We finished 8 turns the first day we played at Origins and continued over Friday and Saturday. With more units, active play slowed down but we still averaged a full move an hour, which was pretty good as we had numerous brand new players. The final session on Saturday pictured above saw almost twenty gamers take part in the battle!
The humans continued to grind through the Hive defenders on the human right flank (Bug left flank). The in one case the landers were overrun before they could even get their troops unloaded.
Only the supporting fire from aerial gunboats prevented the Hive from massing overwhelming force. The Hive responded with fire from their own heavy shooters
The gunboats took serious losses, with two of the four being destroyed.
On Saturday the activities of the humans had forced the three Royals to the surface. The Huamns quickly keyed onto them and attempted to use their aerial gunboats to the Royals and with them end the life of the Hive. The Human left flank had three companies of armed landers that had been held in reserve. As two of the Royals came to the surface on that side the American craft moved to attack immediately. The short ranged of the machine guns allowed the Hive shooters to extract serious casualties while the two Royals attempted to scurry into cover.
Even with all their available firepower directed at the attacking humans, the Hive was unable to keep the humans from getting in and on both flanks, the gunships were able to kill the Royals.
For the first time in several years, the humans defeated the Hive, killing the Royals. The costs were high, but without its Royals the Hive will die!
