Tedrion III pt. 2, Closing the noose.

With the battle of Tedrion City raging to the north, and with ever more units being sucked into the bloody street fighting, the PAC commander has decided to encircle the city and deny the Alliance forces any supplies and reinforcements.

A PAC battlegroup advanced to cut one of the final remaining roads into Tedrion City that are held by the Alliance. Their mission: destroy any defending Alliance presence, dig in and stop any supplies or reinforcements entering the city.

The road, a neighbouring farm and some Green Jackets defending. PAC forces advancing from the East.

Green Jackets dug in and ready to defend the road into the city.

Storming in from the East, PAC infantry and mecha open fire, tearing into the flank of the Alliance defenders. An armoured car is destroyed, and infantry hunker further down in the farm complex.

The Green Jacket commander turns and sends fire over to the attackers, causing some damage, and sending infantry scurrying for cover.

Repositioning, and attempting to outflank the PAC flanking maneuver, an Alliance armoured car opens fire on the advancing mech, damaging its maneuvering servos.

A heavy firefight continues on the southern flank. PAC infantry break and run, leaving many dead and dying on the field of battle.

PAC armour advances to tackle the Alliance tank blocking the way.

The PAC commander makes the decision to bring on their reserve armour, a decision that would prove successful.

Intense fighting on the southern flank results in the destruction of the Alliance tank, and the almost complete immobilization of a PAC mech.

The hero PAC armour charges in to tackle the armoured car and hopefully allow the engineers the opportunity to recover the mech on the hill.

The alliance commander takes PAC armour under fire, damaging the tank, but himself receives a couple of rocket hits from the PAC infantry on the high ground.

One of the remaining functional mecha fires a few salvos at the armoured car, the turret shooting off into the air as the magazine starts popping off rounds inside. The crew do not make it out, those brave souls.

In an attempt to stem the tide, the Alliance commander calls in some reserves. They speed up the road to attempt to out flank the PAC forces.

Calling on the reserves would be the final act of the commander as he bravely engages in a firefight with the infantry on the high ground. Unfortunately the countermeasures cannot stop every infantry launched rocket and one too many get through, destroying the tank, removing the battlegroup's commander. This loss sent the Alliance defenders dangerously close to their breaking point.

The infantry on the high ground also engage the infantry garrisoning the farm complex - forcing them to break and become combat ineffective. With the loss of the farm complex, there is nowhere to anchor the defensive line. The Green Jackets complete a fighting withdrawal.

Another road has been cut. The final encirclement of Tedrion City looked to be nearly complete. Surely victory would be soon to follow.


This was a fun game. I barely used the entire board. I feel like outflanking was very important with this game, and will experiment with that in further games.

I did NOT use the solo variant for this game as I was feeling pretty impartial. I think I managed to do it well. I made decisions that made sense, but the Alliance suffered from worse dice rolls.

Until next time.

Tedrion III - A Horizon Wars Battle

When they said to invade the Tedrion system, it was meant to be a walk over. The fleet battle was quick and brutal, with the Alliance Navy having to retreat out of the system having taken heavy damage. The ground fighting on Tedrion III on the other hand, was not going as planned. Bloody jungle fighting had turned the campaign into a battle of attrition between the defending Alliance forces and the invading Pan Asian Combine Army.

Tasked with joining up with another unit the PAC battlegroup had to advance along the jungle road, passed an abandoned settlement.

AMBUSH! An Alliance tank emerges and opens fire, damaging the PAC armour. The PAC commander realises the advance may get bogged down in rear fighting, but he can little afford this. Some units may have to fight a heavy rearguard action.

Alliance infantry charge at the PAC armour, causing damage, but taking heavy damage in the process. Any PAC casualties caused will delay or maybe even prevent a larger attack on Tedrion City. 

The bipedal PAC Destroyer fires a few salvos at the armour, causing even more damage. They can't afford to get bogged down fighting an unexpected battle in the middle of the jungle.

Hero PAC infantry charge the tank down and engage. Using hand held anti tank weapons they manage to destroy it, opening up the road again.

PAC armour leaves the road and successfully destroys another Alliance tank. Now they can begin advancing again.

Another unit of infantry emerges from the jungle to engage. PAC infantry scramble for cover as a firefight breaks out.

Also emerging from cover, another Alliance tank reigns down destruction on PAC armour before being destroyed itself.

Time is running out, but the PAC forces have managed to advance to the abandoned settlement. The armour and a Destroyer set up defensive positions in case of an Alliance counter attack.

Taking her chances one of the PAC tank commanders engages some emerging Alliance armour at extreme long range.

Alliance forces advance through the jungle to engage the PACA in the settlement. Any disruption caused will be worth it. This last ditch effort will hopefully be able to disrupt the planned attack on Tedrion City. 

The PAC forces are nearly there. They are regrouping and forming up in the settlement ready for the final push out of the jungle.

PAC armour destroys more Alliance armour. Things are looking better.

A series of close combats occur, with infantry dying on either side. At this point the PAC force can afford to take some casualties, while the Alliance are running out of reserves.

In the final monents of the battle, the lead Destroyer obliterates the remaining Alliance infantry, causing the rest of their enemies to break and flee. 

While delayed and having suffered some casualties, the PAC commander considers this a victory, continuing his march to meet up with the other battlegroup and launch their attack on Tedrion City.


This was my first time using the Horizon Wars Solo extention. I did, however, modify it and invent some events based on an old game of Blitzkrieg Commander I read many moons ago.

1. For every terrain feature that the PAC forces passed, a die was rolled. 6+ resulted in a unit appearing. On another die roll 1-6 brought infantry on, 7-12 brought heavy cav.  

2. Whether I misread the rules, I decided to give the AI forces just one action each. I did, however use the card based activation system. I never got to create a complication though.

3. I did not use the scenario provided. I made my own up. At the beginning of turn 5, the remaining Alliance elements would enter from the north edge to try and intercept, and follow the card system.

4. I used my breaking point chit system, stolen from the Battlegroup rules.

5. I used a random damage assignment die: 1-4 M, 5-8 F, 9-12 A. Crit always goes on A.

I quite liked the solo rules, although it resulted in a lot of close quarter combat, which is pretty deadly. 

New Faction - Name needed.

So I threw together these guys today. I will be finishing them off tomorrow. But I have no idea who they are or what I will use them for. If anyone has any ideas, I am open to them. You will receive full credit.

What's that coming over the hill?

Trained and equipped to fight in the jungles of the colonies of the struggling Western Alliance, the Green Jackets are hard as nails. Originally a small force of elite infantry, they have grown and are often involved in combined arms actions. These men and women took their name from an ancient unit of elite soldiers who fought for a country lost to the ages. 

The Western Alliance was once the superpower that succeeded in creating the largest interstellar empire centred around Old Earth. However, when the Collapse came they struggled to maintain their power, due to much of their economy relying on Old Earth economies. Then with the formation of the UCS, the Western Alliance found itself dwarfed and fighting just to survive.

If the Green Jackets have anything to say about it, then yes, yes it will.

The Defense of New Charon pt. 1.

With reports from various sources being shared about some kind of extra planetary landings, a small detachment of the New Charon Militia (NCM) is sent to investigate. Scans show heat signatures moving towards a small enclave out in the Western Reaches. Prepared for any eventuality, the NCM force is under orders to report back before engaging.

Armoured walkers and what appears to be a tank supported by infantry is spotted on the outskirts of the enclave. Reports are sent back to HQ, and the ROE is advanced from investigate to free fire. Whoever these people are, they are clearly not here on official business and there have been no military training exercises agreed by any of the local militias or government forces.

With the updated ROE two units of the NCM advance up to some rocky outrcrops and open fire on advancing infantry forcing them to scatter while taking casualties.

The Close Support Missile Platforms (CSMPs) advance behind the infantry laying down rocket fire, damaging an unidentified walker. These single man mechs are outdated but still pack a punch.

 Menwhile the two remaining CSMPs advance on the right flank, while an infantry unit garrisons an outlying water storage plant.

Seizing the initiative again one of the CSMPs delivers more damaging rocket fire, shaking the pilot of the opposing walker.

In response to advances on the NCM right flank, the unknown tank advances and unleashes withering shell fire, causing severe damage to one of the defending CSMPs.

The strange armoured infantry advance up the centre of the enclave, throwing lead at the NCM infantry dug in along the roadside. Casualties begin to mount.

 

To avoid getting bogged down the CSMPs charge the enemy tank, causing severe damage with their rockets. However, it keeps fighting on.

In the centre the other two CSMPs unleash more rocket fire, utterly destroying one of the enemy walkers.

As a response the mysterious invaders open fire with the infantry who are garrisoning the enclave central hub and the surviving walkers. One CSMP is destroyed.

As if to avenge the death of his comrade, this New Charon CSMP pilot opens fire yet again on the enemy tank, causing a catastrophic failure of the ammunition storage system. With rounds cooking off inside, the crew attempt to abandon their tank and run for their lives.

Inspired, New Charon Militia infantry advance, and with the support of the missiles from the CSMP they destroy the enemy infantry, killing them to a man.

With their heavy armoured support gone, and having a large hole in their centre, the invaders call it a day and make a hasty retreat while under fire from the militia.

Picking through the wreckage, and bodies the NCM find that the men they were fighting all wearing ancient symbols from Old Earth. Their squad leader decides to leave it for the guys with big foreheads to sort out, meanwhile they will carry on to investigate what appears to be the original landing area of these mysterious invaders.

I really liked playing this short  game of Horizon Wars. I will carry this campaign on for a couple more games to just familiarize myself with the rules again, having not played since December. Maybe one day I will continue that campaign, the Battle for Satomi. 

Something I tried with this game was using the Battlegroup WW2 rules system of pulling chits when damage is taken. Each chit has a number and if you pull numbers that add up to more than your breaking point, you lose the game. The mysterious invaders pulled a chit each time they lost a unit, and got 4,3,4, exceeding 10 thus ending the game.

New grass mat

I was at Lidl a few weeks ago and they had these 1 metre x 2 metre fake grass mats. On the underside there are rubber lumps for grip. I guess they are designed for gardens and such, but being a modelmaker and wargamer I immediately bought two of them. They look much, much better than green felt. The size is a little awkward, it is long and thinish, but it will do. All in all, very pleased with the purchase and how they look. It will make my wargaming event at school easier to handle. I only wish I had bought more.

Terrain progress

I found time to dry brush some colours onto a few of my bits today. I will see how they turn out. Again all I am going for is passable for the time being. I still want some kind of wash though.