Saving Captain Lawrence

A Headless Body Production

All Quiet on the Martian Front After Action Report: Canadian Steam Squadron vs. Martian Tripods

Location: Sloan Clubhouse, Phoenixville, PA
Game: All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario: Variation of scenario #6, Rescue
Players: Garth Parker: Marvin's Martians
               Bruce Potter: Canadian Armoured Squadron

The Forces: "Monty’s Pythons", the 2nd Squadron*, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment*, 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade*.  Consisting of an Infantry Company, a MG Company, a troop of Mounties, 3 Mk III's, and 12 Mk II's.  

Elements of Pod का क्रोध आपका, hive एक पल का क्रोध आपका भविष्य बिगाड सकता है, a total of 7 Tripods, 4 with heavy heat rays, 1 medium heat ray, one with green mist grenades and one with a black smoke projector.  


Scenario:  Canadian: The British war hero, Captain T. E. Lawrence, also known as Tł'é'na'áí to the Apache, was reassigned to Canada to train the Inuit’s in the same tactics of the Apache.  But his plane was seen to crash in the Canadian Taiga, and flares launched from that area imply he has survived, but have attracted the attention of both rescuers and the enemy.

Martian: Investigate the flying machine.  One of the human flying machines has flown near the newly established hive, ध आपका, and later seen to crash.  A war pod has been sent out to investigate the flying machine to see how far the human technology has advanced.  

Victory Conditions:
Humans: Major victory if Captain Lawrence survives.
               Minor victory if Martians are forced to withdraw.


Martians: Major victory if they defeat the humans and possess the airplane.
                Moderate victory if they just possess the airplane, and capture its crewmen.
                Minor victory if they just possess the airplane, or capture its crewmen.

The Board:North of Edmonton, deep in the Taiga. 

Deployment:
Both sides start with all forces off board and roll randomly for arrival areas.

The Taiga near Edmonton, Canada.  In addition to the obvious terrain present, the board is to be considered entirely brush and low cover strewn.  Providing additional cover to human infantry, but not vehicles.  The center piece of White Birch trees has the crashed biplane in it's midst. 

Turn 1:    
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 Captain Palin started the briefing, "Men, I'll be brief.  That great British war hero, and star of the American cinema, Captain Lawrence, has been lost."
Sounds of shock and awe rose from the crowd, punctuated by "That Pommy!"  
 "We believe he is alive and I have sent Dennis Moore ("That Commie!) and his Royal Canadian Mounted Police to scout the area.  After all, they always get their man!"
Knowing titters from the crowd.
"So when they signal with their flares they have found something we will ride out and rescue him."
"Won't the Martians see the flares too," asked sub private Baldrick?
"Yes, that is why we are sending out the tanks, and not just the local police, this is no walk in the woods", replied Captain Palin.
"Actually, this is the Canadian Taiga, and it is kind of what they had in mind when they invented the word, woods", chipped in Sergeant Idle.
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The Scenario rules stipulate that the Martians have the initiative on turn one, and move first.

The Martian's hive Reconnaissance Tripod and an Black Dust Projecting Assault Tripod arrive first on the scene of the crash.  On their second move, the Recon Tripod is already at the crash site.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also arrive on the scene, hidden by the dense trees.  Also present is a squad of infantry, which cannot be seen.

  Turn 2:

Both sides have forces on the board, but neither have been spotted as of yet.  But that is about to change.  The humans gain the initiative.  Two additional troops arrive on the board while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police race forward with their TOW cables and double entangle the Recon Tripod!  The infantry troop still cannot be seen.

Steam Tank Troops 'A' and 'B' arrive,and are well concealed behind cover.  A good match for two tripods.

Tally Ho!  The RCMP assault and successfully put two immobilize tokens on the Recon Tripod.

Captain Lawrence hears the noise of the two stroke engines and races out from cover where he has been hiding.
He hops on the back of one of the motorcycles and they race off!  Mission accomplished!  I have run this scenario 4 times, and never has Captain Lawrence been picked up so soon.

Martian reserves arrive and attempt to cut off the RCMP.  The Recon Tripod is using his reaper cables to recover the Biplane.
 One tripod releases his black smoke, suffocating two sections.  The newly arrived tripods raise their heat rays,
and send the last section and Captain Lawrence to oblivion.

The Larch

Turn 3:
The Martians have the initiative, and bring on their 3 remaining tripods. Due to concealment and range, none of the tripods can bring their weapons to bear.

Four of the fighting machines cluster around the biplane, and cover the gaps in the trees.

Two troops of steam tanks pull out from behind their cover and shoot.  With the Mk III's 3 gun configuration that's 12 dice,  scoring 2 hits, with damage rolls of 7 (Fire control) and an 8(roll D10 for damage).

Turn 4:
The Martians keep the initiative and move forward taking shots at whatever is peeking out from the woods.  The Recon Tripod has recovered the biplane, but is unwilling to shake off the tow cables wrapped around it.

The Humans bring on their Machine Gun platoon, but it cannot be seen.

The tripods decide to fight for the center.  Their remaining

Two tripods may be damaged, but this is an daunting formation to face.

Lieutenant Cleese riding "Sybil", Sergeant Manuel on "Harsh Language", and the unaccredited extra bravely face the peril.

2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment is in full cry!  "Bows and arrows against the lightning," commented one of the Machine gunners, which still could not be seen.

The shell burst clean in the face of the Thing. The hood bulged, flashed, was whirled off in a dozen tattered fragments of red flesh and glittering metal.

Turn 5:
The Martians keep the initiative.  The humans have bloodied them and have only lost one tank in return.

Shots traded, but little effect.  Two assault tripods have fire control problems, one has mobility control problems, and the recon tripod is immobilized.

At this time the narrator and photographer had to run an errand to pick up his son, hard at work in the local salt mines.  To simulate this you can leave this page and surf the web for a while then come back in about 30-35 minutes.  We will then skip forward to turn 7.

Turn 6

The Martian player is thrashing the woods looking for the cameraman of the biplane as that is one of their scenario's victory conditions.  And they find him! Securing a moderate victory.   The humans score no hits at all.

Turn 7

The Martians keep the initiative.  The heat rays are brought to bear in broad sweeps, destroying men and machines.  When it was over, Troops 'A' (the Mk III's) and 'B' (Mk II's) had been eradicated. 

Turn 7 (second half)

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"Sergeant Chapman, what are you doing?" shouted Captain Palin.

Sergeant Chapman stopped, and puffing mightily, threw a proper salute, "Sir, I just had an interesting conversation with the man from scene 24, Sir!"

"And what did he say, as I recall, he was a strange fellow."

Sergeant Chapman's eyes rolled upward, as if recalling the scene in his mind, "Stop!  Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, 'ere the other side he see."  Then, looking pleased with himself, he stood at half attention.

Confused, Captain Palin asked, "What does that mean Sergeant?"
"I don't know sir, I would have asked but I was afraid he would throw me into the Gorge of Eternal Peril."
Captain Palin shook his head, "Sergeant, just get into Patsey, the intermission is over."
"YES SIR, MOUNTING PATSEY NOW SIR!" shouted Sergeant Palin repeated the order with necessary loudness.  He then jumped to the nearby steam tank and hopped inside.
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The Martian approached the bridge.  He was met by the man from scene 24.  "Stop!  Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, 'ere the other side he see." stated the bridge keeper.  He then asked, "What is your favorite color?"  The tripod raised its heat ray and ululated "UUUULLLLAAAAAAA", then looked puzzled, and blew up.

The bottom half of turn 7 was bad for the Martians as well.  Another movement control hit.  Two tripods are down, and only two are fully functioning. 

The Machine gunners reveal themselves, to good effect, taking full credit for destroying a tripod, and damaging others.

The infantry squad, now revealed, makes a futile attempt to assault the tripod with grenades.

Only 5 steamers remains as the sun begins to set.

Turn 8:
The game ends on turn 8.  The Martians have the initiative again.

The infantry get dusted with black dust.  They lose two sections, but pass their morale check.

Marvin sweeps Troop 'B', killing two tanks, but they also stay on the board. 

In a last great act of defiance, the humans focus all their attention on Marvin.  Three 4 inch cannons, and 9 machine gun rolls bounce of his armored hide.  They all missed and as the sun sets, we have a Martian victory.


*Canada and England have different titles for their units than the Americans.  A Canadian Brigade is the equivalent of an American Regiment.   The Canadian Regiment is the equivalent of an American Battalion.  The Canadian Squadron is the equivalent of an American Company.   The Canadian Troop is the equivalent of an American Platoon.  One element could be a Section.

The Larch

Objective Downed Tripod

Two objectives for All Quiet on the Martian Front.

One is the "Downed Tripod" offered by Alien Dungeon, and wired with an LED that is constantly shifting colors, the other is a crashed Biplane from Wings of War.

In House Rules, the Water Tower Rule

I have had a long fascination with H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, and by extension with the great scares perpetrated by Orson Wells on Oct. 30, 1938, Páez's version in Quito, Ecuador on February 12, 1949,* and more lately, Beach and Neavereth's radio hoax in Buffalo, NY on Oct. 30, 1968.**   One of the stories of that scare concerned the people of Grover's Mill, New Jersey, where the Martians reportedly landed that evening. 

Grover's Mill Water Tower
Shamelessly stolen from the website:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/11516

One version of the story went as follows.  A group of people formed a militia to repulse the invaders.  They moved around, and happen to sight the town's own water tower, and opened fire.  Days later, when the issue came up on fixing the water tower, it was decided to leave it be, as a reminder that all people are fallible. 

I have always taken this story to heart and have with it a small collection of similar idiocies that occur when people are faced with the unusual.  The escaped panda bear in Amsterdam*** and anti-vaccination fanatics for example.  Where in reflection, no sane person would, but otherwise sane people did and do.  But in the days of the internet, I haven't found a source for my version of the story, but have found versions that were far less exciting, and with no anecdotal moral to the story.  Mainly no impromptu militia, just a couple of shots by person or persons unknown, and no subsequent memorial.  Though the water tower still stood as of a couple of years ago.

 

To that end, for All Quiet on the Martian Front, I am instituting a house rule.  The Water Tower Rule.

1) Main Rule: All Tripods that are within 6 inches of a water tower, gets a cover value of plus 1 to all shooters that are within range of both the Tripod and the Water Tower.  Usually this raises the to hit number from 6 to 7.  Should the to hit number match exactly the uncovered number, in this example a 6, then the water tower takes the hit instead of the tripod.  If the hit is by a cannon then the water tower is destroyed, and no longer has any effect.  Small arms fire, including machine guns cause no apparent destruction to the water tower.

2) Anti-Exploit Addendum.  The purpose of this rule is to reduce the chance of Martian players overly exploiting the main rule by clustering around it.  When defending, humans may pay points to trap the water tower by filling it with gasoline.  When the water tower is hit, the tower explodes, forcing a roll on the tripod damage table for all tripods within 6 inches.  All human forces within 6" also make a damage check at minus 2.  The Martian player may attempt to preempt this trap by shooting at the water tower with a heat ray.  The tower has a to hit value of 4, and any hit destroys the water tower, setting off the gasoline, if any

*Which led to the mobilizing the army and police force of the city.  When the mob found out it was deceived, they burned down the city news paper and the radio station.  6 people died, the perpetrators of the hoax went into exile in Venezuela.

**Which led to the Canadian Army mobilizing to stop the invaders at the key US crossing sites.

***Where a panda had escaped from the Amsterdam zoo, and in an effort to find it, was publicized for people to call a hot line number.  Over 10,000 calls were received of sightings.  The panda was found a few days later, next to the zoo on the train tracks, killed by commuter train.  It had been dead for days and it was realized that not one reported sighting was valid.

The Red Martian

A Headless Body Production

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

The subject of many campfire stories intended to scare new recruits, and, in fact, judged by most senior command as a myth, the Red Martians do actually exist. How or why the Martians with their cold, purely logical, seeming to lack any sign of 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 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.