Umtali Station

This was the big confrontation: Aliens, Predators, Terminators and Colonial Marines all converging in a fight for survival.

The Terminators came on, shot a couple of Aliens, then got swarmed.

The Predators came on cloaked:

 They got themselves into position and opened up on the Aliens:

They took a couple of casualties from the counter charge then the Aliens tried to sneak up on the survivors:

In each case the Predators turned around and slew the creeping Alien.  With their tally of skulls filled, the Predators went back through the Stargate to their day jobs.

The Colonial Marines led with their new power armor suits to establish a bridgehead in the room then set up a crossfire.  The Aliens then flanked part of the line:

While the Queen tried to rush the other flank:

Not realizing the trooper on that side had a flamer:

The following Alien reinforcement roll (boxcars) led to all of the remaining Aliens being on the board in one last rush at the humans:

Most were cut down by flamers:

Smartguns and pulse rifle fire cut down most of the rest.  The following melee went back and forth for several rounds until only the power armor troopers remained to survey the carnage.  The Alien menace was finished.

Game 9 will be a showdown as a team of cloaked Predators (new arrivals from the Stargate):

A set of Terminator robots (the fruit of the stolen laptop plot from a few games back):

and a squad of Marines backed up by Powered Armor (technical specs provided by the Imperium of Man for saving their Ambassadors):

all converge on a pretty open part of the station:

to confront the Alien Queen:

The 8th game had the Grey Aliens and SG-1  trying to reach the control room for the newly discovered Stargate at Umtali.

The Greys didn’t get far before getting caught in a crossfire from Cylons while Aliens closed in:

SG1 cleared a room of Aliens but lost Daniel Jackson:

They then came around the corner to the Gate Room, won initiative from the Cylons and, with one volley from their P90s, took all the Cylons down:

They were able to secure the control room from the Aliens, though they lost Sam and T’ilq.  Jack O’Neil ran to the gate, gunning down Aliens.  The last Alien closed to fight him hand-to-claw:

Jack won and escaped.  There were some new arrivals to Umtali after the Gate reopened, however:

Game 8 sees the opening of the Stargate:

There have already been some visitors to Umtali through the gate:

But there are also some intrepid adventurers on the way to help:

But there are also some rather unpleasant denizens of the area:

The Yakuza start to make their run to the control room:

The Marines split into two teams to cover the side hallways and use a flamer to clear the halls:

Refugees begin moving down the North corridor:

The Marine team on the South corridor needed to cross the main hall to rejoin their comrades.  Would the remote sentry gun cut them down?  They tossed out a tool box to find out:

Aliens coming from the ductwork made things a little touch and go near the exit:

Yakuza download their files into the control room:

In the end, the refugees made it out (mostly), the Centauri Royal Guard died to a man in the corridor, and some strange machinery began to stir in the distance.

Game 7 will feature the survivors of games 5 & 6 making it across this board:

Which is covered in infected:

and has a remote sentry gun covering the main hallway:

and has a crate suspiciously like the one containing aliens from the last game:

But, at least, some “good” aliens (Centauri Royal Guard) have showed up to help:

Also, the Yakuza are on the board, following their own agenda. (picture redacted).

Game 6 saw the Marine survivors from game 5 attempting to get fuel for their vehicles while a plucky group of survivors raided a warehouse to get food.

The Marines made immediate contact with the infected and started to send fire teams down each corridor to establish a cordon:

In their haste, they went right by an unsecured door on the other side:

That situation was saved by the judicious use of a flamethrower (tends to solve most problems).  The Marines managed to evacuate 7 civilians holed up in an apartment.  The infected, while slower and less aggressive, still managed to take down three troopers.

Meanwhile the civilians had sent two guys and a powered cart to the warehouse:

Where they found a large crate marked; “Planet Express.”  Upon opening it, however:

Half of the released aliens went down the open ducts.  The other half went for the survivors’ compound, where impressive shooting from the civilians accounted for most of them.  The guy wielding the bow was pretty happy with himself for the accomplishment, until one of the surviving facehuggers latched onto him.

With the immediate threats disposed of, the Marines decided to escort all of the civilians out of the area- sending the ground cars out in convoys to shuttle them to a “safer” area.

For the next game: the refugee convoy will try to make its way to safety, the Centauri will show their appreciation for having been rescued, the mysterious laptop will reappear and there will be more aliens and infected people.

Game 6 board layout:

In game 6, the surviving Marines from game 5 need to hop off the road net to get fuel from a storage facility.  Meanwhile, a group of civilians who have managed to secure themselves behind some improvised barricades send out a party to a nearby warehouse for food.  The good news is that the infected have started to wither from starvation and aren’t as much of a threat.  Is there any bad news to go along with the good news?  Probably not, it’s a hopeful kind of world I’ve made here after all.

Game 5 saw the Marines land at the helipad in the middle of the Diplomatic Quarter and attempt to evacuate all of the foreign dignitaries while refugees, armed civilians eager for spots on the limited number of shuttle flights, and the infected came in from all sides.  We played this game back in February.

Initial board layout:

The Marines sent teams out to all four sides to secure the main corridors.  The group on the North side ran flat out to their target location and, while panting from exertion, opened a supply closet that happened to house some infected.  This did not go well:

The refugees on that wing didn’t last too long after that:

On the other wings, verbal commands from the Marines actually managed to hold the civilians in place so they wouldn’t swamp the landing zone.  That is, except on the South wing, where even shots fired in the air didn’t deter them.  They probably wished they had listened after the flamer came out:

Things got a bit dicey on the East wing where it came down to one Marine holding the helipad against the infected:

Surprisingly, all of the Diplomats and most of the civilians were airlifted out.  The enigmatic Grey Aliens even said that they would send help to Umtali. That has to be a good thing, right?  Unfortunately,  there wasn’t room on the transports for all of the surviving Marines.  Seven of them hopped onto the abandoned ground cars to try to make their way across the infected part of the city to reach safety.

Game 5 features the attempt to evacuate the diplomatic missions to Umtali from other powers.  There’s a helipad at the center of the board, surrounded by four wings- each featuring both apartments and roadway access from the larger city.

Refugees and the infected will be streaming in.  While it would be ideal to save everyone, the helipad can only be held for so long, there are only so many seats on each aircraft, and losing the diplomats would have negative consequences.