England Invaded - Campaign Turn 1 - Battle #2 - Fire & Smoke....

Sunday night saw a double header with battles in both Wales and Scotland.

The suggestion was to fight them back to back at 500 points a side so the campaign can move on to the movement phase and bigger builds.......

The reports are in..... first up War Correspondent Morris Chipham from a few miles outside of Newport.

When I sent off my despatch by mail train last night, it was with very different feelings to those with which I have to report this evening.

Had we had a sufficiency of troops, more especially of regular troops, there is not the slightest doubt that the victory would have been mankinds, Major Lewis was obligded to assault the enemy's position with a force judged ill equipped by military experts for the task in hand. 

 

I followed in the path of Major Lewis's Brigade as it marched towards the Cylinder Pit before it was checked by Black Vapour and the Martian Fire Beam from the Martian Scuttlers.
It was plain that the Volunteer Brigade, though it held its ground, could not advance farther.

The men of the 1st Volunteer Battalion - 1st Pembrokeshire's set off in column of March, confident in their training and officers. From my vantage point in the village I was to observe a movement to their left as the men from Mars approached, Giants in armour scuttling from under the cover of Bywin Wood. The Martians sent out a beam of fire towards the men of the 1st Pembrokes, Companies A & B were swept out of existance, charred and distorted beyond recognition.

As I watched in horror at the sight of the volunteers stumbling back from the field of raging fire. The Martians discharged cannisters of inkey black smoke forcing the valiant volunteers to break formation to avoid the clouds of death.

 

Staunchly as the Welshmen had withstood the murderous fire from those out world invaders, the vapours of instant death and heat rays were rather more than such partially trained soldiers could stand. A scattering discharge from their rifles was followed by something very much approaching a rout.

The hammering from the pit could still be heard as civilians and military personnel fled the field and out of range of the Martian weapons.

Meanwhile in Scotland. 

Graham McAllister reports from the Daily Messenger and gave his account of the actions of the Forfarshire's and their attempt to neutralise the Scottish Cylinder.

From senior officer to the youngest piper, our brave boys did more, than could be humanly expected of them.

 

The plan of attack was agreed; the officers led well, their men fought well, the brigade flanked the wood and approached the Cylinder from the East, the Martian invaders had moved from the pit site and formed up on the high ground over looking the battlefield, through my eye glass I could see the ugly brown brutes squirming across the hillside, flanked by glittering white mechanical machines.

On the left the three Scottish battalions had been drawn up behind Sallywick Wood. The Martians fired several rockets of deadly black smoke, which filled the country lane with moaning and writhing wounded as the evil gas struck the men from Dundee down. We remained masters of the wood drawing Martian fire as an assault party ran with charges to the edge of the pit.

With a loud boom and cloud of dust the Cylinder is shrouded in dirt and grim as the view clears, the Cylinder is broken into several pieces, the hugh shell would be providing no further secrets.

At this critical moment a powerful counter-attack was made from the highground, Scout Machines scampered towards our defenders and Octopus type creatures slide forwards, outnumbered our gallant forces gave ground.

 

The field belongs to the alien invaders but their base of operations is damaged beyond repair.

Both encounters had a very different feel to the first encounter perhaps in the tur H G Wells telling and with the Martian build phase and movement, mankind will have to weather the Martian storm before they will have a chance to stem the alien onslaught.