Well, it's taken me long enough, but finally, here is an after-action-report on my first game of In Her Majesty's Name, that happened on the 28-Jun at Farnborough Wargames Society against Andy and his Blue Tortoise Tong.
So here goes ... first of all we have group pics of the opposing Companies:
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| The Blue Tortoise Tong | Her Majesty's Martian Constabulary |
As you can see, I included a Steam Carriage in my Company, complete with Machine Gun! Anyway, for the game, I provided the terrain and a sketch of a scenario.
The terrain was foamboard tiles from the
WWG Mars Station set, with assorted resin pieces that I've picked up over the years scattered over the tiles. In the corner was the one part of the Maritan fort that I posted about here:
a-mars-day-keeps-you-busy. and here's a pic of it all laid out:
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| Field of battle ... |
The tiles are 7 inch square, giving us a total battlespace of 35" x 35".
The scenario that I came up with was that the fort wall represented the edge of a newly discovered Martian ruin that was believed to hold unspecified ancient technology. The tong and HMMC were the first 2 companies to arrive at the site and whichever held possession of the fort wall at the end of the game was the winner.
Terrain accepted and scenario agreed, we got on with deployment. We agreed that the centre tile of the 2 sides without the wall would be our deployment areas, and, taking it in turns to put out figures, this is how it ended up:
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| Deployment completed |
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| The dastardly Tong | The Constabulary ready to go! |
As you can see in the above pic, Andy had created useful counters that were needed to remember various abilities and movement. I didn't take notes on what happened, so the report that follows is from memory (uh-oh!) prompted by the pictures ...
Turn 1 saw both companies spreading out; mindful of the scenario, I sent my senior company members on a 'left hook' heading for the fort while attempting to evade the tong. Andy picked up on this and did the same thing on the right, while his fanatic swordsmen headed straight towards the constables ...
Turn 2 saw the tong's fanatics closing with the constables ...
although by the end, one of the fanatics was in a precarious position!
Here is the whole board at the end of turn 2; as you can see, my fastest people had reached the fort's walls ...
However, after a couple of turns' worth of combat, things were looking bleak for HMMC. The good doctor was down and the out-numbered fanatic proved more than a match for the constables
I managed to get more people onto the wall, but unfortunately, so did Andy! I was really trying to get his leader to use a mystical power on Sheldon Cooper-Holmes, just so I could reveal his impervious ability (i.e. immune to mystical powers). Alas, despite manoeuvring to keep him in the firing line, it was not to be :(
Meanwhile, outside the fort, things had gone from bad to worse for HMMC. Only Inspector Corbitt, Sergeant Barker and the carriage driver were still active ... the grenade thrown by one of the tong's masked minions had - thankfully! - failed to hurt the carriage.
Even worse, with the Sergeant now gone as well, Andy managed a 1-in-100 roll for the combat!
(The two masked minions were helping the fanatics, so only 2 dice were rolled)Now desperate measures were required ... the steam carriage traversed its turret and began firing into the combat, hoping that the heroic inspector did not fall victim ...
(We decided that the MG should roll to hit all the combatants, including the Inspector!)Meanwhile, on the fort's wall, it seemed that neither side could gain the upper hand ...
The intervention of the steam carriage had the desired effect and soon brought the Inspector's desperate fight to a more level situation ...
But then the Inspector's (or was it the Gunner's?) luck finally ran out, and the Inspector was also brought low by the hail of bullets ...
By the wall, it seemed that the survivors of HMMC had gained a (small!) tactical advantage, but here was where we ended the game.
Due to the steam carriage still being active, and more of the HMMC people in the fort, Andy was generous enough to concede the game to me.
However, I think that Andy played much more in the spirit of the game, than I did, so I think he deserved it more!
deatils of my company - Her Majesty's Martian Constabulary are here
