Our crews were ambushed by Alien Bugs while scavenging the hydroponics bay of a derelict space station.
Players and crews
Paul brought over his Stargrave crew The Bareaga Rangers and a big tray of tyranids from his enormous collection. I could tell from the gleam in his eye that he was thrilled at the chance to see them on the table again.
I fielded Fletcher’s Fetchers as usual, with a few key changes. Boots the trooper had perished to a frag grenade on the last job, but a lucky windfall gave me the means to replace her with a Codebreaker. I also equipped the Gun Slinger with a thief’s blade, providing him a bonus to unlocking loot and bringing the total of loot-unlockers on my crew to eight.
Scenario
The table was choked with wild plants and decaying irrigation systems, and populated with “ping tokens” representing unidentified sensor readings. Coming into sight of a ping token would reveal how many and what types of alien bugs were there. To further capture the claustrophobia of being trapped with these stalking monstrosities, the scenario offered each crew only three points of exit from the hydroponics bay.
Before the game, Paul revealed a Secret he had looted in a previous game, allowing him to choose any item from any loot table if his crew managed to secure the central loot token this game. He was coming for that central token no matter what.
Knowing this, I arranged other loot tokens out on the flanks, mirroring Paul’s placement so that both physical loot tokens were to my left and both data loot tokens to my right. I planned to split the crew into two specialized teams and try to nab the non-central tokens. Beyond that, I just hoped my crew would survive their first contact with the aliens.
Game outcome and highlights
Paul lost his medic to an unlucky crit from a warrior bug (“totally pulped”), but gained the central loot token and one other physical loot. I nabbed both data and one physical loot tokens. We both consider ourselves to have won.
The highlight of the game for me started on the first move of the first turn. Paul moved his captain up in view of a nearby ping token. He rolled a max result when randomly determining which bugs were there: three mighty warrior bugs! His plan to rush the central loot token became a frantic response to rescue his captain.
Despite my plan to avoid the middle, I knew an opportunity when I saw it. Brash the Chiseler broke off and headed toward the central token alone. What could go wrong?
He reached the central loot undisturbed, but before he could pry it open Paul’s crew killed the warrior bugs and rushed around the corner to confront him. My crew was busy dealing with its own bugs, so Brash was all alone. Paul grinned and described his captain leveling her weapon and saying “you just keep opening that crate for us.” So he did, and then fled to the safety of a nearby smoke cloud.
The game was filled with other great moments, like when we finally killed the last bug and Paul asked, “should we put some more bugs out?” (We did.)
I delighted in the tension-and-dread/relief cycle provoked by the ping tokens; I’ll be borrowing that idea for future games.
Campaign step highlights
Having secured his Secret loot token, Paul selected The Best Carbine in the Universe (+1 Shoot, +1 Damage, only takes one gear slot) for his captain. Future alien bugs beware! He also maxed out the experience points possible from killing bugs. They hadn’t left him much choice.
Everyone in Fletcher’s Fetchers escaped the hydroponics bay, so I didn’t have to roll to see who died. Fletcher continued the tradition of failing all three of his after-game mercantile powers, but still ended up with loot totalling about 400 credits. He put it right in the bank; he will surely have to replace another crewmate before long.
Stargrave continues to be everything I daydreamed about, and once again I can’t wait for my next game.
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