[SG2] Battle Report - Neu Bayern

DEBRIEF: Captain Hans Marshall, DM+3422-1
DATE: January 29, 2301

The morning of January 21, 2301 was dreary, cold, and wet. The surface of Neu
Bayern was pock marked and blasted almost beyond recognition. Fortunately for
us, the AI's didn't think much of the cover they kept providing us when they
would shell the potatoes out of our positions. Each crater was called home by
some detachments, and others of the second company 6th jump infantry division
called them hell. The AI's had suddenly sprung out of what was once a
pharmaceuticals factory on the edge of map reference 26W, 11N. The exact date
of the computer's sentience was still to be determined, but the guess would
have
been sometime late last year.  When the first cyber-tank appeared, no
one really knew what to make of this development. No one really knew where it
had come from, nor why it had come to the small colony on the outskirts of the
factory complex.
    It was not uncommon for big robo-factories to be built on somewhat
hostile worlds, but the abrupt attempt to exterminate the populace took
everyone by surprise. So, naturally, the fleet sent us in to 'capture' this
robo-fac so that they could find out what made it start to tick.  The
robo-fac captured the colonial militia's defensive weapons, then the
first
expeditionary forces, now the factory had re-tooled itself and was
producing cyber tanks and other weapons. Bombs started dropping soon after we
landed and set up a 'safe' LZ. Soon as our second wave of drop ships came
down, all hell broke loose. We must have lost a whole battalion in the first
wave. Most of what was left scrammed leaving us with little to no supplies.
Damn machine snookered us right into the biggest booby trap ever. Our uplink
comm was out and we were cut off from our only supply so we dug in awaiting
extract.

So there we were, less than a company laying half submerged, in a cold wet
shell hole. We had fended off two probing attacks by a squad of the cyber
tanks three days ago. We were expecting a full assault at any moment following
them, but nothing came. It was time for action. I split the
company roughly in two and we set about our approach to the robo-fac
compound. We made it to within one hundred meters on the left flank before the
sentry guns opened up on us. There were three guns situated along a one
hundred meter stretch of fencing. We called for support from the right flank,
but they were being pinned down by both sentries and a squad of tanks.
Immediately I called for SAW gunners to move up and lay down suppressing fire
on the right most tower, while first squad would assault with grenades and a
tech. The squad made it within four meters before being chopped to ribbons.
Fortunately Stein, our tech, made it to the base of the gun platform. He was
able to disable the power to the gun before he was killed by enemy fire. With
one gun now out of commission, our extreme right was open to our advance. We
tried to circle under the rain of shells and lost two more men before reaching
outside of their firing arcs. We passed through the fence on the extreme
Northern side of the complex. We tried to move towards the right flank mission
in an attempt to relieve them. As we approached, we found a power plant
exhaust outlet. We made for the cooling tower, and just beyond lay three of
the cyber tanks. One had been destroyed, the other three had backed off and
fired on the flank mission from afar. They were less than thirty meters from
our position at that point. I issued the command to the second squad to use
their jump packs and assault the tanks from the rear. The third squad was to
provide support for the second squad's assault while the command squad set
about the demolition of the cooling towers. No sooner had the squad taken off,
then the right flank mission broke and begun to run. Their casualties were
heavy and they just couldn't bear to take the pounding any longer. The second
squad was on the cyber tanks in less than three seconds, giving them very
little time to compensate for the newly discovered targets. The second squad
dumped grenades and fired the one plasma gun into the tanks and lept out.
Third squad continued to lay down suppressing fire to no effect while the
command squad continued to rig as many explosives as could be mustered. The
grenades and ammunition that we tried to use was wholly inadequate to destroy
one of the exhaust ports let alone both. I sounded a general withdrawal and
pulled the pin on the last grenade. The tanks were unaffected by the pitiful
assault that the second squad had laid on them, and so were moving to
eliminate the new threat. As one of the tanks drew near, the explosion of the
exhaust port sent shrapnel into it's grav motor sending it into a wild spin.
The other two tanks were unaffected. The first tank moved off to our left. The
other remained in the center trying to draw our fire. The third continued it's
wild ride attempting to stabilize itself. Our 'PIG' man fired the plasma gun
into the second tank to no effect. The blows were passing right through the
armor but not effecting any systems as far as we could tell. It just kept
firing right back. The charge on the plasma was low, which meant that we were
looking at two shots, maybe less. We tried the best we could to lay down fire
on the second tank while Otto, he was our plasma gunner, tried to fire into
the side of the first tank trying to flank our position. The first shot passed
right by the quick moving tank, while the second hit it square in the side. It
fell like a stone driving dirt and brush up in front of it. The second tank
began to move forward while still firing. We were stuck in a small ravine,
with no cover in either direction, and so we continued to fire trying to
disable to last tank. Finally the third tank had righted itself but it's
lateral controls were still askew and it drove straight into the flaming
exhaust outlet which ruptured it's outer casing, thus destroying itself as
well as the second exhaust tower. The reactor scrammed automatically and the
power plant shut down. The entire area went dark. The sentry guns fell silent.
The second tank just stopped. It just sat quietly humming from it's grav
motor. With
no direction, it wasn't a threat any longer.  The robo-fac had been
brought to a standstill. Our mission was accomplished... for the moment... The
retrieval boats began to drop through the cloud cover down towards the factory
complex. Our ammunition supply was exhausted, as well as the remaining men...

Hi Scott,

Very scary facing AI tanks? What rules did you use for the Cybertanks?

> Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 13:22:52 +1000

Actually, the tanks themselves were not so scary, it was the loss of the
suppression and break tests that made them so tough. I can provide
mock-up
pictures of the action since I own most of the items that were used in the
game, if anyone is interested.

We used the standard vehicle rules for the tanks (which we used the Star Wars
Episode I drone fighters as the tanks). Size: 2 (10 Capacity points) Light
Grav tank Armor: 2 Front, 1 elsewhere
    Weapons: 2 Size 3 HEL w/ Superior Fire Control (Considering the
onboard computer doing all the work), 2 gattling Anti infantry guns.

The tanks rules: Ignore suppression results. No break tests required. No
transferring of actions from command units (central AI). Special Damage chart
for penetrating hits on internal systems. The luck of the dice would 50% of
the time destroy the tank if the armor was defeated. Other possible hits were:
Central Processor, Propulsion, weapon, targeting systems.

A cyber tank was hard to defeat since the weapons allowed to the units were
'light' compared to the relative thickness of the tank's armor. The small arms
were virtually useless, which made the units expendable meat mostly while the
heavy weapons were the only things firing to any effect. The defensive guns
were just as bad, except they could not move. In SG2 it's important to
leverage the morale factor on the enemy. When you get into hammering each
other more times than not, the morale factor wins the game. This cybertank
assault was the epitome of examples on the one guy in our group who didn't
believe in the morale factor himself. Now he is a believer. Without the
suppressions, it was harder to feel comfortable sending your squad out into
the open, when you knew that the tank was going to get a turn while their
butts were hanging out.

Actually this game was two separate games that we linked together on two
different tables. The defensive guns were on the left table, while the tank
assault was on the right. Things were not going well on the right table, so
when the left table was done, the commander decided to move in and relieve the
right flank. The figures moved across the tables at their normal rates. When
they reached the opposite side (the edge of the table where the two tables
should meet), the started on the next table in that turn. We also used card
draws to make the selection of units more random and interesting. Of course my
20mm Blade figures saw quite a lot of action in that game as well as all of
those Galoob micro machine Star Wars figures. It was quite fun.