Aliens, droids, and power armor: Off World playtest

Another playtest of "Off World" today---this time featuring the alien invaders known as The Amalgam, a polyglot force of symbiotic life forms, genetically engineered monsters, and worse--vs. human special forces, droids, and powered armored infantry.  There are some things I still need to tweak---but the game's playing well and the various stats and special rules are really making unusual, sci-fi-y forces stand out from regular troops.

I will come through and add details and captions to the pics later; wanted them uploaded now. Thanks for looking!

The table--a desert environment, with two hills, rocky outcroppings, and brush.  Approx 36"x36."

The initial human forces: a UNEM Special Forces team has parachuted into the area, along with combat droids, to act as a blocking force against a major Amalgam advance.

Among the droids assigned to the force are some of the NuThot advanced combat droids--with faster reflexes and higher intuition, they approach trained regulars in combat capacity.

Facing them is an Amalgam combat maniple.  The Amalgam have been on Earth in force for six months now, and are heavily invested in numerous regions across the globe.

Most Amalgam troops are either symbiotes or genetically engineered combat instruments.

Human troops call these Squids.  Aggressive assault troops with prehensile tendrils.

The Special Forces and combat droids wait for the approaching Amalgam

"Funk spotted!"---Amalgam troops are often referred to as "The Funk" by Anglophonic troops, for the heavy, vaguely fecal stink emitted by Amalgam organisms

The Amalgam weapons engage, knocking down 2 droids and pinning the rest

Return fire suppressed a trio of Amalgam juggernauts---heavy infantry, essentially equivalent to power armor

Heavy fire hits the special forces, downing one man

Amalgam legionnares--elite infantry---move forward, but are pinned down by human defensive fire

Massed fire drops two more operators, and the fourth retreats from the position

The Squids move forward

A juggernaut is dropped by droid fire

Droid firing line: the conventional droid models in the background, with the NuThot advanced models in the fore

The centurions flanking a droid squad

The centurions got pinned down in the rocks by heavy human fire--they don't get any further forward

Reinforcements! Two squads of UNEM powered armor infantry, bristling with anti-tank and anti-personnel weapons.

The armor positions itself on the firing line.

They open up and drive away a squad of diminutive Amalgam infantry

The squids move on the power armor's flank

The power armor engages the juggernauts with their AT weaponry----the juggernauts are big enough targets---and kill another, sending the third to the rear

The droids attempt to defeat the last centurion, but the alien grunt is a killer---he stands his ground and destroys 1 droid.

Heavy Amalgam fire kills a PA trooper

Two Amalgam guncrawlers--nasty fire support creatures---try to get forward into better firing positions, but are shot down by human defensive fire

A view from the firing line

Squid attack!

The PA trooper kills 2, but is brought down by tendril and beak

More human fire kills 2 more juggernauts.

I called the game at this point---the Amalgam had no forward troops, the humans had rebuilt their firing line, and several Amalgam units were dead or broken.  Casualties included 2 PA troopers, 3 SF operators, several droids, and about 10 Amalgam creatures.

I am still percolating on how exactly to handle power armored troops, and I want to build in a few more weapon differences---but I feel that the development of the game is going quite well, with plenty of special rules in place to modify the core mechanics, where necessary, to model unusual forces.  I hope to have Off World ready for sale by mid/late April.

Thanks for looking!

Models:
The Power Armor are mid-tech power armor troops from Khurasan, with some light conversion work.
The red and blue droids are by The Lazy One, available on Shapeways.
The white droids are by Khurasan.
The "Amalgam" are Horrid infantry (the centurions) and Horrid screamers (the Squids), by Ravenstar Games; Khurasan Itu'a (the infantry, the guncrawlers, and the juggernauts).