Thursday evening saw Chris & Tony line up for a bug ‘egg hunt’, using Dan Mercy’s highly flexible Xenos Rampant rules.
This scenario was a variation of the ‘VIP Rescue’ scenario. The Starship Troopers had to reach one of two alien bug egg fields, pop a sample egg into a special transport box and get it off their own baseline. The bugs had to stop them.
Tony ran with the bugs for the first game, opting for a broad front approach, while Chris lined his Starship Troopers up, in seemingly Napoleonic style, in one long line across the table!
Chris opened with his two Recon / Egg snatch squads dashing forward, one toward each egg field, while his Grunt Heavy Infantry provided covering fire. On the Starship Trooper’s right, the covering fire was very effective (five 6s!!), immediately suppressing one charging bug group. This caused another bug group to divert toward the righthand egg snatch team. This new bug group reached the egg snatch team, sending the few survivors sprawling back, leaving their precious egg sample behind them.
However, this left an opening for the lefthand egg snatch team. They scooped up the egg sample and ran back for their baseline, chased only by a few acid spits from the frustrated bug queen. A win for the Starship Troopers!
In the next game, Chris opted for a more ‘in depth’ bug deployment (think Zulu waves!?), while Tony opted for a looser Starship Trooper deployment, seeking to maximise the Heavy Infantry supporting fire.
Tony dashed his egg snatch teams forward, as Chris had done. However, Tony’s supporting fire was not quite as effective as Chris’ had been and Chris’s wave strategy paid dividends. While the lead bug group was gunned down, the following group leapt over their pulverised brethren and into the righthand Starship Trooper egg snatch team, leaving just one man fleeing from the field!
On the bug left, Tony unsportingly concentrated the available Starship trooper fire on the more vulnerable bug young. This spared the single bug drone group on this flank, the worst of the fire, such that this drone group reached the lefthand Starship trooper egg snatch team. This fight was slightly less one sided, but the Starship troopers still lost by one, being thrown back and then finished off by the acid spit of the bug queen. A bug win.
A simple game, which illustrates how Xenos Rampant can handle quite asymmetric battles. However, the umpire did have to admit in the end that he had forgotten that the bug drones should have had two strength points per model, not one!! This might make this a much tougher call for the Starship troopers!!?
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