And I think it worked well.....
It was a two part game; First, 3 Martian Assault and 3 Scout Tripods would start on the far board edge and race across the board exiting what they could to get set for the attack on a US Army camp (scenario two).
A small US Armored patrol; Command Tank, two Mk. II and one Mk. III tank units and a 'Rough Riders" unit would enter at the 3 foot mark of a side edge and would engage.
The Martians were given their objective, the US Players no details, they were on a patrol hunting whatever they came across.......
To start I had just 4 players; the Kevin and Matthew Father / Son team took the Martians (Matthew being the infamous Martian Overlord in the The Night the Ground Exploded game from a few years ago.
http://pzgeneral08.blogspot.com/2015/08/aqmf-night-ground-exploded.html
The Human players were John and Bryan.
The Martians didn't start out so well, Kevin and Matthew splitting their forces, and with Kevin being closest to the Human entry point he took the brunt of the fighting. His son Matthew took the instructions of "get off the far board edge" to heart and just took off running, not fighting and letting his Dad get beat on. It wasn't until the second to the last turn that he realized he could move and face, shoot at something, then move toward the objective edge....
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| End of turn one, Martians and Humans on the board. One the Human first turn they ran the Rough Riders out and immobilized a Scout Tripod....... |
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| Kevin got in trouble. The immobilized Scout was destroyed, and Assault Tripod scored a hit but was then knocked out. His 'Black Dust' Tripod was also lassoed by the motorcycles, but was able to break free and took out 2 stand of Rough Riders and two tanks with Black Dust. He bought time for Matthew to run for the board edge before eventually getting blasted..... |
When Matthew exited the board I reset some of the terrain, adding a small trench line and some additional Human units. I did a quick measurement of the remaining Human units from Game one and decided the survivors would enter behind the Martians (i.e. were in pursuit) on turn 4.
To the Martians I gave Kevin a Scout back (I felt bad for him) and removed all of the damage Matthew's Tripods had received. The plan was to add additional Martian units coming onto the board in a flanking maneuver. Another player, Todd, showed up so Kevin and Matthew allowed him to the Turn two reinforcements, the 'Red Martian' and a Slaver Tripod with 6 Drones. They came in about the 3 foot mark of a side edge on turn 2.
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| By turn two Matthew's usual tactic of running head long into the teeth of the Human guns paid off it's usual dividend: a burning Tripod. Kevin looks like he's sleeping, but he's moved his Scout into a position on the road to blast away at the Human armor. Human infantry stalking about in the woods gives the Red Martian no cause for alarm...... |
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| Matthew scored some hits on the Michigan 'Iron Brigade'; two dead and one routed. His Scout moved off camera to the left behind the trenches, causing the Humans to pull some armor back to try and deal with it (upper left in the photo) |
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| Then it happened. As the US Infantry held off the Red Martian and Slaver / Drones, a Clamper tank shot out and latched onto Kevin's Scouts leg. It was now immobilized for the rest of the game.....but at least it's Heat Ray was pointed in the right direction!! |
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| Kevin's Scout was eventually destroyed, Catastrophically one might add!! Unfortunately for the Martians only the abandoned Clamper tank was also destroyed in the blast....With the US Infantry destroyed the Slaver and Drones closed in. |
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| The Red Martian and Slaver / Drones began clean up operations. About this time the pursuing US Armor arrived and put a serious smack down on the Slaver. They pounded it and caused 8 out of a possible 10 armor hits!! YIPE! YIPE! YIPE!!!! |
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| With session time running out the '10:05' rule was put into effect (last turn, kill it all). The Human Armor moved into the middle of the remaining Martians trying to overwhelm them with dice thrown. They eventually did destroy the Slaver, shutting down all the Drones. The Martians ran an Assault Tripod into their midst hoping to sweep a Heat Ray and then go up in a blaze of Catastrophic damage...but it was only destroyed...... |
The game did end with me declaring a marginal Human victory. Only the Red Martian survived for the invaders and 4 or 5 Human units survived...but all were missing stands / vehicles........
And with much hoot'n and hollar'n......a good time was had by all......
