Hyde’s Reach: First Firefight
It finally happened. Steel met steel in a no-holds barred cage match for a sleepy little rail junction somewhere in west Septemtria.
You can catch all the terrible action here.
The overall battle saw one regiment of near-modern forces holding a rail juntion against a like-number of foes. The advantage on the part of the Regnan defenders was several days to prepare defenses for the lead battaltion, a high hill on which to place a supporting battalion and behind which to hide the heavy artillery, and a small town a few klicks south to serve as HQ and secure fallback position.
Against that, they sacrificed the initiative. The Septemtrians could maneuver their own guns to support an attack on the rail junction, while keeping them out of range of the enemy guns. They could use their third battalion to secure any counter-attack from the hill, and that allowed them to throw two fresh battalions at the junction itself. On paper, it was a sound plan, but the only way to know was through the crucible of combat.
The dice came up strong for the defenders early on, and they managed to hold the junction against the first wave of liberating Septemtrians. The second supporting battalion proved too much. After several hours of hard fighting, the Regnans were pushed back, out of their defenses, and even the arrival of heavy armor in a swift counter attack couldn’t stem the tide. Particularly given that the first Septemtrian battalion managed to recover its nerve with an hour off the front line.
A long hard debate must have raged in the Regnan HQ. Their boys were still capable of fighting, and the front line commanders urged the release of the third battalion to support another counter attack, but in the end prudence prevailed. With Regnan reinforcements a day or two out, and intelligence suggested at least a week before the same could arrive for the Septies, the decision was made – save lives, save materiel, and fall back to the second line of defence within the small town to the south.
It was only the first fight of the war, and the Regnans couldn’t hope to win a war of attrition. Instead, circumstances dictated a judicious and patient strategy. The boys from Frugford were fresh and hardy lads. If anyone could retake the rail junction and stymie Septemtrian resupply routes, it was them.
As you can see, this fight took place entirely on paper, with red and blue arrows indicating relative motions. It looks like a grotty version of the maps that captured our imaginations in high school textbooks – in the passages the teachers always skipped over – and I love it. The rules in use were Webster’s Hell in Microcosm, which is well suited to this kind of play, especially at this level of granularity. You don’t worry about which tanks are doing what and what tactics the guys on the ground are using. You just order battalions to hold, advance, fight, or withdraw.
With a full table of miniatures and wound counters, you could probably field a full division on division fight. That would amount to nine battalions on the table with about half that number of supporting companies. It would take the standard 3-4 hours to resolve, and you’d want 6mm figures. For a map campaign like this, it works very well at this scale, providing an hour or so of fun with plenty of decision points and just enough wrinkles to keep it from feeling like a “best of three” rock-paper-scissor game.