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This is a battle report from our second game in the Klendathu invasion campaign.  The last battle resulted in an Arachnid Victory resulting in the Skymarshal calling a General Retreat.  Now a full company of MI have found themselves surrounded by Arachnid forces and must try to push through the lines to make it to the retrieval point and reconnect with the rest of the invasion force.  Dan chose to bring the rest of his entire Invasion force to bear on this game, minus fleet assets which weren't allowed, making it a 3700 point game!



BUGS PL3
Brain Bug
 - Enhanced Shield, Enhanced Distract
Tanker
2 Plasma bugs
60 Warrior Bugs
 - All with Carrion Upgrade
3 Hopper Bugs
6 Blaster Bugs
6 Firefries
1 Infiltrator Bug
3 Tunnel Entrances
2 Nests
2 Camoflagued Tunnel Entrances
4 Tunneling Markers
2 Cave-ins

MI PL 2
Powersuit Captain
 - WASP pack
3 Squads of Light MI
 - All with Longbow Missile Launchers and a sniper
Light MI NCO
2 Squads Powersuit MI
 - WIth 2 Javelins in each squad
Powersuit MI NCO
4 Pathfinders (survivors*)
 - Sniper with Heroic Surge and Jumpball Player
2 CHASbots
 - one with Pee-Wee Atomic Nuke
M9 Maurader NCO
2 Maurader Suit Squads
 - M8 Sgt., M9 trooper

Escape Scenario
MI get double points for any partial squad leaving the table by the short board edges.
Arachnids get full points for wiping out MI squads, and half points for taking out half squads.
The game goes until all the MI are off the board or dead.

The MI had to deploy first and were given a deployment zone in the center of the board. He spread his three squads of Light MI around the board, and intermingled officers within it so I wouldn't be able to pick them out.  One squad was put on top of a plateau in his deployment zone so had a clear LOS to everything on the board. One CHASbot was put on each side of the deployment zone, and the Maurader suits were spread evenly throughout the deployment zone.



I then set up my bugs in a deployment zone that was all the way around his, just 12" away on all sides.  I put my two plasma bugs on two corners on opposite ends of the board.  The brain bug was nestled out of LOS behind a canyon wall and sat upon a NEST entrance for extra protection.  The other NEST entrance was put on the opposite side of the board. To further keep the little brain safe I surrounded him with a squad of 5 warriors to soak up hits.  The Blaster bugs were put behind another canyon wall on the long table edge, ready to climb up and shoot fire at the MI on my turn.  The Infiltrator bug in his MI form was placed 10" away from an MI Maurader NCO ready to sneak up and take him down when the time called.  Camo entrances were placed in the middle of the MI deployment zone and right underneath the Light MI on the plateau.  I then put down tunneling markers for 2 squads of warriors and 1 squad of Tiger Bugs.  The rest of my warriors I split into groups of 10 and placed around the MI deployment zone as close as I could.  As I was attacking I held my Tanker, Firefries, and Hopper bugs in reserve.



MI went first.  On the Brain side of the board the Light Mi opened up on the warriors surrounding them on all sides.  One squad of 12 Light MI can put out a heck of a lot of firepower!  The Maurader suits focused their fire on the closest plasma bug, knowing that the plasma bugs are the biggest threat to the MI on the first few turns.  The surrounding warriors soaked up a lot of hits though and the plasma was only slightly wounded.  Strangely, even though Dan was shooting everything on that side first, he didn't activate that CHASbot yet...



On the other side of the board it was another bloodbath for the arachnids.  They got shot up by the Light MI and powersuit MI squads and the Pathfinders jumped over the warriors and shot them up from the back.  The CHASbot fired two javelin rockets at the plasma bug and surrounding warriors, killing the warriors but leaving the plasma unscathed.  One or two bugs were able to react to the MI and cut down a trooper or two, but it didn't look good for the buggies.  Still, thanks to the Carrion bug ungrade I had sustained fewer casualties than I had planned so far.



This is when Dan revealed his ace.  The CHASbot that was strangely quiet on the other side of the board was just waiting until some of the warrior bugs were cleared out, and then it activated its Nuclear protocols and direct fired a Pee-wee atomic nuke directly at the last few warrior bugs exposed on the canyon wall above the hiding brain.  He couldn't see the brain, so he just brought down the canyon wall on it.  This created a 12" radius of Firezone death where I essentially just removed all my models from that part of the table.  It was devastating.



Since I hadn't had a turn yet the Brain didn't have its enhanced shield up and was obliterated.    This is where the Colony Mind of the arachnids took a major dump.  When a Brain bug dies, the rest of the bugs in the force become confused and disoriented the next turn, meaning they can only take one action and can't go on alert status and react to anything happening around them!  This meant my turn 1 consisted of shuffling some bugs around into defensive positions around the plasmas and not doing anything of substance.  The Plasmas couldn't even fire.



The MI on their second turn continued to pour fire at the warrior bugs and plasma bugs on both sides of the board, and my warriors couldn't even react to guys jumping right next to them!  



The Pathfinders left the table at this point giving Dan double VPs for them, and probably some more experience to spend.



The plasmas didn't go down, but both were now fairly hurt.  Fortunately it was now my second turn, and another brain bug deep in the tunnels overrode their instinctual stupidity and they went back to killing MI.  The plasmas tried to take down the Maurader squads, but both of their salvos deviated significantly and both landed on the same Light MI squad!  



Then the Tanker bug was sent up out of the nest and batted down one of the CHASbots and spit fire up onto a light MI squad, killing two of its troopers.  The two surviving warriors bugs from the initial 20 that were there rushed up and sliced apart four powersuit MI troopers that were out in the open.  The tunneling bugs underground moved toward the Light MI squad.



The tunnel the Light MI on the plateau were standing on ruptured open and five warrior bugs sliced and diced six of the light MI troopers, pulling some back down into the tunnels.  



The Powersuit MI below them, knowing that the Light MI were doomed, opened fire on the emerging warriors, killing two and finishing off the rest of the Light MI squad in the crossfire.



Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the firefries came into action by jumping out of the nest and spitting fire at the CHASbot that nuked the brain, while the Blaster bugs on the ridge belched fire at the light MI below.



The tiger bugs tunneled underneath a Maurader squad and tried to take one down, but were only able to slightly damage them before succumbing to the flamethrower reaction of the Chickenhawks.



Next it was the MI's turn.  The Maurader suits, Light MI squad and CHASbot finally took down a Plasma bug and started making their way toward that now clear table edge.  They also shot the hoppers out of the sky and took down the infiltrator before he could do more than kill a couple powersuit troopers.  The CHASbot escaped off the board edge.



At one point, a group of tunneling bugs tried to snatch up the escaping captain, but were foiled by the last standing Light MI who protected him with their lives.  Those bugs were quickly shot down by the remaining maurader suits.  The captian escaped off the board.



With the entire MI force moving toward the table edge, the other plasma bug opened fire on the Maurader suits, and its accuracy was right on.  Its first shot took down one of the chickenhawks, but the M8 sergeant survived and high-tailed it out of there.



With the tanker bug and various warrior bugs moving down on them, one squad of mauraders turned around and held the bug swarm back while the rest of the force tried to escape.  They kept the tanker and bugs back, but the plasma bug kept shooting down maurader suit after maurader suit behind them.  



In the end the rest of the force was taken down by plasma fire, warrior stabs, and tanker spit.  In the end, the only MI who escaped the slaughter was the MI Captain, one M8 Maurader suit Sgt., one CHASbot, and the four Pathfinders who participated in the Beachhead invasion.



Final Score:

MI: 1190
Bugs: 2510

Arachnid Victory!

Since the next scenaro we are to play ("General Retreat") calls for the MI to get at least 1000 points through the Arachnid lines to win, and there are only 995 points total left (595 of troopers, 400 of air assets) in the MI force, making it impossible for him to win the next game, Dan conceeded the campaign to me.

Arachnid Total Victory on Klendathu!

As an MI player, I must say that you cheated somehow or secretly splashed coffee into Dan's eyes sometime.[/joking]

Nice battle report. The SFX are really good, and the game sounds awesome. It seems that you know how to use tunnels really well, and that Dan knows how to nuke, and that you both had a good time. Good job.

Thanks man, we did have a good time.

I am all about tunneling as a bug player.  I always max out tunnel entrances and tunneling markers if I can in any battle over 1500 points, and anything over 2000 I toss in a Nest to bring in the reserves.  Tunneling is the greatest asset the bugs have.

That's the first nuke Dan ever used, and he used it correctly.  From now on I'm starting the brain bug underground at the beginning of my games because I think he's going to start taking more nukes.  They are a definate problem.