Terminators - A fight for survival

This Monday night the shed launched a new game called...

 

Terminators

This was an opportunity to layout my old ruined city landscape and use my Terminators from Copplestone and Pig Iron troopers.

The rules are of my own making and I will gladly send anybody a pdf set if the contact me through the blog or via one of the forums.



The rules are all on two sheets

In essence this is a figure on figure game...no units just individual men and machines fighting it out in an urban landscape.

In summary each figure gets two actions per turn, they can run twice, shoot twice, run and shoot etc. The order of play is driven by a colour drawn from the dice cup - Terminators black, Humans grey or blue. A figure can hold one action and use this later in the turn depending on what happens.

Combat is straight forward but before you shoot you have to spot your target, terminators of course get an easier roll thanks to their superior technology.

To hit rolls are generated on a d6 - multiple shots for auto weapons. If a hit is scored then damage is taken according to the weapon type less the armour. The residual score is removed from the stamina. Suffice to say humans tend to get wasted first shot but the Terminators are much much tougher and also get to regenerate (in the game we played this became known as rebooting)

So how did the game play

To start with I put out too many shiny toys and after 30 minutes of play it became evident that the game would degenerate into a slugfest. We stopped, regrouped and decided on some simple changes. Firstly we reduced the number of figures. The Terminators got 3 T1's and one larger T2. The Survivors received eight two man squads. This seemed to balance out play significantly and gave both sides a realistic chance of winning. The game went to the last dice roll - always a good sign.

The Urban Wasteland

A quick point on the terrain - this city landscape was built by me over four years ago. The buildings are a combination of mdf and foam core. A suitable number of wrecked cars and other debris acts as scatter across the table. All figures get a soft cover bonus in the ruins and only if they are up against a wall or barrier do they receive the hard cover bonus.

The objective of the game was for the Terminators to make their way across the length of the board an switch off the power generators (bicycle lights). The humans could defend in depth or attack. With three of us playing one player controlled the Terminators (Mark) whilst I and John each controlled 4 squads of humans.

The generators were positioned evenly along the main road up the board

The Terminators quickly advanced along the left hand side of the board, thereby negating half of the humans fire power (me), and within a few minutes had switched off the first generator.

When all the lights go out the Terminators win...can the Survivors stop them?

As the Terminators marched forward they came under fire from the humans defending the first block. The way the rules work is quite simple - if you hit your damage has to exceed the Terminator armour to cause any damage. With each burst only delivering 1d6+2 damage against a T1 armour of six this could be a slow fight of attrition. However if the fire hit the same location in the same burst (each gun fires three rounds) the armour only counts once. It soon became evident that the only way to take down these metal terrors was to use aimed fire (helps with location rolls) in vast quantities.

T1's advancing (courtesy of Copplestone Miniatures)

John soon dropped one of the T1's but in the process lost three men to some rather brutal return fire. Did I say that humans don't last long - their low stamina and weak armour just couldn't cope with the Robot firepower.

With one light out the Terminators adopted a new strategy - one T1 would advance unhindered down the left side of the board to the last light whilst the others poured fire into the survivors defending the second light.



Defending the second light - figures from Pig Iron

At this time the T2 came into its own - armed with two weapons - superior armour (value 8) and regenerative powers it tore apart Johns remaining defenders.

Despite taking some hits - John almost killed it - it stood back and regenerated back to full strength. Ready for the final push.

Mean whilst I finally managed to get my squads into action and a lucky burst - three hits and a whopping 17 points of dame destroyed a lurking terminator near the second light.

taking Aim...Fire...gotcha

By now Marks advancing T1 had reached the point where he could switch off the furthest light. He ducked out the window and reached for the off switch. Could the humans waiting in ambush mode take him down...

We have a problem Houston...all the squads failed to see this silver humanoid climb out the window and switch off the light. Two lights down and one to go.

As the turn finished we drew the new dice. This time the squads did see him and again some fortunate fire took down the remaining T1

Back to the middle light. Our T2 had fully repaired itself and trusting in his armour stepped forward to switch off the third generator. As he stepped out of the ruins my two remaining squads on ambush let rip.

The first squad all missed, I drew breath. The second had to hit. I rolled 3 hits ! All in the same location...17 points of damage plus a further three for point blank range (under 6 inches) - The T2 armour class was eight - therefore a total of 12 damage points. With a damage value of 12 the final T2 bit the dust. We just did it...



Returning to base to fight another day

A cracking game and ruleset that actually works...it delivered the tense atmosphere we wanted and certainly is worthy of a replay at another time.

A big thank you to my game testers Mark & John

Until next time