Space Infantry campaign setup

We are going to begin a multi-article series showing a full campaign using the Space Infantry Resurgence rules. In this first article, Zac will be discussing what you need to do to set up a campaign.

Space Infantry Resurgence is Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s solo game of infantry combat where you take a squad of troops and face off against a variety of alien threats. The missions are built with random cards and the enemies you encounter are also randomised which helps to give the game the feel of a rouge-like.

I have been playing some stand-alone games of Space Infantry to get a better understanding of the rules and I am now, I hope, ready to play a campaign. While individual games of Space Infantry are fun I think that the campaign system really lets you get the most from the game and also allows you to use some of the great additional cards that it comes with.

Getting started

The first thing that you need to do when starting a campaign is, obviously, to pick a campaign sheet to use. The Space Infantry Resurgence box comes with cards for seven campaigns and these are also available in the printed rulebook and as a PDF download. Each campaign sheet provides you with several items – a mission log, a victory point table, a list of the cards used to the scenario decks(s), a checklist to track the STRATOPs cards used, the tables used for the post-mission process as well as a list of victory points. Since this is my first campaign I will select C001 as it seems the least difficult of the campaigns available.

Mission Decks

The first thing I need to do is assemble the mission decks. These decks are what you draw from to determine what mission you run when you sit down to play. Campaign C001 calls for two decks, A and B, that are created using six mission cards and two events. The missions are specific cards that you need to add and the events are random events keyed to a particular Alert Level. Both decks have a mix of basic and Hive missions so I make sure that I have read the Hive rules carefully. The Campaign Log shows when you draw

Campaign Log

The Campaign log has eight entries so I will be playing a maximum of eight games. Depending on how I do some of these might be replays of aborted missions so I won’t necessarily see eight different cards from the decks. The first four missions use Deck A and the remainder are drawn from Deck B. The Alert Level starts at 1 and the switches to 2 during Mission 4 and then to 3 at Missions 7.

Each deck has eight cards and is used, in this campaign, for a maximum of four missions so you will not use all of the cards in each deck and if you aren’t very lucky you may have to repeat some missions and only see one or two cards. So even if you have played the same campaign before it will be resolved out in a different fashion making it seem fresh each time.

STRATOPs

The next step is to assemble the STRATOPs card deck. This will represent additional resources provided to your troops as they attempt their missions. This campaign only uses the Non Restricted cards in the deck but you may get access to those Restricted cards at a a later date and if you do you will need to spend three Intel resources to activate them.

You draw two cards from the STRATOPs deck each time you start a new mission and you can use up to two cards during a game. The cards stay in your ‘hand’ between games and you can gain additional XP each mission by not using your cards so determining when and if to use them can be tricky.

I now have the two mission decks and the STRATOPs decks readied so now I need to pick my troops.

Assemble the troops!

The Space Infantry Resurgence box comes with three campaign squads you can use. There is also a blank sheet that you can use to create your own squad. Each squad has the same Core units but differing Support units as well as vehicle access. In addition, each squad has a series of Company Traits that you can spend XP on to upgrade your units. On top of that, each squad also has access to a set of five common Space Infantry Traits.

Each squad has a slightly different focus and support troops as well as Company Traits. So picking a squad will give you access to different upgrade paths and provide a different challenge.

I decide to use Maiko Squad of the 65th Company. They have access to multiple Melee traits to upgrade the troops as well as a Flamer and Shot Gunner to really lean into melee combat. With my troops picked and my decks assembled I am now ready to draw my first mission and get started on the campaign.

Enemy intel

I have decided to use the Mercenaries as my main opponent in this campaign. Some scenarios specify an enemy type but when they don’t I will be using the Mercenaries. In my previous games some of the other alien races provided much more robust opposition and I want to keep the difficulty level down for my first campaign.

Before the shooting starts

There are one or two things that need to be done before I can start my first mission. I need to draw two STRATOPs cards. I pick +1 Intel Resource and Platoon HQ Support. The +1 Intel card also has a Green Recruit on it but I do not get to add this to my squad sheet. To help counter that though the game does let me start with 1 Green and 1 Line Recruit that I will make a note of on my Squad sheet.

Now on to the first mission!