Hi, folks.

After a few weeks’ break, I jumped back into a game of Five Parsecs from Home, returning where my crew had left off. In turn 3, Griff’s crew had faced off against a small group of swarm, and although they had come away successful, their encounter with the bug-like aliens triggered an invasion on the upcoming turn.

In the invasion turn, we rolled the dice and found that we didn’t escape the world during the opening phase of this invasion, instead being forced to hold out for 6 waves of combat, or until we Hold the Field. With Glitch in the infirmary, I was having to lean on my less combat-enthusiastic companions to pick up on some of the heavy lifting; this mean bringing Derrick, Vul, and Maimar into a fight against 6x swarm brood in this battle. The weapons loadout remained the same from the previous turn, as if the invasion caught our heroes completely off-guard (which… it kinda did).

With the swarm brood falling under the behavioural bracket of ‘beasts’, they were deployed in pairs, stuck together in pairs, and would mainly seek out cover unless there was a clear opportunity to make a successful charge. Their lack of projectile weaponry (they only have claws) did not present much of an advantage to Griff’s crew, as the swarm were always in cover, and if there’s one thing Griff’s crew can do consistently, it’s miss the most basic of shots in the open. Cover was a huge problem.

Klano, still wearing the jump-belt repaired by the team in a previous turn, leapt towards the nearest pair and became locked in a brawl with them. Despite his ingrained K’Erin tendencies to love close combat, he did not manage to wound the brood. Instead, one of the bugs landed a natural six after rolling to hit him, and removed him as a casualty. On the right flank, Derrick stuck with Vul and blasted one of the brood to the afterlife with a squeeze of the shotgun’s trigger.

On the far left flank, the pair of bugs snuck up on Salisi and dove into combat. While they didn’t manage to wound her, she herself was able to land a blow on them, albeit with no wound; this pushed one of the bugs back. When she was free on her next turn, she took aim with her colony rifle and put it down.

Both Maimar and Griff made some questionable shots, though Griff was aiming through cover. Maimar’s needle rifle, despite getting two shots per turn, was only hitting 50% of the time, and scored no wounds throughout the game. Vul, with dual handguns in his tentacles, took down another of the brood, with Griff eventually cleaning up the rest.

In quite a strange battle, the crew came out on top, and relatively swiftly at that. XP was assigned and attributes improved; I’m looking to increase Klano’s defence somewhat in the turns to come, as well as the reaction scores of the less-combat-inclined members of the crew, who spent most of the battle operating in the slow phase of the turns.

There is nothing to loot, nor is there time to really sit and ponder the job as the invasion is ongoing, and with the field successfully held, Griff and the crew evac in their ship (which was thankfully fully fully repaired in the previous turn) and make for another world. We are allowed to role on the character chart, post-battle; Griff receives a hearty meal, which lets her shrug off an injury in the infirmary when next she is hurt.

As they head towards a new world, past rivals and troubles ablaze behind them, who knows what turn 5 will look like.

Thanks for reading.