----- 1 Month Later -----
Date: November, 3021
Location: New Ivaarsen
Title: Trial by Combat
Author: Richard Meyer, Walter Hunt, Lisa Hunt & Evan Jarrison
Type: Scenario (The Fox’s Teeth)
Synopsis: Following a seven week field campaign against DCMS invaders on New Ivaarsen, the mercenary Narhal’s Raiders is fed up with facing the Combine troops alone and with minimal parts and ammo support while AFFS regulars garrison the world’s three fortified cities. Captain Lewis Gilbert decides to ignore further orders from the AFFS and defect to the Combine. Before the Raiders can jump ship, however, they’re approached by a lance from the recently arrived Fox’s Teeth company. Its leader, Karl Ryder, proposes a duel between himself and Gilbert to determine what course of action Narhal’s Raiders takes. If Ryder wins, the Raiders stay on New Ivaarsen, while House Davion will guarantee safe passage offworld if Gilbert wins.
Ryder engages Gilbert’s damaged Warhammer in a pristine Crusader. Ryder gets a +2 on Initiative rolls, but may not use aimed shots against the Warhammer’s head, and may not fire any weapon that has the potential to completely destroy the Center Torso or Head with a successful hit. Using what appears to be the earliest version of Battle Value, each unit gets a Total Damage Capacity (TDC) rating – 1 point for each armor point, 2 points for each Internal Structure point, 5 points for each Critical slot, and 10 points for each engine/gyro hit bubble. The Crusader has a TDC of 733, and the Warhammer gets a TDC of 749. Ryder will surrender if he takes 484 points of damage on the TDC scale (but only if the Warhammer has taken less than 247 TDC damage), while Gilbert will surrender if he takes four pilot hits or more than 494 points of damage on the TDC scale.
Notes: Strategy-wise, I’d advocate for the Crusader to start out at long range, using the superior Initiative to stay outside of the Warhammer’s PPC range while peppering it with LRMs. Once the LRMs are exhausted, I’d advise closing and trying to use the Initiative advantage to work in close and get behind the Warhammer. Since four pilot hits will force Gilbert to surrender, kicking to make the Warhammer fall down would be a great idea, since it forces a PSR to avoid pilot damage. Using Initiative, it should be possible to approach from the sides or rear, where the Warhammer wouldn’t be able to kick back. Physical attacks have the advantage that they aren’t restricted like weapons fire is – no matter how damaged the Head or CT gets, you can still punch or kick.
For Gilbert, if you can figure out how to reduce the Warhammer’s head armor to 1 point right off the bat, he’d have this scenario in the bag, since the Crusader would be reduced to machine guns and physical attacks for the rest of the fight. Failing that, back up against a high hill to protect your backside and force the Crusader to come to you, keeping it from dropping LRMs on you from beyond your effective range. Until/unless he gets up close and personal, your PPCs give you an edge in direct fire, and if you can keep him in your front arc, your kicks are the more damaging.
Narhal’s Raiders is referred to as a regiment at one point in the scenario, and as a battalion elsewhere on the same page. Gilbert is only a Captain, a rank usually associated with Company command. In its 3025 profile in the Lyran Commonwealth sourcebook, Narhal’s Raiders is listed as a two-regiment force with armor, fighter, and DropShip support under a long term contract with the Lyran Commonwealth (having served continuously with them since 2860). Its commander is Leftenant-General William Matthews. One possibility is that the Lyrans loaned the Feddies a battalion of the Raiders as one of the first steps of the military cooperation that stemmed from Hanse’s response to Katrina’s peace proposal. Since a Captain is running that battalion, it may be the case that the Major who was in command died in action, putting the senior Captain in charge. Though that still wouldn’t explain why Gilbert wanted to defect to the Combine rather than just returning to the Commonwealth to rejoin the rest of the Raiders on the Marik border.
The scenario background also indicates that the New Ivaarsen garrison was forting up at the three cities (Twin Peaks, Bluthe, and Fluute) to protect the grain harvest, under the inexperienced command of Lieutenant Commander Arlin Stuart (comfortably ensconced in an underwater Command and Control center protected by a force of Neptune submarines). Looking at the 3025 TO&E, New Ivaarsen was garrisoned by the Elite/Fanatical 1st New Ivaarsen Chasseurs, under the command of Marshal Nicholas Stephenson, who also served as the overall commander of the Robinson PDZ. How did Stuart get command of the New Ivaarsen defenses instead of Stephenson, since Marshal far outranks Lieutenant Commander? (In fact, Lieutenant Commander isn’t even an AFFS rank – Stuart should probably be referred to as a Lieutenant General or Leftanant General, which is still three grades below Marshal.) One possible explanation is that, since the scenario mentions a major Combine offensive in the region, that all the senior commanders in the PDZ were busy defending other worlds like Robinson and Le Blanc.
Looking at the map, it must have been a serious DCMS offensive indeed, since to seriously threaten the Robinson PDZ, Combine forces would have to go through the Raman PDZ first (unless they made it a deep raid and relied on uninhabited systems for their supply train). TRO:3026 indicates that the attackers on New Ivaarsen were the 5th Galedon Regulars, the personal unit of Warlord Grieg Samsonov. That means that the push probably came from the Galedon District border, across the Galtor thumb.
