ConQuest: Sunday

My friend, Mark Waddington is always good for a game or two of Martian death at a convention. I thought it might be fun to run a Sky Galleons of Mars game in addition to our traditional Sword and the Flame based game, so I piled everything in my car.

I set up the Sky Galleons game for the morning, and we had about ten players. It was the Escape from Shastapsh scenario I've run several times before. In previous games the Martians have had a hard time accomplishing much. However the last time I played it--several years ago, the Brits were slaughtered. This time out, the Brits were massacred too, but they took a fair number of Martians with them. I think next time I would give one fewer Hale rockets to the Anarchists converted Clearsights and replace them with a Nordenfeldt gun. Sky Galleons is just a fun game whether running it or playing it, and there was just enough flames and explosions, and even a boarding action to keep it interesting.

In the afternoon we trotted out the Brits and Martians for a really big Sword and the Flame on Mars game. There were sixteen (!!) players with eight on each side. The game was Landship Down, which we ran once before. A broken down steam tank is defended by a small British infantry command, while a larger relieving force marches down the table. The relieving force has many mechanicals, including tanks, walkers and a gunboat, and are opposed by significant Martian infantry, artillery and anti-air defenses. The Brits got started with difficulty, but disposed of some nasty Martian late arrivals. Unfortunately they lost some a tank and a couple of walkers along the way. Their gunboat, the Ranger, was hit twice but still was aloft. The Martians, unwisely, advanced a couple of their legion units out of cover, and were getting shellacked in the open. However, they had some success routing the broken tank crew their defending infantry out of cover, and now controlled the broken down hulk. In any case, the Brits couldn't take the heat and recalled the relief column.

I've included pictures from both games. The single, somewhat fuzzy picture of a ship for SGoM is a Gametech Whisperdeath kite-a beautiful miniature. A second photo shows the death of a British dirigible that's just been Hale rocketed. The 25mm gunboat is Mark Waddington's spectacular scratchbuilt Ranger. Finally, we see the advance of the British relief column for Landship Down. All the mechs are scratchbuilt by Mark.