Professional Documents
Culture Documents
KLENDATHU INVASION
CREDITS
Author
Matthew Sprange
Additional Text
Matt Keefe
Editor
Christopher Allen
Cover Art
Chris Quilliams
Internal Art
Jim Brady, Scott Clark, Danilo Moretti
Figure Painters
Adrian Walters & Viktor Medora
Miniatures Manager
Ian Barstow
Production Director
Alexander Fennell
Proofreader
Ron Bedison
Playtesters
Simon Dethan, Alexander Fennell, Nichola Wilkinson & Ted Chang
CONTENTS Introduction The Road to Victory Preparation for Invasion Timeline of the Invasion Invasion! General Retreat A New Strategy Invasion Companies Light Armour Platoons Platoon Armoury The Arachnid Response Fighting on Klendathu Scenarios Heroes of Klendathu
2 3 4 6 8 12 13 15 17 23 25 30 35 45
Starship Troopers: The Miniatures Game TM & (C) 2005 TriStar Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd. Authorised User. Reproduction of any part of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Printed in China.
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the ght, 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. This is the nal step on humanitys long Road to Victory, a campaign intended to ensure human civilisation, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always. The Sky 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 come easy. It will not come at all. Though the entire invasion will take less than a 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 condent start to nal tragedy. 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 consequences. You will also nd a frank SICON analysis of the lessons learned during this battle and how the new Sky Marshal intends to apply them to future conicts. 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 eld massive numbers on the battleelds 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!
WELCOME TO THE BUG HUNT, APES. WITH ANY LUCK, THERE WILL BE A FEW LEFT TO KILL BY THE TIME YOUR SQUAD DROPS!
System Datafile: C911: Kle3 Target Name: Klendathu Classification: G (lightly irradiated) Klendathu:
- Orbit: 227,940,000 kilometres (1.52 AU) from System Sun - Diameter: 6,495 kilometres - Mass: 6.1236e23 - Atmosphere: 75% nitrogen, 24% oxygen, with traces of argon, xenon, neon, carbon dioxide and hydrogen - Planetary Composition: Primarily silicon, iron and nickel
D+2:24 Sky Marshal Dienes orders reconnaissance orbits with remaining destroyers and TAC Fighters to gain x on current MI positions on planet. By this time, the surviving Invasion Companies have created rebases 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+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+3:58 Military Intelligence ofcers 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.
D+16:49 The bombardment from orbit resumes once more though few are condent 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+6:01 It becomes apparent that Military Intelligence has been far too conservative in its placement of retrieval points, as many are just too far away from the initial Drop Zones for the beleaguered units to have any chance of reaching them. The retrieval points themselves face few attacks and are strengthened by the retreating units that do manage to locate them. Less than ve thousand MI are rescued in this manner but Military Intelligence is encouraged by their secure positions and begins planning for new drops to reinforce these locations and begin a new offensive sweep. D+8:42 A steady escalation of Arachnid attacks around the retrieval points culminates in the heaviest bug offensive yet seen. Though better prepared than before, the MI units on the planet are soon placed under heavy pressure. For the rst time in the MIs history, low morale becomes a factor.
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 if nothing else.
D+23:38 The last ship (the battlecruiser Dogger Bank) jumps out of the Klendathu system to rendezvous with the rest of the eet at station Ticonderoga.
D+13:19 After several attempts to break through the attacking Arachnids, Sky Marshal Dienes once again orders a General Retreat in order to withdraw the remaining MI from Klendathu. While many units manage to board their shuttles and reach orbit, a mis-communication to the Fleet results in many ships being out of position to make the pick up. Hundreds of MI perish by plasma re in their transports as they languish in orbit.
Invasion!
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 specically outtted with command and communications equipment while the Antietam and Shiloh had been recongured to provide re support to the planetary surface from orbit. The proud agship of the otilla 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 a state of barely suppressed nerves and excitement while veterans entered drop capsules with practised ease. Morale was high as the Invasion Company troopers realised that in mere moments, they would be facing real combat and real enemies for the rst time. Reaction to the Fleet entering low orbit around Klendathu was immediate. As Military Intelligence had predicted, Arachnid planetary defences responded with glowing arcs of bug plasma. Hurled from the surface by plasma bugs, the emissions carved distinctive blue trails of energy through the atmosphere as they climbed towards the Fleet. While the bulk of the rst wave would be made up of the Invasion Companies aboard landing boats, drop capsules were launched to carry their elite cargo towards the planet surface at incredible velocity with the aim of securing initial beachheads. Exhilarated light armour troopers were now experiencing their rst actual drop into a live combat zone as they plummeted through the atmosphere, morale buoyed up by an unshakeable belief that the battle before them would be over quickly with decisive victory. The rst Mobile Infantry casualties of the invasion were suffered as their forces dropped towards the surface of Klendathu, before a single trooper had touched the ground. Under increasingly intensive re from the plasma bugs below, one Marauder company was annihilated as it descended in drop capsules and several platoons of light armour troopers were vapourised along
WERE GOING IN WITH THE FIRST WAVE. MEANS MORE BUGS FOR US TO KILL. 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 re from the surface would eventually hit something. Military Intelligence remained condent that planetary defences were incapable of any coordinated attack on the Fleet. Minutes later, the attacks claimed their rst 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 onslaught were killed by decompression as the remaining atmosphere vented into space. Twisted and fused pieces of metal from the shattered ship began to impact on nearby craft in the densely-packed ight order and Fleet captains were forced into breaking formation to avoid further harm to their own vessels. Though a surprising loss, Military Intelligence ofcers judged it as acceptable at this point, even as the plasma continued to intensify and become more accurate. As the last elements of the rst wave left orbit, the Manchuria became the second vessel to be lost. The direct hit that struck it was not enough to cripple or destroy the vessel but it did succeed in reducing the starboard engine to slag. As the vast ship careened out of control, it rammed the Yom Kippur, destroying both ships and losing all hands on board to the burning heat of the explosions or the cold void of space. With more and more plasma blasts arcing up from the surface to gouge great furrows across Federation ships, leaving trails glowing with red-hot metal and clouds of venting atmosphere, many Fleet captains did not wait for orders but took evasive action on their own initiative. The carefully arranged formation broke down completely. Below, Marauder and power suit platoons were the rst to hit dirt, scything through token resistance present in the landing areas. By the time the Vikings touched down, veteran troopers were already on the bounce towards Drop Zone perimeters, scouting and securing the outlying regions. Using plasma charges and demolition gear, power suit troopers collapsed what
Invasion!
tunnel entrances they encountered but in Drop Zone Bravo the Hellre 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 fortications 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. Modied 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 condent of victory, the Invasion Companies paused only for cursory organisation before beginning the real offensive onto Arachnid-held soil. Showing little battleeld discipline, troopers banded together into dense mobs and rushed forth to secure the areas surrounding the drop sites, immediately encountering erce 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 rst 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 repower and hamper the advance. In Drop Zone Charlie, Werfels 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 conrming Military Intelligences 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
Invasion!
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 re from the Drop Zones was rapidly quelled with nuclear ame. In Drop Zone Bravo, the few plasma bugs not annihilated in this rst wave of attacks were sighted being hustled into yawning cave mouths by their warrior minders, apparently aware of the impending danger to their charges, and 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 nullied, the bulk of the re 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 re support from orbit was proving equally difcult 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 from the secondary wave of Vikings descending through the atmosphere and Military Intelligence judged the situation to be safe enough for the specialist capture teams to be deployed into Drop Zone Charlie. With sporadic ghting still evident around the perimeters of Federation-held ground, the capture teams entered the tunnel networks to ush out potential prey. As the teams progressed deeper into the deserted tunnels, the quality of communications to the surface rapidly degraded until only garbled reports were reaching company commanders above. In the dark and alien 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 specialist 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 rst wave were nding 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 rst to report this activity but initially the information was ignored by Invasion Company captains who found themselves too busy dealing with the enemy currently facing them. Some Military Intelligence ofcers actually refuted the information outright as it conicted with their predictions about Arachnid numbers on the planet. Though lacking numbers and resources, the veteran platoons began to engage oncoming bug swarms to whittle down their numbers but the vast waves proved single-minded and unstoppable in their purpose. Entire platoons simply disappeared in the space of minutes. The Arachnid hordes ploughed into the densely packed and unprepared Invasion Company troopers of Drop Zone Alpha with horric results. Suddenly outnumbered and outmanoeuvred by an enemy that knew the terrain far better than they did, troopers often responded with panic, spraying re at their assailants with no thought of ammunition conservation or accuracy. This inefcient behaviour combined with a lack of any appreciable training in where to hit a warrior resulted in vast amounts of wasted repower and thousands of lives being lost. In many cases, troopers tried to advance directly over the corpses of warrior bugs they had brought down with re only to be torn apart by the crippled aliens. Drop Zone Bravo was faring even worse. The surrounding terrain was particularly rugged and difcult for humans to traverse and the sheer weight of warrior reinforcements was breaking the Invasion Companies into fragments forced apart by ravines and ridges. These natural barriers funnelled the Mobile Infantry into dead ends and Arachnids pouring out from tunnels
Tunneling on Klendathu
Arachnid tunnel networks on Klendathu stretched far deeper than Military Intelligence had suspected. Although no living human has seen what might lie in these deep tunnel systems, scientists theorised in the wake of the Klendathu disaster that on planets the bugs have inhabited for long periods of time, tunnel highways might be excavated immense tunnels stretching across entire continents, within which even huge creatures like plasma bugs could be moved rapidly from location to location without struggling through the labyrinthine smaller networks created by worker bugs.
10
Invasion!
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 conrming 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 ofcers on the ground knew the landing sites were their lifeline to the eet 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 Loewes Lions who successfully broke the assault through their sheer determination and heroism, using grenades and amers to hold the enemy off. In Drop Zone Bravo, large numbers of tanker bugs began to emerge from the tunnels riddling the rock to assault isolated bands of Mobile Infantry corralled in the treacherous terrain, burning them out of their hiding places with searing ame. Tankers also began to emerge from under Mobile Infantry positions in Drop Zone Charlie, collapsing tunnels to drag infantrymen from the surface into the subterranean network. Invasion Company captains across all three zones could no longer dispute the sheer overwhelming enemy presence they now faced. Twenty-six minutes from the rst drop, the command staff came to a decision that was becoming increasingly hard to delay any further. Undeniably, Arachnid resistance was not just heavier in terms of numbers and troop strength than expected but they were acting with alarming co-ordination and an uncanny knack for exploiting tactical conditions on the ground before the Mobile Infantry were even aware of them. With no end to Arachnid reinforcements in sight, the Invasion Companies could not conceivably survive as a ghting force for much longer. With a heavy heart, Sky Marshal Dienes now ordered the General Retreat. It was too little, too late on the ground, many company commanders found that whatever the Sky Marshals orders might be, there was no way to implement them and no way back to the landing boats. The Arachnids had encircled them, cut them off, outwitted and outfought them. The complete destruction of Sky Marshal Dienes grand war machine had come.
and scuttling down canyon walls easily overran isolated pockets of troopers. Up to this point, Drop Zone Charlie had suffered the least of the three regions as the Invasion Companies took advantage of more favourable terrain to set up kill zones. An entire ood of warrior bug reinforcements was abruptly cut off when a bughunter talent located one of the major tunnel routes they were using and Kleiners Jackals platoon used demolition charges to collapse it, killing dozens of aliens below and stalling the endless tide. However, even as the Arachnid tunnelling assault faltered, the skies began to ll with the itting forms of hoppers and soon swarms of the ying bugs had been sighted in all three drop zones, mainly harrying power suit and Marauder platoons on the bounce to force the veterans to stay on the ground. Even with the third wave of troopers, the mounting death toll was daunting. The primary invasion force of over three hundred thousand troopers had been transported from orbit directly into contested regions within twenty minutes, which would have been an astounding validation of the Sky Marshals planning had not those men been suffering casualties at an equally extraordinary rate. From just this initial assault some Invasion Companies had been reduced to half strength or worse, mostly in Drop Zones Alpha and Bravo, while power suit and Marauder
11
General Retreat
GENERAL RETREAT
Even as the Mobile Infantry on Klendathu began the desperate struggle back to their landing boats, the battered Fleet was also suffering heavy losses. With burning plasma still being red from the planetary surface, over a dozen capital ships had already been completely destroyed. A signicant 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 res and failing systems under control but as long as the Fleet remained in low orbit, they were merely delaying the inevitable.
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 plasma. A number of captains did hold their ground rather than desert the Mobile Infantry below but after the Copenhagen and Iwo Jima were reduced to slag, only the bravest and most foolhardy continued to hold orbit. The last of the Vikings were already departing the surface, loaded with demoralised Invasion Company troopers. The speed of their evacuation was down to the later deployment of the
YOUNG PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE GLOBE ARE JOINING UP TO FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE. THEY ARE DOING THEIR PART ARE YOU? JOIN THE MOBILE INFANTRY AND SAVE THE WORLD. SERVICE GUARANTEES CITIZENSHIP.
12
A New Strategy
A NEW STRATEGY
The lessons of the Klendathu Invasion were apparent
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. 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 ofcers. 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 guessed. 9 The assumption that Arachnids possessed no communications jamming capability had been proved false though whether this was down to a new species of bug or unique atmospherics on Klendathu has yet to be ascertained. 9 There had been those in SICON that had suspected the Arachnids were capable of using their antennae to track communications transmissions. After Klendathu, few doubted it. 9 The utilisation of the light armour troopers as a strategicbased infantry force was possibly the single greatest error in terms of loss of life. In addition, the lack of equipment and training proved telling when battle began. 9 The use of plasma bugs gave the Arachnids a formidable anti-orbital response, fully capable of breaking up a eet in tight formation. 9 Standard orbital bombardment was useful for temporary suppression but could full no denite strategic purpose. 9 With a total of nearly two hundred thousand dead and very few wounded from the invasion attempt, it was clear that Arachnids did not take prisoners. 9 Arachnids may be bugs but they were much smarter than anyone had given them credit for. The tactical and strategic co-ordination of the Arachnids could easily put even experienced Mobile Infantry commanders on the back foot.
13
A New Strategy
creature to study, SICON could surely learn a lot more about the Arachnids and so develop effective counters that would prove decisive. It was Sky Marshal Marus intention to completely disband the Invasion Companies after the rst 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.
the Fleet and Mobile Infantry would be recalled to Federation space, abandoning the countless staging posts constructed during the Road to Victory. Only then would they begin to take the offensive to the Arachnids once more. More importantly, they would only attack Arachnid-held territory one or two systems at a time, ensuring the infestation had been completely wiped out before moving onto the next. The Road to Victory would be set among the stars once more but this would be a slow and methodical process rather than the blazing trail it had once been under Sky Marshal Dienes. This policy would effectively lock Mankind into a struggle against the Arachnids for many years but would also serve to expand the Federation, system by system. As more worlds came under human control, the Federation would grow and gain more resources. With each newly commissioned colony world, the SICON military would become a little stronger. In return, the forces of the Arachnids would slowly diminish. In the end, it was believed, this new battle plan would not only ensure Mankinds survival against the Arachnids but also guarantee his ascendance throughout the entire galaxy. That, at least, was something many in the Mobile Infantry felt was worth ghting for.
14
Invasion Companies
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 Mankinds 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 conict. 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 were concerned) and yet achieving success so quickly. The Arachnids had already proven resilient to orbital bombardment on many worlds, simply digging under the planets crust until troopers were sent down to gauge the success of the pounding, and then attacking in strength. Clearly, it would be the Mobile Infantry that would bear the brunt of the invasion, not the Fleet, and in order to succeed as Dienes planned, they would have to be present in massive numbers. This would be a problem. While the Mobile infantrys ofcial strength was something in the region of eight million troopers, Dienes would have far less than this to use in any major engagement. Many within this number would still be taking part in training, some would be rotated back to Federation space on leave or reinforcement duties, while others were already actively engaged in battle against Arachnids and other alien races elsewhere in the galaxy. Most were garrisoning planets on the Road to Victory that either still had an Arachnid presence or had recently come under renewed attack from the bugs. It was readily clear that the Sky Marshal needed a wholly new force of troopers, freshly recruited and trained for the invasion. He would be able to use a large number of veterans from previous engagements but the core of his force would be this new army. Knowing that it takes a large investment in both time and money to train each trooper, Dienes looked to the militia of far ung colony worlds for inspiration. 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 riemen, 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. Ofcially, they would be Mobile Infantry but they would not be equipped with power suits, nor would they be trained in 90% of the equipment that cap troopers were expected to use. Simply taking the use of power suits out of the new troopers would create massive savings in resources and shorten training time exponentially. Furthermore, by using Viking drop boats and similar craft, time could also be saved by eliminating the costly drop capsule training that gives cap troopers their name. This new breed of trooper would be well trained with a rie and his instincts honed to act within a unit, rather than be as independently minded as the average cap trooper. Training camps could achieve an incredible throughput of recruits in record time, allowing the new Invasion Companies to swell in size during the Road to Victory. By equipping these troopers with little more than a Morita rie and ak armour, the equipping of new light armour platoons, as they were to be called, matched the rate at which they could be trained. As well as providing for large numbers of Invasion Companies, this also allowed each formation to increase in size. A light armour platoon at full strength would be somewhat more numerous than the equivalent platoon of power suited cap troopers.
15
Invasion Companies
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 repower into specic 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 as 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 rst succeeded in capturing a live brain bug, a task cap troopers had been unable to achieve since the start of the Road to Victory.
16
Officers
In the MI Army List, only NCOs, Lieutenants and SICON Military Intelligence Agents are considered to be ofcers.
a Mobile Infantry army in a 2,000 point battle may eld 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. Units often have various options you may choose to take, such as adding extra models or equipping them with special weapons and equipment. These options will all increase the total points value of the unit. Light armour platoons use all the rules detailed in the MI Army List, found on pages 68-71 of the main rulebook. The one exception is the use of Emplacement Assets. Light armour platoons tend to be very well supported at a strategic level and can count on a great number of emplacements when forced onto the defensive. A light armour platoon may choose to use double the number of Emplacement Assets found on page 71 of the main rulebook. A light armour platoon may therefore choose to use 0-8 Reliant Emplacements, 0-8 Ammo Dumps and 0-4 Bunkers.
17
1 per platoon
70 points
You must include one Light Armour Lieutenant in your Light Armour platoon.
Weapons/Equipment: A Light Armour Lieutenant is equipped with a TW-203-a Morita Assault Rie 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 Ries lose their Auto trait.
Options
A Light Armour Lieutenant may purchase the following options: 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
NCOs
Light Armour NCO
Type Light Armour NCO Value 55 Size 1 Move 4
02 per platoon
55 points
Your Light Armour platoon may include up to two Light Armour NCOs. Close Combat D61 Target 3+ Save 6+/6+ Kill 5+ Traits Independent
Weapons/Equipment: A Light Armour NCO is equipped with a TW-203-a Morita Assault Rie with XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Only the M-290 Flechette Grenade may be used with the underslung G/L.
Special Rules
Light Armour NCOs are subject to the following special rules. Condensed Training: All TW-203-a Morita Assault Ries lose their Auto trait.
Options
Light Armour NCOs may purchase the following options: 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
18
Unit Size: Every Light Armour squad consists of one Sergeant (unit leader) and seven Light Armour troopers. Weapons/Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rie and XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Only the M-290 Flechette Grenade may be used with the underslung G/L.
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 Rie and XW-110-G1 underslung G/L with any of the weapons listed below.
Special Rules
Light Armour squads are subject to the following special rules: Condensed Training: All TW-203-a Morita Assault Ries lose their Auto trait. Split Firing: A Light Armour squad containing only a sergeant may not split re. A Light Armour squad containing both a Sergeant and a Corporal may split re into two re zones. An ofcer joining a light armour squad allows the creation of an extra re zone.
9 9
TW-201-l Morita Sniper Rie and XW-110-G1 underslung G/L (with M-290 Flechette only) for +5 points. SW-401 Longbow Missile Launcher for +35 points.
19
FedNet Reporter
Type FedNet Reporter Value 30 Size 1 Move 4 Close Combat D62 Target 3+ Save 6+ Kill 5+ Traits
Weapons/Equipment: None.
Special Rules
FedNet Reporters are subject to the following special rules: Hes 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 lm. 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 lm. This has the sometimes side effect of causing troopers to act for the camera, causing them to ght with a bravado that might not normally exist. So long as the Reporter is still alive, any model in the unit can opt not to inch.
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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 full the Atomic Protocols requirement.
21
Any SW-401 Longbow Missile Launchers can be given M-781A1 Falcon AA Missiles.
01 model per platoon may be equipped with an M-998A1 Atomic Pee-Wee munition (only if model with Atomic Protocols is in platoon).
M-908P Plasma Munition M-781A1 Falcon Missiles M-998A1 Atomic Pee-Wee Munition
Any SW-401 Longbow Missile Launchers can be given M-781A1 Falcon AA Missiles.
03 models per platoon may be equipped with an M-998A1 Atomic Pee-Wee munition (only if model with Atomic Protocols is in platoon).
Qualities or Training
up to +25 points
01 model (may not be an ofcer) per platoon may purchase up to 25 points worth of Qualities or Training heroic traits.
Any SW-401 Longbow Missile Launchers can be given M-781A1 Falcon AA Missiles.
Any number of models may be equipped with an M-998A1 Atomic Pee-Wee munition (only if model with Atomic Protocols is in platoon).
Qualities or Training
up to +25 points
01 model (may not be an ofcer) per squad may purchase up to 25 points worth of Qualities or Training heroic traits.
22
Platoon Armoury
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 re 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 SICON that dedicated Rapiers, while having their place, did not grant the versatility to individual squads required when facing an Arachnid swarm of multiple species. The Falcon was designed to be a smaller warhead that could be used in a standard Javelin or Longbow with minimal extra training. Though it lacks the guidance capabilities and hard punch of the Rapiers Birdbolt warhead, the Falcon can still provide a squad with a measure of anti-aircraft cover. Power Suit platoons may equip a Javelin armed model with Falcon warheads in addition to the normal Firecracker and Holepunch warheads at a cost +20 points, at any Priority Level.
*Note that the Condensed Training special rule causes the loss of this ability.
23
Platoon Armoury
24
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 battleground and then pounce on troopers who ventured too close. This was dangerous enough to a trooper on patrol but if it happened while he was engaged in direct battle, it could spell disaster for his entire squad. An Arachnid player may buy 01 ambushing warrior bugs at Priority Level One, 02 at Priority Level Two and 05 at Priority Level Three. Each ambushing warrior bug costs 25 points. Ambushing warrior bugs never use the Workers & Warriors or Endless Tide special rules. Before the start of the game, the Arachnid player may select one terrain piece for each ambushing warrior bug he possesses that is not in the enemys deployment zone. He should note where each Ambushing Warrior Bug is hiding. An ambushing warrior bug may be revealed at any time (even after the opposing player has just completed an action) by placing it anywhere in contact with the nominated terrain piece. It is always considered to be out of command unless it is able to join a swarm, using the normal rules. Under normal circumstances, therefore, an ambushing warrior bug may only make Alert Status reactions it cannot take full actions itself unless part of a swarm. Note that if an ambushing warrior bug is placed after an opponent completes an action, it does not get an Alert Status reaction if within 10 of the activated models it only gets to react to actions taken within 10 of it after it has been revealed.
ARACHNID CAVE-INS
It soon became clear that Klendathu was riddled with a network of tunnel systems that not only allowed the Arachnids to withstand any bombardment but also permitted them to move at great speed under the surface of the planet in order to reinforce areas under attack. As the invasion began to grow in pace, many in the Mobile Infantry realised that the Arachnids were adept at tunnelling extremely close to the surface so that any heavy movement could bring small sections of otherwise stable ground crashing down into the tunnel system. Though this rarely caught more than a single trooper out at a time, the fate of one man in an Arachnid tunnel was inevitably short and this had the effect of panicking units and turning entire regions into no-go areas. Cave-ins are purchased as Tunnel Assets. 01 may be bought at Priority Level Two and 03 at Priority Level Three. Each Cavein costs 25 points and may only be used once. For each Cave-in purchased, the Arachnid player may choose one enemy unit that has at least one model within 12 of any Tunnel Asset at the start of any one of his turns (if a Camouaged Tunnel Entrance is used for this, it is revealed). One dice should be rolled for every model in the unit. On the roll of a 6, the
25
Klendathu Invasion!
A rare success a Light Armour squad earns their stripes by capturing one of the fabled brain bugs.
Keep lming! A FedNet reporter captures the opening moments of the invasion, even as the bugs close in.
26
Klendathu Invasion!
Battle Stations: Light Armour troopers rush to join the fray as the bugs attack.
27
Klendathu Invasion!
The MI are forced on to the back foot as the Arachnids attack their hastily constructed eld base.
28
Klendathu Invasion!
Invasion! The Arachnids surge forwards in numbers to greet the rst wave of Invasion Companies.
29
Fighting on Klendathu
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 ght before being overrun? Perhaps they recovered from the initial onslaught quickly and managed to ght their way back to a retrieval boat. Or maybe they are still on Klendathu, ghting a hopeless war avoiding constant Arachnid swarms, knowing they will never be rescued. The following rules and scenarios will allow you to create an entire Mobile Infantry company and then, using your tactical wits, ght the Klendathu Invasion from their perspective. 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.
30
Fighting on Klendathu
Capsule, hundreds of companies are taking their rst steps on this alien world to discover they have a real ght 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
1 per platoon
Special
You are free to use a lieutenant or even NCO to lead your Mobile Infantry company, representing a formation that has its commanding ofcer(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
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 ofcer for purposes of selecting the army (so, in a power suit Platoon, a Mobile Infantry Captain would entitle you to 02 power suit Squads, in a Light Armour Platoon the Captain would require 13 Light Armour Squads and so on).
Weapons
Light Armour Captain: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rie with XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Only the M-290 Flechette Grenade may be used with the underslung G/L. Power Suit Captain: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rie with XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Marauder Captain: IW-203-a Morita Ape Special, IW-422 Hellseed Y-Rack, MW-206 Derringer Light Rotary Cannon, MW-209 Trip Hammer Mortar.
Options
Go Career: The Captain may be bought heroic traits up to a total value of +150 points. Light Armour and power suit Captains: Lizard Line may be purchased for +5 points, WASP Pack for +10 points. Light Armour and power suit Captains: M-902F Frag Grenades may be purchased for +5 points, CC-176-ER Shock Stick for +5 points, one M-908P Plasma Munition for +20 points. The XW-110-G1 underslung G/L may be replaced with an XW-137-A3 Trench Sweeper Laser for +10 points. Marauder Captains: A Lizard Line may be purchased for +10 points. A Marauder Captain may be placed inside an M9 Chickenhawk Marauder suit for no extra points cost. He gains all the special rules and weapon options listed on page 80 of the main rulebook.
Special Rules
Command Abilities: All Mobile Infantry Captains gain all the special command abilities of lieutenants (such as the special Lieutenant Only actions), as described on page 69 of the main rulebook. Mobile Infantry Captains are ofcers. Marauder Captains: Marauder Captains gain the Autoloaders and Lock and Load special rules described on page 79 of the main rulebook.
31
Fighting on Klendathu
32
Fighting on Klendathu
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 sacrice 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 t 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 eld enough units to make up the points total of the next scenario. In this case, the Mobile Infantry must ght on as normal but with a reduced force! If the Mobile Infantry is unable to eld any units, they automatically lose the entire campaign they have been wiped out! If the Mobile Infantry player is reduced to 500 points or less he can choose to concede the campaign to the Arachnid player, assuming his troopers have been hopelessly scattered by the last conict. The Priority Level of all Mobile Infantry forces is three, regardless of which units are actually being used in a scenario. The Priority Level of the Arachnid forces are determined in the individual scenarios. Neither side uses the tactics described in the Engagements chapter of the main rulebook, as the special rules of each scenario replace these. The layout of the battleeld and deployment zones for each side is shown in the map for each scenario.
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 may nd 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 one trooper. When elding under-strength units, add together the value of all remaining members, plus any options taken to calculate the units cost (that is, you do not have to pay the units full original cost once it becomes depleted!). Any model promoted to become a unit leader during a battle retains this status between ghts. If a unit has no unit leader at the end of a battle, you may choose one of the unit members to become its leader automatically. Such unit leaders will have the rank of acting corporal but gain no other benets other than being the unit leader.
Veterans
Though the Mobile Infantry must contend with losses as the campaign goes on, you will have a chance to improve the abilities of individuals within your company as time passes by giving them heroic traits. Every time you ght a battle, you may give one surviving model a free trait, subject to the rules below. The maximum points cost of this trait is the points total of the battle divided by 50 (rounding down). So, for example, if you fought a 1,500 point battle, you may award one trooper a 30 point trait. This trait does not, however, add to the models individual points cost, nor are you in any way limited in the maximum number of traits you can give to any one single model this is a free bonus!
33
Fighting on Klendathu
If you win a battle, you may instead award a free trait to one model in every unit that survived the ght, 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! 9 A 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. . .). 9 A model in a Marauder suit may not take traits normally denied to it. 9 The following units never earn traits: CHAS, TAC Fighter, Slingshot, Skyhook, Viking, missiles.
ARACHNIDS
Arachnids never mark down casualties, nor do they gain veterans. However, the Arachnid player effectively gets a new army during every scenario and will never run out of units. As the Arachnid player, it is your role to crush the Mobile Infantry and ensure they never leave Klendathu. You are heedless of casualties as you do this and even brain bugs are ten-a-penny on your homeworld!
34
Scenarios
SCENARIOS
The following scenarios are to be used in the Klendathu Invasion campaign as you follow your companys 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 specic objectives in a battle. Simply set a points value between yourself and your opponent, choose a scenario and begin playing!
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 rst turn.
Arachnids Brieng
Having monitored their progress while gathering in orbit, you are well aware of the rst wave of Mobile Infantry drops and your hordes are waiting. Hit them hard and disrupt their formations give them no time to recover.
BEACHHEAD
The Mobile Infantry commences the invasion with its rst 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.
9 You may select a force of any Priority Level. 9 You deploy rst 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 ve 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 gain the full value of every enemy unit reduced below half strength. Both sides gain double the value of every enemy unit wiped out. If the MI have more mission points than the Arachnids, they gain a minor victory. If they win by more than 1,000 points, they gain a major victory. Either way, the Create Perimeter scenario is played next. If the Arachnids have more mission points than the MI, they gain a minor victory. If they win by more than 1,000 points, they gain a major victory. Either way, the Escape scenario is played next.
35
Scenarios
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.
attacks without interrupting the main slaughter going on in the landing zones. Mop these troopers up and nal victory will surely be yours.
9 You deploy your tunnel entrances, nest entrances and bug central rst. 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 victory conditions are met.
9 You deploy your force after the Arachnid player has placed all of his tunnel entrances, nests and bug central. 9 You take the rst turn.
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
Arachnids Brieng
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
36
Scenarios
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.
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 Infantrys 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.
9 You deploy rst. 9 You may choose to take the rst or second turn.
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.
Arachnids Brieng
A few Mobile Infantry groups managed to land successfully now is the time to launch your full weight of numbers against them.
37
Scenarios
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.
9 You deploy after the Mobile Infantry. 9 You may not choose the Endless Tide option for any of your units the MI are eeing 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 either 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.
9 You must choose to use at least 2,000 points in this battle. 9 You may not use any eet assets. 9 You deploy rst and take the rst turn.
Arachnids Brieng
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.
38
Scenarios
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.
Arachnids Brieng
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 Infantrys long table edge.
Scenario Length
The battle will continue until the victory conditions have been met.
Victory Conditions
The Mobile Infantry gain victory if they can move at least 1,000 points of models off of the Arachnids 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.
39
Scenarios
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.
9 You may choose any Priority Level. 9 You have twice as many points to spend on your force as the Mobile Infantry player. 9 You may not choose any tunnel assets as you have not had time to prepare a functioning tunnel network. 9 You may choose two units to move onto the table from any edge in the rst turn. 9 At the start of your second turn, roll one die for every unit 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. 9 At the start of your third turn, any units that have not yet moved on to the table are brought in from a random table edge. 9 You take the rst turn.
Scenario Length
The battle will continue for seven turns or until the Mobile Infantry have been completely wiped out.
Arachnids Brieng
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!
Victory Conditions
The Arachnids gain victory if 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.
40
Scenarios
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.
Arachnids Brieng
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 value if it leaves the short table edge of Deployment Zone Bravo above half strength, or double if it has been reduced to less than half strength when it leaves.
41
Scenarios
RETRIEVAL
A small number of Mobile Infantry companies managed to ght 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.
Arachnids Brieng
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. 9 You take the rst turn.
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 an 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.
42
Scenarios
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.
Arachnids Brieng
All over the Mobile Infantry landing zones, your forces reign supreme. Human bodies lie everywhere and their smashed equipment burns ercely. One company lies ahead, having managed to regroup sufciently to mount a defence. 9 You may select a force of any Priority Level, regardless of the points set by the Mobile Infantry player. 9 You must select the Endless Tide option for warrior bugs. 9 You may not deploy any tunnel assets in the Mobile Infantrys deployment zone. 9 None of your models start on the table. Your whole army moves on from your table edge in the rst turn. 9 You have the rst turn.
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.
43
Scenarios
but, in truth, you are going to need a lot of reinforcements to get back up to full strength. You just pray that SICON does not throw you back at the bugs until you are ready. Hopefully, they will have a better plan this time.
44
Heroes of Klendathu
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 Arachnids homeworld but a few, at least, managed to escape and ght the alien menace on other battleelds. Listed here are a few of the more famous (and infamous) units that took part in the Klendathu Invasion 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 rst Light Armour units to be classied 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 Lieutenants 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 Drakes Bay. They were the poster children
RAZAKS ROUGHNECKS
Ofcially retired but a fully qualied 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
Lieutenant Razak
Unique Character
195 points
If you wish to eld the Roughnecks as a Light Armour platoon, you may choose to use Lieutenant Razak as detailed here instead of a normal Lieutenant. Aa a Unique Character, a Mobile Infantry army may only ever include one Lieutenant Razak.
Lieutenant Razak
Type Lieutenant Razak Value 195 Size 1 Move 4 Close Combat D6+1 Target 4+ Save 5+/4+ Kill 6+ Traits Independent
Weapons/Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rie with XW-110-G1 underslung G/L. Only the M-290 Flechette Grenade may be used with the underslung G/L.
Options
Lieutenant Razak may purchase the following options: Weapon Options: M-902F Frag Grenades may be purchased for +5 points.
Special Rules
Lieutenant Razak is subject to the following special rules. Atomic Protocols: Lieutenant Razak fulls the requirement for Atomic Protocols. Cyborg: Lieutenant Razak has a mechanical arm, giving him a +1 bonus to his armour save (already factored into the save above). Heroic Traits: Lieutenant Razak has the Dirty Fighter, Heroic Surge!, Rallying Cry, Sniper, and True Grit heroic traits. Strong Leader: Lieutenant Razaks command range extends to 12.
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Heroes of Klendathu
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 Marus appointment. Maru resolved to ght, not just on Klendathu itself but the other worlds of the Klendathu system and the Roughnecks were duly tasked with Whiskey Outpost, on Planet P. It was here that the now legendary Razak nally succumbed to the Arachnid enemy a tanker bug tunnelling under the outpost collapsed much of the outposts 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 rst brain bug, thus achieving one of Marus main objectives for the campaign. The platoon then went through a succession of ofcers 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 with supporting the 121st Invasion Company. Halting bug swarms as the light armour troopers deployed, the Sabres then protected their anks as nearby plasma bug positions were attacked. Even though atomics were deployed during these strikes, the Arachnids recovered with incredible speed and soon even Jefferson found herself in the middle of a pitched battle as swarms of warrior bugs surged forward over the bodies of their slain comrades. The plasma bugs were destroyed but the 121st were rapidly hurled back from their newly gained positions and Jefferson was faced with the very real possibility of the bugs simply reinforcing the area with yet more plasma bugs emerging from tunnels. The Sabres own M9 Marauder squads were able to create a stable rebase to which the 121st could rally as, one by one, their squads broke and ed under the Arachnid onslaught. Though the Chickenhawks Blizzard rocket packs were soon depleted, sustained re from their other weapons stalled the advance of the warrior bugs. The Sabres and their light infantry counterparts could certainly not make any further advances but they had at least prevented the bugs from re-deploying plasma bugs to these vital positions. As the entire Mobile Infantry formation was now concentrated in a small area near the Vikings, the troopers were well positioned when the order for General Retreat was issued. As the 121st boarded their landing boats for the trip back into orbit, the Sabres formed a ring of steel around them, utilising the mobility
of their jump jets to keep the approaching Arachnids off balance and hitting the aliens whenever they began to mass in greater numbers. Only a handful of Sabres lost their lives in this action and the rest were able to withdraw and board their own craft when the light armour troopers began to take off. Their departure, too, was greatly aided by the lack of plasma bugs in the area, something for which many nearby formations were equally thankful. Their stern defence of the Invasion Company during retreat earned Jefferson and eight of her troopers records of Meritous Service.
Lieutenant Mark Kowalski had already earned seven commendations for Meritorious Service during the Road to Victory on Klendathu, he would earn greater awards. With distinctive red ashes painted around the cockpits of their Marauders, the Cutthroats were immediately recognisable as they dropped outside of the main landing zones to assist in the perimeter building of the light armour platoons, before being scheduled to move outwards in a series of hunt and sweeps. That, at least, was the plan. Intense re from plasma bugs brought down many of the Viking landing boats carrying the light armour troopers, leaving the rendezvous point woefully undermanned. The plasma re also had the effect of badly
KOWALSKIS CUTTHROATS
46
Heroes of Klendathu
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 re 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 re 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. boot camp. To their credit, they managed to hold the company together where others might have turned and ed 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 nal 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 ofcer 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 ofcers, many grudgingly gave Blackburn her dues and noted her bravery.
THE PATHFINDERS
Trained and equipped to be the elite of the Mobile Infantry, the rst Pathnder Company was ofcially 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 Pathnders to be the real heroes of the invasion, the Mobil Infantrys shiny new poster boys and SICON certainly made great use of FedNet in introducing this new type of trooper to the Federation. For all this, and despite the best intelligence being made available to them, comms were lost with this advanced company less than six minutes after landing. As with so much of the Klendathu invasion, the Pathnders initial mission proved to be a failure, though the role has not been abandoned. Several new Pathnder companies have been inaugurated and new equipment has recently been designed specically for such reconnaissance missions, while several new training regimes have been implemented in light of the lessons learned during the failed invasion of Klendathu. The Pathnders remain ready to prove their worth on battleelds across the Federation, wherever the Arachnids might strike.
BLACKBURNS RAIDERS
While it is relatively common for individual platoons to adopt an unofcial tag, perhaps for use a call sign or shorthand between troopers, it is rarer for larger formations to do so. The Raiders, though, is actually the nickname given to a full company the company led by Captain Elizabeth Blackburn, one of the ofcers who enjoyed a fast track progression to ofcer rank following intensive SICON psychological screening and proling. Though many serving cap troopers begrudge the presence of ofcers who have not proven themselves in the ranks before leading men into battle, the rapidly growing Invasion Companies required a huge number of ofcers to lead them more in fact than the Mobile Infantry could easily supply. Even after many retired ofcers had been called back to service there was still a substantial decit, one that Sky Marshal Dienes chose to ll with the best and the brightest light armour troopers he could nd. While there is little doubt that the Raiders, like any company, might have been beneted from an experienced ofcer, few can say that the company did not ght to the best of their abilities. One of the rst companies to touch down in the rst wave, Blackburn successfully engaged the Arachnid swarms rushing to meet the landings and even created a stable perimeter as more Vikings landed. It was when a plasma bug diverted its anti-orbital attacks to the Raiders dug-in positions that disaster loomed. The rst strike vaporised Blackburn and her lieutenants, leaving the entire company in the hands of its sergeants, men and women who had earned their position by becoming squad leaders in
47
FedNet Reporter
Type FedNet Reporter Value 30 Size 1 Move 4 Close Combat D62 Target 3+ Save 6+ Kill 5+ Traits
Lieutenant Razak
Type Lieutenant Razak Value 195 Size 1 Move 4 Close Combat D6+1 Target 4+ Save 5+/4+ Kill 6+ Traits Independent
*Note that the Condensed Training special rule causes the loss of this ability.
48
The homeworld of the Arachnid menace has been located and the Mobile Infantry has been moved into position to strike are you ready to join the greatest battle Mankind has ever initiated? For months, the Road to Victory has lead the Mobile Infantry across the galaxy to the ultimate confrontation between Man and Arachnid. This is a battle of the species on the desolate world of Klendathu, the culmination of every skirmish and campaign yet fought in a hundred systems. Three hundred thousand Troopers stand ready to drop, dedicated to defend the human race with their own lives. Within an hour, a third of them will be dead. In less than a day, the Mobile Infantry will have retreated light years back to its own territory and Earth will face a crisis greater than it has ever known. The very survival of Mankind will suddenly be in doubt. Klendathu Invasion is the largest combined Fleet and Mobile Infantry operation of the Arachnid War to date.
Within These Covers: Invasion: The story of Starship Troopers continues, from the initial preparations for invasion to the final retreat. Army Lists: The Mobile Infantry gains the use of the huge Invasion Companies, while the Arachnids fight back with cunning traps and tunnel systems. Fighting on Klendathu: Determine the fate of your own Mobile Infantry company during the invasion in a complete campaign.