Collegium encounters strange new race

[Dewbakuk]

This weekend, my wife and daughter disapeared to visit my sister-in-law for her birthday. Unable to go to Salute I decided to run through the units etc I'd done for playing some Atlantis games with the Showdown rules. No one was around but Showdown has some basic rules for handling 'neutral'  units in a game so I played a couple of small scenarios by myself to check for flaws in the units/my knowledge of the rules. This was made a little more awkward by the fact that all my scenery is currently being borrowed by people. So, what follows isn't the prettiest report but I took photo's anyway just for interest and used my assorted wip scenery along with the single large swamp piece I still had in my shed.


First Scenario - Drake and Rachel have followed the strange tracks into the Atlantean jungle and come across a large swampy pool. In the center of the pool lies a pile of the mysterious crystals taken from the riverbed. The area seems clear so the Collegium agents move forward to claim the crystals. As they do so, strange man-like insect creatures emerge out of the undergrowth and move to intercept the troops.


Initial troop deployment. Drake's Gunmen are on the left with Garret's Gentiles advancing up the right. Bugmen drones are opposite the Gentiles in the largest open area with Bugmen flyers in the centre ready to move wherever they're needed.



Garret leads her squad forward on the right, using the cliff face to secure her flank. They open fire on the creature's but only one guy with a clear shot hits his target, however the round fails to penetrate the creatures carapace.
Drake and his men run forward in an attempt to get the crystals quickly, but the swampy water slows their movement considerably.

The winged Bugmen leap into the air and swiftly close on the interlopers headed for the crystals. Landing close to Drake's men they open fire with their venom launchers. The swamp forms an effective defence however and the venom hisses harmlessly in the tepid water.
The leader of the drones also directs his troops to defend the crystal stash and they run forward. Most of them are slowed by the rocks at the swamp pool's edge but one leaps over and almost makes it to the crystals.



Turn 2
Already in a good position, the Bugmen flyers open fire again and not firing on the move manage to hit with every shot. One catches a Gunman square in the face, thankfully the man fall's into the water dying almost instantly and sparing the others a horrific view. Another two Gunmen are shot down by the corrosive substance but the final man hit managed to shed his coat before the venom ate it's way through.
The Drones charge forward again cutting off the survivors of Drake's Gunmen from the crystals. The nimble bug once again finds purchase amid the water and leaps for the gunmen swinging wildly and misses.

Garret directs her gentiles to take cover amongst the rocks at the swamps edge and open fire on the bugmen in the water. Once again their rifles fail to penetrate the creature's carapace, however Rachel takes careful aim and gets a clean shot to the head of the bug in combat with Drake's men.
Freed from having to fight hand-to-hand, Drake urges his last remaining troops to stand and kill some bugs (after using a chip). Drake's Gunmen open fire and Drake wings the Drone leader with his gatling shotgun but fails to kill it (that's the other two chips gone).

(For some reason I didn't take a photo here)

Turn 3
The Drone leader directs his drones to attack Drake and his man while he quickly recovers from the shotgun blast.Two engage the last gunmen who is swiftly dispatched. Drake manages to fend off the drone attacking him however.

Drake resolves to fight on and swings his shotgun like a club, but the drone contemptuously knocks it aside.

The flyers leap over the water and open fire on the Gentile's but their shots impact uselessly on the rocks.

The Gentile's return fire, killing two of the bugs.



Turn 4
The Gentile's once again open fire causing one of the flyers to look for cover but not killing them.
Drake once again swings for the bug in front of him and again the bug knocks his rifle aside.

The shaken flyer recovers while the other one fires an amazing shot into the rocks, killing one of the gentiles.
The drones close in on Drake who disappears amongst their swinging spears...



Turn 5
Garret puts a round through the head of another flyer, her men are less effective.

The last remaining flyer doesn't run (although it cost 2 chips) and takes a shot, missing.
The drones start wading towards the Gentiles position.



Turn 6
The gentiles open fire killing one of the drones. Rachel fires and sends the last flyer reeling.

The flyer flees the board.
The drones again try to close the distance but fall short due to the water.



Turn 7
The gentiles take another shot at the approaching drones, sending the leader and a drone reeling but failing to kill them.

The drone leader recovers and commands the others to charge, the shaken drone leaps forward to obey along with the unshaken one. They leap out of the water but miss with their spears.

Turn 8
Rachel takes a shot at the leader as it stands there directing the drones putting a bullet straight through it's head. The other gentiles attempt to fight off the drones and club one to the ground with their rifle butts.

The last drone decides to go for the kill and swings wildly, killing one of the Gentile's.

Turn 9
Realising it is alone and facing multiple opponents the last drone makes a run for it but Rachel cuts it down as it passes.

Checking the casualties in the swamp it was discovered that only those killed by the venom were actually dead, the others were merely badly wounded. Grabbing a crystal each and assisting the wounded, the group headed back for camp. Of Drake himself there was no sign.

[ushistoryprof]

Great report, so what was your final opinion of the rules?

[Dewbakuk]

Scenario 2 - Headed home Garret and the survivors hear a rythmic pounding behind them and ready their weapons.

Initial setup has the survivors in the centre of the board and the Bugmen riders off board.


Turn 1
Garrets gentiles make a run for the board edge while the two survivors of Drake's Gunmen drop their crystals and take cover amongst the roots of a swamp tree to cover their allies retreat.
 
Mounted drones thunder onto the board, closing on the humans rapidly.

 
Turn 2
Not wanting to abandon the two gunmen or the crystals they were carrying, the Gentile's stop at the edge of the board and fire at the mounted drones, killing two of them and winging the third. The two gunmen step out from under the tree roots and put rifle rounds through the last rider. The riding beasts mill confusedly for a while before heading back into the jungle.

Rachel leads the troops back to the Collegium railhead to hand over the crystals and get some well deserved rest.

[Dewbakuk]

Great report, so what was your final opinion of the rules?

Thanks. I like them. The first game had a lot of missed shots so probably took longer than it needed to. Plus I ran two units through water making their movement very slow. The second game took no time at all, as the cavalry just got shot down. Had the initial shots missed however they would have made a mess of the humans. Half the Gentiles would have made it off the board on the first turn if I'd let them. Having rolled low for running distances in the first game I hadn't taken into account rolling high in the second.

All that said, I'll need to run through them a few more times with an actual opponent to get a real idea for play. assuming you can roll reasonably well it should be a fast game, which is always good.

[Bullshott]

Looks like you had a good work-through with the rules.

Yet another new race on Atlantis - its getting quite crowded here!

Seeing your WIP trees and swamp board, does this mmean we can expect to see some new bayou terrain from you (with or without Malifaux creatures)?

[Dewbakuk]

Seeing your WIP trees and swamp board, does this mean we can expect to see some new bayou terrain from you (with or without Malifaux creatures)?

I do have a Bayou Gremlin 'gang' with lots of piggies Although to be honest this bunch is more of a continuation from the Venus jungle terrain etc. All my stuff needs to be usable in more than one game though. When I eventually get these finished I'll make a big bayou tree or two which can be played up. They'll be styled on Baobab trees.

I like the Showdown rules and they work really well for skirmish stuff. They should be able to handle large battles too but I'd like to try it a few times before taking it to a gathering. They're also free which is always good

[ushistoryprof]

I like the Showdown rules and they work really well for skirmish stuff. They should be able to handle large battles too but I'd like to try it a few times before taking it to a gathering. They're also free which is always good

I would like to try them, were can you get them?

[Dewbakuk]

Pinnacle Entertainment have them as a free download.

Here is the rule book

http://peginc.com/Downloads/Showdown/Showdown.pdf

And here are two scenario's with pregened troops (and the relevant tri-fold card figures) so you can get stuck in
http://peginc.com/Downloads/Showdown/RumbleintheJungle.pdf
http://peginc.com/Downloads/Showdown/BridesofDracula.pdf

There is also a spreadsheet for building your own troops but it's designed for GM's and scenario designers, it's not really a competitive 'army builder'. It would be very easy to 'work the system' and generate troops that are awesome and cost almost no points. It's also quite complicated if you don't know the system very well

[Dewbakuk]

Yet another new race on Atlantis - its getting quite crowded here!

Indeed, although Red Orc did say that there are colonies of assorted species from Mars, Venus etc on Atlantis from it's previous ascendancy. Don't see why not bugmen from the moon or the earth's core 
I already have a tunnel/mine wip (that's where the black cliffs were from) so that will also become their hive location.

[Red Orc]

I'm absolutely certain that someone else has used insect-people in an earlier encounter, I think it may have been in the Confederate v Prussian encounter sometime in March. V_Lazy_Dragon may have been involved.

As a lot of the background for the campaign is stolen from my old D&D campaign, there are insect-people in it somewhere, they live in hive colonies like great big termite mounds. Good job you only came across a few scouts and not the entire colony of several thousand!

I really like the idea of them being from the Earth's core. Perhaps, the new arrival of Atlantis has allowed them to find a way out to the open air, when for 10,000 years their tunnels in this part of the world have been blocked and flooded... And if you do take this adventure down their tunnels, I figure you're going to need many more Geonosians!

Great report by the way, good to see you getting some solo games in!

[Dewbakuk]

Unfortunately I've cleared my local store of Geonosians Managed to get about 20 drones, 5 flyers and 5 leaders. The riding beasts are a D&D creature of some kind. For a tunnel game I'll just keep recycling them I think. Been looking around online for more but they seem to be getting expensive when you add in shipping etc. I'll need to keep an eye out for deals.

I've decided I'm not a sologamer type, just didn't have the same satisfaction. That said, if I wanted to continue a storyline I'd do it. Of course, if Thunderchicken ever turns up I won't need to 

[Thunderchicken]

Great stuff Dean, I'll have to jump in the jallopy and give these rules a bash. Will they work for the larger game we've been planning?

[Dewbakuk]

They'd certainly work. I'd need time to stat troops up etc before hand though, so would need to know what was coming. I thought you were learning the V&S&F rules for that? I'd intended to do a couple of small skirmishes with this on the same day around the main game.

Edit: Altered the text due to far too many uses of the word 'though'.

[Thunderchicken]

Splendid idea! I'll get reading and might have a wee play test. 

[Chairface]

Edit: Altered the text due to far too many uses of the word 'though'.