Desperate Battle Near San Antonio

A Headless Body Production

Location: An undisclosed basement in Carlisle, PA 

Game: Version 2 of the rules: Return of the Tripods

Players: Phil Kearnan, Bill Stahl, George Deppner and +1.

Event: OttoDotCon!

 

OttoDotCon is a yearly event dedicated to the more light hearted versions of war-gaming. Fictional locations, silly victory conditions, absurd troop descriptions and double entendres are to be considered the norm. 

 

This scenario originally was The Desperate Battle at Frankfurt an der Oder. But someone, I won't say who, reminded me of the theme, "South of the Border", and could Marvin have a sombrero? So here we are...

 

Germans, Texans:
6 hastily dug in platoons of Jäger  infantry.
Reinforcements to consist of Texan acquired German tanks and artillery.

The Martian:
3 Slaver
3 Assault Tripods
1 Repair Drone
1 Harvester Tripod 

The new version of Martian Front takes place in Europe, Africa, Asia and Texas...

Our story...

The defense of Texas during the Second Martian war was regarded as a low priority. The Texas militia was the red headed step child adjunct to the US Army, was thrown scraps and old equipment and supplied with ammunition at irregular intervals.

The fact that they held most of the huge state was a testament of their ingenuity, their spunk, and tenacity to resist the invaders. 

Some would say that it was a lack of interest by the Martian. A vast area to hold with nearly zero exploitable resources, an extremely low population density, and an environment that could bake an unprotected Martian in hours. It was also noted that Martians ignored vast herds of cattle implying that beef was distasteful to their palette. Or it could be screwworm, or mad cow...

By 1916 Texans had had enough of depending on Washington’s good graces, and sent secret delegations to Europe looking for equipment in trade for one thing they had in abundance, oil. The US military had little use for the stuff, as their tanks were coal fired steam boilers, and the remaining vehicles were easily supplied by the Standard Oil wells in Pennsylvania.

The UK wasn’t interested, as their sources of oil were supplied by Emirates of Mejd and Hasa. And their combat vehicles were energized by infernal engineering of Martian equipment from the first invasion. The French relied on coal fired boilers. 

 

The Germans had fine-tuned their diesel engines to a high degree. But with the Ploesti oil fields were at risk of capture by the invaders, they decided it was a good idea to have a second supplier of oil and made a deal with the besieged Texans. 

German equipment, including manuals, metric tools and trainers were unloaded in secret at Port Arthur. The vehicles were immediately subjected to a reliability stress test on the long drive to San Antonio. There, they were issued to the unofficially named “2nd Reich” Brigade of the 3rd Texas Division.

The 1st Brigade, deployed along the Oder Nueces River, reported tripods before contact was lost. Fortunately, heavy rains have brought the river to near flood stage, slowing the Martian crossing, allowing for emergency digging in by infantry near Frankfurt an der Oder Crystal City.

With a couple weeks learning the differences between real and metric measuring systems, the 2nd Reich deployed from their training grounds straight into battle with the invaders.

The situation:

The Texan 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, has been dispersed by the Martian spearhead attack across the Oder Nueces River. A thin line of hurriedly dug in infantry is all that there is to impede the alien’s progress. But the Texans have not been idle, as the newly equipped and motorized 2nd Brigade is on the move.

The only silver lining is that only the huge Martian “Assault” Tripods were able to cross the Oder Nueces at speed. Their smaller Tripods are unable to navigate the strong currents of the Oder Nueces River.

The Plaque:

The table plaque. Marvin looks gorgeous!

The Reality is not so good.

Marvin is freshly adorned in a sombrero from some cheap shop in Cancun.

"I'm ready for my close up Mr Demille."

Deployment:

The Martians start on the board having crossed the Nueces river with 3 of their Assault Tripods.

 The Texans have 6 platoons dug in on the other side of Crystal City.

Fearlessly the tripods move forward.

Over the next two turns, the Texans rolled very well on the reinforcement table, calling in their best units, the German Sturmpanzertankthingies.

Starting on turn 2, a Human player can roll a D10 for reinforcements. 
1-3 Infantry Squad 
4-5 Sturmpanzerwagon Oberschlesien (tank) Platoon
6-7 Howitzer Battery (7.7cm battery first) 
8-10 Sturmpanzerwagon A7V + Panzergrenadier Squad arrives.

I looked up "Oberschlesien" and found it means "Upper Silesia." 

 

Turns 2 - 3 

 

The Martian Harvester also crossed the Nueces river, and charged into the town. This is the most feared tripod of all. Even though it has a short range, it gets 4 attacks, re-rolling misses against infantry, making it ideal for pulling infantry out of the buildings and grinding their guts in its maw.

Same view, other side of the map. The Texan foot have occupied the buildings of Crystal City, but have been targeted heavily by the Martian and are down to just 3 of the 6 originally deployed there.

Turn 4:

With most of the infantry neutralized, the Martian begins to trade shots, and damage, with the tanks.

A major difference between Martian front V1 and V2 is the tanks are much harder to kill. Each taking 4 hits to kill. So they can stand and duke it out with the massive tripods.

The victory condition though, is for the Martian to get 3 tripods off the edge of the board to destroy the rail yards, while not being outnumbered too badly on the board. At this point, the Texans only have 5 platoons on the board.

Marvin has taken a number of hits so far.

Turn 5:

Another Martian crosses the Nueces river. Giving them an opportunity to assault the rail yards before being overwhelmed by sheer human numbers.

One tank platoon is routed, but is immediately replaced.

Marvin and unaccredited supporting actors are about to exit.

The two extras exit the board, but Marvin collapses under a hail of 5.7cm cannons. Giving the Humans the 3-1 advantage they needed to win the game.

What is that on the bottom of the stand? Could it be "Flip me over?" No. I can never remember "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator." So I just pasted it to the stand.

The scenario was a near run thing. The Martians had 2 more tripods available that never arrived. On turn 2 rolling a 7+, they got one, the Harvester, but it was turn 5 needing just a 4+, till the next one arrived. Getting just one more would have had the game continue.

The Texans rolled very well with reinforcements. Getting 3 of their best units on rolls of 4 or 5, and they also got a Howitzer battery, which the Martian immediately targeted and killed. They never rolled their weaker platoons of infantry on a 1-3 or their weaker infantry fighting vehicles on an 8+.