Chris & Alex Nicole
Colonial Marines
Tom Pope came up with the following Order of Battle and organisation for the Colonial Marines from the second Aliens film. I added the gaming notes.This is a draft for playtesting. All comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Order of Battle:
- Transport - Cheyenne Dropship
- Pilot Ferro
- Copilot Spunkmeyer
- Transport - APC
- Driver Bishop (synthetic)
- Platoon Lt. Gorman
- Cpl. Dietrich (specialist medtech)
- Carter Burke (company rep)
- Ellen Ripley (civilian advisor)
- Newt (civilian)
- Squad 1
- Sgt. Apone (squad leader)
- Drake (smartgunner)
- Wierzbowski (special weapons - flamer)
- Frost (grunt)
- Squad 2
- Cpl. Hicks (squad leader)
- Vasquez (smartguner)
- Hudson (specialist - comtech)
- Crowe (grunt)
Also, two of those three seem to carry flame units by default (at least on bug-hunts) so they could be called the special weapons units.
You should also make a note that the movie only showed a single section of the full platoon the Sulaco can carry.
- Platoon
- Command Element
Transport ship & synthetic
2 Sections- Dropship & crew
- APC & driver
- 2 Squads
- Squad leader
- Heavy Weapons
- Specialist
- Grunt
For normal police actions, ships like the Sulaco are used to ferry full or half platoons to the planets in question. However, if some real fighting is needed, much larger transport ships are used. These larger transports can carry a full company of marines. This is a far more efficient way of moving large numbers of troops to the battle.
A company would be made up of a command section (commander, staff, and guards) and four platoons.
I have to go back and watch the movie again, to check my data, but that should work for now.
Colonial Marines in Slammer.
This is probably best played as a section level game, with individual troop ratings.Most of the Marines should be treated as Trained, possibly with a couple of Green.
Sgt. Apone, Cpl. Hicks and Vasquez should be Veterans.
It is tempting to treat Lt. Gorman as Green, or trained at best.
Burke the company man should be Untrained. Newt is also Untrained, but could be treated as Elite! She did manage to survive in the bug nest for longer than any one else. I am not sure what to make of Bishop the synthetic, he was a very competant non-combatant, possibly Green Elite?
Rippley Veteran, Hero(+2) with the Big Guns attribute for her Gaffer Tape Special!
If using random troop quality for your own Marines, use the Imperial Infantry example table in the Troop Quality section.
In Slammer terms, Colonial Marines are probably best equipped as Light Infantry.
Their main weapon would be the Pulse Rifle with an integral Grenade Launcher. Marines can fire either the Pulse Rifle or the Grenade Launcher in each round. Grenade Launchers should have limited ammunition e.g. 4 rounds each and these should be noted when fired.
Each Fire Team (4 figures) should include a Smart Gunner, and may also include a marine armed with an Incinerator. Smart Gunners and Incinerators carry a Blaster Pistol as a side arm.
In the Film, Corporal Hicks carried his personal shotgun for close work.
| Direct Fire Weapons: | Type | Damage Rating | Close (<4") | Effect Range |
Notes; |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulse Rifle | B | 1D+1 | +3 | 20" | Assault weapon |
| Grenade Launcher | EX | 2D | +1 | 24" | Effect as Frag Grenade |
| Smart Gun | BA | 1D+1 | +2 | 28" | Squad Support Weapon |
| Smart Gunners have a reduced movement of 6" due to the encumbrance of the weapon and steady rig. | |||||
| Incinerator | EA | 2D-2 | +3 | 8" | Flame Thrower |
| Blaster Pistol | E | 1D+1 | +4 | 8" | Handgun |
| Shotgun | B | 1D | +4 | 12" | Hick's Baby |
Sentry Guns
I haven't seen the Aliens - Directors Cut featuring the Sentry Guns. But I would suggest you treat them as Smart Guns, with a basic To-Hit number of 8. They should be set up as Prepared Positions, i.e. with a fixed 90 degree fire arc, one round set up time and firer and target modifiers. They opportunity fire automatically at the first or nearest target moving within effective range. I don't know whether they are smart enough to tell the difference between Marines, Colonists or Aliens, so don't walk in front of them! You should use the optional ammunition rule i.e. If a Sentry Gun rolls two ones to hit; it is out of ammo or jammed.
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Web site maintained by Chris Nicole Last updated 26th March 1998. |