New! Science Fiction figures!

Around this time last year, I backed a Kickstarter run by Antediluvian Miniatures which was all about a small range of science fiction figures that they described as Bounty Hunters. Now, this coincided with me having another look at some simple sci fi rules that I'd been working on, on and off, for around three or four years and I thought that these figures would be ideal for some of the characters that I'd been thinking about. Anyway, as tends to happen, other things got in the way and the minis sat in a box until couple of weeks ago, when I decided to revisit my draft rules and, at the same time, start working on the minis.

Anyway, rules aside, I've finished the minis off and I am really pleased with how they have turned out. There are eleven in total, but I've photographed them in two groups.

The first lot have a certain formal look about them, being quite military-looking, apart from the rather nice figure on the left, who is either a humanoid female in serious combat armour, or maybe a droid. I think I prefer the former interpretation. The others all seem to be wearing light body or flak armour, and a couple are carrying mauls or clubs as well as their guns. I've given two of them anti-blast visors, which I've given a lick of gloss varnish so that they have a nice reflective appearance.

This second group are of a more disparate (and desperate) appearance, definitely from the other side of the Law. I have decided to keep an orange theme for a few of the figures, representing the kind of utilitarian garments that a crew of a ship might wear. The sharp-eyed will notice that one of the first group is also wearing a similar thing with his flak armour.

The short guy on the left is wearing heavy power armour with two integral guns, and he also has a power claw and is carrying a blade. Well tooled-up! In front, there is a little blue alien, who I really rather like, and next to him a kind of humanoid mutant rat who looks pretty pleased with himself. I really love the big lizard alien with the big gun. I think that it is my favourite of the whole set, but I am also rather fond of the scavenger type guy with the beat up armour held together with chains and rope. Finally, the big blue alien/mutant/whatever/ was fun to paint. No weapons, but big teeth and four arms seem to make up for that.

Now, I need to give my rules a final revision and it will be playtesting time.

Two linked AARs for Alien Squad Leader

This post covers two games of ASQL at the club, fought between me and Richard. Originally, it was just one battle, but for reasons that will become apparent, we fought a second game a week later, using the same forces.

Here is some scene-setting narrative.

On the fringes of the regions of the galaxy occupied by Humans there lies a number of star systems inhabited by other, alien, civilisations, some of incredible age and others shrouded in secrecy and of an almost incomprehensible complexity. Of these civilisations, some shun all contact with Humanity but others have a long history of interaction, trade and conflict. One such civilisation is that of the Ry'Hlyn, a humanoid race of a quasi-arthropod nature and with an aggressive expansionist attitude. 

The Ry'Hlyn Empire is incredibly ancient and with links to Humanity that stretch back into the legendary shadowy prehistory of the long-lost and presumably destroyed Human home planet, Earth. The Elites of the Ry'Hlyn are devotees of a complex religion dedicated to ancient beings known in a number of legendary Human texts as the Outer Gods. No cult is more aggressive in its pursuit of all heresies than that of the trans-dimensional being known as Azathoth, once described thus in an ancient Human text; Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

The first AAR describes a pursuit of a group of once-Human members of a Cult that worships a serpentine daemon god by a force of Azathoth Cult devotees (Alien Imperials in the ASQL rules) from the Ry'Hlyn Empire. The Serpent Cultists, commanded by Richard, have been pursued to a temporary stronghold on the banks of a river. Here, among the trees of the jungles that cover this world, a small force of Serpentines have made a stand, intending to repulse the enemy and prevent them from breaking through and destroying an important Cult Shrine.

The Serpentines have a number of  armoured vehicles and tanks of a fearsome appearance but questionable reliability.

These vehicles dominate the centre of the battlefield and guard the approaches to the road bridge on the Ry'Hlyn right flank.

 
The Ry'Hlyn advance in the centre, supported by heavy battle droids.

On the right, Ry'Hlyn heavy weapons move to occupy a small hill overlooking the road bridge.

On their left, Ry'Hlyn infantry advance behind a screen of fearsome Trained Beasts, led by troops from a Primitive subject race.

Before long, the Beasts, bred in terrible laboratories on blighted dark worlds by Ry'Hlyn sorceror-scientists using arcane techniques cross a foot bridge to the west of the main river crossing

Here, we can see the Ry'Hlyn centre and right flank, taking up a strong firing position.

Before long, the Beasts and their Primitive commanders destroy most of the Serpentine forces on the hills to the west of the main Serpentine position.

More Serpentine troops emerge from their armoured vehicles to try and prevent the Primitives from exiting the field of battle and therefore effecting a breakthrough.

Heavy fire ftom the advanced energy weapons of the Ry'Hlyn droids and heavy weapons cause much damage to the Serpentine vehicles, eventually causing one tank to explode in a ball of lacerating fire.

As the Beasts begin to exit the field, exultant Ry'Hlyn infantry advance across the river to engage the remaining Serpentines. 

However, it is too late for the Serpentines to prevent the Ry'Hlyn army from getting the required number of troops off the table and the battle is lost.

The victorious Ry'Hlyn commanders offer up prayers and invocations to mighty Azathoth and imbue their troops with Holy Zeal. They urge their troops onwards to destroy the obscene pollution that is the Serpent Shrine.

So, that was Battle One. Because it was so one-sided, Richard and I agreed to a rematch the following Sunday.

This second battle had the Serpentines defending a small settlement with an objective representing a sacred shrine to the Serpent deity.

 
Shielding the advance of the Ry'Hlyn alien army was a small forested area.

The Ry'Hlyn advanced with the Beasts once more on the left and the main body of troops in the centre.

A small group, including heavy weapons occupied a copse on the right.

 
Here is the objective, the Serpent Shrine.

Before long, Ry'Hlyn forces had occupied the forested areas. The plan was to use the Beasts to destroy the Serpentine right flank and roll them up, with the heavy weapons of the droids taking out the accursed tanks.

Before long, the Beasts were approaching combat.

Amazingly accurate shooting by the Serpentine Cultists caused damaging hits on the Ry'Hlyn droids. This was going to be a problem.

Even worse, the heavy weapons team on the right was soon destroyed. This pretty much eradicated the threat from here.

Although the Beasts had managed to kill or drive off many of the Serpentine defenders on the Ry'Hlyn left, they were unable to completely clear the area. This wasn't going according to plan.

To make things worse, hits were mounting on the heavy droids.

 The Beasts started to gain the upper hand, but was it just too little, too late?

The Ry'Hlyn heavy weapons in the centre were also destroyed, as was one of the heavy droids. Taking the objective was beginning to look like a lost cause.

The troops on the Ry'Hlyn right began to advance in the open to try and get close to the shrine.

Unhappily, this was unsuccessful as the Serpentines managed to destroy sufficient troop stands to force the Ry'Hlyn army to break.

So, the rematch, on ground sacred to the Serpetine Cult, proved to be a disaster for the Azathoth Cult of the Ry'Hlyn Empire. Assaulting troops in built-up areas proved to be a problem for the Beasts and early damage to the heavy droids reduced their effectiveness.

Nevertheless, the two games were hugely entertaining and I am looking forward to using my Alien Imperial Ry'Hlyn in the club's forthcoming ASQL tournament.

An ASQL AAR - Alien Imperials vs Human Colonials

On Sunday my Alien Imperial forces made their debut against a Human Colonial army last Sunday at the club. The Human commander was Alex Self, the author of the Alien Squad Leader rules.

We played a 200pt game with the chosen scenario being Envelopment. As the defender, Alex had two objectives to defend and, as the attacker, I had a second deployment zone, which I decided would be behind the jungle area at the bottom of the first photo.

Alex deployed first, with the bulk of his troops in the two built-up areas which represented the objectives he would be defending. He also had two groups of civilian refugees to escort from the field of battle. He had two defence turrets in the objective areas and these worried me a fair bit.

I decided that I would have to place a threat on my right flank to tie down his tanks while assaulting the lefthand objective with waves of tribal auxiliaries, supported by droids from my flanking deployment area. The bulk of my alien infantry, supported by heavy weapons were on the right;

and I had two lines of Tribals on the left. The Beasts would be able to advance rapidly. so long as the commander and sub-commander on this flank could motivate them to advance. The second alien wave also had some Shooters.

Before long, the scary Beasts started to close in on the objective.

The droids began to deploy behind the cover of the jungle as the Beasts prepared to assault the gallant Human defenders.

This combat would go on for a number of rounds and prove to be decisive.

The Tribals and Beasts took casualties, but they also caused a lot of damage, gradually whittling down the defenders.

Elsewhere, Human Colonial Police and Defence Troops escorted the civilians away from the fighting. I ignored these. My aim was the two objectives, with most of the fighting going on around the buildings on my left. Fire support from my heavy droids kept the Human artillery pinned and this allowed the Beasts to assault them.

Finally, the breakthrough came and Aliens were inside the built-up zone. Over on my right, which was pretty much a stalemate for a long while, my heavy weapons managed to destroy the defensive turret and cause some damage to Alex's tanks. 

Below, you can see the Human Floating Platforms (with heavy weapons) advancing into firing range. These managed to cause casualties to my Alien Infantry and Elite power-armoured troops who I had deployed to threaten the Human rear.

Finally, my Tribals and Beasts destroyed the Human heavy weapons and defensive turret, which enabled me to unleash my droids without fear of being knocked out. Slowly but inexorably, the Aliens wore down the Human resistance. First, the lefthand objective fell to my forces and I ordered my right flank to advance on the righthand built-up area. Below, you can see the Humans deploy more infantry from an APC (which would later get shot to pieces by my droids).

 

The Alien troops closed in on the righthand objective. As I had already managed to destroy enough Human stands to take them to break point, all I needed to do was outnumber the Human defenders in the second objective to win the game.

And, after a few delays, this happened when my robot infantry won a combat against the Human defenders and I advanced a heavy droid into the built-up zone, together with some infantry who had managed to destroy a tank in combat..

So, as a first game with this new army, I was well-pleased with the outcome. My plan worked pretty well and the Alien Beasts proved to be amazingly effective at the task I'd set them, which was to draw fire and get into hand-to-hand combat quickly. When I started to use my Alien Infantry, they proved to be a real shooting threat with their superior energy weapons (which allows them to roll three D6 and discard the lowest scoring one). I think that using droid troops is also a good idea, as it lets you use your command stands to keep the Tribals moving forwards as much as possible.

An Encounter With The Unknown - an Alien Squad Leader AAR

This AAR represents the first outing for my newly-rebased Corporate Mercenary Army. Their opponents were Richard's enigmatic Alien Greys.

Third Level Clan Commander Utor Varanis had been an employee of the Kagemusha Corporation for a decade or more, following his discharge from the New Venus Defence Force. His military career had been solid if unspectacular, but brought to an ignominious end when his illegal financial trading had been exposed by the planetary government's Inquisitors. Fortunately, most of his ill-gotten gains were invested in an anonymous off-planet account with the Kagemusha Bank. Some of the money was invested in a profitable arms dealing enterprise and the rest was used to buy a stakehold in the Kagemusha Corporation's private army, the Kagemusha Security Force. Since then, his career had been one of endless small small conflicts, security actions and punitive expeditions for the kind of customers who were prepared to buy discreet K-Force muscle from K Corp with no questions asked. This latest contract was no different from many others; a security detail on an arid satellite of a gas giant, defending huge automated mining installations from pirates. Nine weeks in both he and his troops were bored, listlessly counting down the days until they were rotated out to be replaced by a fresh company.

Now, in the hours before sunrise, the alarms were going mental across the control centre and the long range sensors were down. Across base, troopers were scrambling and taking up defensive positions. Whatever it was, it was something that 3L Varanis had never seen before. Hurredly, he deployed his troops in a line either side of a road that led from his base to the nearest mining installation, which, if his displays could be believed, was offline and powered down, as was the entire network of orbital spy satellites. In the dim early morning light, he could see something approaching.

Varanis deployed hover AFVs on both flanks, on the left secure behind a toxic slurry canal. He pushed Techno Ninja stealth troops in a ruined settlement and in some scrubland way out on his right, supported by robotic Cyborg Guardian troops.

Before long, the enemy could be seen advancing. These were robotic troops of an unknown type. Almost immediately, their energy beams destroyed the AFV on the K-Force left, leaving the infantry there out in the open and at risk of destruction.

The unknown robots took cover in a rocky outcrop where they were difficult to locate and attack.

Varanis occupied the settlement, deploying a heavy weapons team to try and take out the robots.

On the right, K-Force units occupied heavy cover in a deserted mine.

 For hours, little happened. The robotic troops bombarded the settlement without much effect and K-Force responded with an equal lack of success. Varanis began to feel that he had a firm control of the situation, despite attacks from floating weapons platforms that appeared, fired and vanished again. Suddenly, alien troops appeared over a low hill. Varanis ordered his elite Ninjas to attack.

Inexplicably, these masters of combat were defeated and eliminated by the aliens. First they lost their initial assault (due to an appalling dice roll) and were then crippled by a Paralysis attack which meant they were wiped out without being able to respond.

As the sun rose over the horizon, Varanis sent in the Cyborg Guardians, but despite causing some damage, these were taken over by a Mind Of The Machine attack and forced out into the open where they were picked off by heavy weapons fire. Elsewhere, the threat from alien Flyers forced Varanis to deploy many of his troops on Overwatch, as casualties began to mount from long-range heavy energy beam fire. The heavy weapons team in the settlement was one such loss, one that would prove crucial.

The alien robots, supported by floating heavy weapons platforms were proving to be almost impossible to dislodge. They were too far away to assault and with few heavy weapons, almost immune to his Ashigaru infantry's small arms.

In desperation, Varanis ordered his remaining AFV to attack the robots.

Finally, the primary weapon on the AFV scored a hit and severely damaged one of the alien robots.

This success was short-lived as withering heavy fire destroyed the remaining K-Force heavy weapons team and damaged the AFV.

However, before long, the damaged robot exploded from prolonged suppressive fire from the beleaguered K-Force troops.

The constant airborne threat kept K-Force from doing anything except cowering in cover and anxiously scouring the skies. Inevitably, a Flyer got through and destroyed the remaining AFV. 

At this point, Varanis realised that his gamble had failed and his remaining troops were sitting ducks. He ordered a general withdrawal. As his battered fighters emerged from their improvised defences in the ruins, Third Level Clan Commander Utor Varanis contemplated his future. Demotion to Second Level Clan Commander seemed inevitable and he fully expected that there would be large financial penalties to pay as well. He would be lucky to avoid the disgrace of being sent to command a Kagemusha Corporation Debtor Re-education Facility.

So, an interesting game. The loss of an AFV early on meant that my army lacked long-rage firepower and was unable to get anywhere near the enemy to launch any assaults on the weak Grey infantry. My forces were bottled up in defensive positions that soon became death traps. The Alien Greys are an odd force in many ways but the sheer number of heavy weapons they can deploy means that they can stand off and destroy their opponents one at a time.

Still, plenty of food for thought. I still like the Corporate Mercenary army, but they do seem to need more long-range punch. Also, Flyers.