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Thread: Not quite a 'plague of locusts'...

  1. #1

    matt56's Avatar May you forever fly in blue skies.
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    Default Not quite a 'plague of locusts'...

    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...

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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
    Last edited by matt56; 09-16-2019 at 02:47.

  2. #2

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    Your observations are similar to the games I've played. The better planes are ones that are more nimble (Snipes, Fokker DrI, etc.) and less so the fast ones (SPAD XIII) as they can adjust quickly to unexpected Martian moves. Planes like the DH-4s are powerful as they can fire front and rear so it doesn't matter as much if they guess wrong. As you say if the planes coordinate they can overwhelm the Martian's ability to recharge.

  3. #3

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    A very fun engagement. Will be ready for more martians next meeting! Maybe next time instead of two seaters use the nieuports with rockets and see how that pans out.

  4. #4

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    Some great close ups of the action Matt - Looks like the boys picked the right planes for the job ! Did they gang up on an individual at a time or was it pretty much two v two throughout ?
    The black smoke launcher stands look the part, they must make using the templates a lot easier. I'll have to source some over here when I get a moment.

    "He is wise who watches"

  5. #5

    matt56's Avatar May you forever fly in blue skies.
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    It sort of started out with the Allies split two on two, but with overshooting targets and as the tripods separated somewhat, it became three on one. Once the first tripod went down, there was only the one target for the planes, so...that was all she wrote! All those A guns add up...

    Definitely a learning process for the Martians - I shall do things differently next time.

    All the best,
    Matt

  6. #6

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    Is that linked to your comments in the Rules clarification and reminders thread ?!
    Sounds like you've been doing yourself in and doing the Earthing's work for them !

    "He is wise who watches"

  7. #7

    matt56's Avatar May you forever fly in blue skies.
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    It is rather embarassing, Dave I figured I might not be the only person who had done it, which is why I added that note in the rules section...

    I find that there is a bit more management required with the Martians than there is with the Earthlings - now that I have gotten the gaffs out of my system, I think I shall be all right moving forward...at least, more often than not...

    All the best,
    Matt

  8. #8

    Default

    It happens mate, though you seemed to have the grasp of it in post #6 of that thread, once in the heat of battle things can easily go awry.

    "He is wise who watches"

  9. #9

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    I am considering my choice of words carefully before i tell mum i want to preorder a set of tripods and triplanes

  10. #10

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    Esa, try something like, "I would love to wash dishes" or some other chore. Then drop in the "I would love to have a Tripods" set!

  11. #11

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    Nice battle report! From reading these it does seem that the martians do seem to suffer a lot. I don't know if it is because everybody here is well versed in how to fly the planes and not so much with the tripods or maybe just the tripods are not that powerful.



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