WARCHEST Track Cost: 100

Options:

No options are available for purchase with this track.

OBJECTIvES

the following objectives apply in this track:

Hold the Field: If one team has lost their entire force due to destruction or withdrawal from the playing area, the other team successfully holds the field. [+100]

SPECIAL RULES

there are no special rules in effect for this track.

NEXT TRACK

the side that holds the field when the track ends may salvage any destroyed units. Both sides may use WP after this track to perform repairs and such. (See Warchest Points Between Tracks, pp. 118-119.)

Attacker Won: Breakthrough (p. 122) Defender Won: Pursuit (p. 124)

introduction

introductory alpha strike

standard alpha strike

abstract aerospace system

advanced options

alpha strike campaign rules

era setting:

the clan invasion

the battletech universe Defender

the Defender consists of up to 100% of the defending player’s total surviving force. Units that were used and not destroyed in the prior track are available for use. Units that were salvaged in the track immediately prior to this one (if any) are not available for use.

the Defender deploys his entire force prior to Initiative.

WARCHEST Track Cost: 300 Options:

the following options may be purchased by the indicated sides for this track:

+200 Urgent Support Need: (Both Attacker and Defender) Beyond any artillery (see Artillery, p. 73) already available, an additional force with two Arrow IV launchers is 1 flight turn beyond the controlling player’s home edge, and available for support fire using both homing and standard ammunition.

the Defender may pre-plot two points of impact after he has finished setting up the terrain, but before any units are deployed. (the Attacker may not pre-plot any points of impact.)

+200 Obscured Intent: (Defender Only) Up to 25% of the number of defending units may be deployed using Hidden Unit rules (see Hidden Units, p. 102).

+200 Even More Mines: (Defender Only) During setup, the Defender may secretly place a number of conventional minefields (see Minefields, p. 102) equal to the number of defending and attacking units may be deployed. these minefields have a Density rating of 4.

OBJECTIvES

the following objectives apply in this track:

Defeat: the Defender must cripple or destroy all Attacker units without losing more than 50% of his original number of units. the Attacker wins if the Defender loses more than 50%

of his total number of units. [+600]

Hold the Field: If one team has lost their entire force due to destruction or withdrawal from the playing area, the other team successfully holds the field. [+100]

SPECIAL RULES

there are no special rules in effect for this track.

NEXT TRACK

the side that holds the field when the track ends may salvage any Destroyed units. Both sides may use WP after this track to perform repairs and such. (See Warchest Points Between Tracks, pp. 118-119.)

Attacker Won: Counterattack (p. 124)

Defender Won: None. the Defender has won this campaign!

OBJECTIvES

the following objectives apply in this track:

Close the Noose: (Defender Only) Cripple or destroy at least 50% of the total number of attacking units. [+300]

Hold the Field: If one team has lost its entire force due to destruction or withdrawal from the playing area, the other team successfully holds the field. [+100]

SPECIAL RULES

the following special rules are in effect for this track:

Forced Withdrawal

Both forces must adhere to the optional Forced Withdrawal rules (see p. 27).

NEXT TRACK

the side that holds the field when the track ends may salvage any destroyed units. Both sides may use WP after this track to perform repairs and such. (See Warchest Points Between Tracks, pp. 118-119.)

Attacker Won: Counterattack (p. 124) Defender Won: Defense (p. 125)

defenSe

SITUATION

They undoubtedly regret coming here now, but they do not yet realize that they have traveled light years to their graves. We end them in today’s conflict, but despite their earlier failures, this will not be an easy task.

We must succeed, but cannot underestimate our foe.

GAME SETUP

Subsequent to a successful chase, the remaining Attacker forces have been led in to a prepared position. Will the hammer strike the anvil, or will it break upon its foe?

When using terrain, the Defender picks the terrain features that will be used, and places them.

When using hex maps, the Defender picks the mapsheets for play, and places them in any legal configuration.

the Defender selects their home edge first; the Attacker’s home edge is the opposite of the Defender’s.

Attacker

the Attacker consists of up to 100% of the attacking player’s total force. Units that were used in the prior track are available for use. Units that were salvaged in the prior track (if any) are available for use.

the Attacker’s force enters through its home edge in initiative order after the Defender has deployed its entire force.

Few periods of history in the Inner Sphere bred as much conflict and as much change as the period known as the Clan Invasion.

the arrival of the Clans of Kerensky, elite warriors genetically bred from the excellent stock of the long-departed Star League Defense Force, put a shock into an Inner Sphere already still reeling from both the gutting of the Capellan Confederation and theodore Kurita’s brilliant defense of the Draconis Combine against the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth in the War of 3039. In 3050 the Federated Commonwealth, the Draconis Combine and the nascent Free Rasalhague Republic staggered beneath the onslaught of the Jade Falcons, the Wolves, the Ghost Bears and the Smoke Jaguars.

though the Clans’ initial thrust was stopped at tukayyid, the rest of the decade was far from peaceful. In 3057 the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation combined to savage the Federated Commonwealth in a surprise attack. the Commonwealth, still struggling to deal with the deaths of its founding monarchs, Hanse Davion and melissa Steiner-Davion, was unable to repulse the attack on its soft underbelly, and its Sarna march collapsed into a balkanized collection of warring protostates labeled the Chaos march.

Even that wasn’t enough. Energized by the change demonstrated as possible by the Clan invasion and the marik-Liao Offensive, Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon fought a near-genocidal war based on ideological differences. A new Star League was

formed, and a Clan destroyed. the Capellan Confederation began a conflict to reclaim its breakaway St. Ives Compact. Even the Combine was unable to stay focused, letting dissidents draw them into a conflict with the Ghost Bears. In fourteen short years, war brought change even the most optimistic planners of the previous generation could never have imagined.

THE CLAN INvASION

In 3049, the Clans launched Operation REVIVAL, retracing the months-long Exodus Road. the Wolves first struck at an airless moon known as the Rock, where elements of the Kell Hounds mercenary regiments were chasing pirates. the Wolves quickly pacified the moon and captured some of the pirates and mercenaries, in a pattern of intelligence-gathering that would be repeated by each Clan as they neared their invasion corridors.

Once the invasion began in earnest, regiment after regiment fell before the scythe of the Clan juggernaut. Both the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine saw the heirs to their thrones put in danger. Prince Victor Steiner-Davion of the Commonwealth escaped, but Hohiro Kurita, son of Gunji-no-Kanrei theodore Kurita, was captured and only freed by concerted efforts by the Combine’s yakuza. Both realms struggled to find a weapon against the invasion, until Colonel Jaime Wolf of the illustrious Wolf’s Dragoons mercenary regiments called a Mad Cat (Timber Wolf), Puma (Adder), Pouncer, Masakari (Warhawk) and a point of Elementals. Alpha Galaxy, Wolf -in-Exile.

e r A S e t t In g : t he c l A n I n v A S Io n e r A

introduction As with all such schemes, thomas marik found out about the

death of his son, and about Victor Davion’s attempt to hide it from him. Incensed as any father would be, he plotted revenge.

Sun-tzu Liao, chancellor of the Capellan Confederation and marik’s putative son-in-law thanks to his betrothal to marik’s daughter, Isis, was eager to involve his realm.

In a surprise attack the armies of the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation, heavily supported by mercenaries, stabbed deep into the Sarna march, the narrow portion of space that connected the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns. the area, whose defenses had been drawn off to bulwark the Clan border’s porous lines, was quickly shattered. Old loyalties rose as worlds threw off the reins of any interstellar government and declared independence.

Victor Davion attempted to respond quickly, but there simply wasn’t sufficient regiments in the Federated Suns-half of the Commonwealth to drive the Free Worlds and Capellan forces back out. He ordered up reinforcements from the Lyran half of the realm, taking the chance weakening the Clan border to pound the marik and Liao forces. Before those orders could be implemented, however, the political aspect of marik’s attack struck.

Katherine Steiner-Davion, Victor’s younger sister and regent of the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth, withdrew her half of the realm in denial of Victor’s actions and to save it from Free Worlds aggression. She issued a call for all traditionally Lyran regiments to return home to the newborn Lyran Alliance.

many regiments in the path of the marik-Liao advance heeded this call and withdrew before battle was joined.

Unable to call back the regiments from the Clan border, and weakened by defections, Victor had no choice but to sue for peace.