Orbital troops and light forces race to secure a key objective.
Background:
The battle around Regensburg has been long and intense, what the line troops call a "slog", and has taken a heavy toll on the local civilian areas. While most of the non-combatant population has already fled with what possessions they can carry, a small but growing number of militants have chosen sides and taken up arms against both their former neighbors and the military forces in the area.
Last night a high-profile militia leader, one who could draw more armed civilians to the area, was discovered hiding in a ruin on the outskirts of Regensburg. Political leaders have directed the 52nd MRR to retrieve the warlord and evacuate him to a place of safety, where they might be able to use him to encourage local support for the 52nd MRR and its cause. To this end, elements of the 3rd Motorized Rifle Battalion were dispatched to pick up the leader. However, the enemy caught and annihilated the chosen rescue force early this morning, leaving the commander of 3rd MRB in a precarious position. Acting quickly, he cut loose his battalion's light wheeled assets to make a high-speed raid on the hideout, hopefully catching the warlord before the enemy could do so.
This is easier said than done, as the 7th Infantry Division has also caught wind of the leader's hideout. 7th ID intelligence officers believe that removing him from the scene is in the best interests of the 7th ID, but they also believe that he has valuable information on local conditions and should be thoroughly interrogated. This precludes simply obliterating his hideout with artillery, so instead an infantry strike force has been assembled and is being dropped in from the Keturah, an orbiting troopship. The plan is to secure the insurgent leader and hold him until friendly vehicles can arrive and evacuate him to the rear of the 7th ID's sector. Two companies of the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry (Orbital Assault), are descending upon the ruined dacha at this very moment.
Starting forces:
52nd MRR Forces:
- 2 cavalry scout platoons, each with:
- 4 scout sections, each with:
- 2 light wheeled vehicles, Class 1 only
- 1 antitank section, consisting of:
- 3 light wheeled antitank vehicles, Class 2 maximum and Infantry capacity of 1 stand each
- 3 heavy infantry stands armed with GMS/L systems
- 1 orbital assault infantry company, consisting of:
- 3 line platoons, each with:
- 8 Powered Infantry stands, any configuration
- 1 infantry walker company, consisting of:
- 3 line platoons, each with:
- 4 infantry walkers, Class 1 only
- 1 rescue section, consisting of any two vehicles no greater than Class 2 each
Map:
Setup:
The map above is considered to be 60" on a side. The ruined dacha is composed of single-storey ruins surrounded by regularly-spaced clumps of Light Woods. Three "dummy" markers and a single marker representing the warlord should be shuffled and placed face-down, with one on each of the four buildings (the players should take turns drawing and placing markers, without looking at them). As a player's forces occupy a building (either with infantry or by parking a vehicle in contact with the building), that player may look at the marker without revealing it to the other player. Once he has done so, the marker is placed back onto the building, face-down.
The 52nd MRR player places his units anywhere on the eastern (right) edge of the board. The 7th ID player must randomly drop his units using the method described in Dirtside on page 43 ("Drop Troops"). He must drop his markers over the southwest (bottom-left) quadrant of the map, and all his markers must be south of the hardtop road. Any that land north of the road must be re-dropped.
The 7th ID player's rescue vehicles start the game off-table and may enter the table at the beginning of the 4th round, entering from any direction.
Victory Conditions:
To secure the warlord, a vehicle must park next to (in contact with) the building in which he is hiding for one full turn. That vehicle's actions for that turn are assumed to involve the crew dismounting, searching the building, and bringing the militia leader to the vehicle. The militia leader's marker should be transferred to that vehicle and will travel with it until it is destroyed or leaves the map.
The side that escapes off the map with the militia leader wins. Alternatively, the side with surviving units wins. If the leader is killed (i.e., the vehicle he is in is destroyed), the scenario is a draw. If a vehicle with the leader inside is hit, use normal procedures to check for crew casualties, treating the VIP as if he were part of the crew.
The leader can also be bodily carried by an infantry team or walker, same as if he were in a vehicle. The same conditions apply as above. Picking up the VIP from a disabled vehicle requires one activiation on behalf of the gaining vehicle.