The Empire Strikes Back Part 1

Our last episode saw the the emergence of the bugs who scattered the Humans, Zombies, Galactic Empire troopers, and even the vaunted Space Marines to the four winds.  A lone Storm Trooper managed to make it back to Imperial HQ to tell his tale.  The admiral decided that an immediate reverse was in order; he didn't need word of this failure to reach Lord Vader..  (ominous dark, evil, march playing in background)

Imperial scouts enter the small town and advance up Main street.

In the distance the scouts can already see large bugs milling about the intersection.

The bugs see the scouts as well.  The bugs charge and the scouts blaze away with their blasters.  A squad of Imperial Stormtroopers marches up as well.

While huge and ferocious, the bugs are no match for the disciplined Stormtroopers who have formed a secure firing line.

A scout and his Sergeant are attacked by a Xeno who was hiding in the truck!

The grizzled veteran Sergeant manages to fend off and kill the Xeno!

Yet another bug appears but it is given the same treatment by the disciplined Imperial firing line.

The scout NCO regroups his squad and takes them off road to clear the right flank.

The Stormtrooper squad leader takes his firing line up the street slowly and cautiously while watching the flanks.

Heavy support has arrived as a walker follows up the first squad.  Next comes the Company and platoon commanders who are escorted by some Elite Stormtroopers.

With it's height advantage, the walker pilot spots a bug attacking a car.

He opens fire and blows it away.  He blows away the car as well.  Whoever was in it does not have to worry about the bug anymore.

The scouts are securing the wooded area to the right of the street.

And first squad continues it's slow advancement up Main street.

Second squad has arrived.  It looks like the Imperials are serious about dishing out some retribution for the last encounter!

Now that First squad and the walker have secured a defensive position it is time for Second squad to start clearing the buildings.  This ratty little motel has three rooms.

Two troopers from Second squad clear the soda truck.

Now another walker makes the scene.  The Imperials have some serious firepower now.

The scouts are still clearing the area.  They are about to clear the auto parts store from the back door.

First squad has worked it's way almost up to the intersection now.  The NCO is maintaining a secure firing line.

Surprise!  A Xeno gets the drop on the Second squad NCO and one of his troopers.  Just because you don't see something when walking into a dark motel room doesn't mean there isn't something there!

The Alien Xeno drops them both.

Meanwhile, off in the woods on the right, several bugs have appeared seemingly out of nowhere.  Will the grizzled veteran NCO spot them in time?

The Imperials activate in time, and turn and fire away at the bugs.

They manage to kill half of the bugs with their initial volley.

Second squad is sent to aid in the fight in the woods.  One of the troopers looks around and says "Hey! Where's Sarge?"

While all that commotion is taking place, First squad starts to clear buildings themselves.  Two troopers go in to investigate the Police station.

The dice are starting to get "buggy" and another horde of bugs appears near the gas station.

Back in the woods, the Stormtroopers and Scouts have managed to finish off all the bugs while sustaining no losses.

Two Stormtroopers go looking for their NCO and enter the center motel room where he was last seen.  This time the Xeno does not get the drop, the alert Stormtroopers detect him before he can spring his trap.  They blaze away with their blasters!

Alas but they find out something the hard way..  As the Xeno splatters all over the room, acid sprays on them and they both go OOF.

Alerted by all the blaster fire, a platoon leader brings a couple of troopers and investigates the motel room.  He is horrified at the carnage and the loss of three troopers and an NCO.

First squad has their own problems.  Here they blast away at a horde of charging bugs.

And they keep on blasting, and the bugs keep coming, and dieing, but still coming.  But it looks like First squad is handling the situation quite admirably.

While their attention is elsewhere, the Imperials fail to notice a lone Xeno stealthily emerge from the sewers via a manhole.  Even the Elite Stormtroopers failed to notice it behind the leg of the walker.  The clever Xeno Alien starts to spew acid all over the leg of the walker.  Clever girl, isn't she?

Tune in for episode 2 whenever I get it posted to find out what the heck happens here!
Nick played the bugs and Xenos and I played the Imperials.
Nick created the scenario and handled all the hidden units and movements etc..

LTL Mom Goes to Sea

Well what can I say?  Anytime Mom sits in for a game it is a big day.  Mom has a bit of a thing for naval history.  Although her main interest is age of sail we managed to get her to play some War at Sea WWII stuff.  War at Sea is that game from the Axis and Allies series.  I really do like this game a lot.  It is easy to play but it still captures the drama of carrier and battle groups slugging it out and is just like watching a documentary.  Here are a few pics of the engagement.

Once again due to miniatures availability, we have another match between the Japanese and the German/Italians.  We split in two teams; Mom and Dad as Japanese while Jil and Nick commanded the German/Italians.  Mom and I went heavy on air power while Jil and Nick were more balanced with plenty of surface ships.  Right off the bat the lads came with all their bombers and escorts.  We had a couple of fighter groups helping out in defense (grey Zeros on right and green Georges on left) and along with heavy air defense from the vessels we managed to repulse the initial attack and inflict some pretty nice losses to the bombers.

While the lads were trying to bomb our carriers we were up to the same game on their end, but we were after their cruisers.  Mom sent a horde of Vals, Kates, and Judys to wreak havoc.

And she sent Emily and Betty out on submarine duty. 

Mom's first kill.  Her swamping of the cruisers pays off with a Hipper class cruiser going to the bottom.

As the ships from both sides steam ahead towards the objectives the air war continues.  This turn the Georges (fighters) are absent because they are land based and rearming.  Nick is back with his bombers but Mom beats him off again with the added support from her Zeros.

Mom is relentlessly going after more blood.  She has everything she can muster in the air and dropping bombs on the German/Italians.

Doh!  Bad picture.  Nick gets trough and scores a critical hit and sends the smallest Japanese carrier to the bottom.  Luckily for Mom only one air group is based on her and so it will not be a total tradegy.

Mom has been doing a lot of damage to the boys, but not really managing to sink anything.  She sends her Battleship Haguro up to contest the objective while both sides steam ahead.  The next turn will be critical.
Those grey puffs are smoke screens that Jil has been laying to help him survive some of the gunnery from Mom's big battleship.

A couple of Jil's Italian cruisers sneaking around grabbing an objective.

A busy turn.  Mom gets through AD and fighter defense with some air casualties and sinks the other Hipper class cruiser.  Her patrol bombers and Battleship are all over the Italian battleship (far left) but simply cannot manage to sink it.  On the right, Nick's last big air attempt on the Akagi carrier group is in full swing but Mom's N1K1 Georges are back and they are vicious fighters.

Now it is just a messy slugging match.  Fortunately for Mom, Jil's submarine is not scoring any hits.

After losing more planes and having to re-base their fighters to a land base, Jil and Nick are in the unenviable position of having Mom on the loose with complete air superiority.  The Italian cruisers out on the perimeter are no longer safe.  One goes to the bottom.

And so does the Italian BB.  Finally!  Jil's sub is still refusing to score any hits which is really killing him.  But who can blame the sub with all those ASW equipped planes swarming overhead.

It is not long before the Italian destroyers go to the bottom as well.  The gunnery from the BB and the CV's are just too intense.

Mom's BB cruise in to seize the objective while Jil's last cruiser and plane-less carrier jockey for position but this action is over.  The Imperial Japanese Navy triumphs again.


A fun game!  Best part is that Mom indicated she will be playing again.