Cr e d i t s a n d Co n t e n t s
KL ND KLENDATHU NDAT ATHU HU INVASION NVAS NV AS ON CREDITS Author Matthew Sprange Additional Text Matt Keefe Editor Christopher Allen
CONTENTS
Introduction
2
The Road to Victory
3
Preparation for Invasion
4
Timeline of the Invasion
6
I nt r oduct i on
INTRODUCTION Welcome to the fight, trooper. trooper. This book details
the invasion of Klendathu by the Mobile Infantry in an attempt to bring about a quick resolution to the Arachnid War. War. This is the final step on humanity’s long Road to Victory, a campaign intended to ensure human civilisation, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always. The Sky Marshal Marshal and his experts within the Strategic Integrated Coalition of Nations all agree on one thing; the strike against Klendathu will be a swift and sure victory. Unfortunately,, they are wrong. Victory on Klendathu will not Unfortunately come easy. easy. It will not come at all. Though the entire invasion will take less than a day day,, Klendathu will be the most devastating engagement fought by the Mobile Infantry to date, with an incredible death toll. The Klendathu Invasion has the following sections, detailing the invasion from confident start to final tragedy.
IT’S AN UGLY PLANET – A BUG PLANET!
Preparation of Invasion: A look at the last stages of the Road to Victory and the assumptions made by SICON as to the nature of the threat they faced on Klendathu. Read on as the invasion unfolds with devastating devastating consequences. You will also find a frank SICON analysis of the lessons learned during this battle and how the new Sky Marshal intends to apply them to future conflicts. Army Lists: Mobile Infantry players will revel in the new Invasion Companies. Comprising Light Armour Platoons, these are a new type of trooper created by the Sky Marshal in order to field massive numbers on the battlefields of Klendathu. The Arachnids respond with new ploys to trap unwary troopers by utilising their vast and extensive tunnel networks. Fighting on Klendathu: This section contains ideas on how to bring the excitement of Klendathu to your own tabletop, including a complete campaign that will test the entire vista of your tactical intellect!
T h e Ro a d t o Vi c t o r y
THE ROAD TO VICTORY The destruction of Buenos Aires by a bug asteroid
launched from the depths of space became a watershed for the entire Federation. Federation. There was time before before BA and then then time after. The Arachnids were no longer some vague alien threat threat on the far reaches of Federation space but a clear and present danger that had to be met with the most direct action. After ridding Pluto of its Arachnid infestation, the Road to Victory began, a path through the stars that led directly to the Arachnids’ own own homeworld, Klendathu. Klendathu. Under the strategic leadership of Sky Marshal Dienes, the MI were to fight the Arachnids wherever they could be found, with no resistance, no matter how fierce, allowed to slow down Mankind’s inexorable progress to Klendathu. By striking at the heart of the threat, Dienes imagined a fatal blow that would cripple the bugs throughout the galaxy. galaxy. The Mobile Infantry Infantry could then spend months, perhaps years, slowly eradicating the Arachnid
quickly they could not possibly be certain an alien presence was absent were ignored, if not outright suppressed. The Federation was destined for greatness and the Road to Victory was living proof of Mankind’s Mankind’s ascendance in the galaxy. The ships of the Fleet jumped from system to system, dropping Mobile Infantry squads and then transporting them to the next target with wellpractised ease. Klendathu loomed ever ever closer. closer. During this period of time, Dienes was hard at work on the Home front as well as the ever ever expanding frontline. Even as the line of human control in the galaxy was redrawn almost every day, the Sky Marshal collected the resources of the Federation and funnelled them into the greatest military machine Mankind had ever created. New warships were launched from Earth orbit every week while factories on all the colony worlds began churning out weapons, equipment and vehicles. vehicles. Most importantly, importantly, vast recruiting drives for all three arms of SICON military service
Pr e p a r a t i o n f o r
I nv as i on
PREPARATION FOR INVASION Briefing 12-20-02-KLN, Military Intelligence, Colonel Makinsson
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. This briefing is intended to familiarise you with all aspects of the invasion. For many of you this is the first time you have been presented with the big picture, as it were. I’ll provide the overview now and meet with you all individually to discuss the roles of your own departments within the next few days. Due to the excellent turnaround of analysis, Military Intelligence has been instrumental in the progress of the Road to Victory campaign. Indeed, we can demonstrate that our rapid evaluation of planetary systems and potential infestation sites has allowed both Fleet and MI to concentrate on high-value targets and avoid those with little or no interest to us. In turn, this has shaved off nearly two months from the Sky Marshal’s original
As an aside, an interesting possibility was raised during our closing interview with Xeno-Studies on this matter. We have in the past discussed the potential to capture advanced Arachnid forms for study and it might well be possible to select an attack region for isolation. We can ensure the chosen zone is contained and indigenous inhabitants quarantined for transport before the gas phase of Operation Righteous Extermination. This may result in high casualties within the unit assigned to this mission but given the otherwise light losses expected on Klendathu, we feel the numbers are well within acceptable limits. Moving on, the planet’s atmosphere is quite similar to Terran norm. Klendathu’s atmosphere is more stable than Earth’s, which is likely due to a greater mix of noble gases and a much wider ionosphere spread buffering lower levels of air closer to the surface. Initial research into Klendathu suggested turbulent weather due to the existence of two moons. A closer examination
Pr e p a r a t i o n f o r companies, consider the Invasion Companies to be a little added insurance. By removing power suits and other advanced equipment from these troopers’ standard issue, we have been able to gain massive savings in both supply and training. With increased recruitment proceeding according to our original projections, the resources we have saved has allowed us to absorb the huge number of new recruits with little trouble. The double-edged saving is that by removing the power suits, we have also been able to drastically cut the amount of time needed to train an MI trooper. Onefor-one it takes about half the time and resources to train a light armour trooper as it does a cap trooper. However, the economies of scale have allowed us to realise far greater gains than this and I am pleased to announce that over three hundred thousand fully trained troopers will be available to deploy into the Drop Zones in the first phase of invasion. The objections raised against the Invasion Companies tend to follow one of two lines. First, it has been said that the entire concept of the Invasion Companies takes the mobile out of
I n v as i on
Mobile Infantry. Second, the life expectancy of a light armour trooper when directly faced with Arachnids is exponentially lower than that of a Cap trooper. Both of these are, in fact, false. The Invasion Companies are indeed mobile – nothing has fundamentally changed, as it would be foolish to a lter this most basic of tenet of our military. What we have done is changed the emphasis. Powersuit and Marauder platoons all feature personnel trained and equipped with individual jump packs. With the Invasion Companies, we introduce a new concept. The increased resources available for this invasion have allowed us to create a sophisticated transport network utilising standard Vikings and Skyhooks. In this way we have changed the focus of mobility from a single platoon able to jump several miles in minutes to being able to deploy and re-deploy an entire super-sized company – to any single point on the entire planet! This allows us to position a crushing weight of firepower in precise locations in reaction to anything the enemy attempts. Counterattacks on their part will simply become a new battle line within minutes. As for criticisms of the Invasion Companies’ equipment, I first have to point out that these troopers are using the same Morita assault rifle as the power suit platoons – they thus have exactly the same basic firepower. It is true that the flak armour worn by the Invasion Companies can never equal the protection of a
T i me l i n e f o r
I n v as i on
TIMELINE OF THE INVASION D-0:22 First squadron, led by the Jutland , jumps into the Klendathu system. Followed by the rest of the Fleet’s orbital assets. D-0:06 Fleet assembles in flight order and begins to enter Klendathu low orbit. Arachnid plasma response almost immediate. D+0:00 Primary Mobile Infantry waves (primarily Invasion Companies) begin drop. D+0:02 The destroyer Lionheart is the first casualty of the intensifying plasma barrage, with all ha nds lost. D+0:04 Primary MI waves complete. The first cruiser to be lost to the plasma barrage is the Manchuria. Out of control, it rams the Yom Kippur , destroying both vessels. D+0:05 Secondary MI waves begin drop.
D+0:24 Number of Arachnids in main engagement zones begin to increase. power suit and Marauder platoons, deployed as patrols outside of the Drop Zones, begin to report massed swarms in their areas. The entire invasion force is effectively surrounded. MI casualties at this point have already passed twenty seven thousand. Many Invasion Companies have ceased to exist as fighting units. D+0:26 Acknowledging that Arachnid resistance is both heavier and better co-ordinated than expected, Sky Marshal Dienes orders the General Retreat. Company commanders are ordered to make their way back to their Vikings but many are already cut off by impassable swarms of warrior bugs. D+0:38 The Fleet has suffered heavily with over a dozen capital ships lost and many more seriously damaged. Many
T i me l i n e f o r D+1:47 Fleet monitors increasing numbers of distress calls from trapped MI though communications interference from an unknown source based on Klendathu makes positioning these units difficult. Sky Marshal Dienes reported as being out of contact as he continues to consult with Military Intelligence.
D+2:24 Sky Marshal Dienes orders reconnaissance orbits with remaining destroyers and TAC Fighters to gain fix on current MI positions on planet. By this time, the surviving Invasion Companies have created firebases from natural vantage points in the terrain. The power suit and Marauder platoons are now either in complete retreat across the surface of Klendathu or else are effectively engaged in a guerrilla war as they hit small Arachnid swarms in an attempt to relieve the pressure on the besieged Invasion Companies.
D+3:58 Military Intelligence officers complete their preliminary analysis of reconnaissance data. They advise the Sky Marshal to initiate drops in selected areas where Arachnid resistance is light in an effort to create retrieval points that MI on the surface can rally to. Though no one mentions it, power suit platoons out of communication and the Invasion Companies have effectively been abandoned.
I n v as i on
D+14:11 Coming to the conclusion that any MI still alive on Klendathu are irretrievably lost, Sky Marshal Dienes orders the bombardment of Klendathu from orbit. The Fleet rains its entire arsenal down onto the Arachnids. The plasma barrage falters and then disappears altogether, encouraging Fleet Captains.
D+16:11 After two hours of solid bombardment, Sky Marshal Dienes ceases the attack to launch TAC Fighters on reconnaissance patrols. They soon report massed Arachnid swarms appearing in the vicinity of known tunnel complexes.
D+16:49 The bombardment from orbit resumes once more though few are confident in its success. Damaged ships begin to jump from the Klendathu system on a priority basis to be repaired at station Ticonderoga. Four ships are lost as they engage their Cherenkov drives and are never seen again.
D+17:25 After leaving orders for rotation of bombardment and retreat from the Klendathu system, Sky Marshal Dienes retires to his quarters. He is not seen again until he returns to Fleet Battle Station Ticonderoga. The Fleet begins to leave the system, a ship at a time. The bombardment of the surface continues, as it seems effective at suppressing plasma barrages
I nv as i on!
INVASION! The arrival of the Jutland heralded the beginning of
what would be the greatest battle yet fought between human and Arachnid. Within moments, dozens more spatial anomalies resolved themselves into the rest of the Federation Fleet, bringing the vast host of starships and their precious cargo of troopers into the vicinity of Klendathu. This armada was ready for any eventuality – space superiority assured by the might of dreadnoughts and frigates while landing boats were fully capable of dropping thousands of troopers to the planet surface within minutes. The Bannockburn and Antioch were specifically outfitted with command and communications equipment while the Antietam and Shiloh had been reconfigured to provide fire support to the planetary surface from orbit. The proud flagship of the flotilla was the Cold Harbor , serving as a supervising command hub and the personal transport for Sky Marshal Dienes. Onboard the landing boats, Mobile Infantry were hurriedly mobilising and preparing for the drop. The inexperience of the Invasion Companies was telling next to veteran Marauder and power suit platoons – recruits rushed onto their landing boats in
WE’RE FIRST
GOING WAVE.
IN
WITH
MEANS
BUGS FOR US TO KILL.
THE
MORE YOU
SMASH THE ENTIRE AREA, YOU KILL ANYTHING THAT HAS MORE THAN TWO LEGS, YOU GET ME? with their landing boats. Though tragic, these minor losses were almost irrelevant in the grand scale of the invasion and it was an unfortunate fact that even random fire from the surface would eventually hit something. Military Intelligence remained confident that planetary defences were incapable of any coordinated attack on the Fleet. Minutes later, the attacks claimed their first victim amongst the orbiting Fleet craft. Surging up from Klendathu, a blast of scintillating blue plasma hit the Lionheart amidships, melting straight through the hull and burning into the interior structure of the craft. Those few crewmen who survived the plasma
I nv as i on! tunnel entrances they encountered but in Drop Zone Bravo the Hellfire Marauder platoon reported such an unexpectedly large number of tunnels that Military Intelligence concluded the area must be riddled with a natural cave network, as the estimated numbers of bugs present would have no need of such an extensive arrangement. At the secure landing sites, Invasion Company troopers poured out of their landing boats like a tidal wave of humanity. As well as the mass of recruits, specialist platoons had also landed in this wave – power suited platoons of combat engineers set about constructing ammunition dumps and very basic fortifications at Drop Zone Charlie while ‘bughunter’ SICON agents blessed with mental powers of perception moved out with the Invasion Companies to track down and eliminate elusive concentrations of Arachnids. Modified Marauder suits with specialist communications equipment came down on board Slingshots rather than being risked in drop capsules, providing mobile command posts and information relays for company commanders. Capture teams were also brought down, small bands of troopers and SICON scientists armed with chemical and nonlethal weaponry to hunt and capture any Arachnid stragglers they could catch for later examination in SICON labs.
Supremely confident of victory, the Invasion Companies paused only for cursory organisation before beginning the real offensive onto Arachnid-held soil. Showing little battlefield discipline, troopers banded together into dense mobs and rushed forth to secure the areas surrounding the drop sites, immediately encountering fierce but erratic resistance from warrior bugs that had been missed by the outbound veteran platoons. Charging from hiding places among rock formations or out of gulches in the broken landscape, the aliens threw themselves recklessly at troopers. Faced for the first time with an angry warrior, many green recruits simply froze in fear or panicked and ran. As a result, these rogue Arachnids managed to both cause casualties before they were put down by overwhelming firepower and hamper the advance. In Drop Zone Charlie, Werfel’s Wolves lost their captain to the savage assault of a loitering warrior bug, throwing his subordinates into confusion for minutes and stalling the entire company from making serious progress. Events like this were repeated across all three Drop Zones as troopers pushed forward but the seemingly random and uncoordinated Arachnid presence was confirming Military Intelligence’s analysis of the bugs’ defences and giving no real cause for concern. Deploying their atomic assets with abandon, the Invasion Companies still advancing now began to engage and destroy
I nv as i on! their priority targets – the plasma bugs hammering the Fleet. The lumbering, living artillery pieces and their protective swarms of warriors were easy targets for Pee-Wee munitions and all defensive fire from the Drop Zones was rapidly quelled with nuclear flame. In Drop Zone Bravo, the few plasma bugs not annihilated in this first wave of attacks were sighted being hustled into yawning cave mouths by their warrior minders, apparently aware of the impending danger to their charges, a nd Military Intelligence issued wide-scale orders to collapse the tunnel mouths with demolition charges. Despite this success, strategic analysis by the command ships above was revealing a worrying twist – even with the defences in the three Drop Zones nullified, the bulk of the fire from the planet surface continued unabated. Not only were the surviving plasma bugs from those regions being redeployed by the Arachnids with remarkable speed, other concentrations were being detected further out. Attempts to eliminate these distant clusters with fire support from orbit was proving equally difficult as the broken terrain of the planet surface hid a myriad of valleys and ravines for the bugs to take shelter in. As the dust settled around the charred corpses of plasma bugs in all three Drop Zones, SICON special talents in charge of monitoring subterranean bug movements began to report what looked to be a mass retreat by swarms in the tunnel networks below. Morale rose as troopers on the ground saw the contrails
world they found stretching for miles down, far beyond even the enhanced senses of the bughunter special talents, the capture teams realised they were on their own and running virtually blind with their inadequate sensor equipment. Within a minute of the specia list teams dropping out of contact, evidence of what fate befell them was made starkly clear. Special talents reported a huge resurgence of bug activity in the tunnel networks. A sudden rush of warrior bugs began to boil out of tunnel entrances in all three Drop Zones. Even as the secondary wave touched down at the ad hoc base camps around the landing sites, the Invasion Companies of the first wave were finding themselves engaged by swarms from multiple directions simultaneously and some outlying platoons were overrun almost immediately. Even as the new wave hurried over the arid landscape to reinforce the embattled troopers, warrior bug swarms continued to escalate to far larger numbers than Military Intelligence had calculated. Warrior bugs were now emerging in the outlying regions of the Drop Zones and gathering into huge swarms before moving in towards the landing areas, with the obvious intention of blitzing their way through the confused Invasion Companies to the landing boats. The veteran platoons deployed to the perimeters of Drop Zone Alpha were the first to report this activity but initially the information was ignored by Invasion Company captains who found themselves too busy
I nv as i on! platoons found themselves under heavy suppression as they tried to move further out from the perimeter. Engaged in bitter combat with swarms of hoppers, Marauder platoons pushed free of the Arachnid containment in Drop Zone Bravo only to transmit reports of something even worse to the company commanders. More massed swarms of warrior bugs were streaming towards the Drop Zones, with Fleet assets confirming fresh and unexpected hotspots of Arachnid activity appearing across the planet surface to converge on Federation forces. With so many incoming hostiles, the zones became entirely encircled and within each noose the endless streams of warriors from below continued to butcher Invasion Companies. In Drop Zone Alpha the situation was so dire that Marauder and power suit platoons still in contact were being called back to support their light armour comrades from the overwhelming hordes. The officers on the ground knew the landing sites were their lifeline to the fleet – if those fell, they would be entirely isolated. The battle line faltered further in Alpha as a spearhead of warrior bugs drove through a gap in the defensive coverage left by the loss of a company in the initial drop. The swarming bugs nearly split the Mobile Infantry presence in two, halted only by Loewe’s Lions who successfully broke the assault through their sheer determination and heroism, using grenades and flamers to hold the enemy off. In Drop Zone Bravo, large numbers
Ge n e r a l
Re t r e a t
GENERAL RETREAT Even as the Mobile Infantry on Klendathu began the
MI DOES THE DYING,
desperate struggle back to their landing boats, the battered Fleet was also suffering heavy losses. With burning plasma still being fired from the planetary surface, over a dozen capital ships had already been completely destroyed. A significant number of vessels had suffered heavy crew losses and crippling structural damage with only a few surviving completely unscathed. Engineering teams frantically fought to keep the raging fires and failing systems under control but as long as the Fleet remained in low orbit, they were merely delaying the inevitable.
FLEET JUST DOES THE FLYING.
The determination of the Fleet captains began to crumble under this assault as they realised that the General Retreat had been ordered. Many vessels retreated out of low orbit to a prudent distance from the planetary surface, breaking what vague formation still existed in a rush to reach sanctuary from burning
secondary and tertiary waves of the drop as these troopers simply had not had time to move far from the landing zone before the General Retreat was called. Even further out, the remaining power suit and Marauder platoons were completely cut off from any hope of retrieval. The removal of the last Mobile Infantry concentrations by landing boat only served to further condemn the remaining troops on the ground, as the Arachnids were able to focus their forces on surviving pockets of resistance. Fifty-seven minutes after the first drop, the General Retreat had been completed and yet thousands of Mobile Infantry were still on the planet’s surface. Well over a hundred thousand troopers had died already, butchered by warrior claws or incinerated by
A Ne w S t r a t e g y
A NEW STRATEGY The lessons of the Klendathu Invasion were apparent
WE THOUGHT WE WERE
for all to see. The incompetence and sheer arrogance of Military Intelligence and the upper echelons of SICON command were laid bare and many were certain that if things continued in this vein then the entire war would be lost. Sky Marshal Dienes was left with no choice but to resign. His successor, Sky Marshal Meru studied the failures hard in order to formulate her battle plan, even as Federation scientists debated to explain the seemingly intelligent military actions of the Arachnids.
SMARTER THAN THE BUGS.
The utter failure of Military Intelligence was clear and for a short time a witch hunt was conducted during a series of enquiries designed to lay unequivocal blame on several high-ranking officers. Intelligence had woefully miscalculated on a number of key issues.
9 Arachnids were present on Klendathu in far greater numbers (by at least two orders of magnitude) than had been
Sky Marshal Maru therefore instituted many new directives of engagement for both the Fleet and Mobile Infantry as well as new policies for Military Intelligence. There was a general belief that SICON as a whole had become lazy after a series of easy successes during the Road to Victory, with commanders presuming they were facing a primitive or ‘dumb’ enemy. That was to change immediately so many standard procedures were reactivated. This included communications protocols – while the Arachnids were not likely to intercept and decipher SICON traffic, they could certainly home in on transmissions, putting Mobile Infantry in the field at great risk. The Sky Marshal’s central philosophy was to begin understanding the Arachnids. From now on, Federation scientists would no
A Ne w S t r a t e g y creature to study, SICON could surely learn a lot more about the Arachnids and so develop effective counters that would prove decisive. Sky Marshal Dienes
It was Sky Marshal Maru’s intention to completely disband the Invasion Companies after the first invasion but as they still represented a sizeable portion of her overall military strength, this was simply not feasible. Instead, she began to integrate power suit platoons as supporting forces to the Invasion Companies, allowing them to counter fast moving Arachnid swarms before they gained a position of advantage.
ANOTHER NEW SKY MARSHAL Unfortunately for Sky Marshal Maru, her strategy was to eventually fail though she managed to retain her position for five months. While SICON learned a great deal about fighting the Arachnids and even managed to capture a brain bug, she was unable to successfully clear even a single planet in the system of its bug infestation. The hammer finally dropped on her career when Arachnid activity began to spring up all along what had once been the Road to Victory. Soon after the capture of the brain bug on Planet P, Arachnids began to appear in huge numbers on many worlds, even some previously deemed clear of infestation. Lightly garrisoned planets were soon overrun and those with a stronger SICON
The architect of the Road to Victory and the figurehead of the Federation’s military in those dark days after the destruction of Buenos Aires, it seemed for a time that Sky Marshal Dienes was destined to go down as one of the greatest heroes in Federation history. Citizens and civilians alike yearned for vengeance and Dienes’ fiery rhetoric and commanding style in the wake of such a disaster gave the Sky Marshal instant appeal and the unveiling of his Road to Victory plan proved one of the most popular acts of any Sky Marshal. Alas, this would be all forgotten in the wake of the quite simply disastrous invasion of Klendathu. Dienes’ subsequent resignation, whilst fulfilling perceived military honour and sparing the Sky Marshal some considerable embarrassment, ultimate relegated him to nothing more than an unimpressive footnote in history.
I n v a s i o n Co mp a n i e s
INVASION COMPANIES The Invasion Companies were the brainchild
of Sky Marshal Dienes and became central to his plans for total victory on Klendathu. They were to be the key to success and the solution to Mankind’s domination of the galaxy. Though Sky Marshal Dienes had access to Military Intelligence estimates of Arachnid strength on Klendathu, he was wise enough to know that these were indeed just estimates, born from experience of the Arachnid presence on other worlds. The numbers of bugs present on the Arachnid homeworld could vary from this greatly. In addition, Dienes was not just looking for victory in the coming conflict. He wanted complete annihilation, a victory so complete, devastating and fast that the Arachnids would have no chance to respond effectively, no matter what their true numbers were. As well as sparing the lives of many troopers, Dienes would also gain political momentum from having led such a bloodless campaign (as far as humans
The average militia force of a small colony world has nothing so sophisticated as power or Marauder suits, nor do they have the incredible training of the Mobile Infantry. Instead, they tend to be little more than volunteer riflemen, electing to take a short term of part-time military service in order to defend their homes. Aside from the higher ranks of command (and few militia warrant any rank higher than Captain) most militia would have full-time occupations within their colony, only taking to arms for weekend practice or when trouble actually arose. Dienes noted that despite this lack of disciplined training, colony militia forces had been able to withstand light attacks from Arachnids and Skinnies, sometimes holding off larger invasions until the Mobile Infantry could arrive. What might such a force achieve if it had Mobile Infantry training? Sky Marshal Dienes resolved to build a new army of nearly a million troopers. Officially, they would be Mobile Infantry
I n v a s i o n Co mp a n i e s New tactics had to be devised for the use of the Invasion Companies but here Dienes felt he was on sure ground. While tactics had continued to evolve for the mobile nature of cap troopers, he believed the Invasion Companies could rely on a more historical model of deploying by air in massive numbers and concentrating firepower into specific target areas. His plans called for an initial drop of three hundred thousand troopers onto Klendathu and by the time the Road to Victory was nearing completion, it was clear that the vast majority of these would be formed from the over-sized Invasion Companies. The power suit and Marauder companies would be used to support the light armour troopers, rather than forming the spearhead a s they had done in engagements before. As it turned out, the invasion of Klendathu did not happen as Dienes had planned and it cost the Sky Marshal his career. Many felt that it was not simply the strong Arachnid response that was to blame but the actual nature of the Invasion Companies themselves. Put bluntly, these troopers well too ill-equipped and trained to deal with an enemy as strong as the Arachnids.
The Invasion Companies, some broken down into their constituent light armour platoons, would continue to exist for many years more, however. Though each individual trooper was comparatively cheap, the creation of huge numbers of them represented a massive investment. It was perhaps ironic that the key to victory on Klendathu would become simply too expensive to put to rest once it proved less than adequate. Light armour troopers were thus sent to many parts of the galaxy, mainly to regions where the ‘regular’ Mobile Infantry would be an overkill but occasionally formed into mass numbers to repel full blown invasions. A few distinguished platoons, such as the renowned Roughnecks, were trained into cap troopers but most were not as lucky. That said, they have certainly enjoyed their successes as well and it was a light armour platoon that first succeeded in capturing a live brain bug, a task cap troopers had been unable to achieve since the start of the Road to Victory.
Li ght
Ar m mo u r
Pl a t o o n s
LIGHT ARMOUR PLATOONS Collectively forming the massive Invasion
Companies used on Klendathu, a light armour platoon consists of non-cap troopers in flak armour and armed with Morita rifles and a few other tactical weapons. They are not quite as flexible on a tactical level as power suit platoons but they mass a great deal of firepower and retain manoeuvrability on a strategic level through access to large numbers of Vikings and Skyhooks. If you want to field an army that can mass an astonishing amount of firepower in one place and have the possibility of even outnumbering the Arachnids, then a light armour platoon is for you. A light armour platoon in the Starship Troopers Miniatures Game comprises three or more Light Armour squads and a commanding Light Armour lieutenant, though it can swell to include two NCOs and six more squads! Remember, you must decide which platoons to use before
Officers
In the MI Army List, only NCOs, Lieutenants and SICON Military Intelligence Agents are considered to be officers.
a Mobile Infantry army in a 2,000 point battle may field either one or two platoons. You are free to mix different types of platoon in larger games, so in a 2,000 point game you may use two light armour platoons or a single light armour platoon supported by either a power suit or Marauder platoon. Every platoon is made up of several units, each of which has a points value that counts towardss the total value of your army.
Li ght
A r mo u r
Pl a t o o n s
Lieutenant
1 per platoon
70 points
You must include one Light Armour Lieutenant in your Light Armour platoon. Light Armour Lieutenant
Type Light Armour Lieutenant
Value 70
Size 1
Move 4”
Close Combat D6
Target 3+
Save 6+/6+
Kill 5+
Traits Independent
Weapons/Equipment: A Light Armour Lieutenant is equipped with a TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle with XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Only the M-290 Flechette Grenade may be used with the underslung G/L. Special Rules
A Light Armour Lieutenant is subject to the following special rules. Condensed Training: All TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifles lose their Auto trait. Options
A Light Armour Lieutenant may purchase the following options:
Lieutenant Rank Insignia Markings
Go Career: The NCO may be bought heroic traits up to a total value of +50 points. Weapon Options: M-902F Frag Grenades may be purchased for +5 points.
Helmet Markings
Shoulder Markings
Li ght Light Armour Squad
Ar m mo u r
Pl a t o o n s
1-3 per officer (minimum 3 per platoon)
120 points
You must have at least one light armour squad for ever y officer in the platoon, with a minimum of at least three light armour squads in the platoon as a whole. Your platoon may include more than this if you wish, up to a maximum of three squads per officer. Light Armour Squad
Type Light Armour Trooper Light Armour Corporal Light Armour Sergeant
Value 10 35 50
Size 1 1 1
Move 4” 4” 4”
Close Combat D6–1 D6–1 D6–1
Unit Size: Every Light Armour squad consists of one Sergeant (unit leader) and seven Light Armour troopers. Weapons/Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle and XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Only the M-290 Flechette Grenade may be used with the underslung G/L. Special Rules
Light Armour squads are subject to the following special rules: Condensed Training: All TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifles lose their Auto trait. Split Firing: A Light Armour squad containing only a sergeant may not split fire. A Light Armour squad containing both a Sergeant and a Corporal may split fire into two fire zones. An officer joining a light armour squad allows the creation of an
Target 3+ 3+ 3+
Save 6+ 6+ 6+/6+
Kill 5+ 5+ 5+
Traits — — —
Options
Light Armour squads may purchase the following options: Go Career: The squad Sergeant may be bought heroic traits up to a total value of +25 points. Unit Options: Up to four extra Light Armour troopers may be added to the squad at +10 points each. One trooper may be promoted to Corporal for +25 points. One trooper may be given Medic training for +15 points. One trooper may be given a comms pack for +25 points. One trooper may be replaced by a FedNet reporter for +20 points. Weapon Options: Up to two troopers may replace their TW203-a Morita Assault Rifle and XW-110-G1 underslung G/L with any of the weapons listed below.
9
TW-201-l Morita Sniper Rifle a nd XW-110-G1
Li ght
A r mo u r
Pl a t o o n s
FedNet Reporter
1 per squad
Special
One trooper in each Light Armour squad may be replaced by a FedNet Reporter, as described in the Light Armour squad unit entry above. FedNet Reporters may never be purchased separetly, and this separate unit entr y is included only to provide the characteristics and special rules for the model. FedNet Reporter
Type FedNet Reporter
Value 30
Size 1
Move 4”
Close Combat D6–2
Target 3+
Save 6+
Kill 5+
Traits —
Weapons/Equipment: None. Special Rules
FedNet Reporters are subject to the following special rules: He’s Our Pain in the Butt: After having faced many dangers alongside the squad he is embedded with, the Reporter sometimes becomes a symbol of luck for the troopers. In other cases, the troopers are simply all too aware that they are constantly on film. So long as the Reporter is present, any one model in the unit may re-roll one of its shooting or close combat dice in every action. Hey Mom!: For better or worse, a good Reporter gets everything on film. This has the sometimes side effect of causing troopers to
Making a FedNet Reporter FedNet reporters are unit upgrades adding to light armour squads, so the easiest way to indicate a FedNet reporter is by using the camera included on the light armour squad sprue, and giving it to one of the troopers in place of a weapon. The model on the left is an example of this. Adrian Walters, studio figure painter, has converted a more elaborate FedNet reporter model, as you can see on the right. He did this by choosing a suitably posed set of legs and torso from the light armour squad sprue, along with a bare head to mark the reporter out from the helmeted troopers. The microphone was made by taking the Pee-Wee munition from the sprue and scraping away the
Li ght
Ar m mo u r
LIGHT ARMOUR PLATOON SUPPORT Like other Mobile Infantry Platoons, light armour platoons make use of support units, equipment and weapons deployed from other elements within the MI. In the case of light armour platoons, these assets come in two forms: Command Assets and Fleet Assets. The exact assets available depends upon the chosen Priority Level of your force, so a Priority Level Two army can only choose Priority Level Two assets, either from the Command Assets list, the Fleet Assets list or both. You are free to choose assets from both Command and the Fleet as you see fit, as long as they are chosen only from the appropriate Priority Level.
points value on assets. This limit includes all assets, both those bought from Command and from the Fleet, so the value of these assets combined must never exceed 50% of the army’s cost.
Atomic Protocols
In order to choose any atomic weapons, a model with access to Atomic Protocols must be in the platoon. The presence of a Lieutenant with SICON Military Intelligence Training (see the Heroic Traits chapter of the main rulebook) or a SICON Military Intelligence Agent both fulfil the Atomic Protocols requirement.
Regardless of your Priority Level, you can spend no more than 50% of your army’s total
FLEET ASSETS LIST Priority Leve On At Priority Level One, fleet assets are not available to a Pathfinder Platoon. Skyhook Retrieval Boat
125
Pl a t o o n s
Li ght
A r mo u r
Pl a t o o n s COMMAND ASSETS LIST Priority Leve On At Priority Level One, you may choose from the following command assets: SICON Military Intelligence Agent
80 points
0–1 per platoon M-781A1 Falcon Missiles
+20 points
Any SW-401 Longbow Missile Launchers can be given M-781A1 Falcon AA Missiles. M-998A1 Atomic Pee-Wee Munition
+300 points
0–1 model per platoon may be equipped with an M-998A1 Atomic Pee-Wee munition (only if model with Atomic Protocols is in platoon).
Priority Leve Tw At Priority Level Two, you may choose from the following command assets: SICON Military Intelligence Agent
80 points
0–1 per platoon M-908P Plasma Munition
+20 points
0–1 officer per platoon may be equipped with an M-908P plasma munition. M-781A1 Falcon Missiles
+20 points
Any SW-401 Longbow Missile Launchers can be given M-781A1 Falcon AA Missiles.
P l a t o o n A r mo u r y
PLATOON ARMOURY Below is a summary of the weapons used by the light
armour platoons, along with new equipment unique to their forces. SW-401 Longbow Missile Launcher: The forerunner of the more capable Javelin, the Longbow was brought back into service for the Invasion Companies as any colony world with a suitable manufacturing base could build them in the huge numbers required for Klendathu. The Longbow has the added advantage of using the same missiles as the Javelin, including Pee-Wee atomics and the recently developed Nighthawk AA missile but without an automatic loading facility, its rate of fire is noticeably lower than that of the Javelin. M-781A1 Falcon AA Missile: The huge numbers of hopper bugs present throughout the Road to Victory campaign convinced
GENERAL ISSUE EQUIPMENT Comms Pack: Worn as an armoured harness and requiring very little extra training in its use, the comms pack is used to bind individual squads to higher echelons of command. This has the dual benefit of allowing squads to act autonomously, much in the same way as power suit squads are trained to do, and also to keep troopers fighting effectively even when losses have started to impact on a force’s command structure. Even if all officers have been eliminated, a junior rear echelon officer can still guide a squad though this is never quite as efficient as having an officer on the battlefield to make split second decisions. A squad with a comms pack is always treated as having a 6” command range even if no officer is present on the battlefield. In addition, a squad with a comms pack may always take benefit
P l a t o o n A r mo u r y NEW MOBILE INFANTRY RULE Nukes Down Bug Holes As a member of the Roughnecks once said – shoot a nuke down a bug hole, and you’ve got a lot of dead bugs! Such careless abandon with atomic weapons was frowned upon by the higher ranks of Military Intelligence during the Road to Victory but the relative proliferation of weapons of mass destruction during the Klendathu invasion opened the way to completely new tactics. By literally shooting a nuke down into the Arachnid’s tunnel network, nuclear fire could travel a great distance, flooding the tunnels with death and clearing out a ll but the most determined bugs. Only a light armour or power suit trooper carrying a Javelin or Longbow missile launcher with a Pee-Wee nuclear munition may attempt this tactic. Marauders and CHAS units do not have the manoeuvrability to deliver a missile accurately enough at the limited ranges required for this attack and guidance systems have not yet been developed that a re fast enough to compute the course needed for a missile to fly down a tunnel system when launched from a TAC fighter or other aerial platform. The attacking model must be within 6” of a Tunnel Entrance, Nest Entrance or Bug Central and be able to target it in order to deliver this attack. It must also spend a Ready action computing the missile’s course down the twisting tunnels immediately before
T h e A r a c h n i d Re s p o n s e
THE ARACHNID RESPONSE It was during the invasion of Klendathu that the Arachnids finally became recognised as a true military force to be reckoned with, rather than simple-minded alien bugs to be exterminated simply because they were an affront to the human race. Whole swarms of bugs withdrew under heavy attack, regrouped and then ambushed their pursuers. Others created traps that swallowed entire platoons whole, while the fate of the Fleet against co-ordinated plasma bug fire is well known.
Once these tactics and stratagems were revealed on Klendathu, Arachnid forces across the galaxy began using them within a few months, making these aliens a lot more dangerous to the unwary trooper. In this section, we present some new additions to the Arachnid army list that reflects the increased military cap abilities of the bugs after Klendathu.
ARACHNID CAVE-INS
GODDAMNED BUGS WHACKED US! model is removed as a casualty immediately as he falls through the weak crust and is pounced on by a warrior bug or some other, equally nasty, Arachnid. A Dodge save may be made to avoid this fate but normal armour is of no use. Models of size 2 or larger are immune to Cave-ins, as are air units acting in the Air Phase.
AMBUSHES While warrior bugs tend to amass in huge swarms, Klendathu saw the use of single warrior bugs ranging far ahead of the main swarm. Their task was to secrete themselves in an expected
Kl e n da t h u I n v a s i o n !
A rare success – a Light Armour squad earns their stripes by capturing one of the fabled brain bugs.
Kl e n d a t h u I n v a s i o n !
Battle Stations: Light Armour troopers rush to join the fray as the bugs attack. Nowhere to hide – bugs erupt from all over Klendathu’s surface.
Kl e n da t h u I n v a s i o n !
Surrounded! The bugs attack from all sides.
The MI are forced on to the back foot as the Arachnids attack their hastily constructed
Kl e n d a t h u I n v a s i o n !
Invasion! The Arachnids surge forwards in numbers to greet the first wave of Invasion Companies.
F i g h t i n g o n Kl e n d a t h u
FIGHTING ON KLENDATHU Anyone who has seen the Starship troopers movie
or read the previous chapters will know just how badly the Klendathu Invasion went for the Mobile Infantry and the terrible death toll amassed that day. However, this will not be enough for most fans of the Starship Troopers Miniatures Game . Sure, the Mobile Infantry lost hundreds of thousands of lives during this action but what really matters is how your company of troopers matched up against the odds. Were they simply swept aside by the rampaging Arachnid swarms? Did they put up a valiant fight before being overrun? Perhaps they recovered from the initial onslaught quickly and managed to fight their way back to a retrieval boat. Or maybe they are still on Klendathu, fighting a hopeless war – avoiding constant Arachnid swarms, knowing they will never be rescued. The following rules and scenarios will allow you to create an
resources to draw upon as literally millions of warriors and other bugs swarm up from the subterranean tunnel network to engulf the Mobile Infantry landing zones. The points totals of each scenario played in the campaign will usually be decided by the Mobile Infantry player who must carefully marshal his forces in an attempt to escape your trap but you will often have the tactical edge. No matter what the Priority Level of scenario you play in this campaign, you may always choose to use the Endless Tide rule for your warrior bugs if you so wish, though you must pay the additional points as normal. This represents the huge number of bugs that lie in wait on Klendathu.
PLAYING THE CAMPAIGN
F i g h t i n g o n Kl e n d a t h u Capsule, hundreds of companies are taking their first steps on this alien world to discover they have a real fight on their hands. The Beachhead scenario is always played using 2,000 point forces for both the Arachnids and Mobile Infantry. Follow the special rules listed in the scenario and gauge the level of victory for either force.
The Progress of Invasion Chart is then consulted, following the victory attained in the Beachhead scenario to discover what scenario should be played next. This scenario is then played and the victory conditions determined to discover the third scenario to be played and so on. This continues until you reach the edge of the Progress of Invasion Chart which will show you how your Mobile Infantry Company has fared! As will become readily apparent, the results of the Beachhead scenario can have a large effect on the campaign as a whole. You
Mobile Infantry Captains
1 per platoon
You are free to use a lieutenant or even NCO to lead your Mobile Infantry company, representing a formation that has its commanding officer(s) reassigned to staff duties, leading other important operations or maybe even killed during the initial landings on Klendathu! Most Mobile Infantry companies in war time, however, will be commanded by a captain, with lieutenants heading individual platoons. If you wish to use a captain to lead your force, use the roster entry below. If you have at least one Light Armour platoon in your company, you may choose to use the Light Armour Captain. If you have at least one Power Suit platoon in your company, you may
Special
choose to use the Power Suit or Marauder Captain. If your company has only Marauder platoons, you may only choose to have the Marauder Captain. You may only ever have one Mobile Infantry Captain in any company during the Klendathu Invasion campaign. In regular games, you may use a single Mobile Infantry Captain so long as you have at least two platoons in your army. A Mobile Infantry Captain is considered to be an officer for purposes of selecting the army (so, in a power suit Platoon, a Mobile Infantry Captain would entitle you to 0–2 power suit Squads, in a Light Armour Platoon the Captain would require 1–3 Light Armour Squads and so on).
F i g h t i n g o n Kl e n d a t h u
F i g h t i n g o n Kl e n d a t h u may be able to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat later on but a strong offensive at the start will make the life of the Mobile Infantry just that little bit easier. Unless otherwise stated, the Mobile Infantry player will always decide on the points value of any given scenario (in multiples of 250 points), which allows him to commit a lot of forces to an important engagement or conversely pull back most of his company to let a rear guard sacrifice themselves against the Arachnid onslaught. However, he must specify at least 1,500 points in each scenario – there is no maximum and he may risk his entire company in one battle if he so wishes! Before each battle, you select units from your company up to the total points value you have chosen for the scenario. You are free to mix and match units from different platoons as you see fit as company commanders on Klendathu often found their forces became hopelessly mixed when they made contact with the Arachnids. It is entirely possible that the Mobile Infantry will not be able to field enough units to make up the points total of the next scenario. In this case, the Mobile Infantry must fight on as normal but with a reduced force! If the Mobile Infantry is unable to field any units, they automatically lose the entire campaign – they have been wiped
Casualties Whenever you lose a trooper or piece of equipment, cross it off of your company record sheet, adjusting the points cost of the unit as necessary. These losses are permanent and will not be replaced during the campaign so, as you can see, a careless action may doom you! As the campaign goes on, you ma y find that you are forced to use under-strength units with increasing frequency, even those that are theoretically not ‘legal’. During this campaign you may use, for example, a Power Suit squad reduced to just a Corporal and
F i g h t i n g o n Kl e n d a t h u If you win a battle, you may instead award a free trait to one model in every unit that survived the fight, subject to the maximum points values described above. There are, however, some rules as to which traits can be awarded to whom.
9 A model may never be given a Training trait as a result of surviving battles – they may only be purchased as normal before the campaign as there is simply not enough time to train your troopers! A 9 model may only be given a Talent if it had at least one purchased as normal before the campaign began – troopers do not spontaneously become psychic (as much as SICON may want them to. . .). A model in a Marauder suit may not take traits normally 9 denied to it. 9 The following units never earn traits: CHAS, TAC Fighter, Slingshot, Skyhook, Viking, missiles.
ONE SHOT WEAPONS
CONTINUING THE STORY If your company survived the baptism of fire on Klendathu more or less intact, it is entirely possible that you will have grown attached to the various characters and heroes that have arisen during hard fought battles. There is no need to say goodbye to
Sc e n a r i o s
SCENARIOS The following scenarios are to be used in
the Klendathu Invasion campaign as you follow your company’s victories and defeats on the Progress of Invasion Chart. However, you can also use them in one-off games instead of using the Engagements chapter in the main rulebook, allowing you to pursue very specific objectives in a battle. Simply set a points value between yourself and your opponent, choose a scenario and begin playing!
BEACHHEAD The Mobile Infantry commences the invasion with its first wave of drops, aiming to hit the Arachnids hard and begin landing more forces on the planet. The Arachnids rise from their hiding places to throw the Mobile Infantry attack into chaos.
Mobile Infantry Briefing This is it, trooper – the long Road to Victory is at an end! You are going in with the first wave of drops. Your orders are to smash the entire area and kill anything that has more than two legs. By clearing the landing zone, you will be able to push further forward to create a perimeter and make ready for the
9 This is a 2,000 point battle. 9 If you have any drop capsules in your force, they may be used in this scenario, using the normal rules. 9 Drop pods and air units enter as reserves. 9 You deploy second and take the first turn.
Arachnids Briefing Having monitored their progress while gathering in orbit, you are well aware of the first wave of Mobile Infantry drops and your hordes are waiting. Hit them hard and disrupt their formations – give them no time to recover.
9 You may select a force of any Priority Level. 9 You deploy first and take the second turn. 9 You have one Nest Entrance free of cost, placed as shown on the map. You may not purchase another Nest Entrance or a Bug Central.
Scenario Length The battle will continue for five turns or until one army has been completely wiped out.
Sc e n ar i o s BUG HUNT Having fended off the initial Arachnid attacks, the Mobile Infantry company attempts to follow its original orders by slowly closing off every bug hole in the area. With their tunnel networks crippled in this manner, it is hoped the Arachnids are going to be far less mobile and therefore easier to locate and destroy.
Mobile Infantry Briefing Up and at ‘em, trooper! We’ve taken some losses but we are still here and you still have a job to do. You have to shut down these bug holes in double time or the Arachnids will be all over the Mobile Infantry, taking back the ground just gained.
9 You deploy your force after the Arachnid player has placed all of his tunnel entrances, nests and bug central. 9 You take the first turn.
Arachnids Briefing A small number of Mobile Infantry groups have broken through your trap and are now starting to work on your tunnel assets. However, you have more than enough bugs to divert to these
attacks without interrupting the main slaughter going on in the landing zones. Mop these troopers up and final victory will surely be yours.
9 You deploy your tunnel entrances, nest entrances and bug central first. 9 You deploy your force after the Mobile Infantry. 9 For every 500 points or part your army is worth, you receive 100 points to spend on tunnelling assets. These are the only points you may spend on tunnelling assets – you may not use points from your main army allocation to buy any tunnelling assets at all.
Scenario Length The battle will continue until the victor y conditions are met.
Victory Conditions The Arachnids gain victory if they manage to destroy every Mobile Infantry model. The Mobile Infantry gain victory if they manage to destroy every tunnel asset except tunnel markers
Sc e n a r i o s CREATE PERIMETER Having been more or less successful in their landing, the Mobile Infantry companies attempt to push forward their area of control to create a stable perimeter that will allow them to begin bringing down larger drops and supplies. Unfortunately, this is when the Arachnids launch their main offensive.
Mobile Infantry Briefing Everything is going according to plan. Now the landings are complete, you can hear some other companies in serious combat but you have been ordered to create a perimeter that will relieve the pressure on them and allow this invasion to get under way!
9 You deploy first. 9 You may choose to take the first or second turn.
Arachnids Briefing A few Mobile Infantry groups managed to land successfully – now is the time to launch your full weight of numbers against them.
9 Regardless of the points value of the battle, you are Priority Level Three. 9 You must select the Endless Tide option for warrior bugs. 9 No tunnel entrances may be placed in the Mobile Infantry’s deployment zone. 9 Up to half of your units may be kept in reserve and brought in from any table edge detailed on the map as belonging to you.
Scenario Length The battle will continue for seven turns or until one army has been completely wiped out.
Victory Conditions Mission points are used to calculate the victor of this mission. Both sides earn half the value of every enemy unit reduced below half strength. Both sides earn the value of every enemy unit wiped out. The Mobile Infantry player loses 50 points for every Arachnid model in his deployment zone at the end of the battle. He gains a +250 point bonus if there is at least one Mobile Infantry unit in the Arachnid deployment zone and no Arachnid models.
Sc e n ar i o s ESCAPE One by one, the Mobile Infantry companies are beginning to be over-run. This scenario will determine the fate of one Mobile Infantry company caught by the Arachnid trap. Fighting desperately, the troopers are determined to escape the claws of the bugs.
Mobile Infantry Briefing The messages coming over comms are not encouraging and it seems every company is hip deep in Arachnids. Just as you thought things could get no worse for your troopers, you find yourself surrounded by bugs! Fight for your lives and try to escape – anywhere!
9 You must choose to use a t least 2,000 points in this battle. 9 You may not use any fleet assets. 9 You deploy first and take the first turn.
Arachnids Briefing Close the trap. The Mobile Infantry have been divided into small pockets of resistance and all that remains is to crush them on by one without letting any escape to later regroup.
9 You deploy after the Mobile Infantry. 9 You may not choose the Endless Tide option for any of your units – the MI are fleeing away from the densest areas of bug occupation and the long board edges described in the Victory Conditions, below, instead take into account the perils of endless warrior bugs swarming towardss the beleaguered MI.
Scenario Length The battle will continue until no Mobile Infantry models are left on the table, having ei ther been destroyed or escaped.
Victory Conditions Mission points are used to calculate the victor of this mission. The Arachnids earn half the value of every enemy unit reduced below half strength and the full value of every enemy unit wiped out. The Mobile Infantry only earn mission points for moving units off the table. They gain double the value of each unit that is moved off the table, no matter how many models remain. However, the long table edges represent areas of high Arachnid concentration. Roll a dice for every unit moved off one of these edges – on the roll of a 1 or 2, the unit is automatically destroyed as it caught and killed by roving bugs.
Sc e n a r i o s GENERAL RETREAT The landings have been a disaster, with the Arachnids responding in huge numbers. Many companies have already been wiped out and the immediate future does not look bright for those who remain. As the order for General Retreat comes over the comms, the Arachnid lines must be broken to clear a path to the retrieval points.
Mobile Infantry Briefing You cannot believe it. The once mighty Mobile Infantry has been ordered into retreat and there is a real danger of this turning i nto a rout with the bugs snapping at your heels. Do not get bogged down by the bugs and give yourself enough room to regroup. Victory is still possible!
Arachnids Briefing Victory after victory has seen your bugs crush the Mobile Infantry landings. A few companies are trying to retreat back to their original landing zones – they could become a threat if they are given enough time to regroup.
9 If you select the Endless Tide option for warrior bugs, they may only be brought on from the Mobile Infantry’s long table edge.
Scenario Length The battle will continue until the victory conditions have been met.
Victory Conditions 9 9 9 9
You deploy first. Any air units are kept as reserves but may not be brought onto the battlefield until the fourth turn. No unit may start the game within an air unit. You take the first turn.
The Mobile Infantry gain victory if they can move at least 1,000 points of models off of the Arachnid’s table edge. Air units do not count towardss this total though any units carried within them do. The Arachnid player wins if he can stop this happening.
Sc e n ar i o s LAST STAND A lone group of Mobile Infantry have been cut off without any hope of reinforcement. Trapped and surrounded by a large swarm of Arachnids, they prepare to sell their lives dearly.
Mobile Infantry Briefing This is your last stand. The invasion has gone horribly wrong and you have been left to fend for yourselves as Arachnids break through the entire landing area. Cut off and alone, you have no choice but to fight to the last. Perhaps you will buy enough time for other platoons to regroup and reach their retrieval points. Maybe a drop boat will arrive at the last minute. However, the time for miracles is likely over.
9 You must use every unit remaining in your company. Calculate how many points this now represents and let the Arachnid player know. 9 You may not use any Fleet Assets – they flew off a long time ago!
Arachnids Briefing You have nearly swept the humans off this planet and their whole formation is in disarray. You have located a tiny group of Mobile Infantry cut off from the rest of their army, ripe for you to race forward and annihilate them!
9 You may choose any Priority Level. 9 You have twice as many points to spend on your force as the Mobile Infantry player. You may not choose any tunnel assets as you have not had 9 time to prepare a functioning tunnel network. 9 You may choose two units to move onto the table from any edge in the first turn. At the start of your second turn, roll one die for every unit 9 not yet on the table. On the roll of a 4 or more, the unit will move on from a random table edge as shown on the map below. At the start of your third turn, any units that have not yet 9 moved on to the table are brought in from a random table edge. You take the first turn. 9
Scenario Length The battle will continue for seven turns or until the Mobile Infantry have been completely wiped out.
Victory Conditions The Arachnids gain victory i f they destroy every Mobile Infantry unit before the end of turn seven. The Mobile Infantry gain victory if they have at least one model left on the table after the end of turn seven.
Sc e n a r i o s RESCUE A Mobile Infantry platoon has been split off from the rest of its company by an Arachnid attack and the last remaining squad has taken to hiding while the bugs search. A company faring a little better in the invasion is dispatched to rescue the beleaguered troopers.
Mobile Infantry Briefing Though you have fought hard and done well thus far in the invasion, other troopers have not been so lucky. The Arachnid presence is weaker in this a rea (no doubt due to your efforts) and so you have been asked by another Captain to locate a squad that was split off from the rest of his troopers.
9 You gain a ten trooper Light Armour squad for free. Up to 50 points of upgrades from page 19 of this book may be freely taken for this squad. 9 The squad is deployed in Deployment Zone Alpha. They must be placed within a piece of terrain. The squad is in hiding and so long as they take no action, may not be attacked by any means by the A rachnids. 9 The rest of your army is placed in Deployment Zone Bravo. You may hold up to half of your force in reserve i f you wish. 9 They enter from the table edges around Deployment Zone Bravo. You take the first turn. 9
Arachnids Briefing Just one Mobile Infantry squad to kill and this entire sector is yours! Not even the humans would be mad enough to stage a rescue while you mass your forces for attack. . .
9 You may not select the Endless Tide option for warrior bugs. 9 The Light Armour squad of troopers is in hiding. You may nominate one unit within 12” of their position to attempt to locate them every turn – they must spend two Ready actions to do this. At the end of every turn, roll one dice. On a 6, you have located the squad and may freely attack them from this point onwards.
Scenario Length The battle will continue until the hidden Light Armour squad is either destroyed or is moved off the short table edge of Deployment Zone Bravo.
Victory Conditions Mission points are used to calculate the victor of this mission. Both sides gain half the value of every enemy unit reduced below half strength. Both sides gain the value of every enemy unit wiped out. The Light Armour squad in Deployment Zone Alpha is worth triple its usual points value if wiped out by the Arachnids and double if it is reduced to less than half strength. For the Mobile Infantry, the squad is worth triple its usual points
Sc e n ar i o s RETRIEVAL A small number of Mobile Infantry companies managed to fight their way clear of the Arachnid trap relatively unmolested. They were the lucky ones. Every trooper boarding a drop boat knew, by this time, that he was leaving thousands upon thousands of comrades behind.
Mobile Infantry Briefing It is time to get off this rock – the bugs can have it! Gather your forces and file up neatly to board the drop boats. Just pray the Arachnids do not show up to spoi l the party. . .
9 You must use every unit remaining in your company. Calculate how many points this now represents and let the Arachnid player know. 9 You start the battle with one free Skyhook for every unit in your force. You may also have one free Slingshot for every six (or part of) Marauders in your army. 9 All air units start in reserve. Those paid for by your own company may appear from turn two onwards. Those that are free will appear one each turn, starting from turn three. 9 You deploy your army first.
Arachnids Briefing Klendathu remains yours but some of the Mobile Infantry have managed to slip through your claws and are boarding drop boats even now. Your victory will not be complete until every human who set foot on Klendathu is dead.
9 You may select a force of any Priority Level, regardless of the points set by the Mobile Infantry player. You take the first turn. 9
Scenario Length The battle will continue until there are no more Mobile Infantry models left on the table.
Victory Conditions Mission points are used to calculate the victor of this mission. The Mobile Infantry gains double the points cost of every unit above half strength that is removed from the table by a n air unit. They gain the normal points cost if the unit is half strength or less. They gain nothing for the actual air units themselves. The Arachnid player gains the points cost of every unit reduced to half strength and double that if the unit is wiped out, including air units.
Sc e n a r i o s STONEWALL Those Mobile Infantry companies not smashed apart by huge bug swarms were placed in an unenviable position. With little possibility of reinforcement or resupply, they were told to hold the line at any cost, while the Sky Marshal desperately searched for a miracle that would relieve them and turn the invasion around.
Mobile Infantry Briefing You have fought well to get this far, while so many other companies now lie in tatters. The fate of your own company now hangs in the balance as you draw a line in the dust of Klendathu. The largest bug swarm you have ever seen is mounting up for a major assault. If you can stem the tide, maybe some of those retrieval boats will wait for you. Otherwise. . .
9 You must use every unit remaining in your company. Calculate how many points this now represents and let the Arachnid player know. 9 The resources of the entire company have been pooled for this assault. You gain one Ammo Dump for free which may be placed anywhere in your deployment zone. 9 You deploy first.
Arachnids Briefing All over the Mobile Infantry landing zones, your forces reign supreme. Human bodies lie everywhere and their smashed equipment burns fiercely. One company lies ahead, having managed to regroup sufficiently to mount a defence.
9 You may select a force of any Priority Level, regardless of the points set by the Mobile Infantry player. You must select the Endless Tide option for warrior bugs. 9 9 You may not deploy any tunnel assets in the Mobile Infantry’s deployment zone. 9 None of your models start on the table. Your whole army moves on from your table edge in the first turn. You have the first turn. 9
Scenario Length The battle will continue for eight turns until one army has been completely wiped out.
Victory Conditions Mission points are used to calculate the victor of this mission. Both sides gain the full value of every enemy unit reduced below half strength. Both sides gain double the value of every enemy unit wiped out.
Sc e n ar i o s WINNING AND LOSING THE CAMPAIGN After you have played four scenarios, you will have reached the end of the Progress of Campaign Chart. The level of your victory or defeat is variable, however, based on just which scenarios you managed to win and at what point during the campaign. A strong start might put you in good stead but a string of defeats thereafter will end your career quickly enough. . . Consult the entries below to find out just how well your Mobile Infantry Company did during the invasion and whether they managed to get off Klendathu intact or were cut off by the Arachnids and have been left behind by the fleet.
Mobile Infantry Major Victory This is a dark day for the Mobile Infantry. Scuttlebutt says that over one hundred thousand troopers died in the first hour of landings. Looking out of the portal of your transport, it looks like the Fleet got badly mauled as well. Still, at least you and your own troopers are all here to congratulate one another – you survived Klendathu. There is a lot of work ahead of you but your company has proved itself in the baptism of fire. Next time, the dirty bugs will pay for what they did here today.
Mobile Infantry Minor Victory You survived. That is about all you can say. A lot of your troopers are dead. Your company still retains its status as an active unit
He r o e s o f
Kl e n d at h u
HEROES OF KLENDATHU As SICON has said in many FedNet broadcasts, there
are too many heroes of Klendathu to name. Many of those heroes found their deaths on the Arachnid’s homeworld but a few, at least, managed to escape and fight the alien menace on other battlefields. Listed here are a few of the more famous (and infamous) units that took part in the Klendathu Invasion
RAZAK’S ROUGHNECKS Officially retired but a fully qualified cap trooper nonetheless, Lieutenant Razak volunteered for leadership during the build up to invasion and was rewarded with command of a Light Armour platoon within one of the Invasion Companies. To many of his peers, this was as a self-imposed demotion, while others held Razak up as an example to all, hailing the extraordinary sense of
duty that prevented him from watching from the sidelines while young troopers went into battle ill-equipped and ill-prepared. Still more pointed to the death of his wife and children during the Arachnid attack on Buenos Aires as the likely motivation for his re-enlistment. Whatever the truth, Razak took on the Roughnecks and made them his own, becoming one of the first Light Armour units to be classified as combat ready. The Roughnecks were one of the few Light Armour units to be deployed in serious combat before the invasion of Klendathu and, under the Lieutenant’s command, always acquitted themselves commendably, coming to be famed for a ferocity which allowed them to achieve objectives often failed by power suit platoons. It was the Roughnecks who successfully destroyed the growing tunnel networks threatening Star City, as well as rescuing Colonel Redwing during the Arachnid assault on Drake’s Bay. They were the poster children
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of the Invasion Companies but, for all their successes, Razak steadfastly refused to be a tool of SICON. When the invasion of Klendathu began, the Roughnecks were absent, having been posted to Zeguma Beach on the Hydoran colony but were quickly moved following Sky Marshal Maru’s appointment. Maru resolved to fight, not just on Klendathu itself but the other worlds of the Klendathu system and the Roughneck s were duly tasked with Whiskey Outpost, on Planet P. It was here that the now legendary Razak finally succumbed to the Arachnid enemy – a tanker bug tunnelling under the outpost collapsed much of the outpost’s perimeter, plunging Razak and several other troopers to their doom. Despite the loss of their lieutenant, the Roughnecks were later instrumental in the capture of the first brain bug, thus achieving one of Maru’s main objectives for the campaign. The platoon then went through a succession of officers before being cited for retraining as a power suit platoon, something for which many of the Roughnecks were grateful and to which many more of the Light Armour Platoons aspire to, albeit mostly without success.
THE SABRES Veterans of the Road to Victory, the Sabres were typical of many other power suit platoons dropped onto Klendathu during the invasion. Led by Lieutenant Jane Jefferson, they were tasked
He r o e s o f disrupting the lines of Vikings as they descended from orbit, leaving the light armour platoons cut-off from each other and dispersed over a wide area. Dropping by capsule, the Cutthroats were able to avoid a lot of the plasma fire but when they deployed, Kowalski and his men immediately found themselves under serious pressure from swarms of warrior bugs. Taking the initiative, Kowalski attempted to break through to the surviving light armour troopers during no less than seven assaults, each repulsed by increasing numbers of Arachnids. Kowalski numbered some successes, here and there breaking through to isolated platoons before withdrawing to launch another assault, the Cutthroats now aided by the relieved light armour platoon. These successes were few, however, and with contact from the light armour platoons becoming increasingly erratic, the Cutthroats were eventually forced onto the defensive, using their jump jets to create enough space to regroup. Contact was lost with the platoon during the bombardment of Klendathu from orbit and it was presumed they were destroyed by friendly fire or otherwise overwhelmed by warrior bugs. The invasion companies which Kowalski had so valiantly sought defend fared no better and almost all of the light armour platoons were lost, surrounded by bugs, cut-off from their allies and completely unable to retreat.
BLACKBURN’S RAIDERS While it is relatively common for individual platoons to adopt an
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boot camp. To their credit, they managed to hold the company together where others might have turned and fled back to the drop boats and their continued resistance bought enough time for other companies to move forward and begin expanding the perimeter. Continued plasma bombardment soon whittled their numbers down and a final charge by warrior bugs soon silenced their guns. It is not known whether any Raiders survived this assault but none were recorded as survivors after the General Retreat. Regardless, the example of Captain Elizabeth Blackburn, a fast tracked officer who led such an undoubtedly courageous assault, was one SICON were quick to pick up on. Her story was carried across FedNet and, while the diehards amongst the troopers would probably never accept the wisdom of fast tracking officers, many grudgingly gave Blackburn her dues and noted her bravery.
THE PATHFINDERS Trained and equipped to be the elite of the Mobile Infantry, the first Pathfinder Company was officially deployed during the Klendathu Invasion. Led by Captain Barrington-Wallis, they were tasked with ranging ahead of the landing zones to reconnoitre enemy dispositions and quickly overcome highvalue targets such as plasma bug batteries. It is possible that SICON intended the Pathfinders to be the real heroes of the invasion, the Mobil Infantry’s shiny new poster boys and SICON
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P l a t o o n s Re f e r e n c e LIGHT ARMOUR PLATO0NS REFERENCE
Light Armour Lieutenant
Type Light Armour Lieutenant
Value 70
Size 1
Move 4”
Close Combat D6
Target 3+
Save 6+/6+
Kill 5+
Traits Independent
Light Armour NCO
Type Light Armour NCO
Value 55
Size 1
Move 4”
Close Combat D6–1
Target 3+
Save 6+/6+
Kill 5+
Traits Independent
Size 1 1 1
Move 4” 4” 4”
Close Combat D6–1 D6–1 D6–1
Target 3+ 3+ 3+
Save 6+ 6+ 6+/6+
Kill 5+ 5+ 5+
Traits — — —
Size 1
Move 4”
Close Combat D6–2
Target 3+
Save 6+
Kill 5+
Traits —
Size
Move
Close Combat
Target
Save
Kill
Traits
Light Armour Squad
Type Light Armour trooper Light Armour Corporal Light Armour Sergeant
Value 10 35 50
FedNet Reporter
Type FedNet Reporter
Value 30
Lieutenant Razak
Type
Value
