As my old pal James has described on his blog, we got together shortly after Christmas for a long overdue bit of dice rolling and a catch up on busy lives. Too granddads playing with toys, it was lovely. We’ve been pushing lead around this table in this basement for a long time, since the 1990s, when we were slimmer our hair was darker, and in that time the toys have changed but we always have a good time.
We decided to play an SF game using our 15mm kit and the relatively new Xenos Rampant rules. James and I have been playing Dan Mersey’s “Rampant” rules for ages, and since many of the core mechanics are repeated in Dan’s fantasy, medieval, and now SF rules, we could get to the dice rolling fairly quickly. We both built our forces using 24 points, which provides a manageable sized force and a fast result.
My SF army is inspired by Larry Niven’s Kzinti, intelligent and aggressive feline aliens, represented by the Tigrid miniatures from Khurasan. James’ force is human, inspired by the Martian Marines from The Expanse TV series and novels. Curiously, the base colour for both our forces is red.
Xenos Rampant is a clever tool kit that allows you to build your force out of some base types (Recon, Berserker, Light and Heavy Infantry, Support Weapons) that are essentially the same troops types as in the previous Mersey rules, and a set of alien traits that can add character and special abilities to a particular army. For example, to make my Kzinti more “pouncy” I bought the Mobile trait which gave my infantry an astonishingly fast 12” movement per turn, and since Niven portrays them as being aggressive to a fault, I chose two ten man units of Berserkers to get into melee as quickly as possible. They were backed up by a ten man unit of Heavy Infantry, an AFV with an area effect weapon (negates cover) and a support weapon team.
Here my force advances on the coveted kitty litter processing plant. Fans of Space 1999 will appreciate the model adding some eye candy, perfectly scaled for 15mm. My heavies are in the centre, the berserkers on either flank. My Commander got lucky and rolled a trait that allowed him to make a unit within his 12” command range Assault (melee) automatically without an activation role, which proved useful to have with my two units of berserkers.
This shot shows James’ scratch built SF industrial scenery, Well done James.
The Supreme Tigger (far right) and his troops arrive on the objective, which they would hold for the rest of the game. The tank is a Ground Zero Games model, painted garishly to frighten the hairless monkeys. It’s firepower proved quite devastating and helped me hold the centre for the game.
Two spectacular events in a row: some of my berserker kitties got up to the quite battered human tank and destroyed it with catnip grenades, but were the exultant cats were immediately obliterated when James managed to call in the rail gun of his supporting space cruiser, which was a nice asset but far too spotty to be decisive.
There were a few rules that we hadn’t quite mastered, such as the Firefight rule which gives targeted infantry a chance to shoot back at their attackers. However we both agreed that XR provides a quick and satisfying game with a good SF feel, so we will doubtless try it when we are next together. James will no doubt reconsider his doctrine of five man units, as my ten man (cat) units proved more robust and dangerous when shooting.
Later in the day we got to play with James’ endearing Quar figures, an “alt Great War” universe with, well, anteaters. The figures are charming and I’m just glad that James wasn’t infected with that Turnip 28 disease. You can read James’ account of our day here.
I’ve been fortunate in that a friend recently gifted me some of his 15mm SF figures, including a human force, and James kindly gave me a box of old 15mm SF figures from an estate sale that I look forward to going through, and hope to post some photos here in the future, so SF will be a focus of my hobby time in 2024 I think.
Cheers and blessings to your lasers.
MP+
