Starship Troopers - Swatter Rules first outing.

A few months back a picked up a set of the Swatter Rules, but never quite found the time to give them a run out.

I like the mechanisms for the the Songs of Blades rules and  Swatter is no different. Each unit has a Quality Rating and a Combat Rating with fire fights and Hand to Hand conducted on an opposed D6 dice roll.

Swatter is slightly different moving figures on CD's in effect squad fire, with the added mix of a pool of command dice which each side can draw upon to add to to your combat or shooting results or to generate reinforcements if you are the bugs..

So time to give them a proper run out, before next weeks club game.

A simple scenario the Human forces must cross the table with the majority of their forces intact to win the game, the bugs must stop them.

A short walk in the desert what could go wrong?

After a couple of moves both of us got a grasp of the rules finer details, the Marines going on over watch mindful of the advancing bugs and various bug holes.

Sweeping right the Recon section run into Two bug units. Stopping to read the rules in detail as the first round of fire made no impact, the second attempt when you have the bug numbers and concentrated fire cuts the bugs down before they can close.

You need to be massed if you are bugs so I unleash the Tanker which clustering my remaining forces, trying to tempt the troopers to make a false move.

At the foot of a small rise the marines wait each side looking for the other to fail a quality test.

The Marines crest the hill and pour fire into the bugs below.

He's a big bugger - but nothing that several hundred rounds from the Moria Assault Rifle can't fix.

With the tanker down, the victorious humans clear the table, having lost 3 of their number to over 50 bugs. Touch and go in parts but concentrated fire control wins the day.

Plenty to learn for next weeks game.

The movement by CD is not needed so I am thinking of switching to a short stick for command range. Thus allowing the humans to cluster more figures together if required. but also allowing individuals to fire into bug groups, but risking the loss of initiative.

The cost of the bugs needs to be reduced and perhaps allowing them to move in larger herds instead of groups of 5 as the initiative rolls on a 3 makes it hard to keep a significant number moving.

All in all a satisfying first outing and nice to get the toys back on the table.