Rogue Stars. Liberators of (an) Oz

Oh my hoobs, you're familiar with my custom of play testing teams before I unleash them on campaign. Here are two more from the land of love.

(Somewhere I have the civvy power armour to do the miners. I must find them out.)

Psionics. Peoples Liberation of Oz (PLO) & Cultists. Oz Popular Liberationists (OPL)

I was asked for these teams, and as usual Alternative Armies supplied the figures just after-. 5 figures in each set, so may add a few different to add variety. I have a few vampires, etc. A slightly different leader. I think the look gives them kevlar.

Sort of a Big Trouble in Little China vibe. https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/15mm-hof-science-fiction-range/products/hof137-esper-team

My modus operandi during the lockdown was to base & start figures, paint a bit until I got bored or something else came along. Thus t'was that when I refound these:

Ok, bit more painting needed, but a decent start.  Then I did the stats.  Bit short on the points.  I added a bit of armour, still not enough.  Then I thought vibro weapons.  I'd had some input in the design of these, some suggestions that were adopted.  Yes there was the star wars version, but the Larry Niven Known Space weapon: "Variable swords are a cutting implement housing a small mono-molecular wire held in a stasis field. The field allows the wire to hold together without breaking down, and provides a cutting edge capable of slicing through almost any material. After a fashion, variable swords managed to recreate fencing in some worlds, though distances between combatants were much larger. The nearly invisible blade typically has a large red ball at the end to indicate the extent of the blade."

The hands are open, so easily added to.  Any thin wire or similiar?  And Lo! It came to pass that there was a hair clip upon the floor!  Sorted!

 Psionics. Peoples Liberation of Oz (PLO) in the Black  Total 200

Gestalt. +1 for each unwounded.  When 1 goes OOA all 1 stress.

Bidett  Psionic Master 3 Leader 2  Martial arts 1 Weaponmaster 2 32 Total  54
Blink 6 
Refraction Field  Armour 1  10
Force sword 4 energy 6

D’eath Psionic Master 3 Martial arts 1 Weaponmaster 2 20. Total 50

Blink 6 

Mindbolt 8 

Refraction Field  Armour 1  10

Force sword 4 energy 6

Jehovoos Psionic Master 2 Martial arts 2 12. Total 40

Blink 6 

Bolster 4

Encourage 4

Guidance 4

Kevlar torso 2  6

Vibroblade 3  4

Lagland Psionic Master 2 Martial arts 2 12.  Total 32
Levitation 6
Electrokenisis 4
Kevlar torso 2  6
Vibroblade 3  4

Mortimer Psionic Master 1 Martial arts 3 10.  Total 24
Healing 8 

Oz Popular Liberationists Red. Crawl 1”  Snk/hide/wlk 2”  Run 4”  Sprint 6”

Hive Mind.  0000  Gains reaction share reaction or ignore morale roll OOA

Christas  Psionic Master3 Leader1 Martial arts1 Weaponmaster2 

Vibroblade 3  

Teleport  Sucessful roll, (10) distance of roll

Nightmares  +1 every 5” target makes morale roll.

Blink TN15 1 stress. 2” move, Crit fail 1 damage.

Fantas  Psionic Master 3 Martial arts 1 Vibroblade 3

Mind control TN16  10” target controlled -2 act.  No react.

Blink 

 

Goddas  Psionic Master 2 Martial arts 2  

Blink 

Detect weakness 12” success +1 damage next attack.

Electrokenisis  Damage 2 ranged attack.

Hassas  Psionic Master 2 Martial arts 2. Weaponmaster 3

Refraction Field  Armour 1   Force sword 4 energy 

Blink 

Killas  Psionic Master 1 Martial arts 1 

Telekinetic crush  12”  Dam3 ranged armour-1

Telekinetic disarm  TN13  8” weapon goes up to 5” choice.

Telekinetic push 8” Dam3 up to 4” target TN13 roll or fall

Telekinetic strangle 8” Dam2 to head TN14

Blinking. a lot have blinking. Not once did it work. In both games - so I ignored it.

Voom voom noises, please add at will.

Game one, game on!

Tony took Red and I won initiative. Sneaking down the road, looking for the enemy.

First contact, Lagland tries electrokenisis to no effect.

Killas tries a kinetic push on Lagland.  He goes back, head hits wall and - he's dead!

Reds assemble then move forward.

Advance! Hassas, the killing machine gets a 19:5 on D'eath - who dies.  Swiftly he moves on to Biddet.  A 17:2 puts Biddet down the pan.  Do you notice a trend?  3 down and the Reds haven't even got a pin!

Note Mortimer the Medic at the back.  He fails 7 activations & reactions in a row and never gets further than one move on!

Now the scene changes.  Jehovoos had been working his encouragement on Lagland from the sidelines.  Unbeknowst to him but knownst to you, he's being snuck up upon.

Christos leaps in with a surprise downward attack and strikes him down without proclaiming parantage allegations. 4 out of 5 dead, Mortimer surrenders!  I thought they were fairly evenly matched.  Let's try again.

Game 2.  Half time change ends swapsies.  Black once again wins the initiative, and sweeps down the centre.

The reds adopt a more linear approach on reactions.

"There's one!"

Sneaky use of teleportation by Christas.

D'eath rushes into the fray bentos charge, beefed up by multiple reactions - strikes Goddas removing his head.

Christos tries Nightmares on Mortimer - 3 times, all failed!

Hassas runs to intercept D'eath, loses his arm and weapon.

Jehovoos goes ahunting Killas.

Hah!  I have you now! 

But help is at hand!  Christos swoops in like an avenger and stabs him from behind all heroic like. 

Meanstwhile Fantas rushes to Hassas's help.

For his troubles she's struck down.

Hassas puts a spurt on and dashes for safety.

Meanstwhile Jehovoos suffers kinetic strangle from Killas.

Christos suffers repeated electrokenisis from Lagland that puts him down wounded.

Who then runs up and stabs him deaded on the ground!

That's me done!  3 out of 5 dead including leader.  Another armless and the last surrenders! 

Each one won once. So not to bad a balance. Damn the dice!

A short discourse on lightsabres and other powered weapons.

I had occasion to meet with some fellow wargamers at an excellent birthday gathering.

The subject of Star Wars came up. I mentioned that the use of lightsabres was wrong.

The blade has no mass and the handle is probably balanced. Shown usage is similar to

flashy longsword play. Most have a peeve about the common drop parry pose that doesn't

cover the face. The two waggles amuse me. How do they learn without removing their

ankles?

Consider this. Reverse the weapon and raise one arm up high. Merest flick of the wrist

covers a wide area. Sideways stance keeps your body out of the way. You can use your

other hand on the butt of the weapon or keep it out of the way in the hopes you might

keep it.

This is my final (for now) Terrains 4 games scenics purchase.

Originally got for my Quar proposed demo game.