“By Early 1944, Things Had Changed.”

“It was clear that the coast of France would be the next battlefield...”

These three plastic 15mm miniatures are sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War”. The figures consist of an Officer, Panzerfaust and NCO, and together create a Unit Leader MG42 team for the first of two German Panzergrenadier Platoons.

As with all my other “FoW” German soldiers, the figures were initially super-glued onto wooden strips, before being primed in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII, shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. Their details were then ‘picked out’ predominantly using “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Gunmetal, Buff, German Camouflage Dark Green, Heavy Brown and a series of “Citadel” Shades.

The Imperial Guard face a swarm of Xenomorphs and Face Huggers on their right flank

With another of my German Panzergrenadier stands completed, I’ve been lucky enough to squeeze in a second visit to the LVL Up Gaming Store in Bournemouth within the space of a fortnight so as to play-test my homemade 15mm science fiction rules, "M.I.S.S.” As before I brought along some Xenomorphs by “Ground Zero Games”, a smattering of 10mm Face Huggers by “Pendraken Miniatures” and some figures by "Alternative Armies". However, to change things around a bit, I also took some vehicles from my “The Ion Age” collection.

The three-stage campaign was played across a small settlement, a couple of toxic pools and a pair of small(ish) woodlands. After each scenario the tabletop was turned 90 degrees, so that by the end of the day, Mankind was actually having to approach the deserted colony through the trees. Once again it pitted a troop of Crimson Fist Space Marines and Imperial Guard against a deadly horde of ferocious extra-terrestrials (which was directed by some simple AI mechanics), but this time Humanity were accompanied by plenty of hover-tanks and wheeled combat cars. Each game lasted six turns, and to win, we had to hold ten points worth of objectives – which had been covertly strewn across the 3 x 3 tabletop.

The Imperial Guard are torn apart by aliens as the Space Marines try to hold them back

The opening scenario was probably the easiest of the encounters as the combined firepower of the vehicles ensured that the Xenomorphs were never going to get too close to the settlement. In addition, the value of the two objectives inside the village meant the infantry were never required to push any further forward, so simply formed up in an overwhelming line of guns, missiles and rockets.

The next two fights were significantly harder, with the alien warriors actually defeating our combined forces at the end of the second skirmish. Much of their success in these games was due to some poor dice rolling by the Imperial Guard when it came to them overcoming the Intimidation factor of firing upon an oncoming Xenomorph, and as a result the deadly extra-terrestrials soon got into close combat with the nervous soldiers. They even managed to tear apart a combat car at one stage too.