Sitzkrieg
15th November 1898 - 11th April 1898
Another year rolls around and still no activity from the north. The Martians have full territorial control of Scotland and the borders now, however we have a number of Armoured Cars and heavy defences along the frontline.
Whitby is still the weak link in the chain, but with HMS Irresistable sitting offshore it should hopefully hold...I might transfer another Armoured Car across.
I'm building more sappers lorries to start construction on a second line of defence in the sector behind the frontline, if I have to fall back in a hurry I don't want to have to rely on the good grace of the Martians not to attack whilst the way to London is protected solely by this:
Meanwhile the sappers on the frontline have some more artillery to site, our new 9.2 inch guns. It'll take just over thirteen days to build them, once they've got through the backlog of other artillery pieces that they're already building.
Research on the Armoured Track Layer is completed on the 16th January, and when the factory in the Pennines has finished its latest Armoured Car (in about eighteen days) it will start work on its first Armoured Track Layer.
New research is begun into Munitions Factories which will enable us to build one of the most useful and awesome units in the game (other than the Ironclad) and that's the Self-Propelled Gun. That thing is a beast and will be an essential part of our eventual offensive to retake Scotland.
The rest of January is spent building more mines and refineries, and the second line of defence. Still not a peep from across the border.
I've heard that the Martians sometimes refrain from attacking if the human forces outnumber them in firepower by a certain ratio...perhaps the Martians are weaker than I thought?
HMS Implacable heads out from Portsmouth on the 20th Feburary 1899, the wooden decking still smelling of varnish, her crew untested, she sets sail up the Channel and out to the North Sea to join HMS Irresistible off the coast of Whitby.
HMS London leaves Liverpool docks for the coast of the Lake District a few hours later.
Research into the Munitions Factory was completed on the 5th March and research into the Self-Propelled Gun begun. A Construction vehicle is dispatched to Northampton to construct a Munitions Factory.
The Mark One Armoured Track Layer waiting for action at Whitby, another unit is heading for the Pennines and another is under construction.
The Self-Propelled Gun finishes its research in March, and I forget to assign a new research project until early April
Shipyard level two it is! This will enable me to research and then build the next level of Ironclad, which is if I remember correctly, is the Warrior class.
Still nothing from the north...they're planning something...those little octopi...
I'm wondering what tech tree path they're going to go down. They usually go down either one of two, either they focus on getting to level two equipment or they branch out into specialist equipment (such as the Flying Machine). The Gen II Fighting Machine is annoying little sod because it has a Black Smoke launcher and I have no real defences against that until I first encounter it, but then again if they go down the specialist equipment route then I run into Tempests which have two heavy Heat Rays and a Black Smoke Canister launcher and are quite well armoured.
Time will tell...
