I picked up a copy of Lost Patrol a few weeks ago. In the last two weeks, I tried to quickly get all the miniatures painted. And now, to kick off some gaming for November, Brent stopped by this afternoon to try the game out!
The game is a relatively fast-playing, brutal game of escape and evasion. Five Space Marine Scouts are trying to make their way through a Death World jungle to their drop pod to make their escape - or maybe just transmit vital data back to their Marine Strike Cruiser in orbit, about the nature of the enemy planetside!
The Marines start in a clearing hex with paths leading off in each direction. additional path tiles are drawn and place around the hex and additional ones are added to any straight path hex tiles until line-of-sight is blocked by a bend in the path.
In each Round there is a Marine phase where each of the scout marines may make two actions (either move or shoot). Then there is a Genestealer Phase where the the Genestealer player first removes any hexes that could not be seen by any marine after two moves (representing the jungle - which itself is ALIVE!) slowly changing and trying to trap the marines!). Then Genestealer player places any hexes that could now be seen due to movement by marines in their turn. Then the Genestealer player takes three actions, which can include placing a Genestealer, placing an infestation, or moving Genestealers. Finally the Genestealer may launch assaults on Marine Scouts in adjacent hexes!
The last Hex in the stack is the Marine's Drop Ship tile. If a single Marine get to the tile, the Marines win. If all of the Marines are killed or are caught in a loop (there are no places that a new tile can be added!) the Genestealer player wins. The game is NOT a fair and balanced game, it looks INCREDIBLY hard for the Marine player to win (much like Space Hulk!)
Brent stopped by on Friday to try the game out. We played a few games. They were FAST!!!
GAME ONE
In the first game Brent played the Marines and I played the Genestealers.
Marines in their start location at the central clearing.
Our initial tactic involved keeping the Marines together - saftey in numbers are they are slightly less likely to be overwhelmed by the Genestealers assaulting them!
This first Genestealer assault, for example was unsuccessful and one of the Genestealers was killed. Unfortunately the marines reached a dead end on the trail that they went down.
The Heavy Gunner fell back to the clearing and blasted away at the remaining Genestealer.
More Marines fell back... More Genestealers showed up!
This Genestealer assault would have been a tie - no marines died... but all got pushed back, and the Genestealer player gets to decide where they fall back to!! Once they're split up, the marines are very easy to pick off one at a time.
Shooting took out one Genestealer, but then the Genestealers went... Heavy Gunner was the first to go!
Another Genestealer ate the Marine caught in the tangleweed. The Marines tried to make their way to the branched path, their only real hope of escape!
An assault killed one and pushed the others to the branched way... but new hexes don't go out until the beginning of the next Genestealer turn, so the Sergeant and remaining Scout Trooper had to just blast away at the Genestealers pursuing them.
On the Genestealer turn, I put the new path hexes out... but then put Genestealers ON those paths and assaulted with the three that had been pursuing them (which they'd been unable to kill any of with fire - four shots, all needing sixes!) and that was the end.
There were two of them and one was the Sergeant... IF they'd rolled a six in that first assault they would have won and killed a Genestealer - and they faced assaults from the two other Genestealers... which would have been much easier to win, with the Sergeant. A single Genestealer is an assault value of two and the sergeant adds one to the roll, so a result of anything but a one would kill the Genestealer.
Alas...
GAME TWO
In the second game we switched things up and Brent played the Genestealers and I played the Marines!
Things did NOT start out great for my team! FIVE of the exits from the clearing were blocked by deadends or tangleweed. Only three could move out into the first branching hex. And then the Genestealers were right on them!
The first assault on those remaining in the clearing was successful, killing one and driving the Heavy Gunner back into a dead end.
Of the assaults on the other group, the first was unsuccessful and killed the Genestealer, the second was a tie and pushed the whole bunch back into the trail hex left open by the dead Genestealer. (the the first been a tie, ALL the marines would have been killed, as there would have been no hex to fall back to!)
Shooting from the Heavy Gunner killed one Genestealer, and shooting from the other troopers killed the other - the board was cleared of Genestealers!? the Sergeant went back to see if the Gunner was okay...
"By the Emperor's Light.... I think we got them all!!"
"Gunner! BEHIND YOU!!"
"THEY GOT GUNNER! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!!
"CONTACT RIGHT!"
"SARGE!? GREEN!?"
In a Death World Jungle, no one can hear you scream...
GAME THREE
In the third game we switched things up again and Brent played the Marines and I played the Genestealers!
"Okay, you check that path on the left, we'll go left! Stay in contact"
"This looks like a dead end, Sarge!"
"Contact! Fall back! Fall back!"
"Contact Rear!"
"EAARRRRRGG!"
"SARGE!? BLUEY!? GUYS!?"
[distant screams]
"OH, YOU WANT SOME OF THIS!? FUCK YOU!!"
"EAT BOLTER!!"
"GAAAAAHHH!!!"
So between games we discussed things and tactics and how the marines could possibly win.. other than just rolling ALL SIXES.
I wondered if keeping them all together was a mistake, if all the marines went off in different directions, that might force the Genestealer player to spread the Genestealers out - making them easier to defend against... OR force the Genestealer player to pick them off one at a time, while all the others kept spreading out in different directions - which would go through the deck faster and maybe ONE of them might get to see the dropship!?
GAME FOUR
In the fourth game Brent played the Genestealers and I played the Marines - and had plans to try things differently!
Aaaaand once again, I started with five exits blocked with deadends or tangleweed... and got assaulted on the first turn splitting the crew up...
You can move into tangleweed, you just have to dice to get out of it and potentially waste movement actions trying and failing... So... always better to try the clear path...
Clear path seemed to have possibilities!
"GUYS! GUYS! THIS WAY!"
'Uh, yeah! We're right behind you, Sarge!"
"Wait up!"
"CONTACT FRONT!"
"Sarge?"
"SARGE!?"
"FUCK! FALL BACK!"
So... sometimes when you go far enough down a trail.. the trail behind disappears...
and sometimes Genestealers disapear with it. leaving new openings to be explored!
Of course, now openings means new places for Genestealers to arrive!
[muffled cries amidst jungle sounds]
GAME FIVE
Brents turn to play the marines again and try running in different directions to use up tiles quickly... and hopefully get away from tiles that can be seen so they disapear with Genestealers on them!
"Gunner! You cover us from the clearing while the rest of us check out all these paths totally free of tangleweed!"
"Got it, Sarge!"
"Hey! I got a clear path over here!
"CONTACT!"
"BLUEY! BLUEY! THE GOT BLUEY!
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-SPLAT-SPLAT!
"THIS WAY! THIS WAY, GUYS!"
"I THINK THIS PATH IS CLEAR!"
"Alright, Boys, you heard him! After Trooper Pink!"
"I think we lost them!"
"Hang on, there's some tangle weed up here! And..."
"CONTACT FRONT!"
"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!"
"Seems quiet... Do you think we lost them...?"
"The must have gotten Trooper Pink!"
"Which Way, Sarge? Which Way?"
"Uh... How about we try... "
"CONTACT!"
"THEY GOT TROOPER GREENE!"
'GUNNER WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"OVER HERE!"
"It's been good serving with you, Trooper!"
GAME SIX...
One more... That way we'd each have played three with each side. This was my final crack and playing the Marines...
"Can anyone remember which way it is back to the lander?!"
"I think they Jungle is moving in on us and shifting... I could have sworn it was this way..."
"Greene! Get on that Auspex and see if you can get a signal!"
"Signal's real weak, Sarge! Must be getting some interference from the Jungle!? Hang on... I got MOVEMENT!"
"TALK TO ME GREENE!"
"It's a big fucking signal! MULTIPLE SIGNALS! CLOSING!"
'EAARRRRRRGGGGH!"
"SARGE! THEY GOT GREENE!"
"LET'S ROCK!"
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-SPLAT-SPLAT!
"HERE THEY COME!"
"FALL BACK!"
"NO, DON'T GO THAT WAY!? STAY TOGETHER!!"
"SARGE! SARGE!"
"Emperor protect them.. I will have to find the Drop Ship myself while they hold them off!"
"Gah! MORE!?"
"SARGE!? SARGE!?"
"THIS WAY TROOPER PINK! I THINK I FOUND A WAY OUT!!"
[Muffled screams]
"There must be a..."
"Seems kind of quiet... they must..."
"EAAEEERRRGGH!?"
So close... well... not really... I got the closest to the bottom of the stack... but really... not THAT close!?
If I'd rolled a six, the Sarge could have fallen back and ran off down the trail to the branch, which would have put out a few more options... There would have been three more Genestealers appearing in those options though...
It is a TOUGH game for the Space Marine Scouts... you need a lot of luck with the tile draws and be able to roll a LOT of sixes! I'm not going to say it is IMPOSSIBLE for the Marines to win... but it's super, SUPER hard!!!
Plays quick, though, and a lot of fun, if you can get into the narrative of it all. Could be a fun filler game between other games.