Xenos Rampant Project

 

I love starship troopers and Aliens so I want to do a Xenos rampant aliens vs colonial marines (Can't do starship troopers as I can't find the right arachnid models) . Handily Pendraken do the miniatures I require in 10mm. Being 10mm I thought this would be a good opportunity to make slightly larger forces. In Xenos Rampant units have strength points usually either 10 or 5. In a 28mm game most of the time you would represent one strength point with 1 model, so lose a point 1 model removed. With 10mm I thought about removing a stand to represent 1  strength point. At the moment it's either 2 models to a stand or 5. I'm leaving towards 2 as that will be a bit cheaper and you still will get the larger unit sense. A standard Colonial infantry unit would be 10 strength points this would equate to 5 stands with 2 models on each. I think this would look cool and hopefully not to crowded. 

These guys would be my standard heavy infantry. 

And here is the enemy the Xenomorph. There is a Xenomorph profile in Xenos Rampant so will be using that. There are a few more options for each side also. The classic APC

And the fearsome Queen 

There are a few other things like turrets and face huggers so plenty of other options aswell. All from Pendraken miniatures which is handy!! 

What's everyone think? I think it could be cool

 

The Emperors Light

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Urren has had better days he had to admit. At least the rain had stopped he thought. He looked around  his foxhole the sides were slick with mud and battle debris. The rain had dribbled down his back and under his flak armour causing him to shiver . Not that it mattered now... He was the only one left. The Vaunted Hylan 506th, Victor's of thousands of battles but not this one Urren said outloud. He almost expected commissar Grawn to reprimand him, he looked over at the commissar who was lying back against the foxhole side, hand gripped to the Hylans standard pole, the flag fluttering limply in the little wind that was left after the storm. His skin a faded grey colour, his uniform still in pristine order how ever the hole in his head would stop the reprimand. The wound had cauteriseed and killed the commissar instantly as he yelled at Lago for running away. That coward will get what he deserves, the emperor will see to that. Urren wiped his mouth and took a slug from a canteen lying on the ground the water was cold and refreshing. A small comfort in these end of times. The last words Grawn had said echoed in Urrens ears "The emperors light is waiting. Do not falter in your duty"
Grawn and Urren had been holding this foxhole against the arch enemy for emperor knows how long. All the other foxholes had gone silent. The emperors servants lay where they fell, nearly all Urren thought proudly had died fighting enemy bodies surrounding each hero. He looked at the Vox set, Grawn had been messing with it earlier before he was killed but it just blinked red and had been for the last day. No one was coming The last stand of the Hylan 506th on some gacking back water world, where no one would remember Urren thought...... No he slapped his helmet to get his attention back. The emperor sees all and knows of their sacrifice. The arch enemy will pay, Urren would not go quietly into the night and the emperor will see this. He heard clinking and boots squelching in the mud. They were coming, his Las rifle was out of power packs and lay on the ground. He tucked the bayonet in his sheath and picked up the commisars plasma pistol. After a quick examination he worked out how to switch it to overcharge. What dangers about the weapon mattered now? He also pulled a bolt Pistol  from the small stack of weapons they had gathered. He could hear the rebreathers of the enemy closing "Give up Guardsmen the false emperor has deserted you. Come be with your friend Lago, he sends his regards" the rasping voice floated across the battlefield almost like a whisper.  A shudder went down Urrens spine, an unnatural evil was in the air. He breathed in, braced himself and stood up. "Never you spawns of evil. The emperors light shines and you will be cast into the warp! “ with the rain cleared he saw figures in muddy orange uniforms closing in. Several had masks with horrific images on, others had brutally cut and scarred faces. Urren raised his pistols and fired. Super hot plasma bolts flew into the advancing figures, several collapsed screaming as the hit plasma consumed them. His bolt Pistol roared, one enemy soldier collapsed his body shuddering as the bolts exploded. Others scattered for what little cover there was on the ruined battlefield. Panicked shots were fired at Urren but by the emperors grace they missed. He fired again and again more enemy fell. He was laughing now. The emperor was with him!  A Las bolt caught his shoulder spinning him round. Urren gritted his teeth and raised his pistols. The plasma pistol was whining and glowing more unusual than normal. He flung it at a charging soldier, the molten pistol struck the soldier and exploded, disintegrating them in a ball of molten plasma. He quickly changed the magazine of the bolt Pistol and picked off another 3 enemies.  It all seemed quiet  so Urren lowered his pistol. Out of no where an enemy soldier tackled Urren. The 2 struggled in the mud of the foxhole, Urren stared into the snarling face of the arch enemy. Pure hatred was behind the eyes, well that was OK Urren had hate in his heart. Hate for the traitors to humanity. He managed to reach his bayonet and stabbed the heretic  repeatedly. A look of shock took over the hatred. Urren whispered into the heretics ear as the life flowed from his body "The emperor protects!" Urren kicked off the dead heretic, he scrambled for a weapon, a Las pistol with one power pack was all that was left. Urren reached for the standard. He pulled it from the death grip of Grawn and stood tall.  A sudden breeze picked up and the standard unfurled fluttering beautifully in the air. Urrens shoulder ached but he lent against the standard pole the adrenalin pumping through him. No one shot at him, he could see the forms of the enemy watching him. "Here I am!!! Come kill me" he yelled, none of the figures moved they just watched. What power held the  arch enemy back like this. Urren looked around and what he saw terrified him. A 8ft behemoth strode past the waiting figures. A traitor marine! The icons on the traitors armour burned Urren eyes. He started to say the litany of faith under his breath to steady himself. The traitor marine stopped about 10ft  from Urren. It was Clad in thick black and gold power armour daubed with heretical symbols.In its hands was a huge bolt pistol  and the other a wicked looking sword. Blood stained the sword, some old and some fresh it seemed to Urren.
"Guardsmen I am impressed you alone stand on this field where we have prevailed so I give you a choice. The  false emperor has abandoned you. Come embrace death willingly and your soul can join others worshipping the gods of chaos or I will render your soul to the warp piece by piece" the things voice had a sickly pull to it, enticing Urren to give himself to chaos, a small part of his soul yearned for it he could feel it tugging. He felt .... suddenly ashamed and he gripped the standard tighter. Drawing courage from he didn't know where he spoke "The emperors light never abandons his dutiful servants and will burn all the traitorous scum that are caught in its glory!"
The traitor marine laughed, an evil laugh that went right through Urrens soul. "You petulant insignificant worm. Your soul will be devoured by demons in the warp" the traitor marine moved forwards. Urren went to raise his Las pistol but noticed the vox castor. Its light was blinking green now and a muffled sound came from it "Uriels Fury online. Signal received orbital barrage engaged" Urren laughed and wept tears of joy. The traitor marine had stopped, the air tinged with a static buzz, it looked puzzled at Urren. "The emperors light never fades and will cleanse you filth from this planet!!" Urren held the standard high as a beam of light from an imperial lance battery lit up the area all around him and then smashed into the area vaporising Urren and the chaos forces surrounding him.

Jurassic Park!

 On Sunday taking the kids to spend some pocket money I was wondering round Smiths and discovered in the sale section a Jurassic Park board game for £7. The family and I love a good board game especially for that price. 

The box was damaged but all the game board and pieces are intact and on great condition. Tonight we all sat down for a game. One player had to be in charge of the 3 dinosaurs and the rest of the players take on the human characters (From first jurassic Park). Humans need to get 3 humans to the helicopter alive. Dinosaurs need to eat up 3 characters (There are about 6 or 7 so if your character dies you select another). The game uses cards to move characters and dinosaurs. If you get attacked by a dinosaur you lose a card. Run out of cards and  your character is dead!

The board has a similar make up to Settlers Of Catan. Hexagon pieces surrounded by bigger pieces to hold the. Map in place. There are a few tokens but a nice amount that you don't get overloaded

My T rex takes a bite of Lexi! 

We had fun, took the kids a while to learn how to use the cards but they got there.  Would reccomend this game! 

Xenos rampant

 

Got to play a game of Xenos Rampant recently. I have to say it was good fun! 

I made up some super simple units with a few options and Xenos rules so we could try out the game. Crafting an army to how you want it could take a bit longer but even that is super simple 

With each unit having its own little profile it's  nice not to have to sort through  pages of rules for each unit.

It didn't take to long to pick up the flow of the turn sequence. Basically most things you would like to do need a test to pass on 2d6 (Some units get a free action)  Though it is a bit scary that one failed activation can end your turn there and then! You gotta make sure you get your free activations in when you can.  

The combat mechanics are nice and simple which keeps the game going. After the first few shooting activations we both were able to fly through the process without needing to look in the book that often. We did notice if one army has an armoured vehicle and the other has no anti tank. Its an absolute nightmare to destroy that vehicle. Shooting is as simple as rolling your units strength points (More often than not this will be 5 or 10), each unit has a shot value of you match or best that value you have hit. You need multiples of the opponents armour to do damage. Eg armour 2 means every 2 hits will knock off a strength point. 

We only had one melee action occur in the game and that was also simple to do as well and is very similiar to the shooting rules. Attackers roll their attack value and defenders roll their defence value. These hits use the same system as shooting for causing damage. 

The scenarios looked well thought out, we rolled the bottle neck scenario. We used a brodge to fight over Victory points dished out for destroying units and holding the bridge. Only thing I couldn't find was how many turns we needed to play but this could be that I just missed it in the rule book.

So all in all a good simple fun game where you can use what ever minis you like!