The mission objective is to retrieve two scientists who are guilty of selling WMD technology to local insurgents. They are located in hostile territory, and guarded by insurgents. Once extracted, they will be questioned and put on trial. Killing them however will cause political problems.

It is known that enemy units are in the area with the same idea. Their capture is mostly a PR stunt, and they have little military worth to either side, so it is better for the enemy to take them than for them to be killed. Obviously, the politicians are however willing to sacrifice their own troops to gain some much needed PR credibility.

Views of the battle area from the north, south, east and west. Two bunkers are located near the centre of the battle area, and dense woods cover the hilly areas to the east and west. The area was 720m by 900m.

The river along the western and southern edges of the area had little effect on the game, except as noted below, and could be ignored.

north.jpg - south.jpg - east.jpg - west.jpg -

The mission objective is to recover one or both scientists. Each scientist is protected by a small squad of local insurgents (Green troops, random leadership). One scientist is worth +2 victory points, his assistent is worth +1. Killing either loses you their points value.

Due to technical issues with RPV recorders, live feeds from the battle were not possible (okay, I forgot to take some pictures).

The NAC entered from the north with a platoon of infantry plus a platoon of powered armour troops. Both command units came in using armoured APCs, and kept to the edge of the battle area.

NSL forces entered from across the river to the south, with a platoon of Jager supported by a mortar team and some heavy infantry. Two squads of heavy infantry used an armoured APC to try and get to the southern bunker quickly, where the head scientist was located.

The NAC made a rapid advance using powered armour, and quickly came under fire from the insurgents, which was ineffective. The northern bunker was quickly taken, and the first prisoner held.

NSL snipers moving up under cover were fired upon by PA troops and slain. Other heavy troops were brought up and started firing back to the NAC. Jager advance along the eastern flank was slow due to being bogged down in mud (bad rolls for combat move).

The NSL stormed the southern bunker, but took heavy casualties. However, they secured the head scientist. The NAC quickly assualted the bunker themselves, and took the NSL squad prisoner, along with the scientist. Heavy fire from Jager squads and the APC kept the PA pinned for a good hour however (several turns).

Not being able to gain effective fire against the PA units however meant that the Jager were eventually worn down, and the inability to deploy further units (that mud again) meant that an NSL withdrawel was forced as their losses mounted.

The forces used were what we had, and the advantage of the PA on the NAC side was quickly apparent since they were able to quickly dominate the battle field. Bad rolls with movement and mortar fire, as well as losing their sniper in the first exchange of fire, meant the NSL were never able to cause much damage to the NAC.