The (New) Red Martian

 A Headless Body Production

All Quiet on the Martian Front: The Story Behind the Red Martian.

This story is a copy of an article I wrote back in 2014.  It has been updated an image of Marvin 2.0.

The original rules had a “Red Martian.” But other than the color Red, Marvin is unrelated to that poor tormented soul.

Marvin's origin begins with a conversation with my wife.  I was trying to work out a paint scheme for my Martians.
And she asked, “Do you think you would paint one like Marvin the Martian?”
I looked shocked, and she thought she offended my sensibilities.
“How can I NOT paint one like Marvin the Martian?”
She baked the shoes and the rest is All Quiet on the Martian Front history.

The subject of many campfire stories intended to scare new recruits, and, in fact, judged by most senior command as a myth, the Red Martian does actually exist. How or why the Martians with their cold, purely logical, and seemingly total lack any emotions, modified this Tripod in this way is unknown.  But unlike the Yanks to the south, which has made another horror story out of this peculiarity with disconnected facts, we Canadians have a more reasonable explanation.  

We believe this Martian had a mechanical failure, either through an accident in the rough wilderness, or by some manufacturing error, we can’t say.  But this tripods system had a major failure, leaving the Martian pilot to fend for itself in the Taiga for many days before it was found and rescued by its compatriots.  While in the woods, it would have to feed on the food available, the animal life would have easily fled its presence, leaving only the local flora, quite of few of which have hallucinogenic properties.  

One can only imagine the torment suffered by this beast by interacting with large talking anthropomorphic rabbits, ducks and other animals of the wilderness.  It is amusing to think so.

That the Red Martian is a tormented member of the northern Martians is almost certain.  When seen, it is often heard to be making noises to itself, shooting its heat ray at non military targets, and on rare occasions, striking one, and then doing some sort of celebratory dance.

 

 

Marvin and K-9 by the Tree of Woe.

 

For the sake of the new game, K-9 is a repair drone.

 

 

 

AQMF v2.0 Second Pass

A Headless Body Production

Location: Phil's Basement

Event: I just finished painting some of the new figures and dammit, I'm going to put them on the table!

Game: Return of the Tripods

Scenario: just putting them on the table. No special rules, open terrain, just ignore the hills on the side...

Players: Solitaire.

I finished enough figures to try out the rules for familiarization.

The Germans:

2 platoons of Oberschlesien tanks painted mit decals! 50 points

1 platoon of A7Vs, Armored Personal Carriers sans troops. 20 Points

5 Command points

The Martians:

2 Tri-links of Raider Tripods. 70 points

This is just me trying to work out the nuances. Much of the game is the same from the original version, which can lead to confusion when it isn't.

For instance, human vehicles can take multiple hits.

One thing that is confusing is with the army builds. There are plenty of add-ons for every unit. Some are obvious, like +5 points to make tanks veterans. Some are less obvious, like additional elements to a rifle company. Which are only primed at this time, so a concern for a later date.

Then there are command points for humans, and Tri-links for the Martians. 

Note: Inappropriate capitalization is used to highlight specific rules or keywords to the game. 

Red dice represent rolls by the Martian.

The Board:

The board is clear, the hills are really cosmetic. 4' x 6'. This is just to continue shaking out the rules. Some of the play erroneous play action was clarified by the game designers. Thanks Brandon Toomey!

And asking questions on the Return of the Tripods Facebook page as they occur.

The last game was a total slaughter of the Martians. Somewhat due to misunderstanding the rules, but mainly it seems to have been luck on the initiative rolls. In that game, despite the Tri-link advantage of +2, the Martians did not gain the initiative until it didn't matter any more.

It seems like history is repeating itself.

Like the last game, I gave orders to both panzer platoons. And selected "double-time" to get in range and first shot.

The Oberschlesies rolled a 10 for double time, but are limited to +8 by the rules. Good enough to get in range with their 5.7cm guns with +3 power.

And like the last game, rolled 3 misses...

The first triad of tripods advance and unleash with their "double firing" blasters (with +2 power). 4 hits were scored, but only one penetrated the thick armor of 8 of the panzers.

The second platoon of Oberschlesiens also activate with "double-time", this time scoring a severe hit on the middle tripod.

The Raiders activate and destroy a panzer, damaged another.

One rule of note is "Raider Insight." Page 93. In a tripod in a Tri-Link is activates, any unactivated Raiders may activate along with it. This behavior did not change from the previous game, just the mechanism.

So a Tri-Link with an Assault Tripod and two raiders activates. All of them can activate. Where as a Tri-link of all Assault Tripods can only activate one tripod at a time.

Turn 2:

A tie roll for initiative, but the Martians have +2 for having 2 active tri-links.

The Martians have generated two command points from their Tri-Links. They allocated both with the intention of using them as "Pour it on" orders. It is not clear if the Order token is applied to a single tripod, or the whole unit, like the humans.

For this game, only one tripod will have the benefit of orders.

The Martians near the hills, one of which with "Pour It On" orders score fairly well against their opposing Oberschlesien panzers.

The Germans activate the opposite platoon. Both platoons have order tokens with the intention of using them as Pour-It-On. As this platoon hasn't been shot at, it was activated first. Getting the most mileage out of the Token. And a good thing. They managed to topple a tripod before losing two of their number in return fire.

The slower, and weaker A7V's advance for their first shot. One is in MG range (Blue dice) The other is not. But all roll successful hits!

And all roll successful penetrations! Bringing down another tripod.

The last panzer platoon fires with "Pour It On" orders.

To good effect!

Turn 3:

The humans have +2 for destroying 2 tripods last time, while the Martians have zero active tri-links.

Winning the initiative rewards the player with one free "Maximum Effort" order.

Maximum Effort allows a double fire activation. The panzers focus on one tripod to "seal the deal."

The other panzer platoon failed it's morale check and is effectively destroyed. The A7V's slowly turn and shred the remaining tripod.

In the last game the A7V's counted their MG's as two per gun on the model, 4 shots with rapid fire per side.

This has been corrected to 1 MG per hull, period. Counting 2 shots with rapid fire.

As far as I can tell and unlike the previous game. Once routed, the unit is effectively destroyed and not recoverable.

The last remaining tripod passes morale. Their morale is a base of 3, +2 for losses, so it only needed a 5 to stick around.

Turn 4:

Not only passed morale, but gained initiative.

With initiative, the tripod also gets Maximum Effort. It takes 4 shots. Putting only two more hits on an Oberschlesien

If the number of Shock markers is greater than the number of remaining structure, then the element/unit makes a morale check. But this is unnecessary here, as the number of structure remaining and number of Shock counters is 1.

The A7V's "rush" to the last standing tripod, their 3.7cm barbette mounts causing an additional damage.

The Martian continued to pass their morale check.

The humans have a +2 for destroyed tripods and so win the initiative.

The last Oberschlesien gains "Maximum Effort", and rolls for 2 5.7 guns and 4 MG's

The Martian only had one structure remaining, so it didn't matter which hit scored.

 

 Mistakes made. 

On turn 1, the humans missed claiming Maximum Effort for winning the initiative. They could have applied it to the A7V's, and gotten into MG range a turn earlier.

 On turn 2, the Martian assigned both orders. If they had not, then they could have used Maximum Effort to one of their units.

AQMF v2.0 First Pass

A Headless Body Production

Location: Phil's Basement
Event: I just finished painting some of the new figures and dammit, I'm going to put them on the table!
Game: Return of the Tripods
Scenario: just putting them on the table.  No special rules, open terrain, just ignore the hills on the side...
Players: Solitaire.

I finished enough figures to try out the rules for familiarization.  

The Germans:
2 platoons of Oberschlesien tanks painted sans decals.  50 points
1 platoon of A7Vs, Armored Personal Carriers sans troops. 20 Points

The Martians:
2 Tri-links of Raider Tripods. 70 points

This is just me trying to work out the nuances.  Much of the game is the same from the original version, which can lead to confusion when it isn't.

For instance, human vehicles can take multiple hits.  

One thing that is confusing is with the army builds.  There are plenty of add-ons for every unit.  Some are obvious, like +5 points to make tanks veterans.  Some are less obvious, like additional elements to a rifle company.  Which are only primed at this time, so a concern for a later date.

Then there are command points for humans, and Tri-links for the Martians. 

The Oberschlesien tanks are listed as 2 command points per platoon.  Does this mean they provide 2 command points each, or require 2 command points to bring on the board?  And what are command points used for?  Are they required for special orders?  I know that command points can be applied after the initiative die roll.  But anything else?  I'll have to research that further.

The Tri-Links of the Martians are used to modify their initiative rolls.  Which is a huge advantage.  But what happens when a unit's link is broken?  Does the remaining tripods go unresponsive?  Or just unable to apply orders like Double-Time or Pour-it-on? 

The Board:

Just a simple setup.  No terrain to speak of.  Reapers, when they detonate, have a 4" explosion range.  So they are set up 6" apart.

I was surprised that Oberschlesien (say that three times fast) were only 25 points, so I added the assembled, but unpainted A7V Troop carriers, without any infantry.

A question about the A7V's.  Their standard kit are rapid fire Machinegun's (x2).  They are assembled with 4 of them.  Do they count as just one MG, and roll 2 dice, or 2 MG's per side and roll 4 dice, or 4 MG's and roll 8 dice?  

Until corrected, I decided that they count as 2 MG's per side and 4 dice.

Question about Oberschlesien platoons.  The card has an option, (0-2) Oberschlesien tank 10 pts.   Does that mean you can field a 5 tank platoon for 45 points?  25 for the base of 3, +20.  Then there is a Veteran option.  5 pts.  Is that cost the same to upgrade a 3 vehicle platoon as 5?  Or is that 5 points per tank?

The Martian raiders are deployed.

The boards edge is the water.  Terrain and debris from previous games are in evidence.

Turn 1:

The Martians have a big advantage in rolling for initiative.   Gaining a +1 bonus for each active Tri-Link.

The Germans have issued Double-Time to all their units.  The Martians, none, expecting to apply a free "Maximum Effort," for free to one of their units after they win the initiative. 

And this is why we roll dice...

The Germans activate one of their Oberschlesien platoons.  Having assigned "Double-Time", they roll a die adding 6" to their normal movement. 

Which puts them just within main gun range of the opposing Martians.

Scoring 1 hit, but no penetrations.

A major difference between v1 and v2 is that movement is interleaved.  One side activates a unit, then the other.  The old version was the side with initiative got to move and shoot all their units.

Laughing at the human weapons, the raider tripods advance and fire their blasters.  2 shots per raider, and +2 power.

And score negligible damage.

The next platoon of Oberschlesien also have "Double Time" orders, but were not enthusiastic about it, and advance only a couple of inches.

Their opposing raiders have a range disadvantage, just 15" vice the Oberschlesien 24.  And cannot get in range at this time.

The A7V's also move too slow to engage.

Turn 2:

This time the Germans give "Pour-it-on" orders to all their units.  

Roll for initiative,  The Martians still have a +2 advantage on the dice off.

OOOkkkk... then.

The first Oberschlesien platoon advances to MG range and whiffs every roll!

The dice are set to 1's for drama's sake.  There were more rolls as well because the MG's double fire.  But every roll of the 9 dice were under the 6 needed to hit the tripods.

 But wait!  "Pour it on" means re-roll all misses.

Not much better....

But enough for a couple of hits.

The Martian blasters score a pair of hits as well.

The red splot marker is substituting in for a shock counter, which are primed, but not painted.  The Oberschlesien on the left will need a morale check.  As it it has 3 hits against it's structure of 4 and a shock counter. The middle tank is not required to take morale as it has more structure than shock counters.  

And to avoid over dramatizing the situation, the left most tank passed it's morale check at the bottom of the turn.

The next Oberschlesien platoon advances to MG range as well. 

Scoring a basket of hits. 

They avoided exploding 3 times, but are just as dead.

The last Tripod of the wrecked unit was already in range of this tank, and fired to good effect.  The Germans had enough and abandoned their flaming vehicle.

Again, I don't know what the effect here is for a broken Tri-Link.  Was the raider entitled to a shot or a move?  

Since the raiders only have armor of 6, I decided to expose them to the MG's on the flank of the A7V's, vice the more powerful main gun.

I allowed for 2 MG's per side, per A7, and rapid fire, for a total of 12 dice.

I now believe that giving them 2 MG's on the side for 4 dice is overpowered.  That raider didn't just explode.  It was trashed, grated, perforated, then exploded. 

Turn 3:

The Germans issue "Pour-it-on" orders to all their units.  The Martians also issue the same order to their remaining unit.

They have +3 to the initiative roll to the Martians 1.

Not that it mattered.

The Germans go for a repeat of turn 2.  12 dice.  It wasn't even close.

The remaining Tripods fire their blasters.  But the Oberschlesien's armor just proved too tough.

 

And I think the condition of the Oberschlesien platoon is that it requires not require a morale check.  It has 4 structure remaining and two shock indicators.  The tank on the right succeeded it's morale check on an earlier turn.

The Oberschlesien return fire destroys another Tripod.

Turn 4:

The Martians have had enough.  If they get the initiative they will flee off the board. 

Well, that isn't happening...

2 of the A7V's line up to perform the coup de grâce.  My understanding is vehicles can shoot through infantry, but not other vehicles.

So that is it.  I would appreciate any commentary as to what I did wrong.  

The Germans were extremely lucky to get the initiative 4 rounds in a row when the odds were against them.   It didn't matter on turn 1, but once they were in short range, it was all to their advantage.

IMHO, the A7V's are overpowered the way I ran them.  So far, the commentary on the FB page is 4 shots to a side is correct.  But I'll wait for an official opinion.

I'll have to look at the "Pour it on" order.  That seems overpowered as well.  Maybe there is a limit as to how often it can be applied.  Like a command point limit.