Scrapjacks: Solo/Cooperative Salvage Operations in Deep Space

Last month I teased a new project. Well time for the reveal, it's Scrapjacks, a new game from Stalker7.

Scrapjacks Quickstart cover, artist Andrew Dordor, internet image

Specifically, I aim to put together a set for playing the Quickstart, available on Wargames Vault for my favourite price, free!

I found out about Scrapjacks from Gunbird*, of 20mm And Then Some. He's kitbashed some great 'jacks, and I fancied trying something similar. This was before I even looked at the rules.

As an extra challenge, I'm going to try and do everything with stuff I've already got (with the exception of the new helmets from Anvil Industries).

So What Do I Need?

I'm starting from scratch, so I'll need four 'jacks, one of each type, plus some potential opposition; six Raiders and six small maintenance 'bots.

I'll also need two twelve inch square boards, four doors, eight 'points of interest'; basically stuff that can be searched, and two objectives (computer terminals to access the next board section). Some obstacles and barriers might also be useful.

Scrapjacks 

There are four different types of 'jacks. Torch; gets things open, Rigger; gets things working,  Patch; fixes suits and 'jacks, and Yard dog; deals with any opposition.

To make these I've a few different sprues to choose bits from. I got various Stargrave sprues  (Crew, Troopers and Mercenaries) which will provide the bulk of the components. I can also take bits from various Warpath kits, especially the Enforcers and the GCPS Infantry. The heads will, of course, be the bubble helmets I got from Anvil Industries.

Raiders 

I might base the Raiders on the GCPS Infantry, possibly switching out the weaponry for Stargrave stuff. Alternatively, I might find something useful amongst my unpainted Dreadball teams. 

If I weren't doing this on a budget,  I'd use the Stargrave Scavenger sprues or Wargames Atlantic's Cannon Fodder. 

Another possibility is to add weapons to some spare Star Saga scientists (actually, they'd make pretty good 'Jacks as well).

Bots

For the maintenance bots I'm using the Mechanoids Dreadball team. I've had them since they first came out and done nothing with them yet; here's a chance to get some use out of them.

Scenery etc

I've some old Fat Dragon Sci Fi floor plans that I can print off for the boards, and spare Star Saga accessories and general scenery bits I've collected over the years will do for the points of interest.  When the game comes out in full, there's be some optional official floorplans as well, but I'm making do for the Quickstart.

If I get around to adding walls or barriers,  I've plenty of Deadzone stuff and a box of 'Platformer?' terrain which I've never got around to using. 

Playing the Game

The Quickstart is, by necessity, a shortened form of the game.  It's pitched for solo and co-op play, so I'll give it a go myself and see how it plays before investing in the full game.

I'll let you all know what I think when I get around to trying it.

One nice thing about the booklet is the way it is often presented as a briefing to prospective Scrapjacks.  Vaststar Recovery Group run a franchise system, and a lot of the instructions are presented as if to new franchisees.

What's Next?

So that's the plan. First up, I think, will be the Scrapjacks themselves. 

I'm looking forward to the kitbashing, it's been great fun doing the Rangers and companions, and this promises to be similar.

Update!

As of 4th March, the full game is available, either a PDF via Wargames Vault or a hardcopy via Amazon (though currently US only).

*Gunbird also put me on to the Five Box System, he's a great inspiration

Trying Rangers of Shadow Deep; The Deserted Village

Recently I tried Rangers of Shadow Deep. I've owned the book since 2020, it seemed a sensible idea to try a game that could be played solo back then. However, I did very little gaming at all and it got put back on the shelf.

For a while I thought Fistful of Lead would replace my various other skirmish games. I still like it, especially for Star Wars, but playing Frostgrave with Andy and Grim reminded me of how much fun Joseph McCulloch's game engine can be.

When Andy mentioned that he'd be in the area and fancied a game of something, it seemed a great opportunity to finally get RoSD on the table. So here's our first game, with apologies for the rather 'thrown together' look of the terrain and minis.

Uli, Portus Fell, Skegi, Arthur, Besaria and Ellen

Rangers of the Shadow Deep is a solo/co-op game that plays through a series of written missions telling the struggle of the kingdom of Alladore after it's neighbour Lorenthia is consumed by a mystical darkness, The Shadow Deep. We played the first scenario of the first mission; our Rangers and their companions were investigating and eerie abandoned village where Aventine, a fellow ranger, had gone missing. As we stood in the village centre pondering what to do, groans and moans announced the arrival of the undead.

The Rangers and Companions explore the village 

"It's too quiet, where is everyone?" "Wait, what's that sound?"

The Opening Moves 

Portus Fell Enchanted her sword in preparation for the dangers ahead and Ellen shot at an approaching zombie but missed.

Besaria used her deeper understanding of magic to Enchant both her and Portus' armour. Uli cranked back his crossbow and skewered a second zombie, dropping it to the ground.

The zombies shuffled forwards, some seemed more interested in the buildings than the Rangers.

In response, Arthur moved up ready and Skegi, spotting an ugly rat, charged it. Sadly, he missed it completely. It flew at him in a frenzy and the poor chap fell screaming to the ground.

Still, one zombie down, but then the rangers spied four more closing in on the village.

Portus ran to the house to see what was attracting the zombie. Inside she found a villager huddled in a corner. "Come with me if you want to live" she called. 

Besaria investigated the rough looking inn. Inside was a body. A quick inspection revealed bite marks; she had an idea what might have caused them, perhaps that was behind the mystery of the village. Did it also explain Avantine's disappearance? 

The zombies shuffled closer, some moving towards what looked like bodies in the woods, others towards the rangers and their companions.

Ellen loosed at another zombie, missing again, and then retreated back to the well in the village centre. Uli showed her how it was done, dropping that zombie too. The villager moved to the relative safety of the well and Ellen's protection and Arthur squashed the rat, vengeance for Skegi.

Two zombies and a rat down, but further moans announced the arrival of two more zombies.

Skegi falls to a rat.  The ignominy

The Main Phase 

Portus charged a zombie on the edge of the village. Despite her superior swordplay, she was unable to damage it. 

Arthur moved round to investigate a body. Sadly there was nothing to be done for the unfortunate, but he was able to identify the strange tracks around the body.

Besaria ran out of the inn and hacked at an approaching zombie. Like Portus she easily beat it, but couldn't hurt it. Still she forced it away. Taking advantage of this, Uli shot it, his bolt smashing through it's skull (a critical hit!).

Ellen once more failed to hit any of the undead, and two more were approaching.

Besaria conjured a Fireball, burning a couple of zombies to a crisp. Uli took aim at another, but missed.

Portus investigated another body. This poor villager was dead, but ironically was clutching a bunch of Healing Herbs. 

Arthur was charged by a zombie that gave him a nasty wound.

Two more zombies shambled forwards to contact Ellen and Besaria.

Arthur struck back, beating his opponent away, while Ellen took out her zombie, then moved back.

The poor villager, overcome with the horrors he was witnessing, froze in place by the well.

Besaria beat back her zombie and Uli shot another, but couldn't quite finish it off.

Portus took advantage of the injured zombie's confusion to put another arrow in it, bringing it down.

A rat made a surprise appearance (we missed it, hidden away by the side of a building), charging into Ellen and felling her.

Arthur fared better and led a couple of zombies a merry dance away from the village.  He hoped to outpace them and investigate a couple more bodies he had seen. 

Unseen by the rangers and their companions, a couple of diseased rats snuck out of the buildings.

Mopping Up

Portus Fell charged into another zombie, chopping it down, but taking a wound in exchange.

Besaria uses her arcane training to recall the details of the Fireball spell, and launches it at the newly appeared rats and an encroaching zombie.  Both rats are incinerated, but the badly burnt undead stagers on. Seeing the danger to the villager frozen in fear, she then moves up to stand between him and the enemies.  It was fortunate she did, as a rat and then the still burning zombie moved in.  She was able to despatch both enemies.

Arthur, outrunning his undead pursuers, found the body of the missing Ranger, Aventine (sadly he didn't recognise the importance of the sword).

As the Rangers looked around they breathed a sigh of relief.  Only one zombie could be seen, shambling after Arthur.  Then with a crash, the Rough Inn collapsed, fortunately, no one was near enough to suffer damage.

Seeing Uli bleeding profusely, Besaria used her healing magic to help him.  Portus inspected another body, only to have it spring up and attack.  Fortunately, she quickly swung her sword, beheading it (another critical hit!).  Arthur turned to face the oncoming zombie and smashed it with his warhammer (another critical hit!).

Portus is just about to move, allowing Besaria to Fireball the rats and zombie near the building

Another view of the village centre just before the second Fireball, the last few rats and zombies were soon despatched 

Summing up

This was a great fun game. There were times, especially early on when I lost Skegi, that we thought we wouldn't survive. The event cards gave us lots of zombies in the first few turns, but that did mean that, once they were dealt with, the pressure slacked off in the last couple of turns, not that they were any less exciting!

The system works really well and our familiarity with Frostgrave helped a lot.  There is a good sense of following a story, but with enough choice and random elements to keep it fresh. We are both looking forward to playing the next scenario in the mission, where we confront the source of the zombies and find what made those tracks.

If you like the sound of RoSD, its available as a pdf from Drive Thru RPG.

A Note On Terrain and Minis

I put this game together in a bit of a rush.  Of course I plan to have a set of dedicated RoSD minis and terrain, all matched to missions.  Eventually.

For this I grabbed a couple of 'ranger-y' minis and used my Oldhammer dwarves for the Companions.  The zombies and rats came from my Frostgrave collection.

I scavenged through several terrain boxes for trees, and was surprised at just how many I found.  Some of them need a bit of attention though, better and more consistent basing for a start.  

You may recognise the Bake House from the Great British Terrain Build-Off.  The remaining buildings were built decades ago based on card buildings in various Warhammer Fantasy Battle Scenario packs (and reprinted in the Village Pack).  I think the tall building is from Terror of the Lichemaster, the wooden planked building is the Rough Inn from The Tragedy of McDeath, and the small cottage is, I think, from one of the early Citadel journals.  I'm pleased with how well they stand up (not just physically, but in comparison to the Bake House).  Someday I'll get around to basing them and doing bits of repair work to bring them up to match my current terrain builds.

FfoL Galactic Heroes: A Family Quarrel

**WARNING** This post contains images of unpainted and unfinished terrain which some hobbyists may find distressing.  

There were only two of us for a recent Monday evening game, so we decided to play Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes. We used my 20mm Star Wars stuff and quickly came up with a storyline where Luke, aware that Vader *Spoilers* was his father, was trying to find one of his uncle's friends to discover more. Unfortunately Vader learnt about this and set a trap. Maybe not the best background, and it doesn't quite fit canon, but it worked for us.

We each had a crew of Leader, Specialist and three Regulars, plus the relevant Galactic Hero

This was the first time we'd tried using Heroes, how well would they work for Star Wars?

Brave Rebel heroes (or scum)

Imperial forces no doubt giving the residents a hard time 

Luke leads his Rebel crew in from the dunes, while Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers occupy the town 

The Rebels cautiously advance, trying to make the most of the cover.  The Imps are even more hesitant, Lord Vader directs them from atop one of the buildings.

Early Imperial shooting takes out one of the Rebels!

Luke uses the Force to heal his companion's wound 

Vader (near centre) uses The Force to shield himself and 'Force chokes' the recently healed rebel trooper 

Luke charges in to fight Vader. Vader is Shaken by his assault, then Luke cuts him down

Another great fun game, and an interesting experiment using two iconic characters.   Shooting was a bit lack-lustre on both sides, though the Imps got the first kill.  There were a couple of times the Rebs took wounds or were shaken, but I was able to use the relevant cards to remove these conditions, or have Luke use his Healing.  The only successful Rebel shooting was the PLX - 1 which took out two Stormtroopers with one rocket in the same turn as Luke's heroic charge against his father.

As we have seen before, the FfoL Galactic Heroes rules certainly work well for run-of-the-mill Star Wars style skirmishes, but how did they work with Luke, Vader and the Force? 

The Heroes rules essentially build another Leader. We added Psychic (Force) Powers as well (so one more Trait than strictly allowed, but we wanted really impressive heroes). The Psychic Powers did feel like the Force, and we saw them used to good effect. Luke Healed one of the Rebels and Vader used Force Choke on the same poor Reb. Vader also Shielded himself to dissuade the Rebels from shooting at him and goad Luke into fighting him. We didn't get any deflection of blaster bolts, largely because any firing against the heroes was from too far away; once we got closer, neither of us wanted to risk it.

The game was quickly put together, given more time I'd adjust the traits slightly, but they seemed to work fine.  Also, unpainted terrain.  This was some stuff I threw together last time we were playing, and it never got finished.  I should complete it, but I've been thinking about doing some 28mm stuff to use the greater variety of the old WotC pre-painted stuff.

Secure The Area - MESBG Battle Companies Game

We got another game in in our ongoing Battle Companies campaign. This time we replayed the  Secure the Area scenario (see the first play of this here).

Apologies for the briefer report, various family commitments means this took several weeks to finish writing up.

Set Up

We used the gauntlet as the objective again (another Gauntlet? There must be an Infinity of them).  We set the objective just at the edge of a hill, though on reflection, placing it in terrain that was hard for cavalry to access would have made for a more exciting end game.

All troops suffering from Old Battle Wounds were, as always, fine to fight; one day that's going to hit me hard, but "today is not that day".

Opening Moves

The Fiefdoms had Priority, which worked against them as the Harad troops entered the field very much in response to the Fiefdoms deployment.  Most of both sides appeared in the first turn, with the remainder arriving next turn.  Archery was pretty much a non-event for the first few turns.

Both sides' vanguards arrive

 

Action close to the edge as the two leaders spot each other and charge as soon as possible

Arbea clashes with a Blackroot Vale Archer and a Man-at-Arms

Clash of the leaders!

Khamsa's charge sees to the Clansman

Going for the Objective

As the battle hots up around Qayid and the Knight, the Fiefdoms' troops make for the objective.

(I must admit that I often forget this sort of game winning detail (I play orcs!), as was the case here.  My son was out-thinking me again.)

Khamsa, his work done on the flank, heads for more targets near the arcade

After some ferocious sparring, Qayid fells the Knight and Khamsa downs the Axeman of Lossarnarch.  

Elsewhere the Fiefdoms troops steal ever closer to the objective.

The End Phase

Realising that although I'd taken out the Fiefdoms' leader, their troops controlled the objective, I sent my best troops, Qayid and Khamsa, as I'd lost Shawish earlier, to try an take it from them.

The Harad hose race for the objective

Khamsa thins out the Men-at-Arms while Sabea tries and fails to remove the Blackroot Vale Archer claiming the objective

Qayid and Khamsa close in on the Fiefdoms defenders

Qayid rides up to the gauntlet while Khamsa removes the Ranger, is it enough for Harad?

With the Fiefdoms' broken, and Harad not far behind, the battle ended.  Had Qayid's desperate charge been enough or had he been distracted long enough?

When we checked the battlefield and the victory conditions, both sides had two models within 3" of the objective, so it was a draw! 

Aftermath

Despite causing more casualties to the Fiefdoms, they scraped a draw.  Curses!  I definitely had the stronger Battle Company, being some 120 points ahead.  That's a slightly misleading value, as two of my strongest heroes, Sayaad and Eashra both have arm wounds and can't use to bows that their skills are set up to take advantage of.  I was too confident, and my son's tactics once again proved superior.

The scenario is greatly influenced by the random set-up.  Priority pretty much allows the player going second to place a good number of troops either nicely close to vulnerable enemy, or far enough away from tough opponents.  This really helped me (as it did last time we played this scenario) and put the Fiefdoms on the back foot from the start.  My son's focus worked very well, taking control of the objective by the middle game and only being challenged for it in the last turn.

Qayid ended up with yet another point of Might, Sabea now has Lethal Shot, a very nice ability that grants a free point of Might each turn to be used on Shoot, In The Way or Shooting related Strike rolls.

All injured parties survived, but interestingly Shawish rolled Lost in Battle, so our next game will be the Rescue scenario.

All the Fiefdoms troops survived too;  I believe the Knight gained yet another point of Fight, but his fight is so far above any of my troops that this is irrelevant.

I'm keeping my company the same for now, as I want to get some more minis painted up, and I have a few other projects to complete (including, possibly, camps for the two scenarios requiring them).  The Fiefdoms went on a recruitment drive and now have three more members, equalling my ten.  The include another knight, and after a bit more spending of Influence, he is also mounted.

This was a great fun game to play.  I'm looking forward to the Rescue scenario, though I suspect it will be difficult for me, Shawish starting out just outside the Fiefdoms' deployment area.  He'll be relying on his Parry a lot.  

We are taking a mini break as we paint up more minis and I want to work on some more terrain.  We'll be back before long thouhg.

Two More Dwarves

Well, the basecoated dwarves I showed here are now finished. The chap with the warhammer is a Heartbreaker Miniatures Dwarf Champion with Warhammer, designed by Kev Adams.  Given the designer, its not surprising that he fits right in with Oldhammer dwarves, though he is a bit taller than my old Citadel dwarves.  Ral Partha Europe now sell the old Heartbreaker line. The crossbow chap is an older Citadel model, a Perry twins Norse Dwarf listed as X Bow/Shureshot on Lost Minis.  Both of these will make great additions to any dwarf skirmish band and gives me more options for FfoL.  In Frostgrave I see Sureshot as a Marksman, the Champion could be a Templar.

As with Deetoo, I used whatever colours were on my wet palate, though I made sure they both had some blue.  I was determined to find a suitable recipe for red hair, my last attempt on the dwarf here wasn't great.  As with the blonde hair, I followed a recipe from Juan Hidalgo, again substituting Vallejo paints for Citadel.  My version is as follows;

Base coat Vallejo Model Color  Orange Brown (Game Color Parasite Brown is an alternative, but my local stockist didn't have any in).  Highlight with VGC Dwarf Flesh, then wash with thinned VGC Flesh Wash.  Highlight again with VGC Dwarf Flesh then VMC Sunny Fleshtone, then selectively apply a thinned mix of VGC Red Ink and Yellow Ink (about 4 parts yellow to 1 part red).  I'm pretty pleased with the results, though I'll practice a bit more before I'm truly happy.

As always these were great fun to do.  I find not painting to a specific brief quite liberating at times, though it still helps to have some goal in mind, as my lack of focus proved in 2020.  For these I'm kind of thinking towards a Dwarven warband for Frostgrave.  I'm also simply enjoying the old minis.  The Champion has slightly less character than Sureshot, but he's still a great sculpt.  My only complaint is his eyes, which are decidedly not level.  I've tried to compensate for this when painting, and lining in eyebrows has helped as well.

That's it for dwarves for a little while, though I have some more to do.  Next in my 'Random Oldhammer' stuff is some more of the original Fantasy Adventurers to accompany Praetorius.

Did you spot the dangerous mistake?  I originally based the Champion on a square base.  This was me thinking about making up whole units of Oldhammer style minis.  Who knows where that madness might have led?

Painting 'Deetoo the Dwarf'

For my last mini of 2022 I was enjoying these old minis so much that I dug out another mini from my random box of Dwarf lead.  This is, according to Lost Minis, an unnamed Norse Dwarf, with just the D2 code.  Although I did pick him at random, if I ever get around to fielding a dwarf warband for Frostgrave, he makes a nice archer.  He'll work nicely in FfoL as well.

D2 was a purchase from an Oldhammer Facebook group back when I was collecting dwarves for skirmish games.  Dwarves with bows aren't that common, and I've always liked the Norse Dwarf range, so I had to snap him up.  He didn't need stripping, just basing up on a GW 25mm circular base.

I've been using my wet pallette, so actual colours are somewhat vague.  I kept some blue to match the rest of the dwarves I've done recently and I used the same blonde hair recipe I used on. I wasn't sure about the stripy trousers, I wanted something a little more interesting than just plain green.  I often struggle to make stripes look right, but I'm pleased with the result here, shading them and making them fairly wide seems to do the trick.

This was another fun mini to paint, I've already grabbed a couple more dwarves to paint. Here they are basecoated. You may notice that I made a very dangerous mistake on one of them.

G

Frostgrave: Another Genie, Another Bottle

After the previous game with Andy, we were keen to play again, so we explored Felgrave once more with our new(ish) wizards. We've both named our wizards and apprentices; Andy has Penn, third level Illusionist with his apprentice Teller, and I have Movostros, second level Chronomancer, with his apprentice Kerlia (though I may change those names, I have plans for some specific minis for my wizard).  Since I now have a genie mini we played the Genie in the Bottle scenario, a first time for Andy, though I've already played it against Grim.

Opening Moves 

After the first turn, both wizards have advanced their warbands towards the treasures.  We both tried to group our warbands around the wizard and apprentice to make the most of their activations.  Andy maintained this better than I did though, and was able to bring missile fire against my warband early in each turn.  My plan to have a dedicated missile detachment was flawed as they acted in the Soldier phase.

My thugs advancing top and bottom, while my missile detachment plods along in the centre.  Kerlia is hiding behind the ruin to the right.

Movostros with his Templar bodyguard, meanwhile, my Treasure Hunter has already snared a treasure.

Pen's Thief claims a treasure, while Pen himself directs the action from behind the ruined skull platform.

Teller is in charge of the Knight, Sharpshooter and a couple of thugs.  The Knight prepares to climb up to another treasure.

The Genie Appears 

Pen's Knight grabs a treasure, it's the lamp.  Unfortunately he accidently rubs it, releasing the genie.  He throws himself off the ruin and hides out of sight, and the genie is distracted by a thug who just happens to be wandering by.  Surely Teller couldn't have sent him this way as genie bait?

The genie rises to the bait and homes in on the sacrificial thug

Before Teller's mighty spell...

...and after.  He Transposes the angry genie with one of my archers

Meanwhile (top left) a face off over another treasure begins.  This became a complicated scrap, with my Templar and a thug facing off against one of Andy's thugs.  The poor Templar got Pushed off the ruin and never really did much to earn his keep, eventually being put out of action by Andy's missile detachment

A very smug looking Teller

End Game 

With the lamp claimed by Penn's Knight and the genie running amok on my side, both wizards order a withdrawal 

Final Thoughts 

Sadly we had to call the game to a close, too much chatting I suppose, but it was a great and friendly game.  As per one of our house rules, any treasures claimed but not off the table are rolled for as treasure normally, but don't grant any experience, so I only ended up with 100XP.  

It was a strange game, magic seemed hard to cast, I managed only five spells all game, three of which were Fleet Feet, one of my favourites, and a definite help in retrieving treasures. 

The stand-out moment was the apprentice casting Transpose on the genie.  He needed a 16 to cast it, and then both the archer and the genie needed to fail their Will rolls.  He succeeded, and no doubt is boasting about it to this day.  This brought the genie right in amongst my warband, and I had to use a sacrificial thug to lure it away from more important gang members with treasure.  I had a bit of luck myself, when my apprentice cast Elemental Hammer on the thug's club, and he almost killed the genie. Almost.  Unfortunately, a second attempt failed, and the apprentice was already injured from previous miscasts and couldn't boost the spell.  Bye-bye thug.

Movostros is now third level, and has taken up residence in an old library.  The poor Templar was badly injured, so will miss the next game, but everyone else is OK.  I may invest in a kennels to allow me to add a warhound, and Movostros (or more likely Kerlia - that's what apprentices are for after all) has found a grimoire in the old library shelves, which he may sell.  I have plans to buy a bit more kit for the warband.