Cpl. Frost skated his way through a copse of alpine firs, the secondary movement system's treads on his Tiger tearing up fresh turf. The inevitable had finally come to Terra Nova today, and CEF forces were beginning to drop surface-side. The clear mountain air was still stained with the smoke of destroyed drop pods, yet many more had made landfall. His squad, garrisoned in this major city in the foothills of the Dunning Range, were now on-route to validate reports of hovertanks in the suburb of Canterbury Heights to the northeast. Climbing another hill, his heads-up display lit up with hostile units in the vicinity. He quickly dodged a blast from a gatling laser canon and returned fired with his medium bazooka. War had indeed come to the United Mercantile Federation...
Well if that doesn't get you excited, nothing will! I got another opportunity to get a game in down at X Planet with fellow DP9 forumite Sumpbeast and his CEF with Caprician allies. I had never faced against any of the CEF's conquered allied units, so I was looking forward to seeing how they performed.
We both came with 800 TV forces. I ran a PL3 UMFA list that consisted of GP Squad with Tigers, Sabretooths, medium bazookas, tankhunter upgrades and buffed skills, a Recon Squad with 2 Bobcats and 2 Weasels, an upgraded Field Gun, and an Infantry Platoon with 2 rocket launchers and 2 field mortars. Sumpbeast ran a PL1 force with 4 LHT-67s, a GREL Infantry Platoon, 2 with field mortars and 2 with ATVs and rocket launchers, and a Caprician Patrol Squad that included his army commander.
We rolled for diagonal deployment, my forces set up below:
And Sumpbeast's deployment as well:
And here you can see both sides facing off against one another at the beginning of the game. For objectives, we each had 4 OP. Sumpbeast selected two Scout objectives, those being a copse of trees to the far right corner of the field, and a building in my deployment zone. Both can be picked out in the picture by the small purple D6s. He also picked to Seize the medical building my infantry were sitting on in my deployment zone. I had elected to Recon his Patrol Squad and Breakthrough to his deployment zone:
Sumpbeast and I elected to begin the game by trying to outflank each other in Turn 1, his HT-67 (all proxied with HT-71's) moving up my right while I moved my GP squad up my left.
My Recon Squad advanced towards his deployment zone while Active Detecting his Mounts, all while taking mortar fire from his GRELS.
CEF hostiles are light on my left flank while UMF forces advance into position.
My forces reach the main highway to try and take advantage of the benefits the smooth tarmac offers to ground movement.
Sumpbeast begins to apply additional pressure to my right flank by moving his forces away from the left. I engage Top Speed to take advantage and move towards his deployment zone.
A nice shot of the table mid-battle.
CEF and UMF forces trade fire up and down the main highway. The pilot of the Weasel will be up for promotion after this sortie, as he managed to place a grenade on the underside of an HT-67. That Earther has a long ride home in a pine box!
Another of Sumpeast's HT-67's begins to make it's way towards it's Seize objective.
The HT-67 is unstoppable. It took on rocket launcher and field mortar fire from my Infantry Platoon, and two shots from the Field Gun, and only suffered a sturdy box of damage to show for it!
Sumpbeast's ATV-riding GREL sweep in to Seize the medical building at the end of Turn 5 after eliminating my infantry inside.
UMF forces, having detected the entirety of the Patrol Squad, make a last ditch effort to eliminate all enemy forces in their deployment zone.
At the end of the game, Sumpbeast had a achieved an Overwhelming Success for his PL 1 side, gaining 4 out of 4 VPs, compared to my Disputed level for my PL 3 side, gaining 3 out of 4 VPs. In the end, it was a great game and I thoroughly enjoyed playing Sumpbeast. We both stayed focused on our objectives, while resisting the urge to just blow things up, just as a well-executed game of Heavy Gear should be!
