AAR: Of Men and Martians

[Raptor1]

Hmm, this game in fact looks highly interesting. Wonder why I haven't heard of it before

Really have to finish the book though, stuck about 3/4th of the way through for about a year now...

Is there some kind of time limit after which the humans achieve automatic victory due to the Martians dying out?

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Hmm, this game in fact looks highly interesting. Wonder why I haven't heard of it before

Really have to finish the book though, stuck about 3/4th of the way through for about a year now...

Is there some kind of time limit after which the humans achieve automatic victory due to the Martians dying out?

Regrettably, the Martians brought Tamiflu with them this time. They don't die out. I guess this is more to do with balancing the game. After all, wouldn't be much fun playing as the Martians if you automatically lost after a month or so of play

[Oberon]

HOLY EPIC THREAD NECROMANCY BATMAN!


Ahem...I mean...let's try to continue this AAR, shall we?


More Martians
9th September 1898

Another cylinder lands in the Argyll region, whilst our troops in the Pennines and the Lake District continue to dig in.
We've got a period of grace whilst the Martians fortify their positions and build their command centers, but it won't stay quiet forever.
Already the roads from the north are choked with refugees streaming southward. Many have called upon the government to save them from the Martians and are filled with rage at the decision of the military to abandon the north of the UK.
At 15:15, the two units of armoured cars arrive at Whitby to protect the construction of the command center there.

Now we need to look at resources. The 1st Viscount Chilston has ordered the creation of additional Coal mines, oil refineries and steel mills to feed the mobilisation of our forces.

Resources in The War of the Worlds is a tricky thing, and I'm still not one hundred percent clued in on it, but it goes something a little like this.
For Humans there are three resources, Steel, Coal and Oil, without them your industries and construction vehicles will build at a slower rate and your military will fight at a reduced effectiveness. The more units there are in a sector the more resources they will consume by being present...it's a tricky thing to balance supply and demand, particularly since you can max out your industries.

So, let's just get down to building the base set first and then go from there...here are the resource locations:


Oil


Steel

Coal

As you can see...we have enough for the moment...but we're going to (hopefully) be building more munitions factories and dockyards in the future, so we'll need more resources!

Time to get our spare construction vehicle sitting in Nottingham to work!



Annoyingly Cardiff lacks a communications center, which means the first thing the construction vehicle will have to do when it gets there is to build one before it can set to on building an oil refinery.

[Egan]

....and decide to change their landing zone to a more secure area in Scotland .

Their first mistake. Just wait until the Buckied up Tongs get steamed intae them...

[Oberon]

The Uneasy Calm
10th September 1898 - 15th November 1898



The Construction vehicle arrives at Bristol on the 21st (not Cardiff...my bad) and sets to work on building a Command Center. The astronomers have reported clear skies over Scotland for the past few nights...no more cylinders. So this is it...now the Martians will spread out and consolidate Scotland...and when they're ready...they will come south.
A new Armoured Car unit is built on the 21st in the Pennines, it is dispatched to Whitby to make up for the current lack of fortified gun positions in the area while the Command Center is being constructed.
Our research into the 6 inch naval gun is completed on the 22nd, and orders given to our boffins to look into the 9.5 inch gun. This will take 45 days, but will be worth it in the firepower we can bring to bear on any Martian assaults.



And range...these guns will hopefully be able to out range the Martians heat rays, damaging them before they can hit us. Unfortunately their accuracy isn't great, but their splash damage is quite good.
Orders to build 6 inch guns are given to the sappers lorry at the Pennines and Lake District. The guns will take 13 days each at 100% efficiency but first the small 4.6 inch guns have to be built, and they take about 4 days each.
The command center at Whitby is finished on the 28th September and the Construction Vehicle is sent south to the Wash to build a Command Center there and eventually a Steel mill. Unfortunately there isn't a sappers lorry spare to begin construction of defences at Whitby...that could be a problem, however the vehicle factory at Northampton will finish a Construction Vehicle in 3 days, so when that is complete I will start construction of a sappers lorry, that will take eighteen days...let's hope the Martians are having similar problems...
On the 8th October 1898, the construction vehicle from Whitby arrives at The Wash and begins work on the Command Center, that will take about twenty days or so. Furthermore the Command Center will be sited at the south side of the map and near the coast to take the benefit of the Royal Navy. Still...if the battlefield gets that far south then I've done something very wrong somewhere.
The newly built Construction Vehicle from Northampton trundles off to Liverpool to build a coal mine.
On the 12th October a new Armoured Car unit is built in the Pennines, it is also sent over to Whitby...come on...where is that Sappers Lorry....
The 19th October sees the Sappers Lorry completed! It's immediately sent out to Whitby.
21st October - The Construction vehicle in Liverpool finishes its coal mine and heads to the Cotswolds to build one there.
24th October - The Sappers Lorry arrives at Whitby and starts work on the defences.


The state of play 24th October 1898

So far I've been building up defences, waiting for the inevitable Martian attack...and it's not come. In fact they've not even expanded into the surrounding territories...which is different. It's tempting to launch a raid up into the East Coast of Scotland, but that's a temptation I must resist, I simply don't have the military might at the moment to make any real impact. Let them come...we'll be ready when they get here.

Meanwhile in London:

"They're building an oil refinery opposite the Houses of Parliament?! I'm going to write to my MP!!"

On the 4th November the Martians start moving, Galloway is lost and the trickle of refugees heading into the Lake District suddenly stops as alien cries echo on the horizon. The sappers knuckle down and double their pace as the frontline gets closer.
Research into the 9.2 inch naval gun emplacement is completed on the 7th November and research ordered into a project called 'mines' which consist of explosives buried underground and activated by either pressure or by wire. Combined with the wire walls, they should help slow the Martians down and give our artillery time to peck away at their armour.
On the 10th of November HMS Formidable rolls down the slipway at Liverpool docks and into the water.



She is sent up to the Lake District where she will provide fire support in assistance to the artillery defences when the Martians attack.
HMS Irresistible is launched from Portsmouth on the 11th November and sent up to Whitby.
The research on 'Mines' is completed on the 15th November, and research is ordered on a new Offensive weapon, the Armoured Track Layer. Some sort of armoured vehicle on treads...it'll probably never catch on. Some of the men are calling it a 'tank' for some reason. Such rot!

[Egan]

Ace. I might have to track this game down, buggy or not. It remains one of my favourite novels to this day.

Which reminds me, I haven't read it in a year or two. I must rectify that when I get back to my library in a few days.

I might have to get the cd of the Jeff Wayne show. I had it on vinyl when I was a nipper.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Egan

Ace. I might have to track this game down, buggy or not. It remains one of my favourite novels to this day.

Which reminds me, I haven't read it in a year or two. I must rectify that when I get back to my library in a few days.

I might have to get the cd of the Jeff Wayne show. I had it on vinyl when I was a nipper.

It's all good stuff, and the book is one of my favourites too, has been since the first time I read it when I was eleven. Still have that copy in fact, somewhere in the atomic testing grounds that is my bedroom.
The Jeff Wayne musical is a classic, which makes me concerned when they announced that they're remaking it and replacing Richard Burton with Liam Neeson. I wish they'd stop faffing around and just make the bloody film we've been promised for the past seven years instead of trying to fix something that just isn't broken in any shape or form.

Anyway, rant off...time to see what November 1898 will throw at me. I'm wondering if the reason why the Martians are taking so long to come south is because they're still trying to subdue the Jockanese...

[Raptor1]

They're remaking the Jeff Wayne album? Seems rather pointless to me. Has there actually been any news on the movie in the last several years?

Oh, and I've finished dozens of novels since making my last comment on this thread two years ago, and The War of the Worlds has not been one of them. So, I really really have to get around to finishing it...

[Oberon]

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...