Battle for Threnger: the supply rafts

This is the last linked game using MOTH for the 6x6 Challenge. After the misdirection and attack on the enemy control outpost, it is time for Platoon 24 of the League of Canlaster forces to strike on a sabotaged supply raft. However, as the enemy took back the outpost, they had time to warn nearby patrols to defend the raft. So now the ambush has turned on its head.

This is the board setup: Canlaster has two 5-soldier squads, while Yordan has two 6-soldier squads near the raft. To win, Canlaster must gain a 2:1 advantage on remaining forces or drive all enemy 4 inches away from the raft, while having some forces in contact with it.

The Yordan forces, acting defensively, took positions on the hill and forest patch. The Canlaster forces also advanced through the patches of difficult terrain, to have some cover. Unfortunately, when the firefight began the Yordist fared better (in their damage rolls), nearly wiping one of the attacking squads.

This allowed all of the enemy forces to focus on the remaining Canlaster squad, which did not survive much longer.

Conclusion
In the end, the League of Canlaster (i.e. my forces) won 2 out of 6 games. In my defense, I would say that the enemy forces had advantages in numbers and placement, to keep the games challenging. Of course, that is just to avoid looking so bad.

What about MOTH for solo play? It is, as expected, an upgraded version of USE ME. The adoption of d10s instead of d6s means there is more room to add modifiers to movement and fire, and thus, the feel of a more detailed game. There are also some ranged fire options (suppression shot, aimed shot and break shot.) Likewise, there is more detail in soldier weapons and armor.

With all that said, for my solo games I would keep USE ME, maybe adding the suppress shot option. One reason for this is lower level of detail feels a little quicker to play. Another reason is that I would have to keep playing MOTH with 15mm figures halving the measurements, whereas USE ME is already designed to play at 15mm scale. However, I would surely use the improved solo system from MOTH in those games.

Battle for Threnger: Defending the outpost

This is the fifth linked game of MOTH for the 6x6 Challenge. This time, Platoon 24 of Canlaster forces must hold the enemy outpost while attacked in two fronts. Since the previous game was successful, I decided to have both sides with equal numbers of soldiers. This is the board setup:

The League of Yordan forces on the right moved to fire at one of the Canlaster squads before they could get some cover. One soldier was badly wounded, and the squad leader decided to counter attack.

The attack was successful, as most of the Yordist squad was defeated while the Canlaster squad lost a single soldier and had another two wounded.

On the other side, Yordan and Canlaster squads were exchanging fire without many losses... until the Yordists decided to charge into melee.

That was a bloodbath, nearly wiping out the second Canlaster squad.

After this, the first Canlaster squad, which had some wounded soldiers, moved in, but were received by enemy fire. A couple rounds later, the League of Yordan advantage was enough that I decided the game was a loss.

Conclusion
The battle started well for the League of Canlaster, but some bad rolls on the melee between squads turned the tide against them. Overall, a fun game, and the result means the last battle will see some reinforcements for the Yordan defense.

Battle for Threnger: Fighting retreat

This is the fourth out of six linked games of MOTH for the 6x6 Challenge. In this battle, Platoon 24 of the League of Canlaster must make a fighting retreat out of enemy territory, after making a diversionary attack. The platoon is represented by a force of 8 soldiers, being chased by two 5-soldier squads of the League of Yordan.

The goal of the Canlaster forces is to reach the left board edge with at least half the initial troops. The Yordists want to prevent that. The Canlaster and one of the Yordan squads have Elan 6, while the other Yordan squad has Elan 5.

As the game began, Canlaster had the initiative and started to move away. At some point I thought, "hey, I could use an action to shoot at the enemy to slow them down, instead of just running." While it did allow me to take a couple of enemy soldiers down, this brilliant idea let the enemy get in close range. Close range means a bonus to hit and to damage, and suddenly five out of eight Canlaster soldiers were dead, and the game was over.

I kept playing just to try and escape with at least one soldier. But the Yordan forces kept chasing them and eventually, there was no one left.

After the game, I noticed that I forgot to use the "suppress shot" action, which does not actually hurt enemies but grants a defensive bonus for moving troops. I guess if I had use that (or maybe simply run), the Canlaster troops might have escaped...

In any case, this concludes battle #4. In the next game, Platoon 31 will try to hold the control outpost they captured.

Battle for Threnger: The control outpost

This is the third battle using the MOTH rules for the 6x6 Challenge. Now, the Canlaster forces must take control of the enemy control outpost.

Recently, as I was cleaning and sorting some old stuff, I found these Tente bits that are almost 30 years old. So I used them to make the control outpost.

In the first game, Canlaster lost many troops while invading enemy territory. Then in the second game, it was the Yordan forces which suffered heavy losses. Thus the third game should be balanced; I decided that each side would have two squads of six soldiers each. Here is the board setup.

To win, Canlaster must eliminate the opposition or stay in contact with the control outpost while no enemy forces are closer than 4 inches from the outpost. As the battle began, the Yordan defenders took cover in nearby hills and forests, while the Canlaster squads advanced. Soon, they started to exchange fire, but all Canlaster forces focused on a single enemy squad.

The attack was successful and it did not take long before both enemy squads were defeated. At this point, I considered that Canlaster had won, rather than chase the few remaining enemy soldiers.

In summary, after losing soldiers in game #1, Platoon 31 managed to take over the enemy outpost. This should help Platoon 24 on their way out in game #4.

Battle for Threnger: Drawing enemy fire

This is the second battle in a series of linked games using MOTH for the 6x6 Challenge. This time, I played on Tabletop Simulator using a virtual 6'x4' board with virtual paper figurines (I still have to find some 3D models that I can use.)

A view of the battlefield from one of the Canlaster squads.

While Platoon 31 tried to break through the enemy defenses, Platoon 24 was ordered to strike at an observation post, to draw enemy fire. Canlaster forces start on the left. Each squad consists of 10 muster troops (including two Emeritas). Meanwhile, each Yordan squad consists of 7 muster and 1 Emeritas. Squad 1 has Elan 7, squads 2 and A have Elan 6 and squad B has Elan 5. The hills and forest patches block line of sight. The Canlaster forces win if they cause 50% or more casualties to the enemy while losing less units. Alternatively, they win if they are on the hill with the observation post with no enemies.

Force setup. The observation post is the light brown structure (made of wooden blocks) near squad 2.

The Canlaster squads spread out, moving behind cover to reach the enemy. The Yordan troops just positioned themselves on the hills, waiting for an opportunity to fire. In the 10th turn, the first exchanges of fire happened.

Canlaster squad A opens fire on Yordan squad #1. The yellow and red units indicate grazed and struck status.

Canlaster squad A eventually managed to defeat Yordan squad #1, while squad B advanced through a forested area. By the end of round 15, Canlaster had sustained 40% losses (8 units), while Yordan had lost 62% of their troops (10 units), thus meeting a victory condition for Canlaster.

Firefight between Canlaster squad B and Yordan squad #2. The yordists killed one enemy but lost another 2.

While the Canlaster forces suffered many losses in the breakthrough, they managed to draw the attention of their enemies to the observation post. The third battle will see both sides with weakened forces.

A quick note about playing in Tabletop Simulator: the interface has gone through noticeable improvements (I love the new top-down view to check the position of everything on the table.) Now it is possible to find a number of wargaming terrain models in the workshop. The custom figurine is still quite limited, so I had to create my own figurine model in Blender. Measuring is still cumbersome. Luckily, MOTH has simplified squad movement because measuring the movement of every single figure would have been tiresome with the current interface. I think that playing miniature games with area movement or grid-based movement will be a much smoother experience.

Battle for Threnger: Breakthrough

This battle is part of the 6x6 challenge, being game #1 of my series of six linked MOTH games. It was played in a 90cm x 60cm board with 15mm figures, halving the distances and ranges from the game. The forest patches and hills count as difficult terrain, and they block line of sight and fire across them. The rest of the board counts as normal terrain.

Setup for the battle.

The League of Canlaster troops (blue armor and gray bases) must cross the board and leave it by the right edge. They are organized into two squads of six soldiers. The one closer to the hill is led by Emeritas Adrian (elan 7) and the other is led by Emeritas Baker (elan 6). Both are equipped with standard weapons and armor.

The Yordist troops are organized into three squads of six soldiers (from top to bottom, the elan ratings are 5, 6 and 5), also with standard equipment -- some figures feature medical equipment or rocket launchers, but those are to be disregarded.

The plan for both sides was simple: the Canlaster soldiers would advance through the center, while the Yordists would try to hold the chokepoints, leaving one squad as reserve. A few rounds in, the first shots were fired, with casualties for both sides.

The first exchanges of fire, at the edge of optimum weapons range.

The squad led by Emeritas Baker was caught in a crossfire by two enemy squads. At least, this allowed Emeritas Adrian to position his squad and cause losses to the enemy.

Emeritas Adrian strikes from the hilltop.

Unfortunately, this was not enough. The reserve enemy squad moved ahead and attacked Adrian's soldiers. In the end, the Canlasterian forces were scattered, even if the Yordists suffered losses.

Emeritas Baker still managed to take out a couple of enemies, but it was not enough.

Canlaster lost 10 soldiers (out of 12) while Yordan lost 8 (out of 18). Not a bad result considering the superior numbers and defensive positioning of the Yordists, but still a failed mission in this mini-campaign.

Blast Pistol

It seems shaking my habit of buying rule sets is harder than I thought, as I have added a few to my collection, including Blast Pistol. This is the new game from Nordic Weasel, and intended for quick pick-up games in sci-fi settings.

One interesting thing about Blast Pistol is that it is published as a "living rules system", meaning it will be updated as time goes. Right now the rule book is very bare-bones, and I would normally be wary of this proposition (having purchased rules that were later abandoned in a bad state by other authors). However, considering how Five Core has evolved in a relatively short time, I think it will work well.

Right now, Blast Pistol is a very simple rules system, with an alternate activation turn sequence in which players select and activate a number of units at a time. Miniatures are single based and grouped into squads or act as individuals. There are some unit templates for squads, heroes and vehicles. The writing is clear but since the document is very concise, it requires attention. For instance, in my first read I was hunting for the definition of damage in vehicles, which is presented in a bullet point on the section about big models.

As a pick-up game, battles are played as meeting engagements, fighting four turns and counting how many points in units each player has destroyed after that. Here is one simple example with balanced forces: on one side, three colonial militia squads, a gunsliger and a hero (302 points) against 3 precursor squads (300 points).

Board setup: a virtual 4'x4' table with some obstacles. Precursors at the bottom of the image, colonial forces at the top. The grey patches are rock formations that are impassable and block line of sight.

Turn 1: the colonial forces go first but don't kill anything. The precursors cause damage to one of the colonial militia squads.

Turn 2: colonial forces keep advancing and the hero and gunslinger move. In the exchange of fire, both sides lose some units.

Turn 3: the colonial forces move to a position where they can fire more effectively, but miss most shots. The precursors are then able to shoot back and cause lots of damage. Two colonial squads flee the battlefield.

Turn 4: the precursors defeat the gunslinger and hero. The last colonial squad only hits one enemy. The game ends with a clear victory for the precursors.

After this battle, I played again two more times (that is the beauty of a virtual tabletop: you can set up a scenario, save it and then quickly replay it several times.) On the second, the precursors won by 146 vs. 120 points (point costs of defeated enemies.) The third was also won by the precursors, 210 vs. 120 points. I guess the terrain favored the longer range of the precursor weapons, although I also had some terrible rolls for the colonial forces.

These are only my first impressions, as I have not tried battles using vehicles or other big models. I also want to try other board sizes and setups. So far, it seems to work well for quick games. Based on the rules for activation and morale, I think smaller squads (of 4-5 troops) are better than larger ones.

There are no solo rules, and I do not think this game is aimed at solo play. That said, I think it would be simple to adapt the solo rules from Five Core or No End in Sight if one wanted to.

The Five Core Expanded Steatlh Rules

A while ago, I posted about Black Ops and it was fun playing stealth missions with that system. Afterwards, I bought Five Core Field Guide, which has a number of optional rules and extensions to the Five Core rules. One of the most interesting is the expansion for stealth missions, which was also incorporated into Five Core 3rd edition.

The expanded stealth rules include more detailed rules for patrolling defenders, distractions and stealth kills. Here is a battle report using them with "basic" Five Core 3rd edition rules.

In this battle, the infiltrators, set up on the left, must contact the small building guarded by the defense forces and make a task roll to plant explosives. The following picture shows the table setup. The red dice are patrol points. The two chainsaw-wielding soldiers in front of the building are static sentries. The rest of them may move between patrol points.

Game setup

One fire team of the infiltrators moved through the woods while the other waited in cover. The patrolling sentries started moving towards the other patrol points.

Let's get moving.

One of the infiltrators created a distraction for the closest sentry (marked with the green die), allowing the other two to run behind the other patch of woods. However, the noise from running caused another sentry to cross the woods and find them. The sentry raised the alarm and the stealth segment was over.

What's that noise? Surprise!

One of the infiltrators fired at the sentry but missed. From this point on, it took a few standard Five Core turns (with only one rolled fire fight and no scurry turns) until the infiltrators were pushed away from the map.

A few turns later, only the infiltrators in the ruins remained.

The infiltrators in the ruins still tried to make another push, taking cover behind the hill, but when they got closer to the building, the rest of the defenders had already taken positions to suppress any attempts of getting closer.

Conclusion
Compared to Black Ops, the stealth rules in Five Core are less complex but also result in a fun game. I have the impression that in Black Ops it is more difficult for the defenders to raise the alarm. Maybe this is because that game is noticeably inspired by "stealth-action" video games, so the focus is in smaller, elite infiltration forces that try to keep hidden until the end of the mission.

In Five Core, it seems to me that stealth will play a part in initial infiltration and positioning of a strike force. In particular, I am interested in trying a few more games between evenly matched forces, to see if stealth can compensate for the positioning advantage of the defending force.

There are no specific rules for handling the sentries in a solo stealth game using Five Core (or at least I could not find them), so here are my house rules:
1. Spread patrol points to make a large triangle on the board, with one patrol point near the defenders' edge of the table. Number the patrol points: the one closest to the defenders' edge is #1, the others are #2 and #3.
2. Roll a die for each patrolling sentry. On a 1-2 they will make a circular route around the patrol points. On a 3-4, they will move back and forth between points #1 and #2. On a 5-6, they will move between points #1 and #3.
3. Roll another die to define direction of patrol. For circular routes, even means clockwise and odd means counter-clockwise. For linear routes, even means the sentry starts moving towards point #1, and odd means they start moving towards the higher-numbered patrol point.
4. Deploy the patrolling sentries within 8" of the edge. Sentries in a linear route should be placed as close to halfway through the route as possible. Sentries in a circular route should be placed near patrol point #1.
5. When a patrolling sentry moves, they will approach a noise marker if it is closer than the next patrol point on their route. Afterwards, if there is no contact, they will resume their route.

It might be possible to fine tune these house rules by taking into consideration the level of aggression of the defenders and other factors.

A large battle of elves vs. orcs in MapTool

After some time of inactivity, here is a battle report of elves vs. orcs using Rally Round the King, played in MapTool. In this battle, the elves led by Yoselith the Defender have arrived to challenge Warchief Zagul's campaign of conquest.

Game setup, with a 1" grid and force leaders marked

Yoselith's forces are concentrated at the center. At the front there are four units of elf archers, followed by two bodies of elf soldiers. At the rear, Yoselith stands with three units of elf marines, ready to come to support the battle as needed. [As I played the elves, I made the recruitment rolls and deployed them before finding out what the orcs would do.]

Zagul's main forces are a wide line of melee troops including ogres at the center, black moon orcs and then orc soldiers. In front of them are three units of skirmishers (orc archers.) Warchief Zagul stands with two units of wolf riders and two units of soldiers. Ready to take the other flank are two units of trolls and another two units of soldiers. Lastly, their reserve is composed of two more units of soldiers.

An ambush between tribesmen

Theg, a veteran warrior, is on patrol with his nephew Dorn and Ebner, the archer. There have been conflicts with a neighboring tribe and they have to make sure no enemies are hiding in their territory.

[The warriors must reach the opposing board edge and return, having passed through both patches of wood to complete their patrol. The yellow pieces are possible enemy forces.]

A group of two warriors and an archer appears from behind the large rocks. The enemy archer shoots an arrow at Theg, missing. They run towards cover of the nearby low wall and Ebner takes down the archer. The enemy warriors are scattered, running for cover.

Theg and companions advance, then the enemy springs from the woods. Another group of two warriors and archer. Again, the enemy archer misses Theg, and then the warriors enter combat. Theg manages to hurt his opponent before being cut down. Dorn, eager to enter combat, is quickly defeated with a stab in the chest.

Terrified, Ebner flees and the enemies do not chase him.

Conclusion

This battle was played using Chain Reaction Swordplay 2015 and only took two turns in 20-30 minutes of play. Flat terrain was drawn with sharpies and colored with crayons in a bout of arts and crafts mood. Miniatures are very simple outlines of warriors and archers done in Inkscape and built in tri-fold shape. Everything was done in reduced scale, using centimeters instead of inches.

The battle between Theg (rep 5 star) and the enemy veteran warrior turned into a mini-game with several rounds. It got me rolling for Star Power three times, and this was the first time I saw all Star Power dice being expended in a battle. Meanwhile, Dorn lost the first round of melee and his opponent rolled a natural 6, killing him right away.

Black Ops: Data Theft

"Ok folks, all we need to do is to enter the building, copy those files and move out." Even when keeping her voice down, Kate could put energy in her words. The rest of the team nodded. Jamie had checked her machine gun twice. Bill and Eric had their automatic shotguns ready. For a stealth mission, this was a lot of noisy hardware, but that's how they played: if the plan went wrong, would you rather have a silenced pistol or a heavy machine gun at your side?

This was a stealth mission played using Black Ops. The special ops team (pictured left) are Kate (leader), Jamie (heavy), Bill and Eric (soldiers). The opposition is a mercenary commander and six soldiers. Each side is just below 50 points.

The opposing forces, roughly 50 points per side.

The operatives must enter the building closest to the center, then spend two activations inside to steal the data files. Then they must leave through the same edge they entered. There are two mercenaries on patrol, and the rest are in buildings.The ones in the buildings will only leave on a reaction roll of 7+. This is similar to the espionage scenario in a city board, from the game rules.

Starting board. The spec ops enter from the bottom edge; the mercenaries are spread around.

A Treasure Hunt

I recently bought the Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes book. While the core rules remain the same, there are some new options for activation, as well as special rules for weapons and an expanded magic system.

In order to try the new activation, I played a battle between dwarves and orcs, using profiles given in the book. Note that now the standard force size is 400 points (up from 300) with more allowance for personalities.

The dwarf warband was composed of Captain Tormak (Leader Swordsman w/shield), Brelik (Hero Swordsman w/shield), 2x Trained Heavy Axeman, 2x Veteran Heavy Axeman, and 2x Veteran Crossbow Wielder.

The orcs had Warchief Krakk (War-Leader), 4x Armored Spearman and 4x Chosen Bowman.

The new book does not include scenarios so I used the Treasure Hunt scenario from the "basic" Song of Blades and Heroes. There are three treasure markers and both warbands compete to find the treasure and take it away through their starting edge of the map. This is the initial board setup. The treasure chests mark the possible locations of the treasure.

For some reason, the short movement stick was not included in the exported screenshot.

The plan for the dwarves was to have their leader activating as a group with the trained axemen, going for the treasure marker in the distant forest patch. The hero would go for the marker in the ruins, covered by the crossbowmen, and the two veterans would move to the closest marker.

The orcs split in three groups, with the leader and two spearmen going for the farthest marker, and two teams of spearman and bowmen going for the other two markers.

Battle for Zorpel: the Sensor Array

This is report #10 in the Battle for Zorpel.

The human soldiers had to retrieve components from a sensor array in the ruins of another outpost. The robots had the mission to destroy the same sensors.

Board setup. The sensor array is the blue box near the ruins.

The humans started in a patch of woods. James moved first but one of the robots spotted him and fired. The laser shots nearly hit him and, being in the open, he ran away. Then Mack had the idea of tossing a smoke grenade at the robots. He moved out of the woods, avoided enemy fire and tossed the grenade at the enemies, blocking their sight [the grenade impact point is marked with the red slime]. Igor then rushed to the ruins. The robots then dashed into the nearby patch of woods and Mack took cover in the ruins.

The grenade landed on the perfect spot. Too bad it was too late to make much of a difference.

The robots then moved out of the woods. Mack fired at them with no effect. One robot took down Mack, the other took down Igor. Karl fled before he suffered the same fate.

A terrifying sight: the robot team storms out of the woods firing their lasers.

Conclusion
A terrible defeat for the humans, and campaign progress is back to 0. Karl raised to level 2 rifleman, and James remained a level 1 Scout.

I did not remember to use the smoke grenade until James suffered a bail result from reaction fire. If I had, the humans might have been able to win.

Battle for Zorpel: Medical supplies

This is report #9 in the Battle for Zorpel.

In this mission, James, Karl and Leon must recover medical supplies in an abandoned outpost, while a robot team must complete their patrol. [Human objective is the yellow marker with a cross, robot objectives are the three blue ones.]

Game setup

The human soldiers crossed the patch of woods to approach the abandoned buildings. Karl saw the robot patrol approaching and ran into the woods. James moved ahead and got the supplies, while the robots advanced. Leon moved out of the woods and shot one of the robots down.

"But I saw the human enter the woods!"... "Surprise!" BOOM

One robot entered the patch of woods while the other set an ambush on the corner of a nearby building. However, Karl rushed to provide cover for James. As James moved out of the building, a quick exchange of fire ensued, with the humans taking down the ambushing robot.

Ok, now let's get out of here before anyone gets hurt by a bad die roll...

Before the remaining robot managed to get out of the woods, the human trio dashed out of the outpost. A laser blast burned a mark on Karl's helmet but he was not hurt.

Conclusion
The mission was a success and Karl was promoted to rifleman. Campaign progress advanced to +2.

Leon was reassigned to another platoon, but Mack (level 1 Support) arrived [I rolled the campaign events Recruit and Reassigned].

The next mission will be a standard military mission in 4 campaign days, so Igor will join the team.

Battle for Zorpel: Sneaky Robots

This is report #8 on the Battle for Zorpel.

Following a successful offensive, the humans repel the skelebots from another settlement. In this mission, James (carrying the detonation charges), Karl and Leon must destroy a robot power core that was detected in the woods, probably left behind as the robots retired. Meanwhile, a group of robot scouts is in the same area, intent on retrieving a data storage system (which was not even detected by the human command.)

Game setup. Robots at the top edge with red bases, soldiers at the bottom edge, with blue bases. The human objective is marked in red, the robot objective is marked in yellow.

The human team moved in between the ruins and woods, watching carefully for enemy contact. They knew some robots might still be in the area but their mission was very clear.
[Both sides moved avoiding contact. The robots left a sentinel to guard the human objective while the other two went for their own objective, which was reached by the fourth turn.]

Leon's energy tracker indicated that the energy core was close. He and James stepped into the woods in a coordinated movement and surprised a robot sentry, firing their rifles until it dropped to the ground. Meanwhile, Karl was standing guard near the ruins. In a moment of distraction, two skelebots dashed past him before he could fire.
[The robots started to get away with the data system, while the human soldiers managed to attack and destroy the enemy sentry.]

Robots rolled a Scurry turn, avoiding the human sentry. Then the humans rolled a firefight and killed the robot sentry.

Karl warned his companions over the commlink and moved towards them. James was concentrated setting the demolition charge on the energy core, but Leon moved out of the woods in time to fire at one of the robots as they escaped.
[In the seventh turn, the robot carrying the data system left the board. Then the humans set their demolition charge, and Leon caused the remaining skelebot to bail.]

The three soldiers reported their action to their commander, still unsure of what the robots were doing there, and why they avoided engaging.

Conclusion
This was a human victory, 8 points to 5. However, as both sides achieved their objectives and the robots rolled higher for overall progress, the campaign progress score decreased to -1. Then I rolled a "War Advances" random event, which pushed the progress score back to 0.

Leon was promoted to rifleman. The next mission will be a regular mission after 2 campaign days, so Igor will not be available yet.

The second mission in this campaign had similar parameters but the different setup changed the game entirely.

The Vagrant - a 5150 campaign

Following my playtest review of Fringe Space, I decided to continue Winston's adventures as a campaign using rules from Fringe Space and 5150 Urban Renewal.

The idea is to play an open-ended campaign. Every six months (campaign turns) I will evaluate Winston's situation to decide if the campaign should go on. Of course, if Winston dies along the way, the campaign is over.

The Vagrant crew

The campaign is named after Winston's ship, a trader class vessel. The ship crew consists of Winston, acting as captain of the ship, Pingh and Tanya (42 years old Basic female, Rep 3, Initiative, Poser, Resilient). Axor just hangs by while on the ship.

The campaign will start where my last report left: Winston and friends are at New Hope City, with a data stick full of stolen corporate information.