Last Days - this time its war

With our teams now having been classified as Xenomorph Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). We were promptly dispatched to another science expedition. This one had been studying some ancient ruins and maybe a crashed spaceship.

For this game we decided to add more terrain to compress the lines of sight, we also changed the lock and load rules so that you either shot in the shooting phase or in the threat phase but not both. This still gives you the ability to move to a point where you will be able to see a target when it moves towards you.

We also added some Yautja. These had cloaking devices, Ash suggested the rules: a TN 7 intelligence test to spot, and an additional -1 to hit. however once hit they lose their cloaking for the rest of the turn. We armed them with heavy blades and a single shot S6 12" range plasma caster. We also decided that the hunters would be on locked and loaded state when revealed from their blips.

We kept the blips secret until it was discovered,  by moving within LOS or within 12". We drew from a prepared deck of cards. This retained the proportions from the first game but gave a surprise because any blip could be anything, and it often was.

What could possibly go wrong?

This is us setting up the teams on the table, we are starting from the comms tower. We had the missions, to get information from the lab, to get the power back on and to download data and collect samples from the wrecked ship.

I got the restart the power mission, Alan got the medlab mission, Richard and Thomas were going into the jungle to investigate the wreck.

As the teams start moving out from the comms tower we immediately came under pressure from a number of blips. 

The tighter layout of the buildings gave the aliens more ability to sneak closer. We also used a slightly smarter AI for the aliens so that they would only rush the humans if they were in range. At other times they would move closer but not into a place where they would be shot. They have learned about dangerous prey that can "loud sting" from a distance. This also give an effect similar to how Ash played his genestealers in Spacehulk.

Weyland Yutani and the Indies quickly get engaged by some Aliens. Richard advanced his point guy up to the vehicle only to find out that there was a blip behind the hedge. The vehicle quickly became an acid riddled insurance write off.

A lone alien jumped the fence to attack one of my guys but got tangled on the fence and was promptly shot down with some harsh language.

The Microsoft Service Hub team are setting out to acquire some alien technology. Maybe these aliens go tick tock.

Richards team are waiting for the outcome of the combat with their point guy and the alien warriors. Richard has deployed a sentry gun for additional firepower.

One of the blips turns out to be the alien queen. Fortunatly for Thomas one of the other blips turns out to be a predator so both those units count as hostile to each other. Thomas has employed his patented queue management strategy so all potential customers will be greeted with a volley of C&D notices.

An alien warrior attacked my team, it raced past my synthetic to get at the tasty humans. However we shot it, however it then exploded and sprayed acid all over my android who went down in a heap of bubbling plastic and fibreoptics. I have deployed a sensor marker which will help me with the blip around the corner its also a good place to have as a rally or an airstrike point.

Richard's team are destroying the alien warriors, it looks like his point guy got eaten. The Predator has raced into combat withe the alien queen and Thomas is quite happy to add to the entertainment with his flamethrower. There is now another blip just behind the queen, it turns out to be one of her colony

My team have moved forwards and detected the blip, it turns out to be a predator, the predator then turns out to be dead. This was good because leaving them badly wounded could cause them to set off their self destruct device.

Richards team are advancing and have identified another group of aliens. Alan's WY team are crossing the security fence and are in danger of becoming the nearest target to the aliens. 

Having dealt with nearby threats, my team high tail it to the power generator. this is a good position unless any of the aliens show up from the table edge behind us.

The come mostly at night, mostly.

The weather during the game was bright and the hall had windows and as the sun moved around the light speared through windows creating a high contrast layout. Richards indies are hot footing it to the downed spacecraft.

The Microsoft team have dealt with the alien queen, predator and warrior and are now off to acquire some more intellectual property.

Richard and Alan are combining to get rid of some aliens. There are a bunch more aliens hiding behind those pipes. Medlab in the corner is looking a long way away.

The WY team make hard contact with some Xenomorphs

My guys are establishing control of the power plant. A blip has arrived and is lurking behind those woods.

Weyland Yutani are starting to take casualties from alien attacks and acid explosions.

Richards indies have broken through the aliens and are running towards the wreck, when Richards leader takes a plasma blast to the chest. Fortunately saved by the armour he was still down to his last wound. Corpsman to the front.

Thomas's Micorsoft team have almost made it to the wreck

My team spot a couple of alien facehuggers and quickly dispose of them. Further back is a royal guard. Alan is unpleasantly surprised when his blips turns into the Crusher.

moving into position we spray the fachuggers and royal guard with short controlled bursts while my tech gets the power on. The blip ran into the forest and it turned out to be the survivor.

The crusher shrugs off the WY firepower and makes it into contact. I rolled a string of successful rolls to shrug off the wounds so it was still pretty healthy at this point. I stomped Alan's robot dog into paste on the way to the tasty humans.

Thomas makes it to the wreck and plants the Micorsoft flag in it.

The crusher is trying to swat the WY commando, the rest of the team have backed off. The combined firepower finally told on the crusher however it then exploded and acid bombed the entire area.

my team have rescued the survivor and are escorting her to safety behind some crates.

Now we know what she was running from that's a horde of face huggers.

Two royal guard are now hiding behind the hedges. fortunately my tech has managed to get the power on to the security fence. Suddenly its gone very hot in my corner of the battlefield.

WY have now started requestying close air support to deal with the crusher.

The Crusher was herding the WY team into contact with some drones. It looks like it might be time for some hands on project management

The Royal guard smash into and through the security fence. my team take one down with over watch and manage to not get sprayed with acid. One wounded guard makes it into contact with my tech guy.

Hordes or aliens are now assaulting WY who are in danger of being overrun.

My team managed to deal with the royal guards but then some drones smashed into the security fence and it failed. Some of my team were a bit close and got attacked and then there are a horde of face huggers. Closing on my position and no security barriers.  The urine collectors on my teams combat suits goes to full status real quick. (ref Space Above and Beyond episode 1).

Man down and everyone goes onto over watch. There are still a horde of face huggers to deal with after the aliens.

Another crusher, warriors and drones are chasing after the WY team. Richard roll 8 fails in a row to ignore damage and this crusher falls over like a bag of lettuce. It didn't even spray acid everywhere.

Wounds are dealt out in combat

The indies have gotten their truck started and are now driving around shooting aliens from the truck bed. WY have fallen back (run away) and have now almost liked up with the indies.

The facehuggers make it over the fence. I thought I was out of range and then Alan said they get to leap 3 inches into combat on a 4+. Two of them make it. My sergeant was killed taking out one of the alien drones.

The indies gun down the last of the aliens near them.

My soldier stepped back from the face hugger that had tried to leap on him. A short controlled burst (year right) exploded the face hugger. unfortunately it sprayed acid all over the company exec. He was burned and melted into bubbling goo. this allowed me to shoot the other face hugger which died quietly.

My last soldier managed to kill the face hugger in close combat.

With that the last of the aliens had been killed off. so we could call for evac.

Casualties were higher in the second game. My team lost 4 out of 7, Alan lost 5 out of 7 and Richard and Thomas lost team members.

Even though we all used different ranges of models they worked well together. Thomas had made some HALO themed models using components from Anvil industries. They were a little shorter than some of the other models prompting comments that his team came from a high gravity planet or that their drop capsules were only partially effective. "Aren't you a little short to be a drop trooper?"

So two tense and exiting games. It is difficult to get the balance right between a shooting army and a close combat army.