Mar's Attacks - The Foreshadowing Battle Report - Turn 1

TURN 1

In my previous post I laid out of the scenario I concocted for Mar's Attacks. You can read that there. Now we dive into the action. But first, one point of clarification. I checked my notes and this is how Grenades will work in the scenario

Grenades

Grenades have the range and explosive effects as below. Only human players possess grenades in this scenario.

• Range is 8"
• Use the Small Blast Template (SBT)
• Attack as a Shooting Attack, hitting on a 4+
• Mercenaries have 4 grenades to share amongst themselves
• Bandits have 4 grenades to share amongst themselves
• Any model of these two factions can declare they are throwing a grenade instead of shooting in the Shooting Phase

Initiative Phase

Martians won the Initiative, meaning they will go first, followed by the Mercenaries and then finally the Bandits, this turn.

Movement Phase

The Martians stayed put whilst the Mercenaries, then Bandits moved their models.

Last of all, the Zombie Soldiers move towards to closest noise, or the nearest juicy looking live bait visible and in Line of Sight (LOS).

Zombies spot the Mercenaries

Whilst other Zombies spot the Bandits

Fight Phase

As no one was within melee range, no fights took place this phase.

Shooting Phase

A Martian grunt peers through the broken windows of the abandoned factory and spies the Bandits. Having partial LOS to the Bandit Leader, the Martian decides to try to ruin his day and shoots.

Ach, Ach? (Martian for, who's got line of sight)

Ach, Ach! (Martian for I see movement.)

Ach, Ach, hehehe (Martian for Take that! <laughing>)

Martian heat rays need a 4+ to successfully hit

Whilst the Bandit Leader needs to roll 3 dice and score 5+ to survive.

The Bandit Leader hears the sound of the Martian heat ray...

...but suddenly turns to ash

Next, the Martial Leader decides not to be outdone and takes a shot through the window at the Bandits clustered around outside. Suffering four hits, the targeted Bandit fails his survival rolls and swiftly joins his Leader as a pile of ash. This causes four of the Bandits around these hapless victims to fail their Rattled Test and they dive for cover.

One flash, and your ash!

Hit the dirt!

At this point, I forgot it was the Mercenaries turn to shoot next and moved straight on to the Bandits shooting. Given that the Mercs were on the other side of the board, this really didn't matter much for this turn.

Of the Bandits, only one un-Rattled Bandit has a LOS on any of the Martians, whilst another Bandit has LOS on some Zombie Soldiers who are meandering from the road towards the factory compound.

The first Bandit tosses a grenade at the Martians, two of which are on the ground floor and a third is on a mezzanine catwalk. The grenade explodes doing a total of 3 hits on the two Martians on the ground floor (the one on the catwalk just misses the blast radius). The Martians both roll their Survival roll and get two successes; however, both score an 8 for one of their die rolls meaning they get to roll and additional die for the critical success. The extra die roll for both Martians sees them gain another success. With a total of 3 successes each, they survive! As they don't have to rely on their armour to save them, they also don't even get rattled by the blast. Definitely badass!

The second Bandit takes a potshot at the closest Zombie Soldier shuffling towards the chain-link gate and scores a single hit. The Zombie rolls for its Survival roll and scores three 8's on the dice roll. The additional three dice rolled due to the critical successes sees another three successes. With these many successes, the Zombie doesn't even flinch. Should have shot for the head. For the Zombie, it was a no-brainer!

Now I remembered the poor Mercenaries out there all on their own.

The two Mercenaries in the lead of the two columns of Merc's are the Merc Leader (on the grass in the photo above) and his 2IC (kneeling on the road taking aim). A couple of Mercs have LOS to the Zombies and the two leaders decide to take the first shots, one at each of the two Zombies approaching them.

The Merc leader shoots at the Zombie, scoring three hits. The Zombie, needing a 4+ on its Survival roll, doesn't! Blamo, the shambling brain fried former human collapses as its head explodes.

The Merc 2IC then takes aim and shoots, rolling four dice for (with the help of an 8) a total of 4 hits. The Zombie, even rolling an 8 itself, only manages to Survive a total of 2 hits. Blamo! Its head explodes also. Two Zombies down.

Well done lads! Always remember to hire professionals, kids. And with that, turn 1 comes to an end.

The Foreshadowing - A Mar's Attacks Scenario

 The Foreshadowing - Mar's Attacks

Somewhere in an Eastern-European nation, within a quarantined area known simply as "The Zone", a strange event is unfolding. Stranger even that the anomalies that proliferate The Zone itself. After one of the frequent emissions within the Zone, an unusual "aircraft" comes to a hard landing at an abandoned factory site. The local military track the landing and quickly dispatch a recovery squad to retrieve the aircraft. As they arrive however, another emission occurs that leaves the exposed soldiers brain fried and turned into mindless zombies.

Mar's Attacks Zombie rules

They weren't the only ones who noticed the strange aircraft crash either. An international team of special forces personnel disguised as Mercenaries, and who have been in the Eastern-European nation training local forces, receive a message from their superiors to depart to the crash site immediately.

The Mercenaries comprise two teams of 4 for a total of 8 Mercs. These teams can either stay together or split into two and be moved separately as part of the Mercenary Activation phase.

Between them and the landing site however are the brain-dead soldiers who were caught outside when the Emission hit. These zombies mill around the vehicles they travelled in when they still had functioning brains.

There are a total of 12 Zombie Soldiers scattered around the military vehicles. They carry weapons, but for this scenario, the Zombies don't remember how to use them.

The mindless Zombies are unaware however that they are being watched from the abandoned factory by eye's not from this world.

Others too saw the fireball descend to the abandoned factory location. A group of Bandits were at a nearby abandoned village. Seeing the fireball and thinking it a downed military aircraft, they decide to head to the location in order to see what they can salvage for sale on the black-market. Waiting out the most recent emission behind solid walls, they now quickly make their way to the abandoned factory.

The Bandit team comprises a total of 9 members lead by a single Bandit Leader.

The Martian's, having encountered issues when they are flying over The Zone, make a forced landing at the abandoned factory. Here, with difficulty, they manoeuvre their saucer into the factory to commence repairs. The arrival of the Soldiers (now Zombies) and the more recent emission have delayed the repairs, and the Martian Engineer is only now just getting to the final stages of the saucer being fully operational again.

From Turn 4 of the game, the Martian Engineer (if he's still alive) rolls a die at the beginning of the turn. On a roll total of 8, the saucer is repaired, and the Martians immediately leave. The Martian Engineer gets to add the current turn number to the roll. This means that the saucer will be repaired no later than Turn 7 if the Engineer keeps rolling 1's.

The Martians take up positions around the Factory on two levels.

The Martian's are led by a single Martian Leader (with yellow boots and gloves). The Martian Engineer (in green) must remain on the top of the saucer in order to repair it. If the Engineer dies, the saucer remains unserviceable, and the Martians are stuck on Earth.

The Martians have also captured a woman, whom they intend to take back to their Mothership for nefarious purposes.

The Woman Hostage can be rescued for victory points if the Martians are defeated. Alternatively, if she is alone, she can roll a die at the end of each turn and on a 1 or 2, she can flee. As long as she remains alone, each turn she can add +1 to the die roll. So, the attempt next turn can be then made on a 1 to 3, then a 1 to 4, etc.

The Martian Engineer must survive in order for the saucer to be repaired.

Additional House Rules

Models move 6" when they activate in the Movement phase.

All models get to move, shoot and fight eligible targets during their activation phases (move, shoot, fight, etc).

Weapon ranges are 12" for normal rifles, automatic weapons and lasers. For sniper rifles, range is either 24" or 36" depending on the sniper weapon. Grenades can be thrown 12" and use a standard Small Explosion Template when they explode applying damage to all models whose base is at least partially under the template.

Windows can be fired through and act as Partial Cover. The model must have partial Line of Sight (LOS) to their target to fire through a window.

Initiative: at the beginning of each turn a d6 is rolled. The result indicates who gets to act first. Activation then flows along the flow chart of Bandits -> Martians -> Mercs.

Roll    Activation

1-2    Bandits activate first, then the Martians, then the Mercs.

3-4    Martians activate first, then the Mercs, then the Bandits.

5-6    Mercenaries activate first, then the Bandits, then the Martians.