Stargrave Quadrant 37 - The Queens Lair.

Thomas, Richard Alan and I played the Queens Lair Scenario. This is the final mission in the Strike from the Shadows campaign.

This scenario featured a nest of the Alien Queen with 5 royal guard with 4 pieces of alien technology. I painted up one of my buildings (I had originally built this for the Infinity objective room) I upgraded it with a floor of Xeno ridges to match the walls we used last mission. 

Each player got to place 2 data loot treasures and 6 alien eggs. So there were eggs all over the place. These could launch a shooting attack (face hugger) which could be really nasty.

We had recruited a couple of Sentries, Imperial Pacification troopers to fill holes in the ranks after last game. The idea was that they would act as a bodyguard for Darth Vader and add to his close combat prowess.

The Queens nest surrounded by her Royal Guards. Fortunately they are all asleep and will only wake up if they take damage. This means its possible to sneak in and get some treasure without getting attacked.

Here is Alan's Crew of privateers making a rush for the centre

Richards crew of mercenaries take the fastest route to the payday.

Thomas's crew of Mandalorians move forwards methodically trying to pick their way past the eggs. In true Mandalorian tradition they lay down a barrage of fire.

Darth runs forwards activating his light sabre, He then gets covered by smoke for dramatic effects. The first blip has emerged and it turns into an Alien Warrior.

Alan's team have made it to the arch and are trying to shoot down or subdue the eggs. We played that each player could be the victim of one egg attack ( in a 4 player game you could get shot three times a turn if the other players didn't like you.) per turn and that the eggs could not shoot you if they were in close combat. 

Richards gang are spreading out towards me as well

Three Alien Warriors show up on this side. (There's Xeno's on the starboard bow Captain.)

Richard's Drone gets attacked by an Egg.

Darth Vader ran up to a loot token but could not unlock it because there was an egg next to it. Alan's Trophy Taker "Tiffany" has run into combat with an egg to prevent it attacking another team member. If you fight an egg in close combat and it wins it drives you back leaving you in perfect position to be shot by it. Alan's team are being harassed by the egg near to the nest.

Richard's team have advanced forwards and his other drone has made it into contact with a data loot token. Richard's Chisler (Duke Nukem) is making a break for the Alien Nest.

The egg on top of the wall spits a blob of acidic foulness onto Thomas's Lieutenant inflicting some damage.

Alan had made a force wall to slow down Thomas who was bringing his whole team through the same gap rather than splitting up. The Alien Warrior had just charged one of the Sentries who had move to intercept the creature. Mr the Fett did not snap into the combat, so he would be free to operate next turn. Darth Vader had moved into combat with the Egg, but he bounced off and was fortunate the eggs do no damage in combat.

The other pacification trooper successfully smacks an egg.

Richards team are securing the area. Richard's trooper takes a slug of acid.

Someone has unlocked a treasure and this has summoned a bioengineered monstrosity. It arrives in the corner behind the three Alien Warriors. This is good because the xenos will attack it. Another Alien warrior also arrives from that corner. So this will be a serious scrap.

Thomas's team are trying to take down the eggs. They prove to be very hard to take down. However a couple of Alien workers prove to be no problem for the Mandalorians.

Boba Fett had joined Darth Vader under a smoke cloud after the Dark lord cut the egg to bits. Both are now touching the treasure token. Bossk has taken a shot at the Xenos creatures and then ducked back out of sight. The two sentries are in combat with the Alien Warrior.

Alan and Richard have laid down some smoke markers on the nest and to block some LOS from some eggs.

Disaster, the Alien Warrior killed one of the Storm Troopers and hurt the second one. This Alien Warrior would prove to be a real problem throughout the game. The storm troopers are really living up to their regimental motto of "the 20 Minuters".

The Smoke markers have gone away. Darth Vader has hacked open the data loot. We decided he charged around the hard drive and then yanked it out with the force. Boba Fett then picked it up. I'll  take that back to the ship.

Alan's runner droid has raced to the alien nest. I might have a chance to convince his Droid that it really wants to server the empire and give me the treasure.

Some more creatures have been attracted by all the fun. Another bio engineered construct and a Sentry droid arrive to make things more exciting for Alan.

Darth Vader makes it into the Alien next but finds all the treasures which are accessible already taken. Curses I need faster circuits next time. Hmmm... Because none of the Aliens have taken damage the are all still asleep and so don't move. To get the last treasure I would have to walks between the queen and a guard and kill the other guard and then retrace my steps to make it off.

Its a million to one shot but it just might work.

Alan has laid down some serious smoke clouds to get away from the creatures. Boba Fett has made a new cloud and is making for the table edge with some stolen plans. "wait, what?" We could only exit the table via a side other than our entry edge. We therefore had to run past each other to get off the table. 

The Mandalorians are arriving in the main chamber. Richard is covering his escape with a holographic screen. I'm not sure whether this is a picture of an empty room on loop or a terrible corporate advert.

Things start hotting up behind Thomas, Another creature has arrived and is now being swamped by Aliens. Richards gang are playing hopscotch towards the edge of the table jumping from one smoke cloud to the next.

A big War droid has just arrived and is enjoying a target rich environment.

The surviving Aliens from the fight with the scorpion creature are chasing after Richards rearguard.

Darth Vader decided that it was time, he had jumped back over the wall and killed an egg and then engaged the Royal Guard. He hit the creature and pushed it back into the room. Hissssss.....

The Mandalorians are forming a firing line facing the nest. Their plan is to open fire on one guard and lure it out towards them where it can be killed. The Mandalorian machinegunner was dragged down by a couple of Alien workers. Maybe they wanted him to join their association.

Sleetstack, my Pathfinder, A commando droid and my hacking protocol droid. "I'm fluent in the binary language of data loot tokens. Are making for the other side. The had to be careful and wait for some Aliens to rush past before making their break for freedom with their data loot. It had taken them some time to get the thing unlocked. "this thing communicates in a highly unusual dialect".

A tentacled ape like creature, "possibly a former lab worker" arrived and started attacking the egg.

The Alien warrior that had given me problems before takes down the giant creature and starts looking around for other prey. It sees some Mandalorians and races over towards them. Shor controlled bursts from the Mandalorians blasters put down the creature.

My Sentry is hiding in the smoke looking forn an opportunity to dash over to Lord Vader to offer support.

Alan's team have created their next cloud of smoke and have moved into it. Tiffany the wounded Trophy Taker can't make cover to Alan sacrifices a drone to distract the aliens.

The Aliens rip apart the drone in short order.  Bleep, Bleep Blee.......

Darth Vader hacks the Guard some more and moves back, his loyal trooper has made it to the next wall. The Mandalorians are massing on the other side of the nest.

Darth Vader and the trooper move to attach the Guard and a third slash with the Sabre kills it.

The Mandalorians have moved around the side of the nest and have damaged a second royal guard. This woke up grumpy and ran over to attack the Mandalorian.

The Alien warrior in the bottom left moved over the nest wall and attacked the two Imperial Agents. However a quick slash from the light sabre got rid of that problem.

Darth Vader moved in to attack the queen. However the queen won and inflicted 16 points of damage on the Dark Lord, this left him on one wound. The Sentry moved in to attack and  promptly died to a critical hit, taking a whopping 38 points of damage (I think that's a record) he was taken out. In the next turn Darth was felled by the powerful Alien. 

Thomas' Captain got eaten by the Royal Guard and with all the other models off the table we called it quits.

I made it off the table with three data loot. This turned into 200 credits and an advanced weapon, this turned out to be the fabled golden carbine. Even Commander Soros made good on his investments. In spite of all the casualties on table Only the Sentry taken down by the Alien warrior dies and needed replacing.

That's it for this mini campaign. I have the Last Prospector supplement coming soon and some female crew members (Alan and I are splitting a box).