Stargrave Campaign - The Unreal engine

 So last week , I was lucky to get the opportunity to meet up with some friends for a whole extended week end of gaming. I hadn't seen several of them since 2019 due to real world complications so it really wa s a tremendous pleasure to see them, push some lead, talk non sense, empty some pints and catch up.

The game we focused on this year is Joe McCullough's Stargrave, the sci-fi version of the famous Frostgrave and I was really happy be hapy to finally play a game I had been waiting for for years. There were 10 of us and 6 to 7 tables with a dedicated scenario each so plenty of opportunities to explore the game, level up the bands and experience the wonders of dice roll drama.

Game 1 : The overgrown factory

My first game had me facing Sho3box and his band of space cops in an overgrown factory. The jungle had taken humans' place in the facility but the factory still had some life of its own and plenty of unforeseen events for the crews !

I decided to split my band into 2 groups lead by my captain and his first mate, the first consisting of Robert Faita, my robot pathfinder, Catachan Luke, a trooper, the General, Garth Poireau himself, my psyonist captain, Trey Cool, casecracker and Croksey, a new member of the band who had taken the position of runner.

Closely followed by Bradler Coopay, my hacker, Steve Moss, the tekker first mate, Shane Saw the band's gunner and Tim Kayil, trooper

The objectives were scattered all over the facility and would need to go deep into the jungle :

Following his captain's instructions, Robert rushed forward to the central objective and was helped by his boss lifting up in the air up to the first floor of the factory where he had his goal in sight.

Meanwhile, Steve Moss and his group headed to one of the treasure on the eastern front.

Robert was within arm's reach of his objective when a grenade coming from afar landed at his feet stunned him and had him  lose some precious time.

Garth Poireau let his trusted pathfinder handle the situation and headed for another objective deeper in the factory :

But Von Sydow and his minions were not having it and headed to get the law delivered to the area with extreme prejudice (and grenades).

Obviously, just when things were getting really tense, several fighters o the western front could hear the frightening sound of a warbot coming to their position...

But Garth Poireau is a man of resources and courage so he took his men with him to retrieve the precious data that had been lost. Activating his void blade, he realised he hadn't changed the batteries in a while as tapping on the back of it never got the blade to really power up... [sad trombone]

The Cops' first mate was directing his subordinates and coordinating fire in a deadly manner

But Steve Moss, flanked by his Hacker and Gunner reached one very tasty crate of unobtainium

Crooksey and the General were handed the data bioserver to fall back to the ship and secure it, leaving Poireau and Luke to cover them

Just when he was about to escape with the loot, first mate Steve Moss got taken back inside the factory by some old conveyor belt that chose the worst time ever to reactivate and take him from near security right back into enemy fire ! Kayil and Saw tried their best to secure the unobtainium but they were outnumbered at this point...

With one treasure secured but both their First mate and a trooper KO'd, the mission's outcome wasn't very bright. Both the first mate and the trooper got out of this episode without any serious injury and they managaed to find a nice weapon that could nbe useful in the future. 
Poireau saw that as a lesson and trained even more while the spaceship was flying to learn from the experience.

The prison Break

My next game had me facing Alex from Leadballoony. He was fielding an amazing band of old Bob Olley models which was an absolute treat for the eyes, especially for the Olley enthusiast that I am. Go check his place.
So the mission was to try and rescue a prisonner held captive by local authorities to possibly get a new recruit.

This time, Garth Poireau had remembered to change the batteries on his light saber or maybe he just had found the power button but anyway, he managed to turn it on and rushed forward towards what seemed like intersting loot to grab, covering his crew who would go deliver the captive in the meantime.

Disseminating nanobots all over, First mate Steve Moss activated a holographic wall to cover his crew from enemy fire and let them march on with only the threat of the prison's sentries.

The enemy was as focused on the objectives though and rushed to some data right under the nose of the prison guards.

As they did, some more guards appeared in the back of the Poireau's crew, cutting the retreat line.

Disregarding the return trip for the moment, the crew focused on their main ovjective though to release the captive from custody under the opposite band's fire.

Poireau capturing some more loot alerted some of the guards who immediately went to help on the northern front, facing the pirates and leaving some room for his men.

So Robert Faita ceased that opportunity to liberate the prisoner and get him back to the ship.

Poireau at that point only had to cover his men and then head back hom with his loot when he got under the fire of the opponent's hacker and a guard who had freshly appeared from a hiding spot in the building nearby.

Shane Saw provided a rapid fire cover to his team mates so they could retreat safely.

The band ended up on a very positive note with 2 treasures retrieved and the prisoner rescued. This mission created an opportunity for Crooksey to be promoted from runner to medic of the crew as it appeared his otherwise overly rich and poorly balanced diet had great effects on the team's performance !

Steve Moss had been taken down again and this time I had to pay for his full recovery but that wasn't so bad in the end, the near death experience semed to have unlocked some power in him...

The Starport raid !

This new game had me facing Jon from Magpie and old lead, our crews had been caught by the appearance of ork pirates at the starport and everyone was fleeing to their respective ships before an orbital bombing. Obviously, with everyoe leaving in a rush, the opportunity to grab some left over treasures was too good to let go !

Steve Moss learnt the hard way that rushing is the ennemy of haste when he went right for some left-over data crate and got blasted by a space ship taking off on deck 3.

he was mostly fine though and went to help his captain unlock the data and secure it.

This left Poireau's hands free to help Robert faita and force lift him to a higher position from which he could go and download the Starport's travel logs

Trey Cool; the General and Bradler Coopey took the opportunity to get into the scrapyard and go find some intersting items.

Meanwhile, the opponent's hacker was already on some left-over data and the Q-bot on some very tasty looking alien eggs !

These were isolated though so it was a gamble to leave them some scraps and try and get the main course so Steve moss activatd his holographic wall to cover the team's advance just as a second ship was taking off.

The opponent wasn't as easy going and they determined to fight for every treasure, putting the hacker and the general into a threatening position.

Poireau's training had proved worthy has he cut the ravaged menacing his crew in two.

Both Pathfinders were now in reach of the travel logs and fully determined to take it to their respective ship. The tension at the coms tower was building up !

Still fighting for the treasure found in the scrapyard, Poireau's band had to regroup and put all its fire on the opponents, putting the ennemy first mate to the ground while Crooksey was handing a greasy chicken drumstick covered in a strange sauce to Bradler who seemed instantly relieved of his pain and severe injuries...

Sensing a potential disaster at the coms tower, Poireau sent a mental order with a hand wave to the opposing pathfinder who instantly dropped the loot he had grabbed and left the spot. Ceasing the opportunity, Faita took a shot at the opponent's hacker in the distance, took her down (not permanently though) and proceeded to leave the place to their retreat point.

With his hands clear, Poireau went to take on the opponent's first mate only to get caught in the opponent's fire ! As a karma return on this highly dishonorable move, the ennemy first mate was the one getting all shots while Poireau was just repelling every round and laser beam with his lightsaber in gracious twirls.

With most of the opponent's threat out of the way, the crew was ready to retreat and dash to the space ship encountering a few space orks that proved to be too small a threat for them.

With 3 loots, several kills and crew members evacuated, this scenario ended up being very profitable for the band who ended up earning an indesrtuctible grenade launcher with targetter, a pain masker which would be a great item for Steve and his tendency to get Ko'ed and a freaking pair of JET BOOTS for Garth Poireau !
The General had to leave his place to a new trooper equipped with the upgraded shotgun earned earlier.
The mission also really helped them master their favourite powers more and get in better shape so the band was in a pretty good shape, ready for their next mission !

The Derelict Spaceship

My last game saw 4 of us facing each other in  the dark corridors of the derelict spaceship, the ship was on the brink of faling apart and suck everyone into the cold void of space any minute but the lure of riches and ancient technology was just too irrestitible for the adventurers !
The mission asked for a small team so Garth poireau picked Robert Faita, his trusted Pathfinder, Shane Saw, the gunner and a couple of troopers with him.

Locating the treasures was the first goal and they knew they were on the right path when they saw one of the Q-bots they had faced before popping on their radar.

On the port side of the ship, some adventurrs were already rushing to secure the data servers.

While on Starboard, some malevolent creatures were gathering, attracted to the prospect of killing as much as the loot itself.

There was one item righ in the middle of the ship Poireau knew he wouldn't let to anyone.

Pitifully trying to hide his actions by closing the door, the khornate Striker was quickly caught by the crew to force him to let the loot go. Trying to take a an expert berzerk in combat wasn't the most rejoicing idea but it had to be done !

Leaving the data to his comrades, Poireau had lifted his trroper to the objective and activated his void blade to prepare for any threat...

Good thing for him, the combats on port side were taking all the attention of the space cops and pirates, leaving him some opening

But obviously, nature doesn't like void and khorne champions don't either so the frightening chosen turned his attention to the center of the ship.

Focusing his whole spirit into his powers, Poireau managed to get his companion out of harm's way with a force lift, now they had secured what had revealed to be a strange cyber burger.

The khornate striker was still set on selling his skin for a price though

As the loot was retrieved, more unexpected encounters were showing up, first repairbots on the cops' side...

Then Dark Knopfler on Poireau's side ! By this time, half the power was left on the ship and fighters couldn't see far away, a siren was warning everyone of the impending destruction of the ship after the core had been hit, it was time to retreat fast !

The khornate champion had somehow dug a tunnel to our crew and emerged from the steel floor ride under the nose of Shane Saw. His survival instincts must have kicked in when managed to parry the attacks and actually wound the dark champion but he also pushed him back enough to shoot him at point blank afterwards !

Several crew members managed to escape with some loot but Poireau got hit before making it and some didn't manage to get into the escape pods before the Hulk exploded in the cold silence of space...

Debrief

Well that was a fantastic week end really, I love Ireland, I love seeing friends, playing games, chatting about non sense, serious stuff or hobby (which is a bit of both I guess), The tables were amazing and a huge factor in the pleasure I had :

I had brought a table myself (or at least the terrain bits to go in it) and was delighted it was enjoyed. I really wish I could have played with all the participants but with 4 games and 10 of us it would have required another day.

I also had to prepare a template for the Holographic wall power my First mate had so quickly airbrushed a plexiglass rectangle and based it !

It's not prety but I'm glad I did it since the power proved to be really helpful throughout the campaign !

Check all the bands together now :

I had the oportunity to run my first parkrun (and actually first running event ever) under the most exquisite weather and with the best company ever (letting sweat a few beers out !)

Those sorts of events are a huge investment, it takes some time, energy, money to get everything but in my experience, it's worth 10 times what you put in, having some genuine fun time with benevolent people you can share with is invaluable and I cannot wait to commit for another time like that, I came out of this with extreme gratefulness for the friends and opportunities I have.

I hope you folks all had fun reading this, happy hobby to you all !