* * * * HAPPENS!

I had a thought after a recent game, and I am curious  about something.

During	a firefight in the outback of a colony world, the combatants
(off world  mercs in the  employ of a corporation and  local colonists
desiring to severe the corporate ties),  stirred up a hornets nest.

Well not really hornests, but a local voracious flying insect swarm
called piranha bugs . . . 

Now the piranha bugs I freely admit to having lifted from a sci-fi novel
I read about a zillion years ago called  THE EXPENDABLES , about first
in trouble- shooters sent to colony worlds or ahead to potential colony
worlds with dangerous  wildlife or sentients to take care of business.

BUT the actual idea behind the incident was based on the killer bee
swarms	that  were disturbed by the  combatants at the BATTLE OF TANGA
in WW I  East Africa. 
It was an ambush scenario, with the  colonists	ambushing a merc supply
convoy of hover trucks and  hover combat cars. 

The stunned look on the faces of the merc gamers when they shot up a
piranha bug nest (think African or RVN termite mounds) during the heat
of the	day (when the  piranha bugs were at home) was priceless.

(an area of the table had multiple piranha bug mounds scatteed on it
along with jungle and tall grass)

The merc combat cars blasted apart  three (3) of these mounds that some
colonists militia had been forced to take cover behind ( the mercs
assumed!) without knowing  WHAT THEY WERE. . . . 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

THE mercs, with huge smiles on their faces, fired up their vehicles and
went  floating forward on line abreast to take full advantage of the
serious problems that seemed to develope along the retreating  colonist
defensive line within seconds of the  3 mounds being blasted apart
intent on a solid victory.

THE colonist militia Commanders KNEW what lived inside these mounds, and
had hoped to lure the mercs and their open topped combat cars into the
nest area and then blow them apart , causing the mercs grief as the
piranha bugs swarmed out fighting  mad.  

This was a desperate  measure, decided upon because the battle	so far
had seen the mercs floating  forward in those  combat cars, and steadily
forcing the  colonists to fall back  with heavy casualties.

WELL, the bugs swarmed out of those mounds and wrecked mounds (I used 6"
across clear plastic  circles marked PIRANHA BUGS, one for  each mound 
and moved them randomly about), attacking colonist infantry first,
causing them to run screaming from the	field, and then the combat cars
and crews.

SINCE these bugs  numbered in the  millions, they quickly reduced
exposed  colonist infantry and car crews to skeletons in short order,
with very few combatants surving the bug attack. . . . .

IN  short, the piranha bugs won the  battle.

After the initial shock on both sides, the merc and colonist gamers
gave most creitable performances as  soldier taken completely by
surprise by a horror worse than the on-going combat, and trying to save
their individual butts.

SO, now, we have the mercs trying to find out everything they can about
the  world they are serving on, and the colonists being careful to find
out if they recognized any dangerous lifforms  present when planning
actions.

SURE adds to the uncertaintity of battlefield conditions and a lot less
the rules say this and I thus count on it being that way during a game.

WE have used things like this  since almost the start to liven up games.

HOW many of y'all do somethig similiar?

AND if so, what do you do?

DAWGFACE