Alien Squad Leader: Human Colonial vs Children of the Gods

 This is a 200 point game of Alien Squad Leader. My army are Children of the Gods which includes Power Armour, Regular Infantry, Floaters, Robot Infantry, a Light Transport and an Avatar. Alex's army are Human Colonial.

 The scenario rolled was Breakthrough, and I was the attacker. This meant I had to get at least one unit off the opposite end of the table as well as to reduce the enemy to their break point. My army wasn't well suited to this as it had very little fast units, and nothing like an AFF that might push through.

 

Alex had a large army that could cover the width of the table, and plenty of heavy weapons to reach far across the table from cover. His compulsary infantry weren't much good but he had plenty of descent units to do the fighting.

 

 I had to concentrate on one side to get a unit off the table. My right was no use, with no cover for me at all. I chose the left where I could tie up the enemy in the centre by attacking from the trees. 

 

My advancing force included Robot Infantry who would ignore near-misses and so not be pushed back, a lot of infantry and a transport. I was going to need to soak up a lot of fire to get a unit to the other side. My Air-Lifted Light Transport is converted from a Star Wars model of Jabba's skiffs and the Robot Infantry are plastic Eldar Dreadnoughts from the epic Space Marine game, trimmed and filed down to give a different shape.

 

Being unarmoured there was no chance the transport was going to zip across the table taking multiple hits each turn, so I dropped off it's passengers early.

Alex had two armoured vehicles behind the ridge and more heavy weapons in the central built up area. My only heavy weapon on that side was quickly sent packing leaving me with no way to damage them. I had to keep moving at double pace though anyway since moving and firing would mean taking twice as many hits.
 

 

On the opposite flank Alex had two more AFVs, a couple of crewed weapons and supporting infantry. I deployed two Floaters to keep them there as long as possible. They survived longer than expected but soon Alex was able to move his heavy weapons to attack my force in the cover.

My Robots were the first to attempt cross the ridge. Now damaged they had to make command rolls like other units. They got into melee with the vehicles but were ultimately destroyed.
 

My troops in the centre were fighting a losing battle against the enemy in the built up area. I could only get about three units at a time in a firing position. My only heavy weapons, from a pair of Floaters were unable to to damage the enemy Defence Turrets which were equipped with scatter missiles and hitting multiple targets with every shot. 

 

One of my three commanders spent about 18 turns in a row attempting to summon the Avatar of the Gods to the field, instead of issuing orders. It never arrived.
 

At one point all of them were driven back by near-misses or hiding with only one hit left. By then all of Alex's troops from the other side were now moving across. 

 

My army reached it's break point, having lost half it's units. I'd devoted half my force to making the breakthrough but none of them got past the ridge. I hadn't destroyed a single enemy unit, I would have needed to destroy 11 as well as getting a unit off the table to win. 

 

 

Alien Squad Leader: Children of the Gods v Hive Mind

 Last Sunday my Children of the Gods army faced Kev's Hive Mind at the club. This was a 150 point game so I didn't have a summoned unit off table.

We rolled a Pitched Battle for the scenario and Kev was the defender so he set up the terrain. As attacker I was able to move one piece so I moved a built up area from the centre to my left corner, denying him cover.

Kev's troops started out of sight so I had to rely on orders to put my units on overwatch, however his tunnelling bugs and flyers were in my rear before I could do this.

When I got units in the rear on overwatch they still couldn't cover enough approaches to stop the flyers. My Light Transport was soon destroyed. The setup meant I had no incentive to transport troops so I just aimed to have it on overwatch but never got the chance. I was reluctant to be distracted from covering the expected mass advance from the front but I soon had to feed more and more units into the fight.

One unit of Robot Infantry, with one hit remaining survived about four turns of losing melee in a row, on their armour saves before they were lost. Four Beasts and three Close Flyers destroyed a large portion of my army on the right, taking hardly any damage themselves.

The brain spiders on the other flank now advanced against my left position, which had been depleted sending support to the other side.

My right flank collapsed and fight moved into the centre, spidery reinforcements started to move up. It was looking like they might win with half their army still hidden away in their starting positions.

As all the units in my centre became engaged the mass of spiders in the centre finally moved up and engulfed them. On the left my units were trapped between enemy so every time they lost a combat they recoiled into enemy and took another hit and became pinned.

My army reached it's break point at 8/16 units giving Kev a total victoy, we finished the turn and more of them died.

My losses were 110 points against only 26 against Kev.

My Power Armoured troops are from MJ figures, inspired by Star Gate, the Regular Infantry are from Corvus Belli, The Robot Infantry are converted from epic scale Eldar dreadnoughts, the Floaters are converted from Necron Destroyers from Games Workshop and the Light Transport is from Star Wars.

Alien Squad Leader: Bristol tournament 2022

 A few weeks ago we held our annual tournament at the Barn with eight players this year. We each played three games over a whole day session.

 

2nd Global War American Union.

 

The giant mushrooms are an Alien Tribal Mercenary army, the (not so little) little ponies are a Hive Mind army.

This Human Cultist's deity appeared in the rear to cause havoc but was forced to recoil repeatedly until it had nowhere left to run.

Human Imperial Strike Force v Alien Tribal Mercenaries

This flank attack by birdmen of the Rebel Alliance didn't go to plan, due to a swift counterattack which drove them back off the table.

Rebel Alliance v Hive Mind

 

2nd Global War Soviets advance.

Power armoured commander of the Children of the Gods and assault tanks of the Human Cultists

 Alien Squad Leader is a 15mm Sci-fi game by Alex Self, published on Lulu.

Alien Squad Leader: 200 points, 700 legs

 This is a 200 point game of Alien Squad Leader. 

My army are Alien Enslavers. The enslaver infantry are from GZG's 'chitter' range of six legged aliens. The Floaters are from Alternative Armies. The thralls are home-made from plastic spiders and round headed pins for the eyeballs. The red beasts are converted from plastic ants using green stuff and the remaining beasts are from various sources. That's a lot of legs.

 

Richard's army use the 2nd Global War: Far Eastern Empire army list, although they have a purely sci-fi look.

 

Richard was defending, the scenario meant his army wouldn't break while he controlled the objective area in the centre. The 3 artillery in the far corner were going to cause a lot of trouble for a horde army like mine. The scenario allowed me to add new entry points on the sides of the table during the game but I decided the number of units I'd be allowed to bring on wouldn't be enough to deal with all the units defending them. Instead I aimed to pour into the objective from the opposite direction.

.

 

Seeing that I wasn't going to try to reach the artillery Richard sent his light tanks forward to engage my left flank, several off them breaking down. 

Richard had 4 units of Cyber-Samurai who were very good but also obliged to charge if possible. I moved my worthless thralls out of cover to trigger them. I could then shoot his premium troops without worrying if I hit my own thralls who neither react to fire or count towards my break point. As the Thralls started dying they pushed on into my enslaver units. I destroyed all four units eventually but I was unable to advance past them.

 My left flank collapsed rapidly under fire from the tanks and artillery.

On my right I opened a new entry point with the intention that the fast primitives would join with the advance already underway. They took a long time to get in position and Richard was able to reinforce the objective, replacing the elite warriors I had pulled out of it.

My beasts went in and lost the combat, they were then being shot at from the objective and the pile up of units was being bombarded by artillery.

Richard's hero went from unit to unit inflicting many hits. Here he attacks a heavy weapon squad (not teenage mutant ninja turtles) in red headbands.

 

By now my army was incapable of any offensive action and it was just a matter of Richard mopping up enough units to reach the break point. So we called it there.

 

My plan for drawing the cyber-samurai out of the objective and shooting them in the open was sound but I should have planned to move round them instead of through them because they hung around for a long time. I should have moved quicker on the right rather than hiding behind slow moving thralls, since they weren't facing that much firepower, then I could have got the primitives into the objective much earlier.

After the game 7 of us played an entertaining board game in which we attempted to flee our own city of Bristol and the plague, called Bristol 1350.

Flash Gordon in 15mm

copywrite: King Features

Flash Gordon was created by Alex Raymond in 1934 for King Features. By the late 1930s, the strip was published in 130 newspapers, translated into eight foreign languages, and was read by 50 million people. Three film serials followed in 1936, 1938 and 1940, inspiring George Lucas to make Star Wars instead when he was unable to secure the rights. In 1980 a film produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by Mike Hodges was released, featuring a soundtrack by Queen. In this film Flash is a professional (American) Football player rather than a Polo playing Yale graduate.

copwrite:Universal Pictures (USA), Studio Canal (rest of world)

This is a 15mm for Alien Squad Leader. It is based on the the above three incarnations of Flash although there are various other adaptations. It uses the Rebel Alliance army list which features several factions united by Warrior Monks.

copywrite: King Features

Flash is dressed in 1930s style and dismounting the Hawkman Rocket Cycle shown in the film. The Rocket Cycle is converted from a Peter Pig Red Alien Flyer.  Dr Zarkov and Dale Arden can be fielded separately as 2 models or together as 1depending on the army build, both are dressed in the original style. They represent the Warrior Monks faction, Flash is the Grand Master (Grand Master Flash), Zarkov and Dale are Warrior Monks.

Brian Blessed gave a memorable performance as Prince Valtan in the 1980 film, he is converted from one of the Northlander Character figures from Copplestone Castings. Being 18mm he is suitably impressive, I added armour with green stuff, wings and converted the weapon. The remaining figures are the former MJ figures now produced by The Scene (only the foot poses seem to be available now).

copywrite: Universal Pictures (USA), StudioCanal (rest of world)

copywrite: King Features

These are Flying infantry from the Birdmen Faction. Valtan can either be fielded alone as the Bird King, or he can be part of a normal squad upgraded to a command stand. One stand has a circle cut out which can hold Valtan or an ordinary warrior.

In the comic the Frigians ride giant ostriches, or slightly alien versions of them. Queen Fria's hairstyle inspired George Lucas to create Princess Leia's "space buns" style. These Alien Tribal Cavalry are Riders with the 'big and ugly' upgrade and past of the Alien Tribal Warriors Faction. I also gave them a Warrior Hero.

copywrite: King Features

copywrite: King Features

The ostriches are converted from North Star 2mm ostriches with added crests, wattles and largerbeaks to match the comic. The Riders are French Line Lancers from Time Cast. Queen Fria is converted from a Battle Valor figure. I cut cut her off at the waist and put a dress over the donating bugler's legs, cut the staff down to a mace and replaced the hair bun with two on the sides.

The Lion Men vary between incarnations. In the comic strip they appear to be very tall with manes and tails, in the 30s serial they are hairy barbarians, in the 1980 film they are resemble Africans dressed in gold. Prince Thun is a ally of Flash.

copywrite:King Features

I have opted for the original style. The figures are 1/72 scale (roughly 20mm) Barbarians from Esci. I added manes and bigger beards in green stuff (I went overboard on the beards) and inserted brass rod tails, also with green stuff added. These are Alien Tribal Warriors which are Fighters with the Big and Ugly upgrade.

The Arborians are tree dwelling humans, sometimes depicted with bows, or more advanced weapons, and a Robin Hood theme. Prince Barin is an expert swordsman, ally of Flash and lover of Princess Aura. These are classed as Inferior Infantry with one stand upgraded to a commander. They are part of the Human Faction.

copywrite: Universal Pictures (USA), Studio Canal (rest of world)

The figures are from Peter Pig, mostly medieval handgunners, each squad has a scout with a bow which are elves. Prince Barin and the standard bearer are from the Red Martian range. I included the Tree Father from the film as a medic, originally he was going to be on the command stand but he was far too tall, this was a Battle Valor figure.

The remaining parts of the Human Faction are non-specific representing the various other inhabitants of Mongo. The command stand with Jump Packs are from Alternative Armies. The smoke plumes they are pinned to are also from Alternative Armies but the figures they came with were far to large.

The Floaters and Light Vehicles are from the Peter Pig Red Martian range.

The Crewed Weapons used British WWI 60 pounders from QRF. I cut the barrel off half way, shortened it and put on top of the remaining weapon facing backwards. So the shortened barrel becomes a kind of view-finder. The front of the gun is a Heavy Arc Rifle from Games Workshop, one of the weapon options in the Adeptus Mechanicus Kataphron kit, and part of a Tau weapon was put at the back. The crew are WWII Russians from Peter Pig with AWI Dragoon (Tarleton) helmets transplanted.

I will at some point make an Alien Imperial army based on Ming the Merciless and his Mongon Minions.

 Finally if you ever want the most useless fact in the universe: in French translations of the comics some characters were renamed, and Flash was renamed Guy l'Éclair.

copywrite: King Features