Interlude: Showdown At Zeenat Farmstead

And so it came to pass that I played my first game of "Gangs Of Tatooine" using Five Parsecs: Gang Warfare. As regular readers of this column are no doubt aware, I have played a few games of the fantasy companion game to Five Parsecs, titled Five Leagues From The Borderlands. And while the games are certainly similar, there are some very important differences between them of which I would have to be on the lookout.

During the campaign turn, there was no Upkeep for the gang as it was the first turn. Kruha Lachu did some training and gained 1 Experience Point. Ten-Ten Amanha went out Bartering, got a lead on a good deal, and would have the opportunity to pick between two deals if the Krayt Crew won the encounter. The other four managed to scrape up a total of 3 Credits between them, and also tapped their Limited Resource for a further five credits. There was a bit of a disease breakout in Gamos, so the gang to decided to get out of town and hole up at the Zeenat Farmstead. On the way, they met a ne'er-do-well named Kednota Ahenmeti, whom they took along with them. As the disease ran it's course, the authorities (as much as there were) began to purge everyone who seemed like a carrier. Kruha Lachu stayed behind to settle some business, and was almost caught in the purging, learning some important tactical movement in his escape (+0.5 Toughness.) As they approached the Zeenat Farmstead, they realized they were not the only gang to seek shelter with the Zeenats. Knowing the resources here were limited, there was only one thing to do, and that was to try to drive off the other gang. Guns were drawn and both sides moved towards the farmstead.

The end of the first turn that started with the rival gangs about 12" apart

The opposition rolled up was six average gang members. I haven't made a lot of my Tatooine terrain yet, so I decided that the encounter would be set at Zeenat farmstead, a small moisture farm on the outskirts of Gamos. There were three Notable Objects that I represented with pennies. Again, I haven't quite finished making everything I need for this.I set up both gangs on opposite table edges because, for the life of me, I couldn't find the passage on page 40 of the Five Parsecs: Gang Warfare rules stating that models must be at least 12" away from any enemies. I guess at 34" apart, I certainly achieved that! So, the first several turns were spent getting within shooting distance and line of sight of the opposition. The Krayt Crew split into three groups, while the other gang split into two groups.

Kebnota Ahenmeti drew first blood, killing an opponent with his first shot. In turn, he was gunned down shortly afterwards. Rudo Bastra shot down another enemy, but too was dropped by return fire.

And then the Gamos Krayt Crew had a very successful turn, with Kruha Lachu, HK0-13X, and Thena Rosado all killing rival gang members. The droid was disabled by return, however.

The last enemy took a shot at Ten-Ten Amanha but missed, and when the dug returned fire he found his mark and killed the last adversary

The Krayt Crew was victorious, but had three downed members that had to be attended to. Rudo Bastra suffered a head wound from falling to the ground (reducing reaction by 0.5,) HK0-13X would require a campaign turn to repair, and Kebnota Ahenmeti was killed out right. Easy come, easy go for the guy! During the course of the game, Ten-Ten Amanha revealed one of the Notable Objects as scrap that could be sold for credit, HK0-13X revealed another to be worthless, and after the game was over Kruha Lachu showed the third to be a venomous lizard which didn't quite hurt her.

The Krayt Crew victorious!

The gang received 1 Rep for winning the encounter, and a further 1 Rep for killing the leader of the rival gang. In addition to the 1 Credit received for the scrap, they received an additional 1 Credit for the opportunity encounter. Finally, they switched their Intel for another Doc resource because of Ten-Ten's Bartering.

Some fun things happened in this game. The pre-encounter campaign stuff set up the fight nicely. The back and forth shooting made it seem like either side could win until the last two turns. And while both sides continued to make Morale rolls as they saw their friends go down, neither side actually suffered any Morale failures. It was a bit of a bummer to lose the new guy right away, but I guess it's better to have lost Kebnota than one of the OG.

Five Parsecs From Home and the supplements are available here.