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Dan and I finally played another game of Starship Troopers after a long hiatus.  Unfortunately, the four boxes of Exosuits Dan ordered are on back order, so he couldn't bring to bear the full Exosuit platoon we're excited to see.  Nevertheless the remaining MI took up the slack and fought for the freedom of the popular citizen's vacation destination Zegama beach on the jungle planet of Tesca!



2500 points

Arachnids PL 2 Defending
40 Warriors
6 Hoppers
6 Blasters
10 Firefries
2 Control Bugs
1 Tanker
1 Plasma Bug
1 Brain bug w/ Ego War, Shield and Distraction
4 Tunnel markers
3 Tunnel entrances

Mobile Infantry PL 3 Attacking
2 Squads MI w/ Flamer and Javelin
1 NCO
3 CHAS bots, 1 with Pee-Wee Atomic Nuke
1 M9 Chickenhawk NCO in drop pod
1 M9 Chickenhawk in drop pod
1 M8 Ape suit in drop pod
1 M8 Bigfoot in drop pod

Bug Setup
My bugs opted to go first which meant I had to set up first.  We had basic 'Deep Defense' Setup and so I lined up all my Warriors on the front line with a tunneling tanker bug and a couple of tunneling warrior squads.  The Blasters sat behind the warriors and the Firefries, Hoppers, and control bugs hid in the ample forest terrain as they had no problem hopping or flying through it.


The Brain bug and Basili..er...Plasma bug with a contingent of 5 warriors sat in the far back corner of the table sitting behind cover and on top of a tunnel entrance for a quick escape in case the MI tried anything tricky.


MI Setup
Dan decided that his three CHASbots would face off on the front line with the bugs, backed up with the platoon of MI taking cover in the stream. 


The Mauraders were powering up in orbit aboard the Jolly Roger and would drop pod in to support the grunt troopers in the second air phase.


Bug Turn 1
The arachnids wasted no time showing their big guns and with the help of the brain bug's coordination ability the Tanker bug burrowed forward and erupted from the ground, stomping the middle CHASbot into dust and damaging another one with its long reach.  The CHASbot's reaction fire was right on target, however, and returned three wounds back on the Tanker with a couple well-placed Holepunch missiles.


That is when the Plasma bug eyeballed a far-ranging shot and dropped a plasma bomb right on top of a full squad of Mobile Infantry!


The warrior bugs got the command to surge forward and attack their robotic enemies.  The reaction fire from the CHASbots resulted in a significant amount of burnt and perforated bug carcasses.




The CHAS's significant reaction fire didn't stop the overall push by the arachnid host toward enemy territory.  That ended the bug's first turn.


MI Turn 1
The undamaged CHASbot finished activating the warhead on the Pee-Wee Atomic nuke and Dan wasted no time launching it at point-blank range right into the side of the Tanker Bug.  The other damaged CHASbot would be caught in the blast, but SICON realized the situation was dire so the command was given.  The Tanker bug, some warriors and the CHASbot were vaporized by the blast!


The surviving arachnid horde reacted by rushing forward and the firefries belched some fire at the CHASbot.  The foot trooper MI took advantage of the destruction of the Tanker Bug and used their jump jets to hop forward and fire upon the surviving warriors. 


This started the first air phase, but since the drop pod rules have been altered such that they come in on air phase turn 2 now, this ended turn 1.

Bug Turn 2
The firefries belched flame at the last CHASbot while arachnid warrior bugs rushed into the melee.  In response to the damage from the bug horde the CHASbot abruptly exploded, taking 4 warrior bugs with it!


This left just one squad of powersuit MI and an NCO left holding their ground against the entire bug horde.  They fired into the rapidly approaching warrior bugs, but were only able to put down a few, leaving two left to rush forward.


Nevertheless the two bugs rammed into the MI squad, killing four troopers with their menacing claws!  Reaction fire from the last three MI took down another bug.


With the help of the Brain Bug's coordination, the last warrior bug surged forward and cut down two more MI, including the sergeant and NCO!  The sole remaining trooper left emptied his clip into the last warrior bug and watched as the horde moved closer, knowing he was doomed to die on this steamy jungle planet.


But the rest of the bug horde suddenly turned around and scuttled back toward the Brain bug, who had just sensed the presence of an MI ship in orbit and realized that the MI weren't yet broken, and called for protection.

MI Turn 2
With only one trooper left things looked dire for the MI.  The lone trooper reloaded his Morita rifle and used his vox-comm to radio the orbitting Jolly Rodger for reinforcements.


Air Phase 2
Garland's Grizzlies in orbit responded to the distress call from their brother troopers on-planet and dropped their pods on-target right next to what SICON told them was the location of the most psychic activity near the distress call, that is, where the Brain Bug must be.
But upon landing the brain bug reacted by moving into the tunnel entrance and underground into the arachnid tunnels.


Bug Turn 3
But the arachnids had first turn!  So the Blaster bugs scuttled forward and belched balls of flame into one of the Chickenhawks behind cover, damaging through sheer volume of fire.


A pod of arachnid warrior bugs moved forward to rip the Mauraders to pieces but the Bigfoot fired its twin Plasma lances into the bugs, obliterating the first two in waves of superheated plasma.


This is when the Brain put the last piece of its alien plan into action, and coordinated the six hopper bugs to fly straight through the Maurader line, slicing through the thick armor plating to get to the electrical cables and soft troopers inside.  The damaged Chickenhawk exploded, taking one of the Hopper bugs with it.


At this point the rest of the bug horde hopped, scuttled, or soared toward the Maurader suits as the five warriors guarding the brain bug closed the tunnel entrance behind it, sealing it underground and safe from danger.

MI Turn 3
At this point Dan realized that with only one Maurader suit functioning at normal capacity, and two suits with only one wound left, the Mobile Infantry had lost this fight, and retreated into the jungle to escape the oncoming horde.  Plus it was getting really hot in the game room with the heat wave here in the Midwest and all the other nerds running around in there playing 40k.  Dan conceeded the game.



Final Analysis: Arachnid Victory!

The drop pods now coming in on the second air phase instead of the first makes a huge difference for my bugs.  I now have two full turns to concentrate on the MI on the ground before I have to worry about the inevitable Maurader hammer drop, and can prepare for it.  I forsee Probe tactics taking the place of the favored Maurader platoon drop in the future.

Brilliant report as always Valhallan!  The graphics work always makes the battles come alive, I especially liked the blurrs behind the shooting to show speed/heat.

Having put up pick heavy reports on old incarnations of DAKKA, I understand and appreciate the work.