The Blood Bank

I’ve been blown off course again. <<sighs>>.

I’ve got myself all involved in 2mm ECW. 

It started with ordering a few figures to see what they were like, then discovering that with a bit of guidance from our Lee and a peek at a few websites I could actually paint them. 

Mmmm. 

Then there were some ace looking miniature buildings from Brigade that were so cheap I couldn’t not buy them, and having gone that far it seemed daft not to get a nice battle mat to put them on. Oh and I’d need some Army level ECW rules…Twilight of the Divine Right looked good…

I hope my son is not expecting much of an inheritance.

I digress. While all this down the rabbit hole nonesense has been going on I managed to squeeze in the first game of my VSF campaign - so I thought I’d document it here while the memory’s still fresh. 

I’ve been using Mr Lambshead’s dice less rules for this skirmish stuff, and jolly good they are too, however the Martians required some additional thought since they are being fielded by an AI.

Going north on the campaign map the first zone that No 1 Section have to traverse on their route to safety is an area containing marsh and bog. As it happened the area designated thus on the game board never had any units traverse it so that aspect played no part in the game.

No 1 section contains 12 men including Sergeant Hobbes and Corporal Figgis. Two character traits were randomly generated and one went to each NCO. Hobbes got “bruiser” which gives him an edge in close combat and Figgis got scout which makes him a bit harder to hit when in cover. 

The section are equipped with one shot Martini Henry rifles but in addition Sergeant Hobbes has two MKIII sticky bombs and Corporal Figgis has the hallelujah smoke pot.

When the chaps arrived on the board I rolled for a friendly encounter, a Martian opposing force and a side mission to complete.

The friendly encounter turned out to be the arrival of the previously estranged Lieutenant Asquith, the Martian force was a Tripod and a “pod” of the three soldiers, (The Martians are the third generation to have been budded since the original invasion and have been genetically modified to better withstand earth conditions). The side mission was an interesting one and gave rise to the post title. A group of 12 helpless civilians have been herded into a force field “pen” where they can be contained and kept fresh for later draining by their captors.

Though the main aim is to get some of No 1 section off the opposite board edge, the pre scripted mission had the following points assigned to it.

Free the captives. 1 point for each captive that escapes off board. -2 for each soldier lost. + 1 for each Martian soldier killed. +2 for each Martian skimmer destroyed. Plus 5 for each tripod destroyed.

End game total.

0-9 points = it’s not the winning it’s the taking part that counts.

10-15 points = minor win. You won. Big whoop.

16 points + = major win. Ooo la.

If the group ever accumulate 30 points during the course of their journey I’m going to let them skip a zone across the map.

The game kicked off with Martians in “guard mode”, one of three modes that they can move through as conditions change in the game. Randomly assigned a tile, a hex within the tile, and a facing it seemed like a lucky start for the boys in red since the enemy were standing guard with their backs to the approaching soldiers. Guard mode keeps the Martians relatively stationary but they do randomly turn clockwise or anti clockwise and scan the area through their front two hexes. (I’d decided early on to limit the Martians combat fire power advantage by having them see the world through infra red and limiting their visibility by restricting it to a cone like search arc).

My Martian soldiers operate in pods of three and these particular ones are armed with zippy zappy  ray guns that (if tv has taught us anything) will make cool pew pew noises but fail to hit anything nine times out of ten. 

While the Martian soldier pod is not visible to No 1 section the tripod towers above the battlefield and causes immediate alarm.

Individual humans, machines etc all generate a heat signature and the higher the cumulative heat signature in a hex the more likely the Martians are to spot and target it. Sergeant Hobbes should have ordered his men to scatter and go to ground but the sight that greeted him just off the road side obviously gave him pause. 

Enter Lt Asquith, stage left.

Ordering Figgis to take the section into cover Hobbes takes Private Williams with him to investigate a very strange sight. Contained between three tall buzzing towers are a group of terrified civilians who warn him that an invisible barrier between the strange contraptions seems to kill on contact. Hobbes orders Williams to fire at the nearest tower but just as the young soldier lifts his rifle they hear an upper class voice shout… “I say… You fellows… Over here!”

Williams fires…and misses. 

Pushing the private to one side Hobbes takes a steady aim at the black metallic column and takes a shot himself. The heavy lead .577 bullet punches a sparking hole in the alien column and whatever it was projecting immediately stops. (The Martian’s would no doubt be infuriated to learn that in decades to come humans would use the shape of these force field towers as the design for a cap on a fast setting glue).

“I say you fellows…”

At the Sergeants urging a few of the civilians nerve themselves to run across the line in the grass where the barrier had been and out on to the road. Lt Asquith arrives and immediately takes command of the situation. Corporal Figgis loses no time in getting into cover behind a large stone wall and though a couple of the men follow him, the rest stand transfixed at the sight of the tripod.

Asquith takes command. 

It was only a matter of time before the soldiers luck ran out of course, and even as the panicking civilians ran into the road the tripod turns and spots the commotion.

(The tripod spots numerous heat signatures within its scanning arc, but it will always seek to target the hex containing the highest total. It has a range of 5 hexes. Each human figure in a hex generates 2 points of heat but any hard cover reduces the total by 1. Its potential targets, ie those with an unmodified heat signature are an old guy in the road  and a soldier on the road hex behind him. Both are within the tripods search arc and weapon range, but the old man is closest and thus has to be the target. Having seen him the Martian attempts to lock his weapon on to him. The tripod needs to draw a playing card of equal or less value than the 2 to lock on to him and fire…so the old guys pretty safe. Regardless of the outcome the Tripod places a waypoint marker on the target hex and all the Martians flip from Guard mode into Patrol mode - since they share a psychic link. In patrol mode the Martians will advance towards the way point searching for fresh targets as they go).

Unluckily for the old guy the Tripod draws an ace from the card deck, locks on, fires, and leaves a flaming scorch mark across the road. Luckily for the old guy he was so busy shouting to the others to run that his dentures fell out just as the Martian weapon fired. Stooping to retrieve them he remains uninjured but quite indignant that his hat is now on fire. (Okay artistic license… the Martian missed). Stirred by the tripods sighting, the Martian soldier pod ready their ray guns and lope out onto the road. 

Eee…that’s me best ’at that is…

“Cor blimey it’s got ’is titfer”*

Outraged that an Englishman’s hat should be so rudely handled, Lieutenant Asquith takes one of Sergeant Hobbes two sticky bombs and races around the hedge line to seek redress.

As the enormous silver colossus steps out onto the road Asquith emerges from the bushes and slaps the sticky bomb firmly onto its leg, pulling the chord to detonate the charge as he does so. He has 8 seconds to make good his escape but Asquith “is of the right sort” so he calmly draws his revolver and lets rip at the towering machines underside instead. For the first four seconds the sticky bomb fizzes a bit, for the second four seconds it produces a little wisp of smoke. Then it falls off and goes “pop”.

“Take that you swine…oh bugger!”

Fortunately for Asquith help is at hand. Hobbes quickly unwraps the brown paper on his own sticky bomb and with the right arm of a cricketing dervish he tosses the device over the hedge where it too fastens to a passing metal tripod leg… Eight seconds later it goes off with a very loud bang! 

The tripod sways alarmingly but somehow remains upright. Perhaps realising that further movement is impossible the shaken alien pilot opens a hatch and bails out just in front of the heroic Lieutenant. Asquith only has one round left in his Webley but before the writhing purple monstrosity can get up on its tentacles he thrusts the barrel between its cold lidless eyes and pulls the trigger.

Blam!

Huzzah! 

Now that the Martians have been fired at they move from Patrol mode to Combat mode, which makes more use of cover and depending on the playing card drawn allows a little more movement. There is one outlier which is the draw of a King - the order to close with the enemy and enter into melee. Naturally the Martian soldiers draw this card. 

Lolloping down the road they fire at the old man with their ray guns. Pew pew they went (see I told you they’d make that noise) and though they left some scorch marks on his best Sunday jacket the old fella remains indignant but unharmed.

Their closest potential adversary is Lieutenant Asquith who  is busy searching his pockets for any stray rounds to put in his pistol when they arrive. The first Martian drops its ray gun and lashes at the young officer with its stinging tentacle. Yeah they have those now. Asquith sees the attack coming, ducks under it, and skewers the foul purple beast on the end of his sword.

Now by rights that should call for another huzzah, but unfortunately the other two Martians in the pod are onto him in a trice. 

Trice. 

I like that word. 

Anywhoo, stinging tentacles lash and poor Asquith goes the way that family tradition demands when fighting against the odds. 

Alas poor Asquith.

Pvt Williams who’d not had the pluck to go and help the Lieutenant when he needed him (not enough action points that turn) now races onto the scene, presumably wracked with guilt and determined to take one with him, which in fairness he does. After Williams’ attack there is but one Martian trooper left. 

Noticing the two dead British soldiers at the creatures feet (oh okay then - tentacles) Private Davies who had moved unobserved into range decides not to take any chances. The aliens prowess at close combat proves useless against a slug of high velocity lead, and it too joins the heap of bodies.

Oh all right then…huzzah!

With nothing left to bar their route off board the soldiers of No 1 section gather together the refugees and lead them away from the carnage. Totalling up the points earned I could see this was a major victory, and a very different outcome to the two test games I’d played in which nearly everyone got fried by this point in proceedings.

Game notes:

The Martians had been unlucky in their initial facings, their limited force size and their weapon attack card draws. Compelled by the AI card draws to do things I wouldn’t have made them do, like enter close combat, made for an interesting game but using tactics that did not play to their strengths eventually doomed them to destruction.

TTFN

*For the benefit of our transatlantic cousins it’s Cockney rhyming slang. Titfer tat = hat. 

I’m sure that’s probably still as clear as mud.