Martian Civil War

A Headless Body Production

All Quiet on the Martian Front After Action Report: Martian Civil War

Location: Garth's Cave
Game: All Quiet on the Martian Front
Players:  Jack Seydow: The Thunderbirds.
                Garth Parker: Mobile forces of Pod 2, Hive 5A (फली 2, हाइव 5A)
                Bruce Potter: Monty's Pythons
                Stephen Turn: The Mobile forces of Pod 4, Hive 124 (फली 4, हाइव 124)
                Phil Gardocki: Marvin's Martians, The "Illuminaries".(हास्यास्पद कार्टून चरित्र)

The Forces: The British Expeditionary Force, AKA the Thunderbirds, commanded by Colonel Jeff Tracy and his temporarily assigned Adjutant Lieutenant Cleese. On assignment to Canada to gather information on Martian hives and determine effectiveness of British Technologies.  6 Monotanks, 3 Tribarrel Kitcheners, 3 Imperials, supported by 2 squads of infantry armed with coil rifles and machine-guns.  About 1,000 points in 6 units.

"Monty’s Pythons", the 2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment, 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade, commanded by Major “Lucky Pierre” LaRouche, who replaced Captain Palen, who was in hospital recovering from an encounter with a Bengal Tiger.  Their forces consist of 12 Mk III's, about 980 points.

Elements of Pods कार्टून वर्ण प्रकाश की,

2. 5ए पीआईओ ताकतों के लिए मोबाइल का छत्ता and

मोबाइल बलों के 4, 124 का छत्ता पीआईओ, 15 assault tripods, 3000 points.

Scenario:  Martian forces meet to discuss their political differences only to find their moot location occupied by human forces.  The Martians only get points for other Martians killed.  

The Board:Somewhere near a nexus point of 3 known Martian hive locations.  But then, maybe not.

Deployment:

The Humans start in the center of the board.  The Martians arrive from 3 different edge sites.

Preamble:
====================================================================

While Performing a reconnaissance in force, the combined forces of the British Expeditionary Force, AKA the Thunderbirds, and elements of the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade are operating at the end of their logistical tether.  The Canadian Steam Tanks of the 2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment, AKA Monty’s Pythons were kept operational by cannibalizing  coal from other units.  The Thunderbirds, which were powered by “Unspeakable forces” continued to roll forward, with the exception of a rather large number of mechanical failures.  The unit commanders, Major “Lucky Pierre” LaRouche, who replaced Captain Palen, who was in hospital recovering from an encounter with a Bengal Tiger and Colonel Jeff Tracy, were conferring on observations and mission parameters.  ==================================================================== 
Opening Dialog:
 Colonel Jeff Tracy looked disgustedly at the map section marked “Terra Incognita” and declared, “We’re lost!”

“Of course ve are lost mon ami, this is Western Canada,” retorted Major LaRouche.  “Ve cannot see the sun, or the stars, the compass points due east, the map is blank and other than asking directions from a chance encounter with a Sasquatch, the only way to know where you are is to drive west till you hit the ocean!”

“Or we could follow this dirt road towards the train whistle,” murmured Lieutenant Cleese.

 Colonel threw a disgusted glance at the Lieutenant, before poking a finger in the Majors chest.  "WHY, is this man my Adjutant," he asked.

"But Colonel, that is not his title, he is your Agitant, as in a person who causes or is involved with agitation.  I thought English was your primary language and assumed you knew.  Besides I thought your overbearing pompous Pommy ass could do with a bit of humiliation."

"I see, I'll assign him to John then.  It is however, significant that we have seen no signs of Martian habitation this deep in occupied territory."

“Oui, that means they are concentrated on the edges of their conquests.  Raiding forces should be able to operate freely here.”

"Especially with the Regiment stores all of 3 miles south of here," murmured Lieutenant Cleese.

“But against what?  We have been circling an area that is a nexus of 3 hives for a week and seen nothing.”

“Not quite nothing, there was the Loup Garou!”

Colonel Tracy looked upon the sad looking wolf pelt that now draped Major LaRouche’s shoulders.  The Major insisted it was some form of werewolf.  The powder burn stains surrounded the four inch wide hole of the tank round that took it was in evidence.  He sighed, there was no point in arguing that this was just some random animal, and not some legendary creature.

“This is what we are going to do.  You will power down your steam tanks to conserve coal, put your men to chopping wood for power reserves, I’ll send my Monotanks in all directions out to the edge of wireless range.  We’ll make a decision then.

"Or we could send a runner and have a brace of supply trucks here in an hour," continued Lieutenant Cleese.

Fire erupted, flaming a nearby Larch, followed by a Fir, and a then a Scots Pine.  Plaid flanneled Canadians leaped from tree to tree, racing for their tanks.  English officers, handed their batmen their tea cups, then tapped on the side doors of their vehicles, activating the mechanized chair/slides of their Officer Placement Systems (patent pending).

"Tripods reported North East!"
"Tripods reported West!"
"Tripods reported South East!"

"We are surrounded," exclaimed Major LaRouche!
"That just means it doesn’t matter which direction we attack," noted Colonel Tracy.  "Thunderbirds are go!"

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

The layout with most of the players.  फली 4, हाइव 124 is close by, Marvin's Martians are by the rail line.  फली 2, हाइव 5A is at the far end.  Monty's Pythons are on this side of the road, while the BEF is on the other side.  

A close up of the human deployment.

 Turn 1:
Since there were 5 sides to this scenario, each player rolled initiative.  The order was Marvin's Martians, The Martian Mobile forces of फली 4, हाइव 124, the humans, and last, The Martian Mobile forces of फली 2, हाइव 5A.

Marvin's forces arrive and finding only humans to shoot at, vaporized a BEF Imperial tank and a Mk III.

The Martian Mobile forces of फली 4, हाइव 124, arrive and destroy a Mk III, causing the first morale failure, sending the surviving Mk III routing.

First blood to Marvin, taking out a BEF Imperial and a Mk III.

Steve brings on the Martian Mobile forces of फली 4, हाइव 124.  Because of the dense woods and the impassable lake, they concentrate into a firing line

The Martian Mobile forces of फली 4, हाइव 124 score a single hit, leaving only Lieutenant Idle's command tank.

"Bugger this for a lark," shouted Lieutenant Idle.  He slammed down his hatch, and ordered, "Stoke up the boiler mates, were out of here!"

Already the human players were grumbling how unfair the scenario was.  Out positioned, outpointed 3-2, and light wood doesn't really offer cover to vehicles when...

A lucky shot from a 4" gun hits and blows up a tripod, damaging the war machine next to it.

The BEF look for a similar compactness against Marvin's Martians.  But he didn't get to be leader, alive and 3 by bunching up.

"Who invited the humans?  This makes me very angry, very angry indeed."

The turn has rotated around to the Martian Mobile forces of फली 2, हाइव 5A.  They take out a pair of tribarrel Kitcheners, routing the remaining Kitchener.

Not to be dismayed, the BEF Monotanks charge from their dubious cover peppering Marvin's Martians with 24 shots.

Causing only 4 points of damage to a single tripod.

Turn 2:
Rolling the initiative, and the turn sequence is almost the exact opposite of the first turn.

The Martian Mobile forces of फली 2, हाइव 5A targets one of Marvin's tripods

But whether it be from the extra buff of shine, or perhaps a targeting of a nearby water tower, Marvin's forces seem to be resistant to the heat ray.

The humans get their turn, and another tripod detonates, and another...

Emboldened, the Monotanks charge out again, and another Tripod explodes, taking out two of Leftenant Gordon's strange vehicles.

Marvin's panache proves not immune to the rapid firing guns.  He takes 10 armor hits out of 11!

With size 42 sneakers, Marvin beats a hasty retreat, "Oh! Mutiny makes me so angry!"

The Monotanks success seems to be a fluke, as 9 Mk III's fire 27 shots, and score nothing.

There are only 8 tripods left on the board.

Turn 3:

The point vector is looking way bad for the Martians.  Between them there is a three way tie at zero-zero-zero.  Monty's Pythons have 600 points, and the BEF 400.  With the scenario as designed, if Marvin's group is defeated, then the Martian Mobile forces of फली 4, हाइव 124 will not be able to score any points.

Marvin's Martians have the initiative, but all their heat rays bounce off of the forces of फली 4, हाइव 124.

The Mk III's of Monty's Pythons from a firing line, and once again fire 27 shots to no avail!

Not wanting to waste a cannon shot, the BEF runs their infantry out to pick off the weakened armored tripods.

And are successful.  Marvin's tripod, now just a mass of metal, whirling to destruction, goes down.  A surviving tripod suffers a mobility hit.  This is significant later.

Later:
Marvin's Martians have the initiative, but are defeated.  One tripod adroitly steps off screen.  The other however has a mobility hit, which means there is a roll off who gets to move the tripod.  Garth, aka the Martian Mobile forces of फली 2, हाइव 5A, wins the roll and moves the tripod in the mass of human tanks.

Last Tripod standing for Marvin's Martians.

The Martian Mobile forces of फली 2, हाइव 5A move in close for the kill.

The humans strike and cause a minor amount of damage.

The plan works!  The humans cannot resist firing at the damaged tripod in their midst.  I explodes destroying 2 Monotanks and wiping out an infantry squad.  This is too much for the BEF as they hit their army break point.

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!  Oh, there it is."

The Martian Mobile forces of फली 2, हाइव 5A follow up with a sweep of the heat ray, and pick up an entire platoon of Mk III's.  This takes Monty's Pythons to their break point as well. 

1, 2, 3, all.

==================================================================== 
Popping the hatch of his Imperial Tank, Colonel Tracy surveyed the retreating Tripods.  The closest Monotanks tipped over, their big wheels spinning gently in the breeze.  Nearby, other tankers were evacuating their damaged tanks and shooting flairs to denote their status.  A few red flares denoting wounded were in evidence.  But it could have been worse.  The vacuum spacing between the armor plates surrounding the crew compartments designed Sir James Dewar had done its work, distributing the heat around the tank before broiling the crew alive.

Lieutenant Cleese disembarked and started walking south.

"Isn't there something abrasive you have to say about this disaster", shouted the Colonel?

"No, Larouche only paid me for an hours worth of abuse, so I am on my own now."

"Where are you going then?"

"To find a pub!"  

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

It was a screwy scenario, deliberately so, and fun was had by all.  Technically the Martians have a tie with a score of naught apiece, but Garth's Pod 2, Hive 5A are the last group standing so can claim the win.  But the humans were 600 to 800 points, so one of them won the game, but not the fight.

AQMF at Fall In

A Headless Body Production

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

Location: Table 51, Distelfink Room, Lancaster Host, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Game: All Quiet on the Martian Front
Scenario: Attack on Fort Edmonton
Players: Unnamed Convention Attendees: Marvin's Martians
               Unnamed Convention Attendees: Canadian 2nd Armoured Squadron 
Administrators: Steve Turn, Phil Gardocki

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 2,500 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, 1 Slaver and 1 Scout, supported by 12 Drones and 9 stands of Lobototons.  About 2,400 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 men belonging to the Canadian armed forces has a number of restrictions placed on her.  See the bottom this AAR for details.

The Human player has 6 units of Mk II steamer tanks as reinforcements.

The Martian player must destroy Nell to win. 

The Humans must drive off the Martians, by destroying 6 tripods, to win.   
 

Deployment:

Humans have all  but 2 of their units on the board.  But Fort Edmonton is a very untidy place as piles of trash, badly cut lumber and other debris litter the landscape, offering may places to hide.  So while the Martians get to see the Human deployment, the only things that stand out are 9 steamer tanks, and Nell.

Most of the Human deployment is represented by Orange chits littering the board.  Half of them have actual troops, the rest is a pair of blokes shaking the trees and bushes, while trying desperately to be not seen.

The Martian deployment is fairly symmetrical. Assault Tripods on both sides Drones and Lobototons supporting both flanks.  The Grenadiers hiding behind the trees and capable of dumping rounds anywhere on the board. 

Turn 1:

The Tripods advance menacingly.  Taking little advantage of the prevailing they raised the camera-like generators of their Heat-Rays.  Their invisible paths cut through trees and buildings, destroying a couple of steam tanks.

A lone figure of a Scout Tripod stood on a hill.  It's illuminator tracing invisible sigils upon the Land Ironclad, "Nell".  The shells of the Grenadier tripods soon followed.  Scoring the armor, and causing a critical hit.  The first of five needed to destroy Nell.

The humans respond, the loudest from the big 12" cannon of Nells main battery.  But with little luck.

A peaceful Friday morning at Fort Edmonton.  Where all good Canadians wistfully look forward a weekend of cutting down trees, skipping and jumping, pressing wild flowers, and dressing in women's clothing.  We will see if we can fix that.

The Martians arrive, with one goal in their collective mind, kill Nell.

Sorry for the blurry shot.  The Martian Tripods aggressively move forward.

Turn 2:

The Martians retained the initiative.  Aggressively moving forward, heat-rays dancing the ground, but through luck, stealth or design the Canadians were unharmed.

Steam Tanks and Nell unleash their full barrages, causing only minor damage to the invaders. 
The Canadian Artillery is revealed and joins the fight, destroying a fighting machine.

Just 2 smoking tanks from turn 1.  All the stealth forces remain hidden.

Tripods race across the Mill Creek, past the remains of Captain Lawrence of Arizona's biplane, and douse the Mk III Steam Tanks of Troop 'D' with green gas.

The left flank steam tanks of Troop 'D' try desperately not to be seen.  Tank D3's armor resists the acidic erosion from the green gas.

Nine shots fired and the black dust Tripod takes a minor hit.

The Canadian Artillery is revealed.

The first shell burst six yards above the hood.  Simultaneously two other shells burst in the air near the body as the hood twisted round in time to receive, but not in time to dodge, the fourth shell. 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.

Emboldened by reinforcements, the Mk II Steam Tanks of Troop 'A' counter charge the Martian Drones.

Singing a rendition of Oh Canada, the heavy infantry join Troop 'A's charge into the gulch.

Turn 3:
The Canadians gain the initiative, effectively double firing.  Nell's barrage's somewhat weakened due to one of the 5" guns running out of ammunition. 

More tripods cross Mill Creek, while the fearless Canadian Mounted Police ride to meet them.

Nell continues to risk the peril of it coal bin.  The Martians don't know it but any missed heat-ray on Nell will strike the coaling station, causing a massive explosion.  Instead, Nell is being constantly bombarded by the Grenadier Tripods.

In the shadow of the Larch, Troop 'D' scores another hit on the Black Dust Tripod, and a mobility hit.

The Mk II Steam Tanks of Troop 'A' retreat.  So Marvin and his drones focus their heat-rays on the field guns destroying 2 and causing the battery to flee.

In the center it is a grand melee as man and machine are pitted against zombies.

The Heavy Infantry took a hit, and lost their nerve, fleeing the drones near the gulch.  Marvin uses his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator to destroy the Anti Tripod gun.

Turn 4:
The Canadians keep the initiative.  But suddenly, the camera batteries failed, and the backup batteries were flat, and the photographer was much maligned.

But wait, I had an iPod(tm), and there was much rejoicing!

To keep the charge of the Lobototons and Drones going, the Slaver Tripod had to continue his advance.  Picking up hits from Nell, and wrapped in TOW cables by the Mounties.

The Martians spend their command points double moving Marvin and K9. 

Marvin rakes Nell with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, causing a mobility critical hit. 

The Steam Tanks of Troop 'B' arrive and decapitated the colossus.

However the resulting boom takes out Troop 'D', and some miscellaneous Lobototons.

The Mk II Steam Tanks of Troop 'B' and Nell shoot at the Slaver Tripod, but every shell missed.  Seeing several Tripods blow up, the Canadian Infantry come out of their fox holes to assault the remaining enemy.

Turn 5:
The Martians gain the initiative!  They manage to destroy or run off enough infantry units to crater the Canadian Army's morale.  But Nell is not subject to the morale rules, and though wounded, continues to fight.

The lobototons continue to assault the infantry.

Marvin picks up drone support taking out the Canadian High Command.

The inexperienced crew of Nell has been shifting 5" rounds constantly in an effort to keep the guns firing,

There was an earth-shattering kaboom!, and Marvin is blown off screen.  "This makes me very angry, very angry indeed."

Nell's 12" gun finally scores a hit.  Destroying another Tripod, while it's 7" gun also scores a hit, causing a collapse of a fourth tripod.  Her Machine Guns began raking drones and took out two.  This caused the Martians to hit their break point as well.  So both armies are in retreat!

Who won?  The Martians failed in their objective, to destroy Nell, scoring only 3 of the 5 critical hits necessary.  The Canadians were routed from the field, but routed the Martians as well, achieving a Pyrrhic victory.

Nell's 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 they have yet to reach  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 existing infantry units.  

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