A tale of two worlds

The Battle of the Sands.

Part Two

The Prussians meanwhile had decided to leave their spider tank in situ and use the twin turret mounted Gatling Cannons to sweep across the infantry and armoured cars, with their smaller armoured cars advancing to more tactical positions. Both the Orca and the Pob took hits, and a number of the highlanders fell into the dust.

Back with the Rhinox, Captain Grey managed to goad his mount into a furious charge…which completed!  All three of the beasts charged through the ranks of the Marztruppen, who tried their best to get out of the way of four tonnes of potential sausage. Half the unit did not manage this feat and many were simply crushed. The Rhinox halted at the end of their charge distance…but right adjacent to the Prussian tanks!  Not a good place to be.

Meanwhile the Prussian regulars led by the infamous and rather portly Hero Count Heinrich Helmutsson were dashing through the floatwoods towards the Berkshires. The Hephaestus managed her sustain role and the gunner rolled a 1 to hit. ‘Hurrah!’ cried the navy, as the shell landed slap in the middle of the wave of advancing blue.

Back on the British left flank, those sneaky fliers had used the Creekbed for cover before launching a vicious attack on their rear, leaving half the unit dead as their machine guns cackled away.

In reply they managed to destroy most of the fliers and the single remaining model decided he’s had enough.  However, their attention had been distracted by the fliers for long enough to mask the advance of the remaining cavalry, who crashed into them.  A furious melee ensued in which the surviving Prussian cavalry officer managed to keep his men from fleeing and kill the Scots officer. Seeing their leader killed the Highlanders decided to call it quits and left the table.  Now only a single armoured car and the heavily damaged walker held the left, although the Prussians had too few men left to press their advantage.  In the centre meanwhile the Berkshires met with the depleted ranks of the Prussians.  Their greater numbers took their toll, as did getting the initiative.  However, the remaining seven Prussians remained true to their great leader and returned quite a devastating volley that forced the British back into cover.

However, the epic that was being played out was on the right side of the table. The Rhinox, taking an entire turn to turn around were shot at by the remaining soldiers (those unflattened ones anyway). One of the shots got lucky, disabling one of the Rhinox tails and reducing the armour value of another, while another shot managed to blow up the Naptha tank on the side of Captain Grey’s beast.  The Hero managed to make his save roll and landed a few feet away from the Prussian main tank, still on his feet, to polite clapping.  Wiping his rather singed moustache, he leapt for what remained of his saddle to re-mount.   Just as he did this the main tank fired at point blank range into his beast.  Surely they could not miss…but they did!   We were playing in this game a method of working out where failed shots landed..and this one landed only a few feet away from the tank, catching itself in its own blast radius and knocking it out of action!  The beast also took extra damage but managed to stay on its feet and Grey had survived a second time!  Luckily the remaining armoured car was trading shots with the Pib, which was racing (well, ambling gently) to the aid of the captain and his men. Who in the meantime had charged for a second time through the surviving soldiers.

Men and beast fell until all that remained were the Marztruppen captain and one of his men, battling it out with fist and sabre with our wounded hero, who by this time had survived another detonation from his mount (which had finally killed it) and two sword thrusts.  Grey parried and thrust his sword through the breastplate of the German leader and swivelled to receive and give the killing blow from his last opponent.  Both forces on the flank had completely wiped each other out!

Things were starting to look bad for the Prussians. Their last cavalry wiped out by the rattling guns of the Pob and their armoured penny farthing lying gently sizzling before the Orca (whose flamethrower had finally worked), their last hope was inflicting damage with their spider tank. Heinrich

Helmutsson led a last desperate (well, as he was the only remaining man in his unit) charge at the lumbering Hephaestus to be finally picked off by the rifles and Gatling gun of the ship’s crew.  The end was in sight.  The remaining Berkshires attacked the legs of the Spider which at last turned to face the British.  But with its commander and driver killed in the barrage of fire aimed at it, it surrendered.