Starship Troopers: Space Marine -v- Tyranid Style

[Inevitable]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of developing a specific scenario to mimic a "last stand" by Space marines. Please review and post feedback on how to make it more balanced. I'm unsure of whether or not giving a VP -v- VP boost to Space Marines (such as 1500 tyranid -v- 1250 space marines) would make it more balanced like they do in Fantasy.

Basic Rules:
Space Marines:
Always considered 'in cover' (4+ cover) while in the bunker.
No Vehicles except Dreadnaughts & 1 Fly support (aka 1 Storm Talon or Landspeeder is ok). No bikes. Total points of Vehicular defense must be 25% or less of army value.
Space Marines will be Fearless but still may fall back if the player chooses.
Space Marines may "Split Fire" (i.e have different weapons select different targets)
Space Marines may still Fire during shooting phase if they are far enough away from combat. I.E. a Tac Squad is assaulted, and after assault still only has 6 guys in Combat and 2 out (2 died). During Space Marine Shooting, the 2 that weren't close enough to fight may instead shoot if they have a valid target.
Space Marines may Reinforce other Squads. (i.e. move tacs from 1 unit to another)
Space Marines may elect to kill special weapons last (presumed 6th ed style)

Tyranid:
Board-wide Synapse as long as "Leader" is in Reserve or on table. 1 Hive Tyrant variation must be the leader.
Turn 1: Deploy Swarms/25mm Units
Turn 2: Monstrous Infantry May deploy
Turn 3: Monsters may Deploy
Units taking Mycetic Spores may only come out on turns they would normally be allowed. Not allowed to Deepstrike into bunker.


Terrain:
1 12" x 12" bunker setup so it was a 2 tier bunker. That way Space Marines could fall back to the inner courtyard if neccessary. Bunker will be elevated (on a hill). 25mm could not climb over and must break through choke points. Big Monsters (if they get close enough) may engage over the walls.

Lots of Rocks/Hills from the outskirts, preferably with at least 12" or more of clear space in all directions from the bunker of which the Tyranids must cross.

First Turn:
Space Marines Deploy First & Have First turn. There is no Seize the initiative. Space Marines deploy in center. Tyranid can then deploy on the longs at least 24" away from the bunker. Reinforcements may come in from any side (Longs or shorts)

Victory Conditions:
Tyranid wipes out opposing Space Marines completely. - Major Tyranid Victory
Less than 5 Space Marines make it out alive - Draw
More than 5 Space Marines make it out alive - Major Space Marine Victory

[Duke_of_Krondor]

I'd use the boarding action turn order which was...(IIRC - I may not be but it's free on the battle missions stuff on the GW website)
Attacker move
Defender Shoot
Attacker Assault
Defender Move
Attacker Shoot
Defender Assault

Use this for a fight through the corridors of an over-run ship/city

or

Normal turn order and deploy surrounded in the middle of the board

Either way

Defender has 33% points (no vehicles, etc).
Destroyed attacking troop units are respawned with same upgrades (except named chatacters). This continues until the space marines are dead. The BRB from 8th ed WFB has a table of how well the defenders do. It's something like 5 turns survival being a draw, more being defender win and less being attacker win. You could even make it a challenge! One time you defend and the other time your oppoenent Defends. Highest kill points win! Draws decided by survival length.

Personally I'd love the 'Alien' style fight through the ship but for the Klendathu fort fight from Starship troopers I'd go with the all round defence....and loads of Cadian infantry but that's just me :-)

[Duke_of_Krondor]

Apologies for double post, my work computer won't let me edit posts (for some obscure reason).

You could even have Storm Raven extraction (rolling from turn 5). See how many fight onto the landing pad and get away!

[Fithos]

If you are going to allow one person to hold a position and the other charge at them and each person knows what roll they will land, then the attackers (in this case Tyranids) will probably need a huge point buff. I mean like a 2 to 1 ratio. I played a game like this with my mate and he used Orks and I gave him 3 to 1 and still tabled him with only losing 2 sacrificial squads as I was able to just shoot all his guys off the table before they even got close. Granted I was playing IG but I didn't take any tank support. I imagine Marines could do similar unless Tyranids have something that moves fast enough.

The other option I might propose is to give the attacker a more solid objective than KILL EVERYTHING. I played another similar game against eldar and all he had to do was kill my Lord Commissar. That was a really close game that he managed to pull off by distracting my main forces with meched up DAs and Fire Dragons, and then sneaking a squad of shining spears over the bunker wall to get me in combat.

In summary I would recommend either huge point buff or more solid objective.

[russellmoo]

I like the extraction zone idea-

Set up a 3" in diameter platform in the center of the table (a large blast template or CD would work just fine) then the defender can deploy anywhere on the table as long as it is 12" from the extraction zone, the attacker then brings his units in from any board edge on turn 1-

I would restrict the defender from taking any Fast choices (just like in planet strike) and then give the attacker more points and the ability to respawn units that are killed, the attacker scores kill points, while the defender gets points for each unit he extracts.

To extract a unit- the entire unit must end its move inside the extraction zone, however, the unit is not removed from play until the start of the defenders next movement phase. In addition you might want to make it so that if any attacking model is touching the extraction zone, extraction is impossible-

This set up should make for an interesting game- you might need to test it and modify it a little but I think it should make for a fun game-

Also, I think imperial guard would give you more of a Starship troopers feel, but if you want to use space marines you might also want to restrict things like Land raiders, and terminators-

[Kelanen]

It sounds like you want to play Planetstrike, and make the Marines the Defenders...

Space Marines will be Fearless but still may fall back if the player chooses.

I hate this have your cake and eat it rule. ATSKNF is more than good enough, just leave them with that.

Lastly, if you really want it like Starship Troopers, then it needs to be Imperial Guard, not Marines - that fits rules better, numbers, level of armour, everything. Marines don't actually make much sense.

[Tethylis]

Lastly, if you really want it like Starship Troopers, then it needs to be Imperial Guard, not Marines - that fits rules better, numbers, level of armour, everything. Marines don't actually make much sense.

That would depend on which version he wants to play. For the movie version then definitely use IG, but the original novel has to be done with power armour.

[Kelanen]

That would depend on which version he wants to play. For the movie version then definitely use IG, but the original novel has to be done with power armour.

That's a fair point. I'd assumed the movie since that's the imagery I interpreted he was wanting to reflect.

The book is very, very different, and you're right they would need to be power armoured. They would also all need jump packs (bounce packs I recall Heinlein called them?), and we are squarely in BA territory then. That said you won't get the hordes of men until you hit big Apoc levels, whereas IG could do it at 1500 or so...