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: Steve Turn, Garth Parker playing 141st Regiment,
36th (Lone Star) Infantry Division, and the 1st Texas Tank Brigade.
Scott Landis, Phil Gardocki, Bruce Potter playing the Mobile forces of Pod 16, Hive 3 (फली 16, हाइव 3) and Marvin's Martians.
We decided to redo this battle to allow Garth to get a game in, and to adjust the scenario with some rule adjustments for the trenches. If the text and board look familiar, that is why.
The results were quite different.
The previous game can be found here...
I was setting up for a new game, and found this uncompleted battle report, with pictures annotated, but no narrative written. So here we are. Hopefully there will be another one next week, "Raid on Goose Creek, pop. 2610".
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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(aka hidden movement counters), 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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| The board from the Martian view. |
Turn 1:
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| The Martians have a general advance. |
At this time they have zero targets to shoot at.
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| The oddly painted tripod with the red crest is code named "Huey". The green crest is "Louie". In the back, muttering "deary me", is Marvin. |
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| With institutional memory burned in from last game, the tripods are adjusted to reduce the damage from exploding power supplies. Or warp-core overloads. |
When you think about the foot print of a Tripod exploding, it's huge. It's 6"from the tripod, but with a 3" base, that is a 15" diameter. About 1.2 square feet.
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| Cannon fire in the distance. |
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| The target is the blue crested martian, code named "Dewey" |
Why the silliness of the names? Why not? The Martian Front are really a beer and pretzels game.
Besides, putting a name on things gives the narrative more depth in the telling.
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| The Humans win the initiative. As the Martians are in range, they reveal themselves and fire. |
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| There was much shooting, but only on hit on the tripod, code named "Huey". |
The question marks highlight hidden movement markers in entrenchments. They may have troops, or be blank. It takes a successful shot to reveal one, or get a tripod within 6".
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| Comforted by the lack of human effectiveness, the Martians advance down the line. Center left of the line we have a burning, Mark IV, "Patton" tank, taken out by Dewey. |
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| Huey advances, but not close enough to see into the trenches. However, his sweeping heat ray melts a distant Mk III steam tank. |
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| Towering over the towns buildings, the Martians advance. |
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| Revealing the humans hiding in their trenches. |
The humans maintain the initiative and go first.
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| "Bows and arrows against the lightning". |
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| From underneath the Jefferson Municipal Building, the Clamp tank emerges and grabs one of Dewey's legs. Their crew bails out and runs for the cover of the building's basement. |
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| Huey climbs the hill, and hurls green gas bombs at the machine gun platoon, melting man and machine. The surviving crew quiver by their weapons. |
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| Heat rays dance across the tank line. |
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| Huey advances closer to the remaining MG's, and the gunners flee in panic. |
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| Many tripods now cross the trenches. |
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| Clearing away the remaining entrenched defenders. |
Turn 4:
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| Again, the humans win the initiative, but not by much. |
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| Using "American Industrial Might", and a lot of luck, a fresh unit of Mk III's arrive and fire. A tripod detonates. Flash burning the last of the field guns on the hill. |
And that pretty much was the end of the game. The infantry in the trenches were cleared out with sweeps and morale failures. The tank corps was fairly intact, but the break point was still reached.
And the Martians only lost one tripod. So it was going to be a bad day for the retreating humans.
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.
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.
Lovely, has a floor games flavor to it. You might want to check out Little Wars by Peter Dennis it has lovely figures you can cut out (or print out with the PDFs) with tripods, working guns etc.
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