This weekend we played a game based on the Terminator movies using the core rules from my From Beyond Earth. The terrain was made using walls and connectors from my Buildings in a Bag project that I broke into ruins. I had created a scenario in which the leader of the human resistance has crashed in the ruins of a city. A group of terminators and humans are both trying to reach the commander, one to eliminate him the other to take him back to base. So, we set up the game and got ready to play:
There were four tokens on the board, one of which was the commander, two were nothing, and one was a booby trap that killed whoever (or whatever) found it. The game didn’t work out as the humans discovered the commander and fled before the Terminators had a chance to reach the commander. As we tried to think of a new scenario we took some pics.
In the end my fiance came up with a new scenario: The terminators had captured the commander and three guards to use them as bait to draw more humans into the ruined city. A group of humans decide to accept the challenge in an attempt to rescue the commander. The group arrive in a truck but a helicopter further in the city is waiting to take them out. The game was played co-op with each of us taking control of half the humans. The terminators were scattered throughout the map and activated once a human had line of sight to it. If the human was in range the terminator would open fire, if not it would move. After the activated terminator the human turn would complete, then the terminator turn would begin, and so on.
Turn 1: Squad A moves up. Squad B moves into a ruin and accidentally activates a heavy terminator which fires and hits once but the trooper’s armor saves them. Two units fire at the heavy terminator but its armor saves it. The terminator fires at squad A killing two of them. Then fires at squad B killing one of them.
Turn 2: A unit from squad A damages the heavy terminator, another unit kills it. A unit moves forward and is shot at by a scarab terminator, but it misses. The squad leader moves up and kills the scarab.
Squad B moves forward and goes into over-watch, one unit moves up to activate another heavy terminator, but moves to a location that triggers two others on the other side of the street. That unit is gunned down by the heavy terminator. The other two terminators move forward.
On the terminator phase the heavy terminator moves forward and squad B opens fire using their over-watch. Though it takes all four shots the heavy terminator is destroyed. The other heavy terminator moves up and kills two units. The light terminator moves up and wounds another unit.
Turn 3: Squad B damages the heavy terminator. Squad A finishes the heavy terminator off, and destroys the light terminator. A member of squad A moves up and rescues a guard. The first of the four they were sent in to rescue.
Turn 4: Squad A moves up moves forward and triggers a heavy terminator but it is out of range and moves towards the humans. Another trooper moves forward and triggers two light terminators, both are also out of range and move forwards. The recently rescued guard opens fire killing both light terminators, and rescues another guard. The rest of the squad fires at the heavy terminator but misses.
B squad charges the heavy terminator and open fire damaging it. In the process a heavy guard is rescued. The guard rushes into a ruin and fires at the heavy terminator doing critical damage to destroy it, and activates a light and a heavy terminator. The light terminator moves forward, but the heavy terminator opens fire killing the heavy guard. The guard takes a second shot killing the light terminator.
The heavy terminator moves forward and kills a veteran.
Turn 5: 
Squad A moves forward activating a scarab terminator which moves forward. A veteran fires at it but its armor saves it, the vet fires again and destroys it. Another unit moves up and damages the heavy terminator. A guard rushes forward and destroys the heavy terminator, activating the Hunter Killer that is patrolling the area around the helicopter. The commander is rescued. The Hunter Killer rolls forward.
The guard from squad B fires at the Hunter Killer missing with the first two rounds of the burst, but the third hits a critical location. The Hunter Killer explodes. The survivors pile into the helicopter and fly back to the human base. Three units were rescued (including the commander), but seven humans were killed. On the other side: two scarab terminators, five light terminators, five heavy terminators, and a Hunter Killer were destroyed.
It was a good game, played in about an hour and a half. I thought we were doomed at first and half our numbers were wiped out in the first couple of turns. Then we got smart and started triggering the terminators when they were far enough out they had to move instead of fire. This may seem like cheating but when you figure one heavy terminator can kill three units with one shot vs. it taking two humans to destroy one heavy terminator and only if they fail their armor saves it just makes strategic sense. Without the miraculous double sixes the guard rolled to take out the Hunter Killer I’m sure the game would have ended differently. The Hunter Killer is able to fire both of its Heavy Auto Plasma guns which would be ten rounds being fired that could have killed up to ten humans, but luckily the fates were on the human’s side and all ended well.
I still want to play the original scenario but need to tweak it a bit, any suggestions?
creepyherogames 