Star Wars Xenos Rampant

 

As I mentioned in a previous blog my legendary friend Alex have me the star wars legion starter set..  I had heard good things about legion but as I got the set they redid all the rules. Now it seems Legion uses a lot of cards and all these had changed, so the ones I have are useless.  Now the original plan was to just pay the rules from the box and mot worry. 

Then I decided to use Xenos Rampant rules instead.  I have the book I have always wanted to play the rules and they seem simpler than legion. Plus if I learn them through this it opens up a world of gaming possibilities. 

Xenos Rampant is a generic rule set.  You pick the type of unit, elite. Heavy and light etc then you add rules  to flavour the unit to what you want. There are lots so you can make a close approximation of what ever you have an idea for! Every thing costs points , the base unit and then any extra rules you want. So elite units will cost more than standard units but will be able to do more things.

So let's give this a go and start with the rebels. They will be led by Luke Skywalker so let's sort his stats. Now normally in   Xenos Rampant you add the commander skill to a unit and that becomes your commanding unit.  Well Lukes a powerful jedi so he will be a single model with the stats of a unit. I am using an online army builder called Xenos Rampant Builder. It's super simple to use which makes life a lot easier. 

Here is the card and stats for Luke, you can see in the bottom image where I have selected rules to make Luke a jedi. There are some rules that come with what ever unit you pick. Such firefight, this means that of the unit is shot at it has a chance to shoot back m so as Lukes a jedi I see this as Luke deflecting the laser blasts with his light sabre. The forces field is a back up as a jedi warrior should be hard to kill.  I have added both options for blades because well because light sabres are cool!! 

As its generic rules I'm sure every one  has different ideas for what would be a good combination but this is mine for now.   

Now Luke needs some rebels to command.

The Rebel squad is much easier to do as they are a solid basic infantry unit. I went with Light infantry.  Increased thr squad size and just made them more shooty. I will have 2 of these squads.

Now for a bit of armour 

Once again the AT RT is fairly simple as its just a walker with a laser cannon on so nothing to fancy needed. 

Last for the rebels are some Wookies. 

The standard rules they get for Berserk Infantry cover most of what they need but I have them sharper weapons and a bit more movement. 

That's the rebels done. Inhave more models but I'll add them at a later date. 

Now for the Empire,  I haven't got these painted so no nice model pictures sorry.

The Empire are led by Darth Vader, I have made him similar to Luke just made him scary to the opposition.

Instead of inspirational leadership i have had him fearsome as I image facing Darth Vader was quite scary. Again same as Luke for the light sabres. 

Now Darth needs some troops to lead. So a few squads of Storm troopers will do.

Like the foot soldeors of  the rebels the Storm troopers are just light infantry. This gives me somewhere to go for heavier or more elite types of infantry.  

Last at the moment  for the Empire is  the speeder bikes.

Once again kept it simple for the vehicles. 

Obviously once i play a game or 2 I might get s better idea of what works and what doesn't.   Well I best get painting  some Imperial troops i think. 

Phalona Reach Campaign Update.

 

So we are quite a few games into the Phalona Reach campaign. I hope you have enjoyed it?

 Its been great fun to play even though I lose a lot. The addition of the Sisters of battle was mainly as my friend Matt wanted to give his Sisters a proper go as he plays Ultramarines a lot ( and I mean a lot! ha ha ha). The Lion Warriors made an appearance as I was bored of getting killed all the time and it was lovely to roll saving throws that I actually survive.

After one of our recent games we had a brief chat about how it was going and we think the way I chose how we earn VP is really costing me as a Guard player. 3 VP for character elimination and 2 VP for destroying a unit but the Guard rely on sacrificing units so puts me at a disadvantage ( Space Marines I think is just me being terrible at 40K) We could use the standard 40k missions and secondaries but we haven't really got the hang of them and keeping track of the scores. So maybe we will try in the future, for now we were going to look at super simple missions. e.g. One player defends a base the other is the attacker, simple job is to take the base. 

We also have the missions I wrote before the campaign started, I think maybe we got a bit carried away with our narrative ha ha ha and need to pull it back to sorting the details of the mission a bit more before we play while keeping the narrative at the fore front of the games as that is  the thing we love most about wargaming. We do have a habit of discussing the inside and outs of the rules when we sit down at the table.  Probably better that we get those all sorted  before we sit down to play then we can just crack on.  

I know if I had a xenos army (Tau are cool but they require way to much thougjt to play) as well as my guard Phalona Reach would have succumbed to the influence of the xeno's but I just have imperium forces. 

Lessons learned 

Don't go to big straight away. 1000VP may have been to ambitious.  If we used GW missions maybe it would be ok as people tend to end games with 50 to 60 VPs. 

 I'm thinking maybe in the new year we give the GW missions and secondary missions a game to see how we cope.  We could try a thing called Colosseum. It's from Play on Tabletop and is a 500pt  battle designed to be small and quicker. 

Don't just assume missions in your head.will always work . That's why people play test! 

So there we are. We are having fun which is the main thing and I hope.everyone is enjoying the fate of Phalona Reach being decided. 

If you have any suggestions or ideas feel free to drop a comment and let me know.

Probing Defences

 

The last game of the year was played on Monday. The Sisters were probing the defences of Phalona Prime and got a bit more than they bargained for!

Dutch prowled the wooded area on the capitols very edges. He was looking for signs of those meddlesome Ultramarines. Orders came down that there was a possibility the shift of the war would fall on Phalona Prime, Capitol of Phalona Reach. Try to cut the head off the snake and assume the planet will fall back in line. Dutch had serious reservations about that and thought the inquisition might pay the planet a visit .  

He struck off the dark thoughts as he heard a clanking of tank tracks and a hiss of something hydraulic. He silently moved forward and in a clearing saw a force of Adeptus Sororitas forming. A quick check of his map and he worked out they were going to march into Outpost 5 Beta. A forward listening post on the edge of the city. He best get there and warn them. 

Lt Dimitriv sat on his Vanquisher tanks turret enjoying a brief respite from the war. If he laid back and looked at the Phalona sky it almost felt like a summer training camp. “LT ! Friendlies coming in from the south “ a voice shouted up to him from the infantry command squad. With a stretch he stood up and climbed off the tank, a figure emerged from the woods. Lt Dimitriv recognised the figure as Dutch. He had seen the news pics of the legendary hero. With a confident swagger Dutch walked up to him. 

“Lieutenant. You got a force of those angry sisters coming towards you. I can't stay, orders and that but good luck”.

With that Dutch walked off towards the Capitol.

Lt Dimitriv took a second and then started ordering his small forces. “Get on the vox and call up the rest of the units. I want the full command here”.

Half an hour later, Lt Dimitriv stood watching the soldiers preparing positions and weapons. He noticed a civilian walking through the lines and heading towards the woods. He ran over and tried to stop the man. The strange man turned, he was dressed in a suit and looked like he was going to work in an admin block. 

“Where are you going sir ? You can't be here” Dimitriv said.

The man looked at the Dimitriv. His eyes held a coldness he hadn't seen before. 

“Daisy wasn't a part of this…..someone is going to pay”. The man pulled out an ornate but ancient pistol and walked away .

A soldier who Dimitriv recognised as being always a bit shady, anything you wanted he could get was staring at the man in awe. 

“Helsin, who was that?”

“Baba Yaga sir. I've only heard rumours he was supposed to be retired."

Tonight's battle was a simple take and hold. The Sisters have discovered a listening post and have to take it. Again not many pictures sorry, I really need to get better at this.

The battlefield for our game

I took a more infantry heavy force today (2 squads of 20 guardsmen, a squad of 10 Krieg and a squad of Kasrkin) and only 1 tank with 2 armoured Sentinels! Can you believe it.  

The Sisters started the battle by advancing forward. Sisters of Battle coming at my left flank and a Castigator tank with Penitant Engines in support coming at my right.  My infantry came under fire as my armoured vehicles were safely tucked away (I'm learning), my turn came and I unleashed my surprise for Matt. An Eversor assassin but this was no ordinary Eversor assassin.

They call him Baba Yaga a retired Bounty hunter

He sprinted up the left flank while my one 20 man squad held the ruins on that side. The right flank I pushed a 20 man squad forward going for the objective while keeping a squad behind for back up. One Sentinel stayed still on the left and fired a frag missile into the advancing Battle sisters squad. On the right the Castigator was a serious threat which my sentinel managed  to slap it with a hunter killer missile (A rare feat for the Guard!). My one tank, a Leman Russ Vanquisher tank (Really wanted to try out the Vanquisher battle cannon.....Spoiler alert as with any new model syndrome it did nothing!) was out of sight of the Castigator so shot at the Penitant engines.

The Sisters next turn brought the Penitent Engines right up to my squad and flamed it. They then charged in and carved up a good chunk of the squad. The Castigator pounded my infantry on the left along with the Sisters squad. Then as Matt loves to do a Canoness and Zerapyhm squad along with  a living Saint dropped in front of my lines! They truly butchered  the 20 man squad and wiped it out. This allowed me to use the Reinforcement strat and put a new 20 man squad into reserves. Exciting for me, infuriating for Matt. 

My turn cam and with the help of orders and a solid advance roll my back up squad on the right flank took the objective. The squad engaged with the Penitent engines fell back but screened the squad that had taken the objective hoping to buy them some time. The Sentinel on the right took a few wounds off one of the Penitant engines. My Kasrikin moved out of the base they were holding and hit the Castigator with a melta mine and hot shot las guns. My Vanquisher moved out of cover and hit the Castigator with everything it had (As mentioned except the main gun that missed entirely!), the Castigator still stood but was very hurt.  One the left flank the newly arrived 20 man squad exacted a bloody revenge on the Zerapyhm squad. A huge volley of las gun fire felled  most of the squad leaving the Canoness alone. Baba Yaga  fell upon the Sisters of battle from the rear. After his shooting and charge there were 3 of 10 Sisters left. 

The Sisters hit back, the Penitent engines flamed the squad they had charged out of existence and then charged the squad on the objective killing all but 1. The Canoness retreated back to the sisters of Battle and the Saint. There they shot and brought down my Eversor Assassin. The Eversor has deadly demise which wiped the sister of battle squad out and left the Canoness and saint quite exposed with very few body guards. 

My turn all my fire was aimed at surviving Canoness and saint and tank. I managed to kill  the tank,  all the body guards and the Canoness (I think, that one detail evades me) The Penitant engines killed the remaining guardsmen and then Matt called it. He had no infantry to hold the objectives and his Castigator being gone meant my tank had a significant advantage with its weapon being able to one shot anything he had. 

Was a fun game and I tried hard to use stuff I had read about with Guard and not just charge forward.

Phalona Reach VP total for Victory: 1000

Phalona Reach Defence Forces: 341

Ultramarines :339

The gunfire finally died down. Lt Dimitriv opened the hatch of his Vanquisher letting the cordite smoke out and fresh air in. They had held the line, seen off the enemy but it had not been earned freely. Officio Medicae staff now moved amongst the broken and dead searching for casualties. A stream of stretchers went one way and bodies the other. A squad of Phalona PDF were maneuvering through the Adeptus Sororitas bodies. Every now and then a soldier would stop and pull a trophy  

off a body. Dimitriv went to find the Vox operator to send his report. A commotion caught his eye. Several soldiers were dragging a prisoner towards him. Her white armour was stained with blood and mud. Rent open in several places. The soldiers forced her onto her knees before Dimitriv, she was barely conscious but stared at him eyes burning with pain and hatred. 

“Secure the prisoner and get a medicae to stabilise her for transport” Dimitriv said. No one moved , one of the soldiers pulled out a las pistol and pointed it at the Sister

“For Marshall Dreval “ 

“I wouldn't do that if I were you” a new voice said. Dimitriv blinked as Dutch appeared from nowhere, knife to the soldier's throat. 

“There is enough out there for revenge. She goes to the Governor.” Dutch pointed angrily out into the woods. The soldier white with terror, lowered his pistol. 

“She needs to die “ he mumbled as he stalked off. Dutch and 3 soldiers took the sister away in a transport. Dimitriv was glad that problem was out of his hands. Fighting a war appealed more to him than politics. 

The Martyr’s Toll

​Sister Superior Cassian entered the requisitioned administrative office, the servo-motors in her armour whining softly with the movement. She stopped before the heavy oak desk and snapped a sharp salute, the sign of the Aquila formed perfectly across her chest. Canoness Superior Angelica did not look up immediately from the maps spread before her, but her presence filled the room. "Report, Sister."

​Cassian lowered her hands, her expression grim. "The scout force dispatched to assess the outer defences of the planetary capital has been silenced, Canoness. They encountered a concealed strongpoint. It was an ambush."

​She stepped forward and placed a cracked data-slate on the desk. "Telemetry indicates total loss of the force. They died fighting."

​Angelica stared at the data-slate for a long moment, her face an unreadable mask of cold marble. She did not shout, nor did she strike the table. She simply nodded, accepting the weight of the dead.

​"They sit at the right hand of the Golden Throne now," Angelica said quietly. "Dismissed, Cassian."

​Penance and Prayer

​As the door closed behind the Sister Superior, Angelica rose. She crossed the ferro-crete hallway to the small, makeshift chapel established in the building's east wing. The air inside was thick with the scent of sacred incense and beeswax. Angelica knelt before the small shrine of the God-Emperor, bowing her head until her forehead touched the cold floor. She did not move for hours. She offered prayers for the fallen, reciting the Litany of the Martyred and the Catechism of Hate, letting her grief harden into a diamond-sharp resolve.

​The Call to War

​Several hours later, the heavy doors of the chapel opened. Angelica emerged, her face composed, her eyes dry and burning with renewed purpose. She returned to her office and sat heavily at her desk. Her fingers danced across the runic keys of the comms-console, dialling in a secure frequency. The static hissed for a moment before the connection stabilized. She leaned into the vox-caster.

​"This is Canoness Angelica hailing the Battle Barge Resilient. Patch me through to Lieutenant Titus. Immediately."

Sisters Revenge

 

After the "successful" rescue of Marshall Dreval.  It seems as the space marine forces retreated the Sisters wanted revenge and charged straight after them. 

2 small forces meet in battle!

The sisters advanced first  posing hard to hold the centre ground. The Space marine outriders and Stern Guard  were the targets of choice. Both units fell eventually to focused fire and charges. My Infernus marines held an objective but were killed trying to defend the objective. Sister of Battle tanks pushed the centre of the board and the Sisters took the middle objective.

With my left flank being overwhelmed I shifted to my right flank. A squad of 10 Intercessors pushed for the right objective. Against them was a squad of 10 battle sisters. Bolter fire was exchanged and the marines slayed 5 sisters in one volley. They charged in and spent  a turn or 2 wiping the unit out (Bleeding Imaginifier  giving them a 2+ armour save!)

Intercessors pile in!

My blade guard charged the Seraphim and Canoness to get revenge for the fallen Stern Guard. A whirling  melee over 2 turns occurred and due to some shocking rolls on my space marine captain  part he was killed easily by the Canoness

Started off so well.

I was left with one unit left! I pushed to get revenge on the Canoness. She had flew to the top of the building in the centre . My Intercessors levelled their bolt rifles and thanks to Target Elimination and Oath of Moment the Canoness and the last Seraphim had 36 saves to make!!! The fusillade was to much and she fell! that was the end of the battle. On VP points another victory for the Sisters.

Phalona Reach VP total for Victory: 1000

Phalona Reach Defence Forces: 326

Ultramarines :334

The apothecary and another marine brother dragged Captain Krenal away into the trees and the rest of the intercessors provided covering fire. The apothecary wasn't worried about imminent danger. The intercessors had managed to swat the enemy's leader out of the sky in a hail of bolter fire but this mission had failed, not even that victory could save it. The Phalonian Marshall was dead. Crushed beneath the tracks of the Adeptus Sororitas tank. The captain would not be happy when he recovered. 

Aboard the Lion Warrior Strike Cruiser Vigilant Wrath Captain Krenal winced at his injuries …..no he corrected himself more so the shame of failure. He had lost battle brothers and the mission objective. The chapter master would not be pleased. Krenal started to wonder if this world was worth the effort the chapter master was expending?

Governor Snarpe read the message showing no emotion. The Space marines confirmed Marshall Dreval has been killed in action. Run over by a frakking tank . Well he mused her hatred for the Sisters of Battle set a course that would lead to her death eventually.  

He realised his staff were waiting. 

“Toll the Bell of the Reach. Marshall Dreval has perished battling the enemy. Let it be known she stood and cut down many enemies of Phalona Reach before she was struck cowardly from behind! Her sacrifice will not be in vein ” 

Several members of staff noted things down on data slates and left the room.  

Xavier Snarpe  went back to the holo table. There was an awful lot of enemy signifiers all over the planet.. His world was burning in its fight for freedom. Phalona Reach must stay strong he thought.

​Canoness Angelica stood over the body, firmly waving away the Medicae Sister who approached her for the second time. The wound was unimportant; she had stopped the bleeding for now and she would deal with it properly when they returned to base. Right now, it was infinitely more important to ensure the escaped witch was truly dead.

​She gazed down at the shattered corpse. The recognizable features confirmed it beyond any doubt: it was her.

​Angelica dropped to one knee amidst the rubble and offered a silent, fervent prayer to the Divine Emperor for the deliverance of the wicked soul she had just dispatched. Reaching out, she detached the distinctive, identifying emblem from the foe's splintered breastplate, securing the trophy in her own pouch.

​Rising slowly, she turned to Sister Superior Cassian, who was organizing the final sweeps. Angelica simply nodded.

​"Ensure nothing is left. Burn everything," she commanded, her voice raw with fatigue.

​As the heavy wumph of a flamer began to sound in the background, consuming the evidence of the heretic’s hideout, Angelica walked toward the waiting transport. She climbed inside and sat down, resting properly for the first time in eighteen hours. Outside, the murmuring rhythm of the Sisters reciting the Litany of Purification rose to meet the roar of the cleansing flames.

The Painting Table has Returned!

 After having to walk past under coated miniatures for the last few weeks I thought I best get them painted. I managed to complete the squad of Vanguard Jump pack marines, Dutch hero of Phalona Reach and a surprise i cant show yet otherwise it'll ruin the fun bringing it to one of our battles. 

The marines were ok to paint plenty going on with them so  a bit different  to usual 3d printed marines but I think I did ok.

I think they came out ok! Some of the hunched positions didn't help but I got past that.

Next up inhave been using g Sly Marbo for Dutch but I felt like he needs his own model. So here he is

Dutch Hero of Phalona Reach!

Really happy with his he came out. Simple models that aren't to busy are perfect for me! What do you guys think?