Get to the Chopper! and Aliens

It was a relatively light evening planned for the gang, as we were several members short of full complement.  I "dangled the carrot" in my email invite by only using a quote from the movie Predator to entice the players.  It worked.  John Mark and Bill arrived, ready for...whatever.

Get to the Chopper!
This little print & play game is a recreation of the events in Predator.  It features the mercs running for their lives from the predatory alien that's bent on killing them and mounting their heads as trophies in its spaceship.  Classic stuff.  Here's the game's BGG link: Get to the Chopper!!!

The game's board.

Instead of using the print and play's map, I decided to use Heroscape tiles.  They are bigger and give a prettier vibe to the game. 

The players, from left to right: Blain, Dutch, the alien, Billy and Mac.

I used some WH40K Catachan  jungle fighters for the mercs and even added a hat to Blain.
We wound up playing three games of this, as it is a quick filler.  I played the alien in the first game, John Mark took the honor in the second and Bill was "it" third.

Game 1:
The mercs started down the path, which gave them a slight advantage when rolling.  The alien came on early and often, wounding the mercs with some great dice rolls.  Mac dropped claymores (the little red dice) in this and all subsequent scenarios like they were Hansel and Gretel's bread crumbs.  They did do a good job of keeping the predator on the fringes of the fight...barely.

Contact!

It wasn't long before the mercs were feeling the alien's bite.  As they neared the river, the fighting got more intense.

Surrounded?  No worries.  The humans will be dead soon enough!

The endgame came down to Dutch barely escaping with his life and the rest of his crew lying dead on the jungle floor.  Game mirrors movie.  Perfect!

He got to da choppah!

Game 2:
John Mark followed my example on how to run the predator, but there was a difference: his dice rolls stunk and ours were hot!  It didn't take long before the big sucker was dead.  Victory to the mercs!

He's dead, Mac!

Game 3:
We tried a slightly different tactic when Bill was the alien.  Our mercs scooted down the far side of the jungle, away from the predator.  It took him an extra round to get to us, giving us a little more time to maneuver.  Soon enough though, it was back to the violence of the game.  Dutch kept scoring improbable hits on the alien by taking running pot shots.  Meanwhile, Mac made a dash for the path and freedom.

Finally and at the expense of Billy and Mac, the alien was once again killed.  Final score?  Mercs 2, predator 1.  Great game!

The games ended early, so I continued with the theme and got out my home brew of Aliens.  The gang loves this game as well as the movie, so it didn't take much convincing to run the first scenario, the Reactor Room.

Aliens
Pardon the poor recon photos taken of the Colonial Marines' foray into the room.  I'll let the pics tell the story, with a batrep at the end.

The initial set-up

What's that up ahead?

They're closing in fast!

Hold the line!

The Marines are getting away!

Victory!

A Colonial Marine happy dance!

The Marines got out of the room with 8/9 of their squad intact.  The only one who didn't make it was Hicks.  He fought valiantly, but was eventually pulled through the ceiling by a rather insistent xenomorph.  I think this was possibly the most successful try at this mission I've ever experienced.  We got reeeeally lucky with our hand-to-hand combat rolls, knocking three aliens off of struggling Marines and then crisping them with flamethrowers.

A special thanks to John Mark and Bill for making such a rainy night enjoyable.

End report.