Replaying Stargrunt II

A few months ago I thought I'd try out Stargrunt II GZG's grand daddy of a Sci-Fi combat game. I had a few hours to spare as SWiMBO was away riding a horse. I have a copy and it has been out of print for a long time but I think I am right in saying that it is still available for download for free on GZG's web site. Given the economic climate, it seems like a good idea to do stuff for free especially when it's something I once paid twenty pounds for.

So I set up a dummy game. Quickly so there were really no time for frills. The marines were going in to check why contact had been lost with a village (any similarities between this and AVP: Requiem are purely coincidental). The marine have no vehicles because they know that the road through the village is blocked.

The Marines Arrive

The Marines arrive and take up a commanding position at the corner of town. Another team is going down the main road. A third team are going to sweep round the far side of the village. A forth team gets up on the roof of a building to get a better view of the situation. Whilst this is going on, the 2nd Lt and the Sergeant keep in an over watch position on the hill with the third team between them and the errr, action. At this point they have no idea what is going on so they are adopting a better safe than sorry approach.

The aliens have four teams of six that are going to try and get the Marines. In addition to this, they have three bio booby traps that they have placed on the village. 

Sneaky Sneaky

On the left hand side of the picture above, out of sight of the soldiers, a small swarm of aliens creep up on them ready for a flank attack.

In the picture below, the soldiers move on with their recon they trigger one of the booby traps. Thanks to some goof/bad luck two of the marines die instantly and another get injured. The screening squad move round the outside of the village in an attempt to outflank anything that might be in the heart of the village. The aliens continue sneaking around. They stop just short of revealing themselves to the marines and make ready to charge towards them an attack.

And The Battle Starts

The marines attempting the flank advance past another booby trap. This did not go so well for the aliens. It explodes and does no damage at all. I can only imagine the looks on their faces. Then they get jumped by six aliens. The aliens perhaps jumped a little early but I thought they would capitalise on the shock on the explosion. They don't get all the way there so the marines get a chance to fire killing two of the aliens and injuring another. The marines are still facing a closer assault  which would be bad for them. The aliens are almost certain to kill them if they get into hand to hand with the marines.

The lone survivor from the team in the centre of town retreats towards his last position and sees the aliens waiting to pounce.

"Poop"

Thinking better than waiting around for the aliens to charge, the marines use discretion and run away firing. They get lucky and manage to kill the injured one, injure another and kill a third. Meanwhile the aliens sneaking around start their attack. It takes them a turn to get up the wall so they have to wait around. Sadly this is bad news for the survivor of the team that got hit by the booby trap earlier and he gets munched by two of the aliens. Meanwhile the marines on the roof get an opportunity to hose the aliens below injuring one of them.

"Our Father...."

The Marines on the flank finish off the remaining alien with the help of the platoon leader and sergeant and continue their redeployment to their platoon HQ. The aliens get on the roof but but only some get into hand to hand combat. The marines fire at them knocking them off the walls. Both sides take a couple of casualties.

The Marines Say Goodbye

The aliens get shot before they get a chance to move on the marines. This is where it all ends. The marines don't have much of a chance of completing their mission until reinforcements arrive. The humans have a casualty left behind so they might want to go and retrieve him assuming the aliens don't stop for a snack first.