A Headless Body Production
Location: Phil's Basement
Event: Providence Gamer's Game Knight
Game: All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario: Martian Counter Attack
Players: Philip A., Philip G. Gardocki and Bruce Potter playing 141st Regiment, 36th (Lone Star) Infantry Division, and the 1st Texas Tank Brigade
Scott Landis, Steve Turn and John Forscythe playing the Mobile forces of Pod 16, Hive 3 (फली 16, हाइव 3) and Marvin's Martians.
The Battle of Caddo Lake was a pivotal moment in the fight to save Texas. Both sides committed their heaviest units, and the result was a decisive win for the humans. See The Battle for Caddo Lake, part 3.
फॅम्त्ज्ल्न्प्व्च्-।ैक्थ्ळभ्श्रज्ञस् observed the progress of the humans with his long range optics. They had had stopped chasing for now. Of his heavily damaged forces he kept retreating, while others used their time and were repaired. He didn't have enough to defeat all the humans arrayed against him, but he did have enough to throw back his pursuers.
6 Infantry Companies,
17 units, 1890 points, 9 command points
They have 9 units, and retreat if 5 are destroyed. About 1950 points, 10 command points
The Texans start with all their infantry forces on the board in the form of "blip"* counters deployed in a trench line that covers most of the south part of town.
Blips, page 66:
Blips are revealed for what they really are when one of the following happens:
• An enemy unit moves to within 6" and has line of sight to the blip.
• The unit represented by the blip shoots (or uses a special rule that forces it to give away its position, for example because you have to measure the range to the element to use that rule).
• The unit represented by the blip moves, other than as noted above for ‘stealth’ infantry and decoys.
• The enemy shoots at and inflicts at least 1 point of damage on the blip. For this purpose, all blips have a Defense of 5 and Armor stat of 4, the same as ordinary human infantry squads, and count the full benefit of any cover as if they were infantry, regardless of whether they are infantry, decoys or other kinds of units. Shooting at a blip in this way can reveal the unit it represents but does not cause any actual damage.
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| Jefferson Town, East |
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| Jefferson Town east. The red weed is following the water way of the Big Cypress Bayou |
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| I've done some repair work on the LED's |
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| The view from the clouds. All the Texans are dug in a fortified line. |
Turn 1:
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| The Martian advance in the center, forming a spear point attack. |
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| The oddly adorned martians, code named Marvin, Dewey and Louie advance a to just within range of their heat rays. |
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| From the trenches, Texas artillery responds. |
At the bottom of turn 1, the score is zero-zero.
Turn 2:
The Humans win the initiative roll and elect to move first.
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| Freshly coaled, 6 platoons of armor arrive and engage the Martian. |
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| There are 3 human players. Each has two platoons of armor except the center, which has a modified Mk IV tank. |
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| The east most platoons focus their fire on the single tripod, designated, "Dewey." |
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| And have a bit of undeserved luck. |
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| The Martians intent is to use their mobility to focus on the defenders on the east side of the town. A platoon of Mk III's race to intercept them. |
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| The Martian spear point enters sweep range. |
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| Marvin approaches the woods, revealing the infantry hiding there. |
Turn 3:
The Martians win the initiative and will move first.
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| The Humans are too close together, giving the Martians sometimes 5 targets under the sweep template. |
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| A company of infantry assault a tripod with grenades, to no effect. The Mk IV sets the it's sights on another tripod and brings it down. |
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| Marvin burns down the forest with his heat ray. The company of Machine Guns routs. The infantry takes 70% casualties, but stands. |
Turn 4:
The martians have lost two tripods, the Texans have lost 3 units of infantry. Several tanks are burning, but their units have passed their morale checks for losses.
The Texans win the initiative and elect to go first.
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| The clamp tank emerges from ambush and clamps onto the leg of a tripod. Now immobile, it takes many hits until it explodes, burning a pair of tanks with it. Then tripod explodes, vaporizing 2 companies of infantry assaulting it. |
The score is 4 tripods down to 5 human units.
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| It is not looking good for the Martians. Only one more tripod and they will retreat. While the Texans need 4 units to rout to be demoralized. But, the Texans have many units with only one element left. If the Martians can pick up enough of them, they can still win. |
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| Marvin tries to eliminate the last platoon in the woods, but misses. Louie sweeps two tanks, and also misses. |
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| This tripod spends a command point and double moves past the entrenchments, sweeping the tanks as they go by. |
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| Louie does the same, but misses all his targets. |
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| One platoon targets Marvin, to no good effect. |
But the Tripod in the center becomes the target of every other gun in range.
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| 6 shots, 6 hits. |
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| Enough to penetrate, and it goes down. |
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| Another overhead photo |
There was commentary that we were giving too much power to the entrenchments. Especially since they were hastily dug. So I am offering these rule changes.
Proposed terrain type. Hasty entrenchments. They offer full cover infantry and artillery to the front, but not the rear.
House Rules:
Clarification. Entrenchments and fortifications offer full cover both front and back.
Double moves. When a unit makes a double move, it must first complete one move, and meet all the requirements, before making the second move.
Machine-Gun Too Effective. Small arms attacks, including Rifles and MG's roll on the Tripod damage table at a -3. Less than one is still a one. Multiple penetrations on a single fusillade still add 1 per. This will reduce the chance of an MG causing a Martian detonation. For example, an MG Company rolls 9 dice, scoring 5 hits. Their power is +1 and need to roll a 10 to penetrate a fresh Tripod with an armor of 11. On the penetration roll, The MG's rolls 2 10's. On the Tripod damage chart they will roll 1 die at a -2. -3 initially, +1 for the extra penetration. The Martian tripod still could die, if the roll modified roll is 8, and the second roll is 10. But most likely, the result will be a single damage point.
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.
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 Land Ironclad is increased to 1,500 points.
Proposed house rules:
Tanks and Vehicles must start the game in a entrenchment or fortification to receive any benefit for it. They cannot simply just drive into an existing one and gain a benefit.
Light artillery can be manhandled to turn, or move at half speed, 2 inches.
Proposed terrain type. Hasty entrenchments. They offer full cover infantry and artillery to the front, but not the rear.
Clarification. Entrenchments and fortifications offer full cover both front and back.
Double moves. When a unit makes a double move, it must first complete one move, and meet all the requirements, before making the second move.
Machine-Gun Too Effective. Small arms attacks, including Rifles and MG's roll on the Tripod damage table at a -3. Less than one is still a one. Multiple penetrations on a single fusillade still add 1 per. This will reduce the chance of an MG causing a Martian detonation. For example, an MG Company rolls 9 dice, scoring 5 hits. Their power is +1 and need to roll a 10 to penetrate a fresh Tripod with an armor of 11. On the penetration roll, The MG's rolls 2 10's. On the Tripod damage chart they will roll 1 die at a -2. -3 initially, +1 for the extra penetration. The Martian tripod still could die, if the roll modified roll is 8, and the second roll is 10. But most likely, the result will be a single damage point.
