Battlepack - Fourth Succession War

[Horsemen]

As I always say, if you're not ready to accept some bad dice rolls, you'd better play something else. 

Any game where dice is involved that holds true. But that is part of the fun! What will the dice do to shake things up today!

[gwaedin]

The name reminds me of a SSI geopolitical wargame I played many years ago, that I bought again recently – set during Gulf War. I have fond memories of the diplomatic game, although having played it recently I found its gaming experience flawed. It is very realistic, but this means that some players during a turn only make a diplomatic move (which in the end can make them winners) while other players (the US one) move hoards of units and actually play a wargame.
Anyway, let’s not talk more about real world wargames, with their tragic burden of lost lives, and turn back to our Fourth Succession Wars campaign. We’re looking at the catastrophic attack that Davion forces made on Sarna during the 5th wave. The Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers was pushed into battle by General Hartstone, ahead of the other AFFS units; they were unaware of the presence of all four regiments of McCarron's Armored Cavalry on the planet. Hanse Davion and very few of his circle knew, but because of the questionable loyalty of the 5th – especially after the death of Michael Hasek-Davion at hand of the Capellans – they let Hartstone and his men fall into a deadly, muddy trap – right in the middle of the Big Mac.
While according to the records most of the Fusiliers were wiped out by aerospace fighter and hovercraft attacks, this scenario features only BattleMechs on both sides. Two lances belonging to the Fusilier’s 1st Battalion drop in a swamp, right in the middle of the battlefield and in sight of a full company of McCarron’s Fourth regiment. Their objective is to break free of the swampy ground and find safety on the nearby hills on either side, while the mercenaries (who choose on which side of the swamp they deploy after the setup of the attacker) try to eliminate them.
I made this scenario an obvious breakthrough one, in which the Davion attacker will score points for units safely leaving the map, and only half the points for killed enemy units; the mercenaries instead will score as usual. The open terrain hexes in the middle Woodlands map represent a treacherous swamp in which unit can easily become mired – sitting ducks under enemy fire. This is the only special rule of the scenario.
Lorenzo freely picked units from the two Davion lances (Assault and Fire), also swapping a Stalker for a Longbow, ending up with this formidable reinforced Assault Lance (231PV):

Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers, First Battalion, Second Company (AFFS)           

Assault Lance (Reinforced)   Role   PV   Tons   Skill   PVmod
Longbow LGB-7Q   Missile Boat   45   85   3   54
Atlas AS7-D    Juggernaut   52   100   3   62
Awesome AWS-8Q    Skirmisher   39   80   3   47
Catapult CPLT-C1   Missile Boat   32   65   3   38
Dervish DV-6M   Missile Boat   30   55   4   30

In the original Battlepack scenario the defender had a nearly 20% BV advantage. Applying our usual 3:2 balancing we ended up with a 177PV opposing force for my Big Mac units: I took three ‘Mechs from the Command lance and added a Charger and a Cicada from the other two (Strike and Recon), building up a force well suited for close range engagements:

Fourth McCarron's Armored Cavalry Regiment (CCAF)       
 
Command Lance (Reinforced)   Role   PV   Tons   Skill   PVmod
Cataphract CTF-2X    Brawler   35   70   3   42
Grasshopper GHR-5H    Skirmisher   37   70   3   44
Vindicator VND-1R    Brawler   27   45   4   27
Charger CGR-1A5   Juggernaut   38   80   4   38
Cicada CDA-2A   Scout   22   40   3   26

My plan is to assault the opposing ‘Mechs who I hope will inevitably struggle to leave the swamp, or find a good defensive position to attack the bulk of Lorenzo’s forces should he decide to stand and fight where his forces are.

[Daryk]

Well, two of his 'mechs should be able to leave pretty easily... it's the other three I'm worried about... ;)

[gwaedin]

I'm also a bit worried... of what they could do to my units during the long time it will take them to leave 

[gwaedin]

The Big Mac units approach the swamp from the west, while the Davion ‘Mechs begin moving east. The Dervish easily puts some distance between itself and the attackers, while the Longbow slowly makes its way up and down through the woods. Further south, the other three Syrtis machines also advance through the swampy terrain, trying to provide some long-range cover. The pilot of the mercenary Cicada is a bit too confident and immediately gets stuck, having its armor obliterated by the rain of LRMs coming from the Longbow. The assault ‘Mech loses a good amount of its armor from the concentrated attack, also suffering critical hits to a leg and engine. With a damaged leg it will take ages for the Davion missile boat to move through the swamp, and the mercenary units turn at the Atlas. Unfortunately for them, the Charger also becomes stuck and return fire from the 100-ton juggernaut cripples the Vindicator, which begins overheating because of damage to the engine shielding. The Big Mac units insist and succeed in peeling off layer after layer of armor from the Atlas, but really poor marksmanship (against a slow target in the open) prevents them from crippling the Davion monster. The Cicada flanks the Longbow in the woods, forced to close the distance to avoid covering fire from the Dervish: a choice that proves to be fatal, as the assault ‘Mech twist its torso and takes advantage of his tonnage to place a devastating physical attack, which eliminates the mercs’ medium. Before receiving the killing blow, the Cicada manages at least to damage the other leg of its opponent, which is now nearly immobilized. However, the Big Mac must still eliminate it and the Atlas to win the battle, without suffering further losses.

[Daryk]

I'm skeptical of the ability of the Grasshopper and Cataphract to pull a victory out of this...

[gwaedin]

If Captain Joseph Torrance insists on missing an Atlas at medium range, in plain sight, with ALL the weapons on his Cataphract, I'd have to agree  Anyway, don't forget about the Charger. It's not the wimpy 1A1 model, it's the actually useful 1A5. It only needs to avoid getting stuck in the swamp again 

[Daryk]

Ah, I thought it was more FUBAR than that... ;D

[gwaedin]

The Feds continue their retreat; the Big Mac cautiously pursues, trying to staying behind cover. The Capellans are outgunned and outranged by the Atlas-Awesome-Catapult trio, and they need to be careful. Their leader again proves to be a rather incompetent shooter: it tries to push the Dervish back, but it cannot land a single shot on target, and return fire from the medium Davion ‘Mech vaporizes large patches of armor, leaving the internal structure underneath exposed.
The rest of the Capellan Mechwarriors are not performing much better, as they fail to destroy the Longbow which is slowly crawling out of the woods on its limping legs. They only manage to disable one of the LRMs, which the huge beast is not using anyway, to limit the heat output from its damaged engine and keep on moving.
It is up to the Charger to immobilize the 85-ton machine, and the Vindicator, firing safely from the distant woods, finally takes down the tough opponent. The Longbow however drew most of the Capellan fire so far and its companions do not just stand by: while the Atlas’ missiles land short of their target, the Awesome cycles its trio of PPCs with deadly effectiveness, crippling the Cataphract as it tries to look for cover in the woods overlooking the swamp.
The Capellan commander would like to nail down at least another enemy ‘Mech. The Atlas, with most of its armor gone, is indeed is a very juicy target, but two of the attacking ‘Mechs (including his own) are in pretty bad shape and further losses should be avoided.

[Daryk]

Interesting developments! :)

[gwaedin]

The Davion ‘Mechs continue their retreat, with the Capellans pressing on – except for the badly damaged Vindicator and the Cataphract, which remain in the rear. The Grasshopper and Charger concentrate fire on the enemy Awesome, and they succeed in crippling it. The Dervish and the Atlas flee at full speed, but their limping companion can do little to avoid the enemy fire. Even if the Charger again gets stuck in the swamp, the two Capellan ‘Mechs relentlessly eat chunk after chunk of armor from the Awesome, which bravely returns fire against the Charger. In the end the Charger delivers the killing blow, not before having a leg disabled; it immediately seeks cover, as the Grasshopper faces the Catapult, ready for a duel. At medium range the odds are in favor of the slightly heavier ‘Mech, and the remaining Davion warrior leaves the battlefield.
Although the AFFS managed to save three of its units, the destruction of two assault machines makes this a win for the Capellans – the loss of a single Cicada can be tolerated.
This marginal victory is enough to recover the terrain lost in this campaign to Lorenzo’s forces. On the Davion/Liao front he still leads 2-1 (with a draw), but I’m ahead on the Kurita/Steiner front with one victory and one draw. The global score of the campaign is 458-451 in Lorenzo’s favor, a very balanced situation.
The next scenario, featuring Marik and Liao forces, will likely tip the scales in one direction or the other.

[Daryk]

Balanced indeed!  Talk about a cliff hanger! :)

[gwaedin]

At last we have a scenario involving the Free Worlds League, clashing against former Capellan units, now fighting for the newly formed Tikonov Republic as allies of House Davion. In fact this has first led Lorenzo to assume that he would play the FWLM and I would keep the Capellans, but then we decided that it made more sense for him to keep on with the pro Davion-Steiner alliance and I to take the opposing forces.
Scenario 7 revolves around one of the few battles where the Marik troops opposed a strong resistance to the invading Tikonov Free Republic attackers. Janos Marik later decided that his troops were outstretched after receiving news about the war between the Duchy of Andurien and the Capellan Confederation, opening a second front that the FWLM was not able to cover. Fearing a strong Lyran offensive, the Captain-General ordered his forces back Terra-ward and lost 14 worlds without a single shot fired. In fact, the LCAF had no such plan, but the deception worked perfectly.
Nevertheless, before the retreat, the Marik militia was successfully holding its own on the world of Wasat against the Third Republican forces – thanks to the determination of the League’s troops, and the battlefield acumen of their commander, Colonel Hawkins. To put a stop to this, Republican forces sent a strike team to find and destroy Hawkins’ HQ. The HQ is a medium target, not moving but neither considered immobile, whose location is hidden to the attacker. To find it, enemy units must bump into its hex or end their movement adjacent to it.
The original scenario put a reinforced heavy lance attacking against a Marik assault lance, with an almost perfect 1:1 BV ratio. Lorenzo had originally opted for a heavy lance when he thought he’d be taking the FWLM side, but then settled for a fortified medium lance (the original scenario calls it “reinforced” even if it’s 6 ‘Mechs and not 5). He just replaced a Trebuchet for a Grasshopper and a Jenner for one of the two Spider. His force amounts to 183PV, which with our usual 160% balancing leaves me less than 115PV to oppose him. Sticking to the assault ‘Mechs originally provided, I decided to pick a short lance with an Atlas and an Awesome, both with good pilots. It won’t be easy, since my troops will be heavily outnumbered.
The original victory conditions granted the attacker a decisive victory if the HQ was destroyed, and nothing otherwise; the objective of the defender was to defend the HQ, with a marginal victory still possible otherwise if 4 enemy units were destroyed. As usual I modified them, assuming that the attacker only scores half of the usual points but gains a number of points equal to the opposing force PV if they manage to destroy the HQ; the defender instead scores points normally.
 
Third Republican Regiment, Third Battalion, Second Company (TFRA)

Command Lance (Fortified)   Role   PV   Tons   Skill   PVmod   
Cataphract CTF-2X    Brawler   35   70   3   42   
Trebuchet TBT-5N    Missile Boat   29   50   4   29   
Catapult CPLT-C1   Missile Boat   32   65   3   38   
Vindicator VND-1R    Brawler   27   45   4   27   
Jenner JR7-D   Striker   26   35   4   26   
Spider SDR-5V   Scout   21   30   4   21   

Fifteenth Marik Militia, Second Battalion, First Company (FWLM)

Assault Lance (Short)   Role   PV   Tons   Skill   PVmod   
Atlas AS7-D    Juggernaut   52   100   3   62   
Awesome AWS-8Q    Skirmisher   39   80   3   47   

[Daryk]

That sounds like a reasonable mod... good luck to both of you! :)