All Quiet on the Martian Front

Suddenly, like a thing falling upon me from without, came fear

You all remember War of the Worlds right? That Sci-fi classic written by H.G. Wells in which Martians invade our fragile blue orb by firing themselves at it in cylinders propelled by a massive gun, and then attack London in giant tripodal walkers only to die via common cold?

Well turns out that they are back, they brought their penicillin and orange juice, and they aren't stopping until every inch of Mother Earth is in their slimy, alien tentacles. Instead of landing in dense urban centers, or at least near them like they did in the War of the worlds, the Martians have instead made landfall in the desolate regions of the planet, in the dense jungles of Africa and South America, in the frozen plains of Siberia and Antarctica, and the Deserts of the American West. In these places, the invaders built up their strength, and when the time was right, they launched their assault against mankind.

Few nations can hope to stand in the way of the extraterrestrial invaders, but among those who have a fighting chance, the United States of America under the guiding hand of President Theodore Rosevelt stands like a colossus against the tide. Factories churn out war material round the clock, everything from new gas proof suits to steam powered armoured vehicles, thousands of men have taken up arms, and all along the Missippi Line great guns and fortifications rise in defiance of the Martian threat.

The other nations of the world have not been idle. Great Britain fights desperate battles to defend its colonial holdings and has even sent the British Expeditionary Force to aid the Yankees and Canuks on the North American Front. The Japanese battle the invaders on the asian mainland, proportedly to defend the people of the continent but really to defend their holdings in China. The only Countries who have yet to take a major step against the Invaders are France and Germany, who gaze upon the the holdings of their terrestrial neighbors with barely disguised envy.

But now as the fourth year of the Great Martian War draws to a close, a message clicks through the airwaves and telegraph wires, "All Quiet on the Martian Front".

The Game

All Quiet on the Martian Front (or AQMF) is a 15mm (Roughly 1:100) miniature wargame produced by Alein Dungeon in which participants battle it out for the fate of the world as either the Martian Invaders, in their signature Tripods, or the Defenders of Earth, who weild steampunk-esque weapons and vehicles both home grown and based on captured Martian tech.

Instead of the standard D6 like every other miniature wargame All Quiet on the Martian Front uses a D10 system, so go see if you have one or two laying around from D&D or something. However distances for moving and shooting are still measured in inches, because this is America and we don't use that metric nonsense here.

Once both armies are assemebled and placed on the table battlefield. The two players roll for intiative to see who goes first by simply rolling a pair of D10s and seeing who rolled higher. Once that has been taken care of the first turn starts.

The basic turn in AQMF is very simple and goes like this:

Step 1: Move

Step 2: Shoot/Assault

Step 3: Move Again

This means that units can strike and fade, moving into firing possitions, shooting, and backing off again, or exploit gaps that were just blasted into enemy formations before they get a chance to react.

What does the future hold?

Sadly the community around the game has gone as quiet as a country family when the ground shakes under the footfalls of the Martian war walkers. A few new models have come out, like the Bedouin Cavalry for the British and The MK V Goliath, but its pretty safe to assume that very few people in your area will ever play AQMF, much less hear about it.

However 2nd edition is on the horizon sometime in 2019 (well that was a bust) with a new manufacture/producer. So far play testers have said that it is a definite improvement. New factions like the final arrival of Germans are also in the near future. The creators have declared bankruptcy and will not continue effort for a second edition sadly.

The Forces of the Great Martian War

America

The great industrial machine of America is waking up as the Martian invaders pose a threat to the nation unseen since the United States first won its independence from the United Kingdom. Thousands of Tanks, tens of thousands of Guns, and millions of shells roll of the factory floors of the eastern states to be loaded onto trains to defend the western half of the nation. Technological innovations dismissed as fever dreams in times of peace now become reality in the desperate struggle to keep our planet, like the great Land Ironclads, whose guns can destroy a tripod with a single shot, or the terrifying Lightning canon developed by the famed and eccentric Nikola Tesla, which can annihilate tripods with the power of the elements.

To wield these weapons, millions of men volunteer for service. These men march into deadly Martian Heat Rays and the terrible Black Dust to hold back the Martian tide. Thousands will never return, but their sacrifice buys time for new devices to be built and new units to be drawn up. Soon the defensive actions will come to an end, and the Great Nation that is the United States will go on the offensive and take back the West.

Great Britain

Great Britain was the first country to feel the wrath of the Martian War machines. With London basically destroyed and thousands dead before the initial invaders succumbed to disease, the United Kingdom swore to never again be so unprepared. With a fervor, they swarmed over the fallen machines of the Martians intent on learning what ever they could from them.

Now, with the Great Martian War raging across the globe, the United Kingdom is one of the most technologically advanced terran forces on the face of the planet. The Brits pioneered the concept of mechanized infantry in this world, and their tanks are the envy of every other army. Man portable coil guns can tear apart light Martian Machines and heavier variants are capable of hammering the larger models. If the United States is chugging along like a steampunk World War One, the United Kingdom is knocking on the doorstep of the end of World War Two tech wise.

Martian Invaders

Forced from the dusty wastes of their homeworld by a lack of natural resources and interspecies struggles, the Martians have set their eyes on the pale blue dot of the third planet from the sun. The first attempt met with disastrous failure, but their loss paved the way for the next wave. Prepared for the deadly microbial threats, the Martian Invaders thought that they would roll over the weak native defenders quickly and seize the planets for themselves, but that notion proved naïve. Now the invaders adapt and terrifying new war machines stalk the battlefields on their three spiked feet.

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds RTS

A special mention of relevance goes to the game in the title as it is the closest thing the tabletop has to a video game version, which is quite surprising in and on itself given the fairly niche setting.

The game came out in 1998 but has a relatively sophisticated gameplay split between a risk-style map and individual sectors where the rts battles and base-building takes place. There are no turns but instead you pause or accelerate the flow of time. A somewhat unique feature is that you can enter a sector where you have units and/or buildings at any time and plan base construction or even unit placement which will stick. The map is restricted to the British Isles (plus Isle of Man for some reason) with around 30 sectors.

There are two factions - British and the Martians, both of which have unit rosters (vehicles only) that slightly exceed the tabletop in number and variety and that's before we get to the buildings and defense emplacements. There is also a sophisticated (for the time) tech tree and upgrades like stronger armor or more powerful heat rays that boost units across the board. Resources are also a bit unique since you can never technically run out of them, your unit production in a given sector just slows down to months instead of days or weeks and you can boost a sector's resources with economy buildings to a degree. Construction is also done by dedicated builder units that need to be brought on-site and given orders what to build but the construction proceeds automatically.

Ps. RIGHT-CLICK AND HOLD on units and sectors, this is how you get drop down menus for building or entering sectors and other useful things, you are welcome.

The game also has the neat faction balance where the Humans are numerically superior and start with more sectors, but rely on huge numbers since even at max upgrade their tech plays second-fiddle to the Martians, nevertheless they can quickly snowball and crush the Martians. This ironically makes the Martians a more challenging faction to play since they are elitist-specialists who's smaller unit size need to be managed carefully in order to not be overwhelmed.

The game is a bit of an abandonware so you may need to scour online markets like ebay or amazon or find your local freebooterz and see if they can help.

Gallery

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  Forward! For Liberty!

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  Bring it down!

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  Howdy Yankees! Need any help with these Martians Chaps?

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  Say, is it getting a bit hot in here?