The following is a battle report for my latest game, Hostile Space:
The trading contract for the Freehold of New Arcadia will expire and come up for re-negotiation in the next rotations. Traditionally, these contracts have been held by corporate interests aligned with the New Olympians, and New Arcadia was considered within the New Olympians sphere of interests. However, the free hold is located in the Asteroid Belt, which the Earth Alliance views at its territory.
With the contract set to expire, elements of the Earth Alliance have begun aggressively courting New Arcadia. They have offered lucrative incentives, and coupled them with veiled threats. In fact, some smaller trading and prospecting vessels from New Arcadia have gone missing in the region. The Earth Alliance has cited this as a prime reason to change contracts, as the New Olympians have failed to properly protect and enforce the expiring contract.
The powers that be on NeOlympus have deemed it necessary to reinforce their alliance on New Arcadia. To this end, they have deployed a patrol ship and a compliment of suits to New Arcadia space. A Carrier arrived and dropped off just such a ship before continuing on its route. The New Olympian commander on the scene has pledged to find the cause of the missing prospecting vessels.
After chasing down leads to the Outsider Confederacy aligned Liberty Pointe, New Olympian agents were able to uncover that the Red Knights Mercenary Company was involved in the attacks in New Arcadia space. The Red Knights are closely aligned with the Earth Alliance.
New Olympian agents using a combination of espionage, human intelligence work, and predicative analytics believe they have located a possible location for the Red King base in New Arcadian space. Therefore, the New Olympian patrol ship quickly deployed to neutralize this enemy base. To avoid detection, they deployed their Combat Suit and Marine Landers at great distance. These forces slowly closed the gap on their own power.
However, the New Olympian attackers were detected inbound, and Red Knight forces scrambled to intercept them. They needed to buy their comrades time to destroy any potential intelligence to their employers, evacuate the base, and attempt to evade capture.
Forces:
New Olympians
3 Ares Space Combat Suits
- 1 Upgraded with #1 - Heavy beam Cannon
3 Hephaestus Lander
Red Knights
1 Shepherd Suit
- Upgrade- Combat Shield
4 Bulldog Suits
- 1 Upgrade- Rocket Tube
3 Mongrel Defense Platforms
3 Beagle Defense Satelites
Mission
We will be using Mission 11- Assault the Base found in the main rule book. In this scenario, the Attacking New Olympians are trying to land troops to take the enemy base. Meanwhile, the New Olympians will gain extra VP if the Transport manages to land troops.
Set-up
We will be playing on a 72 x 48 MU board the long way. 1 MU is equal to 1 inch.
The Red Knight side of the board is a large asteroid. This is 6x6 MU and covers altitudes 2-4. The base in the center of the asteroid and at altitude 4. This large asteroid is 12 MU in from the deployment zone, and 12 MU in from one of the board edges. Attempting to fly through the asteroid at height 2-3 will result in a collision and the unit being destroyed. 4 can land on the asteroid. 5 Smaller asteroids are set-up in the battlespace at various heights. They only apply to that height.
The Red Knights are deployed anywhere within 12 MU of the base. The Mongrels are on the base as a last line of defense. The Combat Suits and Defense Satellites are trying to make a perimeter to stop the attack. The Suits are going full-speed to intercept.
The New Olympians are coming in from the opposite side. They are approaching with a Suit escorting each Transport. They are spread out to try and get past the defenders.
As usual, I won't be detailing every move or shot fired. I will try to focus on the highlights. I have broken the game down in the Maneuver Phase where both side close, the Battle Phase where most of the shooting takes place, and the Disengagement Phase as the battle winds down.
Maneuver Phase
The New Olympian forces shift to their right to close in on the Red Knight base. The central transports stay high to try to avoid defenses, while the right tries to duck under the Mongrel on the asteroid. The Red Knight commander and 1 escort try to hang back to catch stragglers.
Battle Phase
The battle heats up fast as the two sides quickly close and engage across the front. The Red Knights take the worst of it, with two damaged Suits, but 1 Ares is also damaged badly in the initial exchange.
The Red Knight Mastiff slipped in behind a transport, but a dead-eyed shot from the Ares with the Heavy Beam Cannon vaporized the Merc. First kill to the New Olympians! However, it doesn't all go the New Olympians way as a Mongrel platform blasts a Ares from space. A Defense satellites damages another Ares as well. A Bulldog manages to rotate and hit a Transport too.
The Heavy Beam Cannon strikes again and takes out the Rocket Tube armed Bulldog before it can fire! A Mongrel ground platform manages to snag the damaged and trailing final transport, but not enough to kill it. A Transport uses its Beam cannon to destroy the Mongrel defending the target asteroid.
It looks inevitable that the New Olympians are going to land and storm the base. The Mongrel Defense Platform has been destroyed, and an Ares Combat Suit has landed to support the attack. However, a Bulldog scoots across and uses the last of its ammo in a burst to destroy one of the New Olympian Landers!
Disengagement Turn
Two New Olympian transports land on the Asteroid, supported by a landed Combat Suit. The marines make quick work of the outside defenses and quickly breach the base. The remaining Red Knights quickly signal their surrender. The Red Knight base has been secured, so the Patrol Ship begins the slow approach towards the asteroid cluster.
Conclusion
The New Olympians easily win by taking the base. However, it was a close run thing, with the Red Knights managing to take out 1 Combat Suit, damage two others, and destroy a transport. The Red Knights lost their Mastiff, 1 Bulldog (with Rocket tube), a Mongrel, and two damaged suits. Landing two transports made it easy to overrun the base and score the +50 VP to seal the game.
I think the big question of the game was, how did the non-Combat Suits do? The answer is.... pretty well! The Mongrels managed to take-out 1 Ares, and a Defense Satellite survived and attack and damaged another. The Transports also managed to take out a Mongrel. Of course, the Hephaestus Landers actually won the game by managing to land on target. The Mongrels managed to consistently get shots up, the Beagles were a bit less successful, but as a threat in being it forces the New Olympians to maneuver around them. Better placement may have seen them play a bigger part in the game.
As the breaching charges blasted through the airlock to the Mercenaries' base, a general surrender chirped through the open channels. This aligned with the Concert of the Solar Systems Conventions on Mercenary and Military Activity. From there, it was a simple matter for the Marines to secure the prisoners.
The big question was, would the New Olympians find what they needed to link the Red Knights back to the Earth Alliance. With the base secured, the New Olympian Patrol Ship was able to come in closer, and shuttle technical and investigative staff to the base. The Red Knights were professionals so it was not easy to dig out the details, but the New Olympian investigators were also very good at their jobs. The attack had been enough of a surprise and swift enough for them to discover a treasure trove of data.
With a journey back to New Arcadia, the New Olympians had plenty of time to go over the evidence and prepare their case.
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Thanks for sharing these reports. I bought hostile space when it was published, but have yet to get a game on the table due to other commitments. It’s great to live vicariously through your blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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