"Y.F.T. Design Studio" Battle Report: Red Dwarf And The Homicidal Killer Gelfs

THE RED DWARF CREW ENCOUNTER HOMICIDAL KILLER GELFS

This game was played using some homemade rules (M.I.S.S.) in order to allow us to quickly field a handful of my painted "Y.F.T. Design Studio" and "Crooked Dice Game Design" miniatures, and took place upon the "Deep Cut Design Studio" 35" x 2" cloth Swamp game mat. The battlefield was populated with a variety of scenery most notably some Dalek-themed objectives produced by "Warlord Games" and some toxic pools manufactured by "Gale Force Nine" as part of their "Battlefield In A Box" range.

The Red Dwarf crew, who started on the western edge of the table, were made up of Dave Lister (10pts), Kryten (10pts), Arnold Rimmer (10pts) and Cat (10pts). Whilst the pack of homicidal killer Gelfs consisted of eight warriors (5pts each) and would only enter the battlefield from the western edge at the end of Turn Two. The swamp moon had five objective markers each worth an unknown number of repair points dotted about its eastern half. These would only be revealed when a player had searched them. In order to be victorious the Red Dwarf crew had to accumulate eight points worth of repair points and have at least one model escape back off the western edge of the table, or kill all of the Gelfs.

THE TABLETOP - A SWAMP MOON

"The story so far… Whilst taking Rimmer on an asteroid spotting trip, Kryten has crash-landed Starbug on a swamp moon. Fortunately, Holly's scan of the local area has revealed several deposits of machinery which could be used to help repair the shuttle-craft. Believing the parts are just beyond a small forest the Boys from the Dwarf, armed with a couple of blazookas and a hand-hoover, have set off unaware that the planetoid is inhabited by a tribe of homicidal killer Genetically Engineered Life Forms..."

THE BOYS FROM THE DWARF LAND ON THE MOON OF THE PEPPERPOTS

Not willing to wait around and find out what is making the horrible squelching sounds behind them, Dave, Arnold, Kryten and Cat all ran [Run Move: 8 Inches] east towards Objective One (Genesis Ark) safe in the knowledge that their pursuers wouldn't be appearing at the outskirts of the woodland for some time yet. They had a plan too, with Lister and Rimmer agreeing to pepper the gelfs with shots, so as to allow Kryten and Cat to race for the various objectives and collect the repair parts needed.

Still unable to see their foes, the quartet split into their appropriate pairs with Dave and Arnold running ever closer to Objective One (Genesis Ark), and Kyrten and Cat heading north-east towards Objective Two (Space Radio). Suddenly, the gelfs appeared from out of the tree-line. They were in three groups, with the larger central warband clearly planning to make a bee-line straight for Lister and Rimmer.

THE GANG SPLITS UP AS THE GELFS CONTINUE THEIR PURSUIT

Keeping the initiative, an exhausted Arnold reached Objective One (Genesis Ark) and was delighted to find five points worth of salvageable repair parts. It meant the guys were already half-way to achieving their first goal. Dave meanwhile, ran further southeast towards Objective Five (Damaged Robot) and took up a position to sweep the gelfs with blazooka fire as soon as they got within range. Kryten and Cat continued running north-east towards Objective Two (Space Radio), all the time hearing the sounds of the tentacled terrors behind them gurgling their way across the swampland towards them.

Moments later, the Red Dwarf crew continued their excellent momentum as Kryten discovered two more points worth of parts whilst examining Objective Two (Space Radio). This called for a change of plans as the quartet now needed just one more part to fix Starbug with. Cat therefore opened fire with his blazooka upon the nearest gelf [Shoot: 3 dice] and despite the life form being hard to hit [Stupefy: A unit always suffers –1 to its dice roll when firing at an enemy unit with ‘Stupefy’] it fell lifeless before the torrent of exploding bullets.

RIMMER AND KRYTEN COLLECT SOME VALUABLE SPARE PARTS

Lister likewise opened fire but lacked the feline skills of his fanged friend and missed. Rimmer meanwhile, huffing and puffing, raced towards Objective Five (Damaged Robot). The gelfs were getting ever closer and they still almost outnumbered the Red Dwarf posse two-to-one, so even when Arnold did collect the final part needed for Starbug's repairs, they'd still need to thin out the homicidal killer aliens somewhat before heading back to the shuttlecraft...

 To be continued...