Cangames - Stargrave - Battle Report

Howdy folks,

Welcome to the last installment of my Battle Reports for Cangames 2026, for this we will take a look at a classic Tod Creasey run game. Tod always puts a little extra work into the planning of his games, along with a bunch of tongue-in-cheek, and is known for big games with lots of players. This year was actually the first time I had a chance to try out one of Tod's games...I've bought a bunch of Stargrave minis and the books, but hadn't had a chance to try it out. Making it a Star Wars themed game...Tod left me little option but to try it out.

In terms of extras, Tod also made sure to tailor each Faction or team choice to the players that signed up for his game, and I even had a custom made Black Suns card complete with a suitably edited pic of me that Tod grabbed from social media.

As far as the game went, and unfortunately we are over a month since, so my memory is starting to fail, Tod's scenario was inspired heavily by the first couple of episodes from Andor Season 2. If you haven't seen Andor yet, you really must! It's a great view on some finer details within the Star Wars verse, and as Stellen Skarsgard says "Its Star Wars, but for adults." You get an excellent feel for the rebellion, the espionage elements that go into developing an insurgency as well as countering, and you get that feel while still having an individual story. Anywho, check it out if you can.

For this game, we had 3 main factions with 2-3 players per faction. The Empire of course, the Rebels also of course, and the Independents. In this case, I think the independents were Black Sun (me) and maybe some Mandalorian players. Each player had their victory conditions and objectives...each leader of the team had their special capabilities (ala the Stargrave crew Captain)...which I promptly forgot about. For me, my objective was to secure the debris of a crashed starcraft which was loaded with my "legitimate" cargo and get it off table. Other players were tasked with taking out team leaders or securing the pilot (Andor).

In the end, there was a lot of action going around, tough to log for each player...but I was able to get a large amount of 'product' off the table with my Captain taking a hit for the team and getting taken out by the Empire. I was able to use a LandRaam (ala old school Battlestar Galactica) and drove it off table, and taking out a droid crew that tried to bump me off along the way...I think they were liberating the machines or somesuch. 

All in all, a good intro to Stargrave...the mechanics were very Frostgrave'y...and the setting was fun.

Enjoy the pics.

Focusing on my part...the layout of the table is as such: random bits of terrain on the table, the spacecraft (looks very similar to a Colonial Raptor) is to the Black Suns 12 o'clock, there is an Imperial patrol over in that area as well, the red crates are the 'legitimate' cargo, and you can see a new TIE fighter to the top left of the pic (this is the fighter that Cassian liberated in Andor Season 2)

Better view of the left side of the field. You can see more Imperials, the TIE fighter, and some Mandalorian Clans, as well as an AirSpeeder at the lower end of the pic (think escape vehicle for Cassian). The coloured puffs are smoke grenades going off.

My crew slowly and deliberately making their way to the aircraft - making sure to stay in cover.

Overhead shot...Black Suns making their way to the cargo, Imperials chasing Rebel commandos.

Same sequence, but better view on the Speederbike chasing down the Rebels.

Black Suns get a Landram making its way onto the board. One of my guys jumps into the turret...which proved very helpful later on. Several others of my dudes are securing individual crates

There seems to be a ruckus around both the Airspeeder and the TIE fighter...and no, I cannot describe the ruckus, but they better watch it!

The Black Suns leader takes one for the team as an overly aggressive imperial speederbike gang jump an innocent legitimate business man on his way to his place of employment.

Cassian works hard and I think makes it into the cockpit of the speeder.

The Black Suns load up their goods and make their way out of another neighbourhood that has gone to pot thanks to gang violence.

NEW GAME!!! Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles

Howdy folks,

As advertised, I bought a new game!! And being a big long time fan of Battlestar Galactica it was kind of a 'had to'...and let me be clear, by long time fan, I can remember being a young guy watching my first episodes on a very small black and white television.  And if you're curious, I am in fact a fan of Ron Moore's BSG reimagining as well...personally, I think having Richard Hatch on board was an excellent touch and nod to his talent and passion for Battlestar Galactica as a whole...

ARES Battlestar Galactic Starship Battles

 

Anyhow, I saw the game advertised last year and was pretty excited to see how it would look...I checked out a couple of unboxings online and was pretty impressed.  Thanks to one of my LGS I was able to order in a copy of the starter box (<cough...I did also just recently pick up a second...cough>).

 

The lad and I decided to give a quick go a few weekends back...while the box comes with a 2v2 combo, we elected to go a 1v1 game for speed and focus using the basic rules.  Like many games these days, there are the basic 'get you in the fight' rules and the more advanced 'watch me do this' type rules.

 

The box itself is pretty high end quality...the ships come pre-painted and actually look really good! The game pieces are fairly solid using thick stock, the cards are nice as well, I'm curious to see how they will hold out in the longer run and am pondering copying them and having a 'grubby hands' set and a 'I like nice stuff' set.  We'll see.

 

 

The game went well (pics and stuff below) and with the second box, I think I may give this a go as a game for CanGames in May...either as quick demos or scenario game...

 

Anywho, enjoy the pics...take care.

 

The general idea is to track your speed, heading, and 'altitude' -- for the basic rules, we just used speed and heading -- including inertial drift, etc.  My son and I messed around with the manoeuvre cards to get familiar with them as well.  On one side is the picture of the spacecraft (viper or cylon) and on the other is an image of the manoeuvre.  On any given card you can have the manoeuvre with 1-4 variations depending on your speed.  The idea is to line up the card with the base of your spacecraft and then move the vessel along the line finishing where the track of the manoeuvre finishes (I'll try to get a pic for next time to better demo). 

 

This is kinda nifty and maybe gimmicky...ala Battlestar, the cards have no top or bottom corners and look a lot like a pyramid deck (for you Battlestar geeks...).

 

All of this to say...we messed around with the cards, got familiar with the basic mechanics...and then tried to close in and do some damage, ala picture above...

 

...picture below...a far-er out look at the scene...the Viper is closing in for first shots... 

 

As you can see, each spacecraft is very nicely detailed and REALLY nicely painted!! A big bonus...I'm not sure I could have replicated either scheme and I know I would have angsted and OCD'ed over it..

 

First gun pass is over, the Cylon takes some damage...some good shooting on my part...the lad preferred the look of the Cylon raider over the Viper

as you can see in upper right...there are measuring sticks...they show the range constraints and modifiers...on the back side, they even account for slant range when you are using the advanced rules with 'altitude'...very cool...in this pic, we both moved as quickly as possible from each other and are setting up for another pass.

More setup...

The lad does some bold manoeuvring to line up a shot...and gets 0 damage for his piloting...good for me!

He sees me, he shoots me...I see him, I...well you know.  For my efforts I get 4 more points of damage on his Raider. 

For the folks in the nose-bleeds...overview...

We each push our vectors and pass out of each others arc of fire...it is fairly narrow, approx 30 degrees...so if you want to do damage, you gotta steer like you mean it.

a bunch of cards later and no pics to show for it...the lad lines up very nicely on me...takes his shot...I'm feeling pretty good about this because he hasn't tagged me yet and I have about 12-ish (1 or 2 points higher than the Cylon IIRC)...

2 more cards later and I can't shake the bugger, he gets 2 shots in a row...I take 14 points which kills my ship...I suppose in a campaign I would punch out at this time and wait for the CSAR Raptor...the damage markers indicate total damage which are drawn from bag...or in our case a Starbucks mug (subtle right?)...with the idea you are not picking the damage, it is still some bit of chance.  As well, when you draw one, if there is a plus (+) on it, then you draw a second.  In the advanced rules, if there is an icon (i.e. the pilot helmet above) then there is also some additional modifiers to be applied.

While my first shot really hurt him, 8 points, my second fell short, and I could not get a third...the boy pulls a victory in our first engagement.

 



Overall, a very enjoyable game, fairly easy to grasp...certainly the basic rules were quick to get down...and we both had a great time...the figures look outstanding and I can't wait to see what expansions are coming.

 

Take care. 

First Painting Update of the Year

Howdy folks,

In the interest of getting eyeballs on figs, please enjoy this very short post...

As promised I am finally getting to putting up pics of the first painting update of the year.  While I have posted painting progress, it was just to close out some painting updates from the last year.  This post is certainly a mix of genres and miniature companies and all figs were completed by the end of January.

Hope you enjoy the pics...

These two figures were from a line called Ral Partha...I'm not very familiar with it and if I recall correctly, I purchased this pack of 2 Banditos in a clearance bin...maybe in North Bay.  They did paint up quite nicely and are a little on the 'epic-y' side of the scale, but they should fit in nicely with my other figs. 

 

 

I cannot recall where Clint came from...I remember getting a little plastic bag thrown my way from my buddy Mike, but other than that...that's all I got.  The figure is a little on the small side of 28mm, especially when compared with the two amigos above...however, just like them I elected to keep the basing fairly simple on this one.  For the most part, the inspiration for Clint's paint scheme came from the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

 

 

These two are from Hasslefree Miniatures from their human sci-fi range...inspired from the Battlestar Galactica reimagined series, I couldn't wait to get to these two.  Nailing the exact colour of their uniforms was a challenge as screen shots from the series shows a wide variance in tone depending on lighting conditions...I'm pretty happy with the results and can't wait to add some more of these BSG inspired models to the fray. 

 

Another Hasslefree figure, I bought this zombie Doc on a whim and figured that I could add him in wherever in my gaming 'verse.  I took a little extra time to get some shades on his labcoat and show some good 'zombification' on him...I also took some extra time on the basing to get the look of post-apoc...

 

Finally, the last two are remainders from another blister of knights from Crusader Miniatures that I used for my SAGA Crusader army; in this case I themed them rather generically and based them for some Frostgrave-y type locales.  I thought I'd try my hand at some sculpting of extras using milliput.  I also was curious how my new painting technique would look on these figures as my previous knights were painted when I relied heavily on a base coat and a dry brush.  I'm pretty happy overall with the results, I really like how the painting came out...and I know that I certainly need some more practice on sculpting, but with fairly non-critical additions like furs or bags, the sculpting can be pretty forgiving.

 

 

 

2019 Expedition up Mt. Lead.

Painted:
28mm          8 (+8)

Bought:       0

Progress:   +8


WHATS NEXT

1. some pics from a new game I just picked up...

2. a few pics trying out Warlord's Cruel Seas...

3. a Star Wars Legion update...