So my Starship Troopers are roughly ready for battle, this is the first of a planned series of battles to find a suitable NetEA list to use to count as, . . .

Starship Troopers counts as Raven Guard (2015 05 11), 3000 points
39 Troopers on the ground so rather under strength as a Heinlein platoon.

4 Tacticals, Drop Pods [200]
4 Tacticals, Drop Pods [200]
4 Tacticals, Drop Pods [200]
4 Tacticals, Drop Pods [200]
4 Tacticals, Drop Pods [200]

4 Sternguard Veterans + Chaplain (Section Ldr), Ambush [350],
ideas was to arrive Turn 3 as a BTS reserve.

5 Landspeeders + Supreme Commander (Lieutentant), Planetfall [325]
5 Landspeeders + Captain (Sgt), Planetfall [275]
5 Landspeeders + Chaplain (Section Ldr), Planetfall [275]

Rodger Young (counts as Strike Cruiser) [200]
Landing Craft (counts as Thunderhawk) [200]
Landing Craft (counts as Thunderhawk) [200]

2 TAC Fighters (count as Thunderbolts) [175]

Heinlein rather than the movie. So “shoulder to shoulder” is 200 m apart, hence individual figures on each stand.
Rodger Young, Landing Craft, TAC Fighters all home-made (6 mm mdf and a laser cutter), and all movie inspired.
Rodger Young still a work in progress, just slapped an undercoat on, probably will just heavy highlight the battleship grey.


Troopers from Brigade Miniatures, Powered Armour. Base flocking one day.






Tyranids, in photo (in a cave on the wall)


Dominatrix (not the actual model, currently missing in action), 2 teeth and claws, Biovores
4 Swarms with Hive Tyrants
2 Hadrians with Gargoyles
Biovore group
Genestealers
Lictors



Deployment

Went for corner deployment. Only two T&H objectives and a Blitz marker on the board for the Starship Troopers!
Blitz marker deployed in the far right corner.


Bug Blitz top left, other objectives spread across centre-line. Bugs deploy around corner.


Turn 1, Starship Troopers win initiative

S1 Rodger Young carries out a planetary bombardment, hit two formations, killed a little.
Five formations drop pod in and three more planetfall . Laid 10 blast markers.

Extra orbital view of Rodger Young.


Tacs up close and personal. Death wind counts as suppression aids.


Right flank drops diverted away from Genestealer scout screen.


S2 Supreme Commander (Lieutenant!) group, Chaplain’s (Section Ldr) group and one Tactical combine to assault and
wipe out the Genestealers. Perhaps a little overkill, but effective.
B1 Assaulted one 4 tactical trooper formation and . . . lost!!?



B2 Right flank attacked 4 tactical trooper formation and wiped them out.
S3 Tacticals doubled back from drop position into a wood and killed 2 Biovores.


B3 Marshall and moved forward to occupy space vacated by S3.
B4 Dominatrix shot and killed all of S3 formation.
S4 Failed to activate, including re-roll. Forgot to write down what(!!), . . . target of B5?
B5 Hadrian assaulted with supporting fire from swarm. Wiped Tacs out.


S5 Gunship kills Hive Tyrant with AT fire, and saves against AA.


B6 Failed to active swarm.
S6 Scouts (counts as Land Speeders) kill Hive Tyrant and some others.


B7 Hadrian . . . does something.
S7 Gunship attack run. Forgot to pick up troops at any stage during the game. Original plan was to pick some up for useful air assaults later.
S8 Tacticals shoot.
S9 TAC fighters conduct attack run, survive (MW) AA. Can you see them - camo, . . . ?


End of Turn 1. Next orbital pass by Rodger Young, . . .



Turn 2

Lictors Teleport in.


S1 Captain’s Scouts assault and break Lictors.
S2 Central Tacs sustain fire at Hadrian.
B1 Assaults Tacs in wood and wipes them out.


B2 Hadrian assaults and wipes out Captain’s Scouts.


S3 Chaplain’s Scouts assault Lictors, wiped out since already broken.


B3 Dominatrix (one of those is a counts as Dom) formation moves forward and crossfire shoots and breaks Tacs.


B4 Tyrants swarms doubles.
S4 Supreme Commander’s Scouts assault and win, Hive Tyrant absorbs swarm.


B5 Synapse-less swarm moves back to cover the Blitz (Sternguard Ambush?).
S5 Gunship attack run.
B6 Hadrian kills scout.
S6 Gunship and S7 Fighters between them manage to kill a gargoyle unit.


S8 Tac fail to recover, didn’t break Hadrians.

Most recover and many remove all blast markers.

Turn 3

S1 Gunship attack run shoots at Hadrian.
S2 Gunship LANDS and shoots Hadrian breaking it, and it flees forward. Landed to contest objectives.


B1 Synapse-less swarm sits on Blitz.
S3 Fighters ground attack and kill another Hive Tyrant. Glory to the fly-boys.


B2 Second Synapse-less swarm assaults Gunship and kills it with a critical hit.


S4 Chaplains Scouts shoot Hadrian, just causing a BM.


B3 Hadrian assaults the Chaplain’s formation in reply, and loses.

S5 Tac crossfire Dominatrix formation.
B4 Swarm assaults Tacs S5. Hive Mind Presence detected over battlefield.


B5 Dominatrix moves to shoot Supreme’s Scouts and breaks them.
S6 Tacs shoot gargoyles.
S7 Sternguard ‘Ambush’ onto Starship Trooper’s Blitz.

One Synapse swarm rallys. One Hadrian rallys on Starship Troopers side of battlefield. No winner, on to Turn 4.



Turn 4

Terran Federation have 10 cap troopers left on the table. But still win initiative.

S1 Chaplain’s Scouts assault Synapse-less swarm, win (amaze!!) and consolidate to claim two left flank objectives.
S2 Fighters conduct an attack run.


B1 Dominatrix move and shoot Tacs, breaking them. Over on the left (counts as).


S3 Gunships lands and shooting breaks Hadrian.


B2 Blitz synapse-less swarm marches forward.
S4 Sternguard assaults Dominatrix formation and breaks them.
B3 Fails an activation and moves forward.


S5 Supreme Commander’s formation shoot.

Dominatrix uses supreme re-roll to rally. Orbital Recon view.


Starship Troopers have T&H so only 1 – 0. So on to points.
Finally worked out what the do not count on Tie-Break means for the Tyranids.

Starship Troopers score 1690 points, Tyranids account for 1875. Win to Bugs.

Just seven cap troopers survivors left: Lieutenant, Sgt, Section Ldr, 2 troopers from the Cmdr’s formation and 2 others.
Over 80% casualties. Surviving Landing Ship picks up the surviviors and leaves the Klendathu to the bugs.


Orbital overview of the battle field.


Landing boat rendezvous with Rodger Young.



Review Thoughts

Small tactical formations proved too vulnerable.
I am not keen to take them with Rhinos since that moves against the Starship Trooper theme.
Just could not get enough units onto objectives to claim a win.
Really not enough fire power to deal with war-engines or many armoured vehicles really.
A Heinlein cap trooper should be able to take on a squadron of tanks, . . .
Counts as Land Speeder was a useful device for cap troopers, on the bounce, but hard to get them into cover.

Hi!

Wow, awesome!

Primarch

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Primarch


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Great army! Love the theme! :-)

Have you considered Deathwing as a counts-as army list? Terminators would be a lot tougher for representing MI, and teleporting in would represent high-altitude drops.

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What this man said. It feels odd to have a single tac marine per stand but a single termie per stand would fly a lot better in terms of stats.

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Ya, that's a awesome theme. Great pics and thanks for the report.

In terms of the list, I would have thrown the characters into the Tac formations before the Speeders and relied on the Speeders just for support while the Tacs engaged. Swapping out some of the Tacs for Devs/Assaults would lend you a little more utility too.



RG are going to have issues against heavy WE/AV armies, yes. Crossfire with Speeders and supported assaults are pretty much it as you don't have access to Preds/Land Raiders.

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Suddenly I want to paint up the Rodger Young for my BFG!

Awesomess

PS Might want to try out the SAV list (though it's on dev hiatus atm until Kyuss can finish up the Imperial Fists) as the Assault Rams + Termies might make for a better MI feel.

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We can ill afford another Klendathu.
Awesome report.

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I have certainly thought about Terminators to represent Marauder (and Command) Suits.
And have a list or two sorted out to test the idea. Just not enough game time really.
We certainly discussed teleport as a useful alternate to drop-pod/planetfall/etc for the Capsule Drop.
Hence 'cap'-trooper. I am drifting [no intentional pun] towards treating deployment as the
initial drop. Heinlein has no orbital support options short of nuclear sterilisation.

My main issue remains a lack of mobility once on the ground. The book as a skirmish line of
Troopers moving along at 40 miles per hour across country, 65 km/h, faster than a Rhino.
Also Terminators are rather more close combat oriented than I feel is fluffy. Also how to represent
the occasional Trooper with a 2 kton pee-wee, nuclear tipped warhead. Range 30 cm is not far.
The 4+ Reinforced Armour save is about where I think the armour feels right; big tick there.

You have prompted me to look through the various 325 point Terminator army lists.


Colin, who played the Tyranids, is certainly of the opinion that I should have bigger models for the infantry.
And if I got up to dreadnought size or larger that would look more single terminator like. Tau, broadside, . . .
Would need to build larger drop ships to match the expansion, and am reluctant, . . .



Because I was trying out drop-podding ("death winding"?) into the face of the enemy, I wanted to keep the characters a little safer.
Tacticals on the ground close to CC specialists seemed pretty vulnerable to me, although EA+1 MW attacks is encouraging.
I am a novice with planetfall type assaults and this battle convinced me that slightly bigger units up close and personal (bug-onal) was useful.
Bigger units are better places to put the characters. On to the next battle, . . .

I have fought with some pretty light scale forces over the last year and am used to the problem.
Did try for some crossfire with the Land Speeders but found I was doubling and often shooting into cover.
Crossfire is no use if you don't manage to do any hits. Supported assaults went ok, but again 5+ to hit,
from five stands is not particularly potent. It does leave you with potential threat of support fire coming
back at you, . . . I will have to work on my timing some more.

Next trial was with Hawk Lords, plenty of Assault Marines and Devastators there.


The next encounter produced as many casualties.
I fear the media will cry Klendathu Again.

A lone trooper did secure queen gel from a Hive (Blitz Objective).

You almost need to proxy them as Knights. Don't know how they'd fare without supporting artillery/normal infantry, But the speed, fire power and toughness of the individual units seem most similar. Unfortunately nothing by way of aerospace either...

I have been thinking a little along these lines too. Could pretend that the lance first strike attacks were pre-planted bombs (claymores?).
Lots of different types of "suits" (knights) to select from and various forced options. The fixed AA guns might be ok as Heinlein has heavy weapons squads.

Looking beyond the GW Imperial canon, the Tau Vior'la list might well be the ticket. For 3000 points you can get the following.
No marker-lights but 26 troopers (a Heinlein section of three squads), the Rodger Young and a landing boat.

4 Crisis Suits + Shas'el, 2 Gun Drones
4 Crisis Suits + Shas'el, 2 Gun Drones

3 Riptide Suits + Shas'o, 3 Missile Drones
3 Riptide Suits + Shas'el
3 Riptide Suits + Shas'el
3 Riptide Suits + Shas'el
3 Riptide Suits + Shas'el
3 Riptide Suits + Shas'el

Protector Cruiser
Orca