Mars Attacks scenario 2: The Front Line

Andy and I played the second scenario in the rulebook yesterday.  "The Front Line" introduces a couple of hero characters with additional abilities.  Two of them start in one corner of the playing area with seven marines in another, and the Human player has to exit one or both from the Martians deployment edge, earning more victory points the further away they exited.

Unfortunately, there were 16 Martian Grunts with disintegration rifles in the way.

This was the first game since I finally got round to painting the scenery.  So much scenery came in the original Kickstarter pack I bought, so I painted around half of the items, following a great YouTube tutorial from Pete The Wargamer.  Here's a before and after shot.

My Humans started ok picking off Martians from range but began to get overwhelmed by Andy's greater numbers.  My card attacks kept just missing the Martian figures although I did successfully vaporise one of the civilians I was trying to rescue - another was captured by Andy, and one managed to escape.

Deciding to leave hero Troy to his fate, I pushed up the board with hero Eva, who encountered some resistance.

Luckily, she managed to make it to the far left of the gaming area as Andy picked off the other hero and most of the marines, leaving just the Sergeant cowering in a ruined building.

I had just one figure left on the board in the final round with Andy having lost half a dozen Martians, with another singed by a herd of flaming cows.

In total, Andy scored 4 points for killing Troy, 3 for collecting 4 critters for experimentation, and 1 for capturing a civilian, reaching the winning target of 8 points.  However, in the same round, Eva escaped getting 8 points plus a further point for collecting 2 alien artefacts, so a very close game won by James with 9 points to 8.

Mars Attacks playtest

Last year I bought the Mars Attacks game and then painted up all the miniatures.  I still haven't got round to painting all the scenery but I thought it was about time I actually tried the game.  An attraction of buying it during lockdown was the Solo Rules (AI cards drive the Martian behaviour) but I wanted to try a proper game with Andy first.

The game is a good blend of simplified wargaming mechanisms with card-driven events.  There is no measuring as the two playing mats are both discretely marked into an 8x8 board.  Figures can position anywhere in a square to get the benefit of cover but moving and shooting is simply between adjacent squares, including diagonals.  The cards provide bonuses to die rolls or moves, or build up into sets of support cards (like artillery attacks) that can be called upon when needed.  The game uses a set of D8s to resolve everything, for example, three dice when shooting with the shooter getting an extra die or two depending on whether they aimed or the target is fully in the open.  The defender gets three dice and typically rolls against a higher "Survive" figure, so shooting proved pretty deadly, especially since there are no wounds to record - a figure either survives or is removed from play.

It has a You Go, I Go turn order but this is split up over a number of rounds with each round providing an opportunity to activate two figures, or one figure and play a card.  Activated figures are marked with yellow counters and the first player to have activated all their figures can still play cards or pass whilst the other player continues using figures, but the former then has the initiative in the next turn.

There are also eight counters randomly distributed which are initially face down and then revealed as either "critters" (which the Martians want to take away to examine) or "alien technology" (benefit for the Humans).

The first scenario has just 8 US marines taking on 5 Martians, with none of the Hero figures and their special abilities taking part.  All scenarios are won by getting to 8 Victory Points and in this game were earned by killing by shooting (1VP), by hand-to-hand (2VP) and discovering critters or tech (1VP each after the first one).

Andy's Martians used a pretty devastating heat ray early on (highlighting the risk of having more than one figure in a square) and then a couple of random attacks that flattened some of the already ruined buildings, significantly opening up lines of sight.  It then became a shooting match until very near the end when we thought Andy had won 8-7, but we then noticed the first critter didn't count for VPs, so the score was really 7-6.  Since we hadn't yet had any close combat and James needed the 2VPs to win, he encouraged a fight which Andy gamely took on.

The final dice roll saw the last Martian bite the dust and give James the victory.

It's a fun, good-looking game.  Certainly not complex and there are random factors but that seems to fit well with the comic book theme.  The second scenario requires many more figures so we thought this should work well with more players at a future games night.

I subsequently rediscovered some fan-made cards I'd downloaded for this game which I've now printed out ready for next time, so the stats are accessible and the Hero special abilities can be more easily used and tracked.

Mars Attacks: the figures

Earlier this year I blogged about my purchase of the Mars Attacks miniatures game.  All the miniatures came as unpainted plastic figures - different colours for the Martians, civilians and soldiers so they could quickly be distinguished on the playing area, but I wanted to paint them before trying the game.

The Martians were great fun to paint - bold colours and dynamic poses.  As you can see on General Tor above, the figures were supplied with separate plastic helmets to glue on.  I was expecting problems with these but they were already cut to shape around the rim and fitted well to the figures.

General Tor is supported by five commanders...

...who are supported by 18 Martian Grunts, two with Freeze Rays, the rest with Disintegration Rifles.

A good variety of poses, mostly duplicates, some triplicates, and they form a pretty impressive looking army.

The humans are represented by soldiers, heroes and civilians.  I painted up the US soldiers in an approximation of the country's Operational Camouflage Pattern which should look good in an urban setting.  10 different figures: a sergeant, two troopers with light machine guns, one with a missile launcher and the rest with carbines.

The heroes are an eclectic mix of characters, including a police officer, mechanic, survivalist and even a medieval knight!

The set I bought included a Civilian Slaughter expansion which included some dead soldiers and Martians (which I'm leaving in the box as I remain not keen on Dead markers) and five civilians to protect in some of the missions.

Lastly, the expansion set also included a herd of flaming cows as featured in the rather dubious opening scene of the Tim Burton movie.

Now to paint all the scenery...

Mars Attacks

I recently heard about the Mars Attacks miniatures game which was published back in 2014 by Mantic Games (not that you'd know from their current website).  This is based on the 1960s trading cards and 1996 film of the same name (almost, the movie added an exclamation mark).

Someone had staged a Perilous Tale using a neoprene street scene gaming mat which was one of the Kickstarter bonuses and what originally caught me eye.  The pair of mats were available on eBay for just a little more money, I could get the whole game - with even more extras.

I won the auction earlier this week and a big box arrived today.  This includes the original rules and cards plus solo rules with AI cards for the Martians.  The rulebook is substantial but includes lots of biographies and stats on the characters, plus ten scenarios across a campaign, so the actual rules aren't too complex.  As you'd expect from the theme, this is very much a fun playable game.

Miniatures (about the same scale as 25/28mm) include General Tor and loads of Martians:

What surprised me was the number of different poses - ten unique Martian figures with 2 or 3 of each.  Earth is defended by 9 human heroes and 10 US troopers, all unique figures.

Another of the kickstarter extras were civilians, casualties and a flaming herd of cows, replacing in part, some of the cardboard figures also included in the game.

Other creatures are represented by cardboard figures and the set includes a range of counters and D8.

The Martians are invading having already destroyed the town so the set includes lots of detailed ruined walls and shop fronts that can be variously clicked together...

...plus a range of rubble, barricades and street furniture to hide behind:

Last but definitely not least are the pair of 2'x2' rubber mats with street and pavements, which will be perfect for other games like Ghostbusters or Dad's Army.

Ideally I shouldn't get too excited before I've actually read the rules and playtested it... but it's too late for that.  But frankly, even if I don't get on with the rules this is such a great collection of scenery and the miniatures could easily be used with other rulesets.  So if the rules are good, that's a bonus!

There are plenty of pictures of what the figures look like painted up and several tutorials on YouTube for painting the Martians, so I will add the miniatures and scenery to my painting list.  But I will certainly try the rules before starting the painting.