Double post
3049-06-01
Market time! I'm running pretty short on cash, so I highly doubt anything is going to end up coming out of this, but I roll it up anyway. Nope, nothing doing. No results, so nothing to spend my little money left on.
Moving on.
3049-06-04
Recruits: 4/6 dispossessed Vehicle crew. Pass again.
That gets us to June 7 and planetfall. Fortunately, no battles on the first week (in fact, -4 of them, helpfully enough). On a Planetary Assault contract, there is roughly a one-in-three chance of having at least one standard battle in a given week, the same as a Pirate Hunt. At the same time, there is a one-in-fifteen chance of having a special event battle, so just slightly more than a one-in-three chance of having at least one battle in a given week, with a small but definite chance of having up to three battles per week.
3049-06-11
Enemy morale: Normal
June 11 rolls around, and everybody is assigned to their correct lances. Our infantry platoon is on standby for search and rescue, while our ASF pilot is scanning the planet at high altitude looking for enemy troop movements.
Intelligence tells us our enemy this contract is the FRR 1st Hussars. They're “officially” rated as a regular unit, but they're fanatically committed to Thule, so don't be surprised if they fight like madmen and significantly better than they're rated. The Hussars boast a full regiment, at least, augmented by several regiments of local militia that is nearly as good thanks to frequent and intensive training operations. The Hussars are no strangers to raids by our employers. As much as possible, we're trying to avoid the bulk of the Hussars on planet, and instead leave that to our much better equipped sponsors.
Speaking of which, our allies, the 14th Legion of Vega, made planetfall at nearly the same time as us, and are the reason we didn't have any opposition making life difficult as we disembarked. From what I heard, the 14th is tangled up skirmishing with the 1st Hussar presence on planet and not doing well. The Hussars know this place better than the backs of their hands, and they're very good at using the terrain against their enemies.
That is, the Legion was why we were unopposed. Tophat commed in about twenty minutes ago with reports that we have a Hussar company in the way of our current objective.
For our part, we've landed on Husavik, the northernmost of Thule's continents, and by far the coldest. There isn't much out here, but what there is happens to be pretty valuable, research stations and the like. Our current objective is a research station very near the north pole, some unpronounceable nordic sounding name. Here it is: “Norr Forskning”. Whatever the hell that means. We're going in to eliminate the defenders and then secure the area before moving on.
There are two standard battles this week: one Stand-Up Fight, and one Hold the Line, both of them with us as the attacker. The Stand-Up Fight is exactly what it sounds like, a brawl until one side or the other backs off. That happens at 50% losses for either side. The 13th will probably be tackling that fight, since the six units gives me a bit of a buffer if any of the vehicles go down. Remember that I don't get allied units for this. While that means I'm not going to lose points for them going down, it means I don't get the extra firepower, either. Hold the Line fights are a bit... less fair. The attacker in a HtL fight has to destroy 50% of the enemy, while the defender only has to take out a third. That said, the enemy is generally less painful on a HtL mission than they otherwise would be. The 11th Daybreakers are going to be the hammer to smash that particular line, simply because I don't want to risk the more fragile vehicles with a margin for error so small.
In this instance, the HtL is on Friday, and the SU is on Saturday. Because I'm concerned about the 13th's performance (they're unproven, and a majority are green), I'll be sending the 12th in to reinforce.
Tophat, our eye in the sky, has discovered a set of hastily erected fortifications and defensive positions directly in our path to our objective. Obviously, we don't want to fight against dug-in opposition. Unfortunately, we don't exactly have a choice. The Daybreakers are going in first, as the unit's most experienced attackers, and will knock the defenders out of their positions. The Hussar units are a mix of vehicles and 'Mechs, and a mix of weights, though they average out at a medium. The Daybreakers will first maneuver to outflank the established positions, and as soon as the enemy repositions to intercept the lance, will strike, catching the Hussars out of position and on an even playing field, which should favor the heavy firepower and armor of the Daybreakers over the relatively vulnerable Hussar vehicles and 'Mechs.
Once the Hussar 'Mechs and vehicles are in retreat, the 13th Heavy Combat Lance will advance, relieving the Daybreakers from direct combat to rotate back for repairs before they push back out again. The 13th will make every effort to engage and destroy the Hussar elements before they can set up further defensive positions, aiming to keep the enemy off balance. For this purpose, the 12th Light Scout Lance will engage in harassment operations to keep the Hussars from digging in until the 13th is upon them, at which point the 12th will engage in direct reinforcement of the 13th until the objective is accomplished.
Using this rapid, aggressive method of attack, the brigade should be able to push the Hussars away from Norr Forskning and enable us to secure our initial objective in a little more than a week – several days ahead of schedule.
Tophat will be providing aerial surveillance and spotting for allied artillery and aerospace assets. Combine forces haven't yet secured total aerospace superiority, so their efforts won't be the most effective, but they should soften them up a little bit before the battle is fully engaged.
Repair and reloading will be accomplished by our integral tech teams at the end of the engagements. Salvage and recovery ops by the same. In the event of pilots downed, 3rd Jump will be scrambled to perform SAROPS.
Allied 'Mech and conventional forces will not, say again not be in the area. We're on our own for this one.
Tophat is indeed performing high altitude surveillance for this week, so I'll be removing the lightest unit from the SU mission, meaning that, while the 13th will still have to take out four enemy units to claim victory, there will only be seven units on the field, instead of eight. 3rd Jump is on SAR jump-five status, and will be ready to rescue any downed 'Mech pilots and vehicle crew before things get too hairy out there. For this week, the brigade will be deploying every single available asset for either direct combat or support ops, so this will either go very smoothly, or could end very badly.
For this operation, codename LIGHT HAMMER, command and control will be handled by Captain Roberts, callsign “Strobe”. Overall technical operations will be handled by Master Sergeant Kahiga, callsign “Red”. Field command will be delegated to Major Webb, callsign “Easy” for sub-op HAYMAKER, and to Lieutenant Yi, callsign “StarSlayer” for sub-op BRAWL. Captain Borham, callsign “Polly” will reinforce sub-op BRAWL and provide his lance to Lieutenant Yi's command for the duration of the sub-op.
In the event of the incapacitation of Major Webb, Lieutenant Gibbs, callsign “Duck” will assume field command for sub-op HAYMAKER. In the event of the incapacitation of Lieutenant Yi, Captain Borham will immediately assume command and complete the objective.
Call for salvage and recovery will be “Sunglare”. Call for withdrawal will be “Mirror”. Call for enemy retreating will be “Burnout”.
HtL:
3/3 Bulldog Medium Tank
2/3 Bulldog Medium Tank
4/5 Bulldog Medium Tank
4/4 Vedette Medium Tank
2/5 Cicada CDA-2A
4/3 Locust LCT-3V
4/4 Mongoose MON-67
3/5 Hermes HER-1B
Terrain
Dustbowl
Dusk/Dawn
Light Fog
Start W
Enemy start CTR
35x35 map
SU:
2/3 Prowler Multi-Terrain Vehicle
Vedette Medium Tank (Destroyed by allied aero assets)
3/5 Scorpion SCP-1N
3/5 Scorpion SCP-1N
3/3 Hermes III HER-4K
2/4Trebuchet TBT-5N
2/4 Vulcan VL-2T
4/4 Urbanmech UM-R60
Terrain
some-trees
Daylight
Clear
Start W
Enemy start E
30x50 map
I now have a couple battles to go over! Additionally, I rolled a special event, Betrayal, but luckily the roll came up as false alarm. I still get a point for it, so good times.
EDIT: I've added the maps I'm going to be using for this fight, and the enemy forces I'll be fighting to a .zip and attached it. Just for ****s and giggles.
EDIT II: Here's the Orbat again, for those who want to know before the OP starts.
Hard Light Brigade
1st Mixed Company
11th Combat Lance "Daybreakers"
Major Caden "Easy" Webb, 3/5, Awesome AWS-8Q (The_E)
Lieutenant Andrew "Duck" Gibbs, 3/4, Grasshopper GHR-5N
Master Sergeant Anders "Rapier" Bullman, 4/5, Awesome AWS-8Q (Dragon)
Corporal Jean "Werewolf" Vidal, 4/6, Crab CRB-20 (Spardason21)
12th Scout Lance
Captain Bowen "Polly" Borham, 2/5, Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D (Polpolion)
Corporal Dereje "Esarai" bin Hassan, 6/5, Wasp WSP-1M (Esarai)
Corporal Ian "Patriot" Fatin, 5/6, Wasp WSP-1M (Patriot)
Corporal Richard "Night" Adeboro, 5/5, Locust LCT-1E (NGTM-1R)
13th Combat Lance
Lieutenant Aaron "StarSlayer" Yi, 3/6, Brutus Gunner/Commander (StarSlayer)
Corporal John "Scourge" Aherne, 3/6, Brutus Gunner (Scourge of Ages)
Corporal Nancy Ma, 3/6, Brutus Gunner
Corporal Kevin Huffman, 3/6, Brutus Gunner
Corporal Cheng-gong Pak, 4/5, Brutus Driver
Sergeant Allan "Toothless" Moore, 4/5, Vedette Commander/Gunner (Aesaar)
Corporal Hanlon Turtle, 4/5, Vedette Gunner
Corporal Monica Nasuton, 4/5, Vedette Gunner
Corporal Mark "DJ" McMickan, 4/5, Vedette Driver (CommanderDJ)
Sergeant Cliff "Dire" De, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner/Commander (DireWolf)
Corporal Corey Lovegrove, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner
Corporal Donna Lewis, 4/6, Hetzer Driver
Corporal Esmail "Scorpion" Osmani, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner/Commander (-Joshua-)
Private Farraj bin Abu Bakr, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner
Private Christian Pescaru, 4/6, Hetzer Driver
Corporal Lage "Phantom" Duineveld, 6/5, Shadow Hawk SHD-2H (PhantomHoover)
Corporal Alan "Mongo" Fisting, 4/6, Vindicator VND-1R (dsockwell)
2nd Aerospace Wing
Lieutenant Chris "Tophat" Valsan, 5/6, Sparrowhawk SPR-H5 (HerraTohtori)
3rd Jump Infantry Company
Lieutenant Rostislav "Soos" Kalakay, 1, Jump Infantry
Corporal Cornelia-Antonia Parent, 3, Jump Infantry
Private Loren Manstein, 4, Jump Infantry
Recruit Kamilia Gramm, 5, Jump Infantry
Corporal Anne-Sophie Qosja, 3, Jump Infantry
Private James Noussen, 4, Jump Infantry
Recruit Xiao-yan Nao, 5, Jump Infantry
Master Sergeant Askari Adel, 2, Jump Infantry
Corporal Maximo Martinez, 3, Jump Infantry
Private Phillipe Provost, 4, Jump Infantry
Recruit Tom Ramirez, 6, Jump Infantry
Corporal Iwan Snel, 4, Jump Infantry
Private Bommareddy Tyagri, 4, Jump Infantry
Recruit Samantha Takeuchi, 5, Jump Infantry
Senior Sergeant Iman Alatas, 2, Jump Infantry
Corporal Scott Tann, 3, Jump Infantry
Private Ajaz Stanisic, 4, Jump Infantry
Recruit Simi Armstrong, 5, Jump Infantry
Corporal Anne Ryan, 4, Jump Infantry
Private Ed Williams, 4, Jump Infantry
Recruit Carla Duret, 5, Jump Infantry
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