5PH Campaign Turn 1

After learning the ropes in the last post, it is finally time to play our first 'real' scenario. Get ready for a struggle for the high ground against hacked security robots. This will also be the first time that our crew actually gets paid, as we get to use some parts of the post-battle procedure.

A Shitty Job

The scenario blurb tells us how jobs are rare and hard to come by, but that our mechanic knows a guy who needs some dirty work done. Some security robots have been hacked and need to be destroyed.
It's not a good job, but it's a paying job.

Let's give our mechanic and his friend a name and some motive. It's always nice to have more than just a faceless void that hands out missions without any context.

Names
A Scottish mechanic feels right, so let's go with that.
Generator from Fantasynamegenerators.com | Randomized gender and then 1d10 on the list.
Mechanic Reece Bennett and his friend Hazel Foster

What motive has Hazel Foster to offer this job? (Using my main oracle)
Naively Curse Rebirth: Sounds like Hazel is a disgruntled employee tried to reprogram the security bots to destroy the factory but underestimated the consequences. She failed in her attempt, and to her horror, the security bots started to kill everyone in sight. In her desperation, she contacted her friend Reece Bennett and begged him for help, before more people would be hurt. The company had already shut down the factory and had written it off as a loss. The measly reward they offered hadn't attracted any attention so far.

The Setup

I pictured a large industrial complex that housed many different buildings and work stations. Eerily silent after having been abandoned during the frantic escape from the killer robots. You can barely see some of them at the opposite table edge.

Mission Objective
Fight Off (aka kill all the enemies)

Enemy Force
4 Security Bots - Defensive AI, slow but tough, armed with Hand Lasers.

The terrain is mostly paper terrain from Corvus Belli, mixed in with a bit of Core Space cardboard terrain. Five Parsecs from Home offers specific layout guidelines, but I quickly realized that I just prefer to create visually pleasing boards that I want to play on. Perfect balance isn't important to me in solo miniature games.

The enemy security bot minis are Spindle Drones from Blackstone Fortress.

The Premise

"We really can't afford any more downtime, Captain! Our storage is basically empty, and The Fleeting Touch is barely holding together. How are we supposed to run a successful mercenary outfit when we can't even leave the planet without rolling the dice on whether our ship explodes or not. Not to mention our recent unpaid action that only left us with spent supplies and nothing to show for it."

 

"I know Brimus, I know. It's not like you haven't hounded me about it for the past several weeks, okay? I don't like it any more than you do, but what do you expect me to do about it? Paying contracts are a luxury around here, and even shitty jobs feel like the Universe is giving us a hand. If I could summon them by sheer fucking will, don't you think I would?"

 

A hesitant knock interrupts their argument. Mechanic Reece Bennett sheepishly stands in the door frame, excitedly fidgeting with his beret held in front him.

"Sorry for the interruption, boss, but I might have something."

The Action

Using the newly introduced 'Seize the Initiative' rule, The Immortal Children managed to advance through cover, while Captain Edaro fired a pot shot across the factory.

The hacked security bots were obviously aware enough to maneuver defensively, as they denied any easy long range attempts and moved from cover to cover.

The first real opportunity came when Urtz spotted a moving shape besides one of the buildings to the right. He spun up his auto gun, but it was hard to tell if the shots had any effect on target.

Captain Edaro ordered everyone to take the high ground. They had to establish proper positions and not let the bots draw them into an ambush. Koah Keot quickly climbed a nearby ladder, only to be shot down by a lurking bot. Luckily, it was a glancing blow, and the fall only bruised his ego.

Urtz, Marfi, and Edaro remained undeterred and took control of the opposite building to the left. They knew the enemy was up there, but they couldn't let them take control of such an important vantage point. The Captain managed to kill one of the drones, while Urtz suppressed the other.

Selek Marfi tried to get into melee range but couldn't get close enough. She is equipped with a Sonic Emitter, that disrupts the accuracy of nearby enemies, so she decided to jump back down into cover, while still keeping the drones in range of her emitter.

The two drones retreated down the building to recover from the stunning fire, and to focus on the vulnerable target (Marfi) on the ground level. The shot only missed her due to the debuff of her Sonic Emitter.

Urtz used this opportunity to close the gap and rain death from above (With a desperately needed quick reaction). He managed to kill one of the drones and forced the other to retreat back even further.

Meanwhile, XO Janidri, Koah Keot, and Steven Bramlet managed to finally contest their assigned building. Bramlet, once again, overextends and only barely survives a point-blank shot from one of the drones. He stumbled back and crashed into Keot, who then crashed into the railing behind him, which also stunned him.

Janidri fired from extremely close ranged, but he failed to critically damage the enemy. Return fire inflicted grievous wounds, but he managed to stabilize himself by using the last available stim pack.

After a prolonged brawl, Koah Keot finally managed to bring down the second bot on top of their building. At the same time, Captain Edaro managed an incredible shot to finish off the last remaining bot on the battlefield.

Captain Edaro holstered his weapon and scanned the battlefield. He didn't like to show it, but he was really proud of his last shot and hoped that someone else would acknowledge it.

"Alright folks, good job. Scans show no remaining bots, but be careful nonetheless. These bastards aren't paying us enough, so take your time and loot anything that looks expensive and isn't bolted down."

Steven Bramlet instantly bolted to the remains of the security bots and began to rummage through their circuitry. "Urtz my friend, looks like your birthday just came early. I can definitely hook you up with some shiny new upgrades after I've cleaned up all their shoddy code."

Stomping metal and hissing pistons announced Urtz's approach. "I do not require birthday presents as I have not been born. Your misplaced desire to please me is appreciated nonetheless."

Post-Battle

Now for the juicy part of every narrative skirmish game! Let's see what the crew managed to scrounge up. This isn't the whole procedure yet, but we're starting to get into the good stuff now.

Get Paid: I rolled a 1, but that gets turned into 3 credits for winning the mission.
The absolute minimum… At least it fits the narrative of a shitty job.

Battlefield Finds: Starship Part  - equivalent to 2 credits when installing a new ship component
We haven't gotten to ship upgrades yet, so I'm excited to see all the possible upgrades later on.

Gather the Loot: Cargo Crate worth 1 credit.
The minimal amount of credits again. Ouch.

Determine Injuries and Recoveries: Skipped, because nobody got injured (albeit only through using our last Stim Pack)

Experience and Character Upgrades: Everyone gets 3XP for surviving a successful mission, and Captain Edaro gets 1XP extra for bagging the first kill of the scenario.
Bots don't get any XP, but they can be upgraded with credits (1:1 XP/Credit ratio). Steven Bramlet used the salvaged parts to upgrade Urtz's speed to 5. (-5 credits)

Updated Crew Assets
5 Credits
Analyzer

The Conclusion

A short but enjoyable scenario to kick off the 'actual' campaign. I'm not yet 100% comfortable with the rules, but I can already see what the game is going for. The book gives plenty to work with, so this should be an interesting campaign, and probably the first of many.

The paper terrain was cheap and looked great on the table, but the lack of weight made it a bit annoying to work with. Any small bump would move entire buildings, so I had to be really careful whenever I got close to it. Still a good addition to my terrain collection, and I'm sure that we will see it again for Five Parsecs from Home.

Getting to do parts of the post-battle procedure was fun, and I'm really excited about the procedural generation of a full campaign turn. Randomization is the core of solo gaming for me, so I can't wait to get started.

The next scenario talks about militant colonists that want to blow up a hyper-rail station. I don't have any fitting minis or hyper-rail station terrain, so I have some painting to do. Nothing special, just some generic bad guys that look good on the table, and a central terrain piece as an objective. Doesn't even have to be a hyper-rail station.

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