Trying to play the Featherstone way

Last month I had a lot of success playing Stargrunt II and I think they will be a staple of my squad and platoon size games, but I am also looking for something a little more personalised.  A set of rules that will make me feel an attachment for the individual characters in the game.  To that end, I thought I would give Donald Featherstone`s Skirmish Wargaming a try.  

Donald Featherstone`s Skirmish Wargaming was first published in 1975, I do not have one of those venerable tomes, as I was only one when it was published.  Instead, I have a modern reprint from John Curry`s History of Wargaming Project.  The book contains a straightforward set of rules that are then modified to give a period feel.  At its core the rules are a percentile system with some cross referencing on various tables.  The only change that I had to make to the rules was to replace the written orders with alternate activation for movement.  The change was necessitated because I primary play solo and the thought of writing orders for two different sides didn`t fill me with joy.

Scenario

The 2008 reprint includes both a fantasy and SCI-FI scenario, something that was not in the original book.  As the Cantwara sector is firmly rooted in the SCI-FI genre I thought that I would try the Mining Station Sigma 9 scenario.  In this scenario, the starship Hibernia has been shot down and the surviving crew and passengers must search the mining station for a radio to call for help before they are overrun by the resident aliens.

Table layout

The scenario as written in the book required a more moon like table layout, but I don`t really have any of that sort of terrain, so I have made some adjustments to utilise the pieces that I have.

Deployment

To determine the landing sites of the passengers and crew of the Hibernia I decided to turn to Donald Featherstone`s mechanism for parachute drops from his book Airborne Operations.  I took twelve small, numbered pieces of paper put them in a box and scattered them over the board.

Game narrative

After the impact of the landing the crew of the Hibernia soon released themselves from their pods and headed towards the mining outpost.

As the crew searched the buildings ominous sounds were carried on the wind and it wasn`t long before large shapes burst out of the undergrowth.  Captain Haggerstrand saw the creatures first.  Shouting a word of warning he opened fired with his laser pistol.  The superheated ray burning holes in the creatures as they approached.

The captain`s warning came too late for senior administrator George Long.  He ran as fast as he could, his breath coming in deep pants, but the creatures were just too fast.

The crew scrambled around the outpost looking for anything to defend themselves with and the radio that could lead to their salvation as the number of aliens increased.  Isolated acts of bravery helped to buy time for the rest of the crew to send out the distress call.

The droid CM2-CGN blocked the path of a group of aliens his old joints creaking as he moved forward.  He tried to fend off two of the creatures with his ungainly limbs, but his chassis was not designed for hand-to-hand combat.  The aliens tore him apart.

Miss Smith the accountant realised that she couldn`t outrun the group of creatures that was chasing her, so she turned to face the creatures.  Like a Valkyrie she fought the creatures and managed to hold them off for a short while before they ripped her apart.

Chief Engineer Smith smashed the skull of an alien with her wrench and forced her way into the shack.  Inside she found the radio set and quickly sent out a distress signal.  Would the passengers and crew be able to hold out until the rescuers arrived?

The alien numbers just kept on increasing as the stranded survivors looked to the sky for salvation. A distant sound of engines coming to their ears.

Engineer 1^st class Fletcher, and CM2-CDN scrambled into a security van.  Inside they found two laser rifles still intact.  The pair opened fire on the aliens with their lethal weapons.  The lasers cut their way through the inhuman creatures.

The aliens rampaged through the outpost looking for the few survivors that were left.  Knowing that he was all that stood between the aliens and two passengers.  Lieutenant Baker stood his ground firing his laser pistol repeatedly until it finally drained its charge, and the aliens overwhelmed him. 

The laser fire coming from the security van soon attracted the attention of the aliens.  CM2-CDN and Fletcher kept up their fire as the number of alien corpses around them increased but their efforts soon drained the power packs of their rifles, and they were reduced to using them as clubs.

The roar of the gun cutter`s engines and the staccato sound of its autocannons soon scattered the aliens.  The survivors breathed a sigh of relief and turned their attention to the wounded.

Crew:

Captain Haggerstrand – Grievously injured

Lieutenant Baker – Killed

Chief Engineer Smith – Unhurt

Engineer 1^st class Fletcher – Seriously injured

Droid CM1-CPA – Destroyed

Droid CM2-CDN - Seriously damage

Droid CM2-CGN – Destroyed

Passengers:

Miss Smith, accountant – Killed

Thorne, mining engineer – Unhurt

Valentine, miner – Grievously injured

Mr. George Long, senior administrator – Killed

Mrs. Long, wife and secretary of George Long – Unhurt

Final thoughts

I really enjoyed the game; the rules themselves are quite straightforward but there were some gaps in the rules that need to be filled in.  I found that it was very hard to kill people in the rules.  I think the highest chance of a kill was 8%, which seemed a little low when someone was surrounded by six enemies and seriously injured.  I may try some other percentile rule systems, perhaps Laserburn or Inquisitor before I fiddle too much with Donald Featherstone`s rules.  I will definitely play them again as they are a solid set of rules that only need a few tweaks.