Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Xenos Rampant - Daemons of Sidon IX

 Other Tim popped around Tuesday evening to have a go at Xenos Rampant. 

Initially I thought he was bringing his Emperor's Brethern Space Marines, and I had initially thought I'd roll out the Chaos Space Marines... but that seemed boring. I figured an asymetical battle might be more interesting - xenomorphs vs heavily armoured marines... I didn't have enough tyrnids/Genestealers/Generic Bug Aliens, but I DID have a bunch of Daemons! So, I cooked up a bit of background fluff and a scenario that seemed like it might be fun.

Then he brought Eldar...


SITUATION

There has been a great disturbance in the warp. 

Astropaths working for Inquisitor Marnie McGuffin of the Ordo Malleus, have detected a warp anomaly on Sidon IX. It is entirely likely that local heretics, performing dark rituals, have opened a gate in the fabric of reality and daemons of the warp may very well be pouring into realspace and corrupting the planet rich with valuable resources. 

A Strike Cruiser of Emperor's Brethern Space Marines are in the vicinity - just a short warp jump away. Less ideal than the Grey Knights for investigating such a disturbance, they are the closest Marine detachment, by far and time is of the essence. The Inquisitor has despatched them to investigate the anomaly.  

Farseers of the Unixos Craftworld have detected a warp anomaly on Sidon IX. It is  likely that local Mon-kee, performing dark rituals, have opened a gate in the fabric of reality and daemons of the warp may very well be pouring into realspace and corrupting the planet rich with valuable resources. 

A Strike Craft with a Host of Aspect Warriors was despatched to Sidon IX to investigate and, ideally, deal with whatever they found. 

SCENARIO

We played Scenerio Echo: Orbital Drop - straight out of the Xenos Rampant book.   

There was a target locale at the center of the table that the Attacking Marines Eldar need to solely control at the end of the game. Deployment for the attackers was determined randomly at six landing zones spread out across the table. 


FORCES

Emperor's Brethren Detachment 

Unixos Eldar Craft World War Host 

Autarch and Striking Scorpions - Heavy Infantry (@2), Incread Unit Size (+2), Assault Doctrine (+2), Close Quarters Doctrine (-1), Infiulltrators (+1) = 6AP

Dire Avengers - Light Infantry (@1), Armour-Piercing (+1) = 2AP

Falcon - Transport vehicle (@4), Skimmer (+1), Armour-Piercing (+1) = 6AP

Jet Bikes - Light Infantry (@1), Increased Unit Size (+2), Reduced Model Unit, Mobile (+1), Undisciplined (-1), Heavy Weapon (+2), Armour-Piercing (+1) = 6AP

RAngers - Recon Infantry (@2), Sniper Team (+2) = 4AP


Daemons of Khorne

Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne - Leader (Aggressive) - Berserk Infantry (@2), Single Model Unit, Increased Squad Size (+1), Demonic (+0), Unarmed (-1), Heavy Armour (+2), High-Powered Blades (+1) = 5AP

Bloodletters - Berserk Infantry (@2), Increased Squad Size (+1), Demonic (+0), Unarmed (-1) = 2 AP 

Karanak, The Hound of Vengeance - Greater Xenomorph (@4), Single Model Unit, Demonic (+0), High-Powered Blades (+1) = 5AP 

Flesh Hounds - Lesser Xenomorph (@2), Reduced Model Unit, Swarm (+2), Demonic (+0) = 4AP

Flesh Hounds - Lesser Xenomorph (@2), Reduced Model Unit, Swarm (+2), Demonic (+0) = 4AP

Flesh Hounds - Lesser Xenomorph (@2), Reduced Model Unit, Swarm (+2), Demonic (+0) = 4AP


Because I was playing Khorne, I was sure to wear my MAGA Hat: Make Angron Great Again! 

THE GAME! 

Daemons of Khorne, running rampant in the ruins of this small industrial town. 

The Bloodmaster watches over the portal through which it expects more daemons to join them! 

The first to drop was the Falcon grav tank...

Games Workshop has gotten very clear on the differences of within or WHOLLY within. The scenario said the unit has to be set up WITHIN 6" of the marker (that little barrel with a Zombie coming out of it), Other Tim took this to mean "at least part of the unit must be within"... which is what GW defines as "Within" (if at least part of the unit is within). I feel like the meaning was what GW calls WHOLLY WHITHIN - i.e. all parts of the unit must be set up within... but whatevs... it came back to bite him in the ass the next turn. 

The reason for setting up here was to not be within Wild Charge range of those Bloodletters and getting a chance to shoot them at least once before they charged. with Armour of 5, I'm not sure he had that much to worry about... buuuut... 

The autarch and his host of Striking Scorpions landed in another corner of the table. 

The Rangers landed within charge range of the Flesh Hounds which did indeed charge, and utterly shredded the unit!? 

Bloodletters come out to play. I don't think he even got a shot off in the end, because he tried to activate the Jet Bikes and Failed... ending his turn. So I went again and these Bloodletters charged and dealt it enough hits to lose a Strength point... and they are FEARSOME, so the tank failed Courage and had to retreat... off the table... 

Flesh Hound poking its nose around the corner sniffing out it's prey. 

Karanak went after the Jet Bikes and leapt into the air swatting one down. It pounced on the rider and tore them to shreds! The bikes did get in some shots and injured the Beast of Vengeance... but the Beast slaughtered a few more the rest flew away (off the table). 

Flesh Hounds charged the Striking Scorpions and their Autarch. Every time, tearing limbs and slashing arteries. 

With the Tank out of the way, other Flesh Hounds Charged the Dire Avengers. Those not killed in the initial assault fled away off the table! 

There was a bit of back and forth between the Striking Scorpions and the Flesh Hounds. 

Things were starting to look bad for the initial pack of Flesh Hounds that had attacked the Striking Scorpions... 

But then the other pack arrived... (that had killed the Rangers) 

and then the OTHER other pack arrived.... (that had driven off the Dire Avengers) 

Soon it was just the Autarch, trying their best to hold back the tide and allow their wounded warriors the chance to slink away into the shadows - to hopefully regroup and plan a better method of attack! 

So that was Xeno Rampant. 

I like it. 

I like all of Dan Mersey's rules. I kind of wondered how this one might work with all it's little tweaks and changes, but this played out very fast. I was worried it might - with Heavy infantry fighting heavy infantry, it might get drawn out into a protracted shooting match where no one was able to take out any of the enemy... Part of the reason I went with Xenos and Berserk infantry - figuring an asymmetrical battle would go one way or the other quickly! I did NOT expect it to go SO poorly, SO quickly for Other Tim's troops! (he did have a few abysmal activation rolls...) 

I am keen to try it out again with other eras. Modern, Wierd Wars, post-apocalyptic or zombies (it's been a LONG time since I played a game with ZOMBIES!!).   

It's kind of also got me thinking about Other Dan Mersey games again - Dragon Rampant, especially... 

5 comments:

  1. I like the relative simplicity and versatility of Dan Mersey's various games. I have a few, including Lion/Dragon Rampant. I haven't looked into Xenos though (I don't really have enough sci-fi minis to make full armies, even for his games, and I don't want to get sucked into trying to build up for it at this time anyway.) But it's interesting to witness it vicariously. Looks cool.

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    1. Cheers!

      It isn't JUST for "Sci-Fi" though. There are example forces and special rules for using it with a variety of different periods and settings... really... anything after Men Who Would Be Kings - there are "Weird Wars" (Great War & WW2), Modern, Near Future, Post-apocalyptic, and more traditional sci-fi. Using Reduced Model units and/or Single Models Units (Just like in Dragon Rampant) you can get by with very few miniatures. Also the base unit size is five - for most units. Some can be increaded to 10, others to 15. And there are suggestions for playing with larger and smaller (less than 24 point) forces... If you like his rules, they are very definitely worth checking out!

      You could almost think of it being like Dragon Rampant is to Lion Rampant (redefining historical medieval rules and adding fantastical elements through abstracting the standard rules). This does that for anything post colonial warfare.

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    2. I' m fairly certain that I've seen PLENTY of sci-fi stuff on your blog = more than enough to cobble together some heroes and friends to battle against some dastardly space orcs and goblins that are determined to ruin their day!

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  2. Ah, okay. Yeah, I don't think I'd have enough to make 12 figure units, but could probably do armies with 5 models (or single models in some cases) per unit. Albeit, maybe mixed "allies" vs "greenskins (and friends?)". Even Dragon Rampant introduced a lot of flexibility when it comes to that. Sounds like Xeno does even more to make for a low bar for entry/participation.
    Cheers

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  3. Thanks for setting it up Tim. We'll definitely try a different scenario next time. I think this one would have been more balanced if I was the one defending. But yeah, just dropping piecemeal into a meatgrinder went about as well as expected. Regardless I echo your sentiments about the game. Its quick and easy to set up and play and I love the freedom in the list building. The 3-10 units rule should even curb the min/maxing for those so inclined.

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