X-Com(-ish) Project - another APC

[Neunfinger]

First Ground Combat Test Game

Yesterday we played a short test game of Captaingenerals homemade X-Com rules. We didn't think of a specific scenario but simply set 5 Sectoids against 4 X-Com troopers (One of each class: Sniper, Assault, Heavy and Support) to see how the rules work. They definatly feel a lot like the current computer game and were easy enough to understand, espacially if you know the computer game. I played the aliens and a friend took charge of X-Com. At some point we stopped actually trying to use the strategic possibilities of the rules but were rather carried away by our creative use of the scenario. But read for yourself:

A squad of X-Com troops is send out to deal with a group of sectoids, who are wreaking havok in a small town.

Round 1&2
X-Com take cover behind some road construction equipment when the sectoids are spotted next to the local gas station. Both sides carefully advance and the Sniper takes a pot shot at one of the sectoids but misses (I forgot to take a picture of the first turn, but nothing happend anyway).

Round 3
The Assault gets flanked buy a sneaky sectoids and is wounded. Luckily, the plasma shots of the alien's weapon only graze him and he is still alive.


The rest of the sectoids scuttle through and behind the gas station, one of them is wounded by the Heavy's machine gun.


Round 4
The Assault fires his shotgun right into the sectoids face. Needless to say, the sectoid doesn't get back up again.


Now, as I mentioned above, we went a bit off track. My friend remarked how usuful it would be to simply drive the bulldozer around as mobile cover, so after a couple of dozer-related jokes we improvised a rule that an X-Com trooper would be able to start the bulldozer on a roll of 5+ on a D6. Of course, he immediatley rolled a five with his Heavy who realized the keys were still in the ignition.


Three sectoids charged out of the gas station, seeing a chance to flank the X-Com troops. But their eyes still seem to struggle with the light on earth, since they all missed their shots. Even the bonus from Mind Merging two sectoids didn't help. The Sniper had run around the building on the right, to get a better angle, while the Support had cautiously advanced on the gas station.


Round 5
The Heavy turns the dozer and rushes at the sectoids in the open, but falls just a couple of millimeters short of hitting the first one!

The Sniper finishes one sectoid off, while Support and Assault get into position for the next round.

Seeing the charging dozer, one of the sectoids sprints forth and jumps onto the hood of the dozer. The Heavy in the driver's seat watches in horror as the small alien lands deftly right in front of the windshield and fires his plasma pistol at point blank range into him!


Crying in agony from the plasma burns, he panics and floors the gas pedal, running the second sectoid in front of the vehicle over and smashing into the gas station.


(We improvised a lot here: The roll for succesfully jumping onto the dozer had to be 4+ on a D6. The botched panic roll would have usually resulted in the soldier running to the nearest cover, but we decided that the most plausible action, given the circumstances, was to hit the gas pedal. So the dozer was moved 1D8 inches and hit every modell in its path with 3D6 damage, killing the sectoid in front of it.)

Another sectoid managed to flank the Assault, who stood next to the gas station entrance, and pulverised him. The Assault had 6 hitpoints in the beginning, of which he had previously lost 3. The dice shown in the picture show the hits the Assault received from the sectoids plasma pistol...  
(When rollling for injuries, for every role of 6, you get to roll another die. If this is another six, you continue until you stop rolling sixes. I started by throwing 5 dice... )


Round 6
While the Sniper tries to figure out which end of the rifle has to be pointed towards the enemy (=misses a 85% shot), the Support kills the sectoid who had pulverized the Assault.

The sectoid on the hood of the bulldozer jumps down next to the dozer and kills the Heavy, who wasn't allowed to move or act due to his failed panic roll in the previous round.
Only one Sectoid, the Support and the Sniper are still on their feet.



Round 7
The Support rushes around the corner of the gas station and kills the last sectoid in another spectacularly critical hit:

(He also started by rolling 5D6  )

The aliens are beaten and the town is save - for now.
I hope you enjoyed the AAR and don't mind my rather crude comic effects in the pictures

[Daeothar]

That was great!

And the photo's are very reminiscent of the PC game; I think you've captured the atmosphere, terrain and characters perfectly!

It looks like it was a very enjoyable game too. The fact that you play it loose, with ad-hoc house rules is a clear indicator of that.

Keep 'em coming; I'm loving this entire project...

[Neunfinger]

Hello Daeothar, I'm happy to hear that you liked the report
We did have a lot of fun. The improvised rules made me think about using Pulp Alley after all, as it works wonderfully for situations like the bulldozer. I think we will have another game next week and se if we can modify the Pulp Alley rules a bit.

[Captaingeneral]

Awesome battle report and I loved your improvisations 

Glad you thought the rules reflected the PC game version as intended

[Neunfinger]

...aaand it's been almost another year since I updated this project

I've been working on a digital model of a small tank inspired by the Hunter from the X-Com clone Xenonauts. I'm going to 3D-print it at work in the next couple of days and I will try to make a silicone mould afterwards. In the meantime I'd be happy to hear your suggestions and thoughts about the tank

[Neunfinger]

Just realised that the picture is a bit warped, so I uploaded two more straight from the CAD-model.

[amijp]

This whole project is awesome, fair play! Keep up the good work

[beefcake]

Nice AAR. I liked the addition of your special effects, especially the bulldozer attacking the Sectoid. I like the sculpt of the tank too.

[Neunfinger]

Thank you both for the compliments

The print is finished. It turned out rather nice, although there is some minor warping on the sides. Initially I wanted to smoth the surfaces with aceton vapours, but I'd have to wait until next week to do so. Most of the surfaces are already quite smoth, so I might just skip the aceton and do a mould right away this weekend.

Unfortunatly the transperency of the model makes it hard to make out details, but once I have a mold I'll add pictures of the painted or at least inked version. As you can see the tank is quite small, but big enough to give X-Com some mobile cover and firepower. Speaking of firepower, I didn't print the guns as they were to tiny to print properly. I have yet to decide wether I will make them by skretch or print them seperatly.

[Inso]

That's a nice little armoured car... the perfect size for Space Dwarfs/Squats

I look forward to seeing it painted.

Is it likely to be something that you would sell copies of or is it just a personal project?

[Neunfinger]

Thank you, Inso. If the molding works out and I manage to make decent casts, I will gladly sell some to you.

[Inso]

Thank you, Inso. If the molding works out and I manage to make decent casts, I will gladly sell some to you.

cool. Here's hoping (crosses fingers).

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice armoured car, looks like a Ferret in dress-up.

[Neunfinger]

Inso, I just worked on the mold. It's my first two part mold and I suspect it turned out a little crappy. The silicon is still drying, so we'll see in about have an hour.

Ultra, thank you, much appreciated.

[Neunfinger]

As feared, the mold turned out bad. In the picture you can see the first cast in PUR. Aside from the excessive flash you can also see where airbubbles were trapped during casting, marked in red circles. But all is not bad, I have learned a bit from this failed attempt. I'll probably tweak the model a bit, making some of the failed details bigger so it's easier to get the air out, and printing the models in two separat halves.