The Battle of Rattrap Road: A 2500 point No Limits Battle Report for the Station 42 War

 Titania, March 2nd 3033:  Earlier today a force of renegade Titania Planetary Guard advancing towards Station 42 spotted a force of Hell Knight mercenaries East of Rattrap Road.  The Guard units moved off the road to engage the mercenaries near two compounds.

 The battle opened up with a heated exchange between armored vehicles.  The Hell Knights heavy hover tank and the Titania mech were both damaged from the fire as well as one of the mercenary light transports and a guard tank.

 The smaller Northern compound saw the first infantry casualties when one of the Planetary guard units came under fire from a veteran mercenary unit.  Two guardsmen were killed and the remaining two fled the battle.

 As the rest of the forces engaged both compounds became the center of intense fighting.  The center of the field was dominated by Titania forces opposed only by a mercenary fire team and a light transport.

 Another squad of Titania guardsmen were gunned down at the Northern compound by a mercenary sniper and the mercenary commander piloting a "Marksman" class battlesuit.

 In the Southern compound a mercenary "Landshark" armored fighting vehicle flew over the low walls and disembarked a squad of heavily armored veteran Hell Knights.  The mercenaries used their heavy blasters and their vehicles pulse laser to destroy a building occupied by a squad of Titania guardsmen.  General Drake of the renegade Titania Planetary Guard occupied an adjacent building with his command squad and they also engaged the mercenaries killing two of them.  

 With General Drake threatened the Titania forces pressed the attack but were faced with strong opposition by the mercenary forces.

 At the Northern compound the mercenary light transport and most of the veteran rifle squad were wiped out by combined fire.  The mercenary commander and sniper fought on but the battlesuit was forced to find cover when his distortion field gave out.

 In the Southern compound the heavily armored veteran and their AFV reduced the General's building to rubble with combined fire.  Although the General and his field doctor managed to survive the buildings collapse they were both hit by light machine gun fire from the mercenary Incubus mech and wounded or killed.  

 The Titania mech and the mercenary commander continued to play a game of cat and mouse at the Northern compound.  Both the mech and the battlesuit suffered damage in this exchange.

 At the Southern compound a single Planetary Guard tank came under intense fire from several mercenary vehicles.  The tank was heavily damaged but fought on.

 Although we are still uncertain as to the fate of General Drake the Hell Knight heavy infantry were seen loading his body into the back of their armored vehicle.  

 With the General's capture the highly mobile Incubus mech used it's jump jets to position itself to attempt to support the Hell Knight commander.

 Unfortunately for the mercenary commander it was too little too late.  The Incubus mech did manage to destroy the Titania mech but not before the commander's battlesuit was taken out by the metal behemoth.

 At almost the same moment the Planetary Guard tank managed to destroy the mercenary heavy hover tank but was itself destroy by scatter laser fire from one of the mercenary light tranports.

 Titania forces charged up a hill and engaged a mercenary sniper there in hand to hand combat but one of the three Planetary Guard squads were gunned down by another Hell Knight veteran rifle squad.

As the engagement ended the renegade Planetary guard forces did manage to capture a mercenary sniper but it was a poor exchange for their losses.  The Hell Knights held the field and the renegade Titania General.  The Planetary guardsmen were forced to withdraw back towards Titania City.

Stuart MacMurry, Associated Press

Notes:  This was the third battle in our "Military Escalation" phase of the Station 42 War and the first one that resulted in such a sound defeat for allied Titania forces.  On the field it looked like a close battle but the Guardsmen suffered about twice the points value in casualties as the mercenaries and of course the mercs captured General Drake.  We haven't yet decided the General's fate or exactly what impact this is going to have on the campaign but it will certainly be significant.  

Star Guard Medium Infantry Squad 1

I finished up this squad of Reaper NOVA corp troopers Saturday for the Star Guard mercenary army I am working on.  I think these guys turned out a bit better than the IMEF troopers.  I was more careful with my drybrushing.  The army is really going together pretty quickly.  I have another squad of these almost done and the tree tanks so if I keep up this pace I will probably have a pretty nice force in a week or two.

Star Guard Heavy Infantry Squad 1

I finished up the first Star Guard squad yesterday.  They are IMEF troopers from Reaper.  They are pretty rough paint jobs but I'm satisfied with how they turned out.  I was going for something quick and simple and they painted up very quickly.  I think they will look fine on the table.

New mercenary force for Solar Empires: The Star Guard work in progress.

I've started a new mercenary force for our Solar Empire setting called "The Star Guard".  The troopers are all from Reaper.  The medium troopers are Nova Corp figures and the heavy troopers are IMEF figures.  The sniper is also an IMEF fig.  All of these figures are from the "Bones" plastic line of figures so this is a pretty cheap force.  For tanks I have one Secret Weapons 6x6 light tank that was actually kind of expensive but the heavy tanks are $3.00 toy tanks I picked up at Dollar General.  

Pleasant Valley almost finished!

 Well way back in July 2012 we started on this project for our Solar Empire setting.  Pleasant Valley is a small village near Station 42 on Titania.  It has taken us quite a while to finish up for some reason.  Partly because there were many more buildings involved but also because we haven't felt a pressing need to finish it.  We have always planned to have a battle or two centered around the town but never got around to it.  Because we are trying to finish up this campaign we decided we really needed to finish this set as soon as we could.  Hopefully we will have it done by the end of the month.

 As you can see most of the building are basically done and painted.  Of course that tall silo still needs a paint job and some of the walls we are using also need to be finished up.

Of course we also plan to do some more detail pieces and add some more junk pile scatter terrain and signage but it is almost at the playable. stage.

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.     

2014 Projects part 2: Civilians

 In addition to our two major terrain projects we really want to get a collection of sci-fi civilians together for our setting.  Normally I think of miniatures in terms of combat for both RPGs and war games however there are times when unarmed civilians come in useful for both those things.  Sometimes you have characters who are not armed or not apparently armed.  Sometimes you need civilians for hostage scenarios or escort missions or just as background for unexpected fire fights.  The "bad guys" might grab one for a human shield and the "good guys" are much less likely to go tossing about frag grenades in a crowded marketplace.  At least we hope they would....

 After doing quite a bit of searching I've collected several images that I think I would like to emulate in 28mm.  Some of these I may convert from existing models and some of them I may sculpt over dollies.  Others I will probably kitbash.  I"m also going to be looking for some similar concepts in existing miniatures although there aren't a lot of civilian figures out there for sci-fi like there are for fantasy, modern, and historic settings.

 I really don't have much more to say about the project.  I'm actually hoping to get started on it as soon as possible although there are a few other projects I will likely do first.  Anyway here are the rest of the images: