Playing the game

 Not having played Xenos Rampant before the going was quite slow at first. There was a lot of checking and looking things up as you may expect. The main thing was though, it was a lot of fun. It was a delight to finally see all the months of hard work turn into an actual game. That was enough for me really, the fact it was good game was just a bonus.

A big part of the initial fun was creating the well known characters using the many skill options in the rules. This all clicked into place once we made the jet Seekers undisaplined. This increased their chances to fail a cool test and retreat...very in keeping. 

Making Ultra Magnus was also a lot of fun, he was given extra plating, giving him an armour of 5. Another joy was when the Seekers were given the flying characteristic, this meant I could use my flying stands to represent them in the air. Believe it or not, this was an afterthought when working out the points. It of course made totally sense and really helped flavour the game. Decepticons always take to the air to attack in their various vehicle modes...always.

As the game played, I was shocked to see how powerful the Seekers were with their Armour piercing, heavy weapons. They were devastating against the lightly armoured Autobot units. I thought I had made a mistake with the armour piercing stat at first, but this was balanced with their low bravery. Seekers are dangerous when in the air and on the attack, but once they start to take damage they don't stick around.

The poor Autobot right flank lost three turns as they failed their rolls to call in fire support. The attacking Cons wasted no time in using the free action of shooting to ablitarate them. Things were not going well for the Autobots as two units of 'lights' were swept away.

I knew though that their leader, Ultra Magnus would turn the tide...and he did. He was the only elite unit on the field and with increased armour, armour piercing and heavy weapon, he would be formidable. 

In true Magnus form he held up three Decepticon units...four if you include Groundpounder. He was a reduced figure unit just being the single character. Shockwave the mighty shock cannon was also a single model unit. I gave him the Heavy infantry stat line. This made more sense as he was tough but lacked the martial skill of Magnus. I found all these little character choices and tweaks great fun, especially when I discovered the extras in the Xenos section. That's where we found the fly ability.

The game played well and there were crys of sorrow and joy as rolls failed and scored. Shockwave shooting Magnus at the end was very sad after all of his heroics...only to be met with cheers as it turned out he had another life left.

 Groundpounder too, when counting the green health discs, one stuck to his base when counting. He almost skipped death but was found out and blown away. Decepticons are always trying to cheat...that's why they're called Decepti...you get the picture.

In all honesty the game turns had run out for the attacking Autobots. They needed to grab Energon and flee, but the failed activations early on had cost them dear in time and lives. It was a Decepticon victory, however it was too tempting to see who would win out of Magnus and Groundpounder. We agreed to extend the game by two turns. Everything changed in an instant, the fire support call was a success and destroyed Starscreams unit. Groundpounder was destroyed and a unit of Autobots grabbed some Energon. It was more of a satisfying ending and caused much laughter and cheering.

I had a great time, although after lovingly creating all the characters, every casualty was heart felt. I would wince as I saw certain characters been picked up as casualties. Brawn was lucky, after creating him from scratch he is a favourite of mine. 

I had to interject when he was picked up first, he was soon put back and another poor bot choose in his place.

Finding a use for the flying stands was really pleasing, I wasn't sure what rule I would use for transforming. Most units apart from the heavy tanks were given the 'mobile' bonus to increase their movement. I imagined this to be them transforming to speed into cover etc. This was also given to the Seeker planes with their jets.

The ground vehicles on bases could be used when units 'go to ground'. This, like the flying stands, finds a good reason to use the various vehicle models. It would also clearly show what units are using the trait and have dug in using their tank modes etc. we didn't use the go to ground rule nor the firefight rule in this game, one for the future.

Great fun...we must do it again soon. Maybe I should paint up Optimus Prime and Megatron for the next game...