Fog of War
The Ambler Gamers are planning to put on a game of All Quiet on the Martian Front at the upcoming Fall-In convention and we decided to try out the scenario the other night. The basic situation is that the humans have set up a fortified line to defend a town. They have infantry and machine guns manning the trenches. This is backed up by a formidable battery of three Anti-Tripod Guns. A mobile force of tanks and rough riders is in reserve.
The Martians are launching a two-pronged attack. One force will attack the human trenches head-on with assault tripods and a slaver controlling drones and lobototons. Meanwhile, a second force will break through a lightly defended section of the line (off table) and swing around to hit the humans in the flank.
To further complicate matters, there is a dense fog which limits line of sight. The humans can hear the approaching war machines, but cannot see them. Then, as the game begins the fog lifts to reveal the Martians practically on top of the human defense line! Open fire!
There are four ‘victory counters' that have been placed on the table. Two along the trenches and two farther back. Victory can be achieved by either breaking the enemy army or holding 3 or 4 four of the victory counters at the end of 6 turns.
The Martian flanking force arrives! The main human line is visible in the background.
The rest of the human line.
The humans were given the first turn. Their units in the trenches were considered hidden. We basically gave each one a blip counter and this had to be removed in the normal fashion before the Martians could shoot at the troops (even though the models are on the table). For a convention game we didn't want to complicate things with actual hidden movement.
As the Martians appear out of the mist, some of the humans open fire. Most of the infantry just keep their heads down, but some of the machine guns open up and kill a couple of lobototons and a drone.
In the Martian turn, the force attacking the trench lines use their heat rays to try and remove some blips or pick off troops which had revealed themselves. The defense bonuses from the trenches keep most of the troops safe.
On the flank, the tripods advance and take a few ineffective pot shots. Three scouts are sent around to try and get into the human rear.
On the second turn there is more firing along the trench lines, but little damage. Over on the extreme flank the humans send a powerful force to oppose the fast-moving scouts.
Battle is joined!
The scouts take some damage and dish some out, but use their superior movement to stay clear of the humans.
One pod of the Martians seemed obsessed with killing every last human in the trenches and linger to the rear. The Slaver's drones slaughter most of the humans in the trenches, although most of the lobototons quickly succumb to rifle fire.
Other tripods quickly advance on the human's secondary line. But poor shooting by both the assault tripods and the grenadiers fail to silence any of the Anti-Tripod Guns.
Over on the other flank, the Rough Riders gallantly swarm around the scout tripods, but accomplish little. They are annoyed that their tank support has suddenly been recalled and sent back to the center.
Continuous fire from tanks and the ATGs finally begin to hurt the Martians. The slaver is finally destroyed.
The climax of the battle swirls around the ATG entrenchments. Tanks burn and tripods fall!
But turn 6 ends and neither army has broken and each side holds two of the victory counters! A bloody draw!
It was a good game. We will make a few tweaks and take it to the convention!
