The Hidden Battles of MR-4/76

Today I had a very good game of 5150 Star Army -- enough to make me start a little new campaign based on it. The plan is to run seven games or win/lose due to campaign morale, whichever comes first.

The Star Army are contesting MR-4/76 an uninhabited world in the fourth ring, which contains valuable mineral deposits. The Hishen have sent a military occupation force to the planet and are defending it. Obviously, this conflict happens hidden from the citizens of Gaea Prime...

My Star Army squad consists of Alec (star, rep 5), Barry, Charles, Doug, Edward (ASL, rep 3), Frank, Gary and Henry. All the grunts are rep 5 and equipped with laser rifles; Alec uses a rapid-fire laser and Edward carries a grenade launcher.

This first mission was a patrol. The objective was to confirm the position of what seemed to be a camouflaged base in aerial recon data. [I got aerial recon for this mission, as well as an investment level of 3 and intel level of 3. These gave me a "good intel" result and thus, I was able to determine the enemy's investment level at the start: 4.]

Running from the Bugs!

Last year I got a copy of the BUGS! game released by Two Hour Wargames in 2002 (at the time of this writing it is still available for free at WargameDownloads.) I planned to play a game with it back in June but forgot about it until now. So instead of building my 5150 platoons I ran this game as I was more in the mood for a quick battle than making papercraft.

Anyway, BUGS! is a compact and focused game of humans fighting (or running away from) primitive but dangerous aliens -- the types with sharp teeth and claws. The reason to play it nowadays is mostly to gain perspective on the origins and evolution of the Reaction System. The core ideas are already present but yet to be refined. The whole set of rules fits in four pages of text and two pages of tables. The cost of this is that some definitions and clarifications are not included. When playing, I had to make some assumptions about things like front facing arc, group movement, requirements for charging, melee combat etc.

Battle Report

Based on information from the book I ran a simple scenario where a group of mercenaries and civilians must reach a shuttle to escape a facility infested with bug-like aliens. Every turn there's the risk that the aliens will burrow a hole to ambush them. Here is a picture of the setup. The green patches (woods) and gray squares (buildings) are impassable terrain. Some comments about the game system are given in square brackets.

Calling for Reinforcements

Since I have been playing mostly New Beginnings, which use the new In Sight procedure, I played a couple test battles of 5150 Star Army to remember the squad-based mechanics. Only then it dawned on me that I would need more figures to properly use the escalating battles system. I already have the extra platoons, tanks and other items printed, I just have to cut and build everything.

Other than that, the 1cm scale felt adequate, especially for solo play. I can play on a small space and even  leave the board set up as long as I remember to cover everything with a box lid or something to protect from gusts of wind.

A platoon of game tokens

Last evening I was able to prepare some miniatures and markers to finally try some large-scale 5150: Star Army battles. I wanted to do something like this since Okum Arts released the Retro Space line. I even printed some space patrol and aliens in 15mm. However, I'd get stuck thinking, "ok, now I have to make some defensive structures, and bunkers, and vehicles..." and never finished the project.

So this time I went back to the "paper miniatures as game tokens" mentality and built a much simpler set. I made T-frames with Okum Arts minis and recolored sci-fi vehicles from Junior General. I also made some small bunker markers and very simple 3D "defensive modules." Here's the result:

The New Year Job

How about beginning the new year with a game of 5150: New Beginnings? Bad wordplay aside, here's a quick battle report.

Ken Folstom, from my first game in New Hope City, returns. This time his group includes Marie, a dropout he met shortly after his failed job at the police depot, and Charlie, a lab assistant (LWC) working at a corporation during the day and computer hacker at night. The trio has been performing some small data theft jobs for a while.

Ken's new plan involves breaking into the office of a small corporation to steal a prototype gadget and its production data. This is a bigger move than what he's used but he's counting with inside help: a disgruntled employee who contacted him to propose the job. Supposedly, the office would be lightly guarded during the New Year festivities and, with the information he would provide, the job should be very easy.