Not quite a 'plague of locusts'...

[matt56]

Yesterday at our monthly gaming session we ran two Martian Locust tripods against four planes - two Sopwith Snipes and two DH-4s - in a meeting engagement. The adversaries began in from the board edge a bit so that action could be joined a bit quicker. I ran the two Martians while the rest of the lads each ran one of the planes.

Once we had closed to firing range and done some initial damage, the Martians changed facing so as to get their Black Smoke launchers in position to attack the incoming planes. This was in an attempt to do some sort of damage to the Earthlings while the heat ray recharged...



The need for the Martian tripods to stop and recharge caused the planes to miscalculate their plotted movement - they were assuming the Martians would keep moving and they plotted accordingly, overshooting their targets. The fact that all of the planes were quite nimble allowed them to get back into the fight fairly quickly.



The first Locust succumbed to too much gunfire earlier than I had 'planned'...this was due in part to misapplication of damage taken from the planes, but it was also due to the Locust being set on fire with special damage. The planes were able with concentrated MG fire to overwhelm the shields when they were facing them, and they also had some luck in attacking the unshielded side effectively. The remaining Martian's Black Smoke attempted to even the score, and he did manage to down one Snipe with consecutive pilot special damage from smoke attacks.



Eventually the remaining Locust had to spend some time standing still so he could attempt to recharge - the planes were able to close and keep him busy. He would recharge and then the planes would shoot at the shielded sides and cause energy drains. The Martian was unable to recharge enough quickly enough to enable him to escape, and he fairly quickly became a second casualty.



After we had finished, we talked through the pros and cons of the game and decided that just letting the Earthlings pick the most powerful planes available was not the best way to run a scenario - although things don't have to be perfectly balanced to have fun or a good game. This was a good game, indeed, but it was an eye-opener from that standpoint. A mix of tripod types would have allowed the Martians a bit more flexibility, especially if a heavy heat-ray were included. Being able to deal out damage at a range where one cannot be hit in return is a real plus with the longer range of that heavy weapon. Regardless of the idiosyncracies of this match-up, we look forward to the next engagement...

All the best,
Matt