Infestation; a Clash on the Fringe AAR

Ever since I painted up my space bugs, I've wanted to run a scenario around them. When a friend had do cancel on the days plans, I decided that today was the day!

Some background:
In a remote part of PMR-21. A small research base was founded by Omni-corp, a subsidiary of Sanada. The location was chosen for it's appearent lack of neighbours and prying eyes, so that whatever research was being performed would stay secret. But when the weekly check-in with the local HQ didn't come through, people in high places started to worry.

A call was made to the mother company, the Sanada Mega-corp. Their assessment was that the critical research was not to end up in the wrong hands and fearing another spectacle like the earlier attack on a Union base, they decided to send in the Grey Wolves.

The order was given, and Greyson and his team suited up and got ready to get the critical data-drives out of the facility. 

The stats for the different forces were:
Gray Wolves:

Grayson
Sp  5
Su  6
Di  6
Mo 7
Tr  6
Ld 2
Armed with an assault rifle and pistol.

Pope
Sp  5
Su  6
Di  6
Mo 7
Tr  6

Armed with a plasma rifle and pistol.

Wild Bill (gunslinger trait)
Sp  5
Su  6
Di  6
Mo 7
Tr  6

Armed with 2x Man-stopper pistols

Booth
Sp  5
Su  6
Di  6
Mo 7
Tr  6

Armed with a LMG and a pistol.

Farley
Sp  5
Su  6
Di  6
Mo 6
Tr  5

Armed with an assault rifle and pistol.

Grayson was a hero character, while the others all carried one stimpack each for increased survivability.
All the wolves also carried demo-charges, in case they needed to destroy any of the evidence they couldn't carry.

The Swarm drones
Sp  7
Su  5
Di  8
Mo 9
Tr 7no ranged weapons, 2 cc weapons pen 4

The Swarm crawlers
Sp  7
Su  5
Di  8
Mo 9
Tr 7Tail spikes (count as assault rifle), 2 cc weapons pen 4

The Swarm Xeno Alpha
Sp  5 
Su  8
Bu 6
Di  5
Mo 8
Tr  5
Bio acid gun (counts as incinerator), cc weapon pen 4

The Xeno Alpha is built with a monster template for a base, and the crawlers were made from the standard swarm profile, but given a ranged attack as well. The Swarm will roll to activate as normal, but beginning with no forces on the table.
Instead, each time they won a roll, if there was no swarm unit on the battlefield that hadn't already been activated, one was generated using a d10 and a d6. The d10 was rolled only to see if the Xeno Alpha would appear this time, and if not, the d6 indicated the number of drones in the unit. I limited the Swarm to 3 activations to give the Wolves a chance.
I didn't observe point-values in this game, since the Swarm was going to spawn new units most turns.
The Wolves had til the end of turn 6 to complete their objective. 

The scene as the wolves arrive:

The wolves, getting ready to enter the compound. 

The compound. Everything seems quiet, too quiet. And what is that thing that has broken through the north-eastern wall?

Moving up cautiously, they approach the gates.

A strange shriek is heard from the east side of the compound. The wolves tense up, what could that be? "Probably nothing good" remarked Pope.

Some crawlers creep along the outer edge of the wall, getting ready to attack.

A hail of razor-sharp spines comes flying at Bill, he manages to dodge the worst of it, but is forces to go heads down.

The start of turn 2.

Wild Bill quickly regains his composure, and returns fire on the crawlers. His heavy guns blows the creatures away with ease.

The gate breaks open as the first group of drones charge, only to be caught in crossfire, killing 2 of them. The last one just manages to hug the ground quick enough that it isn't hit. (I can see that I forgot to remove the heads down tokens on Wild Bill after he shrugged them off when activating)

The swarm doesn't relent, both the Alpha and another 5 drones comes out of the nest, intent on defending their new home. Farley lays down some fire, and manages to take down 2 more drones.

Start of turn 3.

More fire from Farley kills another drone, creating an opening for Grayson.

Slipping into the compound, Grayson finished off the stunned drones.

Wild Bill is charged by the last drone remaining outside the compound, and a fierce stuggle ensues.
In the end, both the drone and Bill goes out of action.

Pope smokes a few more bugs with his plasma.

Start of turn 4.

Another swarm of drones appear, 6 in number!  They assault Pope, but he manages to activate his stimpack and fall back behind the wall.

The grey wolves didn't panic though, and through carefull application of fire, they picked of 2 and made a few duck down to avoid their fire.

Grayson searches the complex, looking for the all-important data drive. (He needed to roll below 5 on a d10, a standard task I felt. But it took him longer than expexted).

Slowly, withering fire brings down 1, then 2 drones. At the same time, the Alpha is driven back, his wounds causing him to fall back behind the nest.

The start of turn 5. Time is running out, and the wolves know it!

Grayson keeps searching, amassing all the data he can find, but still no drive. Farley tries to fend off a lone drone, but he is knocked out.

Finally some luck when Booth moves up to help Grayson, he finds the drive in no time!

Start of turn 6, the last chance to blow the compound, now that the data is safely in hand.

The last drone charges in an attempt to stop the unit, unaware of the coming explosion. Booth crushes him with a blow of his own tough.

Once everybody is safely out of the blast-zone, the explosives are triggered, taking the compound and swarm nest with it.

The remaining wolves at the end of turn 6.

The lone Alpha, out for blood.

The mission was accomplished and the game technically over, but I felt that I couldn't just leave it here, either the Alpha would have his revenge, or the wolves would get away..

And as it turned out, the Alpha missed his acid spray attack and the barrage of fire coming his way blew him into a million pieces!

A win for the Gray Wolves!

The swarm was an interesting type of unit, and having something like 30 of them facing you down is a terrifying idea. The scenario worked out fine I think, partly due to lucky rolls from the wolves. A few low initiative rolls could easily have seen them swamped by the entrance, luckily it turned out more interesting than that.

Having planned a terrain-workshop with a friend this week, I'm hoping to share a few more terrain pieces along with some test paints of some units for what could be my next 6mm sci-fi army.

Til next time!