Here Be Monsters...

Introduction

During my recent tidy up of my hobby area, I found a medium-sized cardboard box on the shelf above my desk.  I knew that this was something I'd used for storing models of unusual sizes and shapes, but I couldn't remember exactly what was in it.  So, let's open it up together and find out...

The Hydra

First out of the box is a Koralon Hydra, from the old Void 1.1 range of miniatures .  This is a huge creature with a long tail, 2 legs and a snake-like body that splits into 3 torsos, 3 heads and 6 arms.  It's an extremely improbably animal, but the fluff says that it is bio-engineered - so that's OK.  Constructed creatures can be any shape or size you like and can have any desired number of features!

The hydra is supposedly the Koralon answer to a tank: it's hard to kill but not especially bright.

I'm really not sure how the hydra moves itself.  Does it walk on 2 legs, dragging its tail behind it?  Or perhaps it slithers on its belly and the legs are just for show (or for attacking enemies)?  Perhaps the silliest idea I've had is that it hops like a giant kangaroo?  Hmm, maybe I'm over-thinking this; I should just let it be a big, scary monster.

Note that the way that the weapons stick out makes this a very awkward model to store.

The Void 1.1 Koralon range is still available from Scotia Grendel, if anyone is interested...

The Broodmaster

Here's another Void 1.1 Koralon gribbly: the Broodmaster.  It's a giant, 4-armed snakeman with a bony shell on its back.  Additionally, it has some seriously huge spines protruding from both sides.  As its name suggests, the broodmaster is designed as the leader of a battlegroup of Koralon snakes/slugs/bugs.

Like all the other Koralon models, this creature has no eyes.  Instead it has some recesses in its skull which are presumably a different form of sensor.  Perhaps it is able to detect heat traces, or has an exceptional sense of smell?  I don't know - and maybe it doesn't really matter anyway.  It's good news if you don't like painting eyes, though.

When I first built this model, I did consider filling the gaps between the spines with aluminium foil and then painting an elaborate threat display pattern on the resulting "wings".  However, as you can see, I didn't go as far as this.  He (she?) is still a very intimidating monster even without such an enhancement.

The broodmaster model is also still available from Scotia Grendel.

Tyranid Hive Tyrant

The last critter from the box is a Tyranid Hive Tyrant.  This is a much more common model, coming as it does from the mighty Games Workshop.

Occasionally I buy Tyranids or Necrons from eBay to add to my existing forces, but the pickings in recent years have been poor - the selling prices are too high for my liking.  This guy was a lucky find from many years ago; I think he probably came with a partly-constructed bulk lot and I needed to put a bit of effort into resuscitating the model.  However, it's so long ago that I cannot remember for sure.

I really prefer my bugs to be armed with claws and teeth alone, or at a pinch with crude melee weapons.  There must have been a good reason why I added a cannon to this model: perhaps it was already glued on when I got the item, or perhaps I didn't have any claw arms in my spares box?

Conclusion

I've mentioned several times that these are all large models, but it's worth a picture to show just how big they are.  Kid Sheleen, one of my 28mm Old West gunslingers, has volunteered to stand in front of the 3 alien menaces so you can make the comparison.  If he's very lucky then they'll all fight with each other over the tasty, bowler-hatted morsel and he'll be able to escape...

I'm not sure that I like the hydra very much, but both of the others appeal to me in different ways.  Do you have a favourite, or is there a giant monster from a different range that you prefer?  Please let me know.

5150: The Deserted Base

Introduction

On the remote planet of Tantalus III, contact has been lost with a remote scientific base.  A reconnaissance aircraft that was sent to overfly the area has crashed nearby, for reasons unknown.  Finally, the Viridian Planetary Defence Force has ordered in some infantry to investigate and secure the area.  Of course, resources are tight and so the PDF are a mixture of regular grunts and unenthusiastic militia.  I'm sure that most 18+ readers can guess where this is going...

Setup

The base consists of a number of huts surrounded by a perimeter fence.  There's also a big pile of supplies near the gate.  The fence is breached in at least one location, though there is no sign of life anywhere.

The PDF have to investigate each hut for survivors or other evidence and then return the way they came in order to report their findings to higher authorities.  For some reason, there's a lot of interference with their communication equipment near the base.

On the approach road, the PDF have 1 squad of regulars (camouflage trousers, with a missile launcher) and 1 squad of militia (green trousers, with a chaingun).  They also have a Valkyrie-class light scout walker.

Making their way through the wreckage of the reconnaissance craft to the right are 3 more squads (2 regular with a single chaingun and 1 militia with a grenade launcher).

The Game

 Everything was quiet as the PDF squads started to move through the hole in the perimeter fence.

This was the point where a small swarm of bugs erupted from a tunnel near to the first building.  Immediately, the creatures raced round the corner and straight towards the troopers.

The front squad managed to gun down a few of the bugs as they approached, but not enough to avoid being assaulted by 8' long chitinous monsters!  One trooper fell immediately, torn apart by the ferocity of the attack.  However the other 2 (the squad leader and the blonde chain-gunner) both held their own, even when faced by 2 bugs at once.

Rather than get involved in the fracas at the fence breach, the militia squad from the left ran sideways "to help open the gates".

Once inside the base, the 3 squads from the gates fanned out and started to search all the buildings (a good Scooby Doo moment: "let's split up and look for clues").  They spent much of the rest of the game doing this, but without finding anything of interest.

Meanwhile...

At the breach, the second squad of regulars couldn't fire into the melee without risking hitting their comrades.  Instead, they decide to charge into hand-to-hand combat (!).  Even though the humans outnumbered the bugs 5 to 3, the troopers kept losing every fight.  Fortunately, for some reason, the bugs only managed to knock down the soldiers instead of slaughtering them, time after time.

At one point, it even looked as if the humans were winning.  Blonde chain-gunner managed to pick herself up off the dirt and kill the bug that was attacking her, just as the remains of the second squad knocked down their opponent.

Yep, she's still going.  Blondie tried to save a colleague by charging into yet another melee, but ended up facing the last bug on her own.

Just then, another group of bugs erupted from beside the road, just outside the base.  The Valkyrie pivoted on the spot and started hosing the swarm with its vulcan cannon.

In this, it was aided by one squad of militia, though their fire was more noise than substance.  In particular their grenade launcher guy, who could have made a huge difference if he'd hit the tightly-packed bugs, managed to hit just about every other piece of scenery apart from where he was aiming!

Once the bugs closed with the walker, there was little it could do to prevent the creatures from clambering all over it, tearing out cables and jamming moving parts.  A few critters fell off and were crushed as they climbed the machine, but most were nimble enough to cling on.

Within moments, the machine suffered multiple systems checks (requiring a turn of activation to reset before it could do anything) and the motors in one of its legs were badly damaged (so it had difficulty in moving).  Although the crew were safe inside the armoured cabin for the moment, it was only a matter of time before the bugs would strip the machine of all its working parts.

Finally...

A third bug hole appeared, this time in the middle of the base.  This swarm was much bigger than the previous two and it should have been obvious to any observer that the remaining humans had no chance at all if they stayed.

The humans were jubilant as the squad with the missile launcher managed to land a round right in the middle of the new swarm, killing or knocking down 7 enemies.  There were lots of (metaphorical) high-fives and "oorah"s from the soldiers.  The bug player just shrugged and ate them up anyway.

The final scene, as groups of bugs hunted down the last few PDF soldiers, was not a pretty one.  Some of the militia tried to run for shelter inside a hut, but didn't quite make it to the door before the swarm caught up with them.  No-one lived to tell the tale!

Moral

For anyone who thinks that this all seems very familiar, I did run a somewhat similar game some time ago: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2012/11/5150-installing-acoustic-sensor-net.html.  In both games, the players stuck to their assigned objectives way past the point where they might have realised how impossible they were.  Sometimes you have to know when to run away!

The next time I bring the Viridian PDF to the games club, I think I'll have a completely different set of enemies (or maybe none at all!).  The players will be so fearful of "bugs" that they'll not even consider any other possibilities.  Mua-hah-ha-ha!

5150: Installing the Acoustic Sensor Net

Introduction

The planet of Tantalus III was recently the scene of a violent confrontation between a group of Klingon spies and a patrol from the Planetary Defence Force (PDF): here.  PDF troops have scoured the area but have been unable to find either the insurgents or several of their missing soldiers.  The local army headquarters have come to the conclusion that the Klingons must have a well-camouflaged underground base and have ordered that acoustic probes be installed to cover the area, in order to discover the location of this base.  They couldn't be more wrong...

The Setup

5 teams of the Planetary Defence Force were deployed to install acoustic sensor probes.  3 of these teams were experienced (REP4), whilst 2 groups were rookies (REP3).  3 troopers in each team carried a gauss rifle.  The 4th member had a light support weapon of some kind - mostly chain guns with the occasional rocket or grenade launcher.  The platoon also had the services of a lightly-armoured "Valkyrie" scout walker with REP 4 crew members.

The rules for installing the acoustic sensor net were simple.  A team would take an entire activation to deploy a sensor, each sensor would have an effective radius of 18" and the PDF would "win" when every part of the board was in range of at least one sensor.

Just to keep the players on their toes, I deployed 3 PEF (possible enemy forces) markers.  2 ended up in the large wood in the centre and the 3rd was behind the far right hill.  Unknown to the players, these PEFs were all decoys that would resolve as "nothing there".  The real threat came from underground...

The Game

To start with, the troops advanced slowly, dutifully emplacing sensors as they went (the small, blue markers).  2 of the 3 PEFs moved into sight and were discarded, leaving just a single, stubborn PEF in the woods, refusing to move.  The players quickly realised that the near side of the table wasn't covered adequately by their sensor grid, so team 5 dropped back to fill in the gaps.

After a number of sensors had been positioned, the combined activation dice came up as a '7' and I dutifully placed a bug hole.  Twice as many bugs as troopers were indicated, so 48 in total (counting the walker as equivalent to 4 people).  That's a lot of bugs!

The players panicked for a moment and the walker "buttoned up" (shut and locked all its hatches!), but quickly the troopers decided to use their firepower.  It turns out that 5 fireteams with automatic weapons can kill about 15 or so targets that aren't under cover every turn.  I'm not counting the walker because throughout the game its gunner rolled very poorly; its vulcan gun barely claimed 1 victim per turn.  The bugs froze for a couple of turns (missed activation rolls);it began to look as if the troopers would finish off this swarm without even breaking a sweat!

Of course, we then rolled another '7' for activation; a second bug hole appeared amongst the ruined buildings.  This time, 96 bugs emerged.  I promptly ran out of models and had to resort to placing I.O.U. counters (each red marker is worth another 10 bugs).

The troops didn't even get a chance to move before another swarm of bugs arrived.  This time they were flyers and they arrived right behind team 5.  Indeed, team 5's position now looked extremely precarious; they were sandwiched between the aerial newcomers behind them and the huge swarm in front of them, just the other side of the hill!

While this happened, the walker advanced in an attempt to stomp on the remaining bugs from swarm A.  Two of the critters leaped out of the way, while a third scuttled nimbly up a leg and onto the top of the vehicle.  The airwaves went blue as the vehicles's commander called for assistance into his comm unit.  "Get it off us!  Someone, please - shoot it off!  All fireteams, target the Valkyrie!  Ah - just small arms, though - don't use the rocket launcher!"  Fireteam 4 duly hosed the scout down with its minigun (and killed the beastie) before they ran further up the road.

Teams 2, 3 and 4 then fled up the road, followed some way behind by team 5.  The huge swarm B and the winged swarm C hadn't yet reacted to this when a 4th group of bugs appeared - this time almost straight in front of the fleeing soldiers.  Some days it's just not worthwhile for a squaddie to get out of bed.  Again, the red tokens are each an I.O.U. for 10 more bugs; I really ran out of models badly in this game!

The soldiers didn't get much further before the monsters were upon them from all sides!  Several men were killed immediately, though interestingly the flying bugs had a hard time against teams 4 and 5.  The specialist in team 2 did surprisingly well against warrior bugs from swarm D; he survived an attack by several bugs by firing his grenade launcher directly down the throat of one of the vicious creatures.

Team 1 was alone on the other side of the wood.  They had an easier time of it because only a couple of bugs found them.  Still, one of those managed to kill a trooper before being gunned down, whereupon the 2nd bug charged and did the same again.

The walker was now in serious trouble.  A large number of bugs assaulted it and even though many were crushed underfoot by the driver's cunning manoeuvres, 10 of them still managed to climb onto various parts of the machine.  It was probably only a matter of time before one of them managed to find a weak spot and disable the vehicle.

The winged beasties may not have been as deadly as the other creatures, but they did hold up teams 4 and 5 until the ground-based swarm arrived.  As the game ended, it was looking pretty grim for the last few soldiers...

The End

Well, that didn't go as I had expected!  Those "4 times number of humans" swarms are incredibly nasty; once that occurred there wasn't really much chance for anyone who didn't run immediately.  To be fair, the players did run, but then were even more unlucky that more swarms appeared to their sides and in front of them.  Truly, I think that Tantalus III will have to be abandoned to the bugs now!

A couple of members of team 1 would have escaped, had we continued.  Probably.