Crystal research

At the club we played another Sharpe Power Armour game.

The mission is to retrieve the research logs from the vehicles at the centre of the board. The research team itself has disappeared while investigating strange crystal growths in a city destroyed in an apocalyptic  conflict long ago.

My opponent's force (armoured troopers supported by robots and vehicles carrying heavy weapons) enters the area.

On the opposite side, my heavy power armour units advance, supported by two armoured trooper squads and a heavy weapon team.

Units of my opponent move towards the vehilces while taking fire from my guys.

One of my power armoured units reaches a vehicle, plugs in and starts downloading (and wiping) the research logs.

Soon both sides are lobbing grenades at each other over the vehicle.

Another power armoured unit I send in to assist, runs into my opponent's "panzerknackers". They are wiped out, but the power armour is also destroyed, forcing the pilot to eject and skedaddle.

My surviving power armour is accumulating damage and two of my supporting infantry squads have been destroyed so I decide to withdraw.

The remainder of my force manages to withdraw to safety, but when we roll a die after the game to determine which vehicle contained the high value logs (the other one containing almost worthless survey data), I found out my force obtained the wrong data!

Capture the alien tech

 I took my painted power armour guys to the club for their first fight.

The scenario:

The Weyland Yutani company has aquired a large piece of alien tech which they have hidden away in a remote research facility. The site is guarded by 4 armoured sentry droids and a small unit of guards.

 

Two rival corporations have sent a strike team to acquire the alien tech from Weyland Yutani.

My guys and their drone companions enter the table.

My opponent quickly moves his troopers into the compound and engages the droids.

One down, three to go.

Another one down.

Meanwhile on the other side of the table I managed to shut a droid down (by inflicting excessive shock). The guard unit has also been wiped out, reducing their force morale to zero which also shuts down the last remaining guard droid.

 Taking cover behind an APC, I'm now targeting my opponent's power armoured troopers.

Quickly the envrionment is dotted with anti missile chaff/flare clouds.

In rapid succession my opponent damages two of my power armour suits badly enough to trigger a bail out. My remaining trooper's suit is also damaged so it's game over.

Although my guys took a beating, it was still a fun game. There are still some things to tweak in the rules. Use of close in weapon systems to shoot down incoming missiles for instance.

Paradise city

More power armour gaming at the club last weekend.

The scenario:

A labour dispute has escalated into a full scale uprising. After first bombing the insurgents and defoliating the vegetation in their main city, the alien corporate overseers have sent a negotiator.

The negiotiator is however immediately taken hostage and a small alien task force is sent to extract him.

The whole area is littered with sentry guns/drones which can be activiated by insurgent drone operators.

All is quiet while the dust is settling

The negotiator has slipped away from his captors

Sniper team deploys

Insurgents take up positions and recapture the negotiator

Firepower still in their parking bays

The big guys deploy, but immediately come under heavy machine gun fire and several guided missiles.

An insurgent flamer squad and a squad of "power armour knackers" are closing in on one of the alien power armour troopers.

Reasoning that attack is the best type of defense, the power armour trooper engages in close combat. Unfortunately the power armour knackers inflict an enourmous amount of damage on the suit and the pilot has to eject to save his blue gray skin.

When another power armour trooper accumulates too much shock from concentrated machine gun fire and breaks, the other members of the alien task force leave their negotiator behind and retreat to safety.

Building Power Armour troopers part 3

Look here for part 2.

Finally got everything painted. I couldn't decide on a paint scheme. In the end I went for a grey based scheme. This fits with a paint scheme I used for other scifi figures I own and differs from the khaki/olive drab scheme on my regular opponent's power armour figures.

Everything is magnetised, so they can be equipped with the shoulder mounted harness and long range weapons or without for close quarters combat.

A power armoured trooper will usually have several ground or airborne drones to provide enhanced situational awareness or extra firepower.

Additional drones may carry extra ammo.

Group shot with my other grey themed troopers. I only found out after digging them out of storage that the bases don't match (urban vs dirt).

Welcome to the jungle

We've been playing our Sharpe Power Armour rules mix (based on Chain of Command, Sharpe Practice and What a Tanker), fielding power armour units on both sides. This time I wanted to try an asymmetric scenario where power armour has to take on low tech militia type adversaries. In order to prevent the militia being obliterated in the first turn, we needed lots of cover on the table: jungle!

The scenario:

The Resource Development Administration not only mines for unobtanium on Pandora but also on other planets where the natives don't appreciate their activities. A technical malfunction has forced an RDA gunship to make an emergency landing in the jungle. The RDA is sending a power armoured taskforce to recover the pilot and repair the gunship if possible. The natives hurry towards the landing site to retrieve munitions, weapons and ordnance from the gunship. Eating the pilot would be a bonus.

The pilot scans the jungle for threats

The natives are slowly moving through the undergrowth towards the landing site.

Some of the columns carry heavy weapons mounted on beasts of burden.

The RDA task force consists of 2 heavy power armoured troopers and 2 support robots. They muscle their way trough the undergrowth.

Both sides have almost reached the clearing where the gunship has landed.

The natives rush past the gunship, into the firing arc of the RDA taskforce.

The machine gun fire takes down the beast with the heavy weapon and allows the pilot to escape into the jungle.

The surviving natives charge the nearest power armour trooper, inflicting some serious damage. Unfortunately they also took enough damage to break and retreat into the safety of the jungle.

The problem for the natives is that when they can shoot at the RDA taskforce they can also be shot. And while they succeed in taking out one of the robots, they're taking a lot of casualties.

Nevertheless, one native group sneaks up to the missile pods of the gunship, using the gunship as cover.

They start to remove missiles from the pod.

One of the RDA power armoured troopers uses his jump-packs however to land smack in the middle of the native group, scattering them in close combat.

Although the power armour is severely damaged, repair actions restore it within an few turns to full functionality. Because of their losses there is now no real chance for the natives to get near the gunship so they fade away into the jungle.

The pilot meanwhile enjoys a refreshing beverage and some snacks from the supply drone.

The rules performed reasonably well. The natives got pretty far, destroying one robot and severely damaging the two power armour troopers. A scenario where the natives benefit from prepared ambushes and hidden IED's will probably provide a more balanced game.