AE Bounty: Extras

The above figure is what I concocted to act as the VIP in the first game of AE Bounty. Really he's more like a courier in this case, and apparently he's onto the fact that he is the priority target in the scenario! I've built for him an extra large deck plate stand, he's got two wounds and is regular experience level, so those are on there too. The only equipment he has is his hand-truck and a high-tech safe containing a sci-fi MacGuffin.


Here he is in action, run VIP Courier, RUN!


These two are from the cutting room floor. They were going to be part of my Pirate Crew, but the crew composition wasn't the clearest about what you could and couldn't take. Due to some compulsory Crewman choices, these two guys got the axe.

The human in the Pith helmet was going to be tooled up as a First Mate sniper. His super-huge sniper rifle was suitably tricked out and the fluff was going to state it was actually once a wing-cannon off of a starfighter.

The other guy was going to be of the Limax race and he was going to fill the role of the heavy gunner, or officially the canoneer. His big gun was equally cool I thought, and it even sported an articulated body harness and weapon mount.


Closeup of the weapon harness and body mount

So there you have it. After posts of the Bounty Hunter crew, the large Pirate crew, and now this stuff there's really only one thing left to do. Run it!

The Crew of the Swollen Goat; AE Bounty Pirates

No horizon is obscured by the clouds. Settlements make nary a sound. And there were black birds singing and fish floating on the sea. While the bells of the buoys all rang in harmony.

Bury your treasure, burn your crops,
Black water rising and it ain't gonna stop.

The governor he been long gone, anchor dropped on his front lawn. Build a keep and dig a moat, the return of the Swollen Goat. Can you hear the fife and drums, barnacles barking at the sun. Ain't no chance, so don't you try, now everybody got to die. -Clutch

Large Pirate Crew
Options: dropped one green unit, one unit xp level upgrade
Dirty Trick: Stand Your Ground


El Sobrante, Arges Veteran Captain
M2, RC+4, CC5, A6, S3, DR5, W3
Gear: Slugthrower rifle, armored suit, sword
Skills: Blooded Warrior, Beserk, Unstoppable


Crash Wingo, Human Veteran Quartermaster
M3, RC+4, CC3, A4, S3, DR4, W2
Gear: Slugthrower long rifle, cybernetic arms and eyes
Skills: Hunter (Human), Steady Hands, Nightvision, Aim


Naos Corsairs, Regular
Skills: Hunter (Phact), Sure-footed


M3, RC+5, CC3, A2(4), S3, DR4, W1
Heavy Melee Weapon and Personal Energy Screen

M3, RC+5, CC3, A3, S3, DR4, W1
Equipment: Pike and Light Armored Suit

M3, RC+5, CC3, A2, S3, DR4, W1
Mono-wire edged sword


Human Crewman, Green
M3, RC+5, CC2, A2, S2, DR3, W1
Gear: Electrolaser pistols, random gear choice at game start
Skills: Apathetic


Chort Crewman, Green
M4, RC+5, CC2, A2, S2, DR3, W1
Gear: Electrolaser pistols, random gear choice at game start
Skills: Craven, Small Stature

The Blacktron Agency: AE Bounty Hunter Crew

The Blacktron Agency has been a successful bounty hunter charter for close to seventy-five years. At its core it is run by two directors who are as active in the field as they are running the company. It is true, no job is too large (or dangerous) for them to take on, but there are definitely jobs the agency turns down for being too small. Their success and reputation means they can be highly selective in the jobs they take on.

Two-Man Bounty Hunter Crew

Options: x2 hero upgrades, x2 experience upgrades

Dirty Tricks: Coordinated Attack, Tertiary Objective, Trap

I was talking up AE Bounty the other day and here's what I've got ready for the first game so far. As I mentioned, I am going to do it up in Lego the first go round. I created little "deck plate" stands for the figures to go on.

Obviously Lego figs are larger than 28mm, but the bases themselves should be about 30mm wide, so tabletop scales should be all about the same. I used single stud on top 1x2's so the figures can stand in the center of the base. You'll also note the clear colored round studs too. I'm using those for two things, and this will go for all the AE Bounty bases I do up in Lego. First off, the number of round studs work as wound counters. So if a figure has two studs on their base, they have two wounds (like the guys you see here).

The color of the stud is important as well. AEB uses experience levels for all models on the table; green, regular, veteran, and elite. I'll use colors to correspond to xp levels, so at a glance you can see what power level everyone is at. Green for green, blue for regular, orange for veteran, and finally red for elite (like the two you see here).


Ezra Meeker, Human Elite Gunsel
M3, RC3+, CC3, A4, S2, DR6, W2

Gear: Electrolaser Pistol, Slugthrower Pistol, Sword, Light Armored Suit

Skills: Duelist, Hunter (Pirate)

Abel Helman, Human Elite Gunsel
M2, RC2+, CC3, A5, S2, DR5, W2
Gear: LRF Slugthrower with AP rounds, Armored Suit

Skills: Marksman, Hunter (Pirate)

AE Bounty

There's something about Darkson Designs' AE Bounty that seems to be calling to me. I don't know what it is, maybe it's the slick format, or the good things I've heard about the rules, or maybe it's the fluff, which for a tabletop skirmish game is surprisingly solid. More than likely however it's the crew composition that's hooked me. I picked up the rulebook months ago but just now have gotten around to reading it.

AEB is a point-less system that focuses on small, squad-based combat. The squads, called crews, are usually one per player, and are where the system really stands up and makes you take notice. First off, as I said, it's a point-less system, which is always refreshing, yet they still manage to seemingly make everything balance out.

The first thing you do is select what kind of crew you want to field. Your choices dictate size and experience level. Smaller crews yield higher experience, larger crews feature more mundane troops. As you might imagine it's a quality versus quantity pendulum. Your choices are: two-man crew (like it sounds, two-ish elite fighters), veteran crews (obviously larger than a two-man crew, but still more than battle-ready), standard crews (umm, pretty standard), and finally you have large crews (lots of troops, but overall they're pretty green).

So far so good, next you pick a faction that your crew represents. Here you have three more options: Mercenary (former military/professional), Bounty Hunter (contract killers of specialized skills), and Pirates (riff-raff and cutthroat scalawags). The faction you pick will also dictate the types of individuals and units you can take. Each faction has their own distinctive feel to them as well, and offers unique unit choices the other factions don't have access to.

You're still not done! After all of the above you then pick an alien race template to apply to each choice of your crew. If you apply the alien template to a unit of multiple figures, all of those figures become that alien race. An alien template to an individual applies just to them. In this manner a crew of, say, twelve figures could be composed of half a dozen different alien races. I should have the book on hand as I write this, I don't, but I do know there's plenty of alien races to pick from. Each race offers its own ability boosts and negative modifiers, as well as special rules. Humans are thrown in with the rest of the lot.

A word on equipment, each unit choice in whichever crew you choose comes with equipment options, but each has a limited number of slots. Equipment is broken down into three categories; gear, guns, and melee. Guns are further broken down by types such as pistol, rifle, heavy, etc. Gear represents a lot of choices, from the armor they wear to scopes for weapons, specialty ammo, and more. Melee is the only weak category with just a few options to pick from. Some units get to pick from all three categories, others get maybe just one gun choice and that's it. There's ways to swap equipment slots too.

Using all of the variables above you could min/max 'til the cows come home. Picking that perfect crew mix with just the right XP levels, just the right squad options, then the right kind of aliens to take advantage of all the above. Seems a bit 'gamey' however. Sometimes it's those unlikely combinations that make for a better game in the end.


So the plan is to whip up two crews. I'd like to make them as diverse as possible to really see how the balance issues play out, so I think a two-man elite crew (seen at the top of this post) versus a large Pirate crew will do nicely. I'm going to do it in Legos to boot, for many reasons, Legos being cool nearing the top of the list.

The rules mechanics themselves are fairly straight forward so it should be easy to try a quick game or two. The rulebook also packs in a good number of scenarios and even an extended campaign system for your crews to grow over time. All of this in a pint-sized rulebook, pretty impressive so far.

The albatross around my neck right now are the four linked games of Strange Aeons I *need* to get finished up, after that I think I'll shoulder a little AE Bounty for the group as a test drive, see how we like it. The upswing to using Legos is that while I prepare for AEB, I can be painting up my prehistoric stuff at the same time!

Updates Abound in Post #666

Another signpost and another "milestone" for the blog as this makes my 666th post at Mik's Minis! Wow, that seems like a lot! Sci-fi takes the lion's share of posts here with a whopping 259 tags with Fantasy at about a hundred posts behind in a fairly distant second place. It blew my mind so long ago when I had thirty something readers, so I don't even know what to think now. Thanks for all the support and y'all are the reason I try to keep it interesting and what drives me to keep writing.

I also realize that this post is going to kind of mark a turning point at Mik's Minis, and not in the same vein as Duck Sauce with his recent 'declaration to get things done' vows either. No, I do believe things are going to slow down around here, out of professional necessity if nothing else. Noted in my "big announcements" post (I'm not going to link to it, it's the one below this one) I have a new job, an "official" job, and as a first-year public school teacher my hands are going to be more than full. I went in today to look at my classroom and was equally exhilarated and terrified all at the same time! Mind you, I've been almost a post-a-day kind of guy, so I'm just saying that's going to slow down, nothing too terribly drastic.

Last weekend we held our "Bolterpalooza" event for my birthday. Basically we just played the Deathwatch introductory RPG adventure all day. It was a blast, good food, friends, and good drink. I've got photos lined up, I just haven't written it yet.


I've still got Flames of War pics I can't get off my phone too and I still can't find my tiny usb card reader thingie. I went to buy a new one, but it was $20 bucks! Forget that, I'll just keep looking here.

Now for our all-day Bolterpalooza my mom and daughter made me and the guys cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes as you can see, but Sleestak Cupcakes! Originally they were supposed to be aliens in little UFOs, but my daughter pointed out (all on her own) that the eyes were "wrong" and they should be Sleestaks instead. Once they put the green sprinkles on as scales, they were perfect! That's why when non-gamer friends of the family ask if I'm hoping for a boy this next time so I can 'geek out with him' I respond rather quickly I'm geeking out just fine with my girl already! Gender neutral geeking out is finally becoming more widespread fortunately.


I had a little birthday money, so I spent it on rulebooks. An important note here is I did NOT spend it on more miniatures! I could have, I could have very easily, but no, I showed some restraint. We all have boxes of unpainted minis anyway, right? So, I went with rulebooks, and I went with ones that have been on my mind for a while now.

I mentioned Malifaux some time ago, and looking back at that post, I'm surprised I've waited this long really. It's received enough positive word of mouth and solid reviews I have been curious, almost eager, to get to grips with it. Not to mention the figures look stunning, but I think I'll proxy a few games before I even think about those!

The next one is a relative newcomer in the, "Hmmm, I'd like to play that..." department, but it's near and dear to my interests and that's AE:Bounty. Again, word of mouth and preliminary reviews have me intrigued. It's sci-fi skirmish, but doesn't use points, focuses on small squad aliens, humans, and the like, and has lots of mini-campaign mechanics for the long run. The figs look great, but sheesh, not at those prices! Besides, I think I can kill two birds with one stone and play this in 15mm, accessing lots of great figs I already have.

Since Photobucket is completely failing me this evening, all I can do is tell you about the Strange Aeons game we played tonight. Not giving away too much, the pic at the left should be a big hint. Since Duck Sauce is taking the Deathwatch reins, I vowed to run a minimum of four linked Strange Aeons games. Tonight was just a warm-up, look for the reports soon, taking inspiration from the fine folks over at Geektactica.


All right, that's all I've got for now!