|
Post by greenbeanie on Jan 18, 2018 4:52:36 GMT
This week end some friends and I got some AQMF games going at a local hobby shop. Some time ago I picked up the US Marines pack and also picked up some QRF Spanish American War US Marines and the US Naval landing party packs to beef up my USMC force. I even took some spare Vickers machine guns from the steam tank sprue left over parts and mounted them on some Rocco Mini tank wheels to make machine gun carts for the naval figs. One friend scratch built a 1/100th scale gun boat. So in the games we played we did the same scenario as AQMF site has for the USMC pack. The gunboat covers a landing force trying to get fleeing civilians onto a transport and safety. The Martian player had three (3) Assault tripods and one scout. Let's us just say that the gunboat player had some gunnery issues and my landing force that I spent some good money on and a lot of time painting up got turned into cinder biscuits along with the civilians we were trying to save in three (3) games we played. We decided to play one more game on Sunday and I asked if we could use some house rules and switch up some weapons on my landing force. The Martian player figured it would be more of the same and agreed. That night I added three rocket launchers (bazookas) and three 75mm recoil-less rifles to my force along with some Flames of War rules for bazookas and RR's. Next game, Martian player agreed and off to the slaughter we went. This time the gunboat player got some great hits and downed an assault tripod and thanks to bazookas & RR's my landing force took out a scout tripod and an assault tripod before cinder biscuit time. The Martian player was all up in arms about it. (You all know the type, always plays the Martian so they always win. Reminds me when I did WW2 war games and there was always the player that had to be the German SS so he could field Tiger tanks.) So he mentioned that for now on, no house rules and we stick using official AQMF rules and weapons. I basically told him to piss off and find some other human players in the future.
Now I will admit that I am new to this game, I got started in August of 2017. I have a history of historical war gaming from 1966 as a kid to now. It dawned on me that for a 15mm (1/100th scale) war game, AQMF does favor the Martians. In the history of the US Army Infantry in the main force. In AQMF infantry is cinder biscuits. To beat the Martians you need lots of steam tanks, field guns, heavy artillery and if you can afford one a Land Ironclad. Makes me wonder why the game is not 6mm (1/285th) scale so you can field a lot of tanks, guns and land ironclads. 15mm is mainly infantry skirmish games with some tanks. Now does any one else out there think the same way? I will admit that I have played maybe a total of 27 games of AQMF and always as a human player. I can count two wins but at great cost of tanks and infantry.
I will admit that Scott's books are helping with rocket launchers now in the mix but official rules still only list bombs as infantry weapons. I feel something has got to change to make the human player get some upper hand without having to shell out over $100.00 to get a land ironclad or clutter the game board up with lots of steam tanks. Now true there are anti-tripod guns, but they are towed, not mobile and like in WW2 anti-tank guns, an ambush weapon for anything over three tripods and your gun is toast. Like I said, maybe some thing can change so that us human players have some chance of a win for even as we were playing this week end some other folks watching the games loved the look of the tripods and Marines but stated "Unless you are a Martian you can not win this game." Then they wondered over to watch a Flames of War game on the next table.
|
|
|
Post by Quendil on Jan 18, 2018 9:39:56 GMT
Hmm, I only play games with my family which are always about having fun and don't always stick to the rules closely (We forget). I usually play Humans as my wife likes to be the Martian and destroy stuff, we have about a 50/50 win rate. I found alot of it comes down to dice rolls and tactics (My wife likes to rush in). I also play BEF which tend to have better tanks than the US which helps. I haven't played in any gaming groups for years and doubt I will ever again. I used to play various fantasy games and RPGs but I found that the over competitiveness and the rule quoters made the games boring and just not fun. I am not that bothered whether I win or not as long as I have fun and so do whoever is playing with me. I do like to have a bit of a story to go with the game which makes it more fun. Anyway back to your questions. The rules definitely need updating along with some new supplements and scenarios. Now I can't think of anyone who does not play using house rules and if they can't use house rules I would suggest they stick to competitive 40k games . I think house rules is the only way at the moment to keep it going. The whole reason this forum was setup was because the original company went bust so we needed a way to discuss , create and update the rules. You will find loads of stuff on here which many people have tested and use. With the US forces have you tried using a Goliath? I know its not released yet but you could use a stand in to see if that works. I know alot of the games we play as a family the Humans usually have more points than the Martians as it seems to even up the game, but Like I said we are not overly competitive when gaming. There are alot of people on here that play much more games than me so hopefully they can help
|
|
|
Post by hardlec on Jan 18, 2018 13:17:32 GMT
In AQMF, infantry are usually represented by blips and they hide until they can assault. Otherwise they end up being cinder biscuits. A balance of armor and infantry works. Tanks without troops have trouble. Troops without tanks? Same story.
Try a package of armored cars (3) and two blisters of ATg's. The cars can tow the guns with one becoming an ammo carrier. This battery can provide 4 shots at power 3+. This will usually score a damaging hit on an intact Tripod. Another option is a battery of heavy guns.
It is absolutely essential to crack the armor of a Tripod before attacking with infantry. I find it takes two or three hits, reducing the armor of the tripod to 8 or 9, before an infantry assault is threatening to a Tripod. It also usually takes two or three turns of effective fire to destroy a Tripod.
|
|
|
Post by ironcladgames on Jan 18, 2018 15:49:07 GMT
I play Martians and usually see it as an uphill battle. Luck aside (so many golden bb shots have felled tripods), Rough Riders and MG's (teams and tanks) can chew up Tripods. Don't forget stealth blips and orders. Keep up the fight!
|
|
|
Post by gdieckhaus on Jan 18, 2018 20:48:39 GMT
I think you are pointing out that infantry virtually useless, and well it is. If you read Scott Washburns books the only thing that has a chance agains the tripods are heavy guns and the tanks. So the infantry looks cool on the board, but for the most part is a non factor.
As Joe points out, machine guns are deadly to Martians, so much so that locally I have given them a -2 when rolling on the tripod damage chart.
You may want to look at adding a Heavy Field Gun Battery - this is one of the most disgusting units in the game. Power +4, range 150", bombardment (you get a shot before the scenario starts, no los required The downfall is as a barrage weapon so it only gets 1 roll to hit (for a unit), but since you have 3 units firing with barrage 3, it falls into the heavy barrage category, in this case it uses the 4" template, but gets an extra +5 power bonus (for a total +9 power bonus!!!) If you hit, you are going to penetrate the armor!
|
|
|
Post by gdieckhaus on Jan 18, 2018 23:48:29 GMT
A couple of other thoughts. 1) The Humans need to use terrain to there advantage. Tripods dont tend to get much cover from the terrain. 2) Rough Riders are awesome 3) Many players play a house rule that allows "barrage guns" to shoot directly at a tripod if within 1/2 the range of the weapon (thereby increasing rate of fire) 4) Make sure you are using Field Commanders Orders and Command Units to help negate the effect of routing. 5) In most scenarios infantry starts as blips - hidden units. This allows infantry to get closer without just being slaughtered.
|
|
|
Post by loyalist on Jan 19, 2018 2:10:26 GMT
Hmm, I only play games with my family which are always about having fun and don't always stick to the rules closely (We forget). I usually play Humans as my wife likes to be the Martian and destroy stuff, we have about a 50/50 win rate. I found alot of it comes down to dice rolls and tactics (My wife likes to rush in). I also play BEF which tend to have better tanks than the US which helps. I haven't played in any gaming groups for years and doubt I will ever again. I used to play various fantasy games and RPGs but I found that the over competitiveness and the rule quoters made the games boring and just not fun. I am not that bothered whether I win or not as long as I have fun and so do whoever is playing with me. I do like to have a bit of a story to go with the game which makes it more fun. Anyway back to your questions. The rules definitely need updating along with some new supplements and scenarios. Now I can't think of anyone who does not play using house rules and if they can't use house rules I would suggest they stick to competitive 40k games . I think house rules is the only way at the moment to keep it going. The whole reason this forum was setup was because the original company went bust so we needed a way to discuss , create and update the rules. You will find loads of stuff on here which many people have tested and use. With the US forces have you tried using a Goliath? I know its not released yet but you could use a stand in to see if that works. I know alot of the games we play as a family the Humans usually have more points than the Martians as it seems to even up the game, but Like I said we are not overly competitive when gaming. There are alot of people on here that play much more games than me so hopefully they can help I game with a few friends and fortunately none of us care much about who wins. At present we're gaming FoW WWII and colonial skirmish (The Men Who Would Be Kings), but I hope to run an AQotMF game in Feb. I'll give the humans more points, as Quendil does. Not all games are balanced even at the same points per force. For example we've been gaming FoW Normandy in the last few weeks and despite equal points the Canadians and Americans keep losing. In a tank battle the Germans were victorious, losing 6 Panthers and having all 7 Tiger Is survive, after eliminating a Canadian force of 4 Wolverines, 3 Fireflies and 15 regular Shermans. There wasn't much the Canadians could do with all the German tanks having impenetrable front armour. In last week's game, again with forces of equal points value, the American infantry, rated only Trained, had to attack dug-in Veteran German infantry, who were far, far harder to hit. The game was conceded in Turn 3 because the Americans could make no headway. I expect the AQ game balance will favour the Martians so will give the humans a 25% larger force.
|
|
gunnyhighway
Scout Tripod
Just because your from Mars doesn't mean we can take warm showers in the wee hours of the morning...
Posts: 195
Send PM
|
Post by gunnyhighway on Jan 19, 2018 6:39:11 GMT
Keep up to what your doing and oh yeah, get better friends. Man'Children suck...... Respectfully, Gunny
|
|
|
Post by hardlec on Jan 19, 2018 13:24:02 GMT
AQMF is scenario based. It is great for story arc campaigns. The point values are for comparisons to set up battles for a story. AQMF does poorly if you want a pile of points against a pile of points as armies and a clot of melee in the center of the table instead of a battle.
I've handed Marvin his head a few times. It ain't easy.
|
|
|
Post by paulnippress on Jan 19, 2018 22:51:36 GMT
Agree with a lot of the above... use blips, machine guns and Rough Riders!
But make sure you have fun. Scenario based games are a lot more fun.
|
|
|
Post by scottwashburn on Jan 20, 2018 0:00:45 GMT
The Martians' big weakness is their lack of numbers when it comes to weapons. Each tripod only has one (generally) and it can only shoot at one or two things at a time. So the key to beating them is to hit them with lots of stuff at once. If they've got tanks, artillery, and infantry hitting them all at once, someone is going to get lucky and bring a tripod down. So don't discount the infantry. They CAN hurt a tripod and if the Martian stops to kill them, it means they aren't shooting at your tanks or artillery. Combined operations are the key here. Don't throw your units in piecemeal. Coordinate to hit them with everything at once.
|
|
|
Post by mikedski on Jan 22, 2018 15:32:55 GMT
Even in victory the humans will generally have terrible casualty rates.
|
|
|
Post by madmorgan on Jan 26, 2018 19:43:21 GMT
I've done lots (some would say I'm "mad") scenarios, with some very balanced and some not so. One of the big balancing aces of humans are their navies, both 'blue' and especially 'brown' water. A single 10" or 12" gun can do tremendous damage to a Martian attack. Having more that one makes it almost a Human victory. And the Anti-Tripod guns have balanced the playing field some as well. Buried or floating Tesla mines and Heavy/Assault infantry with their +1 shot are helpful as well. And a sudden swamping of Forlorn Hopes can make the poor infantry more than briskets. Some things come from tactics, some from terrain, and other from house rules or special rules. Scott points out correctly the need for a combined arms approach - especially using your usual numerical superiority to overwhelm the mighty Martian machines. Towns and ruins provide lots of ambushes and traps. See Scott's books for ideas, like blowing buildings in narrow streets to fall on a tripod. The end product of that also provides more cover for followup attacks. See my 'Ships' listings for ideas using Old Glory's resin naval forces for some excellent firepower on rivers and seashore operations. Scott also has some nice 'ships' for supporting operations as well (see Paper Terrain in products).
|
|
|
Post by terrance on Jan 27, 2018 6:01:41 GMT
I have also seen the Martians lose fairly often. When they do it is often because they forget their strengths. One thing I often see is Martian failing to finish off damaged units. They let the human retreat the last stand of a unit out of range instead of killing it. Only complete unit kills count toward break point. And remember a routing unit is destroyed if a tripod gets within 6 inches (I think, rule book is not in front of me). And the other reason I have seen Martians lose is just bad luck. Tripods are tough but a roll of 9 or 10 on the damage table destroys them. We have had a few games in which tripods go poof with the first damage hit. Of course to be fair we have also had times when a tripod goes the whole game losing an armor here and there and survives to the end with 2 or 3 armor points left. So I guess it evens out.
|
|
|
Post by mikedski on Jan 27, 2018 8:52:16 GMT
I expect the AQ game balance will favour the Martians so will give the humans a 25% larger force. If I remember right the original 1st generation kickstarter rule set gave a US Army player a 25% point bonus for Industrial Might instead of using of a command token to resurrect a destroyed unit.
|
|