"All Quiet Martian Front: 1st Battle" Topic

Friday Night I will be running/playing my 1st game.

Martian Forces consist of 1 Aggression cell (3 Assault Tripods & 3 Scout Tripods) probing outlining US defensive positions on the eastern side of the Mississippi River in Illinois. This will be one of the opening battles in the defense of Chicago.

US Forces are from the 6th Illinois Infantry Regiment (A CO -) and the 4th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Regiment; A Tank Company.

The Infantry has the following: (trench positions)
Infantry CO HQ
1st Platoon: 2 Squads & 3 MG teams
2nd Platoon: 2 Squads

The Tank Company has the following:
CO HQ: 1 Mk II steamers
1st Platoon: 3 Mk II steamers
2nd Platoon: 3 Mk II steamers
3rd Platoon: 3 Mk III steamers

from Bn a Modified Mk III steamer (MG only)

once the battle is completed will submit battle report on the action

Looking forward to the report & photos.

Ok…so we played our first game Friday Night. There were 3 players, two played US and one Martain. I was the Martain player. Neither of the US players had read the rulebook prior to the game. One player was new to miniature wargaming. It took us 2 hours to play the game. So a big plus for the game/system is that it is very easy to pick up and play.

So it was a resounding US Victory. The US infantry was deployed forward in trenches with their armor in reserve. By turn 4 the US was able to get their armor out of reserve and into action. The main tactic that developed during the game was for the US players to concentrate their fire as much as possible on one or two tripods. Getting hits scored and knocking down their armor rating due to damage inflicted. Two Scout Tripods were destroyed in that fashion, thru a combination of assaults and shooting to weaken and them bring them down. One Assault Tripod was destroyed in the battle. But that was done with one shot. A Mk II steamer tank scored a hit, and with its plus 2 power of the main gun inflicted damage to the Tripod, a roll of 10 on the tripod damage chart resulted in the Tripod blowing up. The US troops were also very successful in friendly fire as well, destroying an entire squad of Infantry that had closed into assault of a scout tripod.

The Tripods did not due very well in the fight. They only managed to destroy 2 steamer tanks, a Mk II & Mk III. They also managed to destroy 1 MG team. (I am well known for my ability to roll bad die) However I was more concerned with game play and trying to get things right rather than good tactics. So both combined for a rather poor showing for the Martians.

So what did I forget to do as the Martian player. Well for two turns forgot to roll for reserves. My assault tripods were in reserve. Did not use gas against the troops in the trenches, also failed to use my command orders to double movement.

I did take some pictures of the game and will try and get them posted later today