Star Wars with Space Weirdos: Imperial Boarding Action

    Allen's Star Wars rebel soldiers prepare to defend themselves as they hear the Stormtroopers advance

My friend Keith had a taste for some Sci-Fi skirmish, and wanted to get his Starship Vengeance 3-D printed cardboard terrain onto the table. The "box terrain" set from Gale Force 9 is pre-printed and cleverly goes back together like a Russian matryoska doll, with each slightly smaller box fitting inside a larger one. We decided to use Space Weirdos rules again, since we had just used them and they would be fresher in our head. I suggested a very Star Wars-like scenario with stormtroopers boarding a rebel cruiser looking for a high value target (in this case, "the Princess"). Keith brought along his Wizards of the Coast prepainted Star Wars figs, and we set up a simple, shoot-'em up scenario.

    Keith's very clever 3-D printed cardboard spaceship interior was our battlefield for the evening

We had three Empire players and three Rebels. Each controlled a sergeant leader and three troopers. The profiles were identical for both sides except that the rebels had laser pistols and the Stormtroopers had laser rifles. Of course, in the heat of the moment we promptly forgot to apply the weapon bonuses and restrictions until the very end of the game. We also forgot about our grenade's +1 on the damage chart, and our armor's +1 to Defense rolls. I have an idea on how to redesign the character sheets to make it less easy to forget all those fun things. It didn't imbalance the game as both sides completely forgot those modifiers until the very end of the game!

    My entry point was the bottom of the picture - but as we advance, Keith's rebels move to flank us

Keith laid out the very cool looking cardboard terrain to form the sprawling interior of a rebel cruiser. First, I had the Empire players discuss and then choose three breach points, one for each player, where they would board the ship. Next, the Rebel players returned to the room and deployed their figures. Jenny and I had chose to breach into rooms that led to corridors that essentially bisected the ship. Tom chose to breach into a perpendicular corridor that led left and right, so to speak. We figured we would come in the middle of the interior, so to speak, and then march right or left once we saw where the Rebels (and more importantly, the Princess) were. All three Empire players had a silent chuckle when they saw Joel deploy his four Rebels soldiers in the hallway Tom would breach into. To one side of the central axis, Keith had deployed his guys and the Princess in Engineering. To the opposite side, Allen had deployed his in the Control room. 

    Tom's Stormtroopers burst in through their breach point and quickly gunfire & blasts erupt

Crucially for me, there was another corridor that led from my access point to the back of Engineering. So, I feinted forward to look like I was going to reinforce Tom in the central hallway battle. Keith sent one of his soldiers to reinforce Joel, but the other three began moving towards the corridor, possibly to outflank me. This decided matters for me, as I would throw all four of my stormtroopers at his position. Before we engaged though, the battle was raging in the central hallway. We later nicknamed it the Hallway of Death for the Out of Action soldiers sprawled about the corridor. 

   Early look at the 'Hallway of Death', with two of Jenny's Stormtroopers at the bottom ready to join in

Tom raced through the breach point and immediately engaged the rebels in melee. I'd given each figure a grenade, in addition to their blaster, and the players were not shy about using them at all. Soon, shock grenades were going off all over the ship. Stormtroopers fell, Rebels went down -- anywhere that figures were bunched up within the half stick blast radius, a grenade would be tossed. Even with forgetting the +1 on the damage chart, grenades rolled 2d10 on attack vs. the laser pistol or rifle's 2d8. We debated whether it was possible to use one of your two Command Points each turn to "power up" the grenade to 2d12. It is possible to spend one point to power up your attack one dice level. We decided that it was possible, which made throwing grenades even more attractive. The sounds of booms soon rang through the hallways as men screamed and fell to the floor.

    Fortune was on the Empire's side as my Stormtroopers clear the corridor leading to Engineering

Tom pushed his attacks aggressively, drawing all of the attention of Joel and Allen. Jenny advanced to support him, keeping most of her troopers in the corridor leading to the Hallway of Death, though. While the battle raged there, it was mainly a distraction. It kept 2/3's of the rebels away from protecting the princess. All I would need to do would be to defeat Keith's three troopers with my four, grab the princess, and get out, and we would win.

    Unfortunately for the Princess, Allen's troopers remained pinned down inside the control room

Keith won the Initiative though and started turn 2 off with a bang. He threw a grenade which would catch three of my troopers in the blast. I used one of my two command points to have one Stormtrooper dodge out of the blast area. Only one of the other two was hit, and he was still up. I decided to use the movie tactics of the Stormtroopers and advanced to the attack, moving into his hallway and shooting with all of my Stormtroopers. We also tossed our share of grenades, too. It was a bloody battle, but my Stormtroopers were slowly getting the upper hand.

    My grenade tossed into the doorway leading to the Engineering knocked out a rebel & the princess

Keith's rebels began to fall back from the corridor. One of my men tossed a grenade in the open doorway leading to engineering. In the blast radius were three of his rebels AND (unfortunately, maybe) the Princess. The princess and two of the rebel soldiers were knocked out of action. He counterattacked knocking out one of my guys. Still, the doorway remained open at the start of the next turn. I had one of my Stormtroopers run in, pick up the princess, and dart back out into the corridor. I made sure I hung onto one of my command points, though, waiting for his rebels to pursue into the corridor and shoot my Stormtrooper carrying the princess. When he did, I played it, Dodging out of the corridor back towards my entry point.

    Bodies continue to pile up in the Hallway of Death, and amazingly Tom's Stormtroopers fight on!

Meanwhile, bodies continued to fall in the Hallway of Death. Allen's rebels, who'd been relatively content to hold the command center, finally came out to take on Tom and Jenny's stormtroopers. More grenades went off, more figures were either Knocked Down, Staggered, or put Out of Action. The Hallway's floor grew slick with the blood from wounded lying on the metallic floor. 

    Three of my Stormtroopers exfiltrating back towards our breach point with the princess' body

When we decided to call the game, my troopers were within one move of their exfiltration point and Keith did not have enough rebel soldiers left to stop them. He kept insisting the princess was dead, though I pointed out the rules say only "Out of Action," which doesn't mean dead. It was an imperial victory, especially considering the Sci-Fi medical advancements which could revive or heal the princess, we argued. Everyone had a great time, laughing as we made Star Wars movie references or comical dice failures beset us all. I think everyone is enjoying Space Weirdos. It is easy to pick up the concepts. There are a few questions that have arisen in our games, but we tend to be able to agree on the intent of the rules. If you're looking for a fast Sci-Fi skirmish game (they also have Sword Weirdos for Fantasy), with easy to learn rules, you may consider downloading the rules from Wargame Vault and trying them out. At only $5, how wrong can you go?

For only $5, how wrong can you go picking up & checking out a copy of Space Weirdos?

Meanwhile, my painting of 28mm Vietnam figures continues to roll along, as does my work on jungle vegetation scatter terrain pieces. Look for pics of those soon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 80 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 57

Star Wars Using 'Space Weirdos' - These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For...

    Stormtroopers stop a droid in the central market of a town on Tatooine in my first Star Wars skirmish

I had been steadily getting things ready to finally run Star Wars skirmishes with Space Weirdos rules. When our regular host pointed out the first Sunday in May would be the 4th, he suggested we play a Star Wars themed game. So, I hurried my last preparations and was able to finally run a skirmish using these rules and the miniatures I've been painting up for more than a year, now. I cooked up a scenario with a nod to the iconic Obi-Wan line, "These aren't the droids you're looking for..."

    The Rebel Alliance from off-world: (L-R) Ylena, Knox, Jambru Gassu, & Mango

In my Star Wars games, each player controls one of the factions from that universe. Since we typically have six players, I created that many factions: Empire, Corporate Security, Mercenaries (Bronze Legion), Criminal Syndicate, Local Rebels, and Rebel Alliance. In this game -- stop me if you've heard this before -- the rebels have pulled off a big feat and stolen the plans to the imperial security facilities on Tatooine.  However, the agents were caught in the act and prior to be arrested were able to download the plans into a droid, send it out into the streets of the city, and inform their colleagues what they'd done. The only problem was the transmission was cut off prior to identifying the exact droid with the plans. Based on where the heist occurred (and the memory required), it could only have been an R1 Logistics droid or B3 Engineering droid, though.

    The Empire's strike team: (L-R) Darth Pylos, Lt. Echo Five, Trooper EA-01 & Trooper EA-02

The empire and their corporate security also discover what has happened and launch a search for the droid, several hours later. Meanwhile, the Tatooine Local Rebels and the off-world Rebel Alliance (who cooperated to pull off the feat) have sent teams into the city to locate the droid. Waiting for them there, though, are mercenaries from the Bronze Legion. They've been hired by the town's insurance companies. A maddening number of "droid-nappings" have been occurring locally, and they've given up on the Empire or their local security's ability to handle the problem. Tired of losing money on insurance claims for stolen droids, they hire the elite Bronze Legion to watch over droids in the busiest section of town. In addition, paid informants inside the imperial security staff have let the local Criminal Syndicate know what has happened. They also mobilize a team, but not to find that one particular droid. Instead, they intend to take advantage of the chaos about to break out dowtown to steal some more droids!

    Enforcers from a Tatooine Criminal Syndicates: (L-R) Foxhurst, Quiddo, Sluggr, and Trumonkar

Each player would control four figures that I created using the Space Weirdos rules and the Sci-Fi miniatures I've been painting. Only the Stormtroopers are actual Star Wars forces. Otherwise, I'm using the forces I've been building over the last year or so to fill in the other factions. They are from a wide variety of sources, too. The Local Rebels, Bronze Legion, Corporate Security, and Knox from the Rebel Alliance are assembled from Stargrave kits. The Stormtroopers and the Mon Calamari rebel are 3-D prints from JS Wargamer Printing. A couple miniatures are from Wiley Games (Darth Pylor and Sluggr) or freebie giveaways from past Cincycons (Foxhurst, Trumonkar). The leader of the Rebel Alliance, Ylena, is a from Hydra Miniatures' Retro Raygun line and Mango the orangutan is from Sgt. Major Miniatures (now Battle Valor Games).

    The Mercenaries from the Bronze Legion: (L-R) Hex Ruudo, Xessa Vat, Brun Wot, & Krits Muurd

As you can imagine, both rebel and imperial factions primarily want to recover the droid with the plans. They know it is one of the three R1 or three B3 droids. A successful "Willpower check" under the Space Weirdos rules when in contact with a droid can ascertain if it is indeed the droid they are looking for. Each figure from all six factions carries a "Droid Clamp." It takes one of a figure's three actions in a turn to apply it to the droid in contact. After that, the droid will dutifully follow the character wherever it goes. Their goal is to get off the board with that particular droid. The rebel or imperial faction which succeeds in doing that receives 5 Victory Points. Their ally faction gets only 2 VP, though (rivalry and desire to appear the most competent, right?). They also get VPs for knocking figures out of action from the Empire and Corporate Security (Rebel Alliance only) or Criminal Syndicate (Local Rebels only). The Empire gets VPs for knocking out figs from either faction of Rebels, while Corporate Security gets points for Alliance figures and Criminal Syndicate ones. The thought is the two native-staffed factions (Local Rebels and Corporate Security) aren't crazy about killing their fellow Tatooine residents.

    Local Rebels from Tatooine: (L-R) Zimeon, Ziahra, Craix, and Rarely

But what about the Mercenaries? They are hired by the insurance companies, so get points for knocking out of action ANY figure in contact with a droid. They also get a decreasing amount of VPs depending on how many droids are "kidnapped" during the scenario, maxxing out if no faction is successful in removing any droids from the table under their custody. To represent them already being in town keeping an eye on things, I let my friend Keith (who was playing the Mercenaries) deploy inside or on any buiding surrounding the central market (or in the market itself). Surprisingly, Keith deployed all of them visible -- none inside the buildings. He did institute a very aggressive defense, though, shooting players who came anywhere near the market -- not just in contact near droids. This resulted in him being at odds with most of the other factions in the game. As alluded to, the Criminal Syndicate got points for simply getting as many droids off-table as they could. They wanted the high-value ones, naturally the R1s or B3s, but also the floating FX drones. The smaller droids will still gave them points but not as much as the bigger ones (which, not coincidentally, the imperial and rebel factions wanted as well).

    The Empire's hired Corporate Security: (L-R) Lt. Shrukar, Sgt. Ithran, Cpl. Valla, & Cpl. Teyran

The droids began the game mostly near the central market plaza, with some of the smaller repair or street-sweeping droids further out. Each type of droid had a secret path they would follow, moving once each turn after all the player figures had acted. The R1s (one of which had the plans) would circle the market clockwise, then exit off the opposite board edge furthest away from where they started. The B3s would do the same, but moving counter-clockwise. The FX stayed a building away from the market, circling then exiting similarly to the R1s. The other smaller droids would simply circle buildings and wander in what would appear to the players in an aimless path. Which one had the plans? The green R1 was the designated R2D2 for this game, which was made from a piece of Sci-Fi scatter I purchased from Diabolical Terrain (who also makes the Tatooine buildings) and treads from RRB Minis & More.  

    Early in the game, from left, Keith, Joel, Mike W, Mike S, and Allen investigate the town layout

After I explained the rules and scenario, I gave the players a choice whether to roll and choose the side of the hexagon-shaped game board they began on, or to simply deploy on the edge where they were already sitting. Unanimously, they chose to begin where they were sitting. This meant the droid with the plans began near the market closest to Mike S's Empire faction and Allen's Criminal Syndicate. Its programming was to circle the market wall clockwise and then exit between Keith (Mercenaries) and Joel (Corporate Security). On the very first turn of the game, Allen moved one of his faster figures to within one move of that droid. However, by then, the Bronze Legion had begun opening fire on anyone who came within a move of of the walls of the market. Allen decided not to stick his neck out further and withdrew to pluck lower hanging fruit, so to speak. If he had decided to grab it, and had gotten off the board, his faction would have had the upper hand in the game, even though that wasn't technically the droid he was looking for!

    So many droids to investigate in this scenario -- luckily the Rebels knew it was one of two types

Keith's Mercenaries quickly got into a firefight with the Corporate Security, Criminal Syndicate, and Tom's Local Rebels. The return fire of those factions (and also Mike S's Empire when Keith later opened up on one of their Stormtroopers, too), kept him hopping all game. All of the Mercenaries wore Heavy Armor, though, and this helped them time and again throughout the game, causing an opponent's shot to miss instead of hit. The way Space Weirdos works, each figure has stats in Speed (number of actions they can move in a turn), Firepower (shooting), Prowess (melee ability) and Defense (used when targeted by shooting or melee). The stat is expressed as a roll of two dice of a particular size, from d6 (weakest) to d8 to d10 (best). Modifiers such as cover, aiming, moving fast, etc., cause the dice type to go up or down, with a max of d12 and minimum of d4. Each player rolls their two dice and results are compared. If the Attacker's roll beats the Defender's, a second roll with 2d6 is made on a chart to see what happens. A particularly low roll on this chart could have the target return fire or counter-thrust in melee. Or the result could be for the target to run or dive for cover. Good rolls will knock down, "Stagger", or take them Out of Action. 

    Led by Darth Pylor, Mike's Empire faction moves past the power station towards the center of town

Another tactical wrinkle in Space Weirdos are the Command Points. Each player gets two per turn and they must be used during that turn and don't carry over. They can be very powerful. The most commonly used one in our game was "Dodge." Once the attacker declared a ranged shot on the target, the controlling player could play Dodge and move the figure one stick (5") out of line of sight, negating the enemy's shot and wasting those action(s). There's also Power Up, which gives the attacker or defender a dice type bonus. Hustle allows a character to move one more action than their Speed would normally allow (great for escaping off-board with a droid!). There were also Overwatch, First Strike (target of melee gets to attack first), and Regroup, which gives a bonus to next turn's Initiative roll. 

    Local Rebel trooper Craix eyes three Criminal Syndicate enforcers creeping towards the market

Space Weirdos plays well with multiple players in a game. However, the rules appear to be intended for a 1 vs. 1 game. So, I felt that I had to modify the Overwatch command. I think I may have made it too weak. I will talk to the players about how to make it more attractive of a play, considering it was used only once and on the first turn of the game. I asked the players afterward about whether they thought the command point themselves were too powerful and if their number should be reduced. Only Tom (and honestly, myself) felt each player should be given only one instead of two. I was worried that players would get frustrated, moving into place to take a shot, spending an action aiming (to bump their dice type), and then shooting only to see the opponent play a Dodge and scamper away, wasting their entire turn, essentially. Players are limited to using Dodge, First Strike, or Overwatch only once per turn. To keep track of them, I gave each player two Hershey Kiss candies and said they were to unwrap and eat them when they use a command point. That way, we could visually verify if they had used their both, one, or none. Did they follow my rules? Ha, ha...only partially! There were a number of command points eaten before they were played, or not eaten at all!

    Rebel trooper Mango charges up the stairs and enters melee with one of the Bronze Legion

The action unfolded with the Bronze Legion mercenaries merrily blasting away at anyone who came in sight. I whispered to Keith to make sure he understood he only got VPs by knocking a figure out of action in contact with a droid, and he said he knew that. He was just fighting an aggressive defense! The Corporate Security troopers, perhaps resenting the Mercenaries usurping their role as hired guns in the town, skirmished aggressively with the armored mercenaries. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance moved up, nailing one of the security troopers and knocking him out of action. When Rebel leader Ylena and her Mon Calamari companion neared the market, the mercenaries blasted away at them, too. The hulking orangutan Mango joined the firefight, eventually charged up the stairs at one mercenary and backhanding him off the stairway and into the shadows of a silent mechanical drill nearby.

    A Stormtrooper takes a shot at a Mon Calamari rebel trooper as he ducks around a building

The Stormtroopers began to sneak up on the Rebel Alliance, though, and bring them under fire. Mike S was the first of the Sunday Evening gang to choose a faction when I announced the games, and he chose Empire. He is normally one of our most aggressive players, which I felt made perfect sense for the Empire. However, that night his advance was much more tentative than normal. His leader, Darth Pylos, used his dark powers to bring droids closer to his troopers for them to check out, but he didn't use any of his attack abilities. In particular, I fully expected Mike to use the "Mind Control" ability and have his opponents open fire on friendly figures. Or to use the "Mind Stab" to try to knock them out. He stayed focused on droid-hunting, though. His dice rolls were not up to snuff, either, and the Empire struggled to accomplish much other than inconveniencing the neighboring Rebel Alliance troopers.

    Darth Pylos tells the Stormtroopers to fan out and search the R1 Logistics & B3 Engineering droids

Interestingly, the Local Rebels and Criminal Syndicate seemed to have a de facto truce going on. Tom had multiple opportunities to fire into the backs of Allen's criminal enforcers, but for the most part, declined. Allen, likewise, saved his shooting for the mercenaries who'd been trying to pick off his guys since the start of the game. On the face of it, Allen's criminals had the simplest mission -- just grab droids. However, that would put him at odds with the Mercenaries immediately. Also, if the droid he grabbed happened to be a possible type carrying the plans, the imperial and rebel factions would likely unload on him. Still, Allen balanced his aggression with mission focus, and was actually able to put the clamps on three separate high-value droids. If his leader Foxhurst had headed off-table with his clamped droid instead of moving to try to heal one of his downed troops, Allen would have won with 6 VPs.

    Late game chaos at the market! Rebels and Stormtroopers blast away as they rush to secure droids

Actually, I was impressed with all of the players and how they attempted to carry out their missions. Mike W's Rebel Alliance were dogged foes of the Mercenaries and Empire, shooting them repeatedly and investigating droids that were close by. He simply had bad luck in the one with the plans was on the other side of the board. He played his rebels like you'd expect in the Star Wars universe, and would end up tied for second. His ally on the other side of the table had the good fortune of being closest to the path the droid with the plans would take. Local Rebel Tom used cover wisely, and aggressively advanced to return the fire of the mercenaries and to get as near to the target droid types as possible. When the green R1 came close enough, he had his leader (with the highest Willpower) check it out and confirm it was the one. He immediately began to flee the table, using a Hustle on his following turn to escape with his prize.

    Criminal enforcer Sluggr slithers away with an FX Hover droid, heading for the table edge

The shooting broke out early and kept going all game long. From the battle reports I'd read on blogs or watched on YouTube, I was under the impression Space Weirdos would be a bloody game. However, fewer than one figure per faction was knocked out of action. I think that there were a few reasons why my scenario was less bloody than ones I'd read or watched. First, the rules recommend you have a lot of terrain to break line of sight or provide cover. I had a lot of buildings or big pieces of machinery on the board, which made it very easy to hide behind or use "Dodge" to avoid a shot. Plus, instead of your opponent getting only one Dodge per turn, potentially all five other factions could have a Dodge to use against you when you were shooting. Finally, the players admitted their rolls on the second table to ascertain damage after they hit with a shot were terrible. I repeatedly saw them roll "5" or less on 2d6. So, I think those three factors mitigated the bloodshed a little.

    One of the Corporate Security troopers exits with an R1 droid, crossing his fingers its the right one

Still, I asked the players to be honest. Did they enjoy the system? I would not be offended if they didn't, and we could easily play the Wiley Games Galactic Heroes rules if they preferred.  They said they enjoyed them and were willing to keep using Space Weirdos for Star Wars skirmishes. They liked the scenario in honor of "May the 4th Be With You," and said they had fun. I already have an idea for the next chapter, so hopefully we will get a chance to play again in a month or so. 

 

    A look at the 17 types of droids (names are my creation) that were meandering around the board

Sunday's game capped off a very busy gaming weekend for me. You should shortly see a report from Jenny and my two runnings of the Viking Town Raid scenario at Buckeye Game Fest. We also ran Zombie RV - Scavenging in the Trailer Park twice. So, I have lots of photos to sort through and will put out a blog post on the miniatures games our HMGS Great Lakes GMs ran at this mostly board gaming convention. What about painting? I have the first ten 28mm Vietnam War troopers done, but am mired in the flocking stage by our rainy, humid Ohio weather. I am waiting for a day where I can give the figs a good preliminary spray coat and then finish the flocking stage that I'm stuck halfway through. Since I don't have so much to work on, I've pulled a few pieces of scatter out of the closet and am working on them. So, stay tuned for a flurry of updates!

    The 'score' in my Star Wars skirmish campaign after one battle...kind of like the movies, eh?

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 60 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 55

Chaos at the Spaceport - Captured Smugglers & Rebel Assault

    Atop a building in Keith's spaceport, a Greedo of uncertain motives threatens a civilian worker

A few months ago, my friend Keith told me he was itching for a project. He wanted to build something. As I was finishing up my figures for Star Wars skirmishes, I told him, "Build a spaceport." Fast forward to last week. Keith announced he was finished with the spaceport and had a scenario ready to break it in. We would be doing his own Star Wars skirmish using Galactic Heroes rules.

    Rebel leader Joel turns in a card & prepares to move one of his rebels in his attack on the spaceport

The scenario was that a smuggling operation at an imperial spaceport had been uncovered. The smugglers themselves were being held in detention by the Empire. This prompted a number of different factions to spring into action. The local rebel alliance sent two teams to break into the perimeter and search for the smugglers, some of whom were rebels. My own faction was personnel from the fleet naval arm stationed at the port. Apparently, we were the ones profiteering from the smuggling, selling arms and other supplies to the rebels and lining our pockets. Now that the smugglers had been caught by the Empire, our smuggling ring would doubtless be exposed. We needed to spring into action and see if we could secure (or neutralize?) the smugglers ourselves.

    The alien "Greedos" arrive, having sneaked onto the base, but what is their mission here...??

There were six players and those are the only three factions that I am actually sure about. My friend Tom had a group who was trying to rescue the Princess, who had also been captured. Doubtless, she was a rebel smuggler, but who was Tom? I assumed rebel sympathizers. Mike S had a mercenary faction. He was trying to find the pilot of a certain spacecraft for some reason or another. He made it clear he was anti-imperial by firing on the stormtroopers immediately, but I never learned what his ultimate mission was. The most mysterious of all was Mike W's "Greedo" force. These four, green-skinned aliens seemed to have no coherent mission that I could deduce, but seemed fixated on accosting civilians at the spaceport and stealing another ship. He was obviously anti-Imperial, though, as he shot and knocked one of my four men out of action.

    Rebel Leader Allen's people mover began the attack by breaking through the perimeter

My officer and three troopers began in the "control room" (which Keith did not tell me was the control room), but were not permitted to act until turn two. Once the rebels broke through the perimeter, setting off alarms, we could do what we wanted. That made sense that we would try to take advantage of the rebel attack to execute our desperate plan to save us from our treason. The only thing I was told was that the smugglers were being held in a small, block building in the spaceport. As it turned out, there were three separate groups of prisoners held in captivity. I didn't know that, thinking instead that there was only one group of prisoners. I also think this was what all six factions were led to believe.

    'That's what you get for sneaking up on a Fleet Trooper!' My trooper returns fire & downs a rebel

When we were allowed to move, two of my troopers headed in the direction of where Tom had quickly liberated a group of prisoners. Ah-ha, I thought, "that's where the smugglers are!" Along the way, one of Joel's rebels sneaked up and shot one of my guys in the back, causing only a shock, though. My guy returned fire, hit, and knocked the rebel out of action. Two other of Joel's rebels entered the control center, which was now occupied only by my officer. The other had climbed the ladder to the roof and was checking out another "small block building." The officer fired twice, knocking another of Joel's rebels out of action and causing a shock on the other. In Galactic Heroes, "shock" is not a wound and represents the fear, distraction, stress, etc., of combat. 

    Two more of Joel's troopers burst into our control room - one is gunned down by the Fleet Officer

Much to my surprise, my trooper who entered the small, block building found the Princess! He radioed that to the others on our comms. The two troopers outside the control center heard that and split up. One continued the dangerous mission of crossing most of the spaceport to make sure the prisoners were either freed by the rebels or dispatched. The other ducked back inside to help my officer. Once again, my dice proved deadly, and the other rebel was knocked out of action. Yeesh! After my excellent dice rolling last week in the FASA starship game, I thought for sure my comeuppance would be this Sunday evening. Not to be, apparently! Of course, not everything went the Fleet's way. My guy on the dangerous, cross-spaceport mission was shot and knocked out by a Greedo on the roof. A gung ho nurse entered the control room and began reviving the two rebels we had shot down. I ordered her to desist at gunpoint and Keith decided she was a fanatic and proceeded to ignore my orders even when she took a blast meant for the revived rebel. 

'Shoot him!' the Fleet Officer commands, bewildering the 'Princess' prisoner (& the trooper!)`    

Rolling his eyes ans motioning the trooper to join him, the officer climbed onto the roof and into the small detention cell in the nearby building (not that we knew it was a detention cell -- we had amazingly sparse information about a place we were stationed at for so long and were supposedly in control of...!). Once we were all in the cell -- the Fleet Officer, Princess, my two troopers, and the stormtrooper guarding her, I ordered my men to kill the stormtrooper. I planned on killing the princess, too, if I had to (thinking she was one of the smugglers). Was she actually a smuggler? Who knows? I found out at the end of the game there was an undiscovered prisoner whose card said "Smuggler." Wouldn't I have known who the smugglers were if I have been selling them arms for so long?

    Stormtroopers arrive and immediately attack Mike S's mercenaries

I think Keith's goal was for a wild and crazy game with each of the players acting on only partial information. Well, he succeeded! I was watching the action on the rest of the table as the rebels and rebel sympathizers (or whatever) were quickly rescuing all of the prisoners. If they escaped with them, they would basically be doing my job for me. As mentioned, I was unaware there was yet another cell block only a short distance away where the prisoner we wanted was being held. Keith was controlling the actions of the civilians and stormtroopers. In true ineffective stormtrooper fashion, he classified them as "Grunts," who use a d8 instead of the d10's the player characters rolled for shooting or melee. The other guys were doing a pretty good job mowing down the stormtroopers, though a surprising amount were taken out in melee. I decided to sit back and monitor the situation.

    Shooting breaks out all over Keith's recently 'fully armed and operational' spaceport

Things escalated when Keith allowed Mike S's mercenaries to take control of one of the spaceships and begin blasting away at buildings. This activated the perimeter defenses, which began to fire on the ship. That was somehow what Mike wanted, so he joined the exodus of rebels at this point, fleeing off-board with the prisoners. My own guys were going to discreetly exit the spaceport, too, with Princess in tow.  When Keith called the game, I was chagrined to find out about the "Smuggler", which meant instead of being wildly successful and neutralizing or seeing all prisoners freed, I failed miserably. The one prisoner who I needed to neutralize or set free was the only one who still ended the game in under control of the Empire!

    Classic Star Wars scene - rebels and stormtroopers shoot it out (but occasionally hitting each other!)

Well, if Keith wanted chaos...he got it! I enjoyed the scenario but obviously think my faction, as the only resident imperial one, should have had a LOT more information. Feel free to make our objective far from my starting location, and make me run the gauntlet of attacking rebels. I also think it should have been a bit more obvious which buildings housed prisoners and which were basic administrative or supply storage facilities. Mike W's Greedos were obviously looking for something, but all they ended up doing was interrogating a bunch of random civilians and searching wrong locations. Oh, and shooting one of my guys! The civilian medical personnel running around trying to revive anyone wounded or knocked out of action in the middle of a gunfight were simply annoying. How the Evil Empire got such fiercely loyal platoon combat medics willing to risk their lives didn't make a lot of sense. But then again, the "bad guys" in Star Wars movies often do things that don't make sense. So, perhaps it fit the canon after all.

    Mike S's mercs were obviously up to no good when they asked the rescued pilot to arm a ship's guns

Keith's spaceport looked nice. I don't think I have ever seen so much pre-printed cardboard or paper terrain assembled onto one tabletop before. There were a LOT of buildings, walkways, spaceships, scatter -- you name it! Interestingly, though, very little of the terrain provided any kind of cover. Lots of staircases or buildings, but not a lot to hide behind and squeeze out the odd -1 or -2 to the enemy shot. The Wiley Games rules provided their usual enjoyment, with wild swings in combat but also the ability to formulate a plan and try to adapt it to the order of movement cards you were dealt. This mechanic adds an extra level of a tactical challenge -- which figure gets which card, and what order to move your guys in?

    In the end, the Greedos stole a spaceship! Was it their mission? Who knows...

I also liked how Keith's game introduced the players to the idea of a spectrum of factions in the Star Wars world. That is precisely what my own Star Wars games will do. I plan to have the players represent everything from the Rebel Alliance to the Empire, with mercenaries, criminal syndicates, corporate security, and local rebels thrown into the mix. So, it was a good introduction for my own series of games I hope to run using the Space Weirdos rules. Why not Galactic Heroes? Well, I'm not a huge fan of short weapon ranges for a futuristic game, for one. Plus, I want to give these a try. A friend recommended them, I downloaded them from Wargame Vault, and they look interesting. When will my games kick off? Hopefully in May, though we will see what others want to run before that.

    One of Joel's rebels stealthily hides underneath a walkway in which 2 ship crew are walking along

 

In the meantime, look for more updates soon on the stuff that I've been painting up!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 49 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 16

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 30

    I really liked Keith's Star Wars people movers (or whatever they're called)...very nice models!

    The Gung Ho nurse ignores Allen's rebel and would continue to annoy every character she ran into

 

    A confused melee breaks out between stormtroopers and Tom's rebels & the prisoners he rescued

    Allen's troops deploy early in the game and launch the rebel raid on the Spaceport

    And yes, one of Keith's ships was actually marketed as a popcorn bucket!

Cool 'Rebel Alliance' Figs from Several Manufacturers

    Decided to do 1 more batch of figures for my Star Wars skirmishes - this one for the Rebel Alliance

So, I thought I had all the Star Wars figures I needed for my first skirmish. However, I decided to paint up one final batch specifically for the Rebel Alliance faction (as opposed to the Local Rebels). I was making cards for each faction and I noticed the Rebel Alliance figs were being pulled from several different projects. Unfortunately, that also meant they'd have several different basing schemes and flocking. Call me anal, but I wanted each faction to match - so they at least looked like they belonged together. I know, I know. Think of this way, though -- it gave me a chance to paint up these really cool figures.

    These 5 figs are from 3 different manufacturers - I think they nicely show a polyglot alliance

This might be my favorite faction as far as looks go. The Criminal Syndicate is close, but the Hydra Miniatures I used for the combat droid and the Valkeeri sniper are top notch! I wanted this squad to reflect that the Rebel Alliance was pulling from different races and trying to unify all the anti-imperial forces in the galaxy. So, I went through all of my unpainted Sci-Fi figures pack by pack, and picked out four that I really liked. A fifth I would assemble from the Stargrave Crew boxes. The sixth would be one from the Mon Calamari batch I painted earlier this year. I'm shooting for squads of six figures, though I will likely have players initially start with 3-4 miniatures per force until we get used to the rules we'll be using.

    These awesome figs are from Hydra Miniatures - I really like their retro look & how they turned out!

I mentioned the Hydra Miniatures, so let's start with them. Awhile back, when I was painting forces for Xenos Rampant, I ordered a few packs of their Valkeeri and Astro Angel lines. I painted one of them up as a crew member for my Five Parsecs from Home campaign, but hadn't touched the others. And on a trip up to Michigan, I stopped by the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company, I picked up a few packs of their Robot Legion. Because...you know - that's what we miniature wargamers do! They are incredibly cool figures and I don't know why I didn't think earlier about painting some of them up as a faction. So, I pulled out one of the robot legionaires and one of the kneeling Astro Angel figures to include in this batch.

I like the purple color scheme for the Valkeeri sniper's uniform. That and the bright bronze metallic seem to go well together. I kept the green skin I used for Zorina of my Five Parsecs crew. It is Sci-Fi after all, there HAS to be green-skinned aliens! Otherwise, I painted her jet pack exactly like Zorina's, but made one or two other changes. The main one being substituting purple for the color shift paint I used on Zorina. For the Robot Legionaire, I painted him a base Gunmetal Gray metallic. I gave it Pewter and Silver highlights. The accent color I decided to do as a Turquoise Metallic. The baby blue color looks "good guy" enough so he's not confused with an imperial droid. I gave him some panel lights on the front and back, too. I am very happy with how these two miniatures came out. I need to find a reason to paint up more of them!

    If Star Wars can have Chewbacca, why can't my Rebel Alliance have this Battle Valor orangutan?

Seeing how Chewbacca is part of the Rebel Alliance, I thought I could use a big furry guy for my faction, too. I had one unpainted Orangutan with gun from our order with Battle Valor Games. I had already painted one up for my Planet of the Apes forces, but remember that thing about bases? I wanted his base to match the rest of the crew's, not be completely different. I tried a slightly different color scheme, too. I base coated him in Georgia Clay, then did a Salmon dry brush highlight. I think this was a mistake, though. The colors were too similar and the highlights don't show up in the fur as much as I'd like. I probably should have stuck with the red-brown base coat and the more orange highlights. Oh well. I made sure I gave him a good dark brown wash, though, so that would help out with some depth. His face, hands, belly, and feet were done in dark brown with medium brown highlights. Even though he didn't turn out perfect, I still like the miniature and how it looks.

    Plastic Stargrave mini on the left, Battle Valor metal on the right - enjoy the metal much more!

While going through my post-apocalyptic figures searching for suitable rebels, I found several left over unpainted from my Followers of the Dark Prophet survivor gang. One of them had a very cool heavy weapon, so I picked him out, cleaned up his extensive flash and mold lines as best I could. I decided to go with a more desert look for his color scheme. Starting with a white headdress and face mask, I stepped down a shade in lightness for each layer. The cowl that covers his shoulders was done in a light tan, the tunic in a dark khaki, and the pants in a lighter brown. His boots were dark brown. I pulled out the micron pens to give him some decoration and really like how he turned out. This is probably my third favorite figure of the batch mainly because of how his color scheme turned out. 

Finally, I put together another one of the Stargrave plastic figures. I was initially thinking he would be a leader type, but now I'm not sure which figure I want to be the leader for the faction! I chose one of the heads with an interesting helmet, and then gave him a pistol in his right hand and some strange zapper looking device in the left. Once he was all assembled, I had to choose colors. I decided to go with the light olive for his tunic and gray for his pants. One thing about the Stargrave miniatures: they don't take dry brushing well. The detail is simply not deep enough, I feel. It is too smooth. I tried to give him some decoration and ornamentation a bit, but he didn't turn out quite as exciting as the others.

Still, throw in the 3-D printed Mon Calamari guy and this is going to be a pretty cool looking squad! I've very happy with how it turned out. Now, I can finally say I am truly done with painting the player's initial factions. I promise! I will still have lots of Sci-Fi terrain to work on in the upcoming weeks, but the miniature part of the project is completed. In fact, I am working on a set of three Sci-Fi buildings right now that would be quite at home on Tatooine. 

With this batch completed, I am firmly in the green on my Acquired vs. Painted. I think I can say 2024 is going to be a "Plus" year where I finished more than I bought. I like how it makes my purchases more focused and will definitely continue this next year. 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 235