Hammfilade 2026 - Friday. Starship troopers. Would you like to know more?

We have successfully concluded another Hammfilade weekend of gaming. This year we were later (Sept) than is typically as the summer was incredible busy for a number of us. We went for a slightly smaller cohort this year for logistical as well as socialization reasons. Our big game happened on the Saturday so we aimed for some smaller games Friday, Saturday (if we ended early) and Sunday (for those who could start their commute home later). 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday night Ron and James brought out their starship troopers setup. It had been run in Tacoma for Enfilade earlier in the year. I think most of the minis are from wake's emporium. Rules were modified pony wars I'm led to believe. 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug usually gives us a strategic overview and historical account of the big napoleonic battle on saturday (usually after we've been playing for a while, or when some of us finally figure out what the historical battle actually is...it's almost always a surprise). We insisted on doing the same in some good natured ribbing of Doug. Many many quotes from the movie and book were used. 

 

 

 

 

The battle is from the 1st invasion of Klendathu, the bugs homeworld. Buenos Aires had earlier been pasted by the bugs, promoting an escalation to full war. The intent was to hit the homeworld and end the war quickly....everyone should be home by Xmas. Of course, historically this did not occur and it was a total fiasco. The mobile infantry were ill prepared and the necessary tactics and technology not yet developed. 

 

 

Our commands were instructed to insert by dropship, take command of the area and investigate points of interest. Additional commands ended up generating as the points of interest were touched. For some strange reason the 'random discharges of plasma energy' seemed to preferentially target our ships and our ships were grounded fast. Poor Ron take a hit on the first turn and was humping his command across the table.....it made for a decent reserve when everything started going haywire. 

 

 

 

 

There were two lines of impassible terrain (for the humans only) which channeled us into 2 passes at each line. The bugs continuously spawned. Gun ranges were approximately the same distance as the charge range for the bugs, so this wasn't any turkey shoot. 


To the left we see that the Federation TV Team was left filming near a massive swarm outbreak as Seth pushed on aggressively to retrieve some critical intel from a fallen fort. 

He managed to buy a bit of time with a nuclear tipped javelin missile launch. Unfortunately the radiation was poorly passable for the humans, but didn't bother the bugs much (at all). 

With the situation getting dicey we all ripple fired our contigent of tactical nuclear weapons. The Bugs were lurking near the passes making attempts challenging. To most peoples amusement one of the nuclear missiles failed to hit the bugs when it accidentlly hit a unit of MI along the shooting path. A good third of the platoon was instantly vaporized. 

My own point of interest had a Doogie Howser looking political officer show up and insist we get across the table to another point of interest. Loyal to the end to the human race and unwilling to catch a bullet at close range I complied. 

Ron's slow walker began to establish a central perimeter as the rest of our commands were mostly savaged trying to cross the second line. 

 

We were regularly trying to call in air support and bombardments, often successfully, but hilariously (for the GM) he wouldn't let us use the templates to plan the strike location, and strikes landed after the bugs got another move. So you were trying to predict where they'd be. 

Danger close and blue on blue fire were definitely a thing.  

Seth was doing great work and managed to get to the fort and seize the intel. He was uploading it on the 2400baud modem while bugs massed. 

 

The GM announced an end game state and started an unstoppable wave of bugs moving from the table edge. Lt Seth's command was post humously awarded numerous medals for their successful mission. 

A handful of troops managed to call in extraction and were able to help relay first hand accounts of the historically accurate catastrophe on Klendathu.