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

The Ambush that never happened...

All is not well on Pizzler-4732, a small mining/pharmaceutical manufacturing planetoid.  Bonded employees are disgruntled, sabotage, insurrection and riots have happened.  Recently, a handful of bondsmen have hatched a scheme to smuggle weapons in hidden in supplies dropped by the regular cargo drone run.

The 'Suits' in corporate espionage have found out.  They have sent their corporate ninjas in to quash the rebels efforts.  

Ninja objectives: destroy guidance-dish tracking system (LHS below), destroy generator for system (top LHS), kill insurrectionists
Rebels objectives: Survive!

Cargo-port 4; a cargo drone is off-loaded and being prepped for return to orbit.

Crew doing their stuff...

Fueling the drone/systems checks

But wait, Ninjas lurk

At least they look snappy in their suits

Ready...

...And, sneak!

Or not, BLAM! dead rebel (failed interrupt)

No subtlety for the other Ninjas, recon by fire!

Blammo, more dead rebels (rebels having awful interrupt rolls)

Crew fleeing, reinforcements pour out of the buildings

Ninjas reach the guidance dish and set charges, worker drones keep working...

Terminate with extreme prejudice

And again

More reinforcements, looks bleak for the Ninjas

or perhaps not, Ninjas spin around gunning down Rebels (more rotten interrupts)

"High five, dude!"
"High five this!"

On the flank sneaky Ninjas destroy the Dish controls

Security bots rush in from their perimeter sweep

Blam! Blam!  Ninjas disable bots

"Are we done yet?"  Ninjas gun down almost all the Rebels, security bots rush to assist

Zap! Security bots pass an interrupt and laser both ninjas

Ninjas tinker with the controls for the generator but fail to disable it

Its behind you!  Bots reactivate

Not for long, in an exchange of gunfire and laser, one dead Ninja, one destroyed bot

Ninja falls back, pinned

Zap! the other bots toast the Ninja

Game over Man!

Carnage in the station, most rebels dead

Guidance station destroyed, but the generator is OK.

 

The result, both Ninjas dead, yet I'd say its a victory for the Corporate Espionage Division.

I tried something different here, I downsized the game, instead of fire teams I wanted to test out small teams/pairs.  The Ninjas were D10QD10 morale, the Rebels D8D8, so both were pretty good troops.  As with all tests real world dice skewed things, the Ninjas just rolled spectacularly at the beginning,  once the security bots appeared that oddly stopped.  Once the dice imbalance evened out the advantage went to the more numerous troops as the small units are fragile, but that's OK with me as it makes for more 'will they make it' tension.  

Next time I'll try less evenly matched troops, I'm thinking this approach will work for heroic critical mission type games, or even the occasional video-game inspired solo romp.