UCM Recon Force Nearly Destroyed in Raid

[Pictors Studio]

New Sarder, Eden (WCP) - A detachment of UCM forces were nearly completely wiped out in a mission to obtain information about Scourge reproduction sites.



(WCP Photo - A Poseidon class dropship passes through fire from an entire Rapier battery.)

Losses were heavy in the fighting and included 88 casualties and missing. UCM forces withdrew from the battlefield leaving many of the casualties behind, Major William Selleck, UCMAF spokesman said.



(WCP Photo - The Scourge swarm out of their base to defend their hatchery district.)

The attack on the Scourge hatchery was carried out in conjunction with local resistance units who had scouted out a number potential buildings where the Scourge may have had reproduction facilities, Selleck said.



(WCP Photo - Resistance fighters scout out various buildings suspected of being hatcheries in conjunction with UCM regular forces.)

The mission was initially going well but just as forces were engaging the Scourge defenders a PHR force arrived from an unknown location and the UCM forces as well as their resistance allies were trapped between the two forces, Selleck said.



(WCP Photo - The PHR forces land Phobos walkers to protect their ground troops.)

Losses were heavy and estimated at about 75% of the forces engaged, Selleck said.

It seems that losses among the PHR forces on the ground were fairly significant as well, said Tom Cantor, a resistance fighter who was engaged in the fighting.



(WCP Photo - UCM and Resistance forces engage the PHR walkers at brutal close quarters.)

"We shot down one of their big droppers right over a block in the city, it went down hard," Cantor said.

"The engagement between our tanks and their walkers left about three of the things burning and we lost one tank," he added.



(WCP Photo - The wreckage of Scourge ground attack aircraft can be seen in the street while brave UCM Legionnaires attempt to hold a potential hatchery against a massive Scourge onslaught.)

There was no confirmed enemy casualty count but it seems that from video available of the fighting there were few casualties among Scourge forces while the PHR forces sustained enough losses to need to withdraw soon after UCM forces withdrew.



(WCP Photo - UCM forces come under increased pressure as the force is split in half to deal with the double threat of the Scourge and the PHR.)

"I saw those cyborg bastards start to pull out as the Scourge moved towards them as they saw we weren't a threat any more," Cantor said, "I guess they don't like plasma fire in their faces any more than we do."



(WCP Photo - The wreckage of a Poseidon class dropship strands PHR walkers in a desperate fight with Resistance armour.)

The second lost battle in New Sarder leaves questions among UCM command about the future of the campaign in Eden. As casualties mount it also puts a strain on the relationship between the UCMK and Resistance units.

"It isn't exactly being openly discussed, but I've heard a few guys say that maybe we'd be better off siding with the PHR, that maybe they have more to offer," Cantor said.



(WCP Photo - The devastating attack by PHR forces on the Resistance troops attempting to hold a suspected hatchery.)

He quickly added that he personally didn't hold that view.

"I don't think those walkers are all they are cracked up to be. Our infantry guys took one of them down in the center of the block they were holding with just RPGs and their APCs," he said.



(WCP Photo - UCM and resistance forces start to withdraw in the face of overwhelming enemy concentrations.)

He said that if the Hannibals had not had to turn their attention away to support the attack on the Scourge infantry they would have wiped out all the walkers in their immediate vicinity.

"As it was I bet there weren't too many of them PHR troops that got away," Cantor said, "Once we were rolling the Scourge started looking at the cyborgs."


(WCP Photo - the remnants of the PHR forces as the UCM forces withdraw.)

"I saw some of them Rapier tanks shoot down about three PHR dropships just before we pulled them back. I can't think that too many of those slow-ass walkers escaped the inevitable Scourge counter attack," he said.



(WCP Photo - Scourge forces annihilate UCM opposition, clearing a three block radius from the main hatchery of our troops.)

Photo essays of the events in todays battle are available here:

http://imgur.com/I47jJtq,I6D6obO,uEmCmqe,Iir8oai,iuo6t2i,jNJsRg0,q4bXEov,obCbxqY#2

http://imgur.com/qSdwcpi,xN6h7jx,kPN33o1,SqKGdSv,aI9qDYV,10IZl7I,OMW71Ol,uzMO6kM,eJ5sXEB,qpjxH7A,frLbBHU

[Froggy the Great]

Very nice!

What scale and rules did you use?

[Pictors Studio]

The game was in 10mm and we used the Dropzone Commander rules.

It was 1200 pts of Scourge, 1225 pts of Resistance/UCM and 1226 pts of PHR. 

[aliensurfer]

the idea behind the vegetation on the buildings. Brilliant. Consider it fully stolen.

should have seen the Salute board the other year (2013 I think) Scurv, you'd have loved it - very similar. I'll see if I have any pics, think I may have taken some.

Great AAR btw - what are the rules like? Fairly quick and easy or clunky?

[zizi666]

Nope, it was last year :



more pics in my photobucket : http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/zizi666/library/Salute%202014

and apologies for the thread invasion 

[Pictors Studio]

The rules are mostly pretty smooth.  There are a few clunky things where stuff doesn't line up the way you might expect.

For the most part similar stuff has the same armour value and follows a pattern of movement.

So all the UCM tanks have same armour for example.

However the movement and move and fire rates change for weapons in some ways that could be done more easily.

Like the PHR dropship has a missile that it fires.  It moves 15" and all dropships can move and drop half of that, so 7.5".  But when it want to shoot it can only move 9" so now there are two movement rates that you have to remember for that one thing.

Most of the move-fire distances are only slightly off of half so it seems like it would have been less clunky to make weapons either move and shoot, move half and shoot or no move and shoot. 

It already is that for a number of weapons.  It would save a lot of time looking it up.

I'm sure that if you just play the same army over and over again you just know it but I have four armies now and which one I play depends on which one my opponent wants to play.

That is the biggest quibble. 

I would also like it if dropships could pick up anything they are configured to carry rather than only their units.

It seems odd that A dropships walkers get destroyed and B dropship gets destroyed but A dropship can't pick up B dropships walkers and move them.  So the dropship becomes more or less useless and the walkers could be stranded pretty far away from the action.