More All Quiet on the Martian Front 25 American tanks

 

Command tank and 12 MK IIs

3 Mk III machine guns tanks (rear) & 3 Mk IIbs

6 Mk III tanks

Having done a lot of green versions of these tanks, I felt I needed something different for my second tank group. In my fluff these were vehicles were relocated from the western front when the Martians advanced deeper into the US.

They were primed with rattle can British Uniform. Then heavy dry brush/over brushed with craft paint Khaki and sand. The Mk II's had an Agrax earth shade wash while the Mk IIIs had a Vallejo Dark green wash lightly applied to give just the sense of a green tint. 

The MkIII machine gun tanks were painted green but a lighter shade than my usual green. These will be assigned as support for my armoured infantry units.

British reinforcements

 

So, a rocket launcher and five mechanical unicorn mounted female troopers(and a mechanical mule) I do have some more cavalry and also a 10 person rifle unit (not done yet)

Prussian reinforcements

 

What better troops to field on Mars than Unicycle mounted lancers? These fine troops are by Eureka miniatures. I had some fun with these, especially the plumes!

Some Free State armour

 

So, a couple of wheeled vehicles for the Free Staters. These are from Ironclad Miniatures (now sold by Pendraken). While similar in colour to the Japanese vehicles they do have a bit more of a Khaki/dusty look to them.

I have also been working on some more infantry (quite a lot really) but they are not yet finished.

AI can be useful and fun

 

So, one of my new flags for my Free Staters on Mars. I asked for a flag with some Fenian influences set in a VSF setting, this is one of the results that I got. This one has less Fenian influence than the others that I made but should work as a 'national' flag.

Much more Fenian this time around. I also had it generate an emblem to use on vehicles as I have two armoured cars to paint up.

This is most likely the one that I shall use most often. For some reason it took some effort to convince the AI to create a flag that was wider than it was tall. Go figure!

Finally, some new painted items!

 

So, these are 3d prints for Quar that I have decided look Japanese to me. The small vehicle is a light support armed with a MG. The two large vehicles are APCs, each armed with a light howitzer.

 

WIP troops to be transported

What a Steam Tanker!

 

I finally managed to get some of my VSF tanks onto the gaming table courtesy of What a Tanker! This was a test run of the rules. While I have played them before, it has been a few years while neither player had played the rules. So I acted as ref while each player took one tank each. The Tatsumaki (18 points) vs the Coohegen Corporation Armoured Electro-velocitor-Devastator. (13 points) 

Devastator Armoured Electro-velocitor	6	5	Turret	Fast: May change 1 die to a drive die.	Rapid Fire multiple times without a reload die in between shots. Instead must reload at start or end of turn.	13
	Armour	Strike	Features			Cost

Tatsumaki	7	8	Fixed	Heavy armour: Treat flank as front & rear as side armour
		4	Sponson		Rapid fire multiple times without a reload die in between shots. Instead must reload at start or end of turn.

The battlefield

The Japanese Tatsumaki in the foreground vs Cohaagen Corporation Armoured Electro-velocitor-Devastator in the far corner

The Devastator raced down the table in an effort to get around some of the terrain to get a clear shot at the Tatsumaki.

The lower part of the hill was classed as a minor obstacle, while vehicles behind the higher part of the hill would be hidden. 

Some fancy maneuvering by the Devastator got it to a position to have a clear shot on the Tatsumaki. Alas they failed to hit it. In the end, after three turns, the Tatsumaki was able to take out the Devastator with one shot!

So, it was a fun intro game, it played fast and was not taxing on the little grey cells. So, since that went  so fast we decided to have another go, with two more evenly matched tanks, two monitors. But that is a tale for the main blog HERE