Scrapjacks - Trying a new system

 Ross came over for a game last night which gave me the opportunity to have a second try at Scrapjacks. This is a new set of sci-fi rules from Patrick Todoroff, due out in March. Patrick has put a free Quick Start Guide with a taster scenario on Wargames Vault  https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/500732/scrapjacks-quick-start-guide

I'd had one opportunity to play through the rules so I had a reasonable grasp of the mechanisms. Anyone who has played any of Patrick's other systems, like Exploit Zero, Zona Alfa, When Nightmares Come or Nightwatch will be familiar with the basics.

The premise is a solo or co-op game, running a salvage team exploring derelict space craft/stations. The Quick Start Guide includes a two-park scenario to familiarise you with the basic rules. There are 4 basic roles in the team, each of which has specific specialisms.

Starting off in the first MHU (Modular Habitation Unit) the crew split up and move quickly towards various POI (Point of Interest). The main objective is to hack a fried relay by the exit, so Buzz (our specialist hacker) ignores the POIs and heads straight for the dodgy panel. Wrecker gets to the closest POI and find a Maintenance Supply Cabinet. This is quickly broken open and contains a Power Cell, some useful kit and 2 pts of salvage. POIs may contain useful bits the Scrapjacks can make use of (like suit patch kits) and generic salvage that offer a monetary value. As the rest of the team spread out we roll for the first Hitch. After all the Scrapjacks have taken their turn you roll of the Hitch table, which could bring foes into play, or else some environmental hazard. We roll a Void Mould, a nasty substance that can damage suits we get 3 suit breeches.

The team has a pool of Air Charge, representing a mixture of air and power available to the crew. We were already down to 5 and unless repaired quickly, each suit breech loses an Air Charge at the end of each turn, so it's not good.

In Turn two we concentrate on fixing the suit breaches but and Wrecker realises that her suit is still leaking air. This means that the team don't move so far, and at the end of the turn some maintenance bots turn up.

Two malfunctioning bots , ready to clean the MHU of all unwanted organic material (which includes the Scrapjacks).

Wrecker's suit is still leaking air.

Buzz gets close to the objective, but there are two more bots nearby.

In turn three Doc repairs Wrecker's suit, then moves on towards the objective. Q.B. (the team's "muscle") kicks open the POI next to him, a Security Locker, grabbing the goodies inside, then takes down one of the bots with his riot gun. Buzz ignores the threatening bots to start working of rerouting the fried relay. The bots activate and move in on Wrecker and Q.B. , but fail to score a hit.

This is leaving Wrecker looking rather exposed.

Turn 4, Buzz completes the rewiring, so it's safe to exit. Wrecker moves up to join the crew. the bots attack again and both Q.B. and Wrecker are wounded this time.

A bot's eye view.

The Hitch roll brings on a team of pirates/claim jumpers, which makes thing look fairly hairy for the team, so we elect to move on to the next MHU. Unfortunately this means we have left two POI not investigated, so it's not looking like a very profitable start.

The second MHU has lost gravity, so we start off in zero-g. This make movement easier, but has a risk of damaging suits every time a Scrapjack moves, so we decide to restore gravity asap. Once that is accomplished the team move on towards the various POI. Our Hitch roll trigger's a Hull Shift witch wounds two of the team.

 Doc uses his med kits to stop the bleeding and we break into 2 POI, finding a Emergency Aid Cabinet and a Supply Crate. This replenishes a med kit and 2 patch kits as well as giving us some valuable salvage. We strike lucky with the Hitch roll of just "Uneasy Silence", which (literally) gives us breathing room. 

Moving on to Turn 3, we check out another POI and find another Maintenance Supply  Cabinet, giving us some more salvage and Wrecker gets to the objective. This just requires breaking into a wall panel and installing a beacon, and Wrecker is very good a breaking into things!

But the Hitch roll turns up more maintenance bots, two of which a very threatening to Doc, bringing up the rear.

Turn 4 and Wrecker blew open one of the hatches with a det-cord, them prised the other open with her wrecker bar, to complete the objective. With bots closing in we decided to call it a day and evac.

Good fun! We both enjoyed the games. Having played once already I was more comfortable with the mechanisms, allowing me the opportunity to make better use of my utility items. We had escaped lightly, but a bit light on salvage. Between the two MHUs we had only acquired salvage to a value of 6.

With a bit of time on our hands, we decided to re-set and play through the second MHU again. This time it was a much more dangerous mission. Between Void Mould, Hull Shifts and Toxic Gas, by the end of turn 4 we were down to 2 Air Charge and had 3 wounded. As more bots turned up we decided to let Wrecker do her stuff on the wall panels and then get out of Dodge. A very close call, however we had scored 13 points of salvage, more than double what we had found in the entire first run.

The Quick Start Guide is, as expected, quite basic. It's fun to play a few times, as each scenario is different, depending on the Hitch rolls. After a while I expect games will start to feel a bit "samey", but I am hoping the full rules will have plenty different options to give variety to the fun.

For me, Scrapjacks certainly has an Expanse-vibe, and I am looking forward to the full rules coming out (hopefully) in March.

BuckMoot - A Midgard Heroic Battles Gaming Day in Aylesbury

CALLING ALL MIDGARD PLAYERS

BUCKMOOT: A fun day of Midgard Heroic Battles games in mid-Buckinghamshire

When: 19th September 2026 10am - 4pm

Where: Walton Parish Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP21 7QX

Cost: £11 including tea, coffee and biscuits

Experienced and novice players welcome.

The hall has very limited car parking (we have arranged parking for anyone running a game), but there is a multi-storey car park across the road (daily parking less than £5).

The hall is less than 10 minutes walk from the town centre, bus and train stations and 5 minutes from the Aylesbury Travel Lodge (with other accommodation nearby).

The day will consist of two games, with a break for lunch. There is a Waitrose supermarket just 5 minutes walk away and numerous take away options in the town centre.

If you are interested in taking part, either hosting a game or just as a player, please contact me on BuckMoot@gmail.com

For those who want to stay on in the evening, the plan is to have a social evening in a nearby pub, details TBC.

More information will be published as it becomes available.

The format for the day will be a mix of historical and fantasy games, possibly in a mixture of scales. The players hosting each game will provide both armies and the scenario for the game. Once the selection of games has been finalised, I will contact all the players who have booked a place and ask for their preferences (probably top 3 or 4 selections). I will then allocate places in each game, attempting to match the player's stated preferences as much as possible.

Refighting Chronopia with Midgard 2

 Colin came over for another game of Midgard Heroic Battles, definitely my current favourite non-gunpowder rules set. We decided to take a break from the Wars of the Roses and play another fantasy game, as Colin wanted to go through the magic rules again. So I took the opportunity to get my old Chronopia armies on the table again.

We played the "None Shall Pass!" scenario, with Colin's Devout force defending two fords against my Stygian Hordes. With practically no shooting units on either side this was going to be a brutal hand-to-hand slogging match (I had one unit that spat acid at javelin range and that was that).

Colin positioned himself with two strong units, accompanied by his two heroes, sitting on the fords, each with a close supporting unit on either flank. By the end of Turn Two my  front units were close to  the water's edge.

My Venorm Spawn had missed doing any damage with it's acid attack, but the Priestess had been more successful with her magic, knocking down the armour of the axemen in the ford.

Turn Three, led by my army commander, the Embalmed moved up to charge across the ford, but fail to activate for their second move FIVE times, using up all the nearby heroes' Mighty Deeds to no avail. Look at all those ones!!!!

At the other ford my Starved successfully charged the Damned holding the ford. The Starved are desperate fanatics, but lacking in armour. I've counted them as Brutal, so hit on 4+, but only 2 armour, so they die easily. I was using them as a one shot weapon, intending to weaken the monstrosity holding the ford, before attacking with a fresh unit.

By some fluke the Starved win their melee round, pushing the damned back off of the ford. But suffer heavy loss due to their poor armour.

Colin takes advantage of my reluctant Embalmed and charges in his phase.

Despite the advantage of charging, I win the fight, aided by my leader's Legendary Weapon I inflict 5 wounds on the axemen, wiping them out!

This also forces Colin to roll 4 dice for risk to his hero, and he rolls 3 ones! He can only attempt to reroll one of the wounds using a Mighty Deed, so he will take a minimum of 2 wounds. As a level 2 hero, that means he is dead. That's a massive loss in Reputation for the Devout.

On the other ford my Starved finally fall is the Devout melee phase, but they have reduced the Damned to below half strength, so it is vulnerable to my next assault. At the end of Turn Three the Devout could regain a Reputation point for each ford they hold, but as I had push them back in both cases the fords are contested, so no bonus.

Turn Four and I bring up a unit of Great Warriors (heavy knights) who charge into the Damned.

They roll spectacular dice and cut the monstrosity down. They then used their Disengage ability to pull back and regroup.

The Embalmed charges out of the river and into the second rank of the Devout forces, winning the melee and forcing the Great Swordsmen back with heavy losses. The writing is on the wall for the Devout. In the Devout phase Colin charges another unit of Great Swordsmen into the rear of the embalmed. In the ensuing scrap, the Embalmed is cut down, but not before it has finished off the last of the Swordsmen in front of it. We each lose a unit, but it's too little too late for the Devout.

The final Reputation score at the end of Turn Four, +3 for the Stygian but -5 for the Devout. A comfortable victory for the Sygian army.

It was a fast and very bloody game and a lot of fun.

I thought Colin would have done better to have crossed the river with his Damned and forced me to fight on my bank of the river, then held the ford with another unit. He was concerned about having an isolated unit with no support, against a unit surrounded with support, but his Hero had Aura of Dread, which would have prevented me from gaining any support benefits from friendly units.

I found the magic worked well for my army, using the Priestess to weaken the enemy's armour before I closed in to melee. Colin didn't get a chance to cast any spells, as his Army Commander (and spell user) was involved in doing other things. We decided it didn't work to have a fighting general with magic, so I will change that in the army list for next time.

Re-fight Bosworth (Again) using Midgard

 Mark wanted to know if Midgard rules were any good for Wars of the Roses, so I invited him over to try them out. As we had all day I thought I'd revisit James Morris' Bosworth scenario.

I took Richard III and Mark had Henry Tudor and the Stanley brothers (if they could be bothered to join in). I tweaked the original scenario so that the Stanleys would only remain neutral or join Henry Tudor. Looking at the historical situation and political machinations going on behind the scenes, I do not personally believe that Lord Stanley would ever have attacked his stepson in support of Richard III. 

TURN ONE

Henry Tudor's forces advance across the whole front. Richard's forces sat on the hill waiting for them, whilst their gonnes shot some serious holes in one of the French mercenary unit's forcing them to retire. Richard repositioned his reserve cavalry to face off against Tudor's horsemen.

On the far flank the Earl of Northumberland was remarkably active, managing to move almost all his troops forward into the marsh in front of them.

TURN TWO

Tudor's men kept up their advance and started bombarding the hilltop with arrows, the Yorkists replying in kind. Both sides suffered losses, but the Yorkist gonnes inflicted more casualties on the French pikemen. Now one of Tudor's strongest melee units was on the point of collapse, brfore a blow could be struck!

Northumberland's archers were reluctant to move out of the marsh, what with loads on mounted men-at-arms in front of them (who could blame them), so they just shot at long ranges, fairly ineffectively.

Stanley's command decided to wait things out for a bit longer and see what happened.

TURN THREE

Tudor's advance petered out and both side kept up their archery exchanges, with more losses on both sides, each seeing a unit of bowmen destroyed. Felling unthreatened my Northumberland, the leading Tudor cavalry charged the Yorkist men-at-arms and forced them back in a fierce melee.

In an effort to step the tide, Richard III rushed forward to join in the melee. His presence in the thick of things obviously encouraged his men who managed to fight the Tudor cavalry to a standstill.

While the intact French pike block kept advancing, a unit of Oxford's bowmen moved up to shield the shot-up pike unit from the guns.

TURN FOUR

For the most part the two sides just kept up an exchange of archery. The French pike charged up the hill to contact one of the gonnne units, which we both expected to be a walkover. However, the dice gods were smiling on the House of York, so the Frenchmen were sent reeling back down the hill.

Northumberland's bowmen continued with their ineffective long range shooting, whilst their men-at-arms and billmen started moving around the marsh to link up with the flank of the Yorkist troops on the hill.

In the first melee round of the cavalry fight, Richard's personal influence seemed to be enough to swing thiungs back to the Yorkist side, as the Tudor cavalry finally dissolved, leaving the hillside littered with fallen men and horses.

This allowed Richard to pull his worn cavalry back and move up the fresh unit from behind them to face the Tudor line. Finally a really rubbish die roll meant that the Stanleys still sat on the side-lines.

TURN FIVE

Again the French launched themselves up the hill against the gonnes only to be thrown back a second time (to the surprise of both players!). Another Yorkist bow unit succumbed to the Tudor barrage, so both sides were getting low on their Reputation score.

In the Yorkist phase I took a chance and threw Norkfolk's melee units down the hill, supported my my final unit of the cavalry reserve. If nothing else it boosted my Reputation score! Luck was with the House of York once again and the charges pushed the Tudor line back.

Over by the marsh, Northumberland's heavy infantry had finally got into a position to support the struggling Yorkists on that end of the hill. We ended the turn with Tudor on 2 Reputation to Richard's 6. If the Stanleys joined him now, even if they could not reach the action in time to play an active roll, the Reputation boost would even things. Unfortunately, they elected to sit tight once again!

TURN SIX

For the third time the French pike charged the gonnes and this time they over-ran the positions and skewered the gunners. However on either side of the them they Tudor units disappeared and the slow attrition of the melee caught up with them. The final bow fell in the Yorkist phase, as Richard led his last cavalry unit down the hill into Tudor lines and destroyed the bill unit in front of them!

The last phase of the turn is to roll for the Stanleys, who, as expected, decided to stay out of the carnage.

The final result at the end of Turn Six, Richard has 4 Reputation to Henry Tudor's -11! An overwhelming victory to the House of York.

A great game, we both had a lot of fun and things swung back and forth constantly. It was only in the later part of Turn 5 that the advantage clearly started to be with Richard III. Even then, if the Stanleys had come in on Tudor's side at this late stage, it could have changed things.

Mark's verdict on the rules, a resounding thunbs up!!!

I've got a lot of painting to do! Part 2

 Now for the Player Characters in my Wildspire "Realm Reforged" set. There are 59 various minis, covering assorted D&D classes and races. I do play D&D, but most of these will find a use in almost any fantasy setting.

First up, a bunch of thieves/rogues, very useful for so many things.

A bunch of clerics (or fighters who prefer up employ blunt force trauma).

Shootie types.

More general purpose fighters/heroes/paladins/meat-shields.

A couple of batches of wizards/sorcerers/magicians, general magicy types.

A little group of civilians.

Lasty, some character types more specific to D&D, although I'm sure I will find somewhere to fit some in to my games. 

Four bards.

Four Monks.

Four Druids.

 All in all, a useful bunch of minis, that will keep me busy painting for a while. I expect some will see the table in a game soon! 

Overall, I am very happy with these set and very glad a persevered and gave Wildspire a chance. I would certain recommend them to anyone in search of reasonable quality, budget minis. 

Now I just hope they will do something with Blacks**t Games' Dire Alliance Horror set.