Core Space: Trader's Gambit

Now that I'm set up in the hotel, I decided it was a good time to break out Core Space and dive into the Perseus Arm Campaign.  Currently I have the crews of the Black Maria, the Ion Hope, and the Skylark to choose from so I decided to go with Arianna with the hunter class and Lars with the Tech class.  No reason in particular other than I thought they would be a good combo, plus having a Tech in there seemed like a good idea.

The objective for Trader's Gambit (other than getting as much stuff as you can!) is to find the disgruntled Clawtech employee.  Will it be Butler, Gan'Eek, or Kaori?  Only time (and a die roll!) will tell!

Arianna beats feet right from the start and quickly makes it to one of the large chests, ready to sneak a peek next turn.  Lars follows her lead and runs for another large chest nearby in the hopes of finding something good.

The hostility tracker starts out at a massive 1 for this mission, so no Purge this turn.  Instead the civilians decided to wander around for a bit but other than that... it was pretty quiet.

The next turn, Arianna threw open her chest and found a machine rifle and a military pistol.  Now that is an upgrade!  Quickly swapping out for her new toys, she walked over to Butler so she could have words with him next turn.  Meanwhile, Lars cracks open his chest and finds a Titan's Fist power arm and a custom combat jacket!  Sweet!

The civilians go next with Butler running and hiding behind a console.  Apparently he is really shy and doesn't want to talk to Arianna?

And Kaori and Gan'Eek just keep wandering around, trying to figure out just what is going on.

Arianna walks up to Butler and has a very pleasant chat... especially since he is the employee we are looking for!

Objective in hand, she starts making her way back towards the ship... just in case.  And speaking of the ship, Lars sprints back there to drop off the money... I mean power fist... before seeing if he can find some more gear in some of the other chests.

Gan'Eek and Kaori keep up their walkabout while Butler decides that he was so taken by the conversation with Arianna that he decides to join her crew.  Perfect!

Lars gracefully lobs the power arms into the ship before running off, while Butler opens up a chest and finds a custom shield belt.

Arianna trots over to another chest and stands there waiting like a kid at Christmas staring at their presents.  What will this one have in it?

Gan'Eek sees Butler digging through the crate and offers to sell him a medi stim, though Butler declines since he believes in having a natural organic diet to maintain his health.

And then... the Purge arrived.  A whopping one Harvester who heads straight over to say "Hi!" to Kaori. She isn't feeling so friendly though, and runs as fast as she can to get away from her new mechanical buddy.

Lars continues he sprint and gets just far enough to open another crate only to find... a new car!!!  No, actually it's a energy pistol but all things considered, that ain't half bad!  On the other side of the sector, Arianna throws open her chest and again hits the motherlode.  Ship parts, a combat vest, and an outland energy rifle... but she can only take the vest!  Curse these tiny inventory slots!!!  With the Purge arriving, she and Butler both decide its time to head for the ship.

The harvester that had approached Kaori bursts through a window as it charges in her direction!

Meanwhile, another harvester has wandered into the sector and catches sight of Arianna.

Kaori dodges around a corner to try to hide while Gan'Eek heads down to where his friend had been.  Now where did she get to?

Not wanting to take any chances, Arianna opens fire with her machine rifle and makes short work of the harvester that had targeted her.  Then all three of the traders beat feet towards their ship as things are starting to heat up fast.  And then the devastators arrive...

Moving forward, they both draw line of sight to Lars and open fire.  Lucky for him he found that armor which manages to soak up the damage that each of them did to him.

Kaori didn't fare as well though as the harvester peeked around the corner and made very short work of her. Gan'Eek hears the struggle and comes running.  He takes a pot shot at the harvest but it goes wide.  Panicked, he runs back the way he had come from in the hopes of escaping the killing machine.

With the Purge closing in, the crew ran to the ship.  Butler managed to get into the airlock and Arianna took up a firing position next to the door to cover Lars who was just catching up to them.  The Purge must have triangulated their position though as not one, not two, but three harvesters came into the sector right next to them.

One of them reached Lars and raked its arm across his back, taking out half of his health with one blow!  In desperation, he attacked the harvester with his custom combat jacket and managed to take it out before diving into the airlock!  Arianna fell back, letting loose a volley of fire at the approaching Purge before sealing the ship and disengaging the docking clamp.

The crew had managed to escape... just barely.  Once back into a safer region of the Barrens, they took stock of the new gear they had managed to acquire.  After some shrewd negotiations by the captain, the crew made enough credits to make some serious repairs to the vessel and still have some more to put away into the rainy day fund which is good.  Because those storm clouds?  They are coming in fast!

This was a very fun game and a good way to pass the afternoon.  The mechanics of Core Space are very simple but it feels like there is enough there to keep you engaged.  Of course there is still the crew of that unnamed vessel that I rolled up for Five Parsecs From Home.  Having gotten a better feel for Core Space, it will be interesting to see how it compares to Five Parsecs.  I still need to weave together their story which sounds like it would be interesting to look at soon.  Until next time...