The Battle of Beggar's Mesa: A 2160 point battle report for the Station 42 War!

 January 19th 3033:  Early this morning a force of Hell Knight mercenaries engaged a force of Wolfhound Freikorps mercenaries about 20 kilometer east by northeast of Station 42 along Highway 2 near a place known as Beggar's Mesa by the locals.  The Wolfhounds in the employ of the Titania Militia advanced along the highway to protect farms east of Station 42 claimed by Smith and Wilson Agriculture the employers of the Hell Knights.  Two squads of the Wolfhound mercenaries arrived riding super heavy Liger tanks while another arrived aboard a tracked APC.  The Hell Knights arrived in their well know LAGAREV transports supported by a squadron of Douglas medium hover tanks and a single Hobelar light hover tank.

 A squad of Wolfhound Jägers had climbed Beggar's Mesa itself along with another individual believed to be their commander.

 The mesa effectively split the battle into two different zones.  On the east side of the field a single Liger and shock trooper squad faced two Hell Knight tanks and a squad of riflemen.  The Hell Knight riflemen quickly took a hill on the edge of the field supported by their APC.    In this first exchange of fire a single Wolhound was killed while both the Liger and Hobelar took damage.

 On the western side of the field a veteran squad of Wolfhound shock troopers took the largest hill while the other squad took cover in a crater.  The other Liger took up a position where it could provide some covering fire to both sides of the field.  The Jägers used their grappling lines to reach the summit of the Mesa where they had a commanding view of the battlefield.  The Hell Knights charged forward to challenge the Wolfhounds for the hill they occupied.

 The eastern portion of the battle began to heat up.  The Hell Knight APC flanked the shock troopers killing several of them with it's scatter laser and causing the rest of the squad to retreat.  The Hell Knight light tank retreated to the cover of a large hill after taking shots at the Liger.  The Hell Knight Douglas tank shot at the massive Liger failing to do any damage before it moved up into cover.  The super heavy responded by firing at the riflemen but only managed to kill one with it's heavy machine gun.

 Using the superior range and firepower of their battle rifles the Jägers killed three Hell Knight veterans while their grenade launcher damaged the squad's LAGEREV.

 The veteran shock troopers did not fair so well.  The Hell Knight LAGAREV and veteran squad killed three of their members with combined fire and then another LAGAREV flew directly over them disembarking it's riflemen who charged the Wolfhounds killing two more with their bayonets.  The Wofhound APC attempted to ram the LAGAREV but did no damage.

 There are few things worse than facing a super heavy tank at point blank range and the Hell Knight riflemen on the eastern hill learned this the hard way.  Two members of the squad were practically vaporized by an explosive round from the Liger's smooth bore gun while three more were mowed down by the tanks HMG.  The Hell Knight Douglas managed to do more damage to the Liger when both it's rail gun and high explosive missile hit and did damage but that only slowed the super heavy a bit.

 Things got even bloodier on the western hill.  The Wolfhound APC ran three Hell Knights over as it charged up the hill.  The veteran shock trooper was killed by the riflemen but more of the Hell Knights were killed when the regular shock troopers returned fire to avenge their comrade.  The Jägers killed the rest of the veteran riflemen leaving only the Hell Knight commander standing.  The Hell Knight tanks and APCs fired on the Wolfhound transport but only lightly damaged it.

 The Firekorps APC then reversed it's course and ran over two more riflemen leaving only a single member of that squad standing.  Combined fire from the Hell Knight Tanks and APCs did however destroy the Wolfhound vehicle.  The Jägers scored another kill taking out of of the LAGAREVs in response.

 The battle on the eastern side got a bit less intense.  The Douglas and Liger exchanged fire both taking heavy damage.  The remaining grenade launcher armed Wolfhound killed two more Hell Knight riflemen but the rest of that squad shot him down with their light laser rifles.

 On the western side the Hell Knight APCs attempted to mop up the final three Wolfhound shock troopers but the Sargent of the squad survived.  The Jägers took out yet another LAGAREV with their battle rifles and grenade launcher.

 Suddenly the tank battle shifted to the western field.  One of the Douglas tanks was destroyed by the two Ligers.  The remaining Hell Knight tanks poured fire into the Super Heavies and although they did heavy damage they succeeded only in slowing one and taking out the HMG on the other.

The final shot of the battle came from the remaining Hell Knight rifleman on the western side of the field who managed to pull himself together long enough to take a pop shot at one of the Ligers.  Not surprisingly he was unable to damage the super heavy tank with his light laser rifle.

At this point the Hell knight withdrew from the field failing the stop the Wolfhound advance although both mercenary forces had suffered considerable damage and casualties.  41 mercenaries were killed or wounded and four vehicles were completely destroyed.  Many of the other vehicles were heavily damaged.

Although the Wolfhounds had been seen working with the militia and renegade Titania Planetary Guard this is the first time that they have been seen in any force.  It is believed that General Drake and Carson Boon have been receiving a steady flow of donations from across the Confederacy after video of Ivar "Bear" Belkov's daring Christmas raid on the Redwing Farm was circulated by local news agencies.  This will certainly change things considerably in the conflict as it seem public opinion in the Confederacy is strongly on the side of the Titania rebel forces.

This has been Alphonso Marks for the Titania News Network!

Notes:  How did we come up with 2160 points for this battle.  Easy.  That is the what the entire Wolfhound force we have managed to paint added up to.  I (Nate) was actually pretty excited to play this battle because I painted every figure and vehicle on the field although I have to of course give my wife credit for doing some of the scratch building.  We played this battle for six turns and it was a bit grueling taking a bit over four hours to play.  I think this is mostly because we had a number of strange things come up that we don't often deal with.  We have not dealt with a lot of over run situations or ramming situations and we haven't engaged in much hand to hand combat.  Also we have never actually had troops employ their grapple lines so we spent a bit of extra time looking up rules.  For some reason the first turn took over an hour to resolve alone.  I guess we just needed to warm up.  

We are trying to move into a more military phase of the campaign by employing the Wolfhounds, Martians, and Titania Planetary Guard in more straight up battles.  The Titania Militia will continue to play a role but mostly in smaller insurgent engagements.  We are going to try to average 2000+ points for our military oriented battles and will hopefully have a few 3000 and 4000 point engagements.  We plan to wrap the campaign up with year with a climatic battle in Station 42 which will probably be over 6000 points and will involve combined arms of infantry, tanks, mecha, and air support.     

Battle of the Martian Sector: A 2000 point battle report for the Station 42 War!

January 4th 3033.  Earlier this afternoon the Hell Knights Mercenary company engaged forces of the Titania Militia and the Martian Soviet Socialist Republic near the Martian Military base just a few kilometers south southeast of Station 42.  The Martians released this recording of audio communications between their commander and the mercenary commander prior the the start of hostilities:

Martian Commander:  Attention intruders this is Commander Igor Kovalevsky of the Martian Soviet Socialist Republic.  You have entered into sovereign territory of M.S.S.R.  Turn back now or we will be forced to engage you.

Hell Knights Commander:  This is Lieutenant Domingo Gomez of the Hell Knights mercenary company.  You are harboring the fugitive militia leader Ivar "Bear" Belyakov.  He is wanted by the Titania government for numerous crimes and we have a legal contract to apprehend him.  Remand him to our custody and we will be more than happy to depart.

 Martian Commander:  Lieutenant I am afraid you are not understanding me.  This is sovereign territory of M.S.S.R. and is governed by our laws!  Mr. Belyakov has requested asylum and we have granted it.  You must turn back now or we will fire on you!

Hell Knights Commander:  Get back to your base and leave this to us or we'll kick your Marski ass!

End transmission......  

 The Hell Knights force consisted of one Incubus light mech piloted my Lt. Gomez, two light infantry squads mounted in two LAGAREV hovercraft, one Hobelar light hover tank, and three Douglas medium hover tanks.  The Martian force consisted of one heavy infantry squad and two light infantry squads with two Dragunov Battlesuits, and two Degtyaryov Battlesuits.  Bear's militia units consisted of his own squad of light militia, two improvised armored vehicles, and two snipers.

Both of the mercenary light transports were destroyed in the first few shots and several mercenaries were kill when one of them exploded.

 A Dragunov Battlesuit was taken out of action by the combined firepower of three Douglas hover tanks.  The sturdy armored suit took quite a bit of punishment before going down.
 

 On the Mercenary left flank Lt. Gomez engaged two Martian Battlesuits in his light mech and although he damaged the other Dragunov his Incubus was shredded by the twin heavy machine guns of the Degtyaryov.

 In the center of the field a Militia technical fired a fragmentation missile at a mercenary rifle squad.  Three members of the squad were knocked prone but not injured.  The squad returned fire at Bear's unit and a squad of Soviets inflicting several casualties on both units.

 On the mercenary left flank Hell Knight tanks and the Martian Battlesuits engaged each other.  The other Dragunov was destroyed and the Degtyaryov traded fire with tanks suffering light damage and inflicting the same to the tanks.

 Although initially successful the mercenaries holding the hill in the center of the field began to take casualties from the combined fire of the militia and martian light infantry.

 The unit was all but destroyed when it was outflanked by one of the Degtyaryov Battlesuits.  All but the Sargent were killed by heavy machine gun fire.

 Two members of the Martian Heavy Infantry Squad were gunned down by the Hobelar light hover tank's pulse laser as if sped past their position.

 Despite being surrounded and damaged by enemy armor the Degtyaryov Battlesuit on the mercenary left flank fought on.  Two of the Douglas tanks were badly damaged in the exchange.

 Eventually however the Battlesuit was brought down by the mercenary tanks who then surged forward to engage the final Degtyaryov.

 The remaining Martian Battlesuit opened up at point blank range at one of the Douglas tanks damaging it further but not destroying it.  The mercenary tanks lightly damaged the Battlesuit and it took more damage when the remaining member of the Hell Knights squad from the transport that exploded shot it with his plasma carbine.  Bear killed the mercenary Sargent on the hill with his assault rifle.  

As the whine of Martian repulserlift engines were heard approaching from the base the mercenary tanks made a last ditch effort to kill Bear rather than capture him.  His two remaining comrades were cut down by the Hobelar as it flanked their position and the Douglas hover tanks reduced the rocky outcropping to gravel with their railguns but the militia leader survived.

The mercenary forces retreated just moments before Martian Gunships and Dropships arrived on scene.

Notes:  This was a nasty 2000 point No Limits battle between my mercenaries and My wife's militia and Martians.  Those Martian Battlesuits survived a heck of the lot of punishment and did quite a bit of damage to my forces.  After they wrecked my transports and nearly wiped out one of my squads I focused on taking them down which kept me for focusing on my objective of capturing Bear.  They slippery militia leader also survived my best attempts to kill him at the end of the battle.  
We had decided that this would be a six turn battle and I would have needed to be in clear control of the field for a total victory or kill Bear for a minor victory.  Unfortunately I did neither.  All I had left at the end of the battle were four damaged tanks and one trooper with a plasma carbine.   
One funny thing about the battle is that my wife forgot to deploy here field cannon so we decided it was held in reserve.  She then forgot to bring it on the board until the fourth turn.  
It was a pretty good battle and we had a lot of fun with it.  Both sides did some heavy damage to each other and we introduced another faction to the conflict.  

The Christmas Massacre: A 1000 point battle report for the Station 42 War

 December 25th 3032:  Members of the Titania militia attacked the Redwing Farm late in the afternoon on Christmas day.  The farm has been operating under the management of the Smith and Wilson Agriculture Corporation for over a year now and a small garrison of Hell Knight mercenaries were stationed there to defend the facility.

 The Hell Knights had little warning of the attack but managed to respond quickly to the threat.  With no armor on site a LAGAREV transport and a single short range missile launcher provided the mercenaries with heavy support.  

The attack was led by militia leader Ivar "Bear" Belyakov and consisted of about 28 militia member and three improvised armored vehicles.

 At least three snipers were among the militia force although two were killed in the fighting.  Early in the battle it appeared that the militia members would be beaten back by the mercenary defenders.

 After the Hell Knights afv was taken out of action the tide of the battle began to turn.  The militia infantry carefully used the farm's out buildings as cover as they moved into position.

 One unit of Hell Knights did manage to destroy two of the militia improvised armored vehicles and force a unit to fall back.

 The other Hell Knight unit did not fair as well.  Facing Bear's men, a sniper, and a technical vehicle the right flank of the mercenary defense began to crumble.

 The other unit of Hell Knights left their defensive position in an attempt to reach their comrades.  They traded fire with a few militia as they advanced which slowed their progress.  

 Despite efforts to aid them the mercenaries fighting Bear's unit died to a man including a mercenary officer presumed to be their leader.

 With only six member of their squad left standing the remaining mercenaries withdrew from the field.  

The last shots of the battle were fired by the mercenary missile emplacement which killed a few militia and routed the rest of their unit which allowed their comrades to escape the field.

Notes:  We gave the militia 1200 points vs the mercenaries 1000 points in this battle because we have found in the past if one side gets any kind of defensive position from the start that it really unbalances the game.  Also this was a surprise attack that we did as much to move the story line along as anything.  It wasn't that we pitched the battle specifically for the militia to win but we did want them to have a slight advantage.  My wife really used the terrain well pinning down my units with her "technicals" and snipers while Bears assault rifle armed unit moved into place.  With a rate of fire of 2 they are usually devastating at close range although they lack the skill of my trained mercenaries and they had the high ground as well.  All in all I think it was a fun little fight and it worked out well for the story line.  The militia were able to make off with some badly needed supplies and bloody the mercenaries which will bolster their recruitment and allow them to hold out a while longer.  
The insurgency phase of the campaign is about wrapped up.  We have some interesting things in store for the next phase of our little war.    

Battle of the Smuggler's Camp: A 1500 point No Limits game report for the Station 42 War.

 Sunday December 15th 3032:  Early Sunday morning a patrol of Hell Knights mercenaries operating out of Station 42 engaged a group of insurgents off loading supplies at a smuggler's camp about 8 kilometers east of the spaceport.

 The Mercenaries attacked swiftly with three light APCs and a light hover tank supporting a light mech.  The insurgents seem to have been caught unprepared but they quickly rallied and fought back.

 Several militia improvised armored vehicles arrived on the scene trading fire with the mercenaries.  Among the insurgents was a squad of Wolfhound Friekorps and a Wolfhound APC.

 The Hell Knights quickly overwhelmed the insurgents right flank but were stalled by the determined resistance of Boon's Militia and the Wolfhounds.

 The Insurgents managed to destroy two Hell Knight APCs and push the light tank back.  The Hell Knights mech picked off the last of Boon's Militia but slipped and fell on some loose ground near one of the smugglers ship.

 The remaining Hell Knight APC charged the center of of the insurgents line and offloaded it's squad which engaged in hand to hand fighting with some Venture Star Miners while also trading fire with the Wolfhounds.

The mercenary mech regained it footing and attacked the insurgents field cannon and sniper killing them both.  The Wolfhounds APC was destroyed by the Hell Knights light tank and the rest of the Wolfhounds were killed by the mercenary APC.  The remaining miners immediately surrendered.  The smugglers ships managed to take off and escape in the confusion.  Other insurgents seen approaching the battle broke off and fled Northeast.

Notes:  This was a brutal battle that turned into a complete rout of the insurgents.  Most of the mercenary vehicles were heavily damaged and two were destroyed but I only lost one trooper.  I think my wife should have brought the rest of her reserves onto the board much more quickly but that's always a hard call.  

Battle of the Venture Star Depot ( A 1000 point No Limits Battle report for the Station 42 War)

 October 27, 3032 12 Kilometers south east of Station 42 on Titania.  Earlier today a small scouting force of the Hell Knights Mercenary Company raided a supply depot owned by the Venture Star Prospecting Company a known support of the Titania insurgency.  This volatile region has been quite since mid July when the Hell Knights Mercenary Company captured Station 42 from insurgents and renegade elements of the Titania Planetary Guard.

 As mercenary light armored units made a move toward the entry to the compound members of "Bear's Militia" opened fire disabling both vehicles.  Hell Knight scouts and snipers responded killing at least two of the militia members occupying a building with a communications array.  One unit of scouts kicked in the back door to a smaller building to gain access.

 The mercenary scouts and militia members continued to exchange fire.  Bear himself was shot by a Hell Knights sniper and one of his units was broken by the scouts in the building.  At least two scouts were also wounded in this exchange.  The Hell Knights Marksman Battlesuit exchanged fire with a militia auto-canon.  The mech was damaged but one of the crewmen manning the weapon was killed as well.

 One of the Hell Knights snipers killed the last member of Bear's personal unit while the other shot down a NOVA trooper.  A unit of scouts moved into the middle of the compound and killed the remaining crewman of the militia auto-canon but one of their own was killed by a member of Wolfhound Friekorps.  Three Wolfhounds were killed by grenade and laser fire from the mercenary scouts in the building while the mercenary battlesuit killed the militia sniper.  The militia field gun actually hit and damaged one of the compound buildings trying to hit the battlesuit.

 The two remaining members of Bear's militia rallied and found cover but were almost immediately gunned down by the scouts in the building.  Two more of the mercenary scouts in the middle of the compound were killed by NOVA troopers leaving only the Sargent of the unit standing.  The two remaining Wolfhounds fled from their position.  

 The Hell Knights battlesuit moved into point blank range with the NOVA security troopers but neither the mech nor the troopers could hit each other.  Another trooper was killed by one of the mercenary snipers.  The Wolfhound troopers rallied before fleeing the compound completely.  One of the Venture Star employees was shot by a mercenary sniper as his coworkers fled to one of the storage buildings.  The mercenary scouts began to pull back.

In a bloody and final exchange of fire the last two NOVA troopers were gunned down by the mercenary battlesuit.  The Hell Knights scouts continued to withdraw under the cover of their snipers.  As the mercenary forces withdrew it was unclear if the Hell Knights had achieved their objective.  They had certainly bloodied the nose of the insurgents and caused significant damage.  The remaining militia units did not attempt to pursue them.

Notes:  Well this was a pretty smooth skirmish.  It had been a long time since we had played so we didn't want to do a very large action.  Also we have decided that it would be logical for the next phase of the campaign to involve several smaller skirmishes with militia insurgents instead of pitched battles with the Planetary Guard.  We decided to hold this game to 6 turns.  The Hell Knights main objective was a scan as many of the compound buildings as they could.  I managed to scan 5 out of 6 of the buildings and inflict more casualties than I sustained so we considered it a victory for the mercs.  One of the funniest things about this battle was the poor performance of the militia field gun.  They managed to hit the Venture Star earth mover and shuttle as well as two generators and one of the buildings with scattered shots.  The only two shots they fired that hit nothing flew way over the heads of the snipers.  
Also I decided to try and take wide shots of the battle every turn and then add smaller inset details of the action which I think worked out here.  I plan to do that again for other battle reports.  I like to keep my total number of images small but this way I can also show more of what happened.