Halloween Special: ...That ends Welles

As we  have seen in Adventures in Portable Wargaming, Britain has been invaded by Mars. Giant tripods have defeated a force of Territorials, and have moved to the coast. A shipload of refugees is trying to escape, covered by the Royal Navy.  Four armored cruisers move up in line abreast, seeking gun range. The Martians ignore the transport ship, seeing nothing to fear from the vessel.

The Martians launch their "black clouds", which do no damage to the ships, but do impede the sailors' gunnery.  The cruisers hit the tripod on the left for minor damage.

The heat ray hits one of the cruisers, doing frightening damage. Meanwhile, the Torpedo Ram Thunder Child moves up behind the merciless enemy.

The cruisers concentrate their fire against the right most walker, giving the refugee vessel a chance to escape. Thunder Child moves into position, still unnoticed. Three of the cruisers are in trouble.

Thunder Child strikes, hitting with a torpedo, then ramming the left walker. Still it survives.

Two of the walkers turn their heat rays on the valiant little vessel, sinking it in moments.

The undamaged cruiser moves in close to the right walker, and unleashes a powerful broadside. The walker hits the water steaming.

The moment of glory is short-lived, as the remaining two walkers turn their heat rays on the heroic ship and crew.

As the refugee ship, and the three damaged cruiser escape, the Tripods also fall back, to consider the threat that is the Royal Navy.  What will tomorrow bring?


SOME GAME NOTES;
The cruisers are my balsa Defense and Warrior class models built last week.
The tripods are built from pre-milled wood pieces bought at Hobby Lobby, then sprayed with chrome paint.

Rules used were Bob Cordery's "Memoir of Battle at Sea".  The tripods were considered "pre-dreadnought battleships" with the addition they could each turn launch a "black cloud"by rolling a d6, with a 4,5,6 landing the cloud on a ship. Ships thus hit lose one gunnery dice for the next turn.

Thunder child is a model of the HMS Polyphemes. It was treated as a light cruiser, with no guns,, a bow torpedo and a ram that does four d6 damage.

Ben played the Martians. Spike took the photos. The game took fifteen minutes, and was great fun.

I hope everyone has enjoyed our little tribute to  two great talents, Wells(H.G.), and Welles(Orson).
Have a safe and happy Halloween.