VSF - Martians Land in England 1886

 Now for a short campaign in the home of VSF - Victorian England/Great Britain.

The Martian ships landed north of Bedford and attracted a great crowd of native gawkers and onlookers. The Martians calmly assembled their tripods great and small, ignoring the ignorant natives  who looked on slack jawed.

When all was ready the Great Martian read out the Colonisation Protocol. "Natives of this land, please be informed that you are now citizens, fourth class, of Greater Mars. Your land is now the property of my government. You must obey all orders from any Martian under pain of death."

A great cry went up from the assembled natives and they started forward to remonstrate with the Great Martian, who stood impassive and then ordered a warning shot to be fired and when that did not work, a fusillade of blasters directly into the native hordes.

The natives turned and ran from the deadly force. The Great Martian turned and said to his soldiers, "Today is a great day, when we take this land for ourselves to hold in trust in perpetuity for the natives who don't know what is good for them. We shall exploit this land's riches for the benefit of ourselves and I believe that with strict training the natives will be able to become our servants and helpers."

So the colonisation of Great Britain began.

In this battle the hordes of natives are trying to escape from the Martian Tripods. The British Army is on its way to protect their people and repel the Martian invaders.

The hordes of people have the objective of getting off the board to escape. The British army objective is to stop the Martians and help the people to escape. The Martians need to kill, capture or suck the blood from the natives. Native blood is assumed to have some constituent that protects them from the high Earth gravity. The Martians will drink the blood to help them cope. They will also need to destroy the British army although they don't think anything in the army can hurt them.

So onto the show.

Initial setup - The Martians will enter the board from the top. The hordes are blocking the roads and the British Infantry and Artillery are stuck on the road.

The hordes of civilians block the army

The Martians enter and immediately start blasting

The Infantry go around the panicking peoples while top right the Cavalry charge gloriously against a smaller tripod and even damage it! Top left a infantry company deploys in line and fires, only to see its bullets harmlessly bounce off. A large Tripod devours the humans below it.

The Cavalry continue their attack. The two centre infantry companies deploy so the civilians can escape.

But the Martians make short work of the infantry and few are left . But the civilians continue their escape.

The artillery manages to deploy but one gun is destroyed. The infantry are destroyed only one base remains. The Cavalry are also destroyed. but the sacrifices have not been in vain, the civilians are escaping.

All the guns are destroyed. The tripods chase down the humans

On the left a large group of humans is escaping while a smaller group runs through the woods. A Martian tripod is racing around the woods to cut them off. In the centre a large tripod has got in front of a human horde and deployed its Martian infantry. On the right a human horde has escaped.

On the left the Martian tripod has quickly come round. But the Infantry make a last stand! The main group of humans escape but the smaller group is captured!

In the centre the humans are surrounded and captured! What will be their fate. Slaves of the Martians or to have their blood sucked out!

Final score.

Humans    Damaged 2 small tripods and 1 large tripods - The Martians are shocked

                Escaped with 22 stands of humans

                One glorious disastrous cavalry charge

Martians    Humans captured 14 stands

                    Humans blood sucked out 12 stands

                    Humans killed 41 stands

So its a draw.

But the humans who escaped will provide valuable information for the Army to resist the Martian onslaught.

From the human captives the Martians learn the secret of conquering Britain.

VSF - Martians Updated

 I decided I needed to update my Martian force for a proper assault on the home of VSF - London!

So I worked out how to make some cheap Tripods, some heavy weapons for the Martians to hold off those Hordes of Humans and a few more Martian footsloggers with rifles to roust the humans out of their defences.

So with no further nonsense - here are the nonsense pictures.

The whole force excluding the flyers

A closeup of the Tripods with their tentacles

Martian infantry with pistols at the front and rifles at the back

Martian Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators to give those humans a what for.

Another shot of the full force. Destroyed Tripods at the back left just in case the humans get lucky.
The Tripod at the left showing off its blood bin for harvesting the humans.

The Tripods were made out of plastic mini margarita glasses, some thin rod and Christmas tree lights for the guns.

I have decided that I need to fight a VSF battle in London so I have bought a bit of specific terrain for the Martians to attack and for the Brits to defend to see who will rule the Empire. Sort of a reverse colonisation war. Apparently Queen Victoria is not amused.

22C - Toot battle for the abandoned city

 Another instalment in the war against the evil AI toot - a ride share platform that has become sentient and has taken over the world.

In this episode, toot is looking for extra space for its HumanZ and also to deny a strategically important city to the feral human resistance who are also looking to expand.

The humans have got there first and are hiding in the abandoned city and toot has sent in a search and destroy mission to clear them out. And this time toot has added a terrifying new weapon - Giant Evil Robot Pack (tm).  Thanks Simon.

I am using the SciFi FUBAR rules with random activation by drawing playing cards for each unit or vehicle. The humans start the game hiding and have random reinforcements but can appear anywhere on the table for infantry and on any entrance for vehicles.

Here is some commentary and photos of the game.

First up the toot drones fill the sky looking for targets

In the centre the Giant Evil Robot Pack (tm) move down the street supported by RoBroZ

Each of the other streets have two TankZ and RoBroZ

Overview of the city

Humans have planted AA guns on the top of buildings and while they shoot down a few DroneZ they are quickly dealt with.

Giant Evil Robot Pack (tm) smash through some rough terrain growing in the street

Same for the right assault team

And the left

Feral Humans ambush the TankZ and RoBroZs!! However in the next turn return fire from the RoBroZ destroy the ferals before they can escape back into the city.

Feral armed utes come out to attack the Giant Evil Robot Pack (tm). They cause some damage to its mobility but that is all.

but are quickly dealt with

Battle Buses and more armed utes charge in

The centre of the city is dominated by toot forces

Another over view. The bright orange markers are destroyed ferals

Armed trucks appear from a motor way tunnel under the city to challenge the invaders

While the battle buses are shot up by RoBroZ

Another feral ambush destroys a TankZ and an Evil Giant Robot !! Lucky shot to the rear. The remaining ferals scuttle away leaving half their number dead.

With little remaining forces available the feral commander calls for a retreat. Toot has won this battle and soon the remains of the city will be humming with HumanZ.

Anyway a fun game on my new abandoned city board.

The random activation using playing cards worked well. I purchased some 1/12 scale cards -about 10mm by 15mm and they are not obtrusive when placed on the table and help keep track of who has moved and who is next.

Extra good game as I finally got to use the Giant Evil Robot Pack (tm) that my brother had made for me. Thanks Simon.