Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Special Bulletin: NOW its Quiet on the Martian Front

Today, for the 1st time, the  Martians were not just stopped but were routed by forces under General Ron.
The new Heavy Artillery is being given much of the credit for today's victory.
The Martians entered the Porter Valley with a powerful strike force of 5 Assault Tripods backed by 2 weaker drone control tripods each with 3 drones. A dastardly.....oops...I mean.. deadly ... barrage by a new battery of heavy guns took out 1 of the control droids before the Martians even deployed onto the field of battle.

Overview from behind Martian lines, 1/2 way through the game.
This may have rattled the Martian Commander more than he realized or would care to admit as his reaction to an aggressive forward ambush was not as effective as one might have expected.

Of course, even a clumsy plan might have sufficed if even 1 of the 5 human units that suffered losses had failed a morale check or if the remnant of the heavy artillery hadn't blown up the 2nd drone controller before the drones could engage.

However, an early appreciation of the value of using terrain to shield his weaker drone control tripods from the fire of the new artillery might have led him to stick to his original plan of clearing the woods on the right and locating the enemy before pushing forward. A blind rush at the artillery was certainly not part of the plan.

In any event, communications experts claim to have intercepted a signal from the retreating Martian leader which roughly translates to "I'll be back".

Tankers' eye view.

8 comments:

  1. Cool game! When did you start using hexes for your layout?

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    1. Ron started using hexes about 7? years ago. I can't afford to buy them and found making hex shaped hills by hand beyond my skill so went with squares on my own table.

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  2. Great game, just getting into this myself....)

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    1. Some of its a bit odd but so far all of the games have been fun and once one learns ths ropes its old fashioned tactics not fancy toys that wins.

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  3. That artillery means business!
    I am a little confused by the whole Martian Front thing. Did the publisher go out of business? Are there more then one set of rules and models out there?

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    1. My understanding is that the maker has skedaddled but that's pure on line hearsay or gossip if you prefer.

      Of course that doesn't mean the rules stop working and the toys are repossessed so one can still play. Retailers with stock are still selling and presumably ebay etc. I haven't bought anything myself but had bought a reviresco 25mm tripod a dozen years ago which I kicked in and am quite happy to play with Ron's toys. We did our own translation to a hex grid.

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  4. Ross Mac,

    So you have come over to the 'Dark Side' again and taken part in a game of a HEXED(!) grid. Shame upon you!

    Seriously though, this looked like a great game, and although Sci-Fi wargaming is not my thing, I can appreciate both the excellent terrain and toys that were used ... and it certainly sounded like you both had a lot of fun. I particularly like the heavy artillery which looks as if it could easily appear in a World War I or Inter-war battle; likewise the tanks.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. In my defence, I have long been on record that my choice of squares has been based on economic and skills resources!

      I think an early WWII scenario pitting a force of very heavy tanks against a lighter all arms force would feel very similar. When all the chrome and language is stripped away its just move and shoot this many hexes needing this die roll to hit and this to damage. Just different toys.

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