Upon seeing this I had to try it. I proxied two boards as I don't have Elsenborn Ridge. It started off very poorly for the NG. Initial contact ended in total loss. The black smoke was a hammer with its 42 on the bombardment table and the NG in the open. It looked like a walk away victory until NG units wrapped around the Martians, making it impossible to hit every hex. The Martians got one unit off the map and the NG got two kills, at a little over 70% losses. A great scenario.

Using Matt Ws rules tweaks, this was a fun and much harder battle for the US. The Martians took all three units and staggered them. This was followed by a sweeping motion taking one flank of the US with two units and one to protect their flank. This led to heavy US losses from the very outset and forced their hand in making assaults that were not advantageous as they were piecemeal. The Martians made short work of half of the US units, then split off, with all three making it off the north and south edges. This is just plain fun and would like to see more scenarios.

This was a goofy, quick, one-sided - but very fun - scenario to play face-to face with the fearless PANISTA handling the defending Earthlings in rural New Jersey. The Martians were at their most deadly in what rapidly turned into a massacre, but the hard-pressed, but resolute, National Guardmen made a fight of it, and were able to destroy one of the 3 Martian machines during the 9th game turn. Alas, for the fate of the cities on the US East Coast, the other two were able to exit the south & north edges of the battle board after wiping out 26 steps of near-hapless American troops and AFVs.

This is a good one to play face-to-face with a worthy opponent, accompanied by copious amounts of beer, good salsa and tortilla chips! Also a great way to warm up to watch the 3rd game of the 2023 Baseball World Series! Go D-backs!

We salute and thank Alan Sawyer for dreaming up this, very-fun-to-play, extraterrestrial battle in 1938. Both, Orson and H.G. would be very proud of his effort! We give it a unanimous rating of 5.

I concur with my off-planet opponent's AAR commentary. This was indeed, great fun.

But, where were the Men in Black when we really need them?

Buen Hecho, Alan!

Maybe you could design another Martian invasion scenario that takes place on Dia de Los Muertos (2 November) with a cylinder landing in Oaxaca, Mexico. This time starring Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with many flying alebrijes, or the cast from Monsters, Inc! Surrealist painters, poets and writers would love it!

As I stated before, in my first game in one of my first big assaults both sides rolled 6's on the dice! This destroyed one of the Martians machines enabling the Americans to concentrate all their forces on two remaining Martian machines. The Martian had sent two machines to go south, as the distance was farther and one machine to go north. Since one machine was now gone, the American just closed with large stacks of assault forces. This paid off, much to my surprise, they eliminated all three Martian machines but it was bloody with at least 22 step loses and 2 leaders killed in action and other demoralized units.

The American got very lucky in my first play but I found that stacks of three units plus halftracks and a Leader really help in assaults, so if the stacks get wiped out, another one attacks right afterwards. It also helped having some nice dice rolls right off the bat, as the Americans. In my next game, as the Martians, I will group all three machines adjacent to each other, blast a hole through the American lines south, then send one or two machines north.

1938 War of the Worlds edition, scenario: Battle of Grover’s Mills

Round Two!

In my second battle the Martians machines hit the southern defensive American line. Once the battle started, the Martian tried to flank and opening on the right flank of the American lines and the American sent some M5 Stuart tanks & M8 Armored Cars on and end around to plug the holes in the Infantry lines. Again this was a very bloody battle with the Martians losing 2 of their Machines, numbers 1 & 3 but machine number 2 is head for Trenton New Jersey. The battlefield also left 33 step loses for the Americans and another dead leader. The end result was a minor victory for both sides making it a draw. A fun scenario to play, as the usual strategies are out the window in this scenario. Assault combat seems to be the best answer to counter the Martians but at a great cost in American life’s.

Substituted the British Army for the US, made adjustments to TOE to compensate for the differences in vehicles. The Brits faired about as good as the American Army in 1950's movie.

The only way for the National Guard to begin to affect the machines is through assault. The set up instructions call for all units to be at least two hexes away from the machines. This, however, permits the Guard to put a very strong cordon around the machines that will force them to move forward to create adjacencies which the Guard can use to assault in their turn. Yes they will take terrific losses as every assault will be on the 30 column. But they only need a loss and even without planning much their numbers will generally create an assault on the 18 column and probably higher with leaders and/or HMG support.

I did not play that the M3s could stack freely as they are taking the place of White scout cars (in essence armored cars). I did play that the Black Smoke could be issued by the machines without an activation (basically at any time they felt worthwhile the black smoke could issue.

In my play this was over quickly, two assaults happened on the first turn as the machines tried to address the cordon surrounding them. In both assaults the Guard suffered horribly (losing 3 steps of infantry, 2 of M5s and the remainder primarily being demoralized, but two machines were destroyed. The sole remaining machine was surrounded and would not be able to move towards either exit without looking at a "24" column assault. Being extraterrestrial they didn't think anything of quitting immediately.

The inevitability of assault combined with the high percentage of a destroying roll makes me think that some tweaks may be in order. I would suggest one (but not more than one) of the following:

1. All "1" results on the assault CRT against the machines are M "2" is M1 and "3" is M2, all M, M1 or M2 are no effect. With a morale of "6" the machines will have trouble recovering themselves.
2. Permit machines in assault hexes to walk out of assault hexes at full speed. Even without destroying the machines pinning them in assaults is an effective tactic.
3. Consider all assaults against machines to be against entrenched or dug in units permitting the machines first fire. As in "1" above, the machines need to be able to survive assault.
4. Require all Guard units to make an M1 morale check prior to assault and only assault if stacked with a leader. Such assaults cannot commence until the Martians first fire, either with DF, AT or assault (use of black smoke does not constitute a "fire" action by the Martians) The Guard did not know they were facing weapons until the tripods first fired. As a result, the tactic I used (immediate assault) would have been unthinkable. Once the initial fire had been made by the Martians, fear was a strong consideration for the Guard.

I was greatly aided in my play by Jay's AARs which pointed out the need to assault the machines. As the Guard commander I felt no fear and just tossed into the assaults. Without some ability of the machines to survive the assaults it seems that the Martians will be crushed quickly. I give it a "2" for play but what a blast to even consider such a conflict.