Starship Troopers AAR #1 Welcome to Hell

The war against the alien menace of the Arachnid Empire is going badly for humanity and for the first time in history it looks like the entire species is heading for extinction. The only thing standing in the way of the advancing bug hordes are the brave men and women of the Mobile Infantry and Fleet.
An all out attack on our home world left tens of millions of citizens dead in the rubble of what was once the beautiful city of Buenos Aires, and now as we face our greatest threat, it is up to each and every one of us to stand fi rm and give no quarter, and put our faith and trust in the men and women of our armed forces.

Sky Marshal Dienes. Address to the Federation on the eve of the Klendathu drop

Klendathu surface.
D+0:15 Minutes
 

Echo Squad of the 173rd Invasion Company have landed badly on the planet surface of Klendathu and have become separated from the rest of the invasion force at Drop Zone Charlie. To compound matters their lieutenant has been killed during the drop and they are without a command structure. The squad is down its sergeant and now troopers on their very first drop into hostile territory must do what they can to survive until help arrives.

A platoon from Hanford Greys have picked up the distress signal sent out by Echo Squad and are on their way to help. Unfortunately for Echo Squad, bugs have antenna which can pick up and hone in on transmissions and their location has been detected. Now in a race against time Hanford's Greys must reach Echo Squad to escort them to the extraction point, before they are swamped by the approaching bugs massing on their perimeter.

Things go badly for the MI from the get go, hardly out of their deployment zone and a bug hole erupts in front of them. Many of the MI failed to react to the sudden appearance of the bugs and were unable to fire on the bugs before they closed with Hanford's Infantry.

Fortunately the lead units were experimental Exo-suits, their protective shells saved them from the razor sharp claws slashing at their suits, the bugs were put down by rapid Morita fire. Hanford breathed a sigh of relief. This was going to be one tough mission.

Meanwhile Echo squad faced off against a swarm of advancing Arachnids rushing towards their human prey. Echo squads rushed training had not prepared them for what they were facing (Rep 3) and they fired early and high.

Rescue force reorgansied throwing more troopers into the front line, to give them a clear fire zone.

The FedNet Reporter looked on giving a live stream of events back to Terra.

Hanford send first section forward to rescue Echo Squad, whilst a Javalin missile launcher collapses an approching Bug tunnel, before it can release it's deadly content.

1st section rush forward, on the look out for any approching Arachnids.

Menwhile echo squad were having a tough time of it, several bugs had been killed, but the bugs got ever closer, they just could not bring enough fire to bear, as the bugs closed, trooper Chang thought it was high time he would try out his M902F Frag grenade after all that's what they gave it to him for!!!

Chang unpins the grenade but drops the bloody thing at his feet, catching the full blast and making himself obviously dead, his fellow troopers duck back, for a few seconds the firing line is broken.

The bugs close with the still dazed troopers tearing a number of them limb from limb, 1st section moves fast in a frantic effort to support their beleagured colleagues, howver they soon had their own troubles as bugs appeared on either flank, mean while at the extraction zone, things are hotting up with a futher surge of bugs begins to press the defenders holding the line.

The Longbow Missile Launcher finds it's range and takes chunks of the advancing bugs.

After a number of frantic rounds whereby the MI finally won the activation round, the pressure was easing on the Federation, the remaining members of Echo squad had met up with, 1st Section and their combined firepower had driven off the waves of bugs sent against them, when suddenly the ground breaks open and another bug hole rips open. The bugs shrieked seeing the humans shoulder drop.

12 bugs pour out, many catching the troopers by surprise. the bugs faced with targets to their front and rear rush out in all directions which probably saved Echo Squad and it's rescuers from being wiped out to a man.

Man vs is Bug is no contest and several troopers are ripped apart, but the bug has one weakness it likes to dismember it's prey before seeking out it's next victim, the dead troopers brought their comrades valuable seconds to pour fire into the feasting bugs, now a bug vs a TW203a Morita Assault Rifle is a contest that the bug won't win....

The game draws to a close, the scarfice of many had aided the Mobile Infantry to win the day, that and a shed load of bullets, Missiles and Flame throwers.....

Hanford looked over the battefield and then at his watch, D+0:28 Minutes, less than 15 minutes had passed, this was nothing like boot camp.

This is the first in a number of linked campaign games following the exploits of Hanford's Grey's. I plan on using CR3 from Two Hour Wargames, with the traits and weapon detail from the Starship Troopers Miniatures game. 

As an initial play test it followed really well, after the second turn there was very little need to refer to the rule book, the bugs are tough the MI need to throw down alot of fire to slow their advance, support weopons such as the flame thrower and missile launcher are the key to keeping the bug at bay.

The tunnel generation rules need a little work to increase the random element and we increased the Missile fire power half way through to improve the MI lot a little.

All in all it was a lot of fun surprisingly there were only ever 24 bugs on the table at any one time, it felt like a lot more......