Thursday at the Club

[johnbiggles]

On Thursday, the remnants of the Thursday night wargamers from Derby wargames society met up for a game of Tripods and Triplanes. We haven’t played this often or regularly so we are still getting used to the rules which is why there are few photos, and there is only a brief AAR.
The combat area is two maps, City and Countryside, there are 4 Martian targets placed in the city,
Martian objective: destroy the city (Ruth and Andy)
Earthling objective: destroy the Martians (Ian and Me)
The Martians chose a Mk1 Locust and a Mk4 Cuttlefish
Humans, A Nieuport 28 and a Roland CII followed by a Fokker DVII and a Bristol Fighter (B/A)

At this point (around turn 3 I think) the Martians are about to start the destruction of the city. The first two aircraft had to cross the centre line of the combat area before the second pair of aircraft were activated. All is not well, and Ian (flying the single seaters) has just turned the wrong way!

A couple of movements later, and the Martians have achieved their victory conditions.

Victory complete, the Martians turn for home while the Earthlings give chase despite two of them now being on fire. (third card of turn 4)

The very next phase, card 1 of turn 5 the Roland pilot gets a successful hit into the unshielded front of the Cuttlefish, while the rear gunner targets the unshielded front of the Locust.

It turns out the Cuttlefish has already take more than 50% damage, so the additional 50% for the Boom card takes it down (cue John Lee Hooker)

And as it turns out, the rear gunner has given the Locust pilot his second wound bringing it down too!
A Pyrrhic victory, but honour is satisfied



All the aircraft got stuck in when they could, but the Bristol Fighter being the last to enter the fray took no damage.
This took less than an hour to play, despite much checking of the rule book and the usual banter.
We replayed the scenario with all the aircraft starting at the same time, and only two targets in the city, with the other two being placed on targets in the country side.
The Martians still won inside 30 minutes.

[Baz]

Great AAR with revenge for the pilots at the end. May have been different if the objectives were not so close together to make the Martin’s work hard.

[Stumptonian]

Looked like a runaway victory for the Martians, but the airmen definitely got some revenge.
Nice to see T & T still making it to the table.

[johnbiggles]

It was a scratch game, thought up while driving to the club. We take turns to put on games and the chap who was to provide last Thursday's game had to give it a miss. We all play WoG, preferably WWI, but to keep the space theme (should have been starwars) I volunteered to bring the tripods to the table.

[Baxter]

Good to see those misunderstood Martians gain victory.

Makes me want to to dust off my T&T for when it is my turn to host again.

[Teaticket]

Martians made a mess of that earthling structured area. No respect for earthlings. Destroying the Cuttlefish is quite an accomplishment, so some praise goes to the pilots.

[Flying Helmut]

Thanks for posting the photos, Mr Biggles!

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Well done John.
HG. would be proud.
Rob.