The Battle for Fort Worth

A Headless Body Production
 Location:  Gamers Heaven, Phoenixville, Pa
Event:         Providence Gamer's Game Knight
Game:          All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario:    Just crush them
Players:       Phil Gardocki, Scott Landis, Bruce Potter: The 36th Infantry Division, Texas 1st and 4th Armored Brigades.
                     Garth Parker and Mark McConnahay, Jim Thompsom: Mobile forces of Pod 19, Hive 4 (फली 19, हाइव 4)

The Venue

Gamers Heaven is a wonderful store located in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  About 25 miles Northwest of Philadelphia.  They are huge, with table space for 4 miniature tables, 8 or so board game sized tables, dozens of 1-1 sized tables, and about 2 dozen computer stations.  Food is offered in shop, and is cooked to order. 

The Scenario:

The Southern Front has gone to hot war.  The Martians are focusing their efforts to taking the city of Dallas, and to do so, first they plan to surround the city.  They have launched a double pincer movement.  General Funston has set up defenses in the east at Tyler, and west at Fort Worth. The defenders of Tyler were defeated in a pitched battle before the armored counter attack could rescue them.  All that is stopping the Martian from surrounding Dallas is the 36th "Lone Star", Infantry Division, supported by the 1st and 4th Armored Brigades, and one of those new-fangled Tesla guns.

  

The Forces:
Texas forces: 4 platoons each of Mk III's, and II's and a platoon of Texas Tanks, 2 companies of motorcycles,  5 companies of infantry, 2 companies of heavy infantry, 2 companies of heavy machine guns.  A battery of Texas Tea Tossers, the Tesla Gun, an Anti-tripod gun, a battery of field artillery, the clamp tank, and a command unit.
They have 26 units, and are broken if 13 are destroyed.  About 2,400 points.

फली 19, हाइव 4, the mobile forces of Pod 19, Hive 4: A total of 11  tripods,  6 Dual armed Assault Tripods, 2 Grenadiers, a Slaver, a Scientist, and a Scout.  Supported by 15 drones.
They have 16 units, and are broken if 8 are destroyed.  About 2,370 points

The House rules are at the end of the battle report.

Deployment:

The Fort Worth defenders are concentrated in a salient bordered by the meandering West Fork of the Trinity River.  They are well dug in with most units camouflaged and not visible on deployment. The zone within 3" of the river is considered trenches, offering +4 defense and +2 armor to infantry. 

The Martians start in the upper west corner of the board.
Using the Scientist's special ability, Marvin's heat ray has been upgraded to an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, with a range of 40 inches.

Victory Conditions:

Nothing subtle here.  The Martians win if they defeat the Fort Worth Defenders.  

Our story so far:

Captain Boone joined the cluster of officers out side of General McCook’s tent.  Two guards were stationed at the flaps.  About 30 feet away, a solder was standing on a propped ladder, sending signals with his flags. 

The tent flap opened and an Indian stormed out.  He trotted to an unbridled horse, quickly mounted and rode away. 

From the tent came the command, “Come on in boys!”

A dozen men entered the tent, Captain Boone overheard one say, “Hoo wee, Squanto sure was pissed.”  Followed by some laughter.

General McCook sat at his tent, scribbling off a note.  “Lieutenant Quinn, His name is Huupi-Pahati, and if that is too much of a mouthful to say, you can call him Tall Tree.”  He handed the note to a messenger, who rapidly left the tent with it.  “I will not hear any derogatory remarks made of our Indian allies.” 

The temperature of the tent, not quite 90 degrees, cooled noticeably.  “I’ll make this short.  I know we have never gotten along with the Comanche, but they are excellent scouts.  And for everyone one of them scouting, saves me a fighting man for the front.”

“But can we trust them?”, came a shout from the back.

The General stood up.  “The Comanche knew before we did that the Martian fed off us humans, and they understand that there is no living with them, so until every last Martian in Texas is killed, we can trust them.”

“And why was he so angry?”

“He was angry because I refused to give him any rifles.”

There were mummers of approval among the officers.

“Do you know why I am not giving any rifles to the Comanche”, asked General McCook?

“Well, yeah, so they won’t shoot us in the back!”

The General shook his head mournfully.  “I have got to get a better crop of officers”, he thought.  "Be careful what you wish for, after what happened in Tyler, I can only expect there to be a lot less of them.”

“I did it for the same reason I took the sabers away from the dragoons.  If you give a man a tool, then he will use it.  If I gave the scouts rifles, they’ll shoot at the Martians instead of hiding, and then be toasted for their efforts, and we won’t get information from dead scouts.  If I would give them anything, I would give them dynamite, something they can ambush with.”

“Gather around the map, this is what we know.  Some 11 or tripods are here”, he pointed to one corner of the map, “They have a cloud of those smaller tripods with them, and are heading our way.  We are going to use the west fork of the Trinity river to divert them to the artillery firing lanes, here, and here…”

Unofficial Rule Change:
We were going to change the turn sequence to one side moves a few units, then the other, throughout the turn, but that quickly got cumbersome in marking units that had moved and shot.  And it was dropped.

The points for the humans was dropped to 80% the published values.  This was an attempt at game balance, as our record for Martian wins seems to be 80/20.

Deployment

The view from the West side of the board.  Sorry for the mismatched mats.

The West Fork of the Trinity River, bulges northward and around Fort Worth.  To the south and off board is the rail line that needs to be defended or West Texas will be cut off.

The Trinity River is impassable to humans.  It slows tripods to 4", and drones to 3".  Drones that cross the river will short out and be lost with a die roll of 1 or 2 on a d10.

Most of the American forces are dug in deep and not visible.  All those white squares are hidden movement counters.  18 are dummies.

The view from the east.

Turn 1:
The initiative roll is 1 to 3, so the Martians have it.

The Texas Tea tosser throws steamer trunk full of dynamite down range, and receives an immediate response. 

This is followed by a Texas tank in the 1st Brigade.

Turn 2:
The initiative roll is 1 to a 9, so the Martians continue to move first and shoot.

The 4th Brigade advances to effective shooting range.  The Tesla crew throws off their  cammo netting and readies to fire.

Target, the red crested tripod, code named "Huey".

A 700 yard long lighting bolt strikes the tripod and grounds to the moist Texas soil.  With all of it's circuits and occupant fried, the tripod collapses to the ground.

The Martians spread out on the west flank.

Destroying another tank. 

The Martian drones swarm the woods.  They get the benefit of cover so the humans need an 8 to hit them.

The Machinegun Company is revealed, and they shoot up the woods, destroying a number of drones.

Field guns put down a barrage, destroying two Scorpion drones.

4th Brigades Mk III's let loose, and score a lucky hit on "Dewey", which explodes with an earth shattering kaboom.  The 2nd Mk III platoon picks off 3 more drones.

The Humans have the advantage here, the score is 4 (out of 8 required) Martians destroyed, to 3 (out of 13 required).

Turn 3:
The humans roll 6 with a +5 for initiative, and will move first.

Machine guns continue to heat up their barrels, and destroy another set of drones.

There were two routing units on the human side, but "Order" points were spent to rally them in place.  A fusillade brings another tripod down.  In the pile of wreckage, another Assault Tripod takes a weapon hit.

I don't know when the Scientist Tripod picked up a pair of hits.

The Martians are down 6 units, and they can see there are a lot of human units, yet to be revealed.

Downtown Fort Worth.  In anticipation of pursuit, orders were issued, and two companies of Motorcycles start their engines, moving at full speed crossing the Trinity River, then turning north to go around the bend in the Trinity.

The view of the Martian line from the north.

The clamp tank was in hiding to the north of the bend in the river, surrounded by a swarm of dummies.  It was hope it would be ignored as another dummy, until in range for a clamp attack.  But Marvin has seen this tactic before, and picked it off with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator at very long range.t

With their drone swarm depleted, the The Martians push their controller tripods forward into the woods to get into position to sweep the ridge line free of the Machine Gun Company.

The Machine Gun Company was well protected by the trenches (+4 defense, +2 armor).  The medium heat rays of the Slaver and Scientist prove ineffective, the Machine-gun company and responds by picking off the last Scorpion Drone, bringing the count of Martian units destroyed to 7.  Then the Mk IV unleashed it's 4 and 5 inch guns into the damaged tripod, bringing it to 2 points left.  The remaining Mk III scored two more hits, and it too crumbled to the ground.  Putting the Martian forces into retreat.

General Funston stared at the casualty report in disbelief.  5 steam tanks, one gun, mostly repairable, 72 men killed including 3 officers of low rank, and 36 Comanches that were caught in a blast wave.  He flipped the page over, and there was the complete list of the men lost, including the Indian names, and their translations. Unbidden, his eyes drifted to the half inch thick pile of paper that was the list of casualties from the Tyler debacle. 

He picked up the second sheet of paper in the report from General McCook. It recommended acquiring more Tesla Guns.  "Well, that is not going to happen" he murmured to himself.  McCook also wished to provide the Comanche more robust tools like steel pry-bars and cables and explosives.  (See addendum).

The next page was something new, a list of captured equipment.  The list included 3 undamaged drones, and 4 full sized tripods.  

Funston paged forward another 3 pages before getting to the addendum.  It contained a list of men to receive Badges of Military Merit, and Citation Stars.  The first 7 names were the men who manned the Clamp tank in an attempt to trap Martian in range of the guns.  "We may have to rethink that tactic," he thought. Then he got to the 8th name, "NO," he exclaimed!

His aid had just arrived with his coffee, and while startled at the shout, did not spill a drop.  He wanted to ask what was wrong, but that was not his place.  He placed the coffee on the desk, and awaited the Generals acknowledgement.

"No! No! No! No! No!", furiously, the General went down the list of names, flipping the page over when he got to the bottom.

On the back were these words.

May 4th, 1915

During the battle to defend Fort Worth, and by extension, Dallas Texas, the Comanche were employed by the US Army as scouts for the 36th Division.  Unequipped with modern equipment they fulfilled their roles with exceptional skill and elan.  They were well hidden in a woods to the north of Fort Worth, surveying the advance of the Martians in what was about to become a no mans land.  With shells falling and heat rays replying they maintained their position, even after it was overrun by swarms of enemy drones.

A nearby tripod received a fatal blow and exploded, killing 36 of them.  These men I have recommended for the Badge of Military Merit, and have offered a were-guild price to the tribe for their loss. 

The remaining Comanche, enraged by their loss, went on a rampage.  With only stone axes, rawhide ropes and gumption, they hunted and brought down 2 tripods, one slaver, and one of an unknown type.  Opening the machines, they dragged the pilots out, and in accordance with their traditions, buried them up to their heads and left them.  The Tripods we have captured mostly intact, but as to the pilots, Huupi-Pahati would only say, "Ask their gods when they arrive."

It is to these men I recommend the receipt of the Citation Star.  Each and every one.  Signed, "General McCook, Commander, Lone Star, Infantry Division."

Funston put the paper on his desk.  He reached took sip of his coffee, then reached for a pencil.  He wrote, "Approved in entirety, General Funston, Commander, Army of Texas."

After a pause, he scrawled on the bottom, "Give them what they need", he added.

=====================================================================

It is one thing to know your force was defeated, but seeing the tattered remains arrive at the hive is a totally different thing.

आपका भविष्य watched as two, just two, war machines returned.  Both were piloted by the Aberrations.  His other force, though victorious, had suffered badly.  With this loss, his hive was down to 40% their starting forces.  Is it enough to collapse the humans in his area?  He ran the math.  The answer was yes, he had enough, but any more losses would put his hive out of action for a year or more.  And the humans replace their losses with distressing speed.  Causing more harm is not enough, through victory, आपका भविष्य's pod would be undone. 

He issued orders to the ground commander of the victorious wing, who, even now was swinging south of the great human enclave they sought to destroy.  Retreat.  Destroy everything as you go, but retreat.  Take no chances, watch for tricks.

=====================================================================
House Rules:

Refined Line of Sight Rules (a work in progress):

We will start to use some refined rules for defining Line of Sight.
Unless in ambush (to be defined by the scenario) all units can see each other if within 6” of each other.

Beyond 6”, Human Infantry, Artillery, Motorcycle, BEF vehicles, and Martian Drones and Lobototons are not visible if deeper than 2” in the woods (dense or light)
Beyond 6”, Human Steam Powered vehicles are not visible if deeper than 4” in the woods (dense or light).

Beyond 6” Martian Tripods are not visible if deeper than 2” in or beyond Towering Ruins and Dense Woods, and any terrain type designated as a “Hill”.

            Note: The above is does not count if the hidden units have fired their weapons this turn or last.

The clamp tank does not count as a unit for the purposes of human demoralization.
Units brought back using American Industrial Might count as additional units.  Effectively each unit brought back raises the human demoralization level by .5.  They must be successfully brought onto the board for this purpose.

The Towering Ruins are passable to human vehicles, at half speed, but remain impassable to Martian Tripods.
Humans in Towering Ruins have their defense against heat rays and shock canisters improved as follows:
              Infantry +5/+3, Artillery +4/+2,  Vehicles +2/+2

Humans in Towering Ruins have their defense against green gas  and black dust improved as follows (wind tunnel effects):
              Infantry +2/+2, Artillery +2/+2,  Vehicles +1/+1

When in assault combat, the defenders do not get a bonus for terrain advantages for the "to hit" roll, but do get the terrain armor advantage, if any.

Macadam roads give a movement bonus to tripods.  

Dirt roads give a movement bonus to humans only.

The cost of a Tesla Gun is reduced to 175 points.

The cost of a Land Ironclad is increased to 1,500 points.