AAR - The Search for Softlove - Red Planet Adventures

[Dr DeAth]

Malamute, JimBibbly and I are starting a series of linked games based on Mars featuring some of the characters that featured in the Last Train to New Victoria. (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=65676.0).  

The first game takes its plot from the Martian attack on The Prince's Own Regiment led by Captain Sebastian Softlove.



Here's the fluff, AAR to follow shortly:

The Search for Softlove

Sergeant Rawley Ruffbrute looked over the canal to the Martian plain beyond. As he surveyed the remnants of yesterday’s battle, he cursed his luck and mumbled to himself, “‘Ere we go again”.

Ruffbrute was Captain Sebastian Softlove’s orderly and had been since the young officer joined the Prince’s Own Regiment at the start of the Martian campaign some five years earlier.  He’d grown to like him too; Softlove was a decent officer who knew how to soldier, was fair to the men and wasn’t afraid to lead from the front.

Softlove was providing an escort to reporters of the Illustrated London News when the Sky Martians attacked New Victoria, but now he was missing in action and feared dead.  One of the reporters, Harry Wallop, had reported seeing Softlove and his men overwhelmed by the Raas-Taa-Faari tribe as they defended the vehicles carrying the pressmen.  The fight had been vicious and bloody, and Wallop was convinced that The Prince’s Own had been slaughtered to a man.

At the time of the attack Ruffbrute had been leading an independent patrol and wasn’t with his captain when he fell, a fact that had been preying on his mind.  If he’d been with Softlove at the time things may have turned out differently.  He needed to be certain that Softlove wasn’t still alive, he couldn’t leave his friend out there wounded and at the mercy of the heathen Martians.

However Ruffbrute’s desire to find his captain was not solely out of a sense of loyalty, he had another reason too; money.  A few days prior to the battle, Softlove had spoken to him about an opportunity for them both to become wealthy men. Whilst entertaining Everelda Dyke, one of New Victoria's debutantes and niece of the renowned Professor von Stypher Dyke, Softlove learned of how her brother Everard had discovered a valley full of Martian tombs. By the end of an enjoyable but very exhausting evening, the captain had all the information he needed to mount a small expedition to the valley.  Unfortunately for Ruffbrute he had none of the details, they were all still in Softlove's head; if he was to become a rich man he had to find his captain alive.

Ruffbrute shouldered his rifle, turned to the ragtag group of men at his side and said "C'mon lads, let's get to it."
  

[OSHIROmodels]

Game on!

 

[Furt]

Sounds great guys - looking forward to lots of yummy pics!

[Traveler Man]

Intriguing! I'm looking forward to more. 

[Mason]

Looking forward to this!
 


Everelda Dyke.....Everard....etc.....naughty, but I do like it.
 

[Blodwin]

Excellent  – already dribbling in anticipation.

Blodwin

[OSHIROmodels]

Excellent  – already dribbling in anticipation.

Blodwin

You really do fit right in 

cheers

James

[Malamute]

You really do fit right in 

cheers

James

 

[DLIinVSF]

Hurrah more eye candy , pics ,pics and more pics please

[Malamute]

Pics soon, I believe Dr DeAth is downloading them as I type this.

[Dr DeAth]

The Search for Softlove AAR:

A Dr Death production, starring

Malamute as Captain Sebastian Softlove



And Jimbibbly as Sergeant Rawley Ruffbrute



The game was played on a 6 x 4 table using a mix of figures from Perry Miniatures and Red Planet Miniatures.  We used a set of home grown skirmish rules, inventively entitled Red Planet Adventures, which use simple mechanisms as lots of d10s.  No doubt they will appear as a free download somewhere 'Soon'^TM once they're sufficiently tweaked.

Terrain was laid out as below, with Ruffbrute and his men entering in the centre of the short edge at position 1.  There were 24 markers placed randomly around the board numbered 1 - 24 underneath.  As Ruffbrute and his men searched these revealed various items and characters, as well as additional troops to swell the search party and Martians to trim it down .  Marker number 1 was Softlove himself.  The whole game lasted a couple of hours.



Ruffbrute and his men pose for the obligatory press photo



Before setting off to find Softlove



Ruffbrute decides to split his forces to speed up the search and details off Aak-Nak Fish (Martian Askari) and some of the Camel Corps troopers



Who promptly discover a group of Martians



Who charge into contact (the Martian reactions were determined by dice roll, and varied from Ambush to Flee)



After some vicious fighting the Martians are repulsed but not not before Fish takes a nasty wound that slows him for the rest of the game and requires him to be assisted by one of the troopers



Meanwhile Ruffbrute has discovered some soldiers returning to the city and dispatches them to investigate a cave in the nearby mesa.  Unfortunately for brave lads the cave turns out to be full of Martians who have been sheltering from the sandstorm.



A short and very bloody melee ensues



With fatal results for all the redcoats involved



Unaware of the carnage behind him, Ruffbrute presses forward, picking up another straggler from the Camel Corps



then running into more Martians sheltering in the lee of a large rock who are quickly dispatched



Aak-Nak Fish, supported by one of his men, presses forward on the left flank



Adding more and more stragglers to his section.



Ruffbrute's advance is watched from a distance



but as he and his men approach a crashed Martian skiff



another group of stragglers break cover and engage the Martians.



Aak-Nak Fish and his men come to the aid of Professor Artemis E'ffakt, Professor of Ancient Studies, University of Cairo, (Art to his close friends) who they find hiding amongst the martian thornbush.



And just as Ruffbrute is starting to lose hope, he notices a red coated figure ahead in the thorn bush.  

"Captain Softlove Sir, pleased to be finding you in good 'ealth Sir.  If you care to be comin' along with us, there's a good chance we can 'ave you back in town in time for tiffin."




At this point the game ends, and Mr Bibbly notices the similarity between some terrain items and Ruffbrute's whiskers

[Silent Invader]

 Brilliant! 

[Bullshott]

Nice one guys.

The Martians seem somewhat less effective when operating in small skirmish groups rather than as full clans in big battles

[Dr DeAth]

Nice one guys.

The Martians seem somewhat less effective when operating in small skirmish groups rather than as full clans in big battles

They definitely are, but they didn't do too badly, there were a fair number of redcoats who were dispatched by the Martians.

[Malamute]

A most accurate representation of the facts.