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Post by phgamer on Jul 17, 2022 12:26:34 GMT
It has been a while since the Martians have seen the table. Garth and I put together a quick, 100 point game, using both the new terrain rule placement, and a randomly rolled mission. philsmartianfront.blogspot.com/2022/07/get-camera.htmlUsing the beta test rules, which emphasizes the War against the Martian in Europe and Asia, with the German Army. Since I don’t have any German tanks, we as substituting the American Mk IV’s.
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Post by phgamer on Apr 2, 2020 15:22:41 GMT
I received a request for more battle reports. Vicarious game playing for those going through gaming withdrawal. I only have a few new ones queued up, so I'll dig through the archives. I actually started writing AAR's in 2011, starting with "Warrior", then "Flames of War" One of my favorite series of reports involves the defense of Fort Edmonton (155 acres of recently cleared area in western Canada), by "Monty’s Pythons", the 2nd Squadron, 12th "Three Rivers” Regiment*, 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade against Marvin's Martians. philsmartianfront.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-second-battle-for-fort-edmonton.html
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Post by phgamer on Mar 29, 2020 20:51:18 GMT
Farewell MadMorgan. He always had a kind word, and we are greatly diminished by his loss.
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Post by phgamer on Mar 26, 2020 13:48:48 GMT
The invention of the torpedo ram came about because of a battle in the Med where a battleship was successfully rammed and sank. So the naval thinkers turned their thoughts to optimizing for that purpose. By the time the prototypes were completed, cooler heads prevailed and their foolishness revealed. So another mission was designed for the Polymhemus to justify its existence, to break the chains that would protect naval ports.
The 1870's to 1010's was a very interesting time period for naval development. New technologies were being advanced at a breakneck pace, and some ships were launched so obsolete, that they were sent immediately to the breakers. Kind of like now. The Littoral Combat Ship is a good example of that now.
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Post by phgamer on Mar 7, 2020 14:16:13 GMT
Full disclosure, the gunboat and rules are from Scott Washburn, and they, and other fine products can be found at www.paperterrain.com/
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Post by phgamer on Mar 6, 2020 20:09:57 GMT
One gun had a 40" range, the others 30" The rules are as follows: River Gunboats
America’s navigable rivers played as big a role in the Great Martian War as they did during the Civil War. In early 20th Century America if you needed to send something over a long distance you could travel by rail or by riverboat. Roads were few and poor and motor vehicles unreliable.
Railroads were the most commonly used means of transport, but if Martians were nearby they were terribly vulnerable to destruction. Rivers, on the other hand, could not be destroyed by Martian heat rays and many important battles and campaigns were fought along or near rivers.
The Americans transported troops, equipment, and supplies whenever possible by river. Thousands of tugs and barges plied the waterways. And these needed to be protected. So the navy and the army built hundreds of small gunboats to both protect shipping and to use as mobile artillery platforms to support the ground armies. Many of these were hastily converted civilian craft, but as time went by, purpose-built armored gunboats became a common sight on the rivers.
One of the most common types was the Olmsted class of gunboats. These were built in a dozen small shipyards along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers, as well as on the Great Lakes. They were usually named after the small towns along those waterways. Olmsted class gunboats were about a hundred feet long, twenty feet wide and only drew eight to ten feet of water, allowing them to move far up some of the rivers. Their upper works were entirely sheathed in metal to render them as fire proof as possible. Vital spots had thicker armor making them comparable to many steam tanks in their protection. They could make 12-15 knots and were very maneuverable. While their low freeboard made them unsuitable for use on the open ocean, they were well adapted to the rivers. Basic armament was one 6” gun in a rotating turret and four 4” guns in the central casement. Additional machine guns could be mounted in several locations. The crew compliment was typically around 50 although additional men were sometimes carried.
Rules for Gunboats
The rules for using gunboats in All Quiet are very simple.
Movement
The standard movement rate is 8” and the ship must move forward. Gunboats can turn up to 90 degrees during each move. They can halt in place if they wish or move up to their limit. That’s it! Use your common sense!
Combat
Treat gunboats like a tank with multiple guns. Each gun which has a clear line to a target may fire.
Weapons Range Power
6” Gun 40” +3
4” Gun 30” +2
Machine Gun 20” +1 (ROF 3)
Defense
Gunboats have an armor factor of 8. Resolve attacks as normal. Any hits which penetrate the armor are then rolled on the damage table. Hit against the ship’s armor factor reduce it by one with each hit. If the armor value reaches zero the ship sinks. Gunboats are resistant to gas and dust attacks. If hit by gas or dust, the gunboat will only take 1 armor hit, and be temporarily disabled. It will continue to move in it’s current direction and speed, but cannot shoot.
Damage Table (D10)
1-6 - One armor hit. Reduce the ship’s armor value by one.
7 – Gun hit. Randomly select one of the ship’s operational guns. This is knocked out and may not fire again during the game. Reduce Armor by one.
8 – Engine hit. The ship loses engine power. If it is on a river, determine the direction of the current and roll a D5. This is the speed of the flow in inches per turn. The ship moves that far in each subsequent turn. Reduce armor by one.
9 – A serious hit punctures the hull below the waterline. Roll D10 and apply that many armor hits. If the armor value reaches zero or less, the ship sinks.
10 – Kaboom! The enemy fire reaches the gunboat’s magazine and the ship is destroyed in a fiery explosion.
Repairs
Unlike tanks, ships have repair personnel right on board with the tools and skills to effect repairs. At the end of each turn the ship may attempt to repair ONE thing. Roll a D10 and see if you succeed.
Thing to Repair Roll to Succeed
1 Armor Hit 6+
1 Gun 8+
Engine Hit 9+
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Post by phgamer on Mar 5, 2020 16:20:22 GMT
Largely lost to history were the battles in the Canadian wild. Battles were infrequent, but no less brutal, or less heroic, than the major fights along the Mississippi river and the frontiers of Texas. An All Quiet on the Martian Front battle report:
Enjoy!
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Post by phgamer on Oct 30, 2019 10:31:41 GMT
Very interesting realignment of the battle. I'm a little confused about one thing. I was surprised to see Scorpions drop from the Overseer. Those figures weren't available when the rule book was printed and I've always thought that only 'regular' drones could be the Overseers payload. Do you allow other drone types to deploy from your Overseer?? Shockers, Snipers?? How do you assign the 3 Snipers? Just curious as I suppose in the later years, the Martians would have advanced that technique. Great battle review as always We never even considered that Overseer drones were exclusively the "Regular" ones. As far as we are concerned all drones are fair game. Regarding Snipers, they are an odd duck with drones as they can be assigned to any tripod, and shoot what it shoots at. A very interesting nuance.
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Post by phgamer on Oct 30, 2019 10:28:17 GMT
Under 4 hours. We tend to start at 7pm and are usually cleaned up and out the door by 10:30
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Post by phgamer on Oct 30, 2019 10:27:02 GMT
Yes, it represents exactly that.
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Post by phgamer on Oct 26, 2019 13:09:57 GMT
The oval is the command stand. Tent, a flagman on a platform, 3 soldiers at attention and a general.
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Post by phgamer on Oct 23, 2019 10:39:37 GMT
It's funny how that came about. I write the narrative to suit the events on the board. With some creative license. After the first battle of Pithy Gulch, I wrote how Patton survived, but had to take a long trek across the mountains, and was presumed dead and posthumously promoted to Major. When he shows up, he turns down the promotion, stating all he did was bail out of a burning tank. But it was explained that he was right on the situation, the Brigadier of the 98th division said so, and Patton's new job would be to train brigade level tactics to mid level officers and he needed the rank to back that up.
Then a rerun of the battle was done, and Garth sent me the pictures. So I rewrote the history, locking it in stone.
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Post by phgamer on Oct 18, 2019 11:50:44 GMT
The Second Battle of Pithy Gulch General Schiff's 98th Brigade lay in total ruins. The field lay obscured in black oil fires of burning vehicles, occasionally brightened by the release of a Martians heat ray. The last radio communication from the field was over 5 minutes ago. He scanned the field one last time through the big eyes and saw nothing, he gave the order to evacuate. An order he knew would result in the death of at least half his brigade, but also life for the other half. philsmartianfront.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-second-battle-of-pithy-gulch.htmlEnjoy!
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Post by phgamer on Oct 9, 2019 1:37:44 GMT
The Forcing of Pithy Gulch In the far west, the Martians have been held back by a series of fortifications at strategic locations in the various passes, ravines and gorges. Concrete has been the greatest ally against the Martian as it was nearly indestructible to heat rays. And though plentiful, there was never enough. While losing any state was politically unacceptable to Theodore Roosevelt, the concrete factories of Portland and Benicia were considered of strategic importance. "Sir, he has arrived." The lieutenant stood at perfect attention waiting for his commanders response. "He has a name Harmon, just like everyone else. We don't need to mystify Captain Patton like some cheap dime store novel villain." philsmartianfront.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-forcing-of-pithy-gulch.htmlEnjoy
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Post by phgamer on Jul 29, 2019 11:44:01 GMT
Your comments are not on the actual page. Just one from Don M, and my reply. This scenario and terrain was designed by Garth on his basement table. He also does HO Railroad, so he had minis to draw upon and experiencing creating layouts with his children. So he gets credit for that. I get credit for the narrative. We are not really running a campaign, I just shoe horn in a points based game somewhere. Sometimes it's places where I have lived, like Shreveport, Waukegan, Tyler, but not Pennsylvania, because if the Martians are here, then it is truly "Game Over man". It's a big country. But I have only vacationed in the Rockies, and that rarely. So I look at maps, Google using keywords like "Gorge", "Ravine", "Pass" and pick an area.
I love one comment from someone on one of the other "Rocky Mountain Pass" campaign, that the creek was on the wrong side of the railroad. It tells me my readers are really looking at things, which in turn, means I have to pay attention to the details. I may spend 8 hours writing one of these up, but hundreds of people seem to read them, so the details matter.
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