More Insurgents, More Earth

 Zig and I got together for a play-through of Insurgent Earth on Saturday evening. From a rules and order-of-play standpoint, things were a lot smoother for me this second time around. Ziggy had no trouble at all wrapping his head around the mechanics and was pro in no time.

The layout. Today's mission was to be a "Shopping Trip," a pretty simple supply run.

We started from the corner in the park since it had dense terrain features making it easier to hide

Jean Claude checks the first POI, retrieving some electronics - just what the doctor ordered! Unfortunately, he gained the attention of two aliens nearby!

The first of many "Vermin" trouble rolls on the loot tables for us... Since it was still turn 1, we decided the woods were too overgrown to trace LOS.

We heaved a couple crybabies over the next couple of turns to give ourselves space to run!

Monique locates a food cache beneath the tree in the fenced yard, then heads across the street. Teammates stay out of sight behind the police cruiser.

The jig is up! While searching the jeep and stripping two additional useful electronics components, two more free-range aliens appear and cut loose with their blasters, wounding her. The jig is up and the aliens now have full awareness of the tactical situation. No more cat-and-mouse.

Dental assistant Elle gives Monique a hand. Jerome, our other new addition from the previous mission pops three noggins with his sniper rifle from atop the building in the lower left corner.

Jerome gonna do what Jerome gonna do

No picture, but Jean Claude ran over to the POI next to the semi and located some more loot that we were after. Unfortunately, the noise attracted another pair of invaders who'd apparently been napping on the roof of the shop! Elle splats one with her shotgun, standing in the back seat of the jeep.

JC goes a couple rounds with the four-armed freak, eventually making the connection between axe and alien forehead.

We had managed to clear the table of critters, Jerome and Monique's shots were on point. I suggested that we keep looting unit more rapid response units made out lives more difficult.

Well, all we got was a food supply. Monique checked the box in the center of the table and it was empty. Two bots showed up and it was immediately obvious they were now sending their best and brightest. Time to go!

Jean Claude gets nailed twice by a blaster, slowing him down quite a bit. Good thing for him he's quick, moving 7 inches at a go. He's relentlessly pursued by an alien bot.

Monique and Jerome try to get scarce, also pursued by a metal monster.

They make it out by the skin of their teeth. Another successful run!

Another entertaining game. I'm getting the hang of the system and am confident that this'll play well at Southern Front next month. Ziggy enjoyed it - this was his first Stalker7 game; a good test for me as a GM and it gave me a good idea of how things might play out for a group of strangers. I think I need to alter my bad guys a bit, I ran out of vermin much faster than anticipated with all the bad "trouble" rolls. I have ten of the Terminator minis, I'll probably make those the vermin going forward and the orange guys will be the mid-grade baddies. The sniper was impressive, and this time around I got a good feel for the cry babies. We messed up and only had a single med-kit in the group and were fortunate that the wounds didn't start accumulating until we were close to done. No smoke was also challenging, but it was that much better having to come up with new solutions.

Be well and good gaming!

Saturday Gaming

Wayne hosted a couple of games Saturday at his office. Although an unusual setting, it was great - plenty of space and quiet. There were five of us gamers in attendance, Wayne and me of course as well as David, Mark and Mike. The games on the agenda were Star Wars Armada and Battletech Alpha Strike. The SW Armada game was actually a Star Wars vs Star Trek mash-up.

Mark and I drove the Klingons

Wayne, Mike and David

I commanded two Birds of Prey

The opponents commanded a Star Destroyer each. Wayne was GMing and kept the game moving along.

Maneuvering takes some getting used to and Mark's flock of D7s cutting me off was the result of early struggles with the turn template device.

David's ISD catches "The Green One," hammering it pretty good. Mike had laced into previously. That ship was a hurting puppy.

I had a BOP separate from the pack. It cloaked and prepared to close.

While the rest of the Klingons ran, Captain Byg'nutz pulls in between the two Imperial slugs, decloaks and fires weapons at both. The Klingon gets away with a bit of "remodelling" courtesy of the Imperial gunners.

Lucky for me, it was late in the game. David and Mike concentrated on Mark's crippled D7, stripping its cloak, allowing the TIEs to finish it off.

The Klingons scattered and fled.

The Star Destroyers were a tall order for the Klingons. In all honesty, we might have been able to get a fair fight out of a single ISD, but two! Ugh. Wayne kept telling us to cloak, but cloaking and running doesn't kill enemy ships. We had to decloak to fight and as soon as we were visible, it was almost a guaranteed crippling every time we were hit. Oh well... fun game regardless.

Game two was Alpha Strike. David and I paired up this time against Mike and Mark. Henceforth known as Mike and Coward. I took command of the following three mechs:

Shady, The Fast One and Griffon

David had some slightly heavier mechs. Mike had a light Lance and Coward had an Assault Lance consisting of a Battlemaster, a Marauder and a Warhammer. 

Mike and Coward had to damage some sewage treatment ponds, causing leaks to taint the water sources in the area. David and I were supposed to prevent that, but  honestly, defending two sludge-filled holes in the ground is a pretty tall order. We kind of defaulted to "shoot the tan mechs."

Shady and Griffin deployed in the woods. Fast One was was off to the right to flank the scum.

There's Speedy, way out there! David's stompers hang out in the center.

Griffon and Shady hang out at the edge of the woods and take shots at the tan mechs piloted by cowardly half-men.

David's Marauder and other big thing move in a bit and mix it up with the enemy.

That Warhammer is a good example of the bravery, resolve and faith in heavy armor that Coward exemplified. Meanwhile, Speedy tossed out a mighty DGAF and not only got into the tan backfield but lined up right behind Mike's Cicada.

Yeah baby. Sadly, my shooting rolls were abyssmal most of the game and I didn't capitalize like I'd hoped.

Coward's Marauder continued to skulk on the next turn. I couldn't resist getting the Wasp behind it for a rear attack. Mike returned the favor and we ended up with a real weird conga line of DOOM.

The Battlemaster and Marauder shoot up the retention wall on Pond A. Good for them!

Mike's little mechs kill Speedy. Oh well. Live fast, die young. That was a darn fun mech to have in the pack.

Speedy's death is quickly avenged by Shady and Griff.

David's Marauder takes out another of Mike's little guys, but then Coward's Warhammer finished off the Marauder.

That tan Assault Lance continues to defend the shit out of the ruin they started the game in. Meanwhile, team blue is all up in their grill. David's got a big 'un barely visible behind a black wall section in the upper left of that image.

And what does he do? You guessed it.

Two big scoops of Post Fuckit Flakes later, Shady performs a Death From Above attack on the spineless Marauder. The attack was quite successful, causing FOUR damage! Unfortunately Shady suffered a critical hit in the process. Oops, cockpit. He's dead Jim. Still, a coward dies a thousand deaths.

A turn later and, oh what the hell? Mike served up an opportunity and since it worked so well last time...

Burn, heretic. Heheh.

David unloads on the yellow Marauder that had been pretty heavily damaged by my bold decision to smash into it with a 55-Ton mech.

Beautiful.

So, at the end, Mike and Mark managed to break the walls of both ponds, poisoning the creek and causing many women, children and elderly to get dysentery and other nasty diseases as a result of tainted drinking water. Surprisingly, David and I accounted for four of the Tan mechs, only losing three of ours. Of course Mark still had two Assault mechs in showroom-floor condition skulking around but hey, you gotta take your victories where you can find them! 

I think we all had a great time. Thanks to Wayne for getting this all setup and hosting. Had a blast and looking forward to the next!

RIP, Shady

Insurgent Earth - First Game

 I had an opportunity to give Insurgent Earth a go on Sunday afternoon. It's designed as a solo / co-op tabletop game where the player(s) control a band of human survivors in a post-alien invasion environment. The basic goals for a scenario generally consist of retrieving loot, completing a specific objective and staying alive against a stout alien presence. 

I set up a 3 X 3 board and kitted out four characters for the test run. I rolled up a "Locate the Survivor" mission in which I had to rescue a civilian on the tabletop and evacuate him safely without getting nabbed by the bad guys.

Ariadna Infinity models are suitable post-apocalyptic models so they made the cut. They received suitable French names.

The tabletop. The guy needing to be rescued is in the center next to the dumpster.

There he is.

The crew spread out. Pinkie heads toward the survivor. The fireman investigates a loot location (the barrels) and Jacque makes his way to the loot location in the large blue dumpster.

The Occupation Force arrives. Some low-level schlubs, but there are five of them and we'd prefer to keep things quiet.

Pinkie searches the dumpster for loot, finds a promising bag of medical supplies but rats have gotten to it. Blast! She takes Jeeves under her wing and they move along. 

Monique searches the yellow dumpster and scrounges an old power drill that looks mostly intact. That'll be useful.

JC's rooting around in the barrels triggers a flash and boom! Some scumbag trapped this thing. JC avoids any injury than notices why there was a trap. A computer-assisted targeting system! Heck yeah, that'll go nicely in the backpack. 

The sentries move forward and spot Pinkie and Jeeves. the jig is up! Pinkie heaves a smoke grenade towards them. A very lucky bounce and the smoke is right on top of the aliens! 

Those two move away from the critters in the smoke, getting behind the wall.

Moments later, an alien craft appears overhead and drops two robot warriors out. Jeeves is right there and the mechanical monsters take their shots. Amazingly, Jeeves is able to evade the incoming shots. No wonder he was able to survive out here by himself!

Pinkie's no dummy and tosses her second smoke grenade at the 'bots. That should slow them down a bit. She and the butler run for the dumpster out of sight of the rapid reaction robots.

The orange aliens are worryingly close.

The smoke clears on team orange and they're all over Pinkie and the Butler. Since the aliens now have "total battlefield awareness" they're under no automatic behavior compulsion and go into kill mode.

The two robots in the center move out the other direction and go hunting for humies on the the other side of the table. 

Jean Claude isn't "phased" and re-programs the the alien droid with his fireman's axe.

Jacque give the other 'bot the ol' "two to the body, one to the head" treatment. Impressive!

Not to be left out, Monique lines up a shot on the orange critter atop the truck and pops its noggin. Holy cow. Three for three.

 Pinkie knows what time it is and seeing as though she's a technician, not a machine-gunner, she and Jeeves scoot boots away from the orange menace.

Two more rapid reaction robots drop in. Monique realizes she's in deep kimchi.

Pinkie evades the weapons fire of the aliens pursuing her!

Likewise, Monique's reactions and body armor and are up to the task when the 'bots take aim at her.

Pinkie and Jeeves make it out alive.

Followed closely by Monique who got hopped up on some of "Pappy's Special Medicine" and ran like a scalded dog.

JC and Jacque run as well, but don't quite reach the edge.

The dodge rolls start failing, so it appears I made a good decision to flee when I did. JC takes two hits from the 'bots, but it's not enough to take him down. A turn later, Jean Claude and Jacque make it off the table.

Well that was a lot of fun! I'm much more comfortable with IE now and look forward to playing again when there will be fewer trips to the rules, etc. There's a campaign system so Jeeves needs to join the group and become a full-time member of the band. I'm strongly considering taking this to Southern Front in Raleigh in September to run a couple sessions. The games are relatively quick, and I imagine much moreso with a GM running the aliens, so it's feasible to get in 2-3 games in a single convention time block. 

Be well and good gaming!