Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide PACIFIC CYCLONE · Infantry soldiers and tank crews alike were...

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QA Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide Copyright © Spartan Games 2013

COPPER RAIN

As one ice-encrusted front battlefront raged in the far south, at the other end of the world, another one had also exploded into life. In this case, the harsh weather conditions were both natural and expected. It was in the wild lands of the Russian Far East, then in the encroaching grip of a northern hemisphere winter, that this storm broke.

The architects of this offensive were the High Generals of the Empire of the Blazing Sun, especially Takeda of the Shield. With the Russians having finally declared their long-expected hostility to the Blazing Sun with their attack on Midway, Takeda and his fellow High Generals now saw fit to activate their plan for a counter-offensive.

Their priority was to prevent any combined Russo-American attack on Hawai’i. The hamstringing of Russian eastern military strength would hopefully prevent the two opposing powers from co-ordinating their forces properly. On the wider stage, it would also prove a fitting repayment to their Prussian Empire allies labouring in Europe for the aid they had given Sword Army 8th Division ‘Hariken’ earlier in the year.

As with the Caribbean offensive, ‘Copper Rain’ as this plan was dubbed, would also be undertaken by Sword Army forces, as, limited though it was planned to be, it was still an offensive operation. It’s objectives, the neutralisation of the Russian Far East Fleet and the capture of the Kuril Islands, had also been desired by the Empress herself for some time, as a means of protecting Japan’s vulnerable northern flank.

As with ‘Musashi’, the Sword Army ‘Yamato’ 4th Division would not be fighting alone, although unlike the mercurial Italians, its allies were more expected and familiar. The Empress’s diplomatic corps had spent many months, especially since the widening of the war after the London Raid, attempting to convince the

Guangxhu Emperor of China to participate in a pre-emptive war with the Russians, who were sure to turn their attentions eastwards again in future.

However, the Chinese proved reticent about the prospect of offensive war, especially on behalf of another power. Up to mid-1871, the only move which the Emperor had made was to move the 22nd Combined Armada of his Northern Oceanic Army into Manchuria, with a promise to aid any Blazing Sun defensive operations. Only in the event of a direct unprovoked attack, by Russian forces on Blazing Sun territory, would the Chinese be bound to widen their assistance to include ‘offensive operations’.

‘Copper Rain’ had effectively been delayed. The High Generals couldn’t risk a pre-emptive strike for fear of alienating Chinese support. This didn’t sit well with General of the Sword Katsu Hayashi of ‘Yamato’ Division. During October and early November, he drilled his troops based in Korea and northern Japan, and further refined the twin-pronged attack at the heart of ‘Copper Rain’. On November 1st he noted in his journal:

“I can find no rest. Back and forth I pace like a caged tiger in my study, while our brothers and sisters lay down their lives for the Empire in the Pacific. Would that I and my army were there to assist them in throwing the American pirates back into the sea! But still I am told ‘wait’, and obey I must, for the shadow cast by Oni is long, and the Shinobi ever watchful.”

’LET THE DELUGE BEGIN!’

It was in some ways a relief to the Blazing Sun high command when the Russians attacked Midway. Coded military and diplomatic cables flashed between Edo and Peking, and the Blazing Sun ambassador Lord Kazyua Shoto sought and was granted an urgent audience with the Guangxhu Emperor’s most senior advisers.

Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide

PART 8WINTER WARS

PACIFIC CYCLONEThe American attack on Hooke’s Reach was not the only war to be waged in grim winter conditions. Even before the Operation High Jump had hit the beaches on the mysterious island, another front, far larger in scale, had opened up. The Blazing Sun Sword Army 4th Division and its allies launched Operation Copper Rain against the Russian Coalition,

determined that the opportunistic attack on Midway would not go unpunished.

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Although the Emperor himself was still reluctant, the persuasive Shoto and the monarch’s own fears of Russian power left unchecked, agreed to provide “military and logistical support to our royal sister across the sea until such time as the northern threat posed to both our great realms be quashed.” The Emperor’s decree was finalised on November 15th.

The news was received with jubilation by ‘Yamato’ Division’s commanders on Tsushima. With them as an honoured guest was Deputy Lord High Admiral Huang Chen Feng, commander of the 22nd Combined Armada. Unlike Admiral Fujiwara and the Italians, Admiral Huang was a familiar and trusted ally, the 22nd C.A having carried out extensive joint exercises with ‘Yamato’ Division in the years leading up to the razing of Singapore.

A winter offensive from Manchuria and Japan into the Russian Far East would be a formidable undertaking, given the brutal conditions. Ice and snow were already lying thick on the ground and temperatures plummeting.

However, the combined Blazing Sun and Chinese forces had long-prepared for this eventuality. Infantry soldiers and tank crews alike were well-equipped with winter clothing and camouflage, and field workshops were well-prepared to handle the intimidating problems facing large armoured forces on the move.

The Imperial Alchemical institute also provided a number of ingenious machines; engineering vehicles with earthmoving and demolitions equipment to clear paths for the main forces, as well as support tanks fitted with modified Fury Generators sourced from French and Prussian technology. These machines, rather than setting fires, produced auras of slightly raised temperatures over a wide area, allowing soldiers and machines to operate with greater efficiency.

The advance from Manchuria on Vladivostok, the primary objective, would take place from both land and sea. On land, it was hoped that the freezing conditions would mitigate the effect of the great marshes around Lake Khanka, while the IAI’s machines would help the southern forces in their march from mountainous Northern Korea.

While the bulk of the Chinese land forces were composed of infantry and fairly light armour, the large numbers of tough conscripts would provide a mass of manpower to supplement the more heavily armed but less numerous Blazing Sun forces. At sea, many of the 22nd Combined Armada’s larger war machines, gigantic moving fortresses would provide a solid core of reinforcements for ‘Yamato’s’ naval groups.

Conventional air support would mostly be provided by ‘Yamato’s’ air groups, although Admiral Huang’s aerial command promised to contribute large numbers of deadly “Cloud-Dragon” heavy

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flying bombardment rockets, launched from Chinese heavy bombers, which promised to be a of great help in striking heavily fortified Russian positions.

It was a well-equipped, well-equipped joint force, benefitting from high morale that stood ready when its commanders received the coded ‘go’ order from Edo: “Let the deluge begin!” Less than twenty-four hours later on November 16th, the foremost task forces sailed for Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

MATTERS OF LEADERSHIP

For their part, the commanders of the Russian Far Eastern forces had braced themselves for Blazing Sun retaliation the moment the bombs of their aerial fleet fell upon Midway. The difficulty, especially for Semyonovich and Blomqvist, was determining where to focus their greatest defensive efforts.

Matters were further complicated by the losses suffered during Silver Scythe. Semyonovich’s naval forces, including his vital heavy carriers, would take precious time to return to home ports and rearm. Reasoning that Archangelsk-Novy did not have adequate facilities, and Korsakov on Sakhalin was too vulnerable, Semyonovich directed the Silver Scythe naval group to make for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Even the Russian commanders themselves were caught out of position when the Blazing Sun counter-attack began. General Godunov was inspecting border fortifications on the western end of the Nikolai Line near Khabarovsk. Semyonovich was awaiting the arrival of his carriers in Petropavlovsk, and Blomqvist had returned to Archangelsk-Novy, in case of a Blazing Sun strike against the thinly-held Alaska Oblast.

Ironically, the most senior Russian officer in closest proximity to the enemy onslaught was Oprichnina-General Korsun himself, who had remained in Vladivostok ostensibly composing

favourable telegraph messages about ‘his’ successful Midway strike. He was destined to play a key role in the Russian defence of their prime far eastern port – and not in a good way.

STEEL FURY

The opening operations of Copper Rain were lighting attacks by ‘Yamato’ Division’s 3rd Naval and Aerial Groups on the southernmost Kuril Islands. Dubbed ‘Steel Fury’ and commanded by Rear-Admiral Haruki Mitsuhiro, its first move was a powerful attack on Korsakov, fully vindicating Semyonovich’s decision to regroup his ships further north.

Haruki’s fleet had departed Sapporo on the northern Japanese island of Sapporo in conditions of great secrecy in the early evening of November 15th. Admiral Aki Kazama, naval chief of ‘Yamato’ had actually ordered them to sail even before the official ‘go’ command had been received. Mitsuhiro’s forces commenced their attack on the Russian port under cover of darkness during the early hours of November 16th.

In spite of their preparedness the Russian squadron based in the port was devastated. The ‘Steel Fury’ force composed of half a dozen cruisers led by the assault carrier INBS Tsushima, poured streams of rocket-assisted shells into the heart of the harbour. They were joined by a strong contingent of Inari gyros and heavy bombers.

Despite a blackout being enforced, the port’s key repair facilities, munitions stores and other resources suffered an appalling hammering. This was in large part because of the excellent preparedness of ‘Yamato’s’ planners, but mainly because of the many Shinobi agents, already deployed there secretly from Hokkaido for over a month at Admiral Kazama’s request.

These stealthy warriors had infiltrated key locations and, at the appointed time had set off firebombs and large clusters of bright

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flares, rendering them clearly visible to the naval gunners and bomber crews.

For the Russian garrison, under Colonel Kliment Sergeivich of General Godunov’s staff, and Commodore Alexei Tatamovich, the situation was a nightmare. Alexei became an early casualty when his flagship, the gunship Sverdlovsk, was devastated by bombs. Defensive batteries returned fire, their crews straining to focus on the distant gunflashes and rocket flares that were the only signs of the blacked-out fleet. Soon fires were raging throughout the military port, silhouetting the fleet’s remaining targets.

As the bombardment continued, further units of Yamato 3rd Naval Group accompanied by amphibious army forces, assaulted the southern Kurils. The Russian garrisons were overwhelmed in mere hours by massed infantry and light armour, supported by elite Tsunami Samurai Rocket Corps units dropped from squadrons of Tetsubo Class assault aircraft.

Unusually for operations this size, the battles were decided by aggressive infantry attacks. The troops of the Russian 65th Army were overwhelmed after brief but hard fights by the ‘Yamato’ 5th, 6th and 7th Ashigaru Regiments.

By the end of the day on November 17th, the three largest islands trailing north from Hokkaido were in Blazing Sun hands, and transport aircraft and ships were busily hauling in supplies for to consolidate the positions against any Russian retribution.

At Sakhalin, Mitsuhiro’s assault effectively destroyed the entire naval squadron remaining within Korsakov and shattered the city’s defences. As morning rose on the November 18th, the 4th Ashigaru and 6th Armoured Cavalry regiments landed just outside the battered town, which fell within hours.

However, the bulk of the garrison had withdrawn at Colonel Sergeievich’s direction back to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and by midday on the 18th, the advancing Blazing Sun forces were meeting heavier resistance from entrenched Russian forces, including light and medium armour and field artillery seconded to the Rifle Regiments. Confident that all they needed to do was keep their enemies contained, the Ashigaru and armoured units settled in for siege.

BREAKING ‘NIKOLAI’S’ BACK

However, as successful as the Steel Fury attacks were, they were a mere sideshow to the main portion of the Copper Rain offensive, dubbed ‘Thunder God’. Combined ‘Yamato’ Division and 22nd Combined Armada forces roared into action from three directions on November 17th, to break the back of the Nikolai Line.

General Hayashi had designed the ‘Thunder God’ operation as a blend of a traditional Samurai battleplan, with deceptive feints and thrusts, blended with the dynamism of the Napoleonic and early Prussian Imperial campaigns.

‘Yamato’ had been graced with additional armoured reserves, allowing it to operate its 1st through 4th Army Groups as first-line formations. However, the initial thrust his made was north-east from the Chinese defences known as the New Great Wall Forts along the southern bank of the Amur River. The thrust was made towards Khabarovsk and the northern arc of the Nikolai

fortresses, as if intending to cut the railroad links that ran to Vladivostok.

Bridging units laid down new river crossings under artillery protection. Armoured thrusts brought several Russian forts under bombardment. The advances certainly looked impressive, with wedges of tanks mounting attacks from their bridgeheads. Chinese Armour moved to guard the new crossing points over the Amur and industrious infantry units established new strongpoints.

By November 20th even Khabarovsk itself came under attack from by those Chinese Armada Air Wings that had been allocated to this sector of the front.

Facing this apparent onslaught were the Russian 77th Armoured Rifle and 105th Rifle Brigades. Some more aggressive commanders wished to counterattack immediately. However, General Godunov took advantage of his presence in Khabarovsk to assume direct command.

Godunov, to his credit, stayed the hands of his more reckless subordinates. With his forces relatively weak in armour in this sector, he limited his counter-strikes to driving off enemy assaults on threatened fortifications as part of an elastic defence strategy, rather than trying to strike directly at the attackers.

Gradually, a pattern began to emerge. For all their fury, the combined Blazing Sun and Chinese forces were in fact not making a serious move to cross the Amur in strength and follow up their initial attacks. Despite the protests of his sub-commanders and Korsun in Vladivostok, Godunov kept the bulk of his heavy armour back. He felt certain that the main enemy attack had not yet occurred.

The Russian general’s guess was correct. For Hayashi, this move was merely a feint, utilising second-line forces from ‘Yamato’s 5th and 6th Army groups, backed up by similar formations from the 22nd Combined Armada. Their main was focus securing ‘Thunder God’s’ northern flank.

On November 22nd, the bulk of Hayashi’s first-line armoured forces scythed across the border from Manchuria, between huge Lake Khanka and the northern rim of the Changbai mountains, to crash into the outlying south-western fortresses of the Nikolai Line. Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese infantry supported by light armour and heavy artillery, advanced north and east through the Changbais, alongside more Blazing Sun troops moving north from Korea to take the eastern mainland coastline opposite Vladivostok.

Over the next three days, Hayashi’s armoured thrusts, spearheaded by no less than six mighty Taka-Ashi heavy walkers, thundered across the frozen plains. Even the few swampy areas that remained liquid enough to be a potential problem were no match for the great walking Land Ships and highly mobile heavy armoured units.

Supported by gyros and bomber wings, Hayashi’s blitz smashed through the fortress complexes at Pogranichny and Chernigovka, severing the first of Vladivostok’s railway links. Where strongpoints resisted attack, the armoured units simply flowed around them and carried on its thrusting advances.

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In their wake came waves of mechanised Ashigaru and Chinese infantry who, under cover from ‘Yamato’ Division aircraft and gyros, moved to surround and reduce the stubborn redoubts with artillery and bombardment rocket attacks.

The rapid fall of two of the major outer redoubts of the Nikolai Line sent alarm bells ringing in Vladivostok by November 24th. Unfortunately, Godunov’s efforts to return rapidly to his headquarters were frustrated by enemy land and aerial action. His absence was to have grievous consequences for the defenders of the port.

‘IN THE NAME OF THE TSAR, WE STAND’

Korsun, having assumed direct command of the Vladivostok garrison on November 18th, then made a grievous error. He ordered the nearest elements of the 65th Army, including some of Godunov’s prized armoured reserve of the 57th Armoured Battle Brigade, to counterattack directly into the path of the Blazing Sun offensive.

The Russian armoured task force had little mobile artillery, but was supported by a small force of skyships and Interceptor Wings drawn from the 88th White Air Army Reserve. Their orders were halt the enemy offensive by any means necessary.

The two armoured forces met on November 26th, near the fortified town of Ussuryisk. The Russian forces, led by Commodore Alexander Klitschko aboard the Land Dreadnought Khabarovsk-Krai, were strong in heavy armour, but substantially outnumbered.

However, the impulsive Klitschko, determined to carry out Korsun’s orders to the letter, led a powerful thrust straight into the heart of Hayashi’s armoured spearheads, trusting to the artillery in the town itself to protect his flanks.

The two-day battle of Ussuryisk was one of the largest armoured engagements of the campaign. The Russian forces, comprising two full Tank Regiments, the 91st and 102nd and two Belgorod Land Ships Kutuzov and Grozny in addition to the commodore’s great flagship, sliced into the ‘Yamato’s 1st Army Group, causing severe losses to the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment and destroying the heavy walker YSU-15.

The valiant Klitschko did indeed manage to delay Hayashi’s offensive by a full day, with the Russian armour withstanding a fearsome pounding, while dealing out tremendous punishment with heavy guns and mortars. Rocket contrails split the skies as Steel Interceptors of the 56th and 64th Wings clashed with fighters of ‘Yamato’s’ 1st Air Group. Heavy gyros and skyships exchanged salvoes of concussive shells and flaming rockets.

Ultimately, though, Klitschko’s army was forced back on the town by superior enemy numbers. The breaking point came the following day, when still more Blazing Sun forces, of ‘Yamato’s’ 3rd Army group, fresh from subduing the forts at Spassk-Dainy on the southern shores of Lake Khanka, swept down on the beleaguered Russians from the north.

As his doom approached, Klitschko sent a final signal to Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, stating simply “Ussuryisk situation critical. Bogged down on all sides. We fight to the last shell. In the name of the Tsar, we stand.”

Klitschko was as good as his word. Hayashi’s staff later reported that only about a dozen Russian armoured vehicles and two skyships escaped the final onslaught. Miraculously, the Russian commander himself survived, found by search parties exploring the wreck of his flagship. He was taken aboard Hayashi’s command vessel, the Kagoshima Class Sendai, as an honoured guest.

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The Khabarovsk-Krai was one of the last Russian armoured units to be destroyed. As Hayashi later noted, “we bestowed prayers of thanks upon Hachiman as the monster’s superstructure blew apart in clouds of green flame. It had levelled two Armoured Cavalry companies by itself.”

‘Yamato’ 1st Army group suffered heavy losses, but Hayashi still had ample reserves to continue his offensive. Ussuryisk itself was rapidly surrounded by siege lines. Its stubborn defenders continued to hold out for a further five days before throwing in the towel. But for Korsun, Godunov and the Vladivostok garrison, the battle was disastrous.

The outer defences of Vladivostok lay open to attack by Hayashi’s rather battered but still powerful forces. Korsun’s folly had wasted some of 65th Army’s best battle-ready forces and Godunov would now need more precious time gathering together his remaining armoured reserves.

Furthermore, Ussuryisk was not Korsun’s only misstep in the opening move of the siege of Vladivostok. Only forty-eight hours later, in the early hours of November 30th, the 18th Sea Battle Brigade of the Far East Fleet would run into a similar situation on the water to that which had befallen Klitschko’s ill-fated land force.

OPERATION SILVER LANCE

The very nature of the primary Russian defence plans had been to conduct an elastic defence of the Far Eastern border, such as Godunov had supervised around Khabarovsk. Korsun’s reckless use of the armoured reserves had violated these principles.

But in the absence of their commander-in-chief, Godunov’s sub-commanders had little choice but to obey the Oprichnina-General’s commands. By his very rank, he wielded the direct authority of the Tsar. With Semyonovich also absent, the Vladivostok fleet division also suffered.

In essence, the operation Korsun ordered was reasonable. Even as Hayashi’s massed armour thundered southwards from Lake Khanka, other enemy forces were approaching Valdivostok along the coast from the south and across the Changbai Mountains.

These further armies mostly consisted of massed Ashigaru regiments of ‘Yamato’ escorting heavy siege artillery, and large numbers of Chinese regiments from the 22nd Combined Armada. By November 23rd, these forces were already launching infiltration attempts and probing attacks on the port’s southern defensive ring. Ominously, the first Chinese rocket-bomb fell on Fort Andrei, the largest of Vladivostok’s southern redoubts, on November 26th.

Russian scouts determined that these forces must be receiving their supplies via coastal road and railway links from Blazing Sun Korea. So, at the same time as ordering Klitschko’s armoured counterstrike, Korsun commanded the Far East Fleet’s 18th Sea Battle Brigade to bombard the northern Korean towns of Naijin and Naijin-Dong, to try and disrupt these supply links.

The 18th’s commander, Rear-Admiral Vasili Sevchenko, protested strongly – his desk had been filling up with reports of a substantial fleet of moving northwards towards Vladivostok. At this, Korsun flew into a rage and threatened to have Sevchenko and four of his most senior captains court-martialled for

insubordination. Faced with this opposition, the Rear-Admiral had no choice but to obey.

The 18th sailed on November 27th, even as Vladivostok’s aerial defences began to be tested. There was little hiding the departure of the Russian fleet, and within a few hours, Admiral Kazama of ‘Yamato’ Division had become aware that they were at sea. The 18th were shadowed by Blazing Sun scout aircraft virtually as soon as they cleared the belts of minefields around the approaches to their home port.

Kazama took a powerful force of her 1st Naval Group, accompanied by some of the 22nd Combined Armada’s formidable floating fortresses, and sailed to intercept. At her request, Sky-Colonel Masa Kato pulled a contingent of ‘Yamato’s’ 1st Aerial Group away from their operations against Vladivostok to accompany her fleet. Thanks to stretched White Air Army resources, Kazama’s fleet would enjoy air superiority.

The fleets met some 30 miles off Naijin on November 29th, the same day as the Americans launched their High Jump attacks on Hooke’s Reach. The weather was overcast and the seas unsettled, but unfortunately for the Russians not dramatically enough to impair the enemy’s airpower.

Kazama divided her fleet into two divisions. The slower Chinese fortress-ships, under the personal command of Admiral Huang, she directed to position themselves between Sevchenko’s fleet and Naijin, where the Russians looked to be headed, while she sent her own complement of battleships and cruisers north and then northwest, meaning to attack the enemy in their vulnerable rear quarter. She herself remained with a reserve force of heavy ships, which included her own dreadnought Kumamoto, ready to intervene at the critical point.

It was the Blazing Sun aerial units that opened the battle’s account, launching speculative bombardments at Sevchenko’s fleet as it formed up in arrowhead formation. However, at such long range the attacks had little impact on the heavily reinforced Russian capital ships. In particular, several Blazing Sun gyro captains noted with concern the erratic dispersal of their rocket salvos.

It was Huang’s great floating fortresses that took the brunt of Sevchenko’s attack. The Russian commander, seeing the writing on the wall, immediately abandoned the bombardment plan and resolved to cause as much damage as he could to the enemy before turning and making for home at all speed.

The Russian guns thundered, shaking the Chinese ships with their fury as the Tsar’s fleet pounded their old adversaries. Huang’s gunners replied in kind; their weapons somewhat lighter but possessing the virtue of sheer numbers in return. An observer aboard the Kumamoto, Lieutenant Goro Akami later noted that “it was an almost perfect display of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.”

For the Russians, this was their first experience of Chinese heavy arms since the war between the two empires in the 1830s and 40s. For many of the Tsar’s officers, it was quickly apparent that their southern rival had learned the lessons of that conflict well. Captain Yuri Sergeievich, of the battleship Gladit’ Resheniya, one of the leading Russian ships, recorded what he experienced that day:

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“As impressive as the warships of the Blazing Sun were, I could not draw my attention away from the vessels of our older adversary. Great squared-off hulls riding on thrashing paddles – not fast-moving, but seeming as unstoppable as a landslide. Above then were other craft – true fortresses drifting through the sky, with what seemed a curious, iridescent haze drawn between them.

Ornate they were, but no less resilient. Our Devil’s Triangle opened up with deafening roars, shells joining the showers of spigot-shots raining down on those curved roofs. Yet I cursed as I watched, for instead of tearing into those artful terraces with their customary power, our fire seemed languid as it passed through that shining veil, and made nothing but fitful smoke-puffs and cracks. Bits of debris slid into the sea with tall splashes, but if the giant craft were hamstrung, we could not see it.”

Despite a monstrous hammering by the devastating Russian bombards, the Chinese fleet held its position, although all of its ships suffered damage, and some were less fortunate than the ‘Gladit’ Resheniya’s first target. One, the Tan-Yang, was wracked by a series of internal explosions that would later sink her. The Russians themselves sustained telling damage from the Chinese cannon fire, with a cruiser and a gunship sunk and many other vessels with their armour protection cracked and splintered. Captain Sergeievich, braced within his bridge, recorded the effects of the fire on his flagship:

“We knew the Chinese called their heavy cannons the ‘Dragon’s Roar’, but only now did we understand why. My vessel’s bridge became like a metal cigar-box, shaken without mercy by a giant’s hand, with those of us inside bouncing around like so many dried peas. Armour plating sloughed away from the hull under the atonal assault. Ack-ack positions exploded as the vibrations set off their munitions, throwing bloodied crewmen about like straw dolls.

But as terrible as the pounding was, we were lucky, for Gladit’ Resheniya lived up to her name, even if we, her crew, could not match our faithful ship. Much worse was suffered by our comrades

in the 6th Destroyer Group, closing in to block off the advance of enemy light craft on the starboard side of our lines as we began to turn away for home.

Their path took them under the shadow of one of the great flying castles, hoping to get under its guns. But it consumed them with vast torrents of flame and chemical horror from above. Of three Rostovs and their crews that sailed in, only one, wreathed in dragon-fire, escaped from the carnage.”

Kazama’s flotillas landed salvo after salvo on the tails of Sevchenko’s ships as they began to execute their turn to the north, although their efforts were frustrated by the considerable numbers of the bizarre circular frigates covering the rear echelons of the 18th’s heavy units. Highly manoeuvrable, and powerfully armed, these small craft caused havoc amongst the light Blazing Sun frigates screening the line of battleships.

After nearly a day and half of battle, Sevchenko did succeed in pulling his fleet back from the closing enemy trap, helped considerably by the onset of nightfall and worsening weather conditions forcing much of the enemy airpower out of action. The Russians had lost half a dozen ships of various weights, but most of Sevchenko’s heavy units were still intact and the 18th remained an effective fleet in being.

On the other side, Kazama’s fleet had gotten off remarkably lightly. Apart from the Tan-Yang, no other battleship-weight units had been lost, although the INBS Kyoto had suffered severe damage to her broadside armament, and many other vessels, especially among Huang’s fleet, had been damaged to varying degrees. However, her light forces had suffered badly from their skirmishing with the Russian frigates, with nine frigates, corvettes and destroyers from her light flotillas sunk or damaged.

This last detail would prove significant, since the need for replacement light vessels would slow the vital process of mine clearance, impairing the imposition of a blockade of

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Vladivostok. However, the deflection of the Russian assault, and the willingness of their fleet to withdraw told Kazama in no uncertain terms that, for now at least, ‘Yamato’ Division was the master of the northern Sea of Japan. However, as later events would show, the Blazing Sun was not the only power who would for a while sail Russian waters with relative impunity.

BROKEN CRYSTAL

As the Blazing Sun ring around Vladivostok tightened, the battle around the equally unforgiving environs of Hooke’s Reach intensified. The speed and power of the American assault came as a grievous setback to Van Diemen and his fellow commanders. It now seemed likely that Operation Crystal Redoubt would have to resort to head-on attrition warfare.

It was Custodian-Commander Achmed Ibn Rachid who stabilised the situation. The leader of ‘Cogent Paradigm’s’ land forces had not been as confident as Van Diemen of holding the enemy at sea. He had therefore laid out a flexible defence plan, lessening his units’ reliance on fortifications alone.

As he had not been permitted to lay minefields on the virgin territory of the island, Rachid organised his armour into fast-moving interdiction groups. He took the calculated risk of deploying many of these deeper into the island’s interior. In conference with Van Diemen, Rachid put his plan into action. The best way to break the Americans was, he reasoned to let them become victims of their own success on land.

The Covenant naval forces focused on the defence of Ryker’s Standpoint. The small islet was a difficult target to strike except with long range bombardment - a method that Van Diemen knew that the Americans would resort to. He intended to use the well defended base as an ‘Aunt Sally’ drawing enemy attention, while the rest of his fleet focused on hit-and-run strikes against the American naval perimeter protecting its landing craft.

The Americans meanwhile, spent the next forty-eight hours seeking to consolidate their successful landings. The beaches were littered with shattered armour and infantry casualties, cut down by the devastating weapons of the Covenant, but the two Land Ships formed a strong mobile bastion around which fresh forces could rally. Despite the chaotic nature of the initial landings, the balance of strength of the 8th Michigan and 14th Missouri, plus further units of the 2nd Missouri Armoured, managed to put ashore.

Cordell’s Redoubt, commanded by Le Fanu on al-Rachid’s orders, rapidly became surrounded by a ring of American steel, but two initial assaults on its precincts by the freshly landed units met with failure. The viciously accurate Covenant weapon systems made a powerful impression on the Americans.

The American land units were also not prepared for the unseasonable weather conditions of Hooke’s Reach. The Ranger forces lacked sufficient winter-adapted armour and other equipment, and cold-weather clothing – understandably since the American high command had anticipated action to take place in the warm climes of the South Pacific summer.

American dressing stations and the hospital ships of the fleet soon began receiving cases of frostbite and exposure, in addition to the many psychologically-effected battle casualties who had succumbed to the strange influences of the island itself, which soon came to known as ‘Hooke’s Madness’.

As well as the cold, other weather conditions also conspired against ‘High Jump’. Constant fog and snowstorms hampered aerial operations, a fact made much more infuriating for General Hart by the fact that her forces were inferior in strength.

Forced to rely on her long-range airships and conventional aeroplanes – for even with aerial tanker refuelling, Hooke’s Reach was far beyond the effective range and endurance of bombers and war robots, she found her forces outmatched.

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Castellan-Commander Graves, in overall charge of Covenant air operations, worked with the weather conditions rather than against them. Her Ptolemy and Pythagoras squadrons subjected the American fleet, especially the army transports, to constant low-level bombing and strafing. Several barges and the munitions tender Juniper were lost to their bombs and aerial mines, although in the course of their attacks a dozen aircraft were lost or damaged to ack-ack fire from defending warships.

Graves also began using her forces’ large stocks of drones as flying torpedoes rather than combat aircraft. Keeping her own flagship, the Epicurius Class CSS Concordant Opposition well out of the main combat zones, she had her Aerial-Controllers send wave after wave of drones against the American airships.

It was, as one Covenant officer put it, “bringing elephants down with mosquitos.” Half a dozen American airships were struck by these flying bombs. Two, the Kestrel and Frontier Spirit, were brought down and even General Hart’s own flagship J.E.B Stuart, suffered extensive damage to its upper flight decks from several impacts. However, it would be on the surface, at sea and on land, that would decide the outcome of Operation High Jump.

ARMY OF SHADOWS

The first sign of cracks in the American plan came at sea. Having committed to a rapid landing, Rawlins now found himself having to cope with the classic dilemma of having fixed his fleet

to an objective. In particular, his heavy units were being virtually forced into the naval equivalent of a siege against Ryker’s Standpoint. Van Diemen had instructed some of its batteries to perform regularly- scheduled shelling of the American landing forces across the bay.

Not that Ryker’s proved to be a simple target to engage. Long-range attacks proved less than effective thanks to its highly efficient shielding. The heavy units of the High Jump fleet detachment had to close the range to bring greater firepower to bear.

However, this also proved painful. Energy beams sawed through several small ships, frigates and corvettes screening the battleships against torpedo attack, while salvoes of glowing gunfire punched through armour and shielding to damage four heavier vessels. The battleship Constitution had its fore main turret put wholly out of action by the extensive mangling of its traverse systems and fire control.

Quite apart from stubborn fortifications, Admiral Rawlins and his subordinates soon learned that dealing with Covenant warships en masse was no small trial. Quite apart from the lack of solid information on their capabilities, and the elusive nature of many Covenant vessels, Rawlin’s predicament was further complicated – though he did not know it – by Van Diemen’s exploitation of the uniquely Antarctican science of time and spatial dilation.

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‘Cogent Paradigm’s’ forces had trained extensively with teleportation. Blessed as the fleet was with a pair of Callimachus Orbs for further experimental work, Van Diemen wasted no time in putting them to use in live operations.

Moreover, good fortune was on the Covenant side. The specialist Chrono-Translation operators of the Orbs soon discovered that, in addition to its unsettling effects on environmental conditions and the human mind and senses, the region around Hooke’s Reach seemed highly conducive to forcing open portals to Otherspace, the means by which the Vault-sourced Generators fitted to the Orbs functioned.

As one senior operator, Chrono-Controller Second Class Elizabeth Atherton reported to Van Diemen’s staff, “Our power expenditure in activating the generators is barely half the normal requirements. It seems that O-Space accessibility is substantially easier here – almost as if the walls between worlds are thinner. Personally, I don’t know whether to be gratified or terrified.”

Although Van Diemen had his own misgivings, he nonetheless decided that allowing the struggle over the island to be prolonged by not using this boon would outweigh the risks. Hooke’s Reach was enough of an unknown quantity already without major armed conflict raging on, over and around it.

The effect of this on the American fleet was immediately apparent. Between November 30th and December 10th, Van Diemen organised no less than four ‘Spectral Strikes’ against the 24th Federated Fleet and transport escort units drawn up around the battered bay area. He supplemented this with conventional attacks from other task forces, using the fog and other environmental conditions as cover.

The deadliest of these strikes occurred on December 1st, as a pair of Zeno Class armoured cruisers, the Anaxamander and the Orrery, were translocated into the centre of the 3rd bombardment group, consisting of the damaged Constitution, the gunship Bogue and the cruiser Victor Sommers.

Repeated torpedo attacks from Frigates of Secondary Naval Echelons 4 and 5 had compelled Captain Wilbur Long of the Constitution to draw his ships closer together, to make more effective use of their concussion charges. Initially, this met with some success. Only the Bogue was hit, suffering superficial damage, while combined fire from the heavy ships’ secondary armament wrecked at least two Covenant craft, before the frigates of the 18th Pursuit Squadron chased off the remainder.

However, this was merely the first stage of the assault. Barely ten minutes after the Covenant frigates beat a hasty retreat, the main strike began. With a brilliant flash, the two armoured cruisers suddenly materialised barely three hundred metres away from the Constitution. Their position meant that the battleship masked its own accompanying vessels’ weaponry, but this quickly turned out to be the least of the Americans’ worries.

Even as the battleship’s broadside batteries thundered and its shields sparked into life, both Covenant vessels unleashed the dreadful power of their most devastating weapons – the huge energised-particle projectors which ran the full length of their hulls. The Covenant engineers who served these deadly machines knew them as the “Swords of Damocles”, and their effect on the American ships was just as deadly as for them as a falling sword proves to a man.

The scything beams sliced clean through the battleship’s shielding and hull like a hot knife through butter. A massive explosion broke the warship’s back as its generator overloaded. Ruptured boilers burst and munitions stocks detonated in a titanic blast so large that the Anaxamander suffered extensive splinter damage and buckled bows. Captain Long went down with his ship, along with over three hundred of his crew.

But to the horror of the Americans, the destruction continued. Bogue, next in line, was herself gutted by the dreadful power of the invisible but hugely destructive beams.

The panicking crew of the gunship had no idea what was happening as the battleship’s portside hull plates burst apart and their own vessel was rent asunder by what one crewman called “an invisible spear”. Paddlewheels buckled and readied rockets exploded on their launch-pads. Although the gunship was not immediately wrecked, she was mortally wounded and would sink half an hour later with the loss of one hundred crewmen.

The Sommers, the last ship in line, was the most fortunate, as much of the particle beams’ destructive power was by that point spent. Nonetheless, a final deadly burst sawed clean through the forward edge of her funnel and brought it crashing down on her bridge, killing several senior officers and seriously wounding her captain.

Even as retributive fire from other nearby ships began straddling them, the strange Covenant vessels turned to port, loosing several volleys of glowing shells before emitting a brilliant white-gold glow and vanishing into thin air before the disbelieving eyes of their opponents. American morale, already rendered uncertain, began to sink dramatically from its initial high as the nefarious Antarctican attacks took their toll.

THE HAUNTED ISLE

While Van Diemen waged his ‘spectral war’ at sea, al-Rachid adopted similar tactics on land, although with both Orbs fully engaged in translocating naval forces, he focused on using more mundane properties of terrain and weather.

Beyond the shorelines of Cordell’s Standpoint Bay, the interior of the island grew treacherous, with harsh, rocky terrain, deep snow, ice and dense pine woodlands prevalent, quite apart from the confusing distortion of distances and apparently even time on occasion.

By now three full regiments and half of a fourth, the 1st Michigan Artillery, had landed, and the shoreline was crowded with battered barges and expended supply dumps. General Cortez, forsaking his usual methods of commanding from an aerial position, had landed and taken personal control of the situation from the bridge of the Land Ship Kearsage. To his credit, he had managed to weld together a coherent operational force from the initial jumbled landings, and brought Cordell’s Standpoint fully under siege.

However, maintaining those lines in the face of al-Rachid’s raiding style of attacks quickly proved a nightmare. Armour formed protective cordons around the artillery positions and Land Ships shelling the stout fortifications and dug-in bombards of the base. The infantry, improvising whatever cold weather gear they could, sought to hack trenches into the frozen earth.

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Constant skirmishes and running battles erupted between the struggling Americans and highly mobile forces of Covenant armour and commandos, the Antarctican walkers proving far more capable in their handling over the rough terrain than tracked armour.

Every fog shroud and snowstorm brought more harsh conditions, and also fear, for al-Rachid used these occasions to strike with his armoured units at the vulnerable margins of the American lodgement. ‘Cogent Paradigm’s’ land commander had a whole team of meteorological specialists, many of them resident on the island for several months, working to ensure that he could take advantage of the most favourable times for attack. Yorktown bombards of the 1st Michigan burned after savage strikes by loping Atticus walkers of Secondary Armoured Echelons 3 and 4, under al-Rachid’s personal command.

In response, Cortez attempted to mount search-and-destroy efforts to pursue and push back the enemy raiders, but the bizarre geography and weather conditions, which had worked in the Americans’ favour on their approach to the island, now proved a cruel mistress.

American losses to frostbite and other incapacitating conditions climbed exponentially. Nonetheless, Cortez managed to keep his forces stable, fighting and well supplied. Al-Rachid had likewise begun to count the growing number of wrecked Covenant armour and shattered Iron Men that lay in heaps across this battered region of Hooke’s Reach.

The effective siege of Hooke’s Reach, with its attacks and counterstrikes, its grinding attrition and hardships, dragged on until Christmas 1871, with both sides feeling the privations. For the personnel of 11th Vigilance Fleet, holding grimly on in the battered precincts of the two Standpoints, life was especially grim; composed of second-line militia and with few veterans in their ranks, they held on grimly under almost constant American bombardment while the frontline forces of 5th War Fleet took the fight to the Americans.

Van Diemen, al-Rachid and Graves had to cope with a diminishing reserve of undamaged war machines to mount their counterattacks against the stubborn Americans. Three cruiser-weight vessels along with three other large ships damaged.

These included the Aristotle Class battleship Robert Fludd, which had been bracketed by four American cruisers at close range during an abortive spectral strike against the American dreadnought Grand Gulf, and withdrawn to the Antarctican mainland for repairs. Even the elusive Concordant Opposition had suffered damage after being caught unawares by two squadrons of American naval light bombers over Ryker’s Standpoint on December 15th.

However, on the other side, the Americans were suffering even more. Without the benefit of a nearby land base, resources were being stretched thin. Rear-Admiral Falconer’s Royal Australian flotilla, which until this point had been acting as a mobile reserve, chasing off Covenant raiding spearheads, had now been drawn into guarding the painfully diminished transport fleet.

More than a dozen ships had been sunk, including the Constitution, the largest single loss. In the air, some of Hart’s light airship squadrons, the lynchpin of Operation High Jump’s aerial strength, had had to be amalgamated to make up for losses. On

the ground, Cortez’s regiments were making but little headway for the costs they were incurring. The carriers were running low on strike aircraft.

It was General Cortez, closest to the suffering of individual soldiers and other personnel, who mooted the idea of a ceasefire and an honourable withdrawal. There had been a slow bleed of reinforcements from the Ranger fleet’s reserves, still standing off at a distance, and even these assets had begun to come under fire from sporadic Covenant air units.

“It seems plain to me,” he reported to Rawlins on December 21st. “That we have achieved our objective here already – that is to say, a retributive strike upon the Covenant. To prolong our presence further risks not only bleeding ourselves out for no constructive reason – even if this place was not as strange and forlorn as it is, to garrison it fully would be impractical – but we also run the risk of failing to fulfil the President’s obligation to our allies. A sorry sight we will be if our entire fleet enters New Zealand’s harbours in this state!”

At first, Rawlins was beside himself with fury – he still wanted a conquest, a report back home of overwhelming victory. However, the reports piling up on his desk – of losses in equipment and men – could not be denied.

Hart, whose valiant aerial troops had been outnumbered even at the outset thanks to geography and logistics, sided with Cortez. Rawlins raged for a full day, but by the 23rd, he realised that he was in a minority of one. For the sake of the wider conflict, as well as for the servicemen and women under his command who fought so hard in such harsh circumstances, his dream of triumph had to end. The Ranger fleet had to withdraw.

And so, on Christmas Eve, the commanders of ‘Cogent Paradigm’ and ‘Eyes of Reason’ were vastly relieved to hear the radio network crackle into life with American proposals for a ceasefire. Gradually, the guns of both sides fell silent.

On Christmas Day, the leaders of the Ranger fleet and ‘Cogent Paradigm’ met face to face in the battered precinct of Cordell’s Redoubt. As a last comfort to his injured pride, Admiral Rawlins insisted that the arrangement be referred to as a ‘voluntary withdrawal’ on the part of the American forces, despite Cortez and Hart’s protestations. Van Diemen and his compatriots, who simply wanted the island left alone, honoured Rawlins’ demand.

Transfers of prisoners and the wounded took a further two days. Neither side fully trusted the other and the destabilising effects of Hooke’s Reach made the whole arrangement even more fraught with difficulties. Nonetheless, by December 29th, the Ranger fleet sailed away, with its pride, if not its material and human assets, mostly salved.

‘Cogent Paradigm’ meanwhile, was left to try and impose some degree of order upon the chaotic situation left behind. Operation High Jump was over, and in spite of their early setbacks, Van Diemen and his fellow commanders had successfully defended the Covenant’s newest land holdings.

Nonetheless, even as the battered Ranger fleet rallied and prepared to sail onwards for New Zealand, ‘Cogent Paradigm’s’ leaders began to prepare for the next mission they had been tasked with. Both sides still had major challenges, albeit against different enemies, to overcome.

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Orders of Battle: 18th Sea Battle Brigade (Russian Coalition) Maximum Force Value = 1200 Points

18th Sea Battle Brigade: Aleksandr, Khrabryi, 4th Combined Line Squadron, 6th Combined Light Flotilla

Composition: Up to 1200 Points of Naval models. This force CANNOT include a Battle Carrier.

Deployment: The 18th Sea Battle Brigade is deployed in Sector A at the start of the game.

Alternate Orders of Battle – The Attacker Maximum Force Value = 1200 Points

Up to 1000 Points of Aerial or Naval must be deployed in Sector A at the start of the

game.

Orders of Battle: 2nd Combined Combat Group (Empire of the Blazin Sun & Chinese Federation)

Maximum Force Value = 1800 Points

22nd Combined Armada - Northern Oceanic Army: Tan-Yang, 18th Sea Division, 34th Support Division, 40th Support

Division Composition:

Up to 800 Points of Chinese Federation and Empire of the Blazing Sun Naval models.

Deployment: The 22nd Combined Armada is deployed in Sector B at the start of

the game.

1st Aerial Group: 17th Rocket Attack Squadron and the 152nd Bomber Squadron.

Composition: Up to 300 Points of Empire of the Blazing Sun Small and Medium

Aerial models and One Tiny Flyer Torpedo Bomber Wing (5)Deployment:

1st Aerial Group enters from Area 1 at the beginning of Turn 2.

1st Naval Group: INBS Kumamoto, INBS Kyoto, the 12th Sword Combat Squadron,

the 3rd Patrol Force, the 85th Bomber Squadron and the 92nd Bomber Squadron.

Composition: One Hachiman Class Dreadnought and up to 600 Points of Empire of the Blazing Sun Naval and Aerial models and Two Tiny Flyer Torpedo

Bomber Wings (5)

Deployment: Roll a D6 at the end of Turn 3, on a roll of 5 or 6 the 1st Naval Group enters from Area 2 at the beginning of Turn 4. On a roll of 1-4 the 1st

Naval Group enters from Area 2 at the beginning of Turn 5.

Military Assets: Naijin-Dong

Composition: One Target Site Deployment:

The Target Site is placed at the location shown on the map at the start of the game.

Alternate Orders of Battle – The Defender Maximum Force Value = 1800 Points

Up to 800 Points of Armoured and Naval models are deployed in

Sector B at the start of the game.

Up to 300 Points of Aerial and Naval models may enter from Area 1 at the beginning of Turn 2.

Up to 800 Points of Aerial and Naval models may enter from Area 2 at the beginning of Turn 4 or 5. Roll a D6 at the end of Turn 3 to

determine this. On a result of 5-6 they enter on Turn 4, on a result of 1-4 they enter on Turn 5.

Scenar io 3

On nOvember 29th 1871 a great battle wOuld Occur On the chOppy waters Of the nOrthern pacific, the russian cOalitiOn driving headlOng intO the warships and flOating castles Of the blazing sun and her allies, in what One Observer wOuld gO On tO describe as “a most perfect

display of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object . ”

SILVER LANCE

Game Length: 7 Turns with Variable Game Length.

Deployment: The Imperial Bond Forces MUST deploy first.

Initiative: The Russian Coalition have the Initiative on Turn 1.

TARGET SITE STATISTICS

For this game the following Stats should be used for the Target Site: DR: 0, CR: 8, HP: 7, AP: 6, AA: -, CC: -, RR: - and the Target Site has an internal Shield Generator.

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VICTORY CONDITIONS 18th Sea Battle Brigade - Russian Coalition

2 Campaign Points (CPs) are awarded for each Hit Point lost from the Target Site.

CPs are awarded for each friendly model with half or more of their initial hull points remaining that escapes the game board via Area 3.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

‘Yamato’ Division 2nd Combined Combat Group - Empire of the Blazing Sun and Chinese Federation

Campaign Points (CPs) are awarded for Lost or Damaged enemy models.

1 CP is awarded for each Hit Point the Target Site has left at the end of the battle.

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