I’ve spoken before about CAS-specialist aircraft. I’ve spent a lot of time with the virtual A-10 in DCS, and I’m a big fan of the aircraft. In my heart, I love that gun. But the heart can make us do stupid things. We can’t always trust it. Similarly, the A-10 has saved the bacon of a great many American soldiers in combat. They adore the Warthog, and rightfully so. But they would adore any aircraft that saved them.
We want to know whether or not the Dedicated CAS aircraft is a good buy. Keeping it simple, we’ll compare it to buying more multirole aircraft instead. In USAF terms, A-10s or F-16s. Given that this is 2017, and we have combat data on both, is it worth it to put money towards maintaining the A-10 fleet, or should that money be switched over to the F-16s and F-35s?
The close air support mission is a peculiar one, and one full of contradictory requirements. The A-10 seems tailor-made for the mission, with plenty of armor and a massively powerful gun. It’s optimized for flying low and slow, and this kind of flight profile maximizes the utility of the gun and the ability of the pilot to see things.
That sort of flight profile make a number of assumptions:
Local air superiority has been achieved and can be assumed
Enemy air defense is extremely limited in number
Enemy air defense is gun based or nonexistent
In a conventional shooting war, or even a low-intensity conflict with a sophisticated adversary, we don’t get to assume these are true.1 In a COIN conflict, we get (1) and (2) but we may not have (3). The enemy may have access to MANPADS like Stinger or Igla. As seen in the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, this forces aircraft to medium altitudes, i.e. out of the gun envelope.
Let’s look at the combat record. The A-10 has seen combat in Gulf War I as well as providing close air support as part of US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first Gulf War is as close as we get to seeing the A-10 in a conventional war. The A-10 was not sent in against the Iraqi SAM systems. But it did see plenty of use against troops of both the Iraqi Army as well as against those of the Republican Guard. The Republican Guard was better equipped and better disciplined than the conscript regular army. The Republican Guard did not have much in the way of MANPADS or other short-range SAM systems, but they fought back with guns. Many A-10s sustained combat damage, and two were lost on February 15, which caused A-10s to be tasked to other targets. While the A-10’s armor usually allowed it to make it back to base, the A-10’s lack of speed was identified as a deficiency that made it more vulnerable to gun hits.
The primary tank-killer for the A-10 in the Persian Gulf was the IR-guided Maverick, not the GAU-8/A. Of course, other aircraft can also carry these Mavericks, and these other aircraft also racked up a respectable tally of destroyed tanks with the AGM-65s. The A-10A had very little provision for precision-guided ordnance2, and so did not use laser guided bombs to “plink” tanks, unlike the F-111. Again it doesn’t take a purpose-built aircraft to carry precision ordnance, and these can be delivered from medium altitude, away from AAA and MANPADS.
Lots of aircraft have done CAS duty in Afghanistan, including of course, the A-10. Again, the big star weapon hasn’t been the gun. It’s the JDAM, which are GPS guided. Also using the JDAM to excellent close air support effect are the B-1B and the B-52H. And many others too, but I’m highlighting heavy bombers because they’re big, high-altitude behemoths that aren’t really “designed” with CAS in mind. But they can do it with modern weapons. As can F-16s, F-15Es, F/A-18C/Ds, F/A-18E/Fs, and just about every other multirole tactical aircraft you care to name. Tactical aircraft give up the giant gun and the armor plate. But there’s a net gain in survivability from more speed because they can evade missiles better, and they can perform the vast majority of modern CAS missions just as well as a purpose built type.
For COIN, one might be tempted to look for savings in aircraft types. These can be provided from UCAVs like the MQ-9 Reaper or from something like a Super Tucano. Both of these will provide more sorties per dollar than the sort of big armored CAS-optimized plane. And if there’s negligible threat, they’ll drop precision guided munitions just as well.
Against a hypothetical, sophisticated opponent with modern integrated air defense systems, all of the above will all require large strike packages to approach any kind of reasonable survivability level, and those aren’t feasible for CAS. Maximum survivability is provided by aircraft with low-observability characteristics, such as the F-35 or F-22. In Desert Storm, coalition air commanders had faith only in the stealthy F-117 to penetrate the formidable air defenses around Baghdad. The alternative to stealth is a big, Rolling Thunder-style strike package with ECM and SEAD escorts, plus fighter escorts. Which isn’t going to be generated for an aircraft to loiter in support of ground forces.
Let’s look at a more modern example: recent events in the Ukraine. Here’s a radar map of the Ukraine. That’s a map of all of the air search radars in the region. Have fun with that. And remember, lots of these SAM systems are going to be reasonably modern units that can move. Everyone saw the success the Serbians had by shutting off their radars and moving their air defense systems around to frustrate NATO SEAD strikes. And you can’t sortie your A-10s until you get air superiority and deeply reduce that SAM umbrella.
The gun on the A-10 is a fantastic weapon, but it’s a trifle outmoded these days. If a gun and armor were the sine qua non of CAS, we’d sortie Hs 129 B-3s. With modern precision munitions, the role can be filled by multirole or low-observable-multirole types with no loss of effectiveness. And in hostile airspace where the opponent has some actual air defenses, the A-10 and its ilk are the least survivable types. A mess like the Donbass is begging for low-observability if you want to actually survive to deliver ordnance and live to strike again tomorrow.
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Drake looks over the plans for the Awesome’s refit and deems them good. It’s Kepano Endo again who takes on the task. Between reconditioning all the damaged internals, coming up with a way to fit Clan technology in, and changing the engine heat sinks out, it’s going to take…
Five months. Well, when it’s ready, it’ll be a sight to behold.
The Action of April 10, 3052
There are rumblings amongst the Rasalhague garrison that something big is going to happen soon: a truce, an Inner Sphere counterattack, something.
That’s a long way off, though, and we have more immediate concerns. A Rasalhague officer appears in the Bastards’ command post—a little more makeshift and a little more tumbledown than in the past; moving world to world at this pace is hard—and lets us know that a full Star of Clan mechs has been spotted marching toward the city of Spanac. There’s a Rasalhague force moving to intercept, but they’ll need reinforcements. Second Lance and Bear’s Bruisers drew patrol duty today. Drake redirects them there. It’ll be a race against time.
Since it’s been a while since these two lances deployed, here are their dispositions. The Ryoken still has a damaged arm, but will have to get by. The Ultra AC/20 is its main punch anyway.
The Opinionated Bastards are arriving a little late to the party. We’ll deploy as we arrive. To get full credit for the mission, we’ll have to keep at least some of the extant Rasalhague forces alive.
Round 1
None of our forces arrive until before Round 4.
The Rasalhague forces deploy around the city in the middle of the map, while the Clanners appear all along the northern border. They advance, exchanging LRM and PPC fire to no effect.
Round 2
The Rasalhague forces remain entrenched in the city, while the Clanners close from all angles. The lightest Rasalhague mech, an Ostscout, takes heavy damage and loses a leg.
Round 3
The Clan mechs, rushing into combat and toward glory, slip on the pavement. A Fenris trips, sliding into an approaching Ryoken and nearly tripping. The Rasalhague mechs, whose pilots are largely green, fail to take advantage. The Clanners, however, remain focused on the ailing Ostscout.
Round 4
Severe is the first to arrive on the scene. (The minimap shot up under round 1 has her position highlighted.) Her sensors paint a confused picture. Firing continues in the city. Severe is going to move closer, but attempt to stay out of the way until reinforcements arrive. Teddy Bear‘s Vulcan arrives before Round 5, and Simona in the Ryoken appears before Round 6.
Round 5
The Rasalhague Ostscout finally falls. A full company of mechs now battles in the city, although two of the Rasalhague mechs are hanging back. Teddy Bear arrives, and he and Severe link up on the road south of the city.
The heaviest Rasalhague mech, a Thunderbolt, falls. Chatter on the Rasalhague radio net turns panicky; that must have been their commander.
Teddy Bear quickly switches his radio over to the right channel, and calls for the Rasalhague forces to retreat and regroup south of the city, falling back on the Bastards.
Round 6
The six remaining Rasalhague mechs are a little slow to respond, and a little out of position to boot. Happily, most of them have jump jets, and the command to turn and run seems to be a pretty welcome one. Milspec in the Crab, plus the ever-dependable Wizard and Hanzoku in their Guillotines, arrive soon. With the Rasalhague forces rallying to us, we may be able to turn this around on the Clanners.
The allied Lancelot appears to be trapped; unable to jump and deployed on the wrong side of the buildings, it’s facing down the enemy Ryoken and Man o’ War. We’ll see if we can extricate it.
We can’t support it with weapons fire yet. Its pilot aims, not for the Fenris shooting at it, but at the building underneath it.
Round 7
The gambit doesn’t work; the building survives. The Lancelot is likely to take a serious beating.
South of the city, the Bastards and the Rasalhague forces are consolidating. Soon they’ll be in position to make a push.
The allied Ostroc actually has a shot on one of the enemy Fenrises, and takes it gleefully. So does the Cicada. Severe joins in, firing the Bastards’ first shots in anger from a Clan mech.
Round 8
Double Dog hits the field. Only Rook remains to join the fray.
We don’t have a lot of LRMs, but we also don’t want to charge around the corner until we can bring more mechs to bear at once. The allied Cicada, perched atop a building but out of sight of most of the enemy mechs, will do some spotting, as will the Lancelot, which is probably doomed this turn.
Round 9
The allied Lancelot does indeed eat it, and the Cicada takes a hit from one of the Fenrises which knocks out one of its legs. Fully half of the allied mechs have been either destroyed or rendered combat-ineffective. Happily, we’re now in a position to begin our own attack, swinging around to the left to engage the Clanners.
Simona finds himself a good position with the Ryoken, switching his Ultra AC/20 over to burst mode and targeting the rear of the enemy Ryoken. Rook, too, takes her first shot of the day, a low-percentage LRM-10 salvo against the enemy Ryoken. The allied commander, who survived the destruction of his Thunderbolt and managed to eject, is directing fire.
For his trouble, he immediately takes a hit from the Man o’ War’s large pulse laser.
Simona hits with one of his two AC/20 shells, shearing off the enemy Ryoken’s right arm and cutting deep into its right torso armor: a successful sneak attack. He’ll get down from the building now, to avoid taking any return fire.
Round 10
The allied Cicada is still clinging to life, but not for very long. Rook, who took command when she took the field, encourages its pilot to eject. The Rasalhague pilot does so.
At present, our forces are still jockeying for position.
Round 11
The next round sees the Bastards moving into attack range of the enemy. Severe takes a shot at a Fenris caught a bit out of position, joined by Wizard and the Rasalhague medium mech drivers. Simona is itching to bring his AC/20 to bear, but is just out of range behind a building.
The Fenris unloads at point-blank range with four medium pulse lasers, knocking the Rasalhague Wolverine over and readying a kick. Severe misses with everything, though Wizard scores with her PPC. The Rasalhague Griffin readies a kick itself.
Though the Wolverine absorbs a kick, the Griffin’s kick knocks the Fenris down.
Round 12
A pillar of dust around to the west comes as a surprise to the Bastards on the field. Sensor records later indicate that it was an enemy Fenris, attempting to flank, which skidded into a building.
The Rasalhague Wolverine loses an arm to fire from the Fenris, but beyond that, not much happens.
Severe is on the hunt for the enemy Fenris to the north, while Simona and Milspec aim to put some fire on the enemy Ryoken. Simona, unfortunately, is under fire from the enemy Man o’ War, too. Hopefully he’ll weather it well.
It seems he does: he takes a few hits, and fire from the Ryoken facing him eats into his left leg and strikes the myomers in the shin. Otherwise, his armor holds, and with a devastating AC/20 shot to the chest, he knocks the enemy Ryoken out. We’ll have to see about salvaging it later.
Round 13-14
The Clan Wolf Man o’ War moves up, and the battle is well and truly joined. Teddy Bear, Severe, Hanzoku, and Milspec have clear shots at it, while Simona has managed to move just out of its path. He exchanges fire with the flanking Fenris, now back on its feet, instead. Double Dog shoots at the back of the Fenris from up north, hoping to bring it down in concert with the friendly Wolverine.
As might have been expected, Simona loses the Ryoken’s right arm and its attendant medium lasers. Hopefully we can salvage those. The Man o’ War takes a good bit of damage, but Milspec‘s cockpit flashes with alarms: his right torso armor is gone.
Round 15
The Man o’ War lays heavy fire on the Koshi, which I stupidly put a little too close to its arc of fire. Severe does what she can to stay on her feet, but bolts shear apart and her mech’s left leg detaches at the hip.
Hanzoku, however, scores a kill on the Fenris hassling Rook, while Simona blows a leg off of the other one.
Round 16
Simona is out of danger now, and Rook is in LRM and large laser range of the Mad Cat perched on a building over to the east. The enemy Man o’ War, though still evidently in good shape, has nearly been cored; its center torso is all but gone.
Wizard scores the kill on the Man o’ War, shooting through its tattered rear armor, and knocking out its engine.
Round 17
Milspec is left to deal with the downed Fenris, while the rest of our little force advances on the Mad Cat, the only enemy still in fighting shape. Its pilot jumps down from the building, taking it out of the arc of fire of most of our mechs.
Trading fire with the Ostroc, the Mad Cat neither deals nor takes serious damage. Milspec gets the kill, kicking through the Fenris’ chest.
Round 18
For once, initiative goes our way. The Mad Cat moves first, and we’re able to bring a lot more firepower to bear; six or seven mechs take shots at the Mad Cat. Not many hit, however; we’re shooting from a bad position. Hanzoku and Wizard are going to try to get closer; their mechs are well-armored and have legs fit for kicking.
Simona takes a few hits, and his poorly-repaired Ryoken doesn’t behave quite like he expects. It tips over and falls, and as he recovers his senses, he realizes his left leg is out of action.
Round 19
It looks like the end for the Mad Cat, and indeed it turns out to be. Wizard‘s barrage of medium laser fire chews through its engine and brings it down.
Damage, Injuries, Salvage
In the Crab, Milspec took heavy damage, while both Simona in the Ryoken and Severe in the Koshi lost legs. Despite that, injuries are light, and salvage is good. We take the Mad Cat and the Ryoken.
Both end up yielding good salvage. Unfortunately, we don’t manage to pull any intact ER PPCs out of the Mad Cat, but we do secure a Clan 375 XL engine, which we could probably trade for an Inner Sphere assault mech without too much difficulty.
The Ryoken ends up being an even better haul than expected. Its engine survived, too, and now we have a spare for Simona’s Ryoken. We also take an ER Large Laser from the wreckage.
Otherwise, the Mad Cat yields a brace of Streak SRM-6 launchers plus some ammo. We also strip a good deal of Clan Ferro-Fibrous armor off of the two mechs, which is important for our long-term capability to field the Koshi and the Ryoken.
Kill Board(s)
Last Battle
Wizard continues her charge up the leaderboard with another two kills this month. She’s tied for second in mech kills, and has a dominating lead when it comes to bringing down Clanners.
All-Time Leaders
“Rook” Ishikawa (26, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
“Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
“Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
“Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
“Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
“Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
“Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
“Hanzoku” Yuksel (3, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
“Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
Gwenael Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
“Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)
Status
As the Bastards scramble, as usual, to repair and refit before the next fight, something strange happens. On April 15th, the Clan Wolf forces raiding Tukayyid pull back to orbit. Soon after, our little backwater is suddenly the center of a tremendous amount of activity. Ships from six other Clans appear in orbit, along with a vast fleet of vessels with the ComStar insignia.
Our Rasalhague liaison bandies about terms like ‘batchall’ and ‘Trial of Possession’, which Hanzoku explains, and other terms like ‘the fate of Terra’ and ‘utter ruin if they lose’, which the rest of the Bastards understand just fine.
ComStar has taken over all defense arrangements against the Clans, and shunted the Rasalhague Republican forces off to provide security for civilians evacuated from the combat zones to come. We’re more than happy to babysit refugee convoys and sit out of the action for a bit. After all, we still get paid.
It is now May 1, 3052.
Contract Status
Our contract has been extended, but there’s a reasonable possibility it might be cut short early, unless ComStar loses.
Finances
We have 42.046 million C-bills on hand.
Repairs and Refits
With the obvious exception of the Awesome, which is still four months away from completion, the Bastards are at full strength. With the Clan heat sinks we salvaged from the Mad Cat and downed Ryoken, we were able to bring Simona’s Ryoken back to a full complement, and we even have five to spare.
As far as negatives go, several of the ER Medium Lasers in our Ryoken’s arm were total losses. At present, it has four instead of the design six, and we have no spares.
Training and Promotions
Teddy Bear acquitted himself well in combat, rapidly taking stock of the state of things when he arrived on the field. By taking command of the Rasalhague mechs, he managed to keep a full lance of them alive in the face of overwhelming Clan firepower. As such, he’s been promoted to Sergeant.
Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments
For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
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Mortars are awesome, and a bigger mortar means more range and explosive power per shell. But a bigger mortar is a lot harder for troops to carry. The biggest commonly in use today are the 120 mm mortars like the Soltam K6. This weighs 319 lbs, and breaks down into the following components:
M298 cannon assembly (110 lbs)
M190 bipod assembly (70 pounds)
M9 baseplate (136 pounds)
That’s not going to be easy for infantry to haul. And it’s pretty natural, especially for motorized or mechanized infantry, to want to put mortars in a carrier vehicle. Let’s look at a couple American options. The basic idea here is pretty straightforward: take an APC, fit a retractable roof, and mount the mortar in the back. Surprisingly simple for units in the US Army inventory.
Our first example is the M1064. It’s based on the classic M113 APC. While the M113, even with the A3 improvements, is pretty vulnerable to modern battlefield threats these days, in the artillery role it’s perfectly adequate. The mortar is the 120mm M121, an American licensed copy of the K6. The M1064 also has a ring mount for a machine gun, and usually has an M2 mounted. Ammunition capacity is 69 mortar shells and 600 rounds for the M2.
The Israelis operate a similar system to the M1064, the Keshet. The key difference is that it’s equipped with the CARDOM mortar system, which automates the aiming of the mortar using a computerized fire control system. I would expect the number of stowed shells carried to be similar to the M1064.
Next we have the M1129, based on the Stryker APC. Again, there’s a retractable roof exposing a 120 mm M121 mortar. Some versions are also equipped with an additional, smaller mortar for dismounted use. This may be a 60mm or an 81mm mortar. If the M1129 is only equipped with a 120mm mortar, it will carry 60 120mm mortar shells. If a dismountable mortar is also carried, the supply of 120mm shells is reduced to 48. If a 60mm mortar is carried, 77 shells for it will be carried as well. On the other hand, if an 81mm mortar is carried, a supply of 35 shells will be provided for it. Note that if a dismount mortar is provided, this mortar cannot replace the 120mm for mounted use, and the vehicle crew is sufficient to use only one of the two provided mortars.
Here’s a handy chart of ammo capacities. The designations M1129-60 and M1129-81 are my own, used here for convenience. What dismount mortar, if any, is carried on an M1129 is based on its tasking in the organization table (i.e. whether it belongs to a rifle company, rifle battalion, or RSTA1 squadron) and is not indicated in its designation.
Vehicle
M1064
M1129
M1129-60
M1129-81
120mm shells
69
60
48
48
81mm shells
–
–
–
35
60mm shells
–
–
77
–
In terms of deployment, each company in a Striker Brigade Combat Team has two M1129-60s and each battalion has four M1129-81s as an organic component. An RSTA squadron gets six M1129s. A mechanized infantry battalion will get 6 M1064s. In the future, an AMPV-based mortar carrier will replace the M1064.
Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition. They’re organized in the cavalry model (hence “squadron” instead of “battalion”). One RSTA squadron functions as the recon element for a brigade. ↩
Anytime I hear the words “milspec AR-10” my teeth get set on edge. There’s no such thing. I’m gonna repeat that.
There is no such thing as a “milspec AR-10”.
Got it? It should be pretty clear. No. Such. Thing.
Let’s start with what exactly is “milspec.” You may have guessed it’s short for “military specification,” and you’d be correct. For the US Army (and some others), they like to take ownership of certain products. Sometimes there are competitive bids. For the M4, there’s a specification of what exactly an M4 is, and then the US Army can have companies bid on how much it will cost to make a certain number of rifles to that spec. The milspec is owned by the military (in general).
So there’s no “milspec AR-10” because no major military adopted the AR-10 and cemented the design that way. Emphasis on the and. Merely adopting the rifle is insufficient. The AR-10 was used by the Sudanese, Cubans, and the Portugese, but none of those made a spec. All of those arms were built by Artillerie Inrichtigen, which wasn’t able to get more contracts and stopped making AR-10s ages ago. Still no spec.
Things got confusing in the 1990s. By that time, Eugene Stoner was working for Knights Armament, and they made the SR-25, a modern take on the AR-10 design for use as a semiautomatic marksman’s rifle. This used the gas system improvements worked out on the AR-15 and had a number of parts shared with the then-issue M16A2. The magazine design is also used in DPMS’ AR-10-pattern rifles, among others, and you can find these magazines as “DPMS/SR-25” pattern.
There’s another pattern of magazines currently in use for AR-10-pattern rifles. This one is made, confusingly enough, by Armalite. The original Armalite company ceased operations in the early 1980s. The rights to the name were bought, and Armalite was relaunched in 1996, with a new AR-10 pattern rifle (among other things). At that time the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was in effect in the United States. This bill prohibited the sale of new magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, but older magazines that held more than 10 rounds could still be bought and sold. So (new) Armalite made magazines that had a common design with M-14 magazines, so buyers of their rifle could use existing, common M-14 magazines with a couple easy modifications. These are “Armalite” pattern magazines, and they’re not compatible with DPMS/SR-25 pattern magazines.
And no, neither DPMS nor Knights nor Armalite are responsible for any current milspec “AR-10-pattern” rifle.
The Opinionated Bastards reach out to FedCom officials via hyperpulse message, and the deal is made. We can now buy advanced Inner Sphere technology; our mech techs place a large order of double heat sinks on the same day.
Since the Awesome is a large part of our combat strength, we’ll have to hold off on refitting it until we’re between contracts. By February 6th, however, we’re ready to start on Severe‘s new ride, the Koshi. Hanzoku demonstrates to the techs how the omni system works, and all agree the interchangeable pods are pretty nifty.
The problem is, we don’t have very many podded weapons: just a pair of Clan ER Medium Lasers. Those go on, of course, but that leaves quite a bit of space left over. (Since the Koshi is an omnimech, we can’t alter its armor configuration without totally redesigning the chassis.) The techs scratch their heads, then draw up plans to wire in three of the ER Small Lasers from Hanzoku‘s old mech in fixed mounts. They can’t be swapped as easily, but at present, we don’t have enough Clan salvage to make that a problem.
Kepano Endo, one of the company’s original techs, takes a look at the specifications, grunts, and gets his team to work. On February 9th, he announces it’s finished. Severe takes it out for a spin and pronounces it good.
And good it is, at least in large part. It moves 7 hexes while walking or 11 while running, and can jump 6 hexes. Its five lasers generate 24 heat, while it sinks 20 per turn. Its alpha strike at ranges up to 6 hexes is a highly respectable 29 damage, dropping to 14 damage at ranges out to 15. (That’s the same range as an Inner Sphere large laser.)
Unfortunately, it’s rather lightly armored. The arms in particular are pretty floppy, with only four points of armor and four points of internal structure. PPCs of any flavor will readily knock them off, as will Clan large lasers, lucky missile hits, and more. As such, the armament is placed in the slightly more durable side torsos. No important equipment is in the arms. This makes it a little harder to target enemies behind the mech, but also makes it less likely we’ll lose Clan equipment. At present, we don’t have enough of it to throw it away.
In the Field
Nox is quiet through most of February. On the 22nd, a panicked Rasalhague intelligence officer lets us know that a large Clan force has jumped into the system. On the 25th, they reach Nox and make landings. By the 27th, the planetary capital has fallen and Clan forces are advancing on our sector. While the Rasalhague crews pack up the DropShips, the Opinionated Bastards are tasked with making a delaying attack on an overextended Clan force.
The Action of February 27, 3052
We’ve had about enough of being outgunned by Clanners, so we deploy Drake’s Destroyers and Second Lance against a short star of Clan heavies and a handful of reinforcing lights. Our Rasalhague ally is driving a Scorpion, a rare quadruped mech, armed with a PPC and an SRM-6 launcher.
The map is a minuscule section of hilly badland with next to no cover. It’s going to be bloody, but we’ve also caught this detachment off guard, so hopefully it’s not terribly bloody on our side. Knock on wood.
Round 1
We come over the ridgeline on the west side of the map and find the Clan forces arrayed before us. Only four mechs are in evidence at present, the heavies; we stumbled onto them before we found their screening forces. The latter should arrive shortly.
Although the numbers are heavily in our favor owing to whatever minor losses the Clanners took elsewhere on the planet, intelligence suggests these Clan pilots are more skiled than those we’ve faced previously. We’ll see how that plays out.
In the north, Drake is the target of most of the Clan fire, but gives out a beating too. He hits the enemy Mad Cat in the head; with a Clan PPC, he would have knocked it out instantly. As is, he wounds the Clanner pilot.
Return fire from the Mad Cat and Ryoken, however, knock out his right torso, which dramatically reduces the effectiveness of his armament. His center torso armor falls under the onslaught of the Mad Cat’s LRM-20 launchers. The Awesome is alive, but on shaky ground.
Round 2
The Clanners look at Drake‘s battered Awesome and seem to think it’s crippled enough to ignore for now. They probably aren’t wrong.
He calls out for focused fire on the Ryoken, and most of the lance complies. Woad, chasing the Mad Cat further north, decides to shoot at the target directly in front of him.
Woad‘s gamble pays off. His lasers cut into the Mad Cat’s left torso, striking its LRM ammunition and slicing off its left arm.
He attempts to kick the Clanner to add injury to injury, but doesn’t quite connect. Wizard, along with Milspec and our ally in the Scorpion, engage one of the enemy Fenrises and pierce its armor, but can’t quite bring it down.
Round 3
I’m a little concerned for the Awesome, which is attracting fire from the Ryoken and the southern Fenris.
Rook in the Stalker has laid down some serious damage, but not quite finished anything off yet. I have high hopes she’ll manage to do so against the Mad Cat.
It’s a close-run thing, but unfortunately, Drake‘s Awesome goes down to center torso destruction. It’ll probably be salvageable, but will take some time and some doing to put back into service. At the very least, it’s down for the remainder of the contract.
As a consolation prize, Rook takes down the Mad Cat. Under heavy fire, both Fenrises fall down. Wizard stomps the southern one, crushing it.
Round 4
The pilot of the enemy Ryoken ejects, for reasons not entirely clear to me. His mech was still in fighting shape, just shut down and fallen over. We may be able to salvage it, too. Although we’re already at our salvage limit, there isn’t going to be a Free Rasalhague Republic to complain for very much longer.
In a curious exercise in futility, the remaining enemy mech on the field, a Fenris, tries to stand up five times, failing the first four attempts. On the fifth try, he manages to stand… directly in front of Double Dog, who’ll compete with Carcer and Woad for the kill. Double Dog gets it.
Round 5
We reset, arranging ourselves to meet the Clan reinforcements. Inner Sphere screening units might have retreated, but Clanners are cut from different cloth. The two lights will attempt to avenge their compatriots.
Round 6
The enemy deploys at the northeast corner and southeast corner of the maps: a Koshi and a Puma, respectively. Perhaps we can score some spare parts for Severe‘s new ride.
The Koshi manages to find a spot where it’s very difficult for the northern force to hit it. In the south, however, the enemy Puma takes a solid thrashing.
Round 7
This time, the Koshi isn’t so lucky. The Puma, too, is facing down a ton of firepower.
Carcer‘s mech takes a hit to the head, knocking her out, but Woad retaliates by downing the Koshi. Wizard brings down the Puma, knocking out its engine with a shot to the left torso.
Damage, Injuries, Salvage
Salvage is good. Because its pilot ejected after it overheated, the Ryoken is simply sitting on the battlefield, crippled but able to move under its own power. Drake, extricating himself from the Awesome’s cockpit, calls Rook on his handheld radio and has her bring in Hanzoku, who simply starts the Ryoken and marches it off the field.
Contrary to reports, the Awesome is down, but not out. The Rasalhague officers, watching reconnaissance reports warily, agree to loan us a few tanks to drag it back to the DropShip. As our techs cut into the shattered center torso, they find enough of the internal structure left there to make a rebuild a possibility, but it’s going to take a long time to get it back into full-on fighting trim. Drake is out a ride for now.
We receive about two and a half million C-Bills in battle loss compensation, most of it for the Awesome. Our Rasalhague liaison is sheepishly apologetic as he authorizes the payment.
Kill Board(s)
Last Battle
After-battle review suggests Rook should be credited with the Ryoken, in addition to the Mad Cat. That breaks her kill drought, and puts her ahead of Drake again in mech kills.
Wizard has another good day, making ace on four Clan mech kills and one vehicle kill. She’s the current leader in Clan kills.
All-Time Leaders
“Rook” Ishikawa (26, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
“Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Wizard” Que (5, 4 mechs, 4 Clan kills)
“Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
“Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
“Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
“Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
“Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
“Milspec” Ortega (3)
“Hanzoku” Yuksel (2, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
“Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
Gwenael Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
“Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)
Status
The Bastards pack up and burn away from another fallen world. In the command center of the Union dropship we’ve crammed into, Drake asks an officer where we’re headed next.
“A little nowhere world I doubt you’ve heard of,” the officer says. “Tukayyid.”
It is now March 11, 3052. We land on Tukayyid in two days.
Contract Status
Once we land on Tukayyid, the Rasalhague Republic will likely extend our contract by another two weeks to cover the travel time, which will push us into June. I can’t imagine they have much money left, though.
Unit Market
Nothing to report. The only mech available this month is a Blackjack BJ-1.
Finances
We have 31.621 million C-bills in the bank.
Repairs and Refits
As mentioned above, the Koshi is in fighting shape right now. We will have to do a little more work on it, swapping out the Clan anti-missile systems for Inner Sphere versions of the same. We can’t get ammunition for the Clan system, so right now it’s just taking up weight.
Surprisingly, the techs have managed to get the Awesome into something approaching fighting shape. It’s standing on its own two legs, and looks approximately like it did prior to the last battle. The techs have also informed Drake that it’s just in cosmetic good shape right now; it could possibly be rushed into combat, but would be questionably functional.
In the next mech bay over, the newly-salvaged Ryoken looks to be in pretty good shape. That’s a little misleading, though. It’s missing a few at-present-irreplaceable Clan double heat sinks, and its right arm, where most of its ER Medium Lasers are mounted, is in dire shape beneath the armor, barely attached to the chassis. It’ll need to be replaced; when reattaching it, the techs discovered critical damage we won’t be able to repair. To replace it, we’ll have to take all the medium lasers out, as well as the armor, and I don’t want to have to deal with that yet.
Recruitment
One of the Clanners survives, clambering out of the wreckage of the Mad Cat. He’s quickly taken into custody by our pilots. We’re about to cut him loose—the Clanners don’t pay ransom, and keeping a bunch of prisoners on hand isn’t really in the cards—when Hanzoku asks to have a word.
After a conversation of surprising speed and length, Hanzoku explains that the Clanner, Simona, is now a bondsman in Rook‘s service—an indentured servant who must prove himself to possess loyalty, integrity, and combat skill to earn his freedom back.
Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments
For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi – Archer ARC-2K
The following mechwarriors are available.
Pvt. Gwenael Hernandez – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
Pvt. Kevin Stirzacre – Wasp WSP-1A
Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B
Action Items
We can take advantage of the Awesome’s downtime to refit it now, adding double heat sinks and Clan ER PPCs, or we can rush it back into action so Drake has a ride again.
We can refit the Ryoken further, switching to Inner Sphere double heat sinks in OmniPods. Doing so might not actually gain us anything over its present, damaged state—I’ll have to look at its current setup to see if it has the internal space to fit Inner Sphere heat sinks. Or, we can leave it as-is, down two heat sinks. (If we’re going to add Inner Sphere heat sinks, we should probably also take the time to scrap its damaged arm and replace it with a new one.)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the US Army invited two of the best tank commanders of the Wehrmacht, General Hermann Balck and his Chief of Staff General Friedrich von Mellenthin, to come to the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for several seminars and war games. Balck and von Mellenthin had a great time playing with the huge amount of airpower available to them while playing as BLUFOR. In addition to comparing notes on wargame solutions, the US Army asked Balck and von Mellenthin a number of questions about organizing units. Here’s what they thought was best:
Company Strength: Not more than 70-80 men
(Rifle) battalion strength: about 300 men
Rifle battalion should be broken up into three rifle companies and a machine gun company
Panzer division should have three panzergrenadier regiments and one panzer regiment
Panzergrenadier regiment should have two battalions
10 tanks per tank company
Tank platoons should consist of three tanks
These units are small. But both of the veteran generals felt that small units were easier to lead and more flexible. Plus, these two generals achieved their greatest successes against the Russians when commanding the 11th Panzer Division when the division was so understrength that it was roughly the size of a brigade, at least as far as number of tanks and combat troops was concerned.
That said, I think Balck and von Mellinthin have gone a bit too far in advocating for small, agile units. While they did an excellent job with small units late in the war, no nation has actually gone this far in cutting unit size. Or really, all that close. You end up needing numbers of men to hold terrain, or to fight in cities.
The American MRE is the standard ration for the US armed forces, and is also frequently deployed as aid to areas affected by natural disaster. The MRE came with some interesting innovations when it was introduced in 1981, and many of these have spread to other nations’ rations. Let’s take a look.
Calorie Accounting The contents of one MRE, as you might have gathered from the name, are intended to be one meal. Or, one third of a soldier’s calorie and nutrient needs for one battle day. One entree, one side, one powdered off-brand Gatorade clone, etc. Most other nations’ rations are accounted for by day. So one package contains two or three entrees, three sides, maybe a snack. I have no idea where this difference came from. Maybe it’s a metric/imperial thing.
Retort Pouches The classic ration uses cans to store the various components. This is pretty common among older rations, and is still popular today. Cans are pretty old school and easy to make. You can heat things up right in the can, and they can be used to make all kinds of improvised stuff. The MREs are different, using retort pouches to store food instead of cans. A retort pouch is a pouch made from layers of metal foil and various plastics. Food can still be heated up in them, either by immersing them in hot water or with the ration heater. They’re still sealed, just like cans. They weigh less than cans. They don’t make a clanking sound when a bunch bang around in a pack on a long march. Oh, and they require less energy to make. Although these are slowly spreading, especially among the Commonwealth nations, I don’t know why these aren’t more popular. Retort pouches rock.
Ration Heater Everybody provides some means to heat the food in their rations. Usually, it’s a knockoff Esbit stove with some fuel tabs and matches. It’s fire. Fire is good. But fire leaves obvious traces. So the US military did what it usually does, and came up with a solution. The result is the flameless ration heater. No visible flame. No smoke. It’s a plastic pouch with some magnesium, iron, and salt in it. Add water, and it’ll get really hot. Hot enough to heat your rations. The spec says it’ll heat an 8 ounce ration entree item up by 100 °F in twelve minutes. They’re a really neat little piece of equipment, and lots of fun to play around with. They’re also super easy to use. I really like the flameless ration heater.
The Tabasco bottle An offshoot of the program to improve MRE menus is including a small bottle of Tabasco sauce. The Army, after spending millions1, finally figured out that being able to control how spicy a dish was played a big factor in how much people enjoyed a dish. So they added a small bottle of Tabasco2 sauce to some, but not all, of the MRE menus. Progress. All that said, while I really like this idea, it would be better if it was in all of the menus.
They could have grabbed a few chefs, or even a few diner cooks, interviewed them over a few beers and gotten the exact same information. But leave it to Big Army to do it the spendy way. ↩
Actual, name brand Tabasco sauce! Unlike most things in an MRE, this is a brand you’ll recognize, not some knock-off. ↩
