Friday 10 August 2018

"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...

20 comments:

  1. Nice batrep look forward to the next installment

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    1. Blimey Simon, that was quick :-) The following part should be up next week.

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  2. A nice read and a great use of the Red Dwarf crew in this batrep. It looks like they are well on the way to getting the parts they need to escape so I look forward to part 2 to read the conclusion.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. Things do look like they're going in the Red Dwarf crew's favour currently, don't they ;-)

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  3. Nice batrep so far. I can see this being an easy victory for the Red Dwarfers... unless someone does something spectacularly stupid, which is always a possibility with these four!

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    1. Cheers Bryan... I feel things may be about to turn against Lister and company. They did after all have the first two turns all to themselves...

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  4. This is wonderful Simon, great fun and looking forward to part 2. In other news, inspired as I have been by this series of posts, I may have bagged one of the last sets of the Crimson Midget crew. I justified the expense in that I thought that they would make a great proxy crew for Zombicide: Invader when it lands. :)

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    1. Thanks Michael, and that is indeed marvellous news. Letting people know about the Crimson Midget crew was one of the main motivators behind last month's project, and I'm especially pleased you've managed to 'bag one of the last sets'.

      I gave "Zombicide: Invader" a miss personally, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of it when it arrives :-)

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  5. An entertaining read and a great use of the CD spawn as Gelfs.

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    1. Cheers Kieron. It was good to get the spawn on the tabletop after so many years of being sat painted within their container.

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  6. Great BatRep Simon, I just have one thing to add
    It's cold out here, there's no kind of atmosphere !

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    1. Thanks Dave, LOL. I'll try and get that one in for the second part :-)

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  7. I'd just like to state, for the record, how is it possible to stand on one small toe by accident. It was clearly an act of mutiny!

    And another thing, Lister; is that a cigarette you're smoking?

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    1. Ha Hah! I think the first episode is badly underestimated, Roy. Its one of my faves :-)

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  8. Cracking stuff Simon, though not a fanboy of red Dwarf I do think you have captured the flavour of the series very well with your narrative.

    I hope a certain race of "Pepperpots" might make a guest appearance before the end of this adventure.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. I have plenty of plans for this foursome and pepperpots are definitely on the cards; albeit the Boys from the Dwarf may well have enough on their plate with the gelfs for this particular adventure ;-)

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  9. Excellent stuff so far Simon

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  10. A very enbjoyable romp with the guys; really pleasing to see them in a game - but can they now exit the table for a win?

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    1. Thanks Joe. It was certainly a fun start to the game, but as you say, the challenge of the Gelf still lies ahead ;-)

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