A desperate measure by the South, who found themselves short of manpower at near the end of the war. In a war of attrition the North would win because they had more men. They had plenty of badly wounded and crippled men, often missing limbs, and plenty of Mad Victorian Science to do something with them. And so the Corps of Invalids (really barely a regiment strong) was created. Missing limbs were replaced by mechanical arms and legs, damaged internal organs by artificial ones, missing eyes with monocular vision devices. Even the normal looking soldiers above have had some work done on them to get them back into the field. The Zouave look was selected for their uniforms, since many of the initial volunteers for the "refurbishing" came from Zouave units.
The scenario was that the Union had to capture or destroy a giant Armored Union Landship , the Confederates had to prevent that from happening. The Landship had broken downand was abandoned during a Union advance, that turned into a retreat. The initial Confederate set-up. The Landship was guarded by two squads of Militia, and a Squad from the Corps of Invalids. A group of unarmed mechanics were frantically trying to get it going before the Union forces arrived. Every turn they worked on it, they added 1 to the start and 1 to the sustain. Since that started out at 3 start and 8 sustain, they needed every turn the could get to have a chance to get it going. The Corp of Invalids A desperate measure by the South, who found themselves short of manpower at near the end of the war. In a war of attrition the North would win because they had more men. They had plenty of badly wounded and crippled men, often missing limbs, and plenty of Mad Victorian Science to do something with them. And so the Corps of Invalids (really barely a regiment strong) was created. Missing limbs were replaced by mechanical arms and legs, damaged internal organs by artificial ones, missing eyes with monocular vision devices. Even the normal looking soldiers above have had some work done on them to get them back into the field. The Zouave look was selected for their uniforms, since many of the initial volunteers for the "refurbishing" came from Zouave units. The Union came on with regular cavalry, horse drawn artillery, and an Ornithopter. Two of the cavalry units and the artillery entered on the right side of the table, with another cavalry unit on the extreme left side of the table (out of shot). The Ornithopter headed straight to the Confederates and the broke down landship, being careful to fly out of range of ground fire. The next turn saw the arrival of Confederate reinforcements, two units of cavalry, one cannon, a Timberclad landship (let's hear it for Mott's applesauce containers) and a British built armored scout landship. The Union reinforcements also came on that same turn. Two Steam Chargers (2 man armored landships), a unit of Mechanical Cavalry, a unit of Steamcycles with Gatling guns, two Steam Wagons carrying special troops, and a pair of giant glasses? (Hey those are mine!!!) The Mechanical Cavalry and a unit of regular cavalry charge the Confederates, despite taking casualties. The regular cavalry makes contact with a squad of militia, forcing them to retreat towards the Corp of Invalids. A smashing Union Victory! Now the way is clear to attacked the mechanics trying to fix the broken down landship, Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!!! The Mechanical Cavalry seems posed to do the same to the Corp of Invalids, or at least blast them at close range with their fast firing (semi-automatic in modern terms) carbines. Because of the Mechanical Horses, they don't even need to dismount to fire their carbines. Is the Union posed to quickly defeat the Confederates and retake the damaged landship? Oops, I guess not. The victorious Union cavalry find themselves being charged from behind. Unable to turn themselves quickly enough the Confederates get to make their attacks before the Union cavalry can respond. I love GASLIGHT but there are a number of things, such as what happens when you are charged from behind, that the rules don't really cover so I made up that rule on the spot. The Mechnical CaThe other Confederated Cavalry squad charged the Steamcycles, and made it through, despite heavy Gatling fire. The Mechanical Cavalry lost too many men to the from the Corp of Invalids (fire from two regular Gatlings and a heavy Gatling will tend to do that), but the Steamchargers, the Landship USLS Union , and the Steam wagons with their mysterious cargo advance in their place. The Corp of Invalids climbed aboard the Steam Wagons, and found them occupied by the Grenadier Engineers (I hate that name, but Assault Engineers sounds to modern). In one wagon the Corps tied up the Engineers riding in that wagon for a turn, the other Engineers poured out. Armed with Quickshooters, handheld Gatlings, and Firethrowers they were well armed, wore body armor, and specialized in assaulting fortified positions and landships. Ye at the same time the mechanics finally got the broke-down landship started, and a landship capable or moving is a much harder target to destroy than one incapable of moving. Would the Engineers get there in time or would the damaged landship escape? The Confederate landships advance into the fray trying to lend the weight of their fire to the attempt to stop the Engineers. Captain Walker then destroyed one with a well placed firebomb. A hit, a penetration, a roll of 1 on the Penetration Table (making it a catastrophic hit) followed by an 18 on the catastrophic hit table (Vehicle explodes killing everyone inside). You rarely see that result in GASLIGHT. After failing to clamber onto the damaged landship, to place their explosive charges, the man with the firethrower fired one last shot, hitting and causing the escaping landship to explode, winning the Union a minor victory. The firethrower could have hit the landship up to three times, but only hit once. That shot penetrated and once again the roll was a 1 on the penetration chart followed by and 18 on the catastrophic chart. the landship
2 Comments
12/16/2015 10:14:00 pm
The Landship had broken downand was abandoned during a Union advance, that turned into a retreat.
Reply
3/13/2016 12:04:28 am
A group of unarmed mechanics were frantically trying to get it going before the Union forces arrived. Every turn they worked on it,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Mysterious BillI've been gaming since the 1970's and even wrote some RPG adventures in the 80's for the Judges Guild. It seems that I can only get in miniatures is gaming at cons, but I do regularly play boardgames and RPGs. Archives
February 2018
Categories
All
Links |