, The Nova Corp security station, Rosie's repair shop, and an office of the Venture Star prospecting company.

Pleasant Valley: “The Valley” as it is often called is a small village consisting of about 20 homes with a small school and a couple of light industrial companies that lies about a kilometer Northwest of Station 42. It is also home to Billings construction company. There is a marshal's station and the militia group “Boon's Irregulars” also consider it part of their territory as some of their members live there.

Rat Trap Junction: A small station that lies 5 kilometers north of Station 42. Rat Trap Junction consist of only two businesses. The local MFA Biodiesel station which serves the many hydroponic and livestock farms in the region and Clifford's Farm and Home which sells farming equipment and supplies as well as used vehicles.

Ramshackle and Hardscrabble: These two tiny villages lie on the banks of the Westson Reservoir which is a small reservoir created from filling an impact crater with water. Many of the people who live here work either at Station 42 or in Pleasant Valley or as farm hands. Most of the buildings are built from the native stone although they have some modern amenities. Boon's Irregulars patrol the area and draw several members from the population. The reservoir lies 3 kilometers northeast of Station 42.

Boon's Outpost: Carson Boon has a small garage and junk yard about 6 kilometers northeast of Station 42. About 3 years ago Boon became disgruntled with the Titania government because of their constant failure to provide security for the farmers and other settlers who live in the region around Station 42 so he formed “Boon Irregulars” a militia group who patrol the region looking for pirates, raiders, and other trouble makers. The outpost consist of Boon's garage and a few shipping containers that have been converted into a “base” for his militia group.

The Pit: “The Pit” doesn't even put on the pretense of being a “gentleman's club”. This strip joint and bar lies about a half a kilometer east of Station 42. The clientele consist of biker gangs, raiders, and the roughest spacers in the region. Almost anything illegal can be bought and sold here. Nova Corp and Boon Irregulars regularly raid the club looking to cut down on illegal activity but neither group seems to be able to shut the place down.

The Bloodborn Compound: The Bloodborn Pirates use an abandoned military base as their “hideout” although everyone in the region knows where it is. Built years ago during a war between the Confederacy and the Jovian Empire the base is more of a fort consisting of several hardened bunkers and low defensive walls. The compound is defended by several light artillery pieces and anti aircraft guns as well as a few aerospace fighters, a couple of armed shuttles, and usually several dozen pirates. The compound lies 10 kilometers east of Station 42.

Junktown: This shanty town lies only a few hundred meters from the Bloodborn compound. Home to some of the most desperate settlers on Titania the people of Junktown live here mostly because they can't live anywhere else although a few depraved individuals thrive here. Junktown is controlled by gangs of raiders and the Bloodborn pirates. More dangerous even than “The Pit” very few people would dare to venture here without the protection of either the pirates or one of the local gangs.

The M.S.S.R. Base: During the last war between the Confederacy and the Jovian Empire the M.S.S.R. Allied itself with the Confederacy as an such they have been allowed to maintain a small military presence on a number of Confederate worlds to deter Jovian aggression. The base is small and houses only about a platoon of soldiers but it is heavily fortified and well defended with weapons emplacements and attack craft. The base lies about 8 kilometers South Southeast of Station 42 and not too far from the Bloodborn Compound. Patrols from the base frequently engage pirate and raider patrols. No one really knows what goes on at the base and the M.S.S.R. Isn't advertising it's activities but many locals have noted that there is are an awful lot of Martian transport shuttles frequenting the base. More than would be expected for a small outpost.

The Colony: Over a century ago when Titania was still in the process of early teraforming a massive colony ship crash landed about 20 kilometers Northeast of the location Station 42 occupies. Of the thousands of colonist aboard only a few hundred survived. Life on a moon that barely had more than a sustainable atmosphere was harsh and many of the survivors perished in a few short months. Those that did survive slowly turned more and more savage over the years. Now the decedents of those survivors live in the wreckage of the massive ship as cannibal raiders. It is rumored that there are untold riches to be found among the wreckage of the ship which is scattered across the wasteland for several miles but the “colonist” seem to hold these areas as sacred and fiercely attack any intruders.

AE Bounty Battle Report "Valkyrie Ambush"

The Bloodborn pirates under the command of Captain Cyclopse had been causing problems for the citizens of Station 42 and the surrounding area. Eventually their victims decided to do something about it. Pooling their resources they hired the well known bounty hunting team known as "The Valkyrie".

The
Valkyrie

(Standard Crew)

Valarie (Gunsel Individual Elite
Hero)

M/3 RC/3+ CC/3 A/3(4) S/2 DR/6 W/4

Equipment: LRF Slugthrower, Shock
Grenades, Light Armored Suit

Abilities: *Solo *Hunter (Human)

Hero Type:Unkillable

Traits: Impervious (5+), Unstoppable

Action Points: 4

Kara (Bounty Killer Individual
Regular)

M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/3(4) S/3 DR/5 W/3

Equipment: LRF Slugthrower, Adrenal
Booster, Light Armored Suit

Abilities: *Solo *Hunter (Human)

Traits: Berserk

Action Points: 2

Vera (Bounty Killer Individual
Regular)

M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/3(4) S/2 DR/5 W/2

Equipment: LRF Slugthrower, AP rounds,
Light Armored Suit

Abilities: *Solo *Hunter (Human)

Action Points: 2

Alecia (Lurker Individual
Regular)

M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/3 S/2 DR/5 W/2

Equipment: Shock Gloves, Electrolaser
Pistol, Cloaking Field

Abilities: *Solo *Hidden Deployment
*Hunter (Human)

Action Points: 2

The Bloodborn Pirates

Standard Crew

Captain Cyclopes (Human Veteran
Blooded Warrior Hero)

M/3 RC/3+ CC4 A/5(7) S/3 DR/5 W/3

Equipment: Particle Beam Rifle, Light
Armored Suit, Personal Magnetic Field

Ability: Apathetic, Command, Get up and
shoot!

Quartermaster Grimm (Human
Regular Individual)

M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/5(7) S/2 DR/4 W/2

Equipment: Particle Beam Rifle, Light
Armored Suit, Personal Magnetic Field

Ability: Apathetic, Issue Equipment

Quartermaster Vinnie (Human
Regular Individual)

M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/5(7) S/2 DR/4 W/2

Equipment: Particle Beam Rifle, Light
Armored Suit, Personal Magnetic Field

Ability: Apathetic, Issue Equipment

The Ductrats (Human Green Squad)

M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/3 S/2 DR/3 W/1

Equipment: LFR Slugthrower, Light
Armored Suit

Ability: Apathetic, Random Equipment

Da Gurlz (Human Green Squad)

M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/3 S/2 DR/3 W/1

Equipment: Slugthrower Pistol, Light
Armored Suit

Ability: Apathetic, Random Equipment

Knowing that pirates can't pass up a free ship the Valkyrie use their own ship as a decoy to draw out Captain Cyclopes and his gang. The pirates close in to inspect their new prize.

The Valkyrie spring their trap. Early in the fighting one of "Da Gurlz" is shot down by Valarie's LRF slugthrower. Grim and Vinnie take cover in a rocky outcropping while the Captain and the Ductrats make a long flanking maneuver.

The fighting gets serious. Da Gurlz rush forward and shoot at Vera on the hill but they are gunned down in turn by the Valkyrie. Captain Cyclops, completely unfazed takes two shots at Vera on the hill and she falls. Kara and Alecia trade shots with Vinnie and Grimm the two pirate quartermasters. Kara takes a would and the Valkrie quickly discover that both pirates have personal magnetic fields. "That's going to make them hard as hell to kill in that position! Flank em!" shouts Valarie.

Captain Cyclopse takes up a positon in the rock after his own personal magnetic field fizzled out and he took two wounds. Valarie fires a hail of lead into his position and the Captain goes down. "Die Scum!" she exclaims.

Kara and The Duct Rats shoot it out on the other side of the hill. "I'm hit...again" Kara says as the she guns down the last of the crewmen. Vinnie and Grimm snap off several shots with their particle beam rifles but for the most part miss their targets. "Guess we shouldn't have drank the Captain's rum eh Grimm!" says Vinnie.

Vinnie and Grimm attempt to move into better positions seeing that they are getting flanked. Kara and Alecia charge Vinnie who puts up a stronger than expected defense. Alecia is wounded in the exchange but they take the pirate down. "Take that Sucka'" Alicia stays as she kicks Vinnie in the head.

Kara then moves up to get in a better position to take out Grimm but Valarie shoots the last pirate down with a barrage of fully automatic fire.

"Damn that was a hard win" says Valarie. "Those people better pay up" replies Kara.

Note: I ran the Bloodborn Pirates who suffered their first loss in this fight. My wife and Daughter ran the Valkyrie. This is the first time we have played with the Bounty Hunter crew and it's a nasty crew to face. The scenario was "Ambush". The Pirates has Tertiary objective as a dirty trick with Assassination and Delaying action as their secondary objectives. The achieved both of these objectives by Assassinating Vera and lasting for over 6 rounds. The Valkyrie had "Faulty Technology" as a dirty trick which they used on Captain Cyclopes's Personal Magnetic Field and their secondary objective was also delaying action. The Valkyrie won the primary objective as well and their faction objective and their secondary objective. A clear victory for this bounty hunting crew.

AE Bounty Battle Report " Boon's Irregulars assault a smuggler's hideout

A truck pulls up outside the hideout of the crew of the "Hotrod Pricess"

Whisper the crew's hacker points out the window. "Hey boss these must be the guys my contact back at Statin 42 told me about". Vincent the crews pilot looks out the window "Alright Lisa and I will go see what they want You guys stay here and cover us". "Hey it's going to be hard for us to cover you with this storm blowing in" replies Tommy.

Several men and women get out of the truck and spread out. They seem to be armed and they start making their way towards the old abandoned com bunker that the smugglers are using as a base. Vincent and Lisa take cover behind some rocks. "They don't look friendly" Lisa says.

The Storm is making it hard to see very far ahead. Redjack scans the field in front of him and sees some movement over near some old fuel barrels. "Got you" he says under his breath. A shot rings out and Lisa is struck in the arm by a high caliber bullet. Moments later another shot hits Vincent in the leg.

Vincent and Lisa flee away from the sniper. "Damn that guy is good!" Vincent says as he ducks behind an old crate.

Vincent hears the sound of boots splashing through the mud behind him. He spins around and brings his boosted particle beam pistol "Betty" to bear on a large target. Chuck goes down screaming and clutching his leg as the beam burns through his thigh.

Vincent and Lisa reach the bunker as the intruders close in. Tommy and Mike spot Carson Boon the leader of the militia group "Boon's Irregulars" moving up along the edge of an old crater. The pair opens fire and several shots ping off Boon's personal magnetic field although one shot gets through. "Damn it!" Whisper yells. "I was trying to hack that idiot's field but it's defense software kicked in and gave me a virus!"

From inside the bunker the smugglers put up a strong defense as the militia members move in. The bunker was built for a full scale war and most of the militia members shots are in vain. Whisper continues to try and hack Carson Boon's personal magnetic field. "I got it!" he exclaims.

At almost that exact moment Boon appears in the doorway of the bunker and open fires on the first target he sees. Whisper goes down in a hail of fire before he is even aware of his attacker. Tommy and Mike are both gunned down moments later by Redjack.

The fight turns desperate. Boon and Vincent tangle briefly in hand to hand but Vincent give boon the slip and makes a break for the door. He turns and snaps off another shot which hits Boon in the shoulder. Lisa guns down two militia members hiding near some rocks but more close in.

Vincent takes another shot at Boon and hits him in the arm then turns and runs but Red lifts his rifle and takes a whot. Vincent goes down shot in the back by a green militia member. "That's for Chuck you bastard!" Red yells. Bleeding from several wounds Boon opens up on Lisa and takes the last smuggler down. Bonnie walks into the bunker and looks around at the carnage. "Hey Boon isn't that the hacker we were suppose to capture?" Boon just shrugs.

Note: This is the first game of AE bounty I have run with my home brew smugglers list. Even though they were wiped out to the man I felt the list did exactly what it was suppose to do. I did forget that Vincent the crew's pilot has a personal magnetic field which would have helped him resist the wounds he took but I don't think that would have changed things in the end. I'll be posting the crew stats for the smugglers and my rules for this in the next day or so. We were afraid that the hacker rules would be too powerful but they seemed quite balanced. The hacker got two viruses trying to hack and only managed to hack one piece of gear although he did fry Boon's field.

I think we are about ready to begin an actual AE Bounty campaign based in our Spaceport setting. We just need to finish a couple more projects and play a few more practice games.

AE Bounty Battle Report "Pirate Raid"

We played our second game of AE Bounty Thursday night playing with pretty much the same crews as we did in our first report. The only major change in the list was that the green squads in Boon's Irregulars replaced their grenades with AP rounds.

We randomly selected the "Robbery" scenario from the book. The pirates has the secondary objective "Assassination" and the militia had the secondary objective "Capture".

I was playing the pirates and my objective was steeling loot from the militia's warehouse in the center of the table. The dirty trick I had selected for the battle was "scouts" which allowed me to set up the "Duct Rats" in hidden deployment. In the last battle this served me having three pirates with sub machineguns gunning down militia from turn one however the battlefield condition we rolled was "darkness" so they needed a 6 on a d6 to hit anything. Still with a rate of fire of 3 it seemed like a good idea.

Rolling 9 dice helped the "Duct Rats" score hits but their targets all had medium cover which added quit a bit to their armor saves. Redjack the militia sniper has the "Hunter" ability with "human" chosen as the target race. That gave him +1 strength to his shots. He was also a crack shot and he also had the "Crack Shot" ability which allowed him to ignore up to 2 points of cover. With two shots and a better ranged combat skill than the pirates he quickly started eliminating them.

By the 2nd turn Captain Cyclopes had managed to pick up a bag of loot and head for the table edge. I had to get two bags of loot off the table to achieve the primary objective of the battle. I chose to use my captain and my two quarter masters to be my looters because they had more action points than my crew and just picking up a bag of loot cost an action point.

Things just kept getting nastier for the "Duct Rats". My wife moved two militia around to flank me and I managed to shoot one down but Redjack dropped another pirate.

By the third turn Carson Boon had got into the fight. Fortunately for the pirates Vinnie the Quartermaster had picked up another bag of loot and was heading off with it. Grim was not so lucky and ended up in hand to hand with the militia leader so "Da Gurlz" charged down the hill to help him. Boon was wounded in the first turn due to being highly outnumbered.

By the end of the third turn Captain Cyclopes had made it off the tabled edge. Vinnie looked close behind with the 2nd bag.

By the fourth turn militia members Smith and Jones charged into the combat at the warehouse. During the fighting "Da Gurlz" were wiped out but Grimm the quartermaster managed to put another wound of Boon.

By the end of the 4th turn Vinnie was right at the tables edge with the 2nd bag of loot but it would be another turn before he could get off the table with it.

Grim managed to hold off the militia with some amazing hand to hand combat rolls. He even managed to take Jones down. What really helped him was that Quartermasters get a natural 4 armor value and he had a light armor suit with made his armor value 5. Since no one in the fight had any hand to hand combat weapons it was pretty easy for him to resist strength 2 attacks.

At the end of the battle the pirates had achieved the primary objective of getting two bags of loot off the table. The militia had achieved their faction objective of 1000 creds due largely to the 500 cred bonus for wiping out two thirds of the pirates. According to the rules it was a tie. Playing this scenario was quite a bit of fun and I think you could easily add it into a story or map based campaign. We will hopefully be starting some kind of AE Bounty campaign soon in our "Station 42" setting.

Statio 42: More Venture Star Vehicles

Just making a quick post to show off a couple new vehicles for the Venture Star prospecting company from my space station project. First up is the company shuttle which is a G.I. Joe Shark Tooth submarine toy. It's basically just a re-paint. I did basically nothing to the model in terms of conversion. There was already a plastic ridge in the canopy that was about where I would have put one to re-scale it so all I really did was paint it up. I'm really quite happy with the way it turned out and I'll likely be picking up a few more Shark Tooth toys for the project.

Next up is this flying car I picked up at Wal-Mart. It's a Hot Wheels kit car that is about 1/43rd scale I would assume. I think it makes an awesome air speeder/flying car. Check out my previous post for more details.

This car will be the personal vehicle of Mr. John J. Biggs the CEO of Venture Star. It is pictured here with two Copplestone "Babes"