Starship Troopers - First Game - Battle Report

(Firstly apologies for bad typing. Accident with thumb and an Axe = pain and trouble typing)

So, I bought a couple of sets of painted warriors off ebay without seeing any photos. I expected them to be probably be dire and have to be repainted. They arrived, with a couple of casualties, but nothing too serious. And to my surprise. Quite well painted. Certainly table standard.

And so, armed with 28 bugs capable of going on a table, I roped in my mate Steve to play a game. I am planning on running an Starship Troopers Campaign for him and so we both need to learn the rules.

So we setup a simple game. The MI Roster
1 LT,
1 Squad of Sgt, 5 troopers and a rocket launcher.
1 Squad of Sgt, 4 troopers and a rocket launcher.
The troopers armed with Moritas and officers with ugls.

This gave about 560 or so points and so I could take
6 swarms of 7. As I had enough figures for the 28, it meant I would have to "keep two in reserve" until the casualties were able to be re-cycled.

So.. simple, head on kill or be killed game. We drew a centre line and a 6" boundary either way on the table and setup. Rolled for who went first and the MI won.

Table setup

 The table terrain was simple. four low hills, two impassible ridges and three Forest, rough ground areas. The MI setup in the two valley/channels. I setup with two swarms on the flanks and two toward the centre.

Bugs!

We kept the game simple on purpose and from the out set, it looked like I would easily win. I mean, I had wayyy more warrior bugs than he had MI, with two two actions per turn per unit and a 6" base move,, hmm 12" a turn possible. I thought easy! Now we had not set a turn limit and that probably went against the MI heavily, as in the main rule book missions, they have set turn numbers.

Anyway, we kicked off, The MI firing its rocket launchers, as I was shocked to find I was out of range of the moritas to start, only just mind. 

The warriors surge forward.

The MI rocket from the first squad ( which the LT has chosen to join) and on my left flank, has a 2" LZ or lethal zone. Fired Directly and not in artillery mode the weapon, rolls its damage dice against each target who's centre point (nominated a lump on the back of the warrior body as being centre reference for the game). So two bugs, fell into the LZ, and the rolls, needed 5+ to hit. Two hits, one saves, one doesn,t One bug dead. Simple! Now this mechanic is quick, you have a two hit and an out right kill value. Roll equal or above the out right kill your dead, equal or above the hit value and you get a save roll (if you are entitle one). Though the game is I-go, U-go as such. The fact you have to roll saves and get to react if a unit completes an action with in 10" of your unit, giving you a free single action. Means you never get bored. A style of gaming I prefer.
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The MI Lt readies his men before firing a punnishing salvo!

 My tactics were simple. Charge! I have no ranged capability with warriors. They are close quarters or nothing. But lethal in close quarters. The MI are the opposite really. Standard Power Armoured troopers don't fair well in CQ at all v warriors. And I feared this would give a dull game. But in fact i was rather fun. Having taken a while to read through the section of the book on fire zones and direct v indirect fire etc. It was Steve's second turn. This second squad having fired, but caused no casualties on the right flank with the rocket launcher.
His next round of firing, which included the moritas and the rocket launcher, on readied meant firstly he could fire the rocket launcher. And second he gets a re-roll on the damage for being readied.. scary! So in a blaze of bullets, the MI let rip. The contrail of a rocket landing square in the middle of the directly approaching warrior unit. The net result was five dead bugs! Ouch! near wipe out in one turn..

MI Left flank, squad two fire at the left hand warrior swarm.

 On the other MI flank, the shooting is deadly but not quite as effective.
My losses are mounting but I still feel ok. Plenty of bugs still on the table.

For the MI life is about to get interesting

 With my 6" move, I am soon charging down the MI, on my third turn. However my movement falls short and I provoke a "reaction" from the MI unit. Oops! Their reaction was to fire.

Now you see them!

The Warriors are relentlessly on the move!

Now you don't - eek!

 If you are observant you will notice in the above three photos, my lead, unit of four warriors disappears into green mush, under a hail of morita lead, as the reaction fire, decimates them!. Ouch.. Now with a second unit also filing in, I decide to switch the third warrior swarm that was heading for the LTs squad, to the right. Realising the the low hills of course, were not difficult terrain and I would get my 12" worth and if i could nail the weaker MI squad, I could then concentrate on the strong unit.

The LT breaths a sigh of relief for now!

Well my tactic worked, helped by a really bad round of dice by my opponent Steve. My two squads charged down the second smaller MI squad. Despite provoking two lots of reaction fire, his dice failed as several MI went "out of ammo" on the first reaction and so on the second reaction unable to fire. This meant I finally got close enough. One of the lead warriors swept in with his vicious claws. The other with its bite. One MI troopers was scythed in half by the crushing jaws. The second, may have survived if Steve's dice had not decided to go west. The reaction fire did kill off one warrior unit, but the fact a second was right behind it, meant I kept the pressure up. The second units dived in and this time, two more troopers fell. Leaving the rocket launcher trooper on his own. Without and officer in command range, he was down to reaction actions only! Not good when there are warriors about and your weapons is "pack" mean, it needs a ready action before i can fire! He did what only he could do and flee!

The lone survivor from the second squad tries to flee but is chased down by the warrior swarm.

The MI, prepare to go down fighting!

Without being able to get his ready action in, the lone trooper was eventually hunted down and killed! The LTs squad, fired furiously, but again the approaching warrior swarm must have had improved armour as 14 dice rolled and 8 were 1's.. ouch! Now within range, the LT attempted rally the lone trooper, but the LTs reaction fire, which I thought might wipe out the remnants of my other squad, only killed 1 bug! And so the killing jaws of three warriors tore the brave rocket launcher trooper apart. This provoked a reaction, from the LTs squad, who now desperately low on ammo, had three troopers run dry, just as my larger swarm approached. And the end was nigh!

Two warrior squads in close proximity, no where to retreat the Mi tood their ground and were torn apart!

So it was afun,and interesting learning experience. The basics rules are good. There are things we still need to learn and understand and for a first go, we had a laugh.

The MI fire power can be quite something, and will mowe down a lot of bugs, but if you can get close, with warriors, it soon gets nasty. So for a first attempt at the rules, with a mix of Starship Troopers figures and proxy AT-43 UNA troopers as MI. It went well.

Planning another game soon, with more of a defined mission. As we get to know the rules.