In Space No One Can Hear You Purr: A Xenos Rampant Game

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+

Space Kitties Above and Beyond!

Staying with the 15mm SF theme a little longer, here are some more forces that I finished over the winter for my Kzinti-themed feline army.  

Two drones for initial recce and probe missions.    I can’t recall who I got these from, I suspect they are Ground Zero Games but I can’t recall the product code.   The models have some shooty things, so depending on how my opponent James and I agree to rate them, they might pack a little punch.   Useful for forcing the enemy to reveal himself.

 

Two skimmers for Close Air Support.   The models are from Ground Zero Games.  They carry a big and wicked looking gun of some sort, and two missile pods, so they should prove useful.  I painted them in the same scheme as my ground armour units.

 

Being metal, and quite chunky, the stands didn’t work at first.  I had to drill out the hole in the bottom of the model quite a bit until it was deep and wide enough to keep the model on the socket of the base.

I coated them with what I thought was Testor’s Dullcote, but in fact it was semi-gloss, so they are a tad shinier than I would like, but none the worse for it, I suppose.

 

And here they are with their big brother, a previously completed 15mm Khurasan model, to complete the air wing.   That should keep the hoomanz’ heads down!  

 

I have a few squads of Khurasan infantry to complete for my Kzinti force, and by then hopefully James and I will be able to schedule a scrap by then.   At some point I would consider getting some human figures of my own, high tech enough to match these cats and do something from the Larry Niven inspired Man-Kzin Wars, but that is a project for down the road, and would entail looking at some rules sets, possibly the classic Star Grunt or maybe the Quadrant 13 SF rules from Too Fat Lardies by Robert Avery.   

Blessings to your thrusters!

MP+

 

More Space Cats

I have been focusing on my 15mm Space Kitties project and have made some more progress.  

I envisioned building what was essentially a mechanized platoon of infantry with some armour and air supports.   Here are three AFCs (Armoured Feline Carriers) from Ground Zero Games, using repurposed Games Workshop mounts from some ancient Ork Deffkoptas.

I use the same base paint, Citadel Khorne Red, from their spaceship but added a cammo pattern that was loosely inspired by the Narn spacecraft on the old Babylon 5 TV series.  Each AFC can hold a squad of feline warriors, their equipment, and litter boxes.

I chopped a Khurasan figure in half because he has some sort of long range viewer thingy in his hand, err, paw, and made him a crew commander for one of the vehicles.

Here are the two 10 man, errr, cat sections that I've painted thus far.  Their rides have kicked in their anti grav units to provide overwatch after the troops de-bus.  The troops are all Khurasan minis from their  Tigrid range.

I use a separate colour on each section's shoulder armour plates to keep track of them.   Pink Section is here to rub your legs and ask for some milk, then loot your planet.

Boss cat on the right, herding cats.  I decided that my officer cats would have white fur, while the rank and file would be orange tiger types.  That's maybe racist, but they're cats, and not terrible enlightened.  They want your planet and they want to play with you as if you were a mouse.

Boss cat with big pink schnozz - adorable!  Trooper from Blue Section to the right.

Blue Section have just regrouped after a long morning's nap and are ready for a scrap and then another nap.  

Heavy guns.  A GZG tank and big shooty SPG to terrorize the Earthers with - it can launch hairballs for 100 kms.  Not really sure about the realism of modelling an SPG in a tactical game, except maybe as an objective marker?

Good to see the project nearing completion though I have a few other toys to show here to make my friend James nervous.  I wonder if he's allergic to cats?

Blessings to your moggies,
MP+

Work In Progress: Space Cats Are Coming!

Sometimes the best cure for the hobby doldrums is a new project.   My friend James deserves the credit and the blame here.    We are both fans of the TV SF series The Expanse, based on the novels of James S.A. Corey, and that got James into an impressive 15mm SF gaming project.    I have long admired James’ determination to bring a project to fruition - his contemporary Afghanistan project went from scratch to some very impressive, convention level games in a few years, and his SF efforts are similarly impressive.  There is an example here, including some nicely written fluff.

Some of James’ UN (Earth) Marines in power armour, figures by Ground Zero Games.  James’ project encompasses the Expanse universe, and I decided that I wanted a piece of that acton, but he seemed to have the various factions well represented.   That led me to start thinking about an alien race, of which there are plenty in the various 15mm SF anger out there.   But which one?

Kitties, of course!

Errr, no, not those kitties.    My partner Joy introduced me to the Larry Niven Ringworld series this winter, and I loved the Kzinti character Speaker to Animals, so a race of martial cats seemed like a good choice, especially as James has (unkindly but aptly) accused me of being a Crazy Cat Chaplain.  It seems a natural choice for trash-talking and chirping - I am sure there will be lots of jokes about distracting my force with laser pointers, catnip, and guided tuna missiles.    I’m there for that.

Khurasan Miniatures does a nice line of 15mm SF felines, which they call Tigrids, so that was my Kzinti infantry sorted.   I got several packs of these light infantry, who unlike James’ troops apparently don’t need or have vac suits, and then several packs of heavier infantry who I will call equivalent to James’ guys in power armour.

 The paint scheme is pretty simple.   Citadel flat back primer (my usual choice for 15mm figures) and the armour in GW Khorne Red, which seemed an appropriately bloodthirsty colour for Kzin.  The red echoes the base colour that James chose for his Martians, so I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and besides, the Kzinti don’t care about your copyright protocols.    The blue shoulder plates allow me to identify the various sections.    I was quite pleased to see the figures come alive when I started to add the white whiskers and ruffs to the figures.    They just need green eyes and adorable little pink noses and they’ll be ready to go.  I think orange tigers for the rank and file, and white tigers for the leaders would make a nice contrast.

At first I thought about some sort of disruptive pattern, or even something drab like black or olive grey, but then I recalled a recent conversation with a former boss of mine, an infantry battalion CO, who said that he wondered why armies even bother now with camo and disruptive clothing.   There are so many kinds of sensor packages out there, he said, why don’t we just put soldiers in “pink tutus or Napoleonic hussar uniforms and just have fun with colours?”  Perhaps he has a point, though I am secretly glad that he’s not working in procurement!    Also,  I suppose one could argue that a proud martial race of fighting felines would consider camo and concealment to be dishonourable.

 

 Khurasan offers a trio of jet-bike riders, so that was irresistible.   The idea of fast attack cats seemed very Kzinti, so I ordered three sets, which will give me a respectable recon and fast attack element to my force.   I would imagine that the youngest and most aggressive warriors would be selected for this hazardous and dangerous job.  These chaps aren’t quite finished but are getting there.  

 

Space Kitty Bike Leader looks like the sort of type who would happily buzz the tower.  He has some very aggressive looking missile pods that should prove helpful.

 

Finally, there is a an armoured component to my force, because who is going to drive across the galaxy to invade a bunch of high-tech monkeys without some decent AFV support?   I also ordered a few vehicles from Ground Zero Games from their line of Kra’vak alien vehicles.  This is one of three anti-gravy APCs which will carry a section each of my light infantry.   Again, a red base coat, but I have a pattern for it which should make it look more menacing.    The little blue swatch on the side is to remind me which section it belongs to.  There is also a tank, a SPG, a pair of drones, a pair of skimmer light attack craft, and a smallish spaceship to debut down the road.  The base is from a GW W40K set of Ork Deffkoptas that I have since gotten rid of.  This project is much more serious!

 

I will show more of my progress soon, I hope.   For those of you who are wondering, the rules we are using are mostly a bodge of James’ devising, very simple.   We hope to get our forces in action sometime by late winter or spring.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP