Letters from the Front: Bill's Martian Convoy Report

Bill from the AQMF forums sent me a bunch of pictures of his own twist on the Convoy Scenario - this time it's the Martians taking fire!   It's really good to see how the scenario played out for other folks out there.

The game was played on a 12' table, which is wonderful. I think it would be way too easy for the Martians if it was shorter. The location is a store called Gamerz. See below for the Battle report Bill posted to the forums, more pictures and the full OOB at the bottom.

Bill writes:
"Today was our version of The Convoy. We had 2400 points of martians in the trap and 3200 points of humans, all tanks except for some artillery and rough riders. We played on a 4 x 12 table.

With some oh crap comments from the martians, the game began. The martians chose to fall back the way they came. The humans went first and the dying began. One of the MK 4 tanks let fly and
hit the assault tripod in front of it with the main gun. The hit got through and the tripod went up in a blinding flash ( a
10 was rolled ). At the front of the trap, the scout was damaged multiple times and fell in a pile of junk. A good start for the humans. The martians responded by using most of their orders to double move to the rear. The drones peeled off to go after tanks that were close. Then disaster for the humans. The command MK 4 blew up and all the human order chits went with it. The humans lost a couple of tanks but no morale failures ( except the players )."

"The humans won the initiative again. More damage with several tripods suffering movement or weapon issues. A few drones died but no tripods. The martian counterfire killed a couple more tanks. The humans won the move rolloffs once for each tripod. Keeping them in place.

Turns 3 and 4 saw more of the same. The humans did kill one of the slavers, forcing the veteran tripod to take control.
A couple more drones died.

Turn 5 saw the rough riders pop out and immobilize 2 tripods. The scout by the exit was destroyed by another hit with a 9 for the chart. One tripod broke free and the other didn't. The drones ripped a couple tanks apart and a unit of MK 3's was swept out of existence. The scorpion drones were wiped out just before they got to the MK 4 that was a thorn in their side.

At this point the martians still had a veteran tripod, 5 assault tripods, a slaver, a grenadier tripod, 4 units of drones, and the snipers. The real problem was all had 3 - 4 points of damage except the veteran and grenadier. There were 3 with both movement and weapons damage."

"The next turn was a bad one for the martians. The remaining slaver was destroyed. That made 2 units of drones useless. They were eventually wiped out. The tripod that couldn't free itself was
pounded by all the tanks trying to catch up, and it blew up. The surviving martians finished wiping out one side of the human blocking force and started leaving the table. On the last turn the mobile artillery finally got a hit on a damaged tripod and it too went up in a flash. The last martians escaped and the battle was over.

The martians started with 18 units and only 7 managed to get away ( the veteran tripod, the grenadier, 2 units of drones, and 3 badly damaged assault tripods ). The humans had 20 units and lost 7. The real martian problem was losing almost all the movement roll offs.
That kept 3 tripods on the table that would otherwise have escaped. The 2nd btn / 7th cav has sent the invaders packing with their tentacles between their legs. But Marvin the Martian got away and he'll be back. It was a great game and a lot of fun was had."

More from Bill on the details, including some house rules he's using:

"The victory conditions were the martians had to get 10 of their 18 units off the table in order to win. If they failed, the humans won.

There were some house rules that we used in the game. The martian scouts could use their targetter to control drones if all the slavers were killed, but had to be in range. The veteran tripod could also do that. They are not allowed to do anything else ( shooting, orders, etc. ) if controlling drones.

We give human MK 4 tanks two damage hits before they are destroyed. They are too big to be taken out with one hit unless the martians get lucky. We roll on the first damage to see what weapons are destroyed.

1, 2 - hmg
3, 4. - left sponsons
5, 6. - front two guns
7, 8. - right sponsons
9. - main gun
10. - magazine hit, tank explodes

If a Mk 4 explodes, it works just like an exploding tripod.

Here are the forces used.

Martians

Advanced force

1 scout tripod with targetter
3 assault tripods with heavy heat ray

Middle force

1 veteran tripod with heavy heat ray
2 slaver tripods
1 grenadier tripod
4 units of drones
1 unit of sniper drones
1 unit of scorpion drones

Rear force

1 scout tripod with targetter
3 assault tripods with heavy heat ray


Human forces
1st battalion / 7th US cavalry

Hq. - MK 4 monitor

Co A

MK 2 command tank
3 MK 3 tanks
6 MK 2 tanks

Co B

MK 2 command tank
3 MK 3 tanks
6 MK 2 tanks

Co C

3 MK 3 tanks
3 MK 2 tanks

A troop

3 MK 4 monitors

Mobile artillery

batteries H and I ( 3 guns each )

2 rough rider squads

Indiana national guard

6 MK 3 tanks"