The Forcing of Pithy Gulch

A Headless Body Production 
Location:  Garth's Basement

Event:         Providence Gamer's Game Knight
Game:          All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario:      Defend Sappington, Montana
Players:        Bruce Potter, Scott Landis,Anthony Glancatarino, Dan Lerch, 98th Brigade, 51st Division
                      Garth Parker, Phil Gardocki,  John Forsyth, Hive थिलबन्धनात्, Pod जलाद्रक्षेत्तैलाद्रक्षेद्रक्षेच्छि

The Scenario:  Pithy Gulch was one of the 50 or so critical passes through the Rocky Mountains that needed to be held against the invading Martians, to contain them in the central states.  If the Martians destroy the coaling station, the next fight will be at a deficit due to a shortage of coal.

98th Brigade
4 Towers, 2 units Mk III's, 2 units Mk II's, 2 Infantry Companies, Patton Mk IV, 2 other Mk IV monitors, Tesla Gun, Tesla Mine Layer,  Mobile Howitzers, Heavy Howitzers,  A MG Company, A Motorcycle unit, HQ, Command Tank.  18 units, breakpoint is 9.

Hive थिलबन्धनात्, Pod जलाद्रक्षेत्तैलाद्रक्षेद्रक्षेच्छि
The Overseer, 5 Assault Tripods, 3 Scouts, 5 Units of Drones, a Slaver, a Scientist.  18 units, breakpoint is 9.

I realize there are missing units in the lists, I'll see if I can find them as I write.

Victory Conditions: 
Keep the Martians from getting to the town, represented by the coaling station on the lower left side of the board.

Our story so far:

In the far west, the Martians have been held back by a series of fortifications at strategic locations in the various passes, ravines and gorges. Concrete has been the greatest ally against the Martian as it was nearly indestructible to heat rays.  And though plentiful, there was never enough.  While losing any state was politically unacceptable to Theodore Roosevelt, the concrete factories of Portland and Benicia were considered of strategic importance.    

"Sir, he has arrived."  The lieutenant stood at perfect attention waiting for his commanders response. 

"He has a name Harmon, just like everyone else.  We don't need to mystify Captain Patton like some cheap dime store novel villain."

"Yes Sir!  Captain Patton has arrive with a platoon of those new Mk IV steam tanks, they are unloading at the depot now."

"So the mighty Captain Patton has descended from Mount Olympus to our pithy corner of the world, and he has brought Zeus's own lightning?"

The lieutenant stood, unresponsive.

The General got up, and paced to a corner of the tent, looking at the maps displayed there.  "And why is it that a captain rates so much special attention?  A private train, an entourage, of special armored vehicles, and apparently the ability to replace field commanders at his whim."

"Sir, he apparently is from a wealthy military family and it is said that he pays for the trains out of his own pocket."

"And that explains how a mere captain has more power of independent action then most Generals.  No, there is something else.  He is not just some spoiled rich kid from a spoiled family."

From the rear of the tent bellowed, "Maybe he has bailed out of more burning tanks then you have seen battles, General."

General Schiff turned to see the new arrival.  An officer wearing a freshly pressed uniform, and standing at parade ground attention with perfect salute.  General Schiff threw a return salute, and the officer adopted a perfect parade rest position.

"Captain Patton, I heard you had just arrived."

"I arrived last night, General, and was getting the lay of the land.  My tanks arrived this morning."

That was disturbing.  "And what have you seen?"

"Your men are well trained on their individual units, but need more work coordinating with others.  You have covering forces on both exit points of the gulch, but your forces covering one gulch cannot support the other if need be, lending itself to being defeated in detail.  There is a patch of old growth forest obscuring the view of then nearest exit point to your command which renders your operations and heaviest artillery combat ineffective.  Lastly, you have a coal bunker without suitable sprinkler systems that could explode after receiving a minor hit from a heat ray."  With that, the captain came to attention, and saluted, "Sir."

The lieutenant's face, turned bright red, and shouted back, "Those woods provide excellent cover for our heaviest forces, Allowing us to rain shells on the Martian without retaliation, and we will have plenty of time to adjust our forces when once we see where they are coming from!"

It was Captain Patton's turn to turn a little pink in the face.  He gave the General a raised eyebrow as an unspoken query.  The General made an affirmative gesture, and the captain faced the lieutenant.

"Lieutenant, I am not going to argue my credentials, but to say I have seen the Martian in action, and you obviously have not.  That old growth forest is going to provide excellent cover, for the Martian, and when they have used it, your best weapons will be useless scrap metal.  And how will you know they are coming?  When you see them?  That is way too late, do you know how fast those 3 legged jackasses move?  The time from sighted to burned to a crisp is under 2 minutes.  How are you going to react to that?  Where are your air craft?  I haven't seen one all morning."

"They have a 25% loss rate.."

"And that should tell you something.  That's one or two men.  When the Martians come, that will be the casualty rate for the whole division.  Then what?  If they break through here, then what is your casualty rate then?"

He faced the General.  "General, I have noticed there is an attitude among the General Staff, that winning the war is inevitable.  That we have stopped them and now we just need to build up forces.  We have the numbers.  That attitude isn't worth a donkey schlong sausage.  How many Martians do you think there are on the Planet?  Today?"

"Estimates are just over 5,000, about 1,000 capsules and 5 Martians each."

The captain took a deep breath, calming him self, "General, we have killed at least 7,000 Martians so far in this war.  That is just the USA, and no telling how many the British, Russians, and Japanese have killed.  What does that tell you?"

"The estimates are wrong?"  The General paled somewhat.

"General, the number of capsules shot to Earth is probably correct +/- 50%, no one really knows.  Do you know how the Martians breed?  I do, the egg heads call it binary fission, or budding or some such.  One Martian becomes 2, and both Martians have the same memories of the original.  EVERY.  GOD. DAMN. YEAR.  They have been in the hinderlands for who knows how many years before they showed themselves.  So again I ask, how many are there?  1912, 10,000, 1913 20,000, 1914 40,000, 1915 almost 100,000 of the bastards.  And they have industry, I have been in their hives, I have seen their fabrication facilities.  Their ability to turn out war machines is totally automated, put rocks in a hopper, and a tripod emerges.  It makes Henry Ford's moving conveyor belt look like look like a cave man chipping away at a a spear-point."

"General, I am here because we have to stop them here, and everywhere, because with their mobility, if the penetrate anywhere, they will be able to send a thousand of those bastards in our rear before we could react, and the west coast will be lost."

"General, I am here because I have seen the most action of any tanker in the army, and I know what works and have seen what doesn't.  I'm not a general, because I haven't earned it, and Generals have to be more worried about logistics and stuff, I only need to know how to fight.  You have a good killing field here, lets make it a great killing field."

Deployment:
The Martians have two entry points on the board.  The standup cardboard markers represent fortifications.  By house rules we charge 2 points per linear inch.  For tanks, the forts only add +1 to hit, +1 to armor.

Pithy Gulch, far exit points.  Tanks and a tower defending.

Close to the nearer gulch exit point, a concrete wall and two Mk Monitor Tanks.

Nearest to the coaling station, more concrete, tanks, including a flame thrower model

The far gulch is suddenly swarming with tripod figures.

The nearer gulch is also filled, It is an Overseer, with the rest of the tripods squeezed in.

Early shots disable the forward guns of two towers.

The humans focus their guns on the Overseer, chiseling the armor. and causing a mobility hit.

From the command area steam tanks pull out, lead by the Tesla gun.

Turn 2:
The humans lose the initiative and move second.

Using the Overseer as an umbrella, an Assault Tripod slides underneath.

Heat rays continue to slash at the tower.

A pair of heat rays reach out and destroy a pair of Mk IV's

Captain Patton gets to bail out of another tank!

A wounded tripod works his way through the old growth forest.

8" shell falling all round, the remain Martians in the nearer gulch spread out to avoid cascade explosions.

We discovered a special rule regarding the Heavy Howitzers.  They should have a 9" bombardment circle, but only a 4" is used, and for each additional inch, a plus is added to the power.  So Heavy Howitzers actually bombard with a + 9 power, rendering their armor almost useless.

The replying shots from the humans bounces off of Martian armor.

An 8" round plummets through the Overseer, reducing it's armor to 2!

Tanks and Tesla both cause armor hits on the Tripod in the verge.

Turn 3:

An Assault Tripod on a suicide run. 

The heat ray sweeps the Heavy Howitzers, melting one.

His armor useless, and a critical hit taken, the pilots of the Overseer drops their load of drones.
  Also, it fires the dreaded "Sunbeam", destroying the Flame Thrower tank,, leaving a 4 foot hole through a defense tower and damaging the coal station.

The Human Mobile artillery is routed, but a tripod is taken down by brute force.

Turn 4:
The humans win the initiative and elect to move first.

It's a chip shot, but somehow all of them miss.  But long range shots take the Overseer down to armor of 1 and destroys one of it's heat rays.

The view from the coal station.  The Martians have a great turn.  The rones take out a platoon of tanks, a pair of tripods sweep a hidden Machine-Gun company out of existence, while green gas turns another company to goo.

That's 8 units so far.

The far gulch is now bereft of targets for the Martian

So to, the center of the board is short on targets.

And with that, we called the game on time.  Technically there was one human unit left needed for a win, but so far, the Martians only had one tripod killed, so the win seemed inevitable.

George rapidly dropped out of the escape hatch, and with a practiced roll to the right, just stopping short of his driver in the dirt.  Two of his gunners were already in the dirt on the left side of the tank.  Two of his boilermen followed. 

Off in the distance, the bottom of tripod figures could be seen. 

"They look in pursuit mode." commented Captain Patton.  "Lets bunker down here."  Within a few minutes there was nothing to be seen from under the still burning Mk IV but dirt. 

"Captain, they got the coal bunker, so, even if we got the fire out, we won't have enough coal to get out of here."

"I don't don't think we're riding out of her Tom, this place is going to be infested with the three legged bastards."

"The radio got clipped, Captain, we might have a shot at fix'en it if the fire hadn't reached the command space."

"That won't help us either Mack, no help is going to answer that call.  I'm afraid we are on our own."

"We'll wait for dark and break out of this huddle, then after a taking a ferocious piss, we'll gather what we can and head over the mountains.  It's going to be a hard hike..."