Eridani Light Horse Campaign

[Tai Dai Cultist]

5 November, 3000
Priority Dispatch from Brevet General Lucien Kerston:
On this day two hundred and sixteen years ago, the 3rd RCT remained behind when General Kerenksy led the exodus into the unknown so that we might preserve the ways of the Star League Defense Force.  Our purpose has ever been to remind the Inner Sphere of the power and glory that once unified us all.  Fate willing, we may again one day enjoy such benevolence.
Over the past century and a quarter, we have defended the Lyran Commonwealth from its enemies.  Although we admire the Lyran character, we have come to suffer increasingly unbearable costs under Steiner command during the Eleventh and Twelfth Battles of Hesperus II.

During our contract renewal negotiations with House Steiner we have been unable to come to an arrangement that guarantees command privileges for our troops to my satisfaction.  I am announcing that with the advent of the 31st century, the Eridani Light Horse will begin a new tradition in service to House Davion.
Effectively immediately, the 21st Striker Regiment will travel to Colchester to lead the way for the entire Light Horse family to relocate there.


1 September, 3001
21st Striker Regiment Communication from Colonel Nathan Armstrong
Colchester status (Mandatory reading for all regimental officers)
First Prince Ian Davion gifted the Eridani Light Horse with control of a world of our own to support ourselves with.  Colchester has an ancient history as one of the earliest worlds colonized by mother Terra.  It has three inhabited continents: Ipswich, Essex, and New Canaan.  The former two are a supercontinent joined by a narrow landbridge and home to most of the planetary population and industry, and the latter is an island continent removed from the others and with the best agricultural land.

Colchester is a fairly wealthy world in that it is self-sufficient in both agriculture and industry, but has few exports.  This lack of importance on an interstellar scale has been a blessing of sorts in that it missed out on the worst of the Succession Wars.
It is also notable as the home of the Church of Humanity Unchained, an anti-technological religious movement that rose following the onset of the Succession Wars.  Its movement is based on the Citadel-city of Masada on the continent of New Canaan.

Unfortunately the world we were given is a world that requires some “housecleaning”. The Dukes of Colchester have long neglected their holding, preferring to live among their peers on New Avalon.  The aptly named House Boucher have been absentee landlords and responded to grievances from the citizens of Colchester with military force.  The Bouchers presided over an escalating cycle of rebellion and crackdown until a revolutionary fervor swept the planet and control from New Avalon was lost.

Prince Davion is free to give us Colchester because he divested Duke Boucher of the world.  Unfortunately the rebel administration of Colchester sees us, perhaps rightly so, as Davion’s own troops sent to return the system to the fold. 

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Military Situation on Colchester:
The rebel administration calls itself the Colchester Workers’ Revolution (CWR) and espouses Christian-Communist ideals… which have become popular in the wake of the Bouchers’ excesses.  It is led by Chairman Richard Featherston and supported by the Church of Humanity Unchained.  Featherston and his most senior fighters have a decade of combat experience against Duke Boucher’s private army and the planetary militia.

Following Prince Davion’s divestiture of Duke Boucher, the Ducal Guard and planetary militia laid down their arms, joined the rebels, or left the world entirely to pursue mercenary careers.  The CWR has had 18 months of absolute control of the entire world: In that time it decreed a new planetary capitol in the citadel of Masada and established a standing army.  They believe that they have begun a revolution that will expand from Colchester to sweep a communist workers’ paradise across the Inner Sphere and bring an end to the Succession Wars.

Since our regiment’s arrival on world, the CWR has not engaged us in combat but it has refused to acknowledge our authority to rule the planet in Prince Davion’s name.  They have withdrawn most of their military forces from Ipswich and Essex to fortify New Canaan.   We have returned Fairfax City on Essex to its status as planetary capital.  The ComStar personnel at the HPG compound there are sympathetic to our duty to administer the planet in House Davion’s name, but they refuse to denounce the CWR as an illegitimate political body.  We presume ComStar is still broadcasting whatever propaganda offworld the CWR is paying it to.


CWR Military Forces:
The rebel forces are divided into two groups: the ill-equipped Peasant Militia and elite Revolutionary Guards (also called Red Guards).  The Peasant Militia are irregular infantry forces augmented by uparmored tractors and industrialmechs with bolted-on weaponry.  The Revolutionary Guards are equipped with materiel seized from the planetary militia and Ducal private guards.
Information provided by ComStar leads our analysts to estimate that there are two to three regiments of Peasant Militia on New Canaan, and perhaps a battalion of Revolutionary Guards.  At least two lances of battlemechs from the Duke’s private army are unaccounted for, and several dropships landed in New Canaan to unload unknown military cargoes during the past year and a half the rebels had control of the world.  Most troubling of all, MIIO believes that Kurita covert forces have been inserted to train or lead the rebel military forces.
ComStar estimates that as much as a third of the planetary population has sympathies with the rebel administration.  Should the ELH and CWR go to war, we’d be facing the possibility of an ugly insurgency on Essex and Ipswich.

The 21st Striker Regiment was tasked by Brevet General Kerston to make ready the planet for the rest of the Eridani Light Horse.  A standing rebel army and simmering rebellious sentiment will not be conducive to a peaceful or smooth-running homeworld.  Indeed, the potential of thousands of insurgents having access to our dependents’ homes is a situation that is unacceptable.
We are using ComStar as go-betweens to try to talk down Featherston and the Church of Humanity Unchained and accept our control over all of Colchester peacefully.   Unfortunately we do not have unlimited time: New Canaan produces most of Colchester’s food and the planetary economy is in chaos while the CWR claims sovereignty.  The longer the talks go on, the worse things get.  With this in mind, Colonel Armstrong has given Chairman Featherston a 30 day deadline to come to terms.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Briefing: Operation ARCHER
In the event the Workers’ Revolution refuses to stand down, the 5th Striker Battalion will raid New Canaan with the following objectives:
1: Ascertain location and strength of CWR military forces
2: Engage and destroy Revolutionary Guards
3: Capture Chairman Richard Featherston and any Draconis personnel that may be present.

Colonel Armstrong has given us these orders with the understanding that his desire is to break the ability of the CWR to meddle or oppose our restoring Colchester to civil, peaceful conduct.  He has no desire to see each and every soldier bearing arms for the CWR slain nor the Church destroyed; any attempt to do so would likely ignite rebellion against us across the entire planet.  We are to break the CWR's back by destroying the Red Guards and taking Chairman Featherston alive so that he doesn't become a martyr.  So long as both of these strategic goals are met, the bulk of the CWR's supporters should give up their loyalties without further conflict.

All company commanders should familiarize themselves with the following map:

General information about the continent:
The island is dominated by a dormant supermassive volcano; Lake Galilee fills most of its caldera.  The northern, especially northeastern, slopes of the continent are the most heavily populated.  The southwestern portion once housed a SLDF fortification but is now a radioactive hotzone, courtesy Kurita raiders during the 1st Succession War.

Masada: Population 190,000
City is the home both to the Church of Humanity Unchained and the Colchester Workers’ Revolution.  It is constructed on, and in the tallest peak of the dormant volcano.  The terrain outside the citadel is extremely rugged and has no suitable ground for drop-ports.  It is connected to the rest of the continent via rail lines, often across mountain bridges of great height above canyon floors below.
Leviticus: Pop. 2,700,00
Largest population concentration on New Canaan and the second largest city on Colchester after Fairfax City; Leviticus is locus for agricultural and forestry activity in the fertile Northeastern portion of the continent.  The Leviticus Mercantile Exchange is an agricultural commodities market and was a keystone of the planetary economy prior to its closure by the Workers' Revolution.  It has excellent drop-port facilities that linked it with the other major cities of Colchester prior to our blockade of New Canaan.  Under CWR rule, Leviticus has become a major producer of ethanol fuels and explosives.
Copper Falls: Population 680,000
New Canaan’s only major industrial center.  Mainly builds tractors, but ComStar reports that the factories there have been retooled to produce crude tanks and APCs.  Its manufacturing output is serviced only by the continental rail system and regional drop-ports.
Hagerty City: Population 60,000
Center for ranching, and destination for many of the tractors and industrialmechs produced in Copper City.  Possesses only crude drop-port facilities and is linked to the rest of the planet mainly through rail service to Masada.
New Canterbury: Population 550,000
The only seaport on New Canaan; city in economic depression due to quarantine of continent.  The seaport has a parallel drop-port, but has not been in use since CWR's control of Colchester.
Mount Carmel: Population 80,000
Former Ducal mountain estate on the shores of Lake Galilee named Versailles.  As a former Ducal retreat it has excellent drop-port facilities.  The supporting village has been renamed and undergone much construction and expansion since CWR’s ascension.  Unknown purpose.

Colonel Armstrong will place the regiment's entire flotilla of dropships at our disposal for insertion onto New Canaan.  However, after insertion only the Union-class Passchendale will remain under our control for intra-continental spacelift.  The Leapard-CV class Baltic Sea will remain in geosynchronous orbit over New Canaan and a squadron-strength force of Aerospace fighters will continue to enforce quarantine of the continent and provide additional air-to-ground support.

My command lance will secure our planethead and I will use the Passchendale as my field command HQ.  As each of you are newly promoted and this will be your first combat as Captains, traditional orders of precedence will be suspended for the duration of this operation.  I require each company commander to develop a battle plan for the prosecution of our orders for Operation ARCHER, and I will designate a senior company commander solely on the basis of the merits of those submissions.  You have one week from today to file your proposals on my desk. 

Good luck, Captains.

Major Charles Winston
CO: 5th Striker Battalion (Winston's Wyverns), 21st Striker Regiment (The Moonrakers)

[Saint]

Great setup , I'll have to keep a eye on this thread.

[mikecj]

Interesting set up. 

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Great setup , I'll have to keep a eye on this thread.

Interesting set up.

Thanks guys :)  This is an in-character thread for an Alpha Strike campaign I've just started :)  But I don't want to shoo away comments from observers.. I chose a publicly viewable venue because I plan to incorporate any suggestions or opinions in the form of input from the rank and file mechwarriors under the players' command :D  In addition to intelligence updates and new orders coming in this thread, after-action reports will be posted in that forum so if you're interested in seeing how the players fare, you're quite welcome to check those out!

EDIT: AAR thread is here.

[Motsognir]

Great background, I’ll certainly be following along. May I asked about the program you used to make the map of New Canaan?

[David CGB]

Great background, I’ll certainly be following along. May I asked about the program you used to make the map of New Canaan?

seconded on that ?

[Thorvidar]

To: Major Charles Winston, 5th Bn Commanding
From: Captain Johan Freeman, 7th Company Commanding

Here are the operational plans that my company officers, senior enlisted, and myself have come up with. If you or your staff have any questions please forward them to my office.


Have the 4th and the 25th Companys hit the Mount Carmel AO. Their objective is to take and hold the Estate, to deny the enemy of their construction efforts, and to search the site for any available intel. The heavy make up of their lances makes it easier for them to move in and hold the location. Also at this time, the operation: Plows to Swords can begin. (See Appendix A Attached to this report.)

The 7th company at this time will land outside of copper falls, They will recon the area and move to take the city from the enemy forces. If they can not, they are to target the Factories that are  producing the war material and take it out, without damaging the surrounding area. If they can take the city, they are to hold and act as bait for the enemy. If the enemy attempt to retake the location, the 7th will notify the BN, and based on the size of the enemy force, act as an anvil to the 25th or 4th company, or to withdrawal from the area after Sabotaging the factories to prevent the enemy from using them.

Other options are to have the 7th and 4th hit the mount carmel AO while the 25th assault company hits the Copper falls AO.

After either we have reilable intel or the enemy engages us at either Mount Carmel or Copper Falls, we can then make plans to follow through with what we occurred. If no intel or enemy have engaged us at this time, the 25th and 4th can move to take masada. Their objective will be the same as when they took Mount Carmel. Intel gathering. At the time that both company's are moving to engage the City of Masada, the 7th moves with the dropship to relocate to the north of the city to prevent the enemy VIPS from escaping to Leviticus. A unit of Militia will be left in Copper Falls to hold the city momentarily, until the end of the fighting on Masada. 

This is just a rough operational time line, based on the facts and intelligence that we have on hand.

Captain Freeman, Johan
7th Company "Freeman's Fire Ferrets", Commanding.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

(I used a neat site I found to generate random continental maps.. then did simple edits in paint.)

Intelligence Update from Regimental Command:

Over the past few weeks we've been able to generate more detailed assessments of the rebel military strength.

Their main fighting forces are Mechanized Infantry and Motor Rifle Battalions, equipped with nonstandard, converted agricultural and construction equipment such as these examples:





While their equipment is crude, they make up for a lack of quality with quantity.  We will be expecting 7 such battalions able to take to the field to resist us on New Canaan.

The Revolutionary Guards force is much smaller, but much better armed. 
The largest group is a Recon Battalion centered on a force of Packrat LRPVs and Swift Wind Scout cars looted from the planetary militia.  Their scouts are experienced, former partisans with experience fighting guerrila war against the Duke.  Most ominous is the discovery of a special forces company; presence of off-world military advisers is considered confirmed.. they either trained this force or it is composed of offworld specialists.  Where the Workers' Militia infantry troops are not capable of anti-mech explosive attacks, we should expect all Revolutionary Guards infantry forces trained in these tactics.

The main fighting strength of the Revolutionary Guards is divided into two additional armored battalions: one of striker hovercraft and the other of heavier tanks and the BattleMechs formerly of the Duke's bodyguard.


MIIO has also informed us that portions of Duke Boucher's private art collection has turned up in the Black Markets of New Samarkand.  They assess that his valuables have been looted to purchase materiel on second hand markets.  They believe this is the explanation for the unexplained dropship traffic to Colchester during the rebel's control of the planet.  Ominously, they have pieced together that an entire company of Behemoth and Demolisher tanks were purchased on New Samarkand.  We expect that those ultra-heavy tanks are in service with the Revolutionary Guards, and may or may not represent the heavy armor we anticipate them to have.

Communications analysis and orbital observation leads us to believe that the majority of rebel strength is focused on Masada and Mount Carmel.  The construction at the latter has revealed itself to be expansions of the Drop Port there; there is at least one squadron of Guardian Conventional Fighters (source unknown) operating there as well as a fleet of commandeered spacecraft: 4 Mark VII small craft and a Fury class Dropship.

The six major cities of New Canaan are also known to be garrisoned to lesser degrees; it is our belief that they have gathered all available forces out of the hinterlands and into the cities in anticipation of our raid.


With this new intelligence, we'll be modifying the proposed plan.  The terrain surrounding Mount Carmel leaves too few possible extraction points for dropships to land.  This coupled with an unacceptable risk of resistance there proving overwhelming makes establishing a planethead on that part of the continent too risky.

While the 7th raids Copper Falls, the 4th and 25th will instead focus on New Canterbury.  A planethead will be established aggressively close (100km NW of the city), using the hotzone and river as barriers enhance security.  Those companies will eject whatever rebel forces defend the city and secure the port facilities there.  While the 7th neutralizes production of materiel, the 4th and 25th will draw forces down from the mountains around Masada and Mount Carmel to destroy them in the field as much as possible prior to our concentrated assault on their fortified positions there.

[Yenlo]

I am ready to go for Sunday!  I have everything worked out for my Co.  It will be a little different from last time we engaged, but all the kinks have been worked out.  Sunday at 1200?  right?

[Tai Dai Cultist]

It probably came as little surprise that Chairman Featherston refused to end his rebellion.  It is equally unlikely that our drops one minute after his deadline on 0001 hours local Masada time, 2 October, 3001 caught the rebels by surprise.  Our aerospace flotilla was unchallenged during the insertion, but within 30 minutes of landing cropdusters began taking to the skies to locate and follow our movements.   By the time our Aerospace cover could drive them away, we began encountering highly mobile observation pickets.  They've been waiting for us.

We haven't seen movements out of the city to mass on our field units, but the early hours have seen alerts.  By 0400 hours, our scout lances have pieced together the following troop disposition:



We've pegged a maneuver battalion of Workers' Militia in New Canterbury and Copper Falls, and two of them in Leviticus.  Our forces in orbit have identified a company of heavy armor defending the spaceport at Mount Carmel; communications analysis leads us to presume they are Revolutionary Guards.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Field Update: 3 October 3001, 1200 hrs local masada time.

Company Commanders, Operation Archer has gone well for us thus far.  Congratulations the 25th for a flawless victory over the local militia to control the approaches to New Canterbury.  We even handled the unforseen glitch:  when our Aerospace pilot suffered engine failure and had to bail out over hostile territory the 7th was able to rescue him before he fell into the clutches of the fanatical Revolutionary Guards special forces.  Although we suffered our first losses of the campaign in the latter skirmish, there should be no doubt of the risk that their brave sacrifice for the Light Horse will be the last.  There will be time to grieve for our fallen later; now we will better honor them by pressing the campaign to a victorious conclusion.

Following the Battle of Kent Bridge, we've cut off New Canterbury from the rest of the continent by ground travel.  We've observed that Featherston's forces have responded by reinforcing Masada rather than New Canterbury.  Orbital recon shows that the New Canterbury spaceport is operational; that they are neither reinforcing nor evacuating their troops there leads us to believe that they've already written the city off as a loss and are asking their militia there to die for their cause.

Which brings us to the next point of order: ComStar has begun broadcasting rebel propaganda across the planet.  Although Col. Armstrong is in talks with the Precentor to put a stop to this, ComStar's position thus far is that the rebels are still the legitimate governing body of New Canaan and thus a sovereign state at war with House Davion.   ComStar's neutrality in this conflict will likely not change to favor our side to reassert control over the chaos until we force the rebels into an untenable position.  Until then, videos like this will continue to see play in cities and towns on Ipswich and Essex:

**a glossy production begins portraying Chairman Featherston leading a massive rally in Masada, filled with marching soldiers flanked by adoring civilians waving red flags.  He begins speaking:

"The bourgeoise have struck at the good people of Colchester once again!  We threw out the hated Butcher of Colchester, but he was only a lackey!  We would have had peace after our glorious Workers' Revolution but his master and overlord Prince Davion has dispatched luchre warriors to intimdate us!  To cow us!  To exterminate us!"

***As Featherston continues speaking, his voice is played over BattleROM footage depicting an Eridani Warhammer mech beginning to ford the Kent river, but is confronted with a sustained hellstorm of rocket and tracer fire from the other side.  While most of the fire tears up the beach around the 'mech, the fraction that strike true are still sufficient in number to cause a constant cloud broken armor pieces to spall off of the mech.  Its advance halts under the withering fire, and then it retreats back and into cover.***

"We shall fight them at their planetheads.  We shall fight them on the beaches and in the hills.  We shall fight them with growing confidence and growing strength!  We shall fight them in the streets.. We Shall Never Surrender!"


While the video is clearly intended to spur an insurrection on the secured portions of the planet, our battalions there are on alert and thus far have suppressed any simmering flare-ups.  Until ComStar changes their position of neutrality, we're going to have to expect this kind of propaganda.. it just goes to further the importance of winning the campaign as quickly as possible.

Thus, point three:  the plan of attack.  The 4th and 25th companies will assault New Canterbury before the rebels change their mind about reinforcing the city.  The more defeats we deal the enemy, the less its propaganda will work to keep up their morale.  We don't believe there are any Revolutionary Guards in New Canterbury, so your rules of engagement will include an emphasis on allowing the farmers and factory workers who want to surrender the opportunity to do so.  We've already seen that unless the levies are directly supervised by Commissars, their willingness to fight against us is already low.  Until such time the Commissars catch on and quit flying banners from their APCs and tanks, those should be your priority targets.

The 7th company's actions in the northeast hinterlands has paralyzed the forces at Leviticus and Copper Falls.  We've seen much heavier rebel recon activity to keep tabs on the 7th rather than the 4th and 25th, so we're going to exploit the fear they have of what our forces there might do.  The 7th's orders for now are to continue looking like they're a force bigger than they really are.  Strike what targets of opportunity you can, but your primary mission is to keep those 3 battalions from coming away to reinforce Masada.

Here is a map of current troop deployments:  We've observed that Hagerty City and Mount Carmel have shifted militia forces to reinforce Masada.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

***Warchest rewards for first two scenarios***
Battle of Kent Bridge: -100 to enter track, +100 for victory.  Special scenario bonus award for capturing/destroying the industrial demolitionmech not earned.  Salvage: 36 SPs from the "battle busses" and converted farm tractors (cannot be repaired.. they barely worked to begin with) and 2 Vedettes. They each can be scrapped to gain 25 SP (50SP for the pair) or they may instead be repaired by spending 75SP each.  If you repair the Vedette(s), you can purchase crew(s) for them and include them in your force before the next battle.  (these crews would be transfers eager to see action from other battalions "sitting out the war"..)

Rescue of Downed Pilot: -100 to enter track, +100 for victory.  Special scenario bonus award for rescuing pilot: You may purchase a skill 4 Aerospace pilot for 0SP before campaign is over.  He's appreciative of his rescue, and quite willing to transfer under your command!
Salvage: 17 SPs for Scout Car (nonrepairable), 2 Pegasus Hovertanks. Scrap to gain 35SP ea, or repair by spending 65SP ea.

I'm not going to track repair times... so long as you have the SPs and the willingness to spend them, go nuts with repairs.  Don't forget to pay for rearming and refueling though!

[Ramseti]

***As Featherston continues speaking, his voice is played over BattleROM footage depicting an Eridani Warhammer mech beginning to ford the Kent river, but is confronted with a sustained hellstorm of rocket and tracer fire from the other side.  While most of the fire tears up the beach around the 'mech, the fraction that strike true are still sufficient in number to cause a constant cloud broken armor pieces to spall off of the mech.  Its advance halts under the withering fire, and then it retreats back and into cover.***

I'm going to have to have a discussion with the field-promoted Lance Commander of that Warhammer ...

[Tai Dai Cultist]

****Warchest rewards for Battle of New Canterbury****

-300 WP to wage the battle.
+300 WP for winning (objective: destroy at least 75% of defending non-infantry units)
+50 WP for denying rebels propaganda footage of knocked down buildings

Salvage:
15 SP for the AC/5 and AC/20 field gun platoons
165 SP for 5 destroyed bootleg Hezters produced at Copper Falls
32 SP for 2 destroyed Scout cars
245 SP for the Grommet (can be repaired instead of scrapped, if you want an industrial-mech..)
105 SP for the CattleMaster* (also can be repaired instead if you want to keep it)

If you scrap all your salvage, that's 562 SPs for your pool of resources.

*=yes I know it wasn't canonically introduced yet by 3001.  I'm the GM.  I get to do stuff like that.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Field Update: 5 October, 3001

The operation has proceeded very well thus far, despite suffering a few casualties among our number.  The remainder of the 12th Militia Workers' Battalion surrendered following our victory at New Canterbury.  With so many prisoners on hand to manage, Col Armstrong has dispatched the 1st Armored Infantry Battalion (The Mighty Mites) to garrison New Canterbury.  This leaves the 3rd and 7th Striker Bns to control all of Essex and Ipswich.  However the rebels' propaganda has thus far failed to incite insurrection on the rest of Colchester.  Following your strong victory and the en-masse surrender of an entire miltia battalion, it seems the trajectory is such that propaganda alone will suffice in widening the war.  In fact, our on-world MIIO detachment has begun to issue propaganda favorable to our side in the form of stories of oppression from the gratefully liberated citizens of New Canterbury during the Workers' Revolution occupation.

With the supposed invincibility of the Workers' Revolution military strength dispelled, Featherston is beginning to have problems maintaining morale in his peon militia battalions.  The MIIO's efforts may have gotten under his skin as he has begun to mass his elite forces in an apparent effort to retake New Canterbury.

Latest recon shows the following troop deployments:



A combined force of regimental strength is bearing down from the central mountains, and it appears to include most of the Revolutionary Guards force.  Despite their overwhelming numbers, they are short on supplies and the 9th Workers' Battalion serving as the attack force's cannon fodder is suffering particularly poor morale, given the unbroken string of solid defeats the CWR has suffered at your hands.

Rather than hunkering down with the Mighty Mites in New Canterbury, you'll engage the rebels in the open field.  Their infantry will fare exceptionally poorly against you in open battle as they always have thus far, and you can exploit your advantage in mobility over their ultra-heavy tank corps.  The terrain is mountainous with numerous river valleys, you will surely be able to pick a suitable chokepoint to force them to attack to further address their numerical superiority.

The Passchendale is available to extract the 7th Company from the northeastern hinterlands to add to the battle, if you believe the 4th and 25th cannot hold back a combined regiment alone.   Alternately, the cities of Masada and/or Mount Carmel may prove to be attractive target to raid as our intelligence believes the 4th Workers' Battalion to be the only force defending both sites.  Or of course, remaining in place to keep an entire regiment of militia pinned and out of the campaign might be the best bet.  The decision will be yours.

The coming battle will be the hardest fight of the campaign thus far, by a wide margin.  However Featherston's rebellion is teetering on a precipice. Deal him another defeat, especially one that crushes the best of his best, and the rest of his Workers' Battalions will likely desert his cause.