15mm Battle Report: Aliens Verses Imperial Guard

Many wargaming blogs these days seem to have a regular Saturday Painting Table post, and excellent reading and motivation they make too. However I wanted to try something a little different, and having finally painted up enough miniatures, thought I'd try and schedule in a weekly wargame on a Saturday, and then post up a battle report on the Sunday.

This is the first, featuring my recently painted Xenomorphs and Face Huggers (by "Ground Zero Games" and "Pendraken Miniatures" respectively) verses some 'Rogue Trader-era' Imperial Guard and Space Marines (by "The Ion Age"); all in 15mm and using some simple home-made rules.

"The story so far... A number of colonist workers have gone missing whilst employed constructing a surface opening for the Administration's air duct system. Surveillance systems continue to observe movement in the area but nothing identifiable has been seen. As a result part of the local garrison of Imperial Guard has been ordered to discover what is going on. Despite being accompanied by a Plasma Gun heavy weapons team, the troopers will  field some additional firepower in the guise of a small team of Crimson Fist Space Marines."

 

The Imperial Guard won the initiative and slowly deployed forwards, creating a kill-zone for their lasguns between two areas of woodland. In addition they hardened their right flank by siding up to some rocky formations. The Aliens simply sent their Face Huggers racing through the woodlands, and took full advantage of their "Eight long finger-like legs" ability which allows them to ignore any movement penalties difficult ground such as the woodland would normally incur.

The second turn therefore saw the Imperial Guard facing two distinct swarms of Face Huggers, who were sheltering on the edge of the two areas of woodland. As a result the squad's sergeant issued the order for them to start firing their lasguns, and employ their "Volley of a thousand lasguns" special rule, which increased the number of dice thrown for Shooting. Unfortunately, the Aliens utilised one of their special tactics, ""Let's just bug out and call it even, man!" and forced one of the Imperial Guard stands to retreat back to the table edge.

 One over anxious stand of Face Huggers then charged for the Sergeant but just failed to reach their intended target. As a result they were promptly dispatched in a hail of fire by the Imperial Guard's Plasma Gun team.

Turn three saw the Imperial Guard start to rain fire into the woodland, and slowly start to wear down the Face Huggers. But in the mean time a couple of Alien Warriors started to emerge from the air duct and quickly race forwards. All at once the Face Huggers then sprang into action, and if not for his "Victory no matter the cost" ability, would have overrun the Sergeant and impregnated him (potentially creating additional Alien Warriors in future turns).

Unfortunately the Emperor was not to be with the Sergeant during the fourth turn and he finally fell to the parasitoids. However, rather than letting him become impregnated, the Imperial Guard utilised "They killed him taking it off" and removed him from the table. He was however avenged as the Space Marines made their presence known with a rattle of bolters and took down one stand of Face Huggers.

 The penultimate turn saw the arrival of some Alien Warriors to the battle line and they immediately charged into the Space Marines, partially rending their power armour to pieces following some failed saving throws. Another (smaller) stand of Alien Warriors similarly charged the Plasma Gun team, who were already encumbered battling a number of Face Huggers. As a result, they only survived by once again utilising "Victory no matter the cost", and ignoring all fatal wounds.

Finally however, the heavy weapons team fell beneath the onslaught of so many Face Huggers. Whilst the troopers to their immediate right ran for their lives as the Aliens used "Let's just bug out and call it even, man" once more. As the game ended the Alien Warriors continued to tear into the surviving Space Marines, having been joined by an additional Alien Warrior and more Face Huggers... beware the xenos.!

After an hour's play, our initial thoughts were that the Face Huggers are simply terrifying, and whilst they themselves don't have the greatest of chances to bring a unit down, should it survive their initial charge, they can easily encumber the unit (and stop if from Shooting) long enough for an Alien Warrior to attack, and they (as even the Space Marines discovered) are lethal in close combat.

As a result, and if my current 6mm Painting Challenge target allows, I plan to paint up some additional Imperial Guard and Space Marine units for next week's game, and give the Imperium some much needed additional firepower.