Battle of 'The God machine Number One
I had been considering doing this game for a few months. Jim's Wargames featured a scenario, 'The God machine' which caught my eye. Jim envisaged using 15 mm figures but I used 54mm and my own riles
So the idea is not unique and has appeared in a number of SF stories: Man has spread through the stars but gradually colonies lost contact with each other and technology regressed. On one particular planet the military forces were largely at an ancient and early horse and musket level. They can either move or shoot but not both in the same move. This was the composition of the high priestess, Sitamum's, army. Its more modern embellishments included The God Machine, a temple which is actually a sentient enormous vehicle. It also grants as special save to her forces who possess the special shields, provided that they are close enough to the machine.
To represent the priestess's army I employed two units of shield and spear men (ancient Greeks and Carthaginians) the Greek unit being classed as elite. Two units of Mexicans circa Texan Revolution and Mexican Adventure provide fire power but they have flintlocks. There is also a unit of bowmen with short bows made up of Reamsa Saracens from the El Cid set (actually metal home castings of the same). Jim used chariots armed with jezails but I had insufficient of those and thus had the extra musket unit. The sword and shield men had a 5-6 save when within 50cm of the temple and if shot at from the front. Unlike Jim's warriors they all have the shields and thus all get saves in melee. The Yargs had 5-6 saves in melee too.
The warlord, Sortan the Scheming, (visually represented by Jim with a picture of Machiavelli!) has been researching the past and has armed his well drilled army with percussion, rifled muskets. He has three regiments plus his mounted guard unit and a unit of Yarg mercenaries. One of his units had saves of 6 for flak vests).
The leadership of the Warlord's army ranged from 8 to 9. The Priestess's units ranged from 6 to 9.
I used my ACW rules that are based on one dice for either 4 (elite or especially strong units) and one per 6 for others. The warlord's units could move a half move and shoot as could Sitamum's bowmen. Targets would get a 6 (or a plus one on saves).
The machine's primary weapon had a 50% chance of hitting with a D12 of damage. Any rolls for damage of 1-4 counted as five. it caused full casualties unless the target was in skirmish which would bring it down to half.
Conclusion; Mat rolled some remarkable dice that allowed him to fully activate the God machine by move five. it was meant to take a long time. First the owner had to roll a double and then to roll various items to activate the machine. (See Jim's blog).
When the full activation happens the machine is basically invulnerable so I concentrated in shooting up Mat's units to force an army leadership test. Even if this strategy was working the priestess had a leadership of ten so it as a long shot. The death of my warlord, however, ended the game around move seven.
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