From: DAWGFACE47@w...
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 09:52:20 -0600 (CST)
Subject: * * * * HAPPENS!
I had a thought after a recent game, and I am curious about something. During a firefight in the outback of a colony world, the combatants (off world mercs in the employ of a corporation and local colonists desiring to severe the corporate ties), stirred up a hornets nest. Well not really hornests, but a local voracious flying insect swarm called piranha bugs... Now the piranha bugs I freely admit to having lifted from a sci-fi novel I read about a zillion years ago called THE EXPENDABLES, about first in trouble- shooters sent to colony worlds or ahead to potential colony worlds with dangerous wildlife or sentients to take care of business. BUT the actual idea behind the incident was based on the killer bee swarms that were disturbed by the combatants at the BATTLE OF TANGA in WW I East Africa. It was an ambush scenario, with the colonists ambushing a merc supply convoy of hover trucks and hover combat cars. The stunned look on the faces of the merc gamers when they shot up a piranha bug nest (think African or RVN termite mounds) during the heat of the day (when the piranha bugs were at home) was priceless. (an area of the table had multiple piranha bug mounds scatteed on it along with jungle and tall grass) The merc combat cars blasted apart three (3) of these mounds that some colonists militia had been forced to take cover behind ( the mercs assumed!) without knowing WHAT THEY WERE.... BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! THE mercs, with huge smiles on their faces, fired up their vehicles and went floating forward on line abreast to take full advantage of the serious problems that seemed to develope along the retreating colonist defensive line within seconds of the 3 mounds being blasted apart intent on a solid victory. THE colonist militia Commanders KNEW what lived inside these mounds, and had hoped to lure the mercs and their open topped combat cars into the nest area and then blow them apart, causing the mercs grief as the piranha bugs swarmed out fighting mad. This was a desperate measure, decided upon because the battle so far had seen the mercs floating forward in those combat cars, and steadily forcing the colonists to fall back with heavy casualties. WELL, the bugs swarmed out of those mounds and wrecked mounds (I used 6" across clear plastic circles marked PIRANHA BUGS, one for each mound and moved them randomly about), attacking colonist infantry first, causing them to run screaming from the field, and then the combat cars and crews. SINCE these bugs numbered in the millions, they quickly reduced exposed colonist infantry and car crews to skeletons in short order, with very few combatants surving the bug attack..... IN short, the piranha bugs won the battle. After the initial shock on both sides, the merc and colonist gamers gave most creitable performances as soldier taken completely by surprise by a horror worse than the on-going combat, and trying to save their individual butts. SO, now, we have the mercs trying to find out everything they can about the world they are serving on, and the colonists being careful to find out if they recognized any dangerous lifforms present when planning actions. SURE adds to the uncertaintity of battlefield conditions and a lot less the rules say this and I thus count on it being that way during a game. WE have used things like this since almost the start to liven up games. HOW many of y'all do somethig similiar? AND if so, what do you do? DAWGFACE