The Defence of Sador - Mission 1

I managed to get in a quick game of FUBAR with Laura on Sunday and decided to run it as the first  mission in the sci-fi campaign. I briefly described the campaign outline, but didn't go into any specific mechanics for progression - mostly because I haven't come up with any yet, but also because it was being played as a test of the FUBAR rules to see if they'd fit the sorta narrative I'm going for.

The campaign is set in the universe of Warhammer 40000, but is intended to be more like the old style of 40k where anything goes, and the Imperium is so huge and diverse that it has every different style of architecture, fashion and society imaginable within the human populations. So if you're wondering where all the skulls and grim misery are, there's the answer.

Here's the campaign brief I created (I didn't actually give this to Laura in the end, and opted to simply summarise the basics instead):

The planet Sador lies in the Ultima Segmentum, an area of the galaxy with comparatively few conflicts and a high quality of life for the Imperial citizens who reside there. Sador is the capital of the small Vigilon system, and the other Vigilonian colonies look to it for protection and governance.

Sador
	Type	Class M - Temperate
	Location	Vigilon-II
	Grade	Civilised

Tyrian
	Type	Class H - Badlands
	Location	Vigilon-IV
	Grade	Feudal

Canaan
	Type	Class M2 – Temperate Moon
	Location	Vigilon-IVb
	Grade	Nomadic

The Uprisings

Sador was once known as Echeni, named after the 22^nd Millenium vessel which brought the original settlers to the planet. The inhabitants of the planet resisted Imperial rule at first, but were dominated soon enough. Imperial accounts record that every few hundred years small seditions occur on the planet, usually rebelling against the harsh taxation of soldiers, food and minerals.Recently, civil protests and riots have been breaking out around the planet. The protest movement, who call themselves ‘The Echen’, state that they want better representation in government, and are dissatisfied with what they refer to as ‘Terrans and Terran-centrics’ holding office. The protests have been deemed illegal, and many have been arrested and fined for their actions. Riots have since become more commonplace, and the Echen have reformed into something of an organised rebellion.

One of the loosely affiliated groups which make up the Echeni rebels is made up of gang-members from The River Pikes, a slum-gang from the capital city of Sador - Æthelhwicce. Laura commands a Special Response group of police officers tasked with handling organised (and dangerous) criminals such as these.

One of the city's satellite communication Data-Centres was taken by a small group of River Pikes, armed with suspiciously high-tech weaponry (ex-military looking weaponry, mostly), and they'd taken hostages of the people working in the Data-Centre at the time. The Pikes had threatened to kill any hostages if they were interrupted while attempting to hijack the communications system, so the Special Response were called in.

The game was set over 5 turns, with the rebels seditious messages being transmitted if the police failed to retake the building by the end of the 5th turn.

The Special Response made their way across the city from the landing pad at a local precinct, and the rebels attempted to murder a hostage or two to let the police know they mean business. However the hostages managed to resist their captors enough to only be injured from the scuffle, and the Special Response made short work of the gangers, picking them off carefully from behind their defensive barricades.

The game was very short, and it ended in a win for Laura, although it was her last action on the final turn of the game which decided it, so it was a very close call!

My feelings on FUBAR are mixed. I really like the simplicity of it, and I like the idea of the suppression and generic squad 'experience' levels especially. However the chances of activating were very low, and the chances to hit were middling, but the rules mean they are affected negatively by cover. So a 4+ to hit becomes a 6+ to hit (on a D6) if the target is in medium cover. This meant that a lot of nothing happened the first few turns.

Eventually we decided to use D10s instead of D6s (but with the same basic stats), and this alleviated the problems a lot, but we still felt like it was missing something, and while I'd hoped the activations would mean more interesting dynamics would occur, it ended up just resulting in frustration when half your team sits around for the turn, and it spoilt the narrative.

I think I'll try to modify Frostgrave into a squad-based sci-fi game for the next outing in the Sador Campaign. Hopefully it'll feel something like Infinity, but with squads instead of individual activations.

In conclusion, FUBAR was okay, but I think it's made more for larger scale engagements, and doesn't really work for small skirmishes of a couple of fireteams. It's definitely worth a shot though - it's free and it does feel surprisingly complete for a 1-page set of rules.