Martian Legions and TMWWBK Rules

From the "Mars Sourcebook", Oenotrian
military figures.

If one has read the original Space 1889 source material, you would see the terms "Shooters" and "Choppers" mentioned regularly - to summarise, a traditional canal martian infantry company is made of 50% musket armed Shooters, and 50% melee armed Choppers (including swords and pikes). 

To properly reflect this characteristic on the gaming table, some heavily home-brewed rules are quite necessary. I saw a discussion of such home-rules on a Facebook group for Space 1889, and decided to try sharpen them up and use them myself. 

(Apologies in advance for what is quite a wordy and essay-like post about to come 😂. Also, at some point at writing this I seemed to have forgotten whether the correct term is Cutters or Choppers? We can therefore assume I use the terms interchangeably...)

The original comments I found were as follows:

"First thing to note is that each Martian Legion has between two to six Companies. Next important aspect is that each 'Company' is split between a 'Shooters' and a 'Cutters' half-company. So those half-companies are the basic unit in TMWWBK.

To then be able to encompass other Martian types later, I'm setting these as Regulars - and then using the Special Rules & Options to further refine their abilities.

So to reflect that 'Shooters' are mainly armed with muskets - smoothbores and/or rifled - an obvious option is 'Poorly Armed'.

For the 'Cutters' there is no Firing factor, as they are the 'Up-Close-&-Personal' troop-types. To enhance these further, you could then give them the 'Fierce' Option.

As for personal Armour, I'm keeping with the general ethos that mass-manufacture of metal on Mars is not possible due to limited metal/mineral resources. But, to then include the famed 'Shieldgunners', we can permit the 'Shooters' of the 1st Company (only) of each Martian Legion to be the 'Shieldgunners' - and to provide a simplistic benefit for the armour worn or carried, they can ignore the first and/or second Hit, depending on the range from the Firers. This would be a specific Option that would have to be purchased for that unit.

The important consideration in all this is that I wanted a format where Martian City States should be able to fight against the forces of other Martian City States. And that would be something that has developed a form of warfare between them over centuries - long before the 'Red- Men' (humans from Earth) arrived. That in turn provides a whole new element for when you introduce the Earthmen's warfare of modern weapons and different tactics."

I did not note the name of the author of these comments, if you are reading this and do know their identity, please feel free to comment and I shall give the credit where it is due.

The comments follow as such:

"The next new aspect was to give Martian infantry a specific tactical advantage, something distinct. This was to follow examples from other races, e.g., Ashanti ambushes, Dervish 'jehadiya' marksmen, Zulu 'fighting buffalo' formations, etc., etc.

I settled on an idea to give the Martian Company (so both Shooters & Cutters) an initial 'Phalanx' formation. This is where both the Cutters & the Shooters units are deployed attached, one in front of the other. This Phalanx can be activated as one unit to then move together. If the Shooters are the front unit, it can fire at enemy units. As a mass of infantry, it may be a slightly better target to hit, but it can also 'shrug off' a Pinned marker once per turn. The Phalanx has two specific special actions too - it can switch which of the two units is the front unit as a special Move action - and it can also 'split' or separate into it's two usual units, either deployed side-by-side, or by dropping one unit back. And only 'Elite' quality troops can reform a Phalanx in a battle once that 'split' has been made.

Hit allocation to a Phalanx works on a 'two-thirds & one-third' manner. E.g, if 3 hits are inflicted on a Phalanx, two are on the front unit, one on the rear unit."

So with these concepts in mind, I set about writing up a specific ruling that could really reflect the canal martian Legionary warfare. Note to readers, I play using centimeters, where I always double the number inches as written in the rulebook, to give a distance in centimeters (i.e. NOT a mathematical conversion of Inches x2.25=cm's).

My current collection of Oenotrian legionaries.

Martian Legion Rules

Company Deployment: If legionary units are deployed in an army list, they must be deployed as at least 2 units of half-companies, to form one full company. Also, they must be deployed as shooters and cutters units in a 1:1 ratio.

Elite: Companies of legionaries can be deployed as Elite; if so both half-companies must be deployed as elite.

Shield Gunners: For +2 points, the Shooters unit may replace up to 3 models with Shield-Gunner models. The unit (or combined phalanx) adds +1 to hits required to take casualties from firing at long-range (like cover). Any received casualties must be taken first from the shield gunner models, until they are all taken out. From then on, the unit receives no extra protection from enemy fire.

(Credit to Paul James Blogspot for the idea to replace models with Shield-gunners to increase hits required and require them to be taken out first from the unit).

Phalanx: 

• Shooter and Cutter unit may deploy together at start of game, in Phalanx and Close Order, one in front of the other. Either unit may take the front rank, and the phalanx maximum speed is 8cm. No At the Double allowed. 

• Front rank unit is the only unit allowed to fire.

• Unit may make a special Split/Merge/Switch move. Instead of a move action, the units may swap position (front to back) or split side to side or front and back into separate units (no movement rate allowed in conjunction). Units may reform into Phalanx if moved adjacent to each other and they both have the Elite quality. Either half-company may initiate the merge maneuver, if the other unit is a maximum of 1 inch away. 

• Phalanx always counts as Close Order, therefore the Shooters unit may Volley Fire (Firing +1 at units in short range), both units increase fighting value by +1, may only fire into the front 180 degree arc, and only the front unit may fight in Attacks. 

• Half-companies may form Close Order when deployed separately (if at least 6 models remain).

• Enemy units targeting the Phalanx receive +1 to their Firing value.

• The Phalanx may ignore the first pin received from firing casualties in a turn. A company in Phalanx does not lose Phalanx status if it does become pinned, but must rally as usual to lose the pins.

• Hits are allocated with the first 2 inflicted on the front unit, and 1 to the rear unit. If the Phalanx is attacked from the flank, the hits are evenly split (defending player chooses the last odd numbered hit). If attacked from the rear, all hits are inflicted on the rear unit.

• A Phalanx attacked from the flank or rear does not receive the +1 benefit to fighting.

• Phalanx requires both units involved to have at least 6 models.

A formed phalanx of Martian legionaries from a recent
game. Note the front unit has taken 6 casualties
already.

Phalanx: Speed 8cm (4 inches)

Firing: Cutters 6+, Shooters 5+ (Volley Fire at short range, 4+)

Weapons: Shooters =Antiquated muskets (12/24cm), Cutters =hand missiles (12/12cm)

Fighting: 5+; Discipline: +1; Points: 5

To summarise these attributes, here is a TMWWBK style stat block for each unit:

Classing the Shooters as Antiquated Muskets could be a little harsh, and maybe next time I play I'll give them Obsolete Rifles range of fire (18/36cm) for no additional points cost. Nevertheless, a full Martian Company of shooters and cutters has a basic cost of 10 points, while an Elite company costs 12 points.

Another point to consider is whether these units should be considered Regular or Irregular units - the original Space 1889 Soldiers Companion calls all European units "Regular", and all Martian native units as "Irregulars", i.e. it does not use the term "Tribals" as seen in TMWWBK. The units should have the ability to form Close Order, as they are well-drilled for Martian standards, but putting them in same category as European Regulars doesn't seem 100% correct.

Discussion

I will admit firstly this is a lot of rules to introduce for just one type of unit, but I have tried to create the rules in a fashion that follows the spirit of TMWWBK rules and playstyle. Certainly they should be tested and modified as necessary - I sadly don't have much gaming space to play often and test these rules out. 

A typical pike and shotte formation, "p's" 
represent the pikemen at the centre, "o's"
represent the musketmen at the wings.

As following the original spirit of these rules, they could provide a framework for Martian vs Martian warfare, in traditional legionary and pitched battle scenarios. I feel as though these battles could have followed a similar style to Earth renaissance era "pike and shotte" battles, with quite inefficient firearms fighting in support of deadly melee weaponry. In this regard, perhaps my rules should allow for a different formation type, with Shooters aligned at the wings of melee Cutters, to allow some more flexibility to the phalanx and fight more effectively. 

In my experience with the rules, as described in my previous post, the condensed block of infantry was able to advance towards modern European infantry and shrug off long range fire well. But as soon as they reached the British rifles short range, the legion was decimated by the effective volley fire, and then routed as the remaining Martians attacked the fortified British position. Maybe this means my Legion rules are not well balanced enough, or perhaps, marching a legion towards a fortified British position was just a terrible tactical decision...

An ideal test for these rules could be a full Martian vs Martian battle, probably with about 3 companies each. Obviously moving 24 model-strong units is a bit of a pain, so movement trays are probably quite necessary. I think before I focus on really testing and working these rules out further, I'd like to spend some more time researching pike and shotte era wargames (for example, Pike And Shotte by Warlord Games) to get a better understanding of how the combat should work; how the different infantry types can support each other effectively. 

For my next game, I will probably keep things simpler, and play out a skirmish style game (as TMWWBK is designed for), classing Shooters as Irregular Infantry (12 models) and the Choppers as Tribal infantry (16 models). I'm planning to paint up a second Oenotrian Martian Legion company soon, so once its ready I could play out a battle versus the British regulars on a more open landscape.