Stargrave: Dodging the Danger Zones

This week we played the next chapter in our sporadic Stargrave campaign. It was time for another homebrew mission, called the Danger Zone. You can read the original mission here. Whole sections of the battlefield would be disappearing in the course of the game while the crews struggled to retrieve loot counters.

It had been a while since our last game of Stargrave and I was a little rusty about the new equipment my crew had acquired. The crews descended onto a desert world, once inhabited by a lost civilization, but some kind of rogue nano swarms were active, devouring the ruined city the crews were exploring... 

Above: My medic Carla Zane, arrived in a flashy looking Bladerunner-style vehicle. Where she found it on a desert world is anyone's guess. Veterans will recognise that she used to run with a juvie gang in Mega City One back in the 1980s.

Lessons learned from this game: My medic can remove wounded and stunned status even within 2 inches of a crew member, she doesn't need to move next to them and this counts as a move action. The Eldar grenadiers - of which there are now two - remain lethal. I am going to hire one of my own. Tarko Three Arms, my gunfighter, is particularly dangerous and worth throwing into the fray early on.

Above: The Eldar captain - with sword - advances into the ruins. A data loot counter can be seen on the pyramid to the left, which was an easy grab for the Eldar. The glass beads are being used to show the different segments of the battlefield that could randomly disappear.

I also need to make more use of smoke and fragmentation grenades at close quarters. Angel has some and needs to start lobbing them around a bit more.

Above: Tarko Three Arms, my gunfighter, creeping through the ruins. He actually proved his worth on this mission. Gunfighters are in one of the expansions for the game (Quarantine 37).

I was again disappointed with Big Arnold, who was costing me 50cr per mission just for his power armour rental. He did draw a lot of fire, but seemed very vulnerable to the Eldar mate's flame thrower. He sadly perished on this mission. The Eldar strategy seems to hinge on the two grenade launchers and the flame thrower, so will need to devise a response to that.

Above: Some other interlopers turned up in the course of the mission. Here we see roving bounty hunter and firm favourite of the blog Johnny Alpha, who took out one of my crew. In this case the Genestealer hybrid was covering for my mate, Koliath Yang, who was trying to escape with some loot.

Despite only securing two loot counters (of the six at the start, the Eldar grabbed three and one was vapourised) they did prove useful this time; one was a suit of light armour with energy shielding which has gone to my captain, Gaspar Dread. I also acquried a pain masker which I can give to my medic as a free equipment slot as she already has a med pack.

My crew has two members wounded although both officers are in good shape. Next time we will be finding out what happens when crew members get lost on the way from their ships...