All Quiet on the Martian Front: A Battle Report

Back to Earlswood for another of Dave's amazing games (some Dave who brought us Dead Man's Hand in the last Blog post). This one is the excellent All Quiet on the Martian Front. Dave bought heavily into this game when it was just a Kickstarter, and was very disappointed when the company making it when bust before they had a chance to release all the figures. Luckily it looks like another company might have pickled up the rights and plan to revive the game. 

Dave has made his AQotMF terrain with the idea that it would look dramatic. this includes massive explosions, melted tanks, destroyed tripods, fleeing civilians and other general signs of war. This means that as the battle progresses we accumulate more smoke and chaos, which not only makes the game lots of fun it also means in photographed like a dream. 

On the subject of photocopy, I had to use my son's camera for this game, and I am not great with it, so please forgive any photos that are a little less than perfect. 

This game features a large force of US tanks, supported by infantry and artillery. The humans must protect a vital oil production plant from the martians. All the martians have to do is destroy the refinery and the oil reserve, however this is protected by a trench line and a very high anti-tripod electric fence. 

The first the Americans know of the attack is when the Martian Scout Tripods appear on the horizon, stalking their way through the trees!

"They're coming! The Martians are coming!"  Panic stricken civilians flee before the advancing war machines, trying to reach the safety of the American defences

"Ohh Laaaaa!" The scouts are followed by larger, and more deadly war machines.

The American soldiers prepare to hold the line. the oil reserve is vital to their war effort. The Martians must be stopped!

The trench line is protected by an anti-tripod fence, any war machine touching it will be in for a nasty shock. 

The US troops have access to the big guns- Tom, Dick And Harry! When they fire as a battery they are more than capable to bringing down a Martian.

The desperate Americans have even deployed a Clamp Tank- the brave crew risk almost certain destruction as they try to slow down the advancing Tripods. 

The US tanks advance past the wire to bring the battle to the advancing Tripods

The scouts break through the cover of the trees. The Red Weed from Mars can be seen spreading through the forest like a vile plague. 

The larger Tripods move in to attack the  US tanks. 

A Heat Ray hits one of the armoured cars, but lucky for the crew does not inflict major damage. 

Now its Tom, Dick and Harry's go. The American big guns open up- badly damaging one of the tripods

The armoured cars fire their 6dpr cannons at the damaged tripod, and finally bring crashing  down.

The armoured cars dart back out of range of the Tripods. 

The Martian heat ray reduces one of the M1 battle tanks to molten slag

  The Clamp Tank dashes forwards, its engines staining at it tries to engage with the Tripods legs- it misses its target and the crew desperately try to reverse for a second attack. 

The surviving M1 tanks take down one of the scout tripods.

 

Meanwhile Tom Dick and Harry open up on the larger tripod- causing it to explode. Unfortunately the resulting explosion was powerful enough to destroy the Clamp Tank

Things are looking up for the Americans as tripod after tripod are brought down by their disciplined fire. The Martians, undeterred by their losses continue to advance, their heat rays sweeping out in front of them. 

An armoured car is reduced to a brunt out shell and the other cars in the squadron have seen enough and turn to flee the advancing martians. The infantry in the trenches prepare to fight the Martians in close quarters.

The Martians turn their heat rays to to the Electric fence, destroying it with apparent ease. 

 The tripods continue their unrelenting advance, despite the best efforts of the American infantry, whose grenadiers fail to inflict significant damage to the last scout Tripod. 

The scout Tripod sweeps the infantry aside and crosses the last line of the Americans defences. It's heat ray cuts through the thin skin of the Oil tanks like a hot knife through butter, and in second the entire oil refinery is ablaze. 

The Americans inflicted a great deal of damage to the Martians, but ultimately failed to secure the oil refinery. The loss of half a dozen Tripods is a trifle to the Martians when compared to the effect of losing such a factor that was so significant to the Americans defence strategy. 

The talented and modest Dave with his brother Dean (sporting a lovely new wig). 

Dead Man's Hand Report: The Jail Break!

At Earlswood Wargaming we are lucky enough to have not one but two super talented scenery makers. As well as Big Al, whose prolific scenery building gave us the Gettysburg and Battle of The Bulge boards, we have Dave, who mas made the most amazing scenery for Dead Man's Hand. Dave's scenery began life as a pile of Laser-cut MDF buildings but they have been embellished and weathered to perfection (as you will see). Playing on Dave's beautifully made board is always rewarding, as the narrative that develops is very rich, and the photos end up looking like a museum diorama. Sit back and enjoy a Saturday western matinee.

With the dastardly bandit leader in jail the citizens of the Old West town began to relax. The Circuit Judge would be arriving at noon and was sure to hang the criminal, and that would be the end of his reign of terror. Time for the good folks to get back to normal.

The bank clerk and the butcher swap tall stories about how they took on the bandits

The saloon keeper sweeps away the broken glass and looks forward to an evening of celebration in the town. 

Old Crazy Dean the balloonist takes his balloon out for a spin. 

But what is this... the bandits are not going to let their leader swing without a fight. They are going to try a jail break! One of the villains takes the clerk hostage!

Another deranged killer rides through High Street shooting up the town, terrorising the Good Folk!

The Marshal and his deputy spring into action. 

A concerned citizen takes out the killer on the horse with both barrels of his shotgun...

but is in turn gunned down by the Mexican bandit who had been hiding in an alleyway.

Another deputy takes up position in a half built house, and takes pot shots at the bandits 

while another prepares to defend the jail house

  

The Mexican charges into the jail with his six shooter blazing, but miraculously hits nothing

Outside a bandit and the marshal get into a shoot out...

and the brave marshal is killed!

Inside the jail house the Mexican is gunned down by the lawmen

The last bandit tries to beat a deputy in fisty cuffs but is overpowered and arrested!

With the bandits dead, captured or driven off nothing can stop the Circuit Judge delivering a healthy does of justice to the dastardly bandit leader, and restoring Law and Order once more! Yeha!

All credit to Dave, who painted all the figures as well as making all the scenery. 

Peninsular War: Spanish Milita

While waiting for more figures to arrive for my Mini-hammer and Soviets I chanced upon three Spaniards who were undercoated but not yet painted, so spent an evening slapping them, with the wet end of a paint brush. This is the result.

The figures on the left and the right are from Empress Miniatures, from their New Zealand Wars range. The New Zealand Wars were a few decades after the Napoleonic War but I am not going to let that worry me too much as I managed to pick these pair up cheep as they had broken or miscast bayonets. They are carrying English kit but that works because many of the Spanish were supplied by the British. 

The figure in the middle in from Eagle Miniatures and is sporting some elements of the Spanish Regulars uniform (in this case an artilleryman). As Spanish regiments were broken in battle with the French many of the regular troops ended up drifting into service in the irregular forces, were their training and expertise were welcomed. 

Pirates: Assassin and Standard Bearer

Here are two more additions to my Pirate crew, originally intended for On the Seven Seas. To be honest I think the chance of me ever playing On the Seven Seas is rather remote, so they are just painted for fun really. And because I had them based and sprayed, sat on the painting pile while I am waiting for more Russians to arrive in the post.  The first one is from North Star Military Figures and is obviously a nod towards the characters in Assassins Creed, one of my favourite games. I painted him appropriately. He has an excellent dramatic pose. 

The second figure is a standard bearer. I can't really imagine that pirates fighting on land bothered to take a Jolly Rodger standard along with theme, so this is something of a whimsy. The figure is from Redoubt and was a left over from my French and Indian Wars British. The originally had a halberd in his hand, so was a rather simple conversion. 

Stalingrad: First Russian Platoon

I have finished basing the rest of my Russian platoon for Stalingrad. I have more figures on order from Crusader Miniatures and, with the addition of some armour or some more support options, this will make two platoons.