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| Mission 12 |
This is a step-by-step breakdown of the twelfth Campaign Turn and Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign.
This Turn's battle was great fun. The mission was just plain bonkers: our long-term Patron the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers hired us to take out some rampaging War Bots, that had ended up running some strange viral emotional software. The Bots swapped personality programs mid-battle, called in other robots for help, and, I kid you not, one of the War Bots even had a pet dog.
Crew names below are often abbreviated G to M, as explained in: Crew Roster, which also tells you about my team and a bit about their ship. See also the Index of my Five Parsecs articles for a list of previous Missions and other content.
Pre-Battle:
1.1 Flee Invasion: - n/a
1.2 Decide Whether to Travel: - nope
1.3 Starship Travel Event: - n/a
1.4 New World Arrival Steps: - n/a
1.5 Gain 1 story point if it's turn 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc. - Yes. Brings us back up to 9 Story Points.
2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - 2
Ship Debt - 0
Ship Repairs - 0
Medical Care - 0
2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
Find a Patron - Train - M Trade - L, G Recruit - Explore - I, J Track - Repair Your Kit - Decoy - K, H
Noteworthy results from Tasks: -
Leonidas gets a Hot Tip that counts as a Quest Rumor. It's our 6th one, so the Quest will be short and successful. It's an old map that points directly at the Xanthous Soul from the 5th Dimension!
Our robot sells a bit of scrap for 1 credit.
Inshubur meets a guru while Exploring, and earns 2 XP.
Juniper takes a Small Job, basically a 2 credit bounty on 1 random Enemy during this Turn's battle.
Moreva Trains for bonus XP, saving up for some Advanced Training at the end of the Turn.
It's not especially relevant at the moment, but I might as well note now that I've decided to use a variation on the "Slower Progression" rules from the "Difficulty Toggles" PDF available from the designer's official Discord. His version increases the cost of certain Stat bumps by a point or two, and also puts a lower cap on some stats. I like the cost bump, and even kind of feel like it doesn't go far enough because characters become badasses pretty fast. But I don't like the lower caps, because they can cause you to quickly run out of things to spend XP on, and end up with all your PCs having the same maxed-out stat profile. To solve this, I implemented his new higher costs for stats up to the listed new cap. Beyond that, my characters will have to pay double the new cost for each rank of the stat. So, for example, I'm now charging 8 XP to go from Combat 2 to Combat 3, but 16 XP to go from Combat 3 to Combat 4. This will have a lovely ripple effect of also making the Advanced Training options look comparatively better.
2.3 Determine Job Offers: - Going to go see a Bot about a Dog...
2.4 Assign Equipment: - n/a
2.5 Resolve Rumors: - n/a
2.6 Choose Your Battle -
Patron: Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers - (Persistant Patron from Turn #8) Type: Private Organization. B8+ H8+ C8+ Danger Pay: +3 Credits and when you roll for Mission Pay in Get Paid after the battle, you may roll twice and use the higher of the dice. Time Frame: Turns 11 to 13. Hazard: Private Transport (Rivals cannot interfere with us this Turn) Condition: Reputation Required (We completed another Patron Mission on this planet last turn, so it is unlocked)
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| Initial deployment. Robots on the right. Our Crew surrounding their Shuttle on the left. |
Battle:
Deployment / Planetary Condition: - Planet-Wide Fog - All shots beyond 8" are -1 to Hit.
Notable Sights: -
Offered a small job during Exploration - When fighting this campaign turn, select a random enemy figure. If your crew kills them, earn 2 credits. No reward if they run away.
Also, the actual Notable Sight is Priority target: Select a random enemy figure. Add +1 to their Toughness. If they are slain, gain 1D3 credits.
Objective: Fight Off (just Hold the Field)
Enemy Type: Hired Muscle: Sub-Type: War Bots
Numbers: +0 Panic: 0 Speed: 3” Combat: +1 Tough: 4 AI: A Weapons: 3C
Fearless: Never affected by Morale.
Robot Body: 5+ Saving Throw.
Hired Muscle: You are -1 to any attempt to Seize the Initiative.
Enemy Count:
- 2 regular War Bots with Infantry Lasers,
- 1 regular with Infantry Laser, that is the target of the Small Job for +2 credits if killed
- 1 regular with Infantry Lasers, that is Priority Target. Toughness 5, +1d3 credits if killed
- 1 specialist War Bot with Plasma Rifle,
- 1 War Bot LT w/ +1CS, Blast Rifle, Blade, and better armor (4+ Saving Throw) - I decided after the last mission that I'm now going to use the optional rules called "Hit Me Harder" from the Difficulty Toggles PDF. That's why the LT has better Armor.
- +1 Unique Individual: Gene-Dog
Gene Dog Speed: 6” Combat: +1 Tough: 4 AI: G Weapons: Fangs (Melee, Damage +0)
Enhanced versions of Earth-dog breeds, usually modified to withstand the environment.
Loyal: When owner or Dog moves into a Brawl, it is not resolved until both have had a chance to act. If the owner is slain, the Dog becomes Fearless and remains in place, but attacks anyone that approaches within 8”. If all other enemies are slain or Bailed, it will also Bail.
6 robots, and their dog. What a crazy group of baddies! 2 of the robots are special targets worth extra money if I kill them. I was a little tempted to reroll the Gene Dog, or just have it be a robot with the same profile. But since the job is from The Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers, I decide the craziness is fitting. These robots have gone rogue, and the FTP thinks it's because they received a code transmission from the future. Weirdly enough, one of the bots has a pet Gene Dog. This is not supposed to be possible with their cold programming. If the FTP can't crack their code, the robot uprising could go viral.
Another fun little bit of weirdness is that the two special targets the FTP really wants us to kill are of the variety with the weakest weapons. If I go full-bore on killing the big-dollar targets, it'll leave Plasma and Blast weapons in play. Who to target is especially meaningful this battle. Best of all, the Gene-Dog is guarding the Priority Target. So if I want the financial reward, I'm gonna have poke the bear Gene-Dog.
Deploy: I grab an old map of a D&D ruin, and drop a couple extra little bits of technological terrain on it to break up the lines of fire. Robots and their dog on the East edge, and my new Shuttle dropping off my crew in the West.
Round 1: - Seize the Initiative: We drop out of the shuttle and move forward.
Everyone moves into position. Shots are fired, but between Cover and the planet-wide Fog, everyone misses, so there's no Panic rolls.
The Enemy Ploy is not triggered yet.
Round 2:
Quick Phase: - Inshubur Aims, and scores what would normally be a kill shot on the War Bot LT, but it's robotic armor Saves it. (EDIT: This should have been a kill, because Plasma Rifle's pierce armor, but this was maybe the second time that's ever actually mattered in the campaign, so I forgot about it at first.)
The Kid advances, and misses. Juniper moves up, but can't quite line up a shot.
Enemy Phase - several shots miss I and H. One carefully calibrated shot in the fog hits The Kid, but his Luck saves him, and he dives forward under the shot to survive.
Slow Phae - H, L, and M all move forward, and any shots they fire go wide in the fog.
No panic tests this turn, and the Enemy Ploy is not triggered yet.
Roll Battle Events between Round 2 and 3 - Change of Plans - "The enemy switches to the Cautious AI type for the rest of the battle." Well, that's interesting. They were Aggressive just a moment ago. Maybe the bots just figured out they are mortal? Now I kinda feel bad.
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| PCs movements in green, or blue if they used a jump-belt, or yellow if they spent a Luck point to leap randomly to safety. (You may have to zoom in to see the blue jump lines. They're in the south.) Red lines are enemy movement. |
Cautious AI
Cautious Enemies will attempt to stay in cover whenever possible. Figures with an opponent in sight and range will remain where they are, aim and fire. Otherwise, they will advance in or behind terrain features, trying to establish lines of fire to opposing figures. They will attempt to engage targets at as close to maximum range as possible and will not advance voluntarily within 12” of opposition. As a general rule, they will not enter Brawling combat.
Round 3: It's becoming clear why the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers consider these warbots a threat. Self-aware military bots with enough complexity to pivot their tactics radically, and enough personality to have a pet dog. These are not your granddad's battle droids, kids. Luckily, we had a great Initiative roll this turn.
Quick - Moreva moves up and fires at the Warbot LT, and misses because of Cover and Fog.
Inshubur Aims at the same bot and hits twice, with one shot solid enough to wound. As I'm reaching to roll Armor, I suddenly realize Plasma Rifles have the Piercing trait! They ignore Armor. Blam! The LT is slagged.
The Kid shoots at the War Bot that nearly took him out last round. His laser fire connects, and burns a hole through the CPU of that Bot.
H makes a fairly risky move, dropping in between two bots, to try to bring his Shatteraxe to bear against the War Bot with the built-in Plasma Rifle. He wins the melee decisively, scoring two hits. One rolls minimum damage and only stuns, but the second damage roll is more solid, and the Bot fails its armor roll.
Enemy - The War Bot next to H'Xex is the one chosen for our "Small Job". It shoots H'Xex from point-blank, but only manages to Stun him.
The other Bot with LOS to him Aims, but even with laser Snapshot and the Aim reroll, it can't manage to get past the cover he's in. The gamble seems to have paid off.
The Priority Target War Bot moves to a spot completely concealed from all PCs except H'Xex, and shoots him. It's also only enough to Stun him, but it does drive him back out of cover. If I'd done that in the other order, he might have gone down. The suboptimal play for the baddies wasn't intentional, i just started with the Bots closest to their target.
The Gene Dog moves closer to H'Xex, but stays in complete Cover and doesn't charge him because the Guardian AI says it stays within 3" of the Bot it's protecting. If a melee-only Unique Individual has the Guardian AI, and the person they are guarding has a long-range weapon and Cautious AI, things get a little weird. Not broken, not unclear, but the level of danger posed by the Gene Dog dropped significantly when it's pet War Bot switched to Cautious AI because of the Battle Event. If all the War Bots were still Aggressive, H'Xex would be in a much worse position right now. As it is, he's double-stunned in the open, so it still might end badly for him.
Slow - Cover and fog save a Bot from Leonidas' plasma-fire.
Juniper... shooting a dog just feels awful, especially when it hasn't attacked anyone, and isn't in range to do so. Juniper just moves forward into cover, and considers her options. Not an ideal strategy move, but fine for the roleplaying side of the hobby. Juniper grew up an orphan, was a good cop who quit the force before power and authority could corrupt her, and values freedom. She just can't pull the trigger if the dog hasn't done anything threatening yet.
No Panic. No Enemy Ploy just yet.
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| PCs movements in green, or blue if they used a jump-belt, or yellow if
they spent a Luck point to leap randomly to safety. Lines in red, orange or magenta are enemy
movement, with the color variation just being to help make visual sense of paths that criss-cross. |
Round 4: -
Quick - H'Xex uses his Concealed Blade on the Job Bot, but only stuns it. (Concealed Blade is an item that lets you, once per Mission, make a free attack at anyone who is within 2" of where you started the Round. It doesn't seem like being Stunned prevents that in any way, but just to be safe I officially announce that his action for the Round will be Attack, not Move.)
He follows up with a shotgun blast. Two hits, two wounds, and the Bot only manages one of its Saves. The "Small Job" target is eliminated.
Moreva hits thanks to her Unity Battle Sight, but only stuns a War Bot. She's now blocking Leonidas' shot, so he goes out the back of the building to get into a flanking position.
Because of where the War Bot was knocked back to, Inshubur no longer has LOS, but she repositions and fires. Both shots go wide.
The Kid dashes forward, but can't get a view to anything.
Enemy - Since the bots are now Cautious, I decide the stunned one falls back into Cover instead of an attack. Per the rules, he should have just stayed where he was and shot, but standing in the open like that would have guaranteed his own death next Round, whereas he could move completely out of LOS to shake off the Stun in safety. Plus, he was blocking LOS for his comrade who could Aim at H'Xex. With all that lined up, it seemed like the best move for this badguy was to fall back into Cover or even break Line of Sight. People do weird things in adrenalin panic, but as these were also cold calculating War Bots with a Panic of Zero who'd swapped from Aggressive to Cautious AI due to a Change of Plans Battle Event... now I'm rambling, but it does seem like there could be some interesting un-utilized design-space where the rules could have given the various AIs slightly different response to being stunned. Or maybe not. I mean, the smartest choice for the AI probably is "shoot back" close to half the time, even for Cautious or Defensive enemies. Any rule to cover exceptions is likely to be clunky, so anything more than an acknowledgement of "If the AI's action seems suicidal ignore it unless they are Rampaging" would probably not be an improvement.
Anyhow, that Bot gets out of the way, and shakes off it's Stun. The dice back up my assertion that this was the smartest play, because the Priority Target bot shoots at H'Xex, misses when it rolls a 1, but gets to reroll because of Aiming. (The stunned bot wouldn't get to reroll) The second roll is a hit, and damage is above his Toughness! His Combat armor fails him, but H'Xex does burn his Luck to stay alive. He is moved a random 4" south. Since he has a Jump Belt, I assume that's activated and allow him to fall back over the fence and the statue that are in his path. H'Xex is no longer in LOS to anyone, and still has one Stun on him, so this basically nukes his next turn as well.
Slow - Juniper moves, but can't draw a bead on anyone. She's still not shooting that dog.
The Enemy Ploy is finally triggered. It's Reinforcements. Two regular Warbots, and one Plasma-Rifle toting Specialist. "The reinforcements will act normally in accordance to their AI"... so do they act with the original Aggressive AI, or the modified Cautious AI? I think I'll pause for lunch to contemplate that.
Roll Battle Events between Round 4 and 5: A Desperate Plan: A random figure in your crew cannot act at all next round, but instead select another figure of choice that may act in both the Quick and Slow Actions phases.
Round 5: - Because of A Desperate Plan, Juniper cannot activate at all this Round, but one other character can activate in both Quick and Slow phases. I'm a little unclear on how "A Desperate Plan" is supposed to play out. Does it replace Initiative rolls? I decide to roll the normal dice, and get:
5, 2, 6. 5, 3, 1 and an extra 3 from my Communicator, which lets me roll an extra and drop the worst.
So that's 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5. I assign the 1 to Leonidas, the 2 to Moreva, the 3's to Inshubur and the Kid. I assign a 5 to H'Xex, and the extra 5 as a second notification for Inshubur.
Quick - The Kid moves up, and lases a hole through one of the War Bot reinforcements. I, L, and M move but can't get LOS to anyone because the Bots are all hiding behind the ruins. War-Bots, come out to play-ay!
Enemy - The War Bots do indeed come out to play. I decided to have them all function on the Cautious AI, instead of having to worry about multiple AI styles. The deciding factor was that if they'd gone aggro, they would have probably gotten themselves killed failing to reach their targets for melee. Instead, they advance in cover, and lay down a lot of fire. Three shots hit Juniper, giving her 2 stuns and burning her Luck as it drives her far across the ruin. One shot misses Moreva due to the fog.
Slow - Inshubur advances again, and lights a plasma fire on a bot, melting it. This is a little risky, I guess, but she's got high enough Reactions it's not likely to backfire.
No Panic.
Round 6: - Quick - Inshubur comes around the pillar and fires. She only hits once, but still plasma-fries the Priority Target.
Juniper dives for cover, and removes 1 stun.
Moreva hits one of the reinforcing bots despite cover and fog, but it's hardened robot chassis Saves it.
H'Xex charges the Plasma Bot from behind. He wins the fight, but only stuns. That's not good. He's out of Luck, too, so that could be a fatal mistake. I spend a story point to reroll the damage. He drives the bot back just at the moment that Inshubur's missed shot is flying wide... (rerolling 1d6+2 damage... is still a "3". dangit!) but the Bot nimbly folds the upper part of its body over to avoid the plasma and the axe.
Moreva's got a couple shots at it now with her Plasma Rifle... and both miss because of cover and fog! That's one dodgy Bot.
Enemy - The squirrelly Bot opens up with its Plasma, and H'Xex crumples.
The Gene Dog rushes Inshubur! You hurt momma! The dog rolls a natural 1. Inshubur rolls a natural 1. Inshubur rerolls with her Elegant Boarding Saber, and gets yet another natural 1! Due to a higher Combat Skill, Inshubur technically wins the fight. She takes 1 Hit, and the Gene Dog takes 2. Net result, she's stunned, and the dog is dead.
The other War Bot lines up a tricky shot between the Pillars. A miss, but it's yet another "1", so since it's Cautious and didn't move it can reroll with Aim. It's a hit this time, but only gives her a second stun.
Slow - K advances. L dashes.
No Panic.
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| PCs movements in green, or blue if they used a jump-belt, or yellow if
they spent a Luck point to leap randomly to safety. Lines in red, orange, magenta or purple are enemy
movement, and not even making each one a subtly different color will help make sense of it all, I'm afraid. The reinforcements just ran right over the same ground as the first wave. I should have taken more pictures, I guess. |
Round 7: - Quick - Inshubur trusts her Luck, and returns fire. She only stuns the Laser Bot.
Moreva Aims and fires, and stuns the Plasma Bot.
Kid moves in on the flank, and surprises the Plasma Bot, but only gets a second stun on it. That's not good. I'm going to drop another story point to reroll the damage. The Bot's defensive sensor suite was overwhelmed by the plasma fire wreathing it, that it failed to detect The Kid sneaking up. The damage is enough, and the Bot's armor Save buckles. Just one Bot left to deal with!
Enemy - It fires at Inshubur and misses.
Slow - Leonidas steps out into the middle of the room, and vaporizes the last Bot. Game Over.
Analysis: This was one of the most enjoyable battles I've had, in a game I love. I felt real pressure on this Mission, having to use 2 Story Points and 3 Luck. The Battle Events really mixed things up, and my characters moved all over the map with a two-pronged assault. The Planet-Wide Fog had a huge effect on the length of the battle and the need for me to close ground. The Enemy Ploy system helps make things unpredictable, and encourages you to take some early risks in the hopes of clearing the board before the reinforcements show up.
That said, I almost wish that Ploy I'd rolled up was something a little more elaborate. I'd kind of built-up these bots in my head a bit, as being super-smart and unpredictable. I considered spending a Story Point to reroll their Ploy to see if I could Infiltrators, a Flanking Attack, or The Boss, all of which would have pushed that theme a bit more... but it feels weird spending limited resource Story Points to make things harder on my team.
I do think that I may need to keep Reinforcements in mind during set-up in the future, if for no other reason than to make my after-action maps easier to visualize. All those Bots walked over each other's paths, which was kind of less interesting than the Cultist fight a few Turns ago where they came in from the other lane of the road. That's a pretty minor complaint though, and one I can easily prevent in the future if I think ahead next time.
And I LOVE that the mad murder robots had a pet dog. It was fun having Juniper be incapable of pulling the trigger, and even better that the Battle Events and stuns thereafter basically prevented her from firing another shot. She just completely fell apart there. Felt like a character-driven TV episode, not "just" a miniatures game, and that was pretty great.
Post-Battle:
4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - Nope.
4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - Already on the Patron list.
4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - N/A.
4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: -
Planetary Condition - Booming Economy - When rolling for post-battle credit rewards, any 1 on the dice are rerolled until it shows a score other than a 1.
Danger Pay: +3 Credits and when you roll for Mission Pay in Get Paid after the battle, you may roll twice and use the higher of the dice.
Small Job for +2 credits if killed
Priority Target with Toughness 5, +1d3 credits if killed
11 credits total! 4+3+2+2. That's a big pay day. Our total is now 31 in the stash.
4.5 Battlefield Finds: - OMG, I can't believe I rolled "Still" again. It's my fifth dose of this consumable, and I never seem to remember I have it. It's amazing how dice can so "streaky" even when rolled weeks apart.
4.6 Check for Invasion!: - Not this Turn.
4.7 Gather the Loot: - I get a Seeker Sight (The weapon receives +1 to Hit if the shooter did not Move this round).
4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: - Crippling Wound: H'Xex requires 3 credits of surgery immediately. Since we got paid 11, that's not a problem. Unfortunately, he's also out for 5 Turns of Recovery. Guess I'll be fielding my robot, GcViib, instead of my K'Erin soldier, for a while. I hope Gee-Cee wasn't infected by the War Bot virus.
4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades: G.0 H.1 I.5 J.3 K.4 L.3 M.3 - First Kill: - I Rookie: K Unique: I
I liked how Inshubur just raced all over the map today, so I buy her a 7th point of Speed.
4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - Moreva pays 2 Credits and 7 XP to learn Advanced Training: Mechanics - If your ship is in need of Repairs, you may repair +1 Hull Point damage every campaign turn (meaning 2 points of damage are repaired per campaign turn). Engineers (such as Moreva) count any XP spent as double value for obtaining this.
4.11 Purchase Items: - What the hey, I had so much fun with starship travel last Turn, I figure I might as well double-down. The Rhapsody already had a Cargo Hold and a Shuttle, now she has a Hidden Compartment as well. Just for fun. I will now earn 0-10 credits every time I make the trip, but my fuel bill has gone up by 1 because of the extra weight.
4.12 Campaign Event: - 49: "You’ve earned a bit of a bad reputation. If you know any Patrons on the current world, randomly select one that will no longer work with you."
The Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers has decided they won't do business with us any more. I imagine it's about the dog. "You were just supposed to kill the war bots, not the dog!" Juniper feels vindicated about her decision.
I am continually impressed by how the giant stack of random tables consistently hands out emergent narrative. Now I just need to figure out why somebody on the team keeps stockpiling "Still" doses.
Oh, actually, that's obvious now that I think about it. Our Bot, GcViib, who used to go on Missions, but lately just flies the Shuttle and goes on shopping trips. They've been watching our video feeds, and knows that nobody ever pauses to Aim. Inshubur and H'Xex run straight into the jaws of death, time after time. GcViib's been silently critiquing our performance for weeks, and hoping the more spastic members of the crew will just chill out and sit Still for a minute.
Man, this game is great.
4.13 Character Event: - Leonidas reflects on his experiences, and how glad he is that he decided to stay on with this Crew. +1 XP.
4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - N/A
4.15 Tick Story Clock: - Zero. The next Story Track Event happens next Turn.
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