Xenos Rampant Four Player Game

Xenos Rampant fever clearly has us in it's grip as Martin, Matt, Scrivs and I got together for another game.

I again took Orks, Matt had the Templars, Martin had the Tangermarines and Scrivs bought his Tau. Martin was experimenting with using some of the Marines as Heavy Infantry and just using the Commander's unit as Elite.

We had five objectives scattered about the table and would get a VP each turn for holding one as well as VPs for destroying enemy units.

Martin went first, fired a speculative shot at the Tau commander, failed to cause a wound but the big scary flying death robot failed his test and fled the board. Scrivs' dice luck didn't really improve after this point.

Da Orks pushed up on the Tau on their flank.

The Templars yomped up.

The Berserker Orks faced off against the Berserker Kroot.

Tangermarines bounced forward - Martin had swapped these to be skimmers after trying Flying in our last game.

The Kroot beat off the Orks in their first clash.

The Shoota Nob roared his encouragement.

Elite Marines just kinda standing around and shooting.

The Kroot charged again.

Things looked bad for the Orks.

Then Scrivs rolled this.

I rolled better, the Kroot, reduced below half strength failed their test badly and fled the table!

The Tangermarines faced off the Dreadnought.

More Orks skulked in the terrain.

While the Tangermarines made for the central objective.

The Tau formed a firebase.

I sent Orks to contest the centre.

While SantOrk Klaws urged his lads on.

The Orks saw off the Tangermarines.

Sadly this left them exposed to Templar shooting which saw them wiped out.

The Tau scouts wisely avoided the Berserkers.

Brother Big Lad squeezed the juice from the Tangermarines.

We called a halt soon after this. Despite opening up an early lead the Tangermarines were overhauled in the last turn by the dogged Templars. The Orks and Tau had fought themselves to a standstill.

Another good fun game.
Statting the Marines as heavy infantry seemed to work. At one point Scrivs wondered if Elites were limited to a single unit. That's not a rule, but it doesn't seem a bad house rule to consider in future.

Dragon Rampant Christmas Game

At some point recently - just before Christmas probably, but possibly not, time is immaterial at this point of Twixmas - James organised a Christmas game of Dragon Rampant. Although more were invited just four stout souls were available at the appointed hour to begin an epic quest to get their hands on the Ice Kings Frozen Baubles.

I bought along my Night Goblins, James had Nordic Trolls, Matt was Norse style Dwarfs and Chris channelled a winter of discontent with a War of the Roses type knightly force.

Apologies for the poor picture quality - I only had my phone with me.

The table was scattered with objective markers - some were the Ice Kings Chilled Crown Jewels, others would be servants of the Ice King who would attack and still others would be the Norse Gods themselves who would aid your quest.

James' Troll leader had some War Pugs. Presumably to deal with the other generals gathered in their masses.

The Wizards tower James made having bought it in "kit" form at Crisis a few years ago - it's all blue foam cut to shape.

The mat is also all James' work - white polar fleece with roads burned in.

The monsters and gods, ready to help or hinder.

Gobstyk's Gobbos deploy

They had wisely bought some Trolls and some Spiders.

Norse Dwarfs (a mix of Conqueror and Vendel - now Thistle and Rose)

The spiders sped off in search of loot.

While the Dwarfs plodded forward.

The annoying Dwarf archers were first to get their hands on the Ice Kings frosty nuggets.

The spiders also grabbed a chilled jewel.

In the woods the Night Goblins disturbed some hunting dawgs.

Who chased the little green men away.

The trolls headed for the Dwarfs.

The Ice King himself (lovely Lucid Eye model) appeared to try and protect is sub zero valuables.

The trolls got battered by the Dwarfs.

Norse trolls in James' pay tried to storm the tower.

While some of his Elves skulked among the frozen branches.

In the end the Dwarfs had accrued the most icy loot and were declared the winners.

James version of events is here

Xenos Rampant in the Jungle

Martin came over (I think this was before Christmas but time bends a bit at this time of year) for another game of Xenos Rampant. He was struggling to bring in Marines at 24 points so we went for 30.

We played a scenario - one where the Marines had a secret mission to fulfil.

We really do need some rules for the Spiker Plants!

Martin's Tangermarines (a name that's destined to stick) painted in double quick time using Speed Paints - they look great.

Assault Marines with jumppacks - we made them Mobile *and* Fly which makes them prohibitively expensive.

Klankenstein rumbled fowrad while the rest of the Orks, in rather un-Orky fashion skulked around.

Kalnkenstein looks quite handy with his many fighty arms, but is actually better at shooting in XR

Fortunately the flying Marines left him alone and jetted off.

In the end the game finsihed quite quickly ( a six rolled the first time we checked for turn end) and the Marines hadn't completed their objective of murdering my Warboss.

An Ork victory!

Xenos Rampant is a lot of fun - there are clearly nuances to explore that largely elude both of us as yet (and will probably remain so for me) but it's fun and furious.

Flyers seem hard to use. Was definitely worth using a scenario too.