Battle Beyond the Star Schlock

 

A subset of the Scrum Club and some of our friends met for a game on Dec. 30 to close out 2021. In addition to guests Peter M. and Mark A. (visiting from Minnesota), we were finally able to also have Dave "Zeb" Cook over to Scrum Hall (i.e., my dining room) for a game of some sort. 

Scrum Con—the convention we organize here in the DC metro area—has been lucky to include Zeb as our guest of honor since its inception in Feb. 2019, and the idea of him coming over to the house to game with us started getting bandied about not terribly long thereafter. Like so many pre-COVID plans, however, the pandemic sadly put the idea on indefinite hold. But when I bumped into Zeb at Historicon last month and we got to chatting, it seemed like we should revisit the idea of getting a game in together and settled on the week between Christmas and New Years. 

Fortunately, the Scrum Club has a handful of pretty fun games at the ready that we've prepped and run at conventions over the years, but the most impressive of them in my opinion is John Sear's Star Schlock, if for no other reason than all of the great custom miniatures John has sculpted and cast specifically for the game (and sold via his recent Kickstarter). We've been play testing and helping John refine the rules for over three years now, and I was confident it would provide a fun night of wargaming for guests Zeb, Mark, and Peter.

A total of six of us gathered for the evening, and we divided ourselves into two teams facing off against each other at the table. John has toyed from the start with ways to make the objectives asymmetrical and variable within a given game, and we used the latest iteration of that approach in this particular game. 

Zeb, Peter, and I played a combination of the planet's native inhabitants and the Astroguards deployed by the Union of Sovereign Star Systems, with a slate of objectives we could choose to pursue that ranged from protecting key features on the battlefield to claiming the bounty on some of the shady characters amongst our opponent's units. Our opponents played a gang of pirates and other intergalactic ne'er-do-wells who have landed on the planet with a variety of objectives that typically involved plundering precious resources or kidnapping diplomats stationed to the planet.

Everybody seemed to have a grand time, and as is typical of our regular Scrum Club games, we played for a couple of hours, broke for dinner, and then returned to finish the game. My wife Ellen fed us all with some homemade chili, pasta, and fresh cornbread, and also popped in as usual to take a bunch of photos.

Here's Ellen after feeding us, taking some snaps of the fun in progress.
(left to right: John S., Ellen, Zeb Cook) 

Most of the photos below are by Ellen, with a smattering contributed by John or myself (assume the worst of them are by me). Also note that the below photos do not constitute a chronological blow-by-blow reconstruction of the battle but are rather meant to provide an impression of the fun we had over the course of the evening and to show off John's great miniatures and terrain, a significant source of the pleasure to be had playing John's games.

Battle Beyond the Star Schlock

I'm starting with this photo simply because it was my favorite of the night.
(left to right: Zeb Cook, Peter M., and me, your humble scribe)

We forgot to take a bird's eye photo of the battlefield before the game started (which I typically do for this blog), but here's a close approximation sometime after the action had started.

John explaining the basics of Star Schlock to Zeb and Peter, who were first timers with these rules.

Some of my Astroguards in the distance trying to take down this tough space pirate.

The rogues gallery of the evening's skirmish.
(left to right: Mark A., Steve B., and John S.)

Some of Zeb's forces racing into the fray.

The disturbing idol in the background is an example of the strange gods the planet's native inhabitants worship, but Rod Roebuck (foreground) tried not to judge and valiantly defended their right to do so.

Some villainous drone troopers hiding in a patch of jungle, waiting for their opportunity to strike for maximum effect.

Piratical scum!

Steve B. contemplating how to make our life more difficult...and shorter!

I don't remember this bastard's name, but he was one of Mark's units and a steady pain in my ass throughout the game.

A bunch of my units charging into battle, trying to effectively close the gap between the snipers we were facing off against.

A sinister Sleazoid. There was a bounty on his head, and we aimed to claim it before the end of the game!

No surprise: Zeb latched onto the game's rules faster than anybody we've introduced it to.

Don't remember who these aliens are, but I do know we had fun shooting them up!

John S.

A bunch of the native "Beef Heads" mixing it up with the drone troopers.

Lots of action here, but I presume on the left the Sleazoid is trying to capture and kidnap the diplomat that is standing behind and being guarded by Rod Roebuck.

Cha-Cha found the highest perch in the room for a nap, the boxes of miniatures and terrain John brought.

The game uses a  fun card activation mechanic that also serves as a resource pool for additional actions and reactions throughout each turn.

Mark conferring with teammates.

One of the objectives controlled by our team, with our own Ensign Packman guarding the cargo boxes surrounding it, a prime target (and source of victory points) for the invading pirates.

These baddies are pinned down pretty well. Hopefully we eventually routed them.

John's face in the window pane reflected the evening's mood.

The natives of the "Beef Head" tribe,  or as our enemy referred to them, "Señor Carne Cabeza."

Colonel Ering.

Mayhem and merriment in Scrum Hall...that's what I'm always hoping for.

Closing Thoughts and Parting Shots

In the end, the planet's natives and their imperial allies prevailed, and successfully fended off the space pirates, claiming a couple of outstanding bounties while we were at it. 

I don't think we've played a game of Star Schlock yet that hasn't been a lot fun, and it's encouraging to see new players enjoying it, too. It's John's passion project, and I'm glad to see how dogged he has been at moving it forward.

The highlight for me was finally getting the chance to have my friend Zeb over to the house for a wargame. I got to play in a RPG of Star Frontiers Zeb ran at the Feb. 2020 Scrum Con, but we had never had a chance to play in a miniatures game together, despite having attended many of the same conventions  (Historicon, Barrage, etc.) over the years. He expressed interest in gaming with us again, and it appears he may join in our regular Scrum Club game of Ravenfeast the next time we gather.

"If you're not going to let me play, then I'm going to sleep all over your game gear."

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