Months after I thought I'd be hosting my first game of Xenos Rampant Sci-Fi battle rules, it finally happened. Six of us gathered for our regular Sunday night gaming session to game out a scenario that I had adapted from the rules. A number of things got in the way, including my own travel and dragging my feet getting the last couple things done. I had four of my own detachments painted and ready, and I'd borrowed two from my friend Keith (of Orcafinn's Basement
http://orcafinnbasement.blogspot.com/). We would do a three detachments per side big battle.
Although, Xenos Rampant bills itself as a "skirmish" game, I tend to think of it more of as a battle game. Players control more than just a handful of figures. The smallest 24-point detachment in figure number last night was the Terminators, who had 15 mechanoid figures and one crab bot walker. Although that one may be "skirmish" size, the others were not. The largest was Keith's Tyrannid force (that I commanded) of 50 figures. I consider that many a battle game rather than a skirmish. I had the terrain set out and the forces set out along their board edges when my players arrived. I let them pick their seats, choosing their detachment in the process.
The scenario featured an off-world invasion by the "bad guys," with the planet being defended by a coalition of forces. The mercenary Bronze Legion had been entrusted to spearhead the defense, aided by a detachment of blue-skinned Anadorans, and an allied contingent of intelligent apes (my Planet of the Apes figures). Mike W commanded the simians, Allen the Bronze Legion, and Mike S the Anadorans.
The invaders -- Keith, Joel, and myself -- had an objective building that we had to end the game within 3" of, which would earn us 3 points per building. I rationalized we were trying to knock out the planet's defenses on the ground so our space bombardment could them pound them into submission. Meanwhile, the defenders got their points by destroying or routing our units (one point each). I was in the center with the Tyrannid swarm of xenomorphs (think of the movie Alien). Keith controlled his "Space Dorks," as he called them. These figs were likely old Warhammer Space Ork figures that his sister had seen and kindly picked up for him in a garage sale. On my right was Joel, commanding my Terminator detachment -- two units of Mechanoid Terminators and one of Battle Droids. They were supported by a Crab Bot Walker.
Each player had one of my own Quick Reference Sheets that I had created for the game. I walked them through the rules, taking little more than 20 minutes to do so. Keith had played the game once at Cincycon 2024 and Mike S had (like me) read the rules. I think the players did a great job picking up the concepts and mechanics. Any questions we had were along the line of "Do you need line of sight if using Support Fire for your Support Infantry (artillery) unit?" There were very few questions about movement, shooting, or testing morale. One thing that confused the players, as I expected, was Xenos Rampant's decision to use a generic word like "Attack" for melee combat. I may on future QRS and unit cards simply change it to Melee. When you hear the word attack, you don't necessarily translate that to charging and entering melee with a unit. I wish they'd used the word 'Melee' instead in the rules!
The table was fairly dense with troops. I had three, 24-point detachments opposing an equal sized force on an 8'x4' battlefield. The rules recommend a one-on-one match up between two 24-point detachments be fought on a 4'x4' table. I was adding only 2' per extra opposed forces. However, my gaming table is only 8' wide, so what are you going to do? I wanted to test it out and see if this is a good sized force for players to command. I think 24 points works really well for one player. All of us were essentially new to the game and had little trouble keeping track of and commanding their forces.
One feature of the "Rampant" series of rules is that if you fail a unit activation, your turn ends. The other units you did not get to yet stay in place and do not move or fire. However, Xenos Rampant also has "free actions" for virtually every unit type. For example, Heavy Infantry Shoot for free, meaning they do not need to roll 2d6 and equal or exceed their Shoot activation number. They simply declare their shooting and roll their attack. Light Infantry, on the other hand, move for free. However, when they get into position and want to shoot on subsequent turns, they will have to roll their Shoot activation to do so. Everyone quickly got into the hang of doing all their free activations first before risking any rolls. There were very few players who lost their turn because of an early failure in their turn.
We found the Xenos Rampant to be a game where you grind down your enemy's units. This does not seem to be one of quick charges and destruction of enemy units type of games. You wear away at them instead, turn after turn. My opponents, the Bronze Legion, had one Heavy Infantry unit that withstood at least three or four Tyrannid charges of Lesser Xenomorphs before they were finally wiped out by the Queen's unit of Greater Xenomorphs. To my right, Mike S and Joel were engaged in a long, steady battle of attrition. Each of them had lost at least two units, as far as I could tell. It was only when the Terminator's Walker was driven off that it because obvious the Anadorans had repelled the Mechanoid assault.
In the center, I launched wave after wave of "Wild Charges" at the heavy and elite infantry of the Bronze Legion. I also sent in more than one assault against their Robot Support Gun vehicle. The problem was that their infantry held firm against just about every charge. We would be driven back, and then they would shoot us on their turn. So, we were taking incremental losses on both our turn and their turn, while they were losing figures only on my turn. I don't think Allen's Bronze Legion ever failed a Courage Test, either. What's worse, there was one disastrous turn when two of my Lesser Xenomorphs failed theirs and had to recover from suppressed on my turn instead of charging. This gave the enemy an extra turn of fire, which in the end, I feel is what broke the back of the Tyrannid assault.
Partway through, I did shift my forces away from where the bulk of his where once I'd seen the handwriting on the wall. He had four of his units deployed to the left of my objective building, the city's shield generator. However, there was only one unit of Heavy Infantry to the right of it. I moved my Queen's Greater Xenomorphs up and they were able to charge in and wipe out the heavy infantry. It was Allen's only lost unit, and just about his only lost figures, too! After our success, the Bronze Leigon's two units of elite infantry simply moved out far enough to target my queen's unit. Of course, since the Greater Xenomorphs have the "Wild Charge" trait, they had to charge in against one of the elite units. It WAS the one containing his commander, though. So, if I could wipe them out and kill his commander, maybe morale checks would swing the tide? No, it was not to be! All of the queen's bodyguards were killed, and on the next turn, she was gunned down by the elite troopers.
On my left, Keith's battle with the apes was going much better. However, they apes were defending stubbornly, or perhaps Keith wasn't being aggressive enough? He did charge...sorry, "Attack" several times that I saw, though. So, I think it was a case of the gorillas, chimpanzees, and gibbons giving ground grudgingly. When we finally called the game, Keith's push still had momentum, but he was too far away from the objective building to get us any points. The alliance that the Bronze Legion had cobbled together had triumphed. Our plan to drop in three detachments planet side and blow up their shield generators had failed. The invading forces were pushed out of the city, and the space bombardment stopped by their intact shields. The planet was saved!
I think everyone felt comfortable with the rules and learned them quickly. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game, though Mike W is not the biggest miniatures fan and seemed the least enthusiastic. I will definitely run more games of Xenos Rampant, though I may wait for smaller numbers. Every once in awhile we have only 4-5 players instead of six or seven. That way, there could be more maneuver and less of a frontal assault that our table space and scenario dictated. There are 10 different scenario in the rulebook, so I'd like to try some of them out the next time we have a slightly smaller crowd.
That may mean there is a bit of a time gap between playing games of XR. However, the rules are easy enough to pick up, as my players proved. So, all of the painting and getting ready to try XR finally came to fruition. Although it was a tabletop defeat for my force, it was a personal victory for me that my players had fun and the figures and terrain looked great on the table. I look forward to the next game!
Hope you enjoyed the report -- thanks in advance for any comments!
Mike Demana
July 27, 2021, 12:02:16 PM
