Based on the Song of Blades engine

Written by Andrea Sfiligoi

15mm Models by Khurasan Miniatures
Photos and Figure Painting by Spacejacker and Raven Painting
Layout and illustrations by Andrea Sfiligoi
Typeset in Lastwaerk and Comfortaa by Johan Aakerlund
Playtesters: Mauro Miraz, Andrea Sfiligoi, Massimo Moscarelli, Sergio Laliscia, Simone and Diego at La
Tana della Donna Nana Wargaming Club, Danny Riordan, Scott Case, Rodrick Campbell, Ken Derkson,
Marco Ciotti. Proofreading by Richard Popplewell. Special thanks to Paul Shorten for his exceptional
playtest.

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 SUPPORT WEAPONS ....................................................................16
Contents EXTERMINATORS...........................................................................16
I NTRODUCTION ...............................................................................3 CROSSFIRE......................................................................................17
HOW MANY MODELS?................................................................4 REACTIVE FIRE/AMBUSH............................................................17
A BIT OF BACKGROUND...............................................................4 OVERWATCH (OPTIONAL RULE)...............................................17
GAME LENGTH ........................................................................................4
SCALE ..........................................................................................................4 EFFECTS OF CLOSE COMBAT ................................................18
PROFILES ........................................................................................5 CLOSE COMBAT MECHANIC......................................................18
QUALITY..........................................................................................5 OUTNUMBERED UNITS.................................................................19
SPECIAL RULES...............................................................................6 CLOSE COMBAT ON VEHICLES ...............................................19
BASES AND TRAYS.........................................................................6 OVERRUNS ...................................................................................20
THE TURN ............................................................................................6 CARRY THE POSITION ...............................................................20
INITIATIVE .......................................................................................7 FALL BACK ..............................................................................................20
ACTIVATION ...................................................................................7 FALLING BACK FROM MULTIPLE UNITS ................................21
UNCOMMITTED UNITS..................................................................8 VOLUNTARILY RETREATING FROM A CLOSE COMBAT.......21
ACTIVATED UNITS..........................................................................8
FREE ATTACKS...............................................................................8 WHO MAY NOT USE DICE FROM THE POOL.........................22
EXPENDITURE OF ACTIONS.......................................................9 REINFORCEMENTS.......................................................................22
COMMITTED AND UNCOMMITTED............................................9 HOW MANY DICE IN THE POOL? .........................................23
GAINING EXTRA DICE IN PLAY ...............................................23
MOVEMENT ...................................................................................9
POSITION OF MODELS WITHIN THE UNIT.............................10 MORALE .......................................................................................23
MOVEMENT OF UNITS ......................................................................10 VICTORY CONDITIONS..............................................................24
WHAT IF THE CD WON'T FIT?................................................10
ROUGH TERRAIN ...........................................................................11 SPECIAL RULES ...........................................................................24
DANGEROUS TERRAIN .................................................................11
MOVING THROUGH FRIENDS.......................................................11 HUMANS FORCE LIST ...............................................................32
SPREADING OUT ...........................................................................11 ALIENS FORCE LIST...................................................................34
MERGING UNITS ...........................................................................12 POINT SYSTEM ............................................................................36
STRAGGLERS..................................................................................12
ORGANIZING YOUR UNITS ........................................................12 SCENARIOS....................................................................................37
OTHER SCENARIO IDEAS............................................................41
A UNIT’S COMBAT SCORE.........................................................12 GUIDELINES FOR SOLO GAMES..............................................42
SHOOTING MECHANIC ...............................................................14 USING SWATTERS IN OTHER SETTINGS..................................43
DISTANCE FROM SHOOTER TO TARGET ..................................14
RANGE OF SHOOTING................................................................14
NO SHOOTING INTO OR OUT OF CLOSE COMBAT ............14
COVER............................................................................................14
INTENSIVE FIRE ...........................................................................15
EFFECTS OF SHOOTING ...........................................................15
FLINCH EFFECTS .........................................................................16

Elia Charalambides (order #26133892)

 Basic Rules

INTRODUCTION One of the beauties of 15mm is that you

To play this game, you'll need: may devote some time and effort into
building beautiful terrain pieces. Your
►About 20 to 50+ miniatures in a terrain will not take up too much storage
consistent scale representing future space or cost too much to make. We use
human soldiers and bug-like a flexible mat by ZUZZY Miniatures and
monstrous aliens. We use and some homemade terrain pieces.
recommend the 15mm models by
Khurasan miniatures pictured in this
You will also need a few old CDs that you
book;
don't use anymore, like old CD-ROMs.
These are used as movement and
►Three measuring sticks,
coherence trays (remember: CD =
labeled Short, Medium,
Cohesion Distance) for the
and Long. Use the
units, and can be texturized
following lengths: Short
and flocked so they merge well
75mm, Medium 120mm,
with whatever you use to cover
Long 180mm. Since models
your tabletop.
may move up to three times per
turn, it is useful to have triple A flocking tutorial for CDs can be seen
sticks or even a 3 x Long stick also
on Paul Shorten’s blog :
marked at 1 x Short, 2 x Short, 3 x Short,
http://sho3box.wordpress.com
1 x Medium, 2 x Medium, 3 x Medium, 1 x
Long and 2 x Long. As most weapons
You may use regular CDs or miniCDs as
have no maximum range a very long
stick, marked at multiple Long you see fit; as long as all units use the
intervals, may come in handy. same there won't be any major difference
in play. For 15mm play, we prefer mini-CDs,
►Scenic material to represent hills, but regular CDs are much easier to find,
trees, boulders, ruins, outposts, alien so it's your call.
landscapes, bug hives and the like.
You may also use a printed map laid
You will also need at least ten regular six-
out on the tabletop if you don’t have
sided dice, more being better. If both players
terrain, but games on good terrain
are much more fun.
3

Elia Charalambides (order #26133892)

 Basic Rules

have their own sets of measuring sticks and A BIT OF BACKGROUND

at least ten dice each, play will be faster.
Bugs are everywhere. Xenomorphs have
invaded human colonies, space
stations and even merchant ships and
cargoes. They seem unstoppable. They
are vicious and aggressive. Peaceful
communication has proven impossible.
Humans have found themselves on the
wrong side of the food pyramid. Humans
resist the invasion and retaliate. In
most cases, the use of heavy weaponry
and orbital support is not possible or
allowed by local laws. So when the bugs
rear their ugly heads, the only option is
to send in relatively small forces armed
to the teeth. These are specifically
HOW MANY MODELS? trained forces, half-jokingly named
The game will require 20 to 50 or more
Swatters (the official name is Special
models per player. All the profiles in this
Weapons- Alien Threat Response, or
book have been given point costs, so you
can create your own profiles and scenarios S.W.A.T.R.).
by comparison. The point costs are per
single model, so if the model costs 30 points In a typical game, one of the players controls
and a unit comprises five models, that unit a force of human Swatters, and the other
will cost a total of 150 points. A small game is player controls a swarm of aliens. Players
generally played at 800-1000 points, while a choose a scenario, set up terrain and deploy
large game may be any total you want… It's their forces as per the scenario rules.
just a matter of how big a table you have Typically, players have different objectives
and how many figures you have available! and victory conditions. However, the old
The larger scenarios in this book have been technique of completely destroying the
playtested at 2000 points. opponent's force will work fine in almost all
cases!

GAME LENGTH
Once you know the rules, a small game can
be played in 45 minutes, while a large game
requires 90 minutes or more, depending on
how many models you use.

SCALE
The ground scale is 10mm =1 yard.
One figure represents one man, alien, robot,
or vehicle.

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 Frequently Asked Questions

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do we keep track of which units How does the dice-pool rule work, when
have been activated during the turn played at different point totals?
without the aid of counters? The formula is 1 die every 50 pts of troops for
Remembering what has been activated is not humans and 1 die every 65 pts for aliens. Try
generally a problem because the CDs will this and feel free to experiment. Varying the
have advanced or changed their position on dice pools is an easy way to alter the balance
the tabletop. However, you can just move the in a scenario, e.g a game where the humans
unit's leader to the edge of the CD facing the are low on ammo could be played at 1000 pts
enemy to remember that unit has acted, or with only 12 to 15 dice in their' pool. A game on
mark the unit with a glass bead counter. an alien infested world could be played with
normal pools, but the alien player could DOU-
BLE the dice when using them to spawn rein-
What is the size of the terrain patches? forcements (so if he opts to roll 3 dice for
For the hills etc , we used what we have. We reinforcements, he rolls 6 dice instead).
suggest measuring terrain pieces on a CD
base. As for dangerous terrain, make each
What about Acid blood?
piece one CD wide. If your terrain is different,
however, it won’t make a big difference. It's too small a detail at this scale of play. If
this game is successful, we will work on a
squad level version of Swatters which will go
Crossfire rule: shouldn't it be "...if the line into that sort of detail to be used with the
goes through any part of the target CD, upcoming Khurasan alien tunnels system.
the target is caught in a crossfire"?
No. The crossfire rule stands as written, it is
an important bonus and it should be rare.
Units are very maneuverable so it is possible
to get a crossfire bonus now and then.

Can units with support weapons merge

with similar units without support
weapons?
Yes, units with support weapons have only
one support weapon trooper and they are
allowed to merge, although no more than
one support weapon can be in the same unit.
Treat the extra soldier as a regular trooper.

44

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