Battle for Mars

This battle report is on yet another game system that I am playing now: War Rocket by Hydra Miniatures. I have a short attention span. Its features include a turn sequence that has bigger ships moving last as the small ones take advantage of their mobility, different movement systems for the different races, and four different classes of ships with varying capabilities. For the opening game, I take the red and gold Imperials against the blue and white Galacteers. I enjoy the advantages of power, while the Galacteers have speed and mobility on their side. We are fighting over a Mars mat because our space mat has the wrong size of hexes.

The rules.

The fleets set up. Each has two class IVs, four class IIIs, four class IIs, and nine class Is.

Automotive paint: it's good stuff.

The Galacteer flagships.

The Imperial flagships.

The small ships on my right get some action, the Galacteers using the move order to good effect.

I had to take what I could get, which was not much.

Everything ends up stunned on the left flank.

The bigger ships draw ever closer, but no contact yet.

The oblique approach leaves our class IVs separated for now.

The fighter has nestled under the wing of the larger Galacteer vessel.

What is left of my right flank converges on the center.

It turns into a swirling mess. Capital ships are destroyed left, right, and center.

I off a couple of class IIIs.

Two class Is stun my other class IV with a lucky shot from behind.

My mostly victorious left flank converges on the center as well.

It got complicated in there, although it should become considerably emptier.

A chase of sorts occurs as my ships on the left speed back to the main engagement.

I form a firing line and get rid of the other class IV, amazingly casualty-free.

My class IV is offed in return for the opposing class III.

One of my remaining class IIIs is stunned.

Next turn, they would be able to contribute to the central engagement.

At this point, Dave elects to disengage with his remaining forces, saving something to fight again another day.

 

The different emphases with the different races are amazing. Galacteers favor their small ships because they move last so are virtually invincible. Imperials favor larger ships that have more firepower and armor. I think I just maneuvered slightly better in the turn 3 melee, having more forces left alive at the end of the turn. This set the stage for me mopping up all the remaining large ships. A fun game, and I hope to have another report up next week!

Back to the Front

Hey! My apologies for not posting for two months. Finals and AP exams can really eat up a lot of time. Now I'm back with a couple of battles against the soviets. I take a German tank force, mostly Panzer IIIs, but also Czech 38ts and some infantry, to attack the Soviet horde.

The Soviet horde in defense of the objective.

The German parking lot in anticipation of attacking the objective.

That's a lot more commies than Germans.

A different view. Man am I outnumbered.

We advance and fire, causing minor casualties.

The SU-85s pop out of ambush, destroying a tank.

An assault goes in, with heavy casualties suffered by both sides.

Three tanks down the drain. Not looking good for the German attack.

The SUs blow up another tank.

An infantry assault leaves the Germans pinned and the Russians largely dead.

More reinforcements show up to the German right. As if they are needed.

The unnecessary second echelon. I have lost the battle by this point. There are just too many Soviets.

 

Here are some pictures of our new tank smoke. We just wrapped some cotton around some electric candles and I think it looks pretty good. The pictures are somewhat digitally enhanced as it can be hard to get our basement dark enough for them to show up! They do show up nicely if you tilt your screen backwards.

Here is the second battle in this post. It is, fortunately, slightly longer. I take the same force and try to storm the Soviet positions again.

There was random deployment, but fortunately all my stuff ended up in about the same place.

The jumbled mass of communism digs in with some help from its wagon.

The objective can be hard to find under all those riflemen.

Shooting does some minor damage and inflicts a pin.

My damned tank is bogged down in the forest. Stupid good-for-nothing trees.

More kills. My infantry is remaining well concealed.

I get reserves on my left. Hopefully they kill the SUs.

The same tank unbailed, then rebailed. How frustrating.

More reinforcements come on my right, yet we do no more damage than we have been doing.

I brewed up two SUs in exchange for... one bail. Not how it's supposed to happen, but I'll take it.

The other infantry moves up.

My infantry moves up and causes some casualties.

Reinforcements show up on my right.

Fun stuff.

One tank rotates its turret to engage the new targets, while the other three are not operational.

The third SU is gone. Small victories.

Another tank bites the dust.

We are grinding them down, but not nearly fast enough.

This turn, they got mortars.

An assault by my infantry experiences unanticipated difficulties.

Now that I have almost nothing left on the field, I decide that it is time to throw in the towel.

 

A fun couple of battles, but there were just too many Soviets for me!