No rest for Kentish dead.
After action report
After a bit of a dry spell in our gaming group we finally managed to get together for some VSF miniatures. The evening's battlefield would represent a cemetery somewhere in Kent. The rules were Valor, Steel & Flesh.
Prologue
Prussian holdouts of the failed invasion of England have taken up a fortified position defended mostly by artillery of various types, both the magnificent and banal, a single heavy steam tank, five of the automaton Klankentruppen and a small detachment of sailor.
The English force was made up largely of vehicles. One heavy tank, four light tanks, two steam powered artillery tractors and a commander group in a velocipede. Two units of Royal Rifle followed along for some infantry support. The English objective was to control the cemetary by getting their infantry and command elements into the cemetery grounds.
Setup for the game:
The Prussians set up inside the cemetery with a long field in front of them. The field is bisected in the middle by a stone wall.
Photos of the battle:
A long veiw of the cemetery looking from the English vantage point on a hill at the far end of the field. From right to left the Prussian units were: The Heavy Tank, a Tesla cannon, a naval Gatling gun, the second Tesla cannon and then on the far left a Krupp gun. The Klankentruppen are just visible through the trees on the left.
The left flank showing the Heavy tank and one of the Tesla cannon as well as a squad of sailors.
The veiw from the Prussian side.
A closer look at the Prussian position at the start of the game.
British forces on the move.
The heavy tank screens the command vehicle while the riflemen trail behind the light tanks.
Another picture of the Riflemen moving up.
The English take the first casualty as the Tesla cannon's open sizzle hit a light tank and baked everyone inside. The velocipede could not see to return fire due to the smoke and was said by several to have been "Blinded by science!"
The two English tanks get into a gunfight with the Prussian heavy and the two Tesla cannon that goes on for several turns leaving both Tesla cannon destroyed. The English light tank become immobilized. After taking a hit the English heavy has a drive malfunction and surges forward a full move. On the next turn a similar thing happens to the Prussian heavy and the two heavies get into a prizefight with about six inches between them.
Unperturbed, the English continue to advance. The only movement on the part of the Prussians so far has been to sent the Klankentruppen out on a hunting party on the English left flank.
English fire takes out the first Klank.
The Rifles take a defensive position.
One of the light tanks manages to breach the rock wall. The second tank will have a bit more trouble trying to overcome the hedge.
The light tank moves into the hedge but fails his reliability check and gets stuck. For the next two or three turns all attempts to extricate the vehicle will seem to work but the the player would roll a zero for movement and be stuck once again.
I think he was trying to get the artillery mover to give him a shove here.
The Klanks make progress along the English left but start to take heavy fire from the artillery mover as they get closer.
The Klanks are reduced to one immobilized robot that can only fire.
The British rifles move to exploit the Prussian flank. The player controlling the Riflemen had acquired a false assumption somehow that all the Klanks had been taken out and did not realize that one remained functional at least in its ability to give goo volumes of fire with its quick firing gun. The Rifles were met with a hail of lead after climbing over the wall and were reduced by half before the mechanical beast was subdued.
At this point our photographer ran out of plates. The battle was fairly well over with the Prussians withdrawing the two units that remained even remotely intact, those being the heavy tank and the unit of sailors. The English were able to occupy the cemetery with two of the three units required by their objectives.
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May 26, 2007, 11:48:01 AM