Tuesday 17 March 2015

The Battle of Fort Sokol and the fall of the Kamenz Archonette

(From Brush Conflicts of the Post-Republic Period; Galatean Free Press)

The desertion of Carson's Carnivores from the Kamenz Archonette had been a boon to the Lyrans on two fronts. First, and most obviously, it removed a large portion of the Archonette's force from play. The Carnivores' departure cost the Archonette an experienced, well-equipped battalion, drastically reducing their overall capacity at very little cost to the Lyran forces. While the Archonette still could boast several more units under their command, none of them had the capability to match up to Magyari's command.

The second was the intelligence that Major Carson provided as the ransom for his escape. Until this point, one of Landgrave Karl Pelzer's greatest assets had been the security in which he had been able to operate, with his headquarters unknown to Lyran intelligence and the on-world forces. Intelligence provided by Carson indicated that Pelzer was operating out of the ruins of fort Sokol in the largely deserted northern region of the Saxony continent. Pelzer's forces had excavated and renovated portions of the facility, allowing them to shelter their forces from detection.

Sunday 1 March 2015

Updates and stuff

It's been a while between updates due to the slow pace of the game. Real life and stuff gets in the way, unfortunately, but there's still new stuff around. There are updates to both the Irregulars and NPC/OpFor BattleMech galleries, as well as new stuff for MegaMek players.

LIC Intelligence Report 6571-8-Q/Kamenez

As a part of the Bolan Thumb group of worlds, Kamenez was expected to be at the forefront of any conflict between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth. As such, the SLDF already maintained a considerable presence on it and other worlds in the thumb. In the early 28th Century, SLDF theatre command chose to increase its level of preparation for what was ever-increasingly seen as an inevitable conflict.

One stage in that preparation was improving the facilities that the XXXI Corps of the SLDF Thirteenth Army would be operating from. This project took on two stages. The first was the upgrading of existing bases across the worlds of the thumb. The second would be the construction of a covert facility that the SLDF could operate from without the knowledge of either the Lyrans or the League.

After an extensive survey of worlds in the Thumb, the SLDF chose Mount Sokol on Kamanez as the site for the proposed facility. An extinct volcano, the mountain was chosen for a number of reasons. The first was convenience, as the Saxony continent of Kamenez was already home to several SLDF facilities. The second was that the mountain offered an excellent site that could be used to conceal a large SLDF formation with minimal external changes. Finally, outside of the SLDF, the rest of the continent was sparsely inhabited, providing a greater level of security for the project.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Mount Sokol
I think the nicest thing that I can say about the Kamenez campaign is that it's over.

Okay, thats not entirely true. The Royals being destroyed as a unit is a nice bonus, although given the circumstances that caused it to happen, it's a bit of a mixed blessing.

The fall of Pelzer's fortress was a bloody battle, but all things being considered, it could have gone a lot worse. We had a lot of 'Mechs battered to within an inch of their lives. My own Mad Cat was near-naked, and it was not the only one that was torn up. It's amazing that we didn't lose anyone, but again, there were a lot of things going for us.

Pelzer's army was down to its last gasps. His personal guard represented the only 'Mech force he had left under his control, and they lacked the skills, equipment and coordination to effectively stop us. Don't get me wrong, they were no pushovers, but they also were clearly basing their strategy on having the Carnivores or Incinerators (or the Royals) supporting them or, at least, having done more damage to us.