As More of Their Cylinders Came from the Mysterious Depths of Space........

So we tried out a new scenario for All Quiet on the Martian Front last night.  I played a landed cylinder that was assembling forces and the humans had to destroy it before the forces overwhelmed.
So the rules were pretty simple.  The Martians start with a single scout tripod and the Cylinder.  The cylinder can do 2 actions per turn which include build, throw red weed bombs and gather extra materials to enhance their build points generated for the next turn.  At the end of the turn they will get the points to spend the next turn.  The US player starts the game with 3 infantry and 2 tank units and each turn rolls a die and gets either a tank or infantry unit that can move on the table as support.

Red weed is a new mechanic I added.  The Martian player places a red weed template anywhere on the table at least 6" away from enemy models.  Any model that moves within 6" of the template is trapped and cannot do anything.  It can be shot at with def 4, Armor 8 and takes 3 hits to remove from the table.  It gives the martian player the ability to block lanes and hamper the human advance.

Here are the forces remaining after setup.  You can see the command squad on the table.  this was a key component of the battle.

First turn the martians place a template and engage the small town by the cylinder.  In order to  unlock lobototons the martian needs to capture the small town with the infantry unit currently guarding it.  Richard opts to place a small template and generate extra build points for the next turn.  he then moves his scout to engage the small town.  He takes out an infantry stand and then retreats back to the cylinder.  Bob gains a armored infantry unit and opens fire on the red weed template destroying freeing up the movement of forces towards the cylinder.  

Richards builds an assault tripod and moves it towards the forces.  Unfortunately he misses his shots (This becomes a recurring theme for Richard)Bob advances through the city trying to get some clear shots on the cylinder, scoring minor damage on the assault and scout tripods.

Being a little bottlenecked Bob manages to get some new tank units and moves them around the other side of the table.  Making use of the command points from his Command squad, he makes some steady progess doubling his movement.   Shooting remains however, abysmal for both sides.

The game progresses with the Martians taking out a few tanks but ultimately they advance to engagement range of the cylinder.  Even Heat ray sweeps seems to be missing left and right....Not good for the martians.  

In a blaze of firepower, the humans are able to gain victory by destroying the cylinder with a lucky 9 shot on the tripod damage table.  Cylinder destroyed HUMAN VICTORY.

So what did I learn from the battle.  First off Martian shooting can really be abysmal.  lol  But seriously I think the red weed would work better as a modifier instead of a flat cannot do anything unless killed.  Command points made all the difference in the game as it allowed Bob to get his tanks into engagement range far quicker than usual.  All in all we had a good time.

FIN