Martians vs Mycenaens TMP inspired Battlesworn game.

Gate to right, rat-run in the middle, market top left

Barsoom needs Eggs. “We want our egg back!”.

 

This game was inspired by a post in TMP.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=370655

The plot – Martians are egg-laying mammals, THE Helen was born in an egg as her poor mum was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan.

This seemed the ideal scenario to use my Troy. It also encouraged me to make some more smaller scenics. You can never have enough. Plus, they are fairly generic. These wooden blocks are cheap, a bit bigger than I'd like. They are covered and wrapped in tea bags from herbal tea. Cheap as chips.

Gate and guards

The plot is simple, the Martian need to go through the gate to recover the egg. There was 2 potential entry points with the smaller Mycenaean force in the middle. A dice score of 1-3 the side road, allowing a fast running battle with force to the rear or rushing for the rat-run to head them off at the pass. Score of 4-6 the rear entry, enemy to flank but offering the rat-run and main route to the gate. One point that occurred to us, the technological difference is less than that in an South American/vs Conquistador game.

Both sides were simple, you could add more variety.

Achaeans
At the gate 4 Fighters, 1 Brute/Leader, 2 Archer shooters. At the yard, 4 Rogues.

Martians 4 Fighters, 6 Shooters 1 Brute/Leader.*

The game.

 Almost as soon as I arrived, Tony established a skirmish line on my (Martian) flank. I sent a force, shooter, fighter, leader up the rat-run. A firefight ensued between the rooftop archer and my radium rifled raider. I sent 2 more shooters and a supporting fighter sneaking up the main road. Thinning my force threatened my rear, so I put another shooter and fighter up the run as a rear guard.

Tony spent his rolls sniping and keeping me low on actions. Finally, my shooter coming off the worse his leader comes steaming in, but we both pull 3's, so he's left there. Up comes my leader and wallop! One set of Dendle bites the dust. A spearman goes for my leader, whose turn it is to die to pointy stick technology.

I advanced my road-force and reinforced it with another fighter to draw Tony's remaining fighters away from the alley. That worked, but allowed his rogues to come piling in after a couple of ineffective shots on my part.

So an all-in scrap that was very pyrrhic. I failed in my objective. Perhaps I should have been more aggressive? Damn the arrows, full speed ahead!? There was the other entry-point and swapping sides, so for no effort there's a series of 4 games. Having lots of cover and options – there's no reason why we couldn't have gone through buildings, really works. Now you know why I always take an overhead shot. Being in 15mm the base is 4 floor tiles and there is not a lot of cost, everything was made for other use.

Tony's townspersons ready to go in, the guard are drawn off to the right
 

This turned out to be our most enjoyable game of Battlesworn to date and I can see a few variations coming up, one possibly based on the film 47 Ronin, the bit in the ships and/or one of the battles.

You don't do as we did, but please try something similar. I used the rogues to represent the more aggressive townsfolk and if you use a different class you could spread a few around at random or have a patrol of watchmen. Carts or similar on the road. Someone does packs of goblin slavers and watchmen. This game is a good excuse to buy the fun stuff or to use all those impulse buys sitting in the back of the wardrobe.

I've managed to lose the painted poker chips that I'd used before, so in advanced panic mode I found a pack of cheap wall plugs that just happens to contain the right colours! We used them “raw” here, but adding a clout (roofing, with big head) nail allows them to stand up well, even if they do look a bit phallic! Saves having to pick the figure up, proper job.

*I had bought 1 pack each of Martians with swords, rifles and personalities. The latter can offer a gone-native human who could be a sniper or warmage (service pistol, wot?) plus a rather nice princess or the priest that could double as a magic user. Curiously, the figures come from Black Hat and their 18mm figures are slightly smaller than their 15mm ancients. No problem, love 'em all!.

 



The famous thin red line