Sample file. Typeset in Lastwaerk and Comfortaa by Johan Aakerlund

Transcription

1 Based on the Song of Blades engine Written by Andrea Sfiligoi 15mm Models by Khurasan Miniatures Photos and Figure Painting by Spacejacker and Raven Painting Layout and illustrations by Andrea Sfiligoi Typeset in Lastwaerk and Comfortaa by Johan Aakerlund Playtesters: Mauro Miraz, Andrea Sfiligoi, Massimo Moscarelli, Sergio Laliscia, Simone and Diego at La Tana della Donna Nana Wargaming Club, Danny Riordan, Scott Case, Rodrick Campbell, Ken Derkson, Marco Ciotti. Proofreading by Richard Popplewell. Special thanks to Paul Shorten for his exceptional playtest.

2 Contents INTRODUCTION...3 HOW MANY MODELS?...4 A BIT OF BACKGROUND...4 GAME LENGTH...4 SCALE...4 PROFILES...5 QUALITY...5 SPECIAL RULES...6 BASES AND TRAYS...6 THE TURN...6 INITIATIVE...7 ACTIVATION...7 UNCOMMITTED UNITS...8 ACTIVATED UNITS...8 FREE ATTACKS...8 EXPENDITURE OF ACTIONS...9 NO SHOOTING INTO OR OUT OF CLOSE COMBAT...14 COVER...14 INTENSIVE FIRE...15 EFFECTS OF SHOOTING...15 FLINCH EFFECTS...16 SUPPORT WEAPONS...16 EXTERMINATORS...16 CROSSFIRE...17 REACTIVE FIRE/AMBUSH...17 OVERWATCH (OPTIONAL RULE)...17 EFFECTS OF CLOSE COMBAT...18 CLOSE COMBAT MECHANIC...18 OUTNUMBERED UNITS...19 CLOSE COMBAT ON VEHICLES...19 OVERRUNS...20 CARRY THE POSITION...20 FALL BACK...20 FALLING BACK FROM MULTIPLE UNITS...21 VOLUNTARILY RETREATING FROM A CLOSE COMBAT...21 WHO MAY NOT USE DICE FROM THE POOL...22 REINFORCEMENTS...22 COMMITTED AND UNCOMMITTED...9 HOW MANY DICE IN THE POOL?...23 GAINING EXTRA DICE IN PLAY...23 MOVEMENT...9 POSITION OF MODELS WITHIN THE UNIT...10 MORALE...23 MOVEMENT OF UNITS...10 VICTORY CONDITIONS...24 WHAT IF THE CD WON'T FIT?...10 ROUGH TERRAIN...11 SPECIAL RULES...24 DANGEROUS TERRAIN...11 MOVING THROUGH FRIENDS...11 HUMANS FORCE LIST...32 SPREADING OUT...11 ALIENS FORCE LIST...34 MERGING UNITS...12 POINT SYSTEM...36 STRAGGLERS...12 ORGANIZING YOUR UNITS...12 SCENARIOS...37 OTHER SCENARIO IDEAS...41 A UNIT S COMBAT SCORE...12 GUIDELINES FOR SOLO GAMES...42 SHOOTING MECHANIC...14 USING SWATTERS IN OTHER SETTINGS...43 DISTANCE FROM SHOOTER TO TARGET...14 RANGE OF SHOOTING...14

3 Basic Rules INTRODUCTION To play this game, you'll need: About 20 to 50+ miniatures in a consistent scale representing future human soldiers and bug-like monstrous aliens. We use and recommend the 15mm models by Khurasan miniatures pictured in this book; Three measuring sticks, labeled Short, Medium, and Long. Use the following lengths: Short 75mm, Medium 120mm, Long 180mm. Since models may move up to three times per turn, it is useful to have triple sticks or even a 3 x Long stick also marked at 1 x Short, 2 x Short, 3 x Short, 1 x Medium, 2 x Medium, 3 x Medium, 1 x Long and 2 x Long. As most weapons have no maximum range a very long stick, marked at multiple Long intervals, may come in handy. Scenic material to represent hills, trees, boulders, ruins, outposts, alien landscapes, bug hives and the like. You may also use a printed map laid out on the tabletop if you don t have terrain, but games on good terrain are much more fun. One of the beauties of 15mm is that you may devote some time and effort into building beautiful terrain pieces. Your terrain will not take up too much storage space or cost too much to make. We use a flexible mat by ZUZZY Miniatures and some homemade terrain pieces. You will also need a few old CDs that you don't use anymore, like old CD-ROMs. These are used as movement and coherence trays (remember: CD = Cohesion Distance) for the units, and can be texturized and flocked so they merge well with whatever you use to cover your tabletop. A flocking tutorial for CDs can be seen on Paul Shorten s blog : You may use regular CDs or minicds as you see fit; as long as all units use the same there won't be any major difference in play. For 15mm play, we prefer mini-cds, but regular CDs are much easier to find, so it's your call. You will also need at least ten regular sixsided dice, more being better. If both players 3

4 have their own sets of measuring sticks and at least ten dice each, play will be faster. HOW MANY MODELS? The game will require 20 to 50 or more models per player. All the profiles in this book have been given point costs, so you can create your own profiles and scenarios by comparison. The point costs are per single model, so if the model costs 30 points and a unit comprises five models, that unit will cost a total of 150 points. A small game is generally played at points, while a large game may be any total you want It's just a matter of how big a table you have and how many figures you have available! The larger scenarios in this book have been playtested at 2000 points. A BIT OF BACKGROUND Basic Rules Bugs are everywhere. Xenomorphs have invaded human colonies, space stations and even merchant ships and cargoes. They seem unstoppable. They are vicious and aggressive. Peaceful communication has proven impossible. Humans have found themselves on the wrong side of the food pyramid. Humans resist the invasion and retaliate. In most cases, the use of heavy weaponry and orbital support is not possible or allowed by local laws. So when the bugs rear their ugly heads, the only option is to send in relatively small forces armed to the teeth. These are specifically trained forces, half-jokingly named Swatters (the official name is Special Weapons- Alien Threat Response, or S.W.A.T.R.). In a typical game, one of the players controls a force of human Swatters, and the other player controls a swarm of aliens. Players choose a scenario, set up terrain and deploy their forces as per the scenario rules. Typically, players have different objectives and victory conditions. However, the old technique of completely destroying the opponent's force will work fine in almost all cases! GAME LENGTH Once you know the rules, a small game can be played in 45 minutes, while a large game requires 90 minutes or more, depending on how many models you use. SCALE The ground scale is 10mm =1 yard. One figure represents one man, alien, robot, or vehicle. 4

5 Frequently Asked Questions FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS How do we keep track of which units have been activated during the turn without the aid of counters? Remembering what has been activated is not generally a problem because the CDs will have advanced or changed their position on the tabletop. However, you can just move the unit's leader to the edge of the CD facing the enemy to remember that unit has acted, or mark the unit with a glass bead counter. What is the size of the terrain patches? For the hills etc, we used what we have. We suggest measuring terrain pieces on a CD base. As for dangerous terrain, make each piece one CD wide. If your terrain is different, however, it won t make a big difference. Crossfire rule: shouldn't it be "...if the line goes through any part of the target CD, the target is caught in a crossfire"? No. The crossfire rule stands as written, it is an important bonus and it should be rare. Units are very maneuverable so it is possible to get a crossfire bonus now and then. How does the dice-pool rule work, when played at different point totals? The formula is 1 die every 50 pts of troops for humans and 1 die every 65 pts for aliens. Try this and feel free to experiment. Varying the dice pools is an easy way to alter the balance in a scenario, e.g a game where the humans are low on ammo could be played at 1000 pts with only 12 to 15 dice in their' pool. A game on an alien infested world could be played with normal pools, but the alien player could DOU- BLE the dice when using them to spawn reinforcements (so if he opts to roll 3 dice for reinforcements, he rolls 6 dice instead). What about Acid blood? It's too small a detail at this scale of play. If this game is successful, we will work on a squad level version of Swatters which will go into that sort of detail to be used with the upcoming Khurasan alien tunnels system. Can units with support weapons merge with similar units without support weapons? Yes, units with support weapons have only one support weapon trooper and they are allowed to merge, although no more than one support weapon can be in the same unit. Treat the extra soldier as a regular trooper. 44