Clickbait

Seeing as how the majority of this blogs followers are proper « old skool » military history gamer types who wouldn’t normally bother opening up a sci fi themed post I have sneakily deployed this picture of my recently completed Pendraken 10mm AWI 64th Regiment…

…. in order to lure them in to a post that’s really about a recent solo game of Trek Hulk. (pat pend).

I hate to think how long it’s been since I last ran a proper game, so having finished the above unit I took the opportunity to take a break from painting and test out some alterations I’d made to my Startrek / Spacehulk rules mashup.

The result is shown below in glorious Broom Battle Picture Library format.

The scenario: 

A small recon team from the USS Witchita Falls have boarded a damaged Borg sphere orbiting Cestus III. The sphere is undergoing repairs following a recent battle. Having split up to place a number of covert surveillance devices we join Lt Commander Cassidy Yates who has become lost in the internal labyrinth of the ship and who has only twelve turns to make her way back to the docking hatch entrance.The Borg are absorbed in repair work and at game start remain passively disinterested in the interlopers. Cassidy is equipped with a hand held phaser and a tricorder.

Victory conditions:

Borg: Major victory - assimilate all Starfleet personnel. Minor victory - assimilate some Starfleet personnel.

Federation: Major victory - Get all personnel off the Borg ship before turn 12. Minor victory - get some personnel off the Borg ship before turn 12.

Turn 1. Game start. Lt.Cmdr Yates starts in a room that contains a Borg regeneration alcove and a dormant Borg. The corridors of the sphere are dark and without electronic help she can only see into the first corridor tiles running off from the room she’s in. She urgently needs to find the hatch leading to the small cloaked shuttle the away team came in on, but all comms are being jammed and the Borg are close to completing their repairs. 

Turn 1 cont’d.  As part of the federation players phase, new corridor sections are revealed either by being within two squares of a join (just one new tile is revealed) or by using the tricorder to reveal 3 new tiles (in a single direction). Yates used the tricorder and with 3 x 1d6 die rolls revealed a long corridor a short corridor and  wonder of wonders the access hatch to the cloaked shuttle! (Striped end piece). This could have made it a pretty short game but unfortunately the narrow long corridor turned out to be populated by two Borg that are blocking her path. (Occupancy of rooms, long corridors and crossing points is diced for - this was the worst possible outcome!). The orange game marker indicates she has used the tricorder once. If it is used more than 3 times the Borg will consider this a hostile act…which would make them angry…and you really don’t want to make them angry. For reference purposes, moving more than 3 squares in a turn also makes the Borg angry as does weapon fire or blocking a drones path.

Creeping along in the dark Yates tries a different direction and reveals a long corridor section occupied by…another lost away team member. Lt T’Rell is a Vulcan (command branch) armed with a phaser rifle. This has more punch and longer range than the hand phaser but is unusable in close combat. Friendly figures in a corridor block line of sight and line of fire.

 

Using the tricorder for a second time Yates detects two crossing corridor sections and a T junction. The freshly revealed areas are populated by 1 drone, 2 drones, and a third away team member (Ensign Savar - science division - armed with a hand held phaser and a tricorder).

It’s behind you! Oh no it isn’t… Err oh yes it is! Until the Borg are triggered into becoming collectively hostile the federation player has to roll dice and move any borg drones within their line of site, the dice indicate the number of squares moved. 2 of 4 was having a fine old time repairing the ship until he tried to move four squares down a corridor and found his way blocked by T’Rell. Being unable to reach the data node he intended to repair made 2 of 4 angry. Unfortunately when 2 of 4 became angry all the other Borg on the board become angry too. Angry Borg are no longer controlled by the federation player and must move towards the nearest none Borg interloper and attempt to assimilate them. just to be clear, assimilation is not a nice thing.

A change of view. Yates and T’Rell are in the far background. Ensign Savar at the T junction realises the Borg have just become hostile and determined to get her retaliation in first she fires her hand phaser at the drone with its back to her. Hand phasers roll 2d6 and need a 6 to kill with the first shot. Bingo. 1 drone down - several thousand to go.

With alarms going off all over the place and Ensign Savar’s target now a glowing pile of ash Lt T’Rell turns swiftly and attacks 2 of 4 in close combat. T’Rell is carrying a two handed phaser rifle which he can’t shoot in such close proximity to a target so he has to biff the Borg with it instead. The Borg roll 2d6 in close combat and pick the best result, while T’Rell rolls 1d6 but gets to add plus 1 since he’s a Vulcan. Choosing the 6 result 2 of 4 rolls higher so manages to fend off the Vulcans attack. Using the rest of his personal action points T’Rell tries again but once again the feisty Borg stops him cold. While the Vulcan grapples with the drone Lt Cmdr Yates is unable to fire since the corridor is narrow and her colleague is blocking the shot. In the background Savar spends her remaining action points to go on overwatch.

Though she’s on overwatch it’s dark in the corridor and Savar is scared. Prompted to attack and assimilate her, the nearest Borg moves purposefully two squares in her direction. Savar’s shots go wide. With two action points left the Borg enters close combat and rolls high. Savar goes down. Two assimilation tubules enter her neck and millions of assimilation nanites entire her blood stream. Stage 1 of the assimilation process starts to occur. 

Lt Cmdr Yates goes on overwatch looking to cover against Borg moves should Lt T’Rell go down as well, but the doughty Vulcan clobbers 2 of 4 upside da head (as I believe the youth say these days) with his phaser rifle and finishes him off. Yates gets a tingling feeling at the back of her neck and turns…

The other Borg drones have not been idle and while the drama has been unfolding in front of her they’ve been sneaking up behind. Cassidy uses her hand phaser but fails to score a six with her two dice. Her second shot needs a five or six and fails again. Her third shot only needs a four five or six. She rolls a four but it’s a double four. Doubles indicate that the Borg drones personal shields have blocked the shot by matching the frequency of the phaser (or some such). She still has one action point left and therefore one shot but the adapted Borg shield prevents any further fire at him this turn.

Poor ensign Savar starts to transform into a Borg and soon rises to her feet as one of them…

…But not for long. Turning the corner Lt T’Rall uses the phaser rifle as it was intended. The phaser rifle has a longer range and a multi kill capability. With his first shot the Vulcan takes out the assimilating drone and what’s left of poor old Savar. I still think they’d have been better to have pulled back and nuked the site from orbit mind you.

Placing herself on overwatch Cassidy uses her tricorder with her last two actions and discovers…silly old T’Rell had been standing in front of the escape hatch all along!

Turn 11 and one turn ahead of schedule the remaining team members escape through the hatch into the  waiting shuttle. I make that a minor win for both party’s, or a draw as we used to say in the old country.

This game only took an hour to set up and play so I could’ve played again if those pesky continentals had somehow learned to paint themselves in the interim. I’ve taken down my Trek Hulk rules (above right) for now while I make  a few alterations but they’ll be back up again soon for anyone that’s interested. 

Toodleooh.