Stargrave

 

Having heard quite a lot about Frostgrave, but having minimal interest in Fantasy, when Stargrave came out I thought I ought to give it a go. I pulled together one team from a collection of Warhammer 40K (?) figures and another from my Albedo figures. I rolled up the Captains and First Mates for each and bought some crew. I had Pebble Park laid out ready for an ACP164 game, so distributed the loot around that, the two sides rolled to arrive on adjacent edges, and battle was joined.

How It Played

The Warhammer guys had the closest loot, and their Mystic leader took two of her team off to secure the two closest. The Albedo captain and his squad got into a firefight with the Warhammer 2ic which lasted most of the game - both seniors being killed. The second Albedo group legged it after the Mystic, took one of her team out as she got to the 2nd loot, and then a firefight (and spell fight) erupted around the 2nd loot and Albedo won. Their remaining team members doubled back to help the OC's party, with grenades being lobbed over the fencing being particularly effective. In the end the last human bought it, and the critters (well the two left) were victorious.

There must be loot near here somewhere...

Rules Impressions

The game really did dissolve into a series of to-the-death firefights. None of the fluidity and individual action I typically get in an ACP164 game. The basic to-hit mechanism is an opposed die roll added to broadly equal skill stats, so lots of exchanges gave no hits, and then with body armour lots of those gave no damage, and then damage could be soaked up quite a lot - so it did end up as a bit of a boring dice fest. The spells added a bit of colour but without overdoing it - so little chance of recreating Red Star's Warkaster type effects.

From what I'd heard of Frostgrave I'd hoped to find more in terms of the collaborative play, scenario design and campaign side, but every game just seems to be a fight for loot boxes.

Oh well, back up onto the shelf.