The Silent Watchers Reinhardt Tamaguchi, Captain in the 45th Icarian Lancers, swung his droid head back and forth, scanning the low hills lining the eastern edge of the Kalir Valley. Mentally, he asked his computer for higher magnification, and a notch between the hills leaped out at him. He stared for a moment; nothing yet. just the sharp-edged shadows cast by Sakara's bright, white sun. A low wind rippled through the valley, stirring long, purplish grasses and brushing through red- and blue-veined leaves. Tamaguchi glanced back along the positions held by the rest of his rag-tag battledroid force; two light recon droids crouching in a small grove, a battered Warhammer, and a damaged Phoenix Hawk half-hidden behind the crest of a shallow ridge off to the west. He cursed softly, only his Rifleman was in good shape, and even "Lucky" Tamaguchi couldn't hold off a full-strength raiding force all by himself "Captain!" Keller's voice barked in his earphones. "Over there! Saw something just above the skyline on Sandyman's Bluff." Tamaguchi looked, but couldn't spot anything. Nevertheless ... He made a decision and snapped on his all-units voicelink. "Okay, boys. Arm all weapons and go to full power. We've got company." His external audio sensors picked up a soft hum as the other four droids ran their fusion plants up to maximum output. "Here they come!" Keller's voice overrode the sudden babble from the other DroidWarriors. "God! Look at that. What the hell are those things!" Tamaguchi stared at the battledroids spilling over the hills and down into the Kalir Valley. The two in front were moving more rapidly and jumping farther than anything he'd ever seen before. Then, at high magnification, he saw the bright, red webs painted on their front armor. As he fired his left arm laser at one, Tamaguchi nodded to himself, "Those, Lieutenant Keller, are Spiders. . . . " Situation: 0750 Hours (TST), Sakara V Wolfs Dragoons, under contract to the House of Kurita, have landed on Sakara V--a planet deep inside the Lyran Comonwealth. The House of Steiner had been using Sakara as a secret supply base stockpiling droid spare parts and munitions for a major offensive against Kurita's Draconis Combine. The Dragoons have been ordered to raid these supply depots, destroying anything that they can't capture. Sakara's garrison, the 45th Icarian Lancers, intercepted the Dragoon landing force in a series of rugged mountain passes, and the battle has raged fiercely for over 72 hours. Seven hours ago, with all its droids committed, the 45th's outlying scouts picked up a fast-moving force of enemy battledroids racing toward the supply depots from the opposite direction. After hastily combing its repair stations, the regiment has been able to assemble a rag-tag, scratch force to throw into the path of the Dragoon raiding party Captain Tamaguchi and his men must inflict enough damage on the enemy droids to force them to retreat without wrecking Sakara's supply depots. Game Set-Up Lay out the two Battledroids game maps in the configuration shown. Prepare Battledroid Record Sheets for all the droids involved in the action. The Sakara Skirmisb should be played using the expert Battledroids rules. The defender deploys first. Defender: Captain Reinhardt Tamaguchi's force consists of: 1 Stinger, 1 Wasp, 1 Warhammer (Right Arm PPC out of action, and only 5 6-packs left for its Short Range Missile (S.R.M.) launcher), 1 Phoenix Hawk (Center Torso Armor, 20; Left Arm Armor, 6), and 1 Rifleman. Deployment: Set up the defending droids anywhere on the West Map west of, but not including, the 0700 hex row. Attacker: Captain Michael Sullivan's Dragoon raiding party enters the board in three waves: Turn 1: Andreyev's Reconnaissance Lance (2 Spiders, 1 Wasp, 1 Phoenix Hawk) Turn 2: Tharen's Medium Lance ( - ) (1 Shadow Hawk, 1 Griffin, and 1 Spider) Turn 3-1 Marauder Deployment: The attacking battledroids enter the board anywhere along the east edge of the East Map. Victory Conditions Tamaguchi's defending force wins if it can kill at least 2 Spiders or Wasps and 2 other enemy battledroids. The Dragoons win if they wipe out the defending droids while avoiding the defender's victory condition. Spider Background Data The Spider battledroid series was first developed for the old Star League's elite commando regiments. Designed for speed and agility, Spiders are lightly armored but pack a powerful punch. In battle, they use their jump jets to flit from point to point-- confusing enemy fire control systems and commanders. When confronted by a Spider, an unwary DroidWarrior may find his opponent at extreme range one moment, and close by-outside his firing arc-the next. The only factories producing spare parts for Spiders were destroyed during the First Succession War more than two centuries ago. As a result, Spiders are rarely seen in the Successor States. They form the backbone of the regimental reconnaissance battalion of Wolfs Dragoons, but only a few others are known to exist in all the Inner Sphere. Patrick Larkin, author of Battledroids, has written several Star Trek pieces for FASA Corp, as well as other FASA Corp products. New Battledroid Type: SPI-5R Spider Tonnage: 30 tons Engine: GM 180 Walking Movement Points: 6 Running Movement Points: 9 Jump Movement Points: 8 Total Heat Sinks: 13 Armor Factor: 64 Location and Boxes Head 6 Center Torso F: 10 R: 4 Rt/Lt Torso F: 6 R: 2 Rt/Lt Arm 7 Rt/Lt Leg 7 Weapons: Type, Location, Critical Boxes Medium Laser Head 1 Medium Laser Center Torso 1 Medium Laser Rt. Arm 1 Medium Laser Lt. Arm 1 Back to Table of Contents -- Game News #3 To Game News List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Dana Lombardy. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com