Heavy Gear - Training Sortie Delta

Sgt. Jackson eased his Jaguar out of the Orca's bay and onto to the solid ground of the Zagreb Plains. The rest of his recon squad deployed and braced themselves as the aerial transport lifted off, causing strong gusts of wind that rattled the internals of their Gears and flattened the grass all around them. Jackson ordered his squad to check their equipment one last time before heading further west on their mission.

Central Command had learned that the Colonial Earth Forces had returned with greater intelligence. Word had been that they now employed commando tactics including the use of the North's own weapons and tactics against them. What better way to train than to having the North train against themselves the brass had decreed. "I think it's such a stupid idea" Jackson muttered to himself. The one silver lining to this training is that he had served under the Commanding Officer of the opposing force before, and while they were using non-lethal ammunition, he wouldn't think twice of getting up close and socking the commander with a nice left hook from his gear. "Brothers-in-arms will be brothers-in-arms," he joked to himself before throttling up his secondary movement system to engage his opponents.

Regular opponent Jay and I had another 750 TV battle over the weekend. Now the lead-up to this was that Jay was to bring his newly minted Peace River army, but regular life unfortunately got in the way. He tells me he's on the road for the next few weeks, so many hours spent in hotels should result in that finished army he (and I) eagerly want to play. Instead he brought his Northern army for what result in some incestuous carnage. As well, this was also our first time playing with the new Gear Up field testing rules as well.

Jay's Northern Guard force consisted of a General Purpose (GP) Squad, a Fire Support (FS) Squad, and an Infantry Platoon. My UMFA force consisted of a GP Squad with the Tigers and Sabretooths, a Recon Squad with a Weasel, SD Hunter and two Bobcats, an Infantry Platoon, one section being in freshly painted Antelope ORVs, and a single Field Gun. My objectives were to Recon his GP Squad and Breakthrough to his deployment zone; Jay's objectives were to Recon my Recon Squad and Wipe Them Out for my GP Squad. Here's a good shot of our forces set-up.

Elements of my GP Squad and a squad of Infantry in ORVs begin to move down Jay's left flank.

Another shot of my army from the opposite side of the board.

My forces on the right flank advance on Jay's GP Squad. Just out of the picture at the end of the road sits my ORV squad, who went top speed to contest my Breakthrough objective in my first activation of the first turn of the game!

On my left flank, My Recon Squad calls in targets for my Field Gun to rain fire down upon while my other squad of ORVs harrasses elements of Jay's FS Squad.

Elements of my GP Squad hold a choke point between two buildings after dipsatching Jay's Army Commander. Unfazed by this loss, Jay's troops continue to attempt to obtain their Wipe Them Out objective on my GP Squad.

My GP Squad holding down the buildings from the opposite vantage point.

On my left flank, the majority of Jay's forces have been overcome, and I press forward to complete my Breakthrough objective with elements of my Recon Squad.

On the right flank, a single Hunter is all the remains of Jay's forces; my Breakthrough objective will soon be in my grasp.

Jay's Gears are totally overcome, leaving his infantry ti be the only opposition left. They did manage to pling a box of damage on one of my SD Hunters though with basic assault rifles!

So after all was said and done Jay had achieved 2 VP to my 3 VP. Not a bad result at all for Jay considering he was Gearless by the end of the game. Besides that here's a couple of observations I had:

1. Flies in the Ointment: I was more than impressed with a section of Infantry in ORVs. None of them managed to finish the game alive, however, their rapid speed (especially on roads) combined with the Anti-Gear rocket launchers they were equipped with meant they a threat Jay could not ignore. Since I had them contest an Objective early in the game, Jay tied his Grizzlies up with fighting them, meaning I did not have to deal with MRP barrages on my Gears instead.


2. Everything Old is New: After playing with the new GearUp rules, I don't think I'll go back to the old set. The range bands are awesome, making such basic weapons as Light Autocannons and Anti-Gear Rifles viable once again. The new Maneuver rules means that I actually use Gears in walker modes, and the new overkill rules means Hunters become the steady workhorses they are supposed to be. My favourite part of using the new rules was when I was able to have a Hunter go Stationary and use it's ROF on it's LAC to walk fire between two enemy Hunters, dropping one to Heavy Damage and Overkilling another, all from 12" away!