Core Space: The Perseus Campaign: Mission 1

MISSION BACKGROUND:

MISSION: TRADER'S GAMBIT
SHIPS: THE ION HOPE AND THE BLACK MARIA
CREWS: ARIANNA SABRINE AND GAK (ION HOPE) AND JACE DOLMAN AND JAY "LARS" LARSEN (THE BLACK MARIA)

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: PERSUADE THE CLAWTECH EMPLOYEE TO HAND OVER THE DATA CHIP
SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: SCAVENGE NEW EQUIPMENT

SET UP:

This is the first part of the Perseus Campaign as featured in the Core Space rulebook. Core Space is available to buy from Battle Systems now! Any sections below which are written in italics tell the story of the game, while those in plain text refer to the actual game itself. The story aspects are not-for-profit fan fiction and the copyright for the characters and universe belong to Battle Systems.

Note that this is a Solo Play Game using two different crews cooperatively. This campaign is intended to be played with two players - which I hope to play that way soon. 

UPDATE 2-5-19: 2 PLAYER GAME PLAYED WITH NOTES AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE

Two Trader ships - The Ion Hope, captained by Arianna Sabrine and The Black Maria, captained by Jace Dolman - descend upon the Trader's Gambit on Reenoff 4. Both ships' cockpits facing one another as they touch down opposite each other, both captains realise they're likely to be here for the same reason: to secure a data chip from a disgruntled Clawtech employee. They're already in a race against time to avoid the attentions of The Purge - but a race against each other to secure the chip is an unwelcome complication!

Arianna offer the occupants of The Black Maria a sardonic grin and an obscene gesture. Gak, her right hand man on The Ion Hope, knows it's his captain's way of dealing with the stress of the situation. On board The Black Maria, Lars spits back unheard obscenities at Arianna while Jace just shakes his head and smiles. He likes Arianna's spirit.   

An overview of the set up.

A closer look at the map. Note that one of the three Civilians is carrying the data chip. Traders will have to attempt to Persuade the Civilians to find out who has the chip and, crucially, to get them to hand it over!

The Crew of The Ion Hope. Having learned several lessons from the recent Lost In Space mission, the crew bring plenty of weapons and equipment, much of which will (hopefully) be replaced by improved items scavenged from the Trader's Gambit. As this is their first outing, no skill career paths have been filled. 

Edit 3-5-19: The Career Paths have not been completed and they each should have had the following starting number of skills filled in before starting: Arianna, four, Jace, five, Gak and Lars, one each. This error carries through this report but will be corrected in all future posts.

The Crew of The Black Maria. 

The Crew of The Ion Hope win the coin toss (Heads) and will move first.

ROUND ONE:

Low Hostility and the Event Card has no effect.

Arianna is faster moving so her double move pushes her on ahead of Gak. Jace and Lars also push on as fast as they can.

"This is our job, you've got no business here," Arianna shouts.

"No way, we found this place first," Lars whines. "This is our score! Back off!"

"Or what, tool boy?"

Lars opens his mouth to issue some kind of threat but thinks better of it as Gak's stern gaze silences him. He wouldn't admit it, but the alien - a Quell, who have something of an unfair reputation for being argumentative - puts the fear in the engineer.

All Civilian rolls work out very well - all head a little closer to the Traders! No Purge are due on the board for a few turns as the Hostility Tracker is at "Relaxed" - as low as it gets! Good news!

"Traders," Butler - one of three civilians inside the complex - says, as he approaches them. "Please, keep those blasters holstered. We don't want to attract the Purge now, do we?"

 End of Round 1 Overview.

ROUND TWO:

Again, no effect from Hostility Tracker or Event Card.

No one can reach Butler in a single Move to Persuade him. Arianna and Jace ignore Butler as they close in on Kaori and Gan'Eek, leaving Butler to their fellow crew to interrogate. Gak recognises that Lars will win the race and so Moves, searches the crates and upgrades much of his possessions! He makes an effortless action to Move an extra square.

"C'mere ginger," Lars says urgently as he accosts Butler. "I think you've got something belonging to us."

Note Gak's updated equipment.

Frustratingly for Lars, Butler Moves away from him - but Kaori Moves directly to Arianna! Fortunately the Hostility Tracker is too low - otherwise Gan'Eek would have transformed into a Live One!

"Ginger?" Butler laughs, pushing his way past Lars. "Out of my way you fat oaf!"

Meanwhile Jace and Arianna race to the other civilians.

"Why don't you give it up?" Jace asks. "You know that data chip is leaving here on The Black Maria."

"Data?" Kaori asks the captains. "You're looking for data?"

"Absolutely," Arianna smiles. "But I'm the one to speak to. Us girl's have got to stick together, don't you agree?"  

End of Round 2 Overview.

ROUND THREE:

Kaori offers Arianna information but as they have no money (Rookie crew!) she rejects the offer. 

"I need 2UA. Can you pay?"

"I'm kind of strapped for cash. Please, I just need the chip, you can trust me."

Arianna succeeds in Persuading Kaori about the data chip - but she doesn't have it! Realising Jace will have the chance to Persuade Gan'Eek before her, she Moves towards a storage crate to check for any salvageable gear.

"Chip?" Kaori asks, her expression twisted with confusion. "What are you talking about? I'm just selling information, not data chips!"

Lars Moves before also succeeding in Persuading Butler, but, he too does not have the data chip! Gan'Eek must have it! He uses an effortless action to move to the large crate.

"Who are you calling tub-" Lars starts to remonstrate with Butler but bites his tongue. "Look, I just want the data chip."

"Then you're asking the wrong person," Butler sneers, "because I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about."

"That's a negative on the ginger, Jace," Lars says through his comms. "I'm gonna try and get some extra salvage while we're here."

Gak Moves and raids the crate before Lars can get a chance to search it! Gak pockets a nice-looking pistol for Arianna.

Gak strides forward, facing Lars from the other side of the crate. He flips the lid into Lars' arms and starts rummaging through the wares."

"Hey," Lars shouts. "This is mine! I got first dibs!"

"Gak doesn't know what dibs are and Gak doesn't care," the alien responds, plucking armour and weapons from the crate with his multiple arms. "Salvage is Gak's!"

Gak's updated equipment.

Jace succeeds in "Persuading" Gan'Eek to hand over the data chip!

"Ok, so I guess you've got the data chip?" Jace asks the last civilian.

"Perhaps," the alien responds.

"Look, I don't have time to play games," Jace says, drawing a weapon on the alien. "Just give me the damn thing."

"Always the threat of violence from you human creatures," Gan'Eek says as he hands over the chip. "Ever think of asking politely?"

"I find you get further with a polite word and a gun than you do with just a polite word," Jace remarks, pocketing the chip. Lars, we're happy! Just want to check for more salvage and then we can get out of here."   

Jace's updated equipment - including the data chip!

The Civilians Move around. Kaori and Butler would have have joined a the Crew of the Ion Hope and The Black Maria respectively, but the Campaign rules prohibit this.

Overview at the end of Round Three.

ROUND FOUR:

The Event Card brings a Harvester to the table. No need for immediate concern though!

Jace searches a crate and takes Ship's Parts which will help him maintain The Black Maria. In a gesture of goodwill, he uses an Effortless Action to throw a Crafted Combat Knife in Arianna's direction.

"These components will come in handy for maintaining the ship," Jace mutters before scattering a knife across the deck towards Arianna. "Just by way of saying 'no hard feelings' Arianna, there's a nice blade here, it's yours." 

Gak puts on armour, more with a view to selling it on after the mission and then conducts a Search of the room, finding an Energy Baton which he once again pockets for Arianna.

Lars glares at Gak as he puts on the armour and scoops up an Energy Baton lying in the corner next to the crate.

Lars makes a double Move, determined to search the last large crate before they leave.

"No way that blue-headed freak is gonna beat me to this last crate," Lars vows as he rushes off.

Arianna searches the crate and finds better equipment! She then makes a Move to close in on another crate that she'd like Search.

Another Harvester enters the fray and both close in on Lars and Arianna! The Civilians make Moves but nothing of consequence happens.

End of Round 4 Overview.

ROUND FIVE:

Event Card is puzzling; I don't see how Civilians can make Ranged Attacks when they have no weapons! Hopefully someone can set me straight on this! I choose to ignore it.

In an act of solidarity with his fellow Traders, Gak Moves and then makes a Ranged Assault at the Harvester closing in on Lars - and destroys it!

Oblivious to the fact that Lars just insulted him, Gak spots a Harvester shambling towards Lars and shoots it, blowing it into pieces!

A grateful Lars grabs some more loot from the crates and starts heading back to the ship.

"Uh, thanks," Lars shouts to Gak, now feeling a little guilty.

Arianna Moves then makes a Ranged Assault but rolls two ! results - gun jammed! She makes an Effortless Action to throw the baton at the nearby Harvester but it fails to destroy it!

Arianna pulls the trigger on the pistol she has just acquired from salvage - but it jams! In desperation she throws a baton at the robot but it simply rebounds off of it and clangs loudly off the metal-grated floor. The robot's legs bend, ready to pounce on her... 

Jace Moves and is able to draw a Line Of Sight to the Harvester. His Enhanced Outland Energy Rifle destroys the robot!

...But Jace comes to the rescue - blasting the Harvester into junk!

"I had that under control," Arianna insists.

"Thought I'd make sure," Jace shrugs. "And you're welcome."

In the Purge Phase, two Devastators enter the fray! The make a double Move action to engage Butler! They cannot attack this Round however...

...But the NPC Phase, Butler must try to move away, granting both Devastators a free attack! Butler is battered into submission!

End of Round 5 Overview.

ROUND SIX:

I have no other Civilians to add so the Hostility Tracker remains as it was.

Arianna finds some extra credits, unjams her gun and uses an Effortless Action to ensure she cannot be ambushed by any Purge who may be about to enter play.

"I'd have preferred that data chip," Arianna grumbles as she pockets some loose credits. "These credits will help though."

Lars and Jace make double Move actions to help out Gak against the Devastators.

"Can't we just leave now?" Lars whines.

"Yes," Jace nods. "We can. All of us."

Gak Moves and then makes a Range Assault - but his gun jams! 

"Another gun jam," Gak grimaces as he takes cover behind a large crate. "Maybe this salvage is nothing more than scrap!"

The first Devastator makes two Ranged Attacks at Gak. The first comes up with a jam roll, but I assume this does not apply to the Purge and I make the second attack. Gak's armour and cover take the hit though! The second Devastator makes two ranged Moves to engage Gak and fight him next turn. Harvesters are closing in too!

End of Round 6 Overview.

ROUND SEVEN:

The Event card brings another two Harvesters to the action!

Gak fights the Devastator - and destroys it! He then unjams his rifle and makes an Effortless Action to back away.

Gak swings his baton and the Devastator's head flies clean off, bouncing across the floor! He steps back and resets his weapon.

Lars fires twice at the approaching Harvesters but is unable to destroy either!

"Eat this," Lars shouts, opening fire upon the approaching Harvesters. The shots miss.

"Try aiming," Gak advises.

Arianna considers engaging the newly deployed Harvesters but decides things are getting so dicey that escape is the best move now - she runs to escape the encroaching Purge!

"As one shepherd said to another, 'it's time to get the flock outta here'," Arianna jokes as she rushes back towards The Ion Hope.

Jace Moves into the space Gak vacated and fires two shots in a single Ranged Attack but misses the mark!

"C'mon! Go down you sucker!"

"Try aiming," Gak repeats.

The Devastator makes no such mistake and inflicts three wounds on Jace across two Ranged Attacks!

"Ugh!"

"Try not dying," Gak adds.

A second Devastator enters play and joins the other. Harvesters are also closing in on Lars and Gak! 

A Harvester cuts Kaori down!

End of Round 7 Overview.

ROUND EIGHT:

There are two Devastators on the board so the Event Card has no effect.

Gak activates and uses an Effortless Action to move into base to base contact with the two Harvesters.

"Weak machines," Gak says, swinging his baton at the Harvesters. "Gak will show you." 

"Watch where you're swinging that thing," Lars whines, ducking Gak's flailing arms.

He takes both on with the baton...

And takes down both! Cowardice gets the better of Lars and instead of helping Gak with the remaining Harvester, he makes a run for the ship!

The two Harvesters and battered to the floor and Lars steps back in awe at the alien.

I've been careful throughout the game to not leave characters close to Purge spawn points because they get jumped. There's only a 1 in 6 chance they'll end up at this spawn point so I decide that it's a risk worth taking.

"Well done," Lars says, sprinting away. "And good luck! Nice knowing you!"

Jace fires at both Devastators!

And destroys one - but the other is still fighting!

"Where the hell are you going?" Jace shouts, destroying another Devastator. "I could do with your help fighting them!"

"I'm a techie, not a fighter." Lars' response crackles over Jace's headset.

Arianna Moves twice to reunite with Gak.

"You ok?" she asks Gak.

"Gak ok."

"I'm fine too, thanks for asking," Jace says as the Devastator trains its guns on him.

 The Devastator fires two volleys at Jace - inflicting two hits! He only has one Health left!

"Argh," Jace exclaims. He is badly wounded now!

 A Harvester attacks Gan'Eek but fails to land a hit. The second joins the Close Assault...

...and this time the Civilian falls!

Out of sight, a Harvester spawns near Lars and immediately attacks! Fortunately for him, it scores no hits! The last Harvester attempts to wound Gak but also to no avail!

"No, too puny to harm Gak," Gak says, regarding the robot with a look of amusement.

He is then distracted when he hears Lars crying out.

End of Round 8 Overview. Note the Devastator closing in on Jace's escape route!

ROUND NINE:

The Hostility Tracker goes up another notch but the Event Card is the closest thing I've seen in the deck (so far) to a Get Out Of Jail Free card! The Purge are stopped in their tracks for a turn!

Lars makes a Close Assault and destroys the Harvester!

Lars fires up the electro-baton and rams it in between a slim gap in the Harvester's armour plating. It emits a high-pitched scream before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

He then Moves back into the airlock and back on to The Black Maria!

"C'mon Jace, let's get outta here," he shouts.

Gak activates and smashes down another Harvester before charging to The Ion Hope! Jace and Arianna also start charging back to their respective vessels!

"We need to go too," Arianna says as he makes a break for her ship.

Overview at end of Round 9. I check the next turn's event card just in case it limits actions in some way - but it doesn't. That means the Traders still on the board can make it into their ships without further encounter! Success!

AFTERMATH:

Having returned to their ships, the Traders blast off and leave The Trader's Gambit. Lars and Jace - although the latter is badly wounded - are jubilant that they secured the data chip. They set the coordinates for Trading Posts where they will take stock of their situation and hopefully make a little money on the salvage they acquired!

POST-GAME SEQUENCE 

Extraction Phase: Not required, all characters escaped - just!

A look at all of the characters after mission one

Advancement: Everyone made it back to their ship but no Live Ones were killed, so 1 Career Point and 1 Corresponding Skill increase to all four characters! Note: I had neglected starting skills when I did this. Everything has been corrected in Part 2...

Both Jace and Lars' Careers move up by one, and they take Marksman and Stealth Level 1

Arianna and Gak also go up a notch on their Careers and take 1 Skill on their Career Path each.

Trade: Both crews trade in 6UA (Core Space's form of money). I decide to keep the rest of their gear as is for now, hopefully buy some new weapons after future games!

Maintenance: Both ships roll for Degradation and both lose one point of Propulsion. Both vessels spend 4UA to repair their ships, bringing Propulsion back up to 3. Both increase Hull Integrity but Jace uses his Ships Parts to increase the Hull Integrity to 5 rather than the 4 which the Ion Hope has.

Note the Propulsion degradation

Same again, Propulsion degradation

Arianna's ship - The Ion Hope - after repairs.

Jace's Ship - The Black Maria - after repairs

Win Bonus: Jace and Lars will get first choice of which airlock to deploy at for Mission 2.

CLOSING REFLECTIONS:

This scenario was fairly easy-going which is perfect for the start of the campaign; it wouldn't be much fun to be thrown in at the deep-end facing overwhelming odds with the most basic of gear! It's clear to me though that once that Hostility Tracker hits "Watch Your Back", things can start getting very hairy indeed! Harvesters and Devastators aren't too bad to deal with, but even at that, you can see that Jace almost never made it back to the ship - and had I not received that last Event Card in Round 9, I'm not sure he would have! It'll be interesting to see how my crew fare in future sessions! I'm also keen to see what effect Skills will have when I start gaining experience! 

It's worth mentioning that because this was played as solo co-operative play, I effectively had a team of four. I think that two players should approach this the same way I ran it - go all out to achieve your objective(s) but don't turn on your fellow player's band and help them if you can. If players start fighting each other then there's a high chance that the game will end with everyone being wiped out by the Purge! Of course, if one player starts to get a significant advantage over the other as the campaign goes on, then the weaker player is likely to want to do something to punish the opponent so the temptation to backstab will grow!

I will be running two player sessions (hopefully) very soon and will update this post when I do with further pics and text! Note that I'll mention there's an update close to the top of this article when I do so you shouldn't have to keep scrolling down here to find out if I have!

I hope you enjoyed the report and will join me for more as I play through the campaign!

2 PLAYER PLAY:

This evening I replayed Mission 1 as my first 2 player session of Core Space with one of my friends - and we both had a great time playing! It was great not documenting anything and simply focussing on the game! We used the same characters I'd selected for the above mission, with my friend picking Arianna and Gak, leaving me with Jace and Lars. We spent a bit of time setting up the characters and their skills as well as explaining the basic rules, probably about half an hour before we got into the game, which took about an hour to run. 

Arianna and Gak got the closer side for the airlock and made the fastest in-roads into the map and getting first look at two large crates, pocketing most of the goodies. Arianna naturally was involved in trying to Persuade the Civilians into handing over the Data Chip, but neither had it...leaving a Civilian who Lars was close to. Lars isn't the most friendly character, but he succeeded in getting it! From there it was a straight journey back, at which point things started getting dicey, particularly because the Harvesters and then Devastator started spewing near to the airlocks! Lars was pounced upon by a Harvester and was almost defeated with only 1 Health left! Arianna had the opportunity to - literally - stab Lars in the back and loot the data chip from him but did not do so. What a relief! She also took some punishment when a Devastator spawned right beside her as she approached the airlock but shot her way back to the ship! 

The post-game sequence took about 10 mins and wasn't a problem. Arianna used some Ship Parts she found to repair the degradation to the Ion Hope but was happy withe the equipment she had acquired so didn't do any trading (there was some nice loot so I understood why). I sold my objective and some loose ammo so have 6UA. Things are nice and balanced for the next game but I will get to choose my airlock placement as I succeeded in this mission'sPrimary Objective in seizing the data chip! Pics below show the crews after the action. i still have to do my ship degradation but will do so ahead of our next session - hopefully soon!