The Second Battle For Fort Edmonton.

A Headless Body Production

All Quiet on the Martian Front After Action Report: Monty’s Pythons vs Marvin's Martians

Location: Phil's Basement
Game: All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario: Dump the Box!
Players: Stephen Turn, Garth Parker: Marvin's Martians
               Phil Gardocki, Bruce Potter: Canadian 2nd Armoured Squadron

The Forces: "Monty’s Pythons", the 2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment*, 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade.  Consisting of 5 Infantry Company's, a MG Company, Command Stand, a troop of Mounties,  3 Field Guns, an Anti-Tripod Gun, 6 Mk III's, 9 Mk II's, a clamp tank and Nell.  About 2,440 points

Elements of Pod का क्रोध आपका, hive एक पल का क्रोध आपका भविष्य बिगाड सकता है, a total of 13 tripods, 7 Assault, 2 Grenadier, 2 Slavers and 2 Scouts, supported by 18 Drones and 9 stands of Lobototons.  About 2620 points.  

Scenario: 

The Martian expansion has been held in check by the combined Canadian/British/American forces stationed at Fort Edmonton in the far west.  With the arrival of the huge human war machine, the Collective Hive Mind has deemed that it is necessary to attack on the main human base in the area and eliminate the threat before it can be effectively used against them.  By launching several simultaneous spoiler attacks, major forces have been drawn away from the human base. 


The Board:Fort Edmonton, 155 acres of recently cleared area in western Canada. 

Special Rules: Nell, the Land Ironclad misappropriated by malingering forces of the Canadian armed forces has a number of restrictions placed on her.  See the bottom this AAR for details.

The Human player has 3 units of Mk II steamer tanks in reserves.

The Martian player must destroy Nell to win. 
 

Deployment:
Humans have all  but 3 of their units on the board.  Some 18 hidden movement counters have been place to represent hidden infantry and artillery units.

Having the advantage of seeing the deployment, the Martians decide to go after Nell with their massive number of drones and lobototons, while trying to suppress the mostly hidden humans with the tripods.

That is  a whole lot of tripods.

Even more tripods, led by Marvin the Martian.

Deployment picture, different view.

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The Captain strolled the grounds surveying their preparations.  They knew the Martians were mustering and would try to eradicate them soon.  Only a few of the Steam Tanks were in view, the remaining hidden nearby waiting for the signal to arrive.

Trash was left deliberately strewn about, the better to confuse the invaders where the dug in units actually were.  Some of the new body armor had also arrived.  Proof against gas and dust they said, now only if the poor sod's that had to wear it could run more than 200 yards before falling in exhaustion.

Then there was Nell.  He looked up to the top of the great Land Ironclad where their lookouts were stationed.  Highest point in the land, some 80 feet.  Taller than the Martian war machines by a head.  And a lot tougher too.  But it also consumed more coal than all his tanks combined, and used large caliber shells that they didn't have in stock, nor were the Americans inclined to supply right now.  

The noise of an approaching motorcycle interrupted his thoughts.  Sir Dennis Moore, the British liaison recently arrived from England drove up.

Moore turned off his motorcycle  and ran towards Captain Palin, excitedly holding a telegram.

"They are coming, I have just gotten confirmation over the Tele!" he cried.

"What is coming, pray tell? queried Captain Palen, "Medicine, blankets, clothes?"

"No", replied Sir Dennis Moore. 

"Coal, 12 inch rounds for the big gun?" continued Captain Palen.

"No", replied Sir Dennis Moore. 

"Then what?" demanded Captain Palen.

"Lupins!" declared Sir Dennis Moore.

 "Oh Christ!" exploded Captain Palen.

"I thought you liked them." replied an astonished Sir Dennis Moore.

Captain Palen built up to a first class rant, "I'm sick to bloody death of them. We are bloody dying and all you bring us is lupins. All we've eaten mate for the last four bleeding weeks is lupin soup, roast lupin, steamed lupin, braised lupin in lupin sauce, lupin in the basket with sauted lupins, lupin meringue pie, lupin sorbet... we sit on lupins, we sleep in lupins, we feed the cat on lupins, we burn lupins, we even wear the bloody things!"

"Looks very smart." replied  Sir Dennis Moore.

"Merrooww" <Bump>.

 Captain Palen pointed to an object off screen, "Look. The cat's just choked itself to death on them."

Captain Palen was working up for a further rant, but noticed frantic signalling from the watchmen announcing the arrival of even more obnoxious visitors.

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Turn 1:
Martians have the initiative.

The drones and lobototons head through the woods, while the tripods try to hide behind them.

Clamp tank hiding behind Mrs. Nesbeth's house.

The heat ray arcs through the forest.  Revealing guns, with men standing by.

Second and third tripods ready to fire.  Two guns are destroyed and the third abandoned by their gunners.

The drones run through the forest.

One shot taken by Nell with her 12" gun, and Marvin is blown off frame and into next week.

Turn 2:

Martians have the initiative.  They advance both tripods and drones.  The tripods reveal and decimate the hidden MG Squad, which routed, to be turned around by a command point.  The Antitripod gun was also revealed, but stood it's ground. 2 of the scorpion drones reach Nell getting a hit, that reduces Nell's armor to 11.

The Assault Tripods positions were cleverly aligned to be totally behind cover from the main batteries of Nell, leaving only a single Reconnaissance Tripod as a sacrificial victim to the heavy guns.  On the right flank, a combination of the Antitripod gun, the MG Squad and an Infantry Squad manage to bring down another Assault Tripod.

Tripods continue to advance with some cover from Nell's big guns.

Some of the faster drones reach Nell.

The other drones are somewhat hung up on Mill Creek.

Having reread the Nell Special Rules, Lieutenant Cleese decides not to face the peril represented by the pile of coal.

Nell fires both her 12" and 7" guns at the Reconnaissance Tripod.  The 12" shell ricochets off of the soft armor, but the 7" finishes the job.

Turn 3:

The humans gain the initiative, effectively having a double shoot and move.

Using the Reserves rule on page 69, the humans bring in 9 reserve Steamer Mk II tanks, surrounding one of the tripods.

=======================================================================
"Right", shouted Captain Palen.  "I designate the right most tripod as target 'White Rabbit', Charge!"
The brave knights surrounded and pummeled the hapless tripod till...
BOOM!
"Run away", ordered Captain Palen.  And after recovering his breath asked, "How many did we lose?"
"Ector"
"Gawain"
"Bors"
"Percivale"
"de More"
"That's three."
"Five sir!"
"And we'd better not risk another frontal assault, that rabbit's dynamite."
"Would it help to confuse it if we run away more?" offered Lieutenant Robin?
"Oh, shut up and go and change your armor." ordered Captain Palen.
"Let us taunt it! It may become so cross that it will make a mistake." added Lieutenant Galahad.
"Like what?"

=======================================================================

We fire on 3, 1, 2, BOOM, what the hell was that?  The Tripod detonates, with all the Mk II steamers in its blast radius.  Taking 5 of them with it.

And Nell is not alone!  The Armored Infantry rush out of the woods and assault the drones, trimming their numbers some.

The Martian commander smiling at the results of his blown tripod.

The Clamp Tank uses the hedge as cover while looking for a tripod to grab.

Turn 4:

The Martians take the initiative, effectively having a double shoot and move.

They see an opportunity to demoralize the Canadians by destroying the remaining Mk II's.  But only manage to destroy 1.  The troop passed its morale and stays in the field.  But unknown to the Martians, Nell has run out of 12" ammunition!

The tripods charge but only manage to destroy a single steamer tank.

=======================================================================

 Lieutenant Cleese shouted "We have the Holy Hand Grenade!"

Captain Palen mulled this over, "Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! 'Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! Brother Maynard! Bring up the Holy Hand Grenade! How does it, uh... how does it work?"

Captain Palen ordered "Consult the book of armaments."

Sergeant Maynard quoted, "Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One."

Private Brother continued, "And Saint Atila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'Oh, Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thy enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats, and large --"

Sergeant Maynard swirled his finger, "Skip a bit, Brother."

Private Brother turned the page, moving his lips as he scanned the book before continuing further, "And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'"

"Amen." ended Sergeant Maynard.

"Right!" Captain Palen pulled the pin and counted,  "One... two... five!"

"Three sir", corrected Sergeant Galahad.

"Three!" and the grenade was tossed.

=======================================================================

[BOOM]

Nell discovers that the Lobototons are armed with ratchets and spanners, and are dissembling her one bolt at time.

While a horde of drones are cutting away at the treads.

Turn 5:

The Martians keep the initiative.  The drone and lobototons continue to chip away at Nell's armor, but no critical hits yet. On the right flank, the tripods finish off the Mk II Steamers, while on the left they killed Nell's infantry runners, bringing the Canadian ground forces dangerously close to demoralization.

The Steamer Mk III tanks of Troop 'A', the Mounties and the Clamp tank cross Mill Creek hunting hidden tripods. While the Troop 'E's Mk III trade long range shots on the right flank.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police always get their man, and in this case they are hunting a Grenadier Tripod in the woods.  Troop 'A' targets the other Grenadier.

Troop 'E' faces off against 3 tripods.

Turn 6:

No pictures here.  

Nell's small guns attrit down the lobototon and drone horde accounting for a complete unit of drones.  Her 12" gun shoots a perfect smoke ring at the confused Martians.  But her 7" gun scores a hit on a slaver, with a damage roll of an 8.  That means a reroll for number of armor points and rolls a perfect 10!  The tripod crumbles into a bunch of parts securing the last tripod needed for a win by the Canadians!

Nell Special Rules:

The Canadian-American Alliance has been strained by the Canadian acquisition, either found or stolen, depending on your point of view, of the Landship, “Nell”, otherwise known as “The Spirit of Detroit”, as the Americans have named it.  

The Americans have been putting pressure on Canada to get “The Spirit of Detroit” back, as such there are numerous rules governing its use.

Low Ammunition.

The Americans have refused to provide the 12”, 7” and 5” shells for “Nell”’s guns.  Britain has made shipments of ammunition of all these calibers, but it has yet to reach the Western Canada.

When each of these calibers makes a “to hit” roll that is exactly “1”, that gun is out of ammo.  For the 5” guns, this applies only to the turret in question.  That turret is out of ammo for the next turn, but is restocked by shifting rounds from other turrets.

A gun that is out of ammo may still be target and fire blanks, to try to fool the Martian that it is still functioning.

Low Coal

Nell needs more coal than all the rest of the 2^nd Squadron combined, as such, measures have been taken to conserve coal.

Nell is deployed next to the coaling station.  Nell needs to remain there until turn 4 to be fully coaled.  

If a heat ray misses Nell, (I.E. A “to hit” roll of 1 or a 2) the coaling station is hit instead, exploding, causing 5 +4 hits to Nell and everyone else within 6”.  Units at a range of 6.1 to 12” suffer 3 +2 hits instead.

Nell is running on one boiler out of four, it takes time to stoke up the remaining boilers.  As such she moves only 1” on turn 1, 2” on turn 2 and 3” on turn 3.

If not fully coaled, roll a D10 each time Nell moves, or uses the Steam Defense.  On a 1, the coal bunkers are empty, and Nell can only move 1” a turn thereafter.

Skeleton Crew.

The proper crew for the Landship is considerable and Nell hasn’t been fully crewed with trained personnel.

Due to minimal crew available for damage control, all hits on the Damage Chart 6+ are considered critical hits towards the 5 critical hits required for Nell to be considered destroyed.

If a critical gun hit is made, roll the die to determine which gun is hit.  The Martians may reroll that die if they see fit.  The reroll must be kept.  

Cannibalizing units.

             Some of the manpower to crew Nell was taken from infantry units.  

Infantry and Machine Gun unit only gets one additional hidden movement counter instead of two. 

Nell's First Date

A Headless Body Production

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

Location: Phil's Basement
Game: All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario: Dump the Box!
Players: Stephen Turn, Garth Parker: Marvin's Martians
               Phil Gardocki, Bruce Potter: Canadian 2nd Armoured Squadron

The Forces: "Monty’s Pythons", the 2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment*, 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade.  Consisting of 5 Infantry Company's, a MG Company, command stand, a troop of Mounties,  3 Field Guns, An Anti-Tripod Gun, 6 Mk III's, 12 Mk II's, a clamp tank and Nell.  About 2,290 points

Elements of Pod का क्रोध आपका, hive एक पल का क्रोध आपका भविष्य बिगाड सकता है, a total of 11 tripods, 7 Assault, 2 Grenadier, a Slaver and a Scout, supported by 9 Drones and 9 Lobototons.  About 2190 points.  

Scenario:  I am in the finishing stages of my second wave delivery and a few pieces I bought around Fathers Day.  This greatly up scaled both sides adding four more tripods, two batteries of guns, four units of infantry, three more steam tanks and the centerpiece, a Land Ironclad, affectionately named "Nell".  For a humorous back story of Nell, click here.

We were using some of the guidelines outlined in scenario two, "Bunker."  The Humans deploy everyone on the board.  The Martians deploy on the board edge, with up to half their tripods available in reserve.


The Board:Fort Edmonton, 155 acres of recently cleared area in western Canada.
 

Deployment:

Humans have all their units on the board.  Some 18 blips have been place to represent hidden infantry units.

Having the advantage of seeing the deployment, and seeing the specs of Nell's "Big 12 inch", the Martians put half their forces in reserve and hide the rest.  The only obvious forces are the drone/lobototon horde and the Scout Tripod.

View from Nell's port hindquarter.  Of the tripods in the distance, only 3 are actually on the board.  The Spanish Inquisition is behind the coaling station.

Drone/Lobototon horde deployed, with Grenadier and Scout Tripods.  Mk II's are hidden behind the wood.

Anti-Tripod and Field Guns, with men standing by. 

This is the long view.  Clamp Tank, Anti-Tripod gun, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Field guns and 4 troops of Seam Tanks.

 ===============================================================================

Captain Palen stepped out from his tent, shaking his head at all the telegrams that had arrived overnight.

There were messages from the American Ambassador, (calling us thieves), a faux legal opinion from the British, (Damn, why can't you colonist's just get along?) and the most polite wording for "Up Yours" he had ever seen that was the response of the Canadian Ambassador.

He looked up at the cause of all the kerfuffle, there, 80 feet up, was Thomkinson.  "Thomkinson!", he called, "What are you doing?"

The sweaty man snapped to attention and threw an exaggerated salute, while the boiler room personnel, "Sooties" made a hasty retreat to the interior of the monstrosity that was Nell.  

"Sir, I am following your orders, Sir!"

"Which orders Thomkinson?"

"Returning Nell to where I found her sir!", responded the Junior Subaltern, "We are filling up the bunkers with the coal needed, Sir!"

"And do you have enough coal, Thomkinson."

"Not as such, sir."

"How much do you have, Thomkinson?"

"The Sooties think with a full bunker we can make Vegreville, or maybe Wainwright, Sir!" 

"And that would be.", Captain Palen prodded, now worried because those names were familiar to him.

"Half way to Saskatchewan, Sir."  

"How much coal will that take Thomkinson?"

"All of it, Sir."

"I see.  Thomkinson?"

"Sir!"

"Suspend that for now.  We have come to realize that it will take all the available coal in three provinces to return, "Nell" to the Yanks.

 ===============================================================================
Turn 1:
The Martians have the initiative.  Most of their Assault Tripods are off board seeking a flank march.  The Scout Tripod moves forward to use, for the first time at this table, it's illuminator.  Two Grenadiers then lay out a barrage of shock rounds onto the Land Ironclad, Nell.  Just to see the effectiveness.  Nell was unharmed, but the hidden movement counter under her was revealed to be a phoney.  The Assault Tripods also managed to destroy one of the Field Guns.  The Martians did their best to then pull back behind the cover of the

Then it was the humans turn.  The Martians had only managed to destroy a Field Gun, but then ducked for cover, almost.

Nell surged forward, moving full speed, a full 4 inches.  The big 12 inch "Super heavy" gun found a target and squeezed off a round.  Boom, the first shot exploded a tripod.  A most splendid portent for the new model.

The view from the Nell's starboard bow.

Replacing a tripod with a smoke marker.

I have to admit it, Garth took this one well.

The remaining shots missed their targets.  On to bound 2!

Turn 2:

The Martian drone/lobototon horde moved forward.  The disquieting jerkyness of the no-longer- human lobototons offering a quiet contrast against the smooth gliding motion of the drones.

The Grenadier Tripods fire again, assisted by the illumination of the Scout Tripod, and take out two elements of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and another Field Gun.  Both units however passed their morale checks and stayed on the board.

The remains of the RCMP hug a wall.  The surprise is the Anti-Tripod gun, far right, has a shorter range than the field gun, forward above.

The last Field gun destroys the Scout Tripod, blinding the Grenadier Tripods.

The 12" gun misses, but the 7" gun doesn't.  Scratch the Slaver Tripod, and with it, the entire Drone and Lobototon horde.

Turn 3:
So far the humans have had this all their way.  3 tripods destroyed, and major forces defanged.  It is making me question the value of the Land Ironclad, that at 750 points, compared to 200 for an Assault Tripod, it is too cheap.

The Martians maintain the initiative, and bring on a replacement Scout Tripod.  That should keep the Grenadiers in action.  They use their shock rounds on a unit of Mk II Steam Tanks, destroying two and causing the third to flee.

The Larch.

Two Mk II's gone, the third is leaving.

One of the flanking Assault Tripods is brought on early.

Turn 3:
The Humans gain the initiative, but have no targets to shoot at.  The Martians manage to get a cheap shot on a unit of Mk III Steam Tanks.  Destroying one, and the others of his troop flee to near the board edge.

Largely uninvolved till now, the remaining tanks get a taste of the heat ray.

Nell continues to move forward, but the Martians cannot be seen.

The only target is the Guinness Stout.

Turn 4:
The humans keep the initiative, but have no targets.  The tanks start to charge across the board.  The Martians peek out, shoot, then scoot, picking off a tank or two.

The Steam Tanks of the 2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment charge across the board.

Steadily advancing, Nell reaches the Mill Creek.  Be vaweee, vaweee, quiet, wee are hunting Machens.

Turn 5:
The Humans keep the initiative.  But once again are frustrated by a lack of targets.  The Tripods sense an opportunity, and leap out within sweep range, and flash their heat rays over and over the 2nd Squadron.

Nell creates a impromptu dam while crossing Mill Creek.

The plucky Clamp Tank takes the bridge.  The thought is I'll grab one of the tripods and hold it still.

Turn 6:
The Martians gain the initiative, effectively giving them a double turn.  They leap out again, and sweep the tanks of 2nd Squadron, destroying most of them.  With that, more than half of 2nd Squadron knocked out of action, the Martians are declared a winner!

In just two turns, the proud Canadian tank force is turned to rubble.

With only the Buzzards remain to morn their passing.

This fight was quite a turnaround from the beginning, so we'll give the Martian players another victory photo.

*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.