Xenos Rampant – Rescue Dr Feilgood from the Bugs!

This was a variant of Scenario Kilo, the ‘VIP Extraction’. Dr Fielgood has been on a stealthy field survey of the bug hive. He had discovered some vital information about bug vulnerabilities. However, he had been spotted and had had to make run for it. Exhausted, alone & afraid, he had taken shelter in a nearby observation tower. The Starship Troopers must extract him!

The Xenomorphs deployed first and the Starship Troopers then deployed from the opposite table edge. The Bugs were the attackers.

Dr Fielgood could join any Starship Trooper squad that contacted the Tower. He would then move with that unit. If that unit were eliminated, or forced to retreat, Dr Fielgood would be dropped where he was (cowering in a fetial ball!). Any other unit could then pick him up, by performing a move action that passed within 1” of the figure. The bugs could open the Tower, by attacking or shooting it, the Tower counting as 5 Strength Points with Armour 4.

We played two ends to this game. Game 1 with Dave leading the Starship Troopers and Rob & Steve leading the bugs. Game 2 with Rob & Steve leading the Starship troopers and Dave leading the bugs.

Game 1: The bugs went wide. One group of drones rushed the tower, while the two other drone swarms went left & right of the tower. The bug young scuttled off down the wadi while the bug Queen backed-up the centre & right flank bug swarms.

On the bug right, the Starship Heavy troopers were slow off the mark, so the drone swarm there managed to scuttle up and crouch on the far side of the hill, ready to spring!

The central drone swarm rushed the back of the tower, clattering into it, but the Starship Trooper Ranger (LI) team, rushed the tower door, bundling Dr Fielgood out, before the bugs could rip the back off.

However, the bugs could sense these Rangers and all 3 drone swarms converged on the Ranger teams behind the tower. Result – Lunch for the bugs & Dr Fielgood cowering alone on the floor! But this then left the Drone swarms vulnerable to the heavy Star Trooper weapons. Two drone swarms were rapidly thinned out, while the 3^rd sought shelter between the rock formation, in the centre of the Star Trooper line.

The bug Queen then called one surviving drone to scoop-up Dr Fielgood, while she directed the last full strength drone swarm to distract the Heavy Star Troopers. However, these drones were extremely surprised to be thrown back, in vicious hand-to-hand, with just two heavy Star Troopers.

Having scooped-up Dr Fielgood, this fugitive drone was running for the bug baseline, when accurate, long range heavy Star Trooper fire brought it down, not that far from the bug baseline! The Troopers let out a premature victory cry, because moments later, the bug queen swept-up Dr Fielgood and ignoring galling fire from the Troopers, scurried off the bug baseline. A bug win.

Game 2: Rob reconfigured the Trooper force slightly, dropping one heavy trooper squad, in favour of increasing the squad size of the other two squads, to increase the firepower. Dave went for a tighter bug formation. The bug young swarmed toward the tower, while one drone swarm went to the right and two to the left of the tower.

The Troopers established a strong firebase of heavy Troopers on the hill overlooking the West side of the tower, while the Rangers (LI) rushed for the tower door. The Rangers could hear the bug young scraping at the back of the tower, so sprinted faster. Just a few metres short of the door, they were horrified to be confronted by not one, but two drone swarms!! Rangers for lunch!

Out on the bug right, the single drone swarm sacrificed themselves among some boulders, soaking-up huge amounts of Star Trooper fire and so buying time for the queen to lumber up to the tower and open the side, with two mighty swipes!

A second drone swarm then rushed, from the bug right, into the Trooper fire zone, getting severely battered for it’s troubles. Realising they were getting side-tracked and that the Queen was about to make off with Dr Fielgood, the Trooper elite squad dashed forward, to despatch the surviving drones in hand-to-hand and pursue the Queen.

But unknown to the troopers, the last drone swarm had crept around the central rock formation, to assail the Troopers from the rear and distract them further, while the Queen dragged Dr Fielgood toward the baseline. Despite some fairly accurate fire, the Troopers could not stop the Queen, distracted as they were by also dealing with the last drone swarm. Another bug win and as Dave pointed out, ‘You don’t get money back on the drones, plenty more where they come from’!!