Post by slave2gaming on Mar 25, 2016 1:48:32 GMT
Background: They said it would be simple. It would just be a snatch and grab! Yeah right! So the story goes like this… The son of the uncle of the Emperors Martians Half brother… or something, had gone on a joy ride in a Assault tripod and got too close to those pesky Earthlings!
Well one shot too many and now there’s a downed tripod and a sqweeeling nobody stuck out in no mans land waiting for us to rescue him. Those Earthlings know that there’s something going on because they’ve move a lot more of those infernal metal monsters to that part of the front.
So now Joe nobody (that’s me) is going to risk his butt to save some royal prince… or something!
The board:
The Martians are to enter the board from the board edge that doesn't have the trenches, move to the downed tripod and spend a single movement in base to base with this downed Tripod, allowing Martian Ryan to climb aboard. Then they need to race back to their own lines. If the tripod he is on is destroyed, he can be picked up by another, and if he leaves the board, the Martians win.
The US forces simply need to stop the Tripod carrying the important Alien from leaving the board. If he cannot leave for any reason, the US forces win.
The Players: Me with the US V’s Pancreas boy (usual combat opponent) with the Martians
Turn 1:
The Martians quickly moved forward after gaining initiative, the scored the first kill for the day with a hit to the closest Heavy Machine gun unit, who withdrew from the field.
But the big guns of the US armour roared into life, pounding the Assault tripods and scoring some early wounds.
Turn 2:
The Martians maintained initiative and pressed further on towards their goal, a lot of firepower was expended, as bolts of Heat ray beams shot out into the well-defended Infantry and the armoured tanks, but only one Mk II tank was to fall that turn. Here the Martians made contact with the downed Tripod and Ryan.
The US tanks near to the farm houses slowly moved forward with the plan to encircle the Tripods, while still hitting at them and hurting them.
However, this happened to be where disaster struck for the Martians. The Green grenade throwing tripod had sustained 4 wounds and a lucky shot from one of the entrenched Infantrymen saw, not only Green grenade Tripod explode, but a second Assault Tripod destroyed, a slaver fall and two of the slavers three drones go down! The front line of the Martians was decimated.
Turn 3:
Here the US were now to take the advantage and grab the initiative and pushed the remaining 3 Veterans harder, scoring hit after hit on all three veterans.
The Veteran returned fire and the Grenade throwing Veteran was able to actually pick up Martian Ryan. All they needed to do was to get back to their own board edge and claim the victory.
Turn 4:
The Marians continued their assault while Mr Green Grenades valiantly ran for the board edge, heading up over the hill, ensuring that the Grenadier Tripod was near, in case Ryan needed to be handed off for the final run for the edge.
The Hill was the mistake. The Mk III’s opened fire, hitting the badly damaged Veteran and causing him to explode, taking with him his ally, the Grenadier!
Turn 5:
The Gas Launcher tripod, who had intended to draw fire from the Green grenade tripod, now found himself within feet of the front line. It was simple, try to get back to Ryan. Unfortunately one lucky shot from a Heavy Machine gun unit saw him drop to the ground and out of action.
The final tripod, having lost control of his weapons and his movement, slowly spent the next two rounds being pounded into Martian junk.
It was ate the end of turn 7 that we called it quits. The Martians having been all but annihilated, versus the US forces who managed to lose 2 stands of Heavy Machine Guns & Infantry, a rough rider unit, a Mk II & Mk III, and 2 panicked infantry & Panicked HMG teams.
Although, Pancreas boy was hammered for much of the game, the laughter from him as everything went pear shaped showed how enjoyable a game AQMF is. Realistically, it was going to be a tough mission, but he had the dice going against him, why one shot with the unpainted Mk III’s saw only two misses (out of nine dice) and the armour rolls had 5 hits (2 being 10’s!). The dice really hurt Pb, while his rolls were below average (even for him!)
In the end, fun was the winner; fade out with everyone laughing…
Roll credits.
