Today's game; Tomorrow's War. The Neo Colonial Commonwealth (D8 quality, D10 morale) vs the Armed Forces of the Charity Freedom Alliance (D6 quality, D10 morale).
Word had reached the Neo Colonial Commonwealth commanders that several prisoners were being transferred to a new detention facility.
These prisoners included NCC troopers taken during a
previous operation on Charity. Several squads would ambush an AFCFA convoy, eliminate the guards and free the prisoners. At least that was the plan...
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| Convoy moving in from left, NCC rescue team from right, AFCFA in buildings in the centre. |
Things started well, fire from an NCC Cyclops fighting suit and a nearby squad of marines taking out an entire fireteam of AFCFA troops in a watchtower.
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| First casualties! An AFCFA fire team goes down... |
Fire was exchanged elsewhere on the battlefield but for little effect, but the fog of war meant that AFCFA would not receive any of their planned artillery support.
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| NCC armoured fighting suit snipes from behind cover. |
NCC troops advanced into the cover of several buildings. Meanwhile the prisoner convoy gradually approached. The AFCFA forces were lucky enough to receive a gauss HAMR anti-tank team who took up position in a watch tower. Watching their surroundings carefully, they quickly disabled one of the Cyclops armoured fighting suits. A Glaive APC was also damaged, reducing its speed significantly. The other Cyclops received leg damage which would slow it down. Return fire took the HAMR team out of action for the remainder of the battle, no other AFCFA troops feeling brave enough to clamber up the exposed ladder into the gun tower.
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| The convoy approaches. |
The NCC force included two ATGM teams, one of which now took aim at the approaching convoy. Excellent shooting! The lead armoured car brewed up in a spectacular ball of flame and only one crewman managed to scramble from the wreckage.
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| NCC ATGM team take aim at the approaching vehicles... |
The convoy route was now blocked by burning wreckage and a fuel tanker. Let's hope those flames don't spread to the tanker...
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| Kaboom! Armoured car brews up but a crewman manages to escape! |
Bwoop! Bwoop! Chem alert for the NCC troops, they hastily donned their protective gear, reducing their troop quality. Post battle analysis determined that the sensors had been set off by something in the smoke from the burning armoured car, no chemical agents had been deployed. Further bad luck befell them as one of their Outrider scout vehicles was destroyed by a light anti-tank missile.
The road blocked, the convoy split in two and moved down both flanks. Additional support from the concerned AFCFA regional commander resulted in a light missile carrier joining the rear of the convoy.
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| The convoy split to detour past the burning armoured car. |
More AFCFA reinforcements were now arriving, 1 support weapon team edging forward through the scrapyard and another taking up a firing position on the roof of the nearby house.
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| AFCFA support weapon team in cover in the scrapyard. |
As the NCC marines attempted to move towards the convoy, more incoming fire destroyed the remaining Cyclops, killing the pilot instantly. The marines were luckier with their fire, severely injuring a member of each of the support weapons teams.
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| Armoured fighting suit destroyed, the pilot dead. |
The AFCFA weapons carrier and missile carrier manoeuvred round the flank to rain fire upon the beleaguered NCC troops. Things were looking bad for the Commonwealth, especially with officers further up the chain of command interfering with the orders of the commanders on the ground. Good leadership from the rescue force commander helped the marines regain the initiative, but there was now little chance of accomplishing their mission.
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| AFCFA vehicles commence bombardment of the NCC. |
With the convoy split and unreachable and their casualties mounting, the NCC forces decided that their only option was to pull back. Clambering back into their surviving vehicles they retreated from the battlefield.
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| NCC survivors prepare to fall back. |
AFCFA forces celebrated their victory and unloaded their prisoners from the APCs.
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| Prisoners are escorted from their transport. |
Although AFCFA forces were victorious, public support appears to be swinging toward the Neo Colonial Commonwealth. Since the battle, footage has appeared which seems to show AFCFA forces mistreating prisoners and abusing the bodies of dead marines, undoing much of the positive publicity they received after previous engagements.
A fun game with lots of fog of war cards. These prevented the AFCFA from using their artillery (fire mission available on a reinforcement roll of 6 on a D6, they would have had 2 available on th elast turn if not for the FoW card) but also reduced the NCC marines to troop quality 6, cancelling the edge they had over their more numerous enemy. AFCFA also received a sniper team, missile carrier and Gauss HAMR team thanks to their FoW cards, all of which helped ensure their victory!
