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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 18:42:02 GMT
Saturday, one of my table top wargamers and myself finally got to play our first game of all quiet on the Martian front! We have had this stuff since it first came out, or very close to it.
part of our long delay was due to his working hours and busy life, along with the fact that I have never finished painting any of my tanks or infantry. As I have posted on here elsewhere my tanks are finally finished, or at least enough to put them on the table.
So we decided to put what we had on the table and fumble through the rules. I used eight Mark II tanks and one clamper tank.
he had three assault tripods, three scout tripods and one Grenadier tripod. Two of his scouts had the targeting device on them so the Grenadier could shoot better. I think one of his assault tripods had black dust and the other tripod had green gas.
I wish I could say it was an epic battle, but as most of you have probably already figured out this game is over very quickly and it was a complete Martian victory. Even though I had him point wise, I was still very much out guned. I told him so before the game started and he said “Wally, you always say that!”
The battle only lasted for two turns. I lost everything I had. I did manage to do some damage to one of his scout tripods. That was it!
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 18:43:50 GMT
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 18:45:54 GMT
my original plan was to move out beyond the rock cropping take my shot and retreat back. Even though I won the initiative both times this did not work out well for me at all! As I’m sure most of you have surmised by now, there was not enough room for me to do that. After I took my initial shots he advanced on my position.
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 18:49:21 GMT
after having two units routed, I tried to get them off of my side of the table. I took my final shot at the beginning of turn two and that was pretty much it for me. He advanced and killed everything else on his 2nd turn. The rest of these photos are at the end of turn two.
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 18:50:13 GMT
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 18:54:06 GMT
I am not sure how much we had correct about the rules and how much we were off. I do know one thing, you need more than just Mark II tanks to kill the tripods! LOL
Needless to say, if I can put down Mr. Washburn’s books I will finish painting my infantry! I am definitely going to have to build a combined arms army to make this game last more than two rounds! LOL!
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 19:00:46 GMT
Just one more thing to add. The two small squares were just fields put on for a little bit of I candy. The ode shape tan colored pieces were supposed to be woods.
I just turned the tanks over on their sides as they were destroyed.
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Post by Quendil on Oct 12, 2020 21:11:52 GMT
Are you sure that was a match points wise as it seems very biased in the Martians favour?
Hope you had fun though
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 23:21:20 GMT
like I said, I had him by points, but we were really just trying to fumble through the rules and get a flavor for the game. We really had no idea what would happen, but it was still a lot of fun just the same! We just use the pieces that we had painted so we could play. We have been putting it off for way too long. We both understand now that I am going to need a combined arms team to beat the Martians!
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jmccarroll
Assault Tripod
" The only good Martian, is a dead Martian "
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Post by jmccarroll on Oct 12, 2020 23:48:21 GMT
Three suggestions. Add side sponsoons to all your tanks. Make slopped hills so you can move up, shoot, move back. Add Mgs to everything!
You can also add the pts. up so you can see how badly you were short in pts.
True to the books, you got pasted in your first battle.
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Post by bigwally on Oct 12, 2020 23:52:13 GMT
thank you for the insight and suggestions. As I said, we just grab some stuff real quick and brought what we had on hand so we could fumble through the rules. I just did not want to start on a completely flat table! LOL
we really have no idea what to expect, and I’m not sure we even had the points rate on the tripod or the combat factor either. We just want to play so badly and I only get to see this guy about three or four times a year so I had to take it vantage of his open weekend! Well actually his five hours on Saturday, that’s about all he gets! meow!
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Post by scottwashburn on Oct 14, 2020 0:55:38 GMT
Glad you got a chance to "See the Elephant" at last!  Playing the humans is a lot trickier than playing the Martians I've found. You really do need to have a combined arms force. The infantry isn't very powerful, but they are dangerous enough that the Martians cannot ignore them. The human artillery can be very useful, especially as it out-ranges the Martian weapons. There's no doubt that the tanks are your best anti-Martian weapons, but you need to use them in conjunction with all your other forces. The key to victory is to get all your forces into action at once because the Martians' great weakness is their limited number of weapons. If you can give them so many targets they can't handle them all it gives you the opportunity to hammer them with everything you've got and eventually you'll start to bring them down. |
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Post by easye on Oct 14, 2020 17:48:49 GMT
Yeah, the Martians had you way outnumbered! 9 MkII's is like 2 scout Tripods...... However, war is not fair. |
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Post by boxholder on Oct 15, 2020 11:50:12 GMT
Go ahead and start play even if not all your stuff is painted. Substitute freely by agreement.
Use "Counts as... "(by agreement with opponent) to try out new stuff even without the exact miniatures,
Don't be sucked into the Games Workshop black hole of not being able to use a unit in the absence of the exact mini. In the hardcover rulebook there is an example of a cardboard cutout being used.
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Post by bigwally on Oct 15, 2020 15:57:11 GMT
Glad you got a chance to "See the Elephant" at last! Playing the humans is a lot trickier than playing the Martians I've found. You really do need to have a combined arms force. The infantry isn't very powerful, but they are dangerous enough that the Martians cannot ignore them. The human artillery can be very useful, especially as it out-ranges the Martian weapons. There's no doubt that the tanks are your best anti-Martian weapons, but you need to use them in conjunction with all your other forces. The key to victory is to get all your forces into action at once because the Martians' great weakness is their limited number of weapons. If you can give them so many targets they can't handle them all it gives you the opportunity to hammer them with everything you've got and eventually you'll start to bring them down. I like that idea of giving them plenty of targets. I think that may work in this game as I have always tried to give the enemy the least amount of targets. Overwhelming them, as you say, may be a much better strategy. Thank you so much! |
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