Space Infantry Campaign Mission 1: part 1

Last week Zac set up his Space Infantry Resurgence campaign and this week we have the first part of the first mission.

So with all of the setup done, it is now time to embark on my first campaign mission. I draw a card from Deck A and get the H003 mission. This is a Hive mission and will use the Hive tiles and Hive Node cards instead of regular map and Nodes. Looking at the H003 Mission sheet I can see that this mission will be against the Cthonians. I will have to locate Special Node Card E to finish the mission. There is a special rule in place that increases the Event Check value by +1 until such time as an event is generated. The Cthonians don’t know that we are coming.

My next step is to draw two more STRATOPs cards. Both of them are +20 Squad Points and neither of them have any Recruits. None of my troops have seen combat so I don’t have anyone to spend Recruitment Points on so it is straight on to Squad selection.

Since the Cthonians are a melee focused enemy I will make sure that I take as many melee combatants as I can. The Cthonian Adults and Old One all have armour so I am going to make sure that I have Heavy Weapons team on hand as well.

My Squad consists of:

• Squad Leader
• Fire Team A
• Assault Team A
• Assault Team B
• C-C Team
• Heavy Weapons
• Explorer

I am taking an Explorer because I think that his Scout and Climb skills will come in handy in the tunnels of the Hive. The Assault Teams aren’t really all that much better than regular troops in melee but they have the Advanced Training trait that will give them +1 AP in a Melee combat. I think that the Heavy Weapon trooper will be an important addition as there will be some big nasties with Armour and it will be critical to ignore that and take them down.

I am going to use the +1 Intel STRATOPs card and take a Resource load out of:

• Medkit 2
• Intel 2
• Grenade 3
• Light 2

The Light is a necessity in a Hive and I will need Grenades if I am going to be getting in a lot of Melee combats. I am taking the two Intel counters to make sure I have enough to open up a Node even if I don’t have the skill. This leaves me low on Medkits but I am hoping that I can do without them.

Building the Hive

Before you can start a Hive mission you need to build the Hive. The mission calls for three Special Node cards (E, G and blank) so I pull those out as well as the Hive cards. Since this is an AL 1 mission I remove all of the Hive Node cards that aren’t AL 1 and then give them a shuffle.

First I need an Entry Point. This is any Hive tile that does not have a Special Node on it. I draw #8 and place it. Then I create the Infiltration Zone by picking two more tiles. Again these need to not have Special Nodes on them. I pick #12 and then #6. #6 has a Special Node so I put it aside and then pull out tile #2. This has no Special Node so it can be used. I place them and then put Node cards on each of the tiles. I am now ready to go.

The Mission

Turn 1

The first Node in the Hive is a Base node. Checking the Mission Sheet I see that for H003 the Base has an Advance 3 requirement. The Squad is able to blast through that easily and we move into the Node. The event string is 5+/A but the mission Special Rule makes this a 6+/A. The RN is a 4 so they are safe for now. This Node also has an Intel Resource marker but the squad is already past capacity for resources.

Turn 2

The second Node has a Demolitions 2 requirement and since no-one has that skill I spend 1 Intel resource to get the two SL that I need and advance into the Node. The event is 4+/A and that is exactly what I roll but the Special Rule makes it a 5+ and so we just narrowly avoid an encounter.

Turn 3

Turn 3 sees the squad moving into tile #12 which has Narrow Corridors. The first Node (and the only one we can move to) is Advance 3. The Squad Leader fails his Command Check but that is okay as the C-C Team generates two successes and Assault Team A gets the third. Sadly the event string for this Node is Auto/B. The RN for the encounter is 4 which generates three Young and one Adult Chtonian.

Combat

The RN for range is a 4 which is Melee range. Narrow Corridors limits combat to two activations for each side. The two Young Cthonians will go ‘in front’ (be activated) and I pick the two Assault Teams to engage them. The Squad Leader generates one CP. The first Assault Team generates no SLs but the second Team generates two. Each Cthonian Young gets one wound. The Cthonians attack in return and get one wound and a grapple. I assign the Wound and the Grapple to Assault Team A.

Round 2 starts with the Squad Leader getting a 0 for their Command Check. The range stays at Melee. Assault Team A removes the Grapple and Team B fails to wound. Neither Cthonian Young is able to land a hit even with the effect of the Grapple.

No CP for the Squad Leader in Round 3 and we also roll a 2 for range which is a Cave-in. The enemy forces take two wounds and I put one on an Adult and the second on an undamaged Youth. I put the Squad wound on the C-C team. Combat is difficult while the walls are falling in on us and I only do a single point of damage to a Youth and they are unable to cause any damage in return.

Combat continues even amidst the rubble. The Squad Leader gets a CP and the range moves to Fire. Since the range has changed I can rearrange my troops and I pick Fire Team A and the Heavy Weapon team. They both generate two wounds each and destroy the Chtonian Young who get no wounds in return. That just leaves the Chtonian Adult.

At the start of the next round the Squad Leader gets another CP and the range, thankfully, stays at Fire. Fire Team A gets one Wound and I use the CP to boost the Heavy Weapon team’s RN to a 6 so they can generate three. One Adult is able to use Armour on the Fire Teams wound but the other three are AP wounds and so go right through. Only one Adult is able to hit but it generates a Grapple result as well. I apply that to the Fire Team as I want the Heavy Weapon team to be able to fire.

Next round there is no CP and the range stays at Fire. The Fire Team can’t remove the Grapple result and the Heavy Weapon team only gets a single wound. The Adult grappling the Fire Team rolls horribly but it has +1AP for the Grapple as well as +1 AP for its Unearthly Speed rule so it does generate a wound which I remove with a second Med Kit. The second Adult is unable to hit.

The new round brings the gift of a CP and also changes the range to Melee. I can switch around the troops again so I bring in Assault Team B to replace the Heavy Weapon team. It doesn’t say anywhere to do so but I keep the grappled Fire Team since they don’t seem able to move. Since I already have a Cave In I will toss a Grenade at the Cthonians. It does seven wounds. The Assault grappling the Fire Team rolls low again but the bonuses are still enough to cause a wound and kill the Fire Team. The second Adult misses (thank goodness) and the grenade was more than enough damage to take them both out.

The Cthonians have been routed but now the squad needs to dig out of the cave-in. Due to some rather good RNs and a CP the squad clears the cave-in in a single turn. On to the next node.

Part 2 of the AAR is now available to read.