Sunday, March 23, 2014

Colonial Adventures AAR #1: Patrol Mission



We have met the enemy!

To Captain Ellsworth.  After action report.  3rd squad of 1st platoon encountered overwhelming resistance to patrol activities this 14 August.  3 casualties.  2 units of Hill Martians were annhilated.  1 unit of Royal Guard was encountered.  3 other units of Hill martians were encountered.

Father, we have met the enemy and dealt them a rousing defeat!  My chaps in 3rd squad gave them a good pasting -- killing 20 with only 3 British casualties.  More later.  Your son Richard Collingsworth

Wow - this one got nasty fast.  Every PEF converted into enemy forces.  The British were lucky to escape with as few casualties as they did.  

Sergeant Anderson led the 10 man patrol.  Rep 4.
Martian major morale 3.  

TURN ONE - TURN THREE.  
PEF A takes off and moves toward the hill each turn.  It would turn out that this PEF holds the enemy C-in-C so maybe that makes sense!  The British stayed in colum the first two turns and then moved into Line formation on turn three -- just in time as on Turn 4 PEF A charges over the hill!

PEF A converts to two units -- one of city dwellers with muskets and one of ferocious Hill Martians with melee weapons.  

The Brits score well on their Test of Wills and Volley fire.  2 hits and 1 figure runs away.
This ends the Martian activation and on the British activation a second round of Volley fire causes no casualties but passing 0d6 on the resulting received fire check causes the remaining Hill Martians to run away.  British spirits are high!  

TURN FIVE
Martian 2 British 1
The city dwellers are led by the Rep 5 C-in-C.  Let's see what they are up to.  They are on a Patrol mission, too, which converts to a Defend mission after passing 2d6 on the check.  They fire -- Rep 5 plus 1d6 for Muskets.  5 dice (1/2 figures firing) results in 1 hit, not an officer, and a Carry On by the Brisih after the Received Casualty check.

Finally, PEF C charges over the hill, too, resulting in another Hill Martian tribe.  British pass 0d6 on Test of Wills so fire normally  but are down to 4 dice due to the casualty.  1 hit and Martians pass 0d6 on casualty check so 1 in 3 run away.

The British get to fire 4 dice at the musketeers for no result at all.  With a Rep 5 leader, that city-dweller unit is going to be hard to take out of the fight.  

TURN SIX
Martians 1 British 4
British fire again with the same result.  They probably should have run instead.....  The city dwellers fire and cause another casualty.  The British score 2d6 or "Stiff upper lip, wot, wot!".  

The Hill Martians want to charge and after checking they do!  Unfortunately the British get to fire, causing 1 hit and causing 1 in 5 to run away -- which results in 4 Hill Martians contacting 8 Brits.  Not pretty -- the British roll 10 dice to the Martian 4 and totally wipe them out for no casualties.  

TURN SEVEN
With time running out (actual play time, not game time) the city dwellers and Brits exchange fire again for one more British casualty.  The British decide discretion is the better part of valor and withdraw.  We determine that the PEFs who are even now charging toward the top of the hill would have resulted in two more units of Hill Martians.   

So in one final cinematic moment, the leader of the city dwellers sweeps his sword down and they loose off one last volley as the two new Hill Martian units top the rise, their weird ululations echoing after the retreating British column.

ANALYSIS
Open-order units in cover are going to be VERY difficult to dig out.  I believe the British could have done it, but not with unending hordes of wild Hill Martians bearing down upon them every turn.  The Brits were very unlucky in that I rolled consistently highly to determine PEF reputation, which made them very aggressive.  And there was not a single false alarm!  The Martians were definitely prepared for the patrol -- perhaps one of the civilian Martians in the camp tipped them off?

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