Assault on the Redwing Farm (AE Bounty game report for Station 42)

 An unknown group of mercenaries have been attacking farms near Station 42.  Marshal, Malcom Reed of Pleasant Valley decided to gather a posse (large mercenary crew) to defend the farms from these mysterious attackers.  From left to right the posse consisted of; Scott and Marian Redwing (Fresh Meat), Marshal Reed (Sergent), Randall Donne (Sniper), Miles Anders (Fresh Meat), Remi Boutin (Fresh Meat), on the top row, and, Ludia Donne (Sniper), Ivar (Fresh Meat), and Cleatus (Fresh Meat), on the bottom row. 
 

 The 285th Mobile Infantry "Hell Knights" are one of the best equipped and best trained mercenary armies in the Solar System.  This private military company is usually retained by governments to engage in wars or serious police actions.  They will however work for anyone with the cash.  "No Conflict Too Large, No Operation Too Small" is their motto.  Several units of the Hell Knights elite heavy infantry had been hired to harass farmers on Titania by an anonymous employers.  They didn't know why they were there and they didn't care.  As long as the pay came through.  They had even been ensured that the government of Titania would turn a blind eye during the course of the operation and no Confederate troops would be involved.  Their mission was to make life "uncomfortable" for the farmers of Titania.  They were not to use excessive force unless met with organized resistance.  Two elite fire teams (veteran mercenary crew consisting of two elite old guard units) had been deployed to attack the Redwing Farmstead and kill the militia who had gathered to defend it.  They were also instructed to capture Marshal Reed who was leading the defenders.  This was to be a show of force to convince the locals to back down. 

 The mercenaries advanced on the farmhouse where they believed the Marshal was located.  One team took up a position behind the garage and the other behind the pig barn. 

 The squad behind the garage then moved into position inside one of the garage doors.  One of the mercs took a pop shot Marian Redwing but he was out of range.  Randall Donne stepped up into the open doorway of the farmhouse and quickly shot down one of the attackers despite the mercs armored suit and cover. 

 The other merc squad moved into position near the door of the pig barn.  One merc taking cover inside the door while another crouched behind the ramp.  The merc inside the door took a pop shot at Miles Anders who was taking cover behind one of the steel supports holding up the farm house.  The support was hit and absorbed the shot.  Lydia Doone took aim at the merc crouched behind the metal ramp to the pig barn and dropped him just as easily as her husband had.  Marshal Reed was beginning to wonder just who these people were.  Suddenly it seemed to make perfect sense to him that they showed up kitted out in full military gear. 

 Marshal Reed stepped up to the farmhouse window with his boosted light rapid fire particle beam pistol and snapped up a couple of burst at one of the last merc in the garage.  The merc slid down the door jam onto the floor apparently dead or too wounded to keep fighting. 

 Things were looking bad for the mercs.  Scott and Marian Redwing moved up to a position behind one of the supports to their house.  Unfortunately the last remaining merc gunned Scott down.  Marian fired back but missed. 

The merc inside the barn was surrounded but continued to fight.  Several shots were traded back and forth between the merc and the posse members.  Finally Randall Donne stepped into the doorway and dropped the last merc. 

Marshal Reed's posse had managed to stop the mercs without much of a fight.  Even they couldn't believe their luck.  Scott Redwing had been their only casualty and his wounds were serious but not life threatening.  One merc had been killed so Marshal Reed took the wounded mercs into custody. 

Notes:  Well that was perhaps the shortest battle of AE Bounty we have had.  It only lasted three turns.  For both forces we used the mercenaries crew.  I ran the mercs and I chose to build them using the veteran crew.  I chose two old guard squads and used my regular choices to make them "elite" grade.  This gave them four action points each turn which I figured would help negate the fact that I gave them Armored Suits which reduced their movement by 1 per turn.  I also armed them with powerful but short ranged particle beam rifles.  I figured when they got in range they would rain death down on their enemies.  Not so much. 


For the posse we used a large mercenary crew with; a sergent, two snipers, and three units of fresh meat.  Everyone except the marshal were armed with slugthrower rifles and armor piercing ammunition.  The Marshal had a boosted LRF particle beam and a personal energy screen.  What made the posse so deadly was that both the snipers had the ability "Hunter: human".  The Hunter X ability is extremely powerful in an all human setting.  Because of this we have decided as a house rule to restrict it to individuals only for this setting.  The snipers were able to completely negate the merc's cover and reduce their armor by 1 point with the AP rounds.  My wife also managed to roll an insane number of 6s.  In fact every sniper shot that hit was a 6 followed by a 6 damage roll.  Three of my guys went down by round two like chumps. 


It was fun to see the difference between a tweaked out veteran crew and a large crew.  Even with the amazing rolls I think this would have been a hard fight for the mercs.