Tuesday, August 30, 2011

OutBreak


The Plague came first, everyone had seen the movies of course, but the first time you see a real zombie it  really puts a scare in you.  We know now that they seeded it, some kind of alien bio-warfare, it was just too fast, too widespread to have arisen naturally.  Between rotting from the insides out and zombies tearing each other apart the plague was much less severe than in the movies,  by the time we had a handle on it the government reckoned we lost about a third of the population.  Of course it was worse in less developed nations, but by then who cared, we had enough problems in our own back yard.

So while we were all running around capping zombies they were getting in position,  their staging base ships formed up around the moon while they prepped for the landing.  The landing everyone remembers, Gateway station was nuked then the sky fell.  Rather than use nukes in the atmosphere they dropped tons of rock from orbit, smashing most major cities.  We are now told that their intent was to destroy governments to fragment the people enabling a relatively quick pacification program, boy did they ever screw up!

The aliens timing could not have been worse... ...if they had come just ten years earlier things would have been so different.  The Wars of Secession and The Troubles in Europe had thrown a spanner in the plans of big central government buildings, many Zaibatsus had either built their own enclaves or moved off plant and the war on NewEarth had really got everyone hopping, new weapons and equipment had changing the face of war.  So, the bugs dropped into a world of pain.  Spec Ops and  Clone teams rapidly destroyed beachheads and landers, the only thing the bugs could do was drop more rocks!

Once the Third Fleet returned from NewEarth the war was all but over, the Bug baseships were no match for the new EF Cruisers.  So here we are, rebuilding and moping up bugs where we can.  Oh, and the best part, we now know where they came from - they say 'revenge is a dish best served cold' it will be cold, cold as deep space can make it...

Outbreak - summer's back and the plague has been reactivated by the warmth.  A team of clones must escort a medical team to investigate and treat victims where possible.  The clones start bottom left and must exit top right.  two teams of clones plus a leader and two dependents.

 Traffic is too dense so the team debusses to proceed on foot
Bugs lurk in the shadows
And build a commanding ambush position
The first team sneaks along an alley
The second runs smack into the bug ambush
Blam! dead bug
And more, the whole heavy weapon team goes down
Bugs rush to ambush the second team
Meanwhile the second team is mopping up bugs
 The first team moves cautiously out of the alley, bugs wait for them...


Splat!  Not a good result for the bugs
Bugs swarm the second team

Next turn first teams rushes the bugs, wiping them out

Leader and dependents follow-up
Second team continues doing what they do - Bug Stomping

More bugs swarm in
First team wants in on the glory - they rush forwards
And catch a bug squad who promptly and spectacularly decide to "advance to the rear"
Clearing the way for the second team
To engage and pin the last swarm
First team advances to clear the exit route
Deftly fending off the first interrupt...
...And the second
Then administering the coup de grace
Clearing the way for the second team and the leader/medic group to exit the board
Mission accomplished - in style


Summer is always a quiet time for gaming, now its cooled down a bit its nice to start rolling some dice again.  Over the summer I saw Battle:LA, this background is a bit inspired by that plus a mash-up of other genres I want to play.

One facet of AA I've not really tried a lot is elite units, I recently played a game at a convention where I used poor Q insurgents against Spec Ops (Vet/Elite) and had a v. hard time doing anything with the insurgents as we lost almost every interrupt roll.  I wanted to try it again, and presto - the same result.

Maybe next time I'll use many more insurgents/bugs or try adding in some elites and bug tech-toys (drones/robots etc), or maybe just throw in a swarm of zombies!

P.S. there are some not so great photos here -I have to get a  better light in the basement