Running the Gauntlet

 

Today we return to my Tharkad campaign, where my first unit (a mercenary company, the "Acing Blazes") has been rendered combat ineffective and we've switched focus to "Zebra" Company of the 24th Lyran Guards (plus stragglers from the Blazes, such as Gabriel Zabinski and their Phoenix Hawk). The Word of Blake has launched a counter-insurgency campaign against loyalist forces on Tharkad around the Tatyana Islands with the elite 40th Shadow Division and mercenary backup. Fortunately for the resistance, the counter-insurgency forces have already been infiltrated and the planned kettling has turned into a confused brawl, with our particular merry band looking to slip the net while giving the "Wobblies" a bloody nose.

Group shot of the deployed force. L-R: Phoenix Hawk, Commando, Griffin, Thunderbolt and "Super-Sub" Phoenix Hawk from the Lyran Royal Gaurds.

The 40th Shadow division deployed in depth to give their slower units more time to respond to the Lyran breakout. The highly manoeuvrable (or perhaps, expendable) mercenaries held a forward skirmish line on either side of the lake, while the heavier Word of Blake 'mechs were held back in the gap between two hillocks. 

Word of Blake defenders set up with the Mercenary auxiliaries up front and the heavy 'mechs in reserve.

They didn't have to wait long before the spearhead of Zebra company's breakout crested the ridge and began to negotiate the downward slope into the valley. Half of the Lyran force had jump jets, which meant they could soar down the hillside and make themselves difficult targets, but the Thunderbolt and Commando were ground-bound and faced the trickier prospect of negotiating the only track down the hillside under a hail of fire.

Lyran forces rush down the mountain as quickly as possible, hoping to reach more open terrain before the Blakists can trap them in a slow-moving bottleneck.

Unable to resist the opportunity of a couple of sitting ducks, the Blakist reserve stormed forwards to use their superior armour and firepower to knock out as many Lyran Guards 'mechs before they could freely manoeuvre across the valley floor. The jump-capable skirmisher 'mechs did a poor job of diverting fire away from the Commando and Thunderbolt, which took an absolute pasting from the concentrated fire. The Commando, with its greater turn of speed, was able to clear the road first, and despite severe damage continued its spirited dash for safety.

The Phoenix Hawks gang up on the Assassin to keep the heat of the less mobile Commando.

The Thunderbolt was less fortunate. Despite thick armour and some very lucky misses from the Shadow division's Charger and its mighty autocannon-20, the combined weight of fire from two heavier 'mechs was intense and only skillful piloting kept the Thunderbolt upright. Worse, a surprising number of head hits and an internal ammunition explosion (My house rules tone down the lethality of these, but it's still 2 points of pilot damage out of 6 total) had left Mechwarrior Yilmaz severely wounded and unconcious at the controls, unable to keep his machine balanced. In a final blow of misfortune, the 'mech ended up taking the weight of the fall on the cockpit, killing the gallant warrior and taking the Lyran's heaviest fighter out of the battle at an early stage.

The Lyran Thunderbolt goes down to a lucky headshot, leaving the 24th Guards short their toughest fighter.

Despite this victory, the Blakist cordon found the faster moving elements of the Lyran guards force much harder to contain, especially when they used their mobility to isolate and heavily damage first the mercenary Assassin, and then the Commander's own Sentinel, blowing off its main gun and stripping off most of the front armour. The WoB continued to direct fire at the damaged Commando, but on open terrain and able to reach its maximum speed, the nippy little scout 'mech could evade their salvos almost effortlessly. The Griffin fared less well, taking extensive damage to its front armour, but by skilled piloting Mechwarrior Begum ensured that they could not take advantage of this vulnerability, despite gyro and leg damage threatening to pitch her 'mech face-first into the ground.

The Heavy WoB 'mechs find themselves outpaced by the remaining Lyran Guards, who are mostly using skirmishing mechs.

As the battle evolved, the WoB heavy 'mechs found themselves caught out of position and outmanoeuvred by the faster Lyran 'mechs which were rapidly disappearing into the distance. With the short-range Charger finding itself on the wrong side of the lake, the Orion struggling to keep up and the Sentinel in forced withdrawal, the Blakists found themselves suddenly very short of ways to stop the 24th Guards from limping home to victory. It was down to the mercenaries to bring down the wounded Commando and Griffin from under the noses of their almost undamaged Phoenix Hawk escorts.

Despite some truly heroic dodging, the fragile Commando finally goes down while the Lyran 'mechs with jump jets scale the cliff effortlessly.

Things began to look up again when the Commando, once again slowed by having to run over confined terrain, finally succumbed to a final salvo and completely disintegrated, only the automatic ejection system saving Mechwarrior Ngyuen from their comrade's fate in the Thunderbolt. With the Orion closing ominously, the Griffin was forced to make a difficult choice: walk up the road and risk the same fate as the Commando, or take to the air with its jump jets: a risky prospect with leg and gyro damage. A bad landing would almost certainly take off the 'mech's right leg which by this stage was being held in place by nothing more than electrical wiring and hope, but in the face of a pasting from the Orion, it was the only option.

The Phoenix Hawk mounts a rearguard action to cover its comrades, who have achieved a very superior local superiority over the Assassin on the plateau.

In spite of the odds, Mechwarrior Begum expertly guided her machine into a soft landing at the top of the ridge and only a short stroll from escape. With the Lyran Guards about to walk off the table, the mercenary Mechwarrior Lorraine took his badly damaged Assassin well beyond the call of duty and also jumped to the ridge top in pursuit of a kill. Facing 3 heavier 'Mechs alone, Lorraine's efforts were sadly in vain as Zebra company blasted the Assassin out from under him and romped home to victory. With the Lyrans having broken out of the perimeter in strength, the 40th Shadow division and their mercenary allies were forced to pull back and regroup rather than be surrounded, leaving the field to the 24th to recover their dead.

3 out of 5 Lyran 'mechs have escaped, it's a minor victory!

Well, it was a minor victory, and the spoils were outweighed the logistical effort to win it, but it's a victory nonetheless and a much needed personal morale boost after all these defeats. Less heartening is that I have put more thought into the OpFor's plans than I have before, which suggests that my tactical acumen is actually less successful than just having things move and shoot at random.

Tune in next time when the 24th Guards take a typically Lyran approach to a recon mission...