Year: 3008
Planet: Poznan
City: Genhe
Attacker: Los Hermanos del Sol
- Four Platoons of Motorized Machine Gun Infantry
Defender: People's Protectorate
- Four Platoons of Foot Rifle Infantry
- Four Urban Enforcer IV armored vehicles (variants of the Cellco Ranger Urban Pacification Unit)
Reinforcements: Poznan Home Guard
- Four Platoons of Jump SRM Infantry
Reinforcements: Poznan Militia
- Two Guardian Fighters
Scenario: With the core of the planetary garrison, the 2nd Ariana Fusiliers, called away to defend New Aragon from an AFFS offensive, the criminal network known as Los Hermanos del Sol decides to raise a ruckus. In the city of Genhe, a biker gang numbering more than 100 roared into town and robbed Spartan Bank. While they were looting the vaults, however, local police dispatched special forces to surround the bank, leading to a standoff.
The Home Guard had dispatched a company of Jump Infantry to Genhe to respond to reports of increased banditry, and they were supported by Militia bombers operating out of the regional firebase.
Victory Conditions:
Los Hermanos: Exit as many platoons off the south edge of the map as possible
Protectorate: Destroy as many Hermanos units as possible, without letting any escape.
Militia + Home Guard: Support the Protectorate in their efforts to eliminate the bandits.
Turn 1: Realizing that the arrival of the jump infantry will break the standoff, the Hermanos send one platoon out the front, where it's immediately swarmed under by Protectorate SWAT teams and armored vehicles. The other three platoons sneak out the back door, but encounter a crossfire from a pair of Urban Enforcer IVs. The machine gun fire from the armored vehicles wipes out one of the three platoons, but return fire from the Hermanos tears one of of the Urban Enforcers apart, detonating its grenade stores.
Turn 2: The westward road is momentarily clear, and one of the biker platoons makes a break for freedom, but the non-destroyed Urban Enforcer accelerates to top speed and plows through the bikers that haven't moved yet, blocking the western route. The second surviving platoon veers onto a slower path by the riverfront. The bikers breaking westward exchange fire with the Urban Enforcer, shooting out its front tires, but lose more than half their members to the return fire, as well as to missiles launched from jump troops coming over the rooftops.
Turn 3: The remaining bikers continue to flee west, but are caught in a crossfire at the next intersection and wiped out. The remaining platoon u-turns, noting that pursuit has moved well to the west, and tries an eastern escape route. While the Urban Enforcers are, indeed, out of position, the Guardians arrive on station and fire spreads of SRMs into the tightly packed bikers.
Turn 4: The few surviving bikers, nervously eyeing the skies, seek shelter in, of all places, a police station. The Protectorate forces close in.
Turn 5: The bikers leave the police station and cross the street to the Texas Arms apartment building, hoping to work their way south using the buildings as cover. The militia decides that urban renewal is an acceptable alternative to letting the Hermanos escape, and divebombs the building, while the Protectorate forces open up from ground level, collapsing the seven-story apartment building on top of the last of the Hermanos.
Outcome: Unrest goes down significantly in Genhe and all other Chinese cities on Poznan, but rises in all Spanish cities. The People's Protectorate are now treated as Friendly and will have their unit positions shown on the strategic map. Los Hermanos del Sol are now treated as Hostile, and will attack when encountered by Militia or Home Guard forces.
Analysis: This was a warm-up skirmish for a long-term campaign on Poznan. Both sides were fairly evenly matched, so the Militia/Home Guard played kingmaker. They had the option to go after both sides, hang back and let both fight it out, or intervene on one side or the other - earning credibility with the assisted side and the enmity of the ones attacked. While it by far made the most sense to side with the Protectorate, the players had the option of backing the Hermanos, if they wanted to.
The Hermanos' superior speed would have let them outdistance the jump and foot infantry, but they couldn't outrun the Urban Enforcers or the Guardians. The jump infantry proved surprisingly effective, despite their movement of 2, because of their ability to move diagonally in the city grid, and because the Hermanos kept having to backtrack when their exit vectors were cut off. Combat-wise the Hermanos could have stuck together and tried to blast a path to freedom, but in that case, the Guardians would probably have dropped 80 points of bombs on them for an AOE TPK.
The miniature proxies used were a pair of Galleons and a pair of Badgers. Appearance-wise, the Badger looks the most like an Urban Enforcer, but I only had two. Most of the infantry is from MechWarrior Dark Age, rebased. The Guardians were represented by a MechBuster and a Transit.
The maps were from TSR's Marvel Superheroes Role Playing Game (1984-1993), and are my go-to terrain for urban battles.
