Gears Character Cards now on BGG

The character cards for Gears finally went through on BGG, huzzah!  Here's the link for them.

Extra cards on BGG

Custom Gears of War Character Cards

I attempted to upload this over on BGG on friday, but after four days of waiting without it being approved or denied and with no comment, I got fed up with waiting.  Therefore, I am currently uploading this to rapidshare.  While I would much prefer that people would be able to download it directly from BGG and not have to jump through extra hoops, it's what we've got for now.  Here's the link.

Custom Gears Character Cards

Let me know what you guys think. :-)

Colonel Hoffman vs. the World

This is a Gears of War battle report with my custom Col. Hoffman, in mission number 1: Emergence.

 

Hoffman’s special ability is both nice for team play and solo.  Once per turn, he can either swap one of his cards for a new one, fresh from the deck, or he can exchange a card with another gear.  As long as you’re in a position to plan ahead, this is great, though since he can only do it on his turn, you do still have to play cautiously with it.  To balance with this, Hoffman starts out with a Gnasher Shotgun, making him very short ranged until he can pick up a new weapon.  Unlike Dom, he does not have the ability to move an extra area per turn for free, so while he is more versatile overall and a better team player, he personally does suffer from range problems.

 

Turn 1: Use ambush on locust drone in adjacent space.  Since Col. Hoffman starts with a Gnasher Shotgun, this is an extremely powerful combo.  Six hits!  That’s one dead grub.  The Drone drops a Hammerburst, a very lucky first turn drop.  This will go a long ways towards countering the fact that Hoffman starts out as a very short ranged character.

Locust Turn 1: All locust on the board, currently three Wretches and one Drone, move to four areas away from Col. Hoffman.  Then, a Boomer spawns near the exit.

Turn 2: I had been planning on moving over to the equipment area to pick up a few more grenades on my way this turn, but the Locust rushing up to greet me all in the same area like this is just too good to pass up.  I play assault to move three areas and then make an attack, tossing a grenade in at the unruly mob.  Again, six hits!!! With area of effect attacks, you only roll the attack once, and then each enemy rolls defense separately.  But since all four Locust in ths attack only get one defense die, that means they all go down.  A worthwhile investment for one of my starting grenades, methinks.  Then, I use a “Follow” action from my hand.  In multiplayer games, this lets you move along with another Gear, but since you can’t do that in single player instead it lets you shift up to one space.  Since the Col. seems to be feeling lucky taking on all of these punks, I’m going to risk rushing up further with just his one remaining grenade.   Since I have a lot of attack cards in my hand, I also use Hoffman’s special ability to discard one of them in the hopes of getting a card with a “Guard” icon on it, which I do.

Locust Turn 2: The only locust model left on the board, the Boomer waaaay at the end, advances towards me!  A whopping one space.

Turn 3: I use my freshly-drawn “Scavenging” action card to move up two squares into cover and snag another ammo token for my Gnasher shotgun.  I’m hoping to keep around three ammo tokens on my Gnasher for the end of the mission where the last wave of baddies spawns, and have a “Slaughter” card in my hand that I’m hoping to use with it to take them all down in one fell swoop.  At this point I have five cards in my hand, so if I wanted I could spend another card to shift forward and still be at my full six health next turn when I draw.  However, even though the boomer on the table has already used two of its action cards from the deck, I’m not willing to risk getting shot by him with only one point of cover if I move.  Instead I’m going to take the cautious approach and keep five cards this turn, and use one of them to shoot on Guard if anything moves my way.  If only I had a certain communications specialist on my side to tell me what was going to happen… hmmm. :-)

Locust Turn 3: All Locust in play (i.e. the Boomer) move to three spaces away from me.  Then, the Boomer prepares to attack!  Good thing I kept that card to make a Guard attack with.  Since the Boomer is too far away to hit with my Gnasher, I burn an ammo token on my shiny new Hammerburst.  Clearly the Colonel thinks he has nothing to fear from the slow, ungainly Boomer, as he lets rip with his Hammerburst for two wounds and an Omen, bringing the total to four hits.  The slow, ungainly Boomer tries to avoid the attack, but only rolls a total of one on his defense, so he too goes down.

Turn 4: Drawing back up to six cards, I get another Guard reaction, which is good as I’m nearing the emergence hole at the end.  However, I don’t really have any good movement cards right now.  I could move and also spend a Follow action to move an extra space, but that would still leave me in the open on this big ol’ board section.  So instead, I call upon Hoffman’s special ability again, swapping an attack card for a new one… which happens to be “Explore.”  This card lets me move four spaces and pick up equipment without having to spend an extra card.  There is an equipment space four away from me, but it’s in the open.  However, with this card in particular I’m willing to risk spending an extra card to shift one space into cover, since that will get me exactly where I want to be to finish off the scenario AND will give me three extra ammo tokens.  I strongly dislike going to four cards on my turn since I may need to use one in reaction, but since there are no locust on the board and I’ll end up properly armed and in position, I’m okay with it.

Locust Turn 4: Awww shoot.  Reinforcements.  I now have a Wretch and a Drone in my space, and a Boomer standing over the emergence hole.

Turn 5: Now things get dicey.  I know that as soon as I close the e-hole I’ll have another Wretch and another Boomer to play with.  I also have three models near enough to attack me right now.  So while I had been hoping to spend my slaughter card on the last wave of attackers, it looks like I should spend it now to clear the path instead.  But first, I’m going to shoot with “Active Reload.”  This lets me make an attack, and if I use an ammo token I get to take another full action.  So I unload the last round from my Hammerburst on the Boomer next to me, and get another six wounds because Hoffman is a beast like that!  I then “Slaughter” the remaining two enemies, burning through two more ammo for my Gnasher.

Locust Turn 5: Two Wretches spawn on the e-hole.  Oh noes!  Because it’s not like I was planning on…

Turn 6: …Tossing a grenade on that spot anyway.  I shift to the elevated cover by the doorway with the equipment, and fingers crossed, toss a grenade on the e-hole, sealing it with yet another six hit attack and an omen.  The door crashes open, and a pair of locust come charging through the smoke!

Locust Turn 6: Distracted by the flying door and the smoke, Hoffman drops some of his pistol ammo in the confusion.  Then, hearing a thunderous voice saying “BOOM!” he rights himself from the floor and takes a shot at the Boomer.  The shot goes a bit wide, only getting four points, but the Boomer is caught off guard by Hoffman’s sudden return fire and this is enough to bring him down before he can bring his weapon to bear.  Then the Wretch shifts around to flank Hoffman.

Turn 7: Hoffman turns towards the last remaining enemy, and Charges!  “Charge” lets him move one area and then make an attack against a figure in your area with an extra attack die.  Unloading a final, resounding shot from his Gnasty Gnasher, Hoffman does a whopping ten points of damage to the poor little wretch.

Game over, man.  Game over.

Gathering my Thoughts: new MTG intro pack.

Magic the Gathering has a new little intro pack out, called a "Two-Player Booster Battle Pack."  The pack contains two boosters and "20 semi-random cards" as well as a pair or 60-card deck boxes and a quickstart rules guide.

The deck boxes are nice enough, but they are hinged together by a perforated edge rather than being put in separately for whatever reason.  The "semi-random cards" aren't really much one way or the other.  You get four ten card packs, each being one of the five colors.  Each pack consists of five lands, four commons, and one uncommon.  All of them seem to be decently useful cards at least.  I don't know if every pack is the same five cards, but the ones I got are:

RED
Goblin Fireslinger
Blood Ogre
Shock
Lava Axe
Stormblood Beserker.

GREEN
Sacred Wolf
Giant Spider
Greater Basilisk
Trollhide
Lure (fyi these last three make for a really annoying combo.)

BLUE
Skywinder Drake
Chasm Drake
Cancel
Frost Breath
Azure Mage

WHITE
Siege Mastadon
Pride Guardian
Armored Warhorse
Divine Favor
Serra Angel

All of the above cards are from the M12 set, as are the lands and both boosters.  Not the best buy ever, but not bad, especially if you need some decent commons to round out a deck or want a few more deck boxes.

OVER-RULED! house rules for Gears of War

So having given Gears a good few plays, there are a few different things that have come up that I think would make more sense or just be more fun if slightly altered.  Here's a list so far.

Grinders: The Grinders are a variant type of Boomer that use a Mulcher instead of a Boomshot.  Grinders use the same models, wound tokens and AI cards as the Boomers.  However, the card for the Grinders specifies that they do not drop weapons when killed, even though the Mulcher as a weapon is present in the game.  The only reason I can really think of for this rule is that the Boomer wound token shows a Boomshot as the weapon dropped, and apparently saying you should count it as a Mulcher instead if dropped from a Grinder was too complicated.  I guess?  It makes little sense to me.  So we have HIZZOUSE RULE #1!

  -A Grinder drops weapons just like other models.  Use the Boomer wound tokens to determine this.  However, if a weapon is dropped, use the Mulcher weapon card instead of a Boomshot.


Troika HMG: One of the map tiles has a Troika HMG as an equipment icon.  If you begin your turn on it, instead of spending an action card you may make a six-die attack against one enemy on the board section.  This, however, is inconsistent in several ways.  One, the board section is four spaces wide... so if you can only target models on the board section, you either have a max range of one, or of two, depending on where the locust are standing.  Secondly, this is a heavy machine gun, and it has a maximum range that is only better than the shotgun if it is pointed in the right direction.  Say what?  Hence, to bring it in line closer with other weapon rules, hacienda el rule #2.


  -The Troika HMG is a six-die attack with a range of two (note, you may fire beyond it's range as per the normal rules for defense).  Line of sight is measured from the center of the equipment icon.


Boomshield: The Boomshield item is featured as a random weapon drop in the Gears boardgame.  It's ability grants the wielder plus two defense, but limits them to using only pistol weapons while carrying it.  As it is worded, you could benefit from both a Boomshield and cover at the same time.  However, this doesn't fit very well thematically, not to mention that it makes the wielder almost impervious to damage and throwing off game balance a bit in my mind.  In the Gears video game, the Boomshield literally is cover; you just carry it with you.  One of the actions you can take with it in the video game is to plant it standing up in the ground, at which point it is treated like a regular barrier.  So again, in the name of keeping the Gears boardgame in line with its own rules and with it parent, rule #3.


  -The Boomshield provides Full cover (+2 defense) to the wielder.  No cover bonus is granted for attacks from other models in the defender's area.


That's all for now, folks.  Though on a different note, does anybody else have two copies of Wretch card #9 but no #10?


-M

 EDIT:

Grenades!  Must not forget!  We have house-ruled that you may only carry four grenades at one time, like in the video game.  This normally doesn't come up, but if you take Baird in mission one and just sit his butt on the grenade area, you can get one for free every turn, no card spending required.  Four is more than plenty to complete the mission, but more than that is just silly, not needed, and breaks from the theme.

First Impressions - Gears of War: the Boardgame

I'm a bit of a Gears fan.  I'm a lot of a miniatures game fan.  Cooperative GoW boardgame with 28mm figs and slick looking terrain tiles? I'm sold just on principal.  I was not, however, expecting much from the gameplay.  I began to seriously question that assumption when I first cracked open my fresh new copy Thursday evening.

First off, the simple things.  The art is gorgeous, the minis are probably the best looking Fantasy Flight set to date, the map tiles are varied, detailed and good-looking.  Lots of tokens, cards, etc as you'd expect from a FF big box game.  So far so good.

The dice are what initially scared me about the game.  I was afraid that Gears was going to fall prey to unintuitive, over-specialized dice that end up being nothing more than a gimmick and a nuisance.  Not so!

The GoW dice are not only not ugly, but pretty, although in a very manly, chainsaw-wielding, dirt-covered, chest-bumping sort of way to fit with the rest of the game of course.  And they don't try for any strange gimmicks; defense dice have zero, one or two defense on them.  Attack dice have from zero to two hits, and an omen symbol to serve as a critical hit effect.  DONE.  I generallhey prefer a normal d6 (or d8, d10, d16 etc) in my gameplay, but the dice in here do fit for keeping the game streamlined.  You don't need "X to hit and Y to save," it's just roll and go.  It's worked since Battlemasters and Siege of the Citadel, and in this context, I think it works just fine too.

The game is scenario-driven, as is the pleasant trend in games today. Now, I have heard some people say that since it only has about half a dozen scenarios published until they (fingers crossed) come out with an expansion set, it has limited replayability.  Really?  Because while there may be many strategies to some of the top rated games on the interwebs, they still only have one scenario: get VPs.  Gears has no farmers, or even sheep to trade wood for, but every single scenario is replayable.  The tiles for each are randomly placed every game, the enemies move and spawn differently on different playthroughs and vary further based off of the number of players, and the characters themselves offer slight variations on your strategy and synergy.  There is one requirement that precedes playing the game again and again though.  Playing it once, and enjoying it.  So is Gears fun?  No.

It's awesomefun.

First playthrough today, Charlie control of Dom with me running Fenix, highly reminiscent of how we do this type of thing on the console, come to think of it (seriously, it took years to get this far).  We played through mission one, forgot a few rules for a bit like reactions and that you could carry more then one grenade, and got up near the end of the mission having a grand ole time.  Shut down the baddie spawn point, had four new dudes show up to protest our conduct (bringing the total near us to five), and we were golden as soon as we took them down.  Then something slightly unexpected happened.

I was positioned juuuust right with the card I drew for the AI to have every single bad guy on the board attack me on the same turn.  Following this, there was some running back and forth, and a lot of "Stop lying down on the job!" as we proceeded to try to keep each other alive while fending off the last few Locust baddies.  We died.  Afterwords, I was commenting that the game seemed to be cool and have a lot of potential, and that we should pack up so we could start our roleplaying "NO" ....game?

"We're playing this mission until we beat it."

Okay then.  I guess we're saving humanity, round two!

Play was much smoother the second time round, knowing the rules, cards and such.  Up near the end, we had another unexpected event where we accidentally spawned four extra wretches (little melee monsters) on one turn.  Which made me realize something I like about the AI card system and the critical hits.  You know, roughly, what the bad guys are going to do.  You can influence this by moving, shooting and using the right cards.  But you never know exactly what's coming.  Just like the GoW video game, or for that matter, real life.

We managed to eke out a win on game two, but only just.  Again, we were both only just scraping by for the last few rounds, and had to be very careful about how we managed.  Which was something else we both love in a game.

If we do everything just right in a game, loose anywyay, but you can point to a dozen die rolls and card draws and honestly say "We would have won if that one had been X," then the game is done right. Any game that you can win purely based off of knowing the right moves holds very little joy for me.  I used to play competitive chess, and very well, but who won really boiled down to who knew best.  Games like that can be fun, but if you're good enough at them, they aren't really a game anymore.  They're just a mental exercise, done by rote.  Gears doesn't let you win; it makes you work for it.  Gears doesn't make you loose; it gives you a chance to haul yourself up regardless of what it throws your way.  It possesses one of the key qualities in Space Hulk, that makes it a fun game to play even after doing "Suicide Mission" for two decades.

Every good game will be a close one, right up until you win....or get chainsawed.

Kickin' it... old school

In dusting off the old hard drive, I came across a little gem.  Undoubtedly a gem in the rough and in need of a bit of clean up at some point, but nonetheless... The Chronopia Firstborn Watchtower!

An oldie but goodie, from back when card stock terrain was first really making strides for use in wargaming.  You can find the raw scans here, on MY PHOTOBUCKET.

WorldWorksGames new terrain

Worldworks Games came out with a rather snazzy looking new cardstock terrain set today.  Specifically, the Podtel set.

I picked up the PDF for it, since I do plenty of sci-fi gaming and I figure it'll come in handy.  It should work great with any Shadowrun/Rezolution/Infinity type of cyberpunk setting.  And while I think it's a great looking set, and I'm glad to see Mr. Ebbles (aka Christopher Roe) already putting out awesome new sets after joing Worldworks, I do have one bit of beef with this set.

SwiftScenics?  Really?

Now, with their redesign, WWG is promoting four basic product lines;
Terraclips - Pre-printed terrain that you buy in a box set and clip together with plastic connectors.
TerrainlinX - Essentially a build-your-own cardstock Lego set.  Very versatile, very cool, but takes a long time to put a set together.
PropsMaster - 3D cardstock props to use with whatever.
SwiftSceneics - A "Print, Build, Play!" design, with simple exterior building terrain, made to be a quick and easy way to populate a table.

Now, the Podtel is not pre-printed, does not fit in with the TerrainlinX connectors, and is obviously more substantial than a set of boxes or cars or what have you.  So the only category really left to put it into is the SwiftSceneic.  However, SwiftSceneicsis supposed to be, as stated, "VERY quick to build" and easy to fill large game table with.  The previous releases in the series fit this very well.  They were modular, able to collapse for easy storage, and ran in at about nine to ten pages without addons.  Each building had a 6"x6" footprint, and was about 8" high.  Now, back to the Podtel.

Twenty-eight pages.

For roughly the same footprint, you have three times the amount of cardstock going into it.  Also, each level consists of twenty four separate pieces that have to be cut, scored, folded and glued together.  Old SwiftSceneics? Four pages, four walls.  One roof, a pair of two-piece supports, and an optional baseplate.  So while again, I can see the logic behind putting this set into the category that WWG did, it seems to me that it fits about as well as Bloodthirster having tea with a party of space marines.

Unless they're Blood Angels, of course.

-M

Air Ducts

Have a prototype of a set of air duct tiles done.  Building them, then I'll get some pics and post a finished product.

Also, seem to have found a way to get nice PDFs sized right.  Coming up right after this commercial break.

-M

Space Hulk: XT Token Set

Here are the tokens to accompany the XT action card decks.

One page should be good for most of your needs, but on the off chance that you end up with three of one single card in one game you'll need two pages. Tokens are 3cm, same size as a SH board square.

Air ducts up soon!

-M

XT Action Cards!!!

Had trouble getting them into a PDF, so here's all of the cards for the Space Hulk: XT action cards deck in .jpg format.  Print out one copy of the first page and three of each of the others.  They should be sized at 100%, so when printed the cards should be 2.5' by 3.5'.  The cards with a purple "G" in the corner are the Genestealer deck, and the blue "M" are the marine deck.  See the previous post for full rules.  Let me know what you think, people!

High-speed fancy graphics version to follow!  Also, look out for counters for the action deck.

XT Action Cards Rules

Space Hulk: XT Action Card Rules
written by
Mick Cover
Basic Rules
Both players in Space Hulk: XT have access to a unique action deck of fifty cards. At the beginning of the game, both players draw one card from their deck. At the beginning of each player’s turn, that player draws one action card. In addition, once per turn, the Space Marine player may draw an extra card at any point during his turn by spending one command point. At the end of each player’s turn, if they have more than three action cards, they must discard down to three. These cards may be played at any time. When you play a card, follow the rues on the card as written.
Types of Cards- Order Cards are Marine action cards that effect one or more marine models on the board.
- Biomorph Cards are Genestealer action cards that change the genestealers on a targeted blip as it is moved onto the board.
- Counter Cards counter the effect of a card that was just played. This may be another Counter Card.
　
New Rules and Other Clarifications
Air DuctsSome areas of certain space hulks have air ducts that are large enough to allow Genestealers to move through them. Air ducts are shown in the mission maps, and are treated like corridors with the following additional rules:
Genestealers:- Genestealers or Blips may enter an air duct from the space directly in front of the air duct at a cost of 2 action points.
- Genestealers or Blips may exit from the end of an air duct on to the space directly in front of the air duct at a cost of 1 action point.
- With the exception of entering and leaving, Genestealers and Blips move through air ducts exactly as if they were corridors.
Marines:- The air ducts are too high and narrow to allow Marines entry and although the Marines can see the opening of the air duct they have no line of sight into the air ducts themselves. This means that the Marines cannot fire at Genestealers inside air ducts, and Blips are not forced to convert.
- The only exception to this rule is that a heavy flamer may be fired into the air duct (thus flaming the entire air duct board section). This may only be done by a Marine facing directly in line with the opening and with no models in between.
Close Assault from Air Ducts:- If a Marine is standing in an exit space it may be attacked in close assault by a Genestealer inside the air duct.
HolesHole counters represent a hole in the floor. Genestealers are agile enough that they move across a Hole counter with no effect. When a marine moves into a square with a hole counter, the Marine player rolls a D6. On a 1, the Marine tumbles down to the next level! Unless you are playing a mission with specific rules for multiple levels, a model that falls through a hole is lost in the remainder of the space hulk and is considered killed for all mission objectives.
BulkheadsBulkheads are similar to closed doors, except that they cannot be opened. They are fixed in place and must be broken through.
- A model armed with a chainfist can break through a bulkhead in his front facing square by paying 2APs. Other models must make a close assault attack against them, succeeding if they roll a 6 or higher after modifiers are applied.
- A bulkhead may only be shot open by a heavy weapon that targets a point target, such as an Assault Cannon, but not by basic weapons like Storm Bolters heavy weapons that affect an area such as a Heavy Flamer. Roll the same number of attack dice you normally would, but the bulkhead is only destroyed if one or more of the dice is a six.
Inspecting BlipsWhen a player is allowed to inspect a blip, he may immediately look at the hidden side of the blip. This does not convert the blip in question, and the player may not look at it again at a later point unless some other effect allows him to do so.
“One Full Turn”When a card specifies that an effect does something for “One Full Turn,” it effects the remainder of the turn it is played in, as well as the entirety of the next players turn. It ceases to take effect during the upkeep phase of the next turn.
LeapA model with leap may move two spaces straight forward in a direct line for the cost of two action points. Models may only take Overwatch reactions towards the leaping model in the space it lands in. Each model may use this ability only once per turn.The Genestealer Broodlord has two wounds, six action points, and rolls 4D6 + 3 for melee attacks. It may be effected by “Biomorph” cards, but it counts as all three genestealers for this purpose.
Space Marine Auto-TurretThe Marine Auto-Turret is a model that may be placed because of a mission special rule or because of an action card. It has 0 AP, and may not spend any CP. It has a Defense of 6.
Placement, Pickup and Carrying- A model carrying an Auto-Turret is not effected by it. It may spend 1 AP to place the Turret in any of it’s front three squares, with any facing. The Auto-Turret may be picked up and carried by any friendly model for 1 AP. Models may only pick up a Turret in it’s front three squares.
Bolter- The Auto-Turret is armed with a bolter. This is much akin to a Terminator’s Storm Bolter, but with a lower rate of fire. The turret makes attacks with 1D6 + 0 damage. It has the “Unreliable” quality, which means that any attack roll it makes, weather on overwatch or as a regular attack, jams on an attack roll of a 1.
Melee- The Auto-Turret has no melee statistic. Any melee attack against it will destroy it.
Overwatch and Clearing Jams- The Auto-Turret comes into play on overwatch. Unless it jams or is attacked, it will always remain on overwatch. If the Auto-Turret jams, it may only be un-jammed or put back on overwatch by a friendly model with the Turret in its front three squares spending AP to do so.
　
Expanded CombatDefense and DamageDefense is the value needed on a ranged attack roll to wound the targeted model. Damage includes the number of dice rolled as well as any modifier applied to them for an attack.
- For example, a storm bolter has a 2D6 + 0 damage. Against a Genestealer or another Terminator, who have a Defense value of six, the attacker would roll two six sided dice and add zero. If either dice totaled a six then the targeted model would take a wound.
- Note: this only applies to the “Sentry Gun” card. It needs a roll of a six on it’s attack die to wound a model. This is simply included as such to make things consistent with the rest of the Space Hulk: XT modules.
WoundsWhen a model is successfully hit by a ranged attack or looses a melee attack, it suffers a wound. If a model has more than one wound, place a wound counter next to it. If a model looses it’s last wound, it is destroyed. All models unless otherwise noted only have one wound.
SaveWhen a model with a save is wounded or destroyed, roll a D6. If the result is equal to or higher than the model’s save, then it ignores the wound.
Broodlord

Delaying Action: a Space Hulk: XT Battle Report

Mission: Delaying Action, from Space Hulk: Campaigns
   Marine objective: Get two or more marines off the board via the room on the opposite side of the board from the start zone.
   Stealer objective: Eat all of the marines. NOM NOM NOM!

Players:
   Marine, -M
   Stealers, Charlie, aka Brother-Captain Rommel, but only when he's playing the marines you silly geese.

Setup:
   We utilized the extended blip set from 1st edition (1 to 6 per blip instead of 1 to 3), with the XT action cards. Marine forces were one captain, one marine with a flamer, one marine with an assault cannon, one with lightning claws and one regular marine.  Having recently picked up an uber-sweet termie miniature from Scibor Miniatures, namely this one, http://sciborminiatures.com/en_,shop.php?art=1037#i/2011/big/templar_p3_01.jpgI I decided we had to try him out. Hence, this mission.

Space Marine Captain: 1D6+2 in melee, with a parry like the marine sergeant. Adds two to the number of command points drawn. Is also armed with a grenade launcher with ten rounds. The grenade launcher has a range of 8 and targets a board section like a flamer. It takes 1 AP to fire and wounds any genestealers on the targeted section on a four plus. However, it does not block a board section like a flamer.


Turn 1
I move the marines up the main corridor with a sick CP draw, further augmented by the plus two of the captain. The stealers move blips up on either side at the nearby entry points.

Turn 2
I start off the turn with a Mothership Scan and check out the blip on the right. Turns out it's a five, a nasty start.

I rush up the center with another great CP draw, and as the stealers move up I play High Grav Zone on the left side to slow them down some.

Turn 3
Marines rush up further and the flamer turns round to cover the rear. The stealers continue to close in on both sides.

Turn 4
Captain runs up to the last x intersection. Battle-brother Logan (with the claws) runs up the left side to take care of the stealers there, which pose the biggest threat because they're the closest. Then the stealers move up a bit, and Charlie plays High-Grav zone in front of my commander to slow me down next turn.

Turn 5
The commander kills all of the stealers in the corridor in front of him so fast I didn't even get a pic of them. Brother Logan moves up the rest of the way to engage the stealers on the left. The stealers move up on the center corridor.

Turn 6
The commander doesn't fare so well with his shooting this turn, wasting 2 grenades and 7 AP/CP to kill two stealers. He then steps aside, letting the guy with the asault cannon finish up the job. All of the marines in the center corridor advance with the exception of the flamer, who burns both cross junctions to slow down the stealers and buy time.

The stealers mass in front of brother Logan...

...and accordingly, he shows them the fate of all those who oppose the Deathwing.

A few large blips pop and rush up the center in a desperate bid to catch the escaping marines.

Turn 7
Brother Logan begins his return trek to the center, while the three marines by the exit advance into the room. The flamer nobly covers their backs while leaving himself exposed, but I drop a bulkhead in front of the stealers so they will only be able to reach him from the front this turn.

The Stealers rush the marine with the flamer, but he crushes the first with his powerfist and manages to tie the second.
Turn 8
As the marines escape, brother Logan comes to support the flamer while he burns the beast in front of him, and the game is won, though the flamer dies shortly thereafter.

Conclusion: The mission was a success for the marines. This was in large part due to the stupidly ridiculous CP draws, Brother Logan's adamantium claws and BA attitude, and of course the sheer amount of awesome the Captain brought to the table for his inaugural battle. Seriously though, drawing 6 CP three times in the first seven turns, and never getting less than a three? Yet more evidence that the gods of fate love awesome miniatures.
　
Stay tuned. PDF of the full Action card deck is coming up next.

"Blood for the Blood God! Wait, I mean Sanguinus!" - Brother-Chaplin Lemartes of the Blood Angels

-M