Steiner Recon Action

 

The assembled forces: 24th Lyran Guards (left) and assorted Word of Blake militia (right)

Months after the last instalment and months after I actually played the battle, I bring you the next episode in my Tharkad Battletech campaign. As the name suggests, for a "recon" mission I chose to deploy forces more suited to a frontal assault.

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.

Do-or-Die

Mercenaries cautiously pick their way through the woods before the shoot-out begins.

So, two defeats on the trot, down one commanding officer and with nothing left in the kitty to pay for repair bills, the Mercenaries are on their last legs and know another heavy defeat would render them completely combat ineffective. Rather than retreat to lick their wounds though, they decide to stake it all on one last roll of the dice, hurling their full strength at the local Word of Blake garrison (Camp Satanic Mills) despite failing to obtain any useful intel in the last game.