The
Ballad of Lt “Green Gumption”
They
came on 'ard those greenies with a loud “Walloo”
They
tumbled our artillery then our poor Colonel too
The
last one eyed our company and came on To Do
Stood
Lt Gumption proud, “I'll 'ave 'im” to our “Go Too”
Out
steps he, one, two a grenade-oh bowls straight and true
Bowled
t' greenie a googly to our “Howzat” an' “Got You”
Our
Royal Engineers wicket we showed 'em what a to do!
We got sidetracked, so
I decided to do this one out-of-sequence. That's my excuse and I'm
sticking to it.
I note one of the other
playtesters has gone as far as American Wars of Independence – with
a flying canoe! This one goes into what used to be called Science
Fantasy, but is realistically Colonial as well.
The scenery is my very,
very old Purbek Terrain. The trench is embellished with a model of
the Space 1999 Moonbase. Been used for everything from 2mm ironclads
up.
The sides are very
small. I could have easily embellished this game more:
A lurking monster in
the ruins
A flank march by one
side
Local villagers joining
one side.
Second outing for both
these sides:
Green Martians.
Infantry Giant Level 2
Q4 A4 D6 Shoot2, Resilient, Ambusher 8x 37 =298
Leader add Sub General
Cavalry Giant Level 4
(Includes big mount) Shoot1, Tough, Ambusher 6x 48 = 288
Leader adds General.
Artillery Giant 2,
Artillery Level2, Slow, Ambusher 2x 39 = 78
Total 644
Royal Engineers
Command
Vehicle Q3 A3 D8 Artillery L3 (gatling gun) General, Tough, 3 extra
lives @ 111
Tankette
contraption Q4 A3 D8Artillery L3,Tough, 3 extra lives @ 84
Charabang Q4
A2 D8,Tough, @ 31 carrying:
Infantry
Q4 A2 D4, Shoot3, Drilled 8 x 16 = 128 making a total of 159. 3 of
these = 477.
Total
672.
The Game.
The premise is simple. The convoy has to pass through the village to
get over the dry canal. The green Martians are ambushing them. Each
game took us about an hour, 'im would say it should take 20 minutes.
If part of a campaign we could have got to a reasonable conclusion in
30.
Game
1 I took the Brits, lined 'em up with Tankette in front just entering
the village (ready for the ambush to be sprung) command car behind
followed by the charabangs.
Seemed
sensible to give the Martians the initiative. Naturally Tony started
with the artillery- which failed. I used reactions to get my
tankette into position and blew it away, leaving Tony the initiative.
Out comes his flank cavalry cavalry, but my command car shot 'em to
bits.
Now
his other cavalry charged my tankette, taking one casualty but
destroying it by hitting it on the flank. It may be hard, but it's
still artillery. They plunge on, taking 2 lives of the command car
by shooting. Then they mashed it, losing another.
Then the last
remaining one charged my line. As detailed above. The infantry
charged my line, but were shot to bits. That had reduced the
Greenies numbers below viable. I was lined up, they were lined up
and no-one is going forward so the green's going home.
Game 2
I take the Martians. Tony changes the order, putting a charabang in
lead. He hastily dismounts his infantry across the road.
My
cavalry gets chased by the tankette all round the houses, but my
infantry and infantry leader takes on his command car and wins!
I
managed to take out the lead charabang with my second artillery
(again, the one on the building got stomped) but his infantry
destroyed my other cavalry. I managed to get my surviving infantry
close to his infantry but could do no more than threaten.
Thoughts:
Level 1 artillery would represent a sniper or magic enhanced weapon
or even a booby trap.
Boats
and airships have their specific cost, war-wagons need a cost. About
10-15 would seem right.
Don't
put your artillery on buildings.
At
this skirmish level the very close shooting range seems wrong. I'm
wondering the effect of doubling the area size would work?
Oh for a couple of
not-triceratops with howdahs or artillery-.
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| Emergency supplies being rushed to the front |
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