Intercept mission

Well, as I wanted to play with my new guys in power armour, I gave them the mission of assaulting a landed Alien battleship with an estimated crew of 28.

I only have six men in power armour so I gave them one of the best weapons around, heavy assault rifles and assault armours plus veteran status and a gun platform or radio controlled mini tank as support.

As you can see in the picture, I deployed in the same table the outdoors terrain with both ships in it and also the two decks of the battleship (I know it has more than two but I did not have any more tiles to make them).

First turn and troops quickly coming out and spreading in two groups with a few of them on overwatch.

It is not the first time they got fire from the back when deploying. A Snakemen shot down one trooper whereas a Chryssalid attacked the leader. Nice start. Fortunately the auto meds save both lives.

On the left flank one solitaire Muton appeared but it was quickly dispatched.

Closing to the battleship they were attacked by a wave of floaters; one of them was shot down by overwatch fire but the other two killed one trooper.

A team getting ready to break into the ship with soldiers on overwatch in different directions like in the old X-Com game.

The team entered and faced six Greys.

They killed four of them but the surviving two made both successful Psi attacks and controlled two soldiers. The one from the right killed his wounded comrade whereas the one from the left killed the first who shot (orange counters indicate controlled soldiers).

The second team was about to enter but they met another Snake-Chryssalid patrol.

In this shot there can be seen action going on both outside and inside the ship.

Finally the entrance is cleared and the surviving member of the first team, reinforced by another grunt and the tank, are ambushed as they were progressing through the ship. As it was an ambush, the trooper could not use his overwatch fire after aliens fired first. In the following firefight both trooper died but they could kill three Greys.

Then the tank entered in the corridor in the following turn and more Greys joined the surviving one. But the vehicle is immune to Psi attacks so they readied their plasma grenades. One of them drop his grenade and disintegrated one of his comrades! The other three scored three ones meaning their grenades did not explode. Surely they forgot to pull the ring before! Then the tank fired its HMG and turned them into pink mist.

On the left flank the last three members of the insertion team met a wave of floaters. They destroyed them all but lost their wounded comrade.

Those floaters reached the count of thirty downed aliens so the mission ended successfully so I did not have to get deeper into the alien ship or access to the upper deck.

The game was played in ten turns and lasted one and a half hours, including taking pictures and making amendments to the rules.

X-Com base attack

Continuing with the testing of my home rules today I played an alien assault to an X-Com base. 

The base has seven regulars armed with MARSEC rifles, hand grenades and kevlar armour, one with missile launcher and another with a SAW, plus one mobile platform and six veterans in battle armour with MARSEC rifles and one automatic missile launcher.

The attacking aliens are 30+ random Sectoids, Snakemen, Chryssalids and Mutons.

 The X-Com base.

First turn and aliens broke through into the base, taking X-Com by surprise. First blood is one man down and another stunned from a Sectoid Psi-attack.

A snakemen sneaks behind and kills another soldier.

The tank fired in reaction and missed all its shots but then the Muton didn't with his plasma rifle.

The commander attacked by two Sectoids and a leader but he shrugged off all mental attacks. Behind him, Another man fell down by a grenade.

The SAW man  killed one snake and made first alien blood.

Another grunt fell by a fearsome Chryssalid.

The Muton who destroyed the mobile platform is received by two reaction fires and is wounded.

The commander killed four Sectoids single handle! Odds started to balance a bit.

The already wounded Muton finally died by a direct missile hit.

The SAW again in action, shooting at their backs, killing one and wounding another.

The soldier who fell down, recovered thanks to his automedikit and slaughthered and bunch of aliens with one well put missile.

The commander is inoculated by a Chryssalid and turned into a zombie!

And another Chryssalid turned one more into a zombie!

 - It's a zombie, shoot him!

Last stand.

The X-Com base fell in the hands of the aliens but their defenders managed to kill thirty of them and only four more survived.
In the beginning many regulars died but then veterans with better armour and combat skills stopped the aliens and almost win the day.

Cleanse and Burn

Another testing of ZoG. This time I chose the mission "Cleanse and Burn" from the original Space Hulk board game from Games Workshop as I wanted to try some fighting in the tunnels. The objectives are burning the last two rooms with flamethrowers. No turn limit.

Instead of using Marines and Genestealers I deployed marines and aliens with profiles for the film "Aliens". Also, as I did not have figures to represent them, I used missile launchers as proxy for flamethrowers.

Turn zero with the two squads ready to rumble.

Troops used their two actions to rush forward, passing the first crossroads but leaving the two SAWs on opportunity fire to cover those corners.

The two groups generated no enemies so far.

But in turn three things changed and I lost my first soldier.

These two critters could not reach hand to hand combat and took cover behind the barrels...

 And they were fried afterwards.

Turn 5 of the game and bugs kept coming.

With the new rule of "gregarious enemies" they were piling up fast

The marine with the SAW had the option to fall back to break line of sight but did not want to risk more creatures disappearing and later joining to newer groups so he stepped forward and fired, killing three of them on automatic fire.

 Things were getting rough for both squads.

But they could break contact and fire back with good results.

First room burned.

SAW guy with supporting opportunity fire from two comrades down the aisle and out of the picture, managed to kill all the swarm except one. This is turn 7 and the last of the game.

Burning the second room. I lost three marines in total, and achieved objectives on turn 7.

 

After that, I played again the same mission but this time changing the Aliens fixed generation points for hot zones (they raise the enemy threat level when your soldiers are close) and it turned nastier and I lost seven marines but I could burn both rooms in turn 7 again. 

All in all good gaming and testing with a lot of tweaking of the rules afterwards.

Terror mission

So continuing with the testing of ZoG and the campaign for X-Com I played a Terror mission. As I do not have the Snakemen painted yet, I used Sectoids and Mutons instead.
Also, as you can see my buildings are pretty basic. I wish I could have real ones but my budget at the moment is almost non-existent. I bought 20 of those cars for 3 dollars from an Ebay Chinese shop.

In Terror missions your team must clear the site from all Aliens who are attacking civilians. In the campaign, the more time you take to do it the less resources you get at the end of the encounter. Also in these rules, the more you spread your soldiers the less time you take to finish the mission, but more dangerous it becomes, so you have to think carefully not to pack them but neither to over split them.

For this mission I made three groups: Team A with two grunts and the HWP, Team B with one veteran in personal armour and two grunts, one of them with SAW, and Team C with one veteran (Corporal Jonlan) in personal armour and two grunts, one of them with missile launcher. All three team members with assault rifles, combat knives and hand grenades.
 
In the first picture below you can see a general view of the city and the Skyranger deploying first X-Com grunts with a Heavy Weapon Platform (HWP) or remote controlled tankette.

As it happened to me in many encounters in the PC game, the first aliens encountered were behind the dropship and shot at my back, wounding Cpl. Jonlan and making him and one grunt to hit the dirt.

My troops moved back at the forest but four of them were needed to shoot down the two Sectoids.

On the left flank Team A pushed forward without seeing anybody. As you see, they were moving and covering their backs in Opportunity fire just in case.

Teams B and C could not follow as they were ambushed by more Sectoids on their right flank.

Combined missile, SAW and assault rifle fire killed them all.

A Sectopod!

It appeared behind the HWP and destroyed it with one shot of its heavy plasma gun. The accompanying grunts run for cover.

A shot in the back.

Grunts from Team B trying to sneak behind of the Sectopod resulted ambushed by a Chryssalid!

Miraculously the grunt with the SAW survived the first assault and could turn around and face the creature. In the next turn he was hit and fell stunned to the ground and then his team member killed the Chryssalid with his assault rifle.

Straggled behind, a solitaire Muton who was accompanying the Chryssalid. Later caught in the open by the grunt with the SAW already recovered from the Chryssalid attack.

 Two Sectoids popping up behind Team C

General view of the city in chaos.

The surviving elements of Team A who took cover far behind the buildings after the Sectopod attack, were attacked mentally by a Sectoid who turned the corner and was fired in opportunity but totally missed. Its victim panicked and got into the building but his mate managed to lob a grenade to the Sectoid and kill it.

After killing the Chryssalid the X-Com soldier from Team B ambushed the Sectopod with hand grenades from a building. The turn before the Sectopod had already killed the grunt with the missile launcher who fired a missile at it but failed and paid dearly for that.
At the bottom of the picture you can see Jonlan having a lot of trouble when wounded and ducking back in a building was surrouned by three more Sectoids. He could kill two of them with a grenade.

The other Sectoid mind-controlled Cpl. Jonlan and made him to go in the open with the hope of killing him there afterwards. But in the next turn the alien was surrounded and eliminated and it was the last of them so the mission ended. Terror mission ships carry 23 crew but it is never exact and in this mission for example there were 25 in the end.

Mission was finished in 12 turns so I got 2 resource points that could be used on my return to base to research, recruit or buy new equipment and armament. I lost one HWP, one veteran in personal armour and two grunts, but one of them recovered after the mission. Cpl. Jonlan has to rest to heal his wound.

As usual, after the game I had to write a lot of amendments but they are less and less after every game. The game was fun, smooth and surprising, so I can say I am happy with my progress in the rules.