Game #10: Rebelstar Raiders
That's it, folks! We received the order from Joe Capricorn himself! Tomorrow, we give MAIN-COMP a taste of its own medicine. We are going to strike directly Planet Pi, where MAIN-COMP is located. But first, someone needs to blow up the planetary defence on Spyder, Planet Pi's moon. Capricorn said it was our mission, so we are going. Who's with me, and more importantly what do you bring?
Rebelstar Raiders is of course the seminal squad tactics game by Julian Gollop, and as with all tactical games, I am pretty sure it will work well as a forum game (as Galactic Gladiators did). For the first scenario, we will breach through the wall of a small moonbase and destroy the control centre of the MAIN-COMP forces, against a defence composed of a mix of deadly robots and hapless technicians who wish they were not there.
The first scenario has 24 raiders to choose from, so bring your friends if you want a complete roster. Each character is different (list here) but I will be the one doing the allocation - the only thing you get to choose is whether you take:
- an accurate laser rifle,
- a photon auto-rifle (very short range, but deadly)
- 5 grenades.
No secondary weapons, even if you have the grenades. That's still more grenades than some of you had in Galactic Gladiators.
Porkbelly is helping me and thanks to him I am likely to be able to change the names of the characters "in-game".
Final note: the forum registration flow is shaky (sometimes it sends the confirmation email, but often it does not) so email me at:
wargamingscribe@gmail.com if you want to register as a new player.
I'm in. Give me an auto-rifle and remember to check those corners. I may be the first one in, but I'd prefer not to be the first one to die.
I'll take a standard issue laser rifle and take cover behind Morpheus.
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 14 November 2023, 1h14Each character is different (list here)
Hey, that's the guy who made the awesome chibi Earthsiege/Starsiege art. I remember that site.
Give me a laser rifle and point me towards the enemy. With 24 you mean we need 24 people to fill in a full roster? I never played Rebelstar so I dunno.
Theorically we need 24 players...
... in practice I play the other side, so I will adapt to the number of players.
Reporting for duty!
It seems we have more snipers than tanks, but still I prefer hitting from afar, so laser rifle it is.
Short range but deadly sounds like my kind of thing. You know I like to get up close and personal. Photon me up, baby.
Give me the 
I'm in, and I want grenades too!
Can probably find the time as well
Edit: forgot the weapon - laser rifle
This looks like it is headed straight for pure anarchy with this many people. If you really want another body in the crew, add me to the list.
selection: photon auto-rifle
You have roused me from my slumber. I will protect M’Lord Strange Fellow with my own short range photon rifle.
Well, we are well staffed. Here is the allocation:
Endurance (HP) = 2 is not a typo for LanHawk. One of the photon auto-gun carriers is poised by the first bullet. You can change assignement I will not comment on the rest of the allocations, but you can jump to other available slots if you will.
Briefing incoming soon. Since I will be managing REDFOR, I will be creating a scenario of sorts instead of having you face the full enemy roster immediately.
"LanHawk... what does he think this is? Beach patrol? He shows up in a T-shirt and shorts. The guy has no skill either. How is he even on this team?"
Personally, I think my attributes are hilarious!!! And I totally don't mind being the first one out. In fact, I probably prefer it. Show me to the first live grenade so my dirt nap can commence.
A pleasure to see you guys again.
Give me an autorifle and I’ll be happy.
edit: looks like those slots are full. No big deal. las rifles are fine.
I will take 11 11 5 Lasergun.
The briefing
Folks, we are fewer than expected, but I have a plan. As you know, we will deploy anywhere we want in the red area, and our objective is to reach the control room in green from which we will deactivate MAIN COMP defences. The gates will be closed to us, so the only way inside will be to breach the walls - any wall - with grenades.
Security is heavy, but it relies mostly on robots: 4 technicians, 8 out-of-shape guards with las-pistols, and 7 sentry robots. We expect less than half of the human operators to immediately act when we intrude. As for the robots, some will be patrolling, some will be deactivated in the reserve area in orange. These will have to be manually triggered by either guards or technicians. This is just a push of a button, so almost immediate.
The main gate has two turrets (in yellow) that will shoot at anything approaching the gate (not that we can open the gate without blowing it up). They are controlled from the security computer (also in yellow). Destroy the computer or spend one turn working on it, turrets go offline.
The base is camouflaged as a mining operation. It includes 2-3 mining robots with powerful claws that are not going to be hostile, but if a technician can reach the mining operation computer and spend one turn, he will be able to activate the "base defence" mode of those robots. We don't want that.
Three out-of-characters notes:
- All the stuff above (apart from the objective and the fact that you have to blow up walls to get inside) is "game master" actions to balance the game to your lower number,
- To avoid wasting some of the few grenades of Ahab and Argyraspide, I will use the unallocated grenadiers to blow two holes in places chosen by respectively Morpheus and Strange Fellow. After that, they will retreat.
- We will start when everyone found a position.
Edit: Remove the part about the camera feed. You'll see everyone at all time for simplicity's sake.
@captaingrimlock and @hyme: Added
I’d like to start in the bottom right corner
The same