A Headless Body Production
All Quiet on the Martian Front After Action Report: The Battle of Fort Edmonton
Deployment:
The combined Canadian US Army starts with about 3,000 points, the Martians about 2,000 points on the board, the rest arriving over a period of 7 turns.
Opening Dialog:
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The staff meeting was tense. Privet-Major Palen, Canadian Militia and Brigadier General Miles, United States Army, mostly glared at each other over tea and coffee. Colonel Tracy, OBE, KCB, of the BEF who had enough pomposity, and uniform bling to counter the the shear volume of gold on of the General's uniform wasn't here to balance the inequity of rank that a mere Priveting did not. But he had taken is his BEF on a wide range reconnaissance somewhere south and hadn't been seen since.
"How goes the preparations," demanded the General?
"All our supplies are more than adequate," replied Privet-Major Palen.
Then the General asked, "How goes the preparation of," and with heavy sarcasm, "The Spirit of Detroit?"
Privet-Major Palen replied in conversational tone that infuriated the General, "The training of the crew of Nell is going quite well, of course, we had most of her figured out already, it was just a matter of putting enough men together."
"We are going to need her in the coming weeks."
"Yes, about that. Even if she has 500hp per track, I don't think she will be able to climb a crater wall of the Martian Hive. And as she towers over most trees by 20 feet, the Martians will know we are coming."
"Yes, that is why we will generate surprise another way," the General's reply was interrupted by alarm bells. "Bloody hell, whats that?"
Privet-Major Palen carefully put down his tea cup in the saucer. The tea immediately formed ripples indicative of Tripod activity. Standing up, he gave the General a one eyed stare, "That would be the Martians in yet another surprise attack."
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This is to be a dump the box extravaganza. Two sets of forces showed up and a third may show up later. I wrote a program to evaluate "Nell"'s combat abilities and rate her worth between 7 and 8 Tripods. So she counts as 1,500 points, not the 750 that is in the books.
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| The Martian deployment table. |
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| The combined Canadian US Army table. |
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| The Tripods are deployed to take maximum advantage of the cover from the trees. |
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| The Martian right flank is covered by 9 steam tanks, and two triple turreted towers. |
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| Just line them up. |
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| The Martian center is dominated by Slavers, Scientist, Bombardiers, Lobototons and drones. We think that is the most cost effective way to deal with Nell. |
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| The Humans also are taking maximum advantage of cover. Behind hill, buildings and 4 towers. |
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| The quiet before the storm. |
Turn 1:
The only visible targets available are 4 towers and Nell. The Martians go left and right, taking advantage of trees to avoid being visible.
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| Advancing on the left. |
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| The forces in the middle are mainly support Tripods and drones. The two Assault Tripods dive into range to shoot the tower, then duck back out again. |
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| The towers do not have a lot of firepower as each turret only can shoot 90 degrees, but they are hard to kill. A lucky hit by a Grenadier Tripod causes a critical hit on Nell! |
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| A lucky hit destroys the forward facing gun. Another off panel takes out the Anti Tripod Gun as well. A good start for the Martians. |
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| The US Army has mobile artillery taking to the ridge. |
Turn 2:
So far, the Martians manage to advance without a lot of effective return fire. Their first turn reinforcements also are on the board and in effective range.
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| Marvin and K9 take shots at the tower on the hill. The other Assault Tripods decide to use the Heat Ray instead of their Black Dust or Green Gas. But only kill 1 stand of Royal Canadian Mounted Police. |
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| The center Tripods raise their heat rays against the towers again, which shrug off their blasts. The woods are filling with drones and lobototons |
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| On the Martian right flank, The Tripods take cover behind the woods, deciding that approaching 9 tanks 1 Tripod at a time was better than taking fire from Nell. |
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| The first sweep of the Heat Ray destroys the Command Tank. Another Grenadier Tripod arrives and joins in on the bombardment of Nell. A second lucky hit causes a second critical hit on Nell! |
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| The Mounties and the Rough Riders go for the tow cable tangle attack, and immobilize a Tripod! |
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| Rolling down the rails is a fully charged Tesla Gun! But the strange weapon missed its primary target, and after much consultation with the rule book, and care full measuring, managed to arc from Rough Rider to Rough Rider, melting rubber and flesh, then to nearby Tripod, causing minor discomfort, then continued to arc through the RCMP! The end result was not enough survivors for a morale check as both units were destroyed! |
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| A Tripod explodes after concentrated fire by the tower, followed by 9 Machine Gun shots. |
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| "Oh deary me, I don't like this, not one bit!", mumbled the Marvin. |
Turn 3:
The Martians keep the initiative and press the attack. Loosing two units of mounted troops was a serious blow to the humans.
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| One Tripod is tangled up in tow cables, but it is a target rich environment, so it doesn't need to move as yet. |
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| The center, now reinforced by many Assault Tripods and a third Grenadier Tripod decide to stop dancing and will advance. |
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| Nell, now with 2 critical hits, will soon be assaulted by a horde of drones as well. |
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| These small trees are ideal for the Grenadiers to hide behind. |
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| On the right, the Martians don't get a lot of shots, but the humans are so bunched up that every shot has 3 or 4 targets. |
Turn 4:
The initiative continues to be Martian. Sweeping heat rays find man and machine alike. The minor victories is the movement of the train, which under house rules the Tripods cannot cross, has cut off one Tripod. K-9 is destroyed by an errant shell from the tower. And the Tesla Gun has survived but we are not sure which side is happier about that.
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| Steam Tanks and Heavy Infantry take hits but all pass morale and continue to fight back. The Martian attempt to flank Nell from the rear is largely foiled, as one Tripod is immobile, and Marvin cannot cross the train track. |
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| The Clamp tank burns, but the US Army Infantry dares challenge the Martian menace. |
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| The Field Guns on the fence line are assaulted by drones, losing one before the drones pull back to the safety of the woods. |
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| Scorpion drones, armed with spanners, begin to disassemble Nell from underneath. |
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| But Nell proves a hard nut to crack, or maybe the Drones have a metric set and they cause no damage. On their second move they will hide under the behemoth. Again the Grenadiers bombard Nell, and a third critical hit is made! |
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| The tower takes another hit, the infantry pulls back. Reinforcements arrive. |
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| In the center, more Tanks arrive as well. |
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| On the right, a Tripod explodes, taking out 2 Steamers with it. |
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| In the center, another Tripod explodes, taking with it a Slaver Tripod, and with that, the Lobototons collapse in a heap. |
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| Closing down for the night. The Human right flank is looking weak, but holding. |
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| The Human Left flank is looking strong. |
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| And the center, is in doubt. |
This is where we called it for the evening. The raw score is the Humans have lost 9 units out of 24, while the Martians have lost 4 out of 24. But American Industrial Might is about to be felt as dead units will be revived. And Nell, who now has 3 critical hits out of 5, is otherwise perfectly fine with all her guns fully functional, and now has targets to shoot at.
See you next week!
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