Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign (Turn 1, Part 1)

We began our Hellfire campaign this week. It will probably take a month or two to complete. The goal of the campaign is for the insurgents to capture a city, get Prince Bishopette Athaniel Moor to that city, and to hold it for two days while she kisses babies and has her photograph taken everywhere. This will be a huge boost for the insurgent cause and will go a long way towards forcing Short Company to either leave the planet or to change their working practices. Naturally, ShortCom does not wish this to happen, so their goal is to prevent the insurgents from achieving their goal.

"Sir, the Fidelians are revolting!"
"Come now, lieutenant, they are rather grim by our standards, but that's a bit harsh."
"No, sir, they are revolting. Satellite images indicate six columns of Fidelians coming our way. Scouts on the ground report that the Church of Fidelis has mobilised its Dedicationalist Sect Guard battalion, while the Fidelian resistance movement appears to have dispatched The Liberty Battalion, the 44th Whistling Joeys and the 45th Staunch in Righteousness battalions. This is it, sir. What shall we do?"

General Short examined the map of Fidelis Province and checked the forces available to him. He knew he had the technology and superior firepower. He just needed to deploy it properly.

ShortCom Forces (Yellow)
1 26T Infantry Battalion
2 Spaceport Defence Company
3 36R Airmobile Battalion
4 Rural gendarmerie (1 company)
5 Rural gendarmerie (1 company)
6 Joados Marauders (1 company of mercenary Thaugs)
7 Jessop's Regiment (2 troops of armoured infantry with artillery support)

Insurgents (White)
1 Dedicationalist Sect, Fidelis Guard (1 infantry battalion)
2 Liberty Battalion (1 improvised armoured battalion)
? Unidentified forces

"Tell the garrison companies at Salvation and Alacrity to stand fast. We'll mobilise support for them from Thrift and Chastity. And get Intelligence to scan these movements. We need to work out where their main strike is going to come from."
"Sir, Intelligence says they are struggling to identify anything at the moment. There's too much cover in the mountains."
"Ok. Get me the commander of 36R Airmobile on the blower. We'll send his troops into the mountains to scout that blip in the north. Tell Jessop's Regiment to move out and intercept the other blip just north of Thrift, and get 26T Battalion to move out and intercept the insurgents as they leave the mountains. We'll get them in a vice and crush them."

Later that morning.
"Sir, reports are coming in that 36R has made contact with enemy forces in the mountains. Looks like they've found the Dedicationalists and it's got hot. An insurgent armoured battalion has also attacked Salvation."
"Very good, lieutenant. Keep me apprised of the situation. Once 36R has crushed them, they can scout the others. And let's see what we can do to help the gendarmes at Salvation."
"Sir, update on the situation in the mountains. 36R has met stiff resistance and is taking heavy fire from the insurgents. One fighter from Omega Company is down. No survivors. Alpha company is also reporting heavy casualties."

The battle between 36R Airmobile and the Fidelis Guard was surprisingly one-sided. The ground attack craft were put out of commission in the first turn as ground fire shot one down and destroyed the sensor array on the other, putting it out of action. Half a company of Airmobile infantry was shot out of the sky with no survivors. The remainder managed to land before their craft was destroyed but then they were shot up by the insurgents with no survivors. The remaining company tried a flanking movement but decided to withdraw quickly when the rest of the battalion was so quickly destroyed. In all this, the insurgents lost only one stand of infantry. Steve's dice rolling in this battle was terrible and mine was really good leading to a very one-sided game. Also, I got so involved with the game that I forgot to take any photos of it!

"Sir, reports in from 36R. The support company is out of action and Alpha Company has been destroyed. Beta Company is withdrawing. We're still awaiting reports from Salvation."

Next time we meet, we'll fight the Battle for Salvation and then continue with the campaign. Theoretically, this battle should be fairly one-sided, because the ShortCom forces are so weak, but you never know what the dice will throw at you.