Redcoats on the Red Planet - Part II

Last Friday we had a run through of the game we are taking to salute on the 28th.

As such I can't post an account of what happens - you will just have to see us at Salute or wait until next week !

Redcoats on the Red Planet - Part 1

I've always been a fan of 'classic' science fiction. Jules Verne, HG Wells etc, and that includes some of the late 19thC fiction about various invasions of England by the countries of the near continent. About two years ago I was attracted by the then brand new range of figures being offered by Black Hat for their Martian Empires game.

This sort of merged with the club adaptions of the POW rules for Colonial battles (basically using 40mm frontage bases and an increased ground scale) and started a thing. I invested in some Tribal Martians, re-based some red-coated Brits and took a small game down one Friday night.

The first game went OK, but the Brits got massacred by a combination of aerials and giants supported by some Prussian Colonial Sturmtroops, but a small seed had been planted and over the next few months we had a handful of games, with Tim producing ever growing numbers of Cephlapods and War Machines.


By October 2007 we decided the rules modifications we had produced were viable and balanced so we decided to take 'Redcoats on The Red Planet' as a demonstration game to some of the wargame shows in the south of England. In February we went to Cavalier in Tonbridge, in May to Campaign in Milton Keynes and in June to Valhalla in Farnborough. Despite ripping of his figures to use with another game system, Mike at Black Hat was impressed, and we went on to do the same demo at Warfare in Reading in June.



That was supposed to be it's last outing, but at Warfare we were approached by a couple of the organisers of Salute and asked if we would like to take it to their next event.



We said yes, and began work on some extra bits for March.

Watch out for updates ...

HoTT Cymru. March 6th & 7th

Tim and I went to the HoTT Cymru tournament in Penarth South Wales. 7 games over 2 days in a pub/hotel is a nice way to spend a weekend. This is how I remember things. The code at the end of each game report is K(ills) L(osses) G(eneral) and score (Wins-Losses)

My first game was against a 'Flitnloque' army of Napoleonic Goblins. I used my 60mm Space Marine army led by a Hero general. Unfortunately I got fixated with getting him out of the line of fire of the 2 Artillery pieces and ended up in front of my own Behemoth. One recoil later I was dead. K2 L6G 0-1

My next game was as Hugh Pugh against Tim and 'Them'. This was a bit of a massacre. He attacked in columns against a shooter line and took horrendous casualties. K12 L0 (DNS)

My second real game saw me facing a modern 6mm British army composed entirely of Welsh regiments on 15mm bases, so used my Brits at Isandlwahana army. On my left his attack helicopter (Aerial Hero) attacked but was ensorcelled by the Times reporter, while Victoria dealt with the riders (jeeps with mg). The enemy centre and right was mostly warbands but my shooters stood firm and when the 17th Lancers (Knight) charged their flank it was all over. K12 L8 1-1


After lunch and a pint my next opponent and I agreed to use a matched pair of 'Pool' armies. I chose Stingray, he was the Titans. In the end this was a bit one-sided as my two Stingrays (AHr) easily out manuvered his artillery and three Titan Killerfish (Airboats). K11G L2 2-1



Game four saw my Vikings (60mm bases) facing an army of GW Ratmen. My warband and Paladin dived into his Hordes (of Rats) and spent a happy game rat-killing .... The real action came down to my Hero General against the enemy Magician, but I triumphed eventually. K6G L2 3-1


For my final game of the day I was facing an army of Welsh druids (3 x Mg) and warbands with my Brits at Isandlwahana army. This was a real grind as both armies gradually fragmented into a series of single combats. Victoria did a great job of stopping the Welsh advance before delivering the final blow to kill his Knight General. K12G L6 4-1

Saturday night we had a sit down dinner with all players plus a couple of extras on one long table. After we finished most people seemed to disperse, but Tim and I plus the Sharrocks, Tony Horobins son and Pete ? played a Gloranthan -themed game set up by Jane. If you imagine a free-form Role-playing race game with monsters and a couple of bottles of red wine you get the idea ..... In the end I 'won' the race, but was disqualified for trying to seduce and assassinate members other teams and break their boats. This didn't worry me too much as EVERYONE was disqualified for pretty much the same reasons. Certainly good fun and I would play again.

Sunday morning saw a good solid breakfast before we dived into the two remaining games.


Game six saw me facing an army of invading Normans (40mm bases) so out came the Brits at Isandlwahana again. This time however Victoria appeared on T1 and while she did a decent enough job initially, coming on so early meant she left early as well. Eventually my General was killed by Crossbowmen and that was it. K2 L9G 4-2


My last game saw me pitched against Ben and his enemies of Dr Who. 60mm bases so out came the Vikings again. This started out OK, with my Hero general breaking the enemy line on the right, but he couldn't get far enough away so had to turn back.


On the left, my Paladin (Berserkers) and supporting warbands stood toe-to-to with The Master for 2 or 3 turns all of which produced non-killing draws. Troops were dieing all over the place, but in the end Dalek Kaan and the Cybermen killed my Hero General and it was all over. K10 L14G 4-3


In the end I was placed 3rd - my best result in a HoTT competition ever - and won the Welsh Dragon prize for killing the most Generals.



Overall a great weekend and Tim and I would like to thank Tony for all his work organising it.

Tim and I plan to do the same event again next year.

March 6th FOG Persians vs Alexander

We started out with about 750 points per side. I commanded the Persian right with our best commander, a unit of Horse archers, a unit of light horse, a unit of armoured horse and a unit of light Archers. Our centre was the traditional Persian infantry and on our left we had a mix of cavalry and infantry. The pic on the right shows my horse archers trying to bother the Alexandrian cavalry.



Facing me was Alexander, 2 units of crack cavalry, one of good infantry and some light archers. I decided the best thing I could do was keep Alexander busy and hope the centre/left could do some damage. All I can say is I tried ....



This is the Macedonian centre. All those pointed sticks ....







This is ours. The scythed chariots did as much as you might expect.


This is about my high water mark. My light cavalry are charging an enemy flank after chasing off the archers, my horse archers are regrouping out of shot, Alexander is bravely running down my foot archers ping away at the enemy cavalry and my AC has charged home. In this photo my commander is behind his armoured cavalry but he did join the front rank before the evening ended.



I did the best I could, dragging Alexander off aim chasing foot archers, but my supporting toops couldn't stand. The Phalanx charged home and by the time I had to leave we were in some disarray.

This game left me asking questions such as how does a Persian army defeat Alexander ?