One of three games of Xenos Rampant played at the club on this day (not a normal occurrence I gather), our table played out a loosely Star Wars themed game. One player was new not only to the rule set but relatively new to wargaming in general, the other a bit rusty with that particular game. So, we agreed to navigate our way through the afternoon with good humour and forgiving spirit!

The table was set up as a remote base, with the back story being that the Empire had been using it as a forward operation point from which to conduct air missions against the local indigenous communities. In reprisal, an alliance of local species were to attack the base and neutralise the threat to their homesteads, either by destroying the Attack Ship in the middle or the control tower on the Northern edge.

Foolishly, and without using knowledge of the local geography to their advantage, the Alliance’s leader ordered all troops to attack from the Western edge (side nearest window in picture above) rather than co-ordinating an attack from multiple directions. The Empire meanwhile had deployed their assets to cover all angles, with a significant presence (Lord Vader) using the height of the control tower to survey the whole base.

On the Southern flank a squad of Stormtroopers stood watch from a defendable wall. Similarly, more Stormtroopers watched the Western stairway, whilst lighter Shoretroopers and Biker Scouts protected the approach to the landing platform. Luke (the Alliance leader) first sent in a wave of three squads of Heavy Infantry (Tau models) to establish firebases and act as covering fire for the advancement of subsequent more nimble troops. Alas, they hit only on a 6 and the number of casualties they were able to inflict throughout the game turned out to be pretty limited. In his ignorance at the time though, Luke ordered (well, actually asked very nicely as they have lots for sharp teeth) a large squad of Aliens to attempt a feint by flanking the Western defences and taking down the Stormtroopers on the Southern wall.

Alas I did them a dis-service here and failed to note that they had Armour 3, meaning the Stormtroopers would have needed to roll three 6’s out of 10 dice to kill one model. Hopping from cover to cover they did eventually reach their prey later in the game, but by then so many of them had been picked off (erroneously, I think because of my Armour value blunder) they were a reduced strength squad with only five dice.

Continuing the fated attack from the West, a mob of Kroot advanced under cover of the the base’s defences, supported by a Rebel Walker. The latter ended up duking it out with it’s opposite number (a Scout Walker) but lost out over time until it became combat ineffective. The Kroot were also ill-fated - a secure volley of fire from the tower decimated them, and subsequent harassment caused them to be the first squad from the Alliance to be completely destroyed, despite their larger number. With Armour 1 they are just very ‘squishy’!

The final phase of the Alliance’s cunning plan was to run a large squad of Light Infantry, supported by Luke, up the stairway and straight into the control tower. With Tau doing their ineffective best to soften the Stormtroopers up, they came on to the table in the lee of a building before charging up the staircase.

Successful as they were in eventually removing the Stormtrooper squad they became exposed to fire from other Empire units elsewhere (that’s one of the good things about Xenos Rampant: you can fire right across the table) and were eventually halted in their assault. Luke might’ve been a decisive factor in this attack but he was distracted by a squad of Shoretroopers advancing from the centre of the table and decided to demonstrate his superior hand-to-hand skills by wiping them out in two turns. By the time he was back to supporting the Rebel Troopers it was too late…

And so the Empire retains its bastion of power, continuing to fly death and destruction into the skies of the local settlements. It just goes to show that the good guys don’t always win…!