Date: December 4, 3025
Location: Verthandi
Title: First Mission
Author: William H. Keith, Jr.
Type: Scenario
Synopsis: The Gray Death Legion scenario pack presents the liberation of the slaves as a scenario in "First Mission." As a setup, the "Daring Rescue" textbox (presented as an excerpt from a book by Janice Taylor's book "Echoes of the Past") recounts that Nagumo rounded up the intellectuals, doctors, teachers, students, and historians to eliminate the potential for trouble presented by the University of Regis. The older men and women were shot on the spot, while the young men were chained together and marched to the mines. Fifty young women were tied together and marched north to the DropPort.
The scenario pits a Kuritan Light Recon Lance (2 Phoenix Hawks, 1 Wasp, 1 Stinger) and five squads of ground troops against Strike One (Carlyle's Shadow Hawk, Kalmar's Locust, and 2 Stingers). The Legion may add up to 80 tons of armored vehicles, but the Kuritans then get to add an additional 10 infantry squads (4-man SRM infantry groups). The Legion player gets to secretly place his troops after the Combine player has set up. The Kuritan player also places ten markers to represent groups of five slaves.
The Kuritans score 5 points for destroying Carlyle's Shadow Hawk, 3 for each Stinger, and (oddly) no points for Lori's Locust. Each slave squad that exits the north of the map counts two points, but each group rescued costs one point.
The rebels score 1 point for each slave group rescued, 5 points for Rodney Pallonby's Phoenix Hawk, and 3 for each other 'Mech, but loses 1 for each prisoner group killed or moving off the map to the DropShip, and loses 3 for each rebel 'Mech destroyed.
Slaves move one hex per turn, and may be moved by any player that has a unit adjacent to them (so they essentially have to be escorted off). 'Mechs with hands can carry prisoners, but cannot fight or run.
Notes: The ease or difficulty of how this scenario plays out really depends on how each force is configured. In the base case with no armored vehicles and no infantry reinforcements, Grayson's force is outgunned by the Kuritan escorts (the 2 Stingers balance the Wasp and Stinger, but Lori's Locust isn't a match for the second Phoenix Hawk, and Pallonby's Phoenix Hawk has greater mobility and better firepower than Carlyle's Shadow Hawk - just worse heat management.)
The key to the engagement is that the prisoners won't move unless escorted. If the Shadow Hawk begins by raining LRMs and long range autocannon fire on the five escort squads, the 4-man groups suffer heavy casualties in short order, leaving the four 'Mechs with a choice of either moving at 1 hex per turn (giving up their defensive movement bonuses) or leaving the prisoners in place while they move to engage Grayson.
The other rebel 'Mechs can be positioned near Grayson in ambush mode - hopefully allowing massed fire on rear arcs to balance the greater enemy strength.
In the base case, the Kuritans' best option would be to cluster the prisoners around the infantry so that one squad could keep up to seven prisoner groups moving. (Move the infantry last so that they can move forward to re-establish position at the center of each group). Making two groups of five prisoners, with 2 or 3 infantry at the core, would add redundancy in the case of a squad's annihilation, and give some more concentrated firepower in case a light 'Mech came probing.
Use the 'Mechs as a fast response group to engage any 'Mechs that try to approach the infantry/slave clusters. Concentrate fire to bring them down. Don't worry too much about long range harassing fire from Grayson - if you keep your 'Mechs moving, he won't be very accurate (Gunnery 6, per the scenario pack). Rush him if he's the only target, but I'd recommend you stay at medium-to-long range so he can't bring his Medium Laser or SRMs (or punches/kicks) into play - just answer his LRM-5 and AC/5 with your two Large Lasers. You come out ahead, probably forcing him to break off or call up his ambushers as reserves. If anybody picks up a slave, they will only be able to walk, so massed fire will end their career quickly. (If you really want to save the slaves, jet over to the rescuer and kick their legs off).
The dynamic changes drastically if the Legion adds armored vehicles. Yes, the Combine gets an extra 10 SRM squads, but the rules offer no restrictions whatsoever on the number or configuration of the vehicles - just an 80 ton limit.
For the Legion, I'd recommend a Maxim Heavy Transport Hovercraft (50 tons), backed by three wheeled APCs. (The Wheeled variants are as fast as the Tracked and have the most armor. The Hover variants are faster, but very thin skinned). The Maxim's LRMs can wreak havoc with the infantry escorts from well out of their response range, while the machine guns will end the fight quickly once it closes. The Wheeled APCs each add two turret-mounted MGs to clear out the infantry. Such an armor lance could carry 8 of the 10 prisoner groups in one trip - picking them up, racing to a friendly edge, offloading, then going back for more - with none of the "escort the prisoners one hex per turn" nonsense.
In this case, bait the 'Mechs to charge Grayson as outlined above, with the other 'Mechs lying in wait, but have the armor hidden on the other side of the map. When the 'Mechs are drawn off, swoop in at the infantry at full speed and massacre them with your machine guns. With the MG bonus against infantry in the open, one shot should put down an entire 4-man squad, and you're bringing nine MGs up against 15 infantry squads. Two passes (three, if the dice don't like you) should be sufficient. Then, it's just a matter of using Grayson's 'Mechs to hold off the Combine escorts while the transports get the slaves to safety (moving them to the edge, offloading them, and directing them to move off the board, so you don't lose the use of the APC).
As an alternative strategy, since it will take about 30 turns for the slaves to march off under escort, focus your vehicle picks on 'Mech killing tanks, and wipe out the Kuritan lance. Once the 'Mechs are down, you can pick off the infantry escorts from long range at your leisure. Adding a Demolisher or two Hetzers to the ambush group would be a good way to quickly put down the enemy 'Mechs.
Or, for a fun alternative, field 16 5-ton hovercraft. It's too early, chronologically, to put Savannah Masters into play, but the 5-ton Skimmer (from MechWarrior 1st Edition) fits the bill - moving a ludicrous 18/27, it packs a front mounted small laser and a rear-mounted flamer, with 3 armor on the front, 2 on each side, and 1 on the back, it can generally withstand a lucky SRM hit. When a swarm of 16 descend, they should be able to wipe out the majority of the Combine escorts in a single pass, and then return to go after each of the Combine 'Mechs in turn like a school of barracuda.
Faced with such min/maxing, the Kuritan infantry should immediately shoot the prisoners. Both sides lose one point for them being dead, so it balances out, rendering them point-neutral. Then just focus on killing Grayson and the two Stingers, and pull your surviving 'Mechs out to salvage a victory on points.