Scenario Combatants:2nd St. Ives Lancers
Regarded as the Armored Cavalry's workhorse unit for most of its history, the Second St. Ives Lancers are renowned for their bravery in the face of superior numbers.
5th Confederation Reserve Cavalry
The Fifth Confederation Reserve Cavalry is a reserve regiment of the Capellan Confederation that, like its sister units, spends most of its time rotating between home worlds in a defensive posture.
Scenario:At some point during the war the 5th Reserve faced off against a detachment of the 2nd St Ives Lancers on Tantara (conflicting accounts of the location and units involved exist.)
A reinforced recon detachment of the 5th Reserve Cavalry, attempted to penetrate an alpine valley. If clear, this valley would allow logistics elements to support the remainder of the 5th, engaged around the main planetary military base Camp Gruinard. They encountered a detached strike force of the 2nd Lancers who had intended to use the valley to raid the Capellan logistics
Combatants:
The Battle
Turn 1, both sides enter the main valley area. The Capellan Battle Lance decided to head for the main mountain, while their Recon Lance moved to the flank. The St Ives Strike Lance echoed the moves, while their Battle Lance moved to cover the central area.
Turn 2: The Capellan Battle Lance continued its assault on the hill, while the Recon Lance pulled back for cover. The St Ives lances continued on their paths.
Turn 3: The Capellans sheltered in the lee of the mountain peak (with the poor old Hunchback tagging behind), while the Recon Lance moved to the forested slopes. The St Ives Battle Lance grouped up, with the Strike Lance beginning their turn with intent to flank the mountain.
Turn 4: Oh, for pre-registered offboard artillery! The Capellans forted up, while the St Ives units decided to close to winkle them out of cover. Fire began to bite on both sides.
Turn 5: Reversal! The Capellan Recon lance moved to cover to flank the St Ives units, while the Battle Lance took over the forest-covered fire ledge. The St Ives Awesome went down under massed medium-range fire. Note: this is the turn both sides remembered their Battle Lances' 6-point lucky! The loss of one Capellan Cicada didn't compensate, but was better than nothing.
"Xin Sheng, Bay-Bee!"says the Thunderbolt
Turn 6: Finding the open a little uncovered, the St Ives battle lance moves to the woods near the river, and the Capellan battle lance closes. The St Ives striker lance decides to try and close on the Capellans, but gets flanked by the Capellan recon lances. The St Ives lose their Griffin, but slay the impudent Thunderbolt. The Capellan CO's Spatha wants blood on his vibroblade!
Meanwhile, the Awesome pilot has changed into something warmer, with boots, and hopes to quietly slog his way out of Tombstone ...
Turn 7: The St Ives battle lance fort up, but the Spatha will not be denied! While the Crusader and Hunchback pull back, not being suicidally glory-bound. Their Recon companions fall back also, while the St Ives Striker lance tries to reform on their Battle Lance.
Turn 8: Feeling a little outgunned at this point, the St Ives forces begin to fall back to their starting edge. The Capellan Recon Lance moves in , and The Spatha is still slashing madly ...
... and the already damaged Trebuchet falls to the Spatha! 5 points (size 3, +MEL, +TSM) without managing to hit back in return.
Turn 9: There's a photo missing here. While attempting to mutually support the Striker Lance, the St Ives Stalker goes down. The Capellan Battle Lance survivors move in, while the St Ives Striker lance puts its back to the wall.
Turn 10: The Capellan Spatha manages to cleave the St Ives Grasshopper, but is itself brought down. The St Ives Cataphract hopes to sell itself dearly to let the remains of the Strike Lance carry word of the overwhelming Capellan forces in the arew.
Turn 11: with the Striker Lance retreating via jump, the Cataphract is soon brought down.
Turn 12: "Go!" says the Enforcer pilot. "You can make it out - I can't!"
Turn 13: He was correct.
The battle goes to the Capellans. Despite being informed of the Capellan presence, the St Ives forces at Camp Gruinard could not spare the forces to hold up the Capellan reinforcements. With fresh ammunition and field repairs, the Capellan 5th Cavalry drove the 2nd St Ives Lancers out of the military base, and ultimately off-planet. For the Chancellor!
So we were going to have a game on Saturday - myself, The Lad, SchwerpunktPrinzip, and Heavy Woods. The Refusal War - Clan Jade Falcon vs. Clan Wolf, too! But we went back into COVID lockdown - bummer!
But The Lad had been looking forward to the game, and asked if I'd like to have a go with him. So I spun up another set of units, different scenario (slightly), same terrain. You see the results above. The Lad took the Capellans on the basis of a die roll, but seemed well pleased with his forces.
This is my 3rd AS game, and The Lad's second. We were using Formation Abilities for the first time, and elevation, woods, and water.
Dice rolling: Initiative went totally my way. It went:
StI, StI, StI, StI, CC, StI, CC, StI, CC, StI, CC, StI, StI
Unfortunately after about turn 6 I could not roll to hit. In the first 5 turns I was occasionally hitting on 9s or even 11s; after that, I couldn't land 6s, or 7s, and Luck only went my way occasionally.
In general, the Maneuvering Ace on 3 of the Capellan recon lance was more useful than the Speed Demon on 3 of the St Ives Striker Lance. The Battle Lance's Lucky was nice, but not exceptional, but it was a good set to start on. I'd say I got clever again and my forces weren't reinforcing each other, while The Lad used the terrain better than I did. So a deserved win to him!
Hopefully we can reschedule the Refusal War soon.
