Starship Troopers at the Con

> Los wrote:

...which didn't tell me very much, but the post was 12 kB in size :-(

If anyone got it OK, please forward me a text-format copy...

Well in a fit of wanting to try something different, Kr'rt and I set up and
ran a Starship Troopers mini game Saturday night. A few months ago I had taken
a number of Epic 40k Space Marines and painted them up as SSTs, with color
coded stripes on the shoulders denoting squad and small numbers on the bases
denoting ID. There were 26 MI in the platoon we
used. The SSTs were mounted one to a base (1/2" washer I think)  Also,
if you recall a few months ago I bought a ton of ants and other bugs. I pulled
out one gross of dirtside sized ants, counted out 100 and poked holes in the
bottom of half with a swiss army knife to denote workers. So to recap the
organization:

MI: One platoon with 4 squads of 6 + a PSG and a PLT ldr.

Arachnids: one hive complex with a queen, six brains. Each brain controlled 10
warriors, 10 workers, one engineer unit and two weapons
platforms/tanker bugs.

RULES: There was only one rule: "Everyone fights, No one quits!" (Just
kidding)

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The Map:

One newly acquired geohex mat: There were still folds in it which made the
plotting of the hive complex VERY convenient. SO it was broken into 4x6
section each 12". The northeast corner had a small research station and the
rest of the map was broken up with rocky hills.

Preparations: We were inventing all this on the fly with the intent being to
meld the old boxed SST game with Stargrunt. Note Kr'rt had Neither played
either but is always willing to stick his neck out so that was enough by me.
The intent was to get a fast moving game going that concentrated on running
the squads and guys without the minutae of firing weapon x and guy Y blah blah
and ten million different dice. This is because I wanted one player to be able
to run a platoon (controlling individuals) and fight out a game in only a few
hours. SO we basically took activation from SG and melded it with combat
resolution from SST.

The Mission: This operation was at the very beginning of the arachnid war. A
station on a colony planet had failed to respond to comms though it's
automated defense grid was still operation. What was up? Rather than risk a
friendly fire incident a single MI platoon was dropped well outside of town to
investigate.

Kurt used the platoon roster sheets from SST to set up his force. along with
26 troopers, each squad had two HE launchers, 1 Nuclear rocket, and
2 DAR/DAP (Delayed action proximity/remote) charges to divvy up.

On a separate sheet I made a map of the area with grid lines and mapped out my
underground bug complex. Each brain had one 10" main tunnel, one 5" secondary
and 2 3" tertiary tunnels (note the brain could choose to string them
together), plus 25 demo charges and 10 NUC charges.

Units specs:

We used the specs on the counters from SST but MI could execute ranged fire
out to 3". HE and NUC rocket fire out to 6 or 9" (Can't remember
now). Movement was 6" for marauders, 10" for scout/command suits.
Warrior bugs had unlimited movement per turn while in tunnel. On surface it
was 2" only. Tanker bugs at 3" Tankers also had ranged fire out to 6".
Warriors had 1" ranged fire.

OK the game begins:

The DROP. We looked at the drop rule since the game and said, hey we have a
better Idea! Kurt rolls 2D6. That's how many inches above the table he can
drop a fistful (Squad) of troopers figures. Where they land is where they
land. (Hey they're cheapo epic figures.) If your squeamish about doing this
with mini can used the counters for the troops. They lost one guy on the drop
when he rolled off the edge and Kurt stepped on him snapping the guy off at
the legs. Oh well, he's dead. <grin>

The game turns went like this: 1. Initiative Die roll.

2. Activation phase. (Squad by squad) (BTW squads gave to remain within a 12"
radius of the SL) Also each squads troops moved and fired as individuals. A.
Special action phase (demo placement or blowing) BUgs could tunnel and
additional 3" per turn, place a new demo charge or make a breach

B. Squad either shoots and moves or moves and shoots)

C. Close combat

D. Extended jump phase (half of normal movement) NA for bugs.

So off move the troopers towards the base. Watching their movement and my hive
plot carefully I was fortunate on turn two when the number of them moved
across a NUC charge. KR had lent us some nice craters which were about 2" in
diameter. That is centered on NUC site. Anything under or touching it is dead
(Same for MI Nuc Rockets) Anything within 1" of crater model is attacked with
2d6 FP resolved on the boxed CRT.

HE charges and launchers plus DAR/DAP attack everything at a one inch
radius. ALl fire is directed not at individual models but at a spot within a
one inch radius, which helped out the MI guy when dealing with swarms. Warrior
ranged fire was to the individual MI model, while tanker bug fire was to
within one inch radius.

Per the boxed game results against bugs are either miss, stun (flip it over
can't move or fire) or killed. Terrain effects: (2 of the same moves up to
next one) 1. Light armor damage: (roll for special equipment loss), no
extended jump, stunned for one turn.

2. Hvy armor damage: (roll for special equipment loss). no extended jump, no
CC, stunned for one turn.

3. WIA. No move or combat for duration of game.

4. KIA: dead. Note that MI left on the bard at end of game count three times
as high for a bug player than just KIA guys so the MI player has to haul his
casualties with him.

We used the counters form the box to id these states. Also stunned units could
be recovered by spending the next activation phase recovering.

The flow of the game. I won't get too much into the particulars of the game
becasue I'll write it up as a story with pics later but the general ebb and
flow went like this.

The MI player drops and moves to OBJ. As he's moving unfortunate MI who are
over NUC or HE charges get blown up. Then breaches appear and swarms of
warriors and workers emerge, (the tactic is how many to put out each turn.)
Unlucky cap troopers within 2" of the breach find themsleves in life or death
combat with 5 to 1 or higher odds. The tanker bugs come out and also lash out
with heavy attacks.

If there ware no friendlies in the area, some MI with an HE or NUC launcher
usually vaporizes the bugs and seals the breach. Above ground Bug
maneuverability visa vis the cap troopers is limited so for the arachnid
player the strategy is in tunnel lengthening, and deciding when to spring a
breach or whether to coordinate to Brain's breaches.

From the MI player, sending guys out past mutual support distance usually
means they are in grave distance. Though MI firepower can usually deal with
any given attack fairly easily.

Ayway casualties begin to mount, Hvy damage, WIAs etc. A lot for guys have to
be carried along. The bug breaches continue every turn. Both sides got smarter
as the game progresses, the MI spreading his troops out so only one guy can
get smacked by a NUC of demo charge in any given turn and also making sure the
squads can over watch and support each other. The Bugs by withholding breaches
until they can must mutually support each other and by using the workers to
soak up attacks. (Note: the only way the terrain can tell warriors from
workers is whether or not they're attacking him or just coming up to him. Once
flipped over in stunned condition you can see the worker markings though.)

The game was suppose to last 12 turns but by around turn 7 the MI player had
come to two conclusions: 1. Casualties were mounting every turn and soon it
would be unable to protect the platoon while hauling casualties.

2. The human base must be dead since there was no way anything short of an MI
battalion could have survived this many bugs within close proximity of the
base. So with that in mind he decides to call for retrieval. The PSG gets to a
flat plateau big enough to bring in the ship and plants a beacon. 2nd section
gets up there and sets up security, 1st section father out in front, is
dealing with two bug swarms and is in BIG trouble. There are several heroic
moments where individual troops hop into CC swarms to rescue downed brothers.
Most of these attempts are dramatic, but unsuccessful.

Meanwhile the arachnid player has been extendeding two fresh tunnels to the
plateau. On the turn that the retrieval boat comes in, one breach pops up and
nails a few MI. The bug player withholds the tanker bugs because he knows the
fire power of the MI will kill all within the breach.

The retrieval boat is stuck waiting an extra turn to get a last few of the
outlyers carrying casualties. A second breach pops up and up comes another 20
bugs and 2 tankers, together with 2 tankers from the first breach. Ths
situation is now most serious. they kill or wound any MI they see. The next
turn the tankers will attack the retrieval boat, most likely killing it.

Final turn. now more than ever the initiative DR is of vital importance. Kurt
had lost virtually every one of these rolls for the whole game. Now when he
really needs it he comes through and activates first.! One finally trooper,
who's been hauling ass to make the boat, hops up onto the plateau and guess
what? he as a NUC. With the bug swarm bearing down a well placed shot
vaporizes the remaining bus. The lone trooper uses his extended burn to make
the ramp. The last stragglers get in and the retrieval boat lifts off bringing
with it evidence of a new deadly alien race and the loss of the research base.
Behind they left bugs swarming over the remains of several dead MI (maybe even
a live one or two, and about ten nuclear craters.

Â

Anyway the whole thing from set up to finish was probably about 3.5 -3.5
hours. In that time we played 8 turns which isn't bad considering we were
making up and changing rules all along. We had a lot of fun with this and will
playlets some more, trying adding a nd subtracting from the rules. Things to
add include terran engineers, combat vehicles and special talents. Also
Arachnid flyers. We also need to add effects for leader loss and what not,
plus more detail to ranged fire versus CC fire and combat detail. Then we put
it up on a web site for you guys to try out. We took a bunch of pictures.Â
Anyway, it was a blast.