The War of Sidalis IV

Sidalis IV was a colony funded by Nova Corporation. Like many other prospection colonies, the corporation had an agreement with the Terra Federation where they would sponsor colonization efforts in exchange for the rights of exploring the planet before other companies. The agreement, however, did not include alien artifacts which were discovered on that colony.

When it was found that Nova Corporation was hiding the discovery from the Federation and was smuggling the artifacts to new facilities within the Hectrim Empire, things went sour. This was considered an act of high treason by the federation council, and soon Terraforce military were sent to take control of Sidalis IV.

Eventually, the Earth Military Forces would arrive in massive numbers and end the conflict but the first few months of the war saw a much smaller contingent of Terraforce troops fighting the highly-trained NovaCorp military personnel, in an attempt to control key facilities and stop the smuggling of alien artifacts.

In this first battle report, an assault group of Terraforce (TF) soldiers meets a NovaCorp (NC) patrol near a research facility. The game was played with the USE ME rules. The Terraforce group consists of a small command squad (Elan 5, Move 6", leader with side arm and two soldiers with heavy weapons) and two four-man teams (Elan 4, Move 6", standard rifles.)

The NovaCorp patrol consists of one Power Armor (light vehicle, Elan 4, Move 4", auto weapon, armoured) and two five-man squads (Elan 4, Move 6", superior rifles.)

The battle happens in a lightly-wooded area, with the forces entering from opposing sides of the board. The green patches count as difficult terrain. It is not possible to shoot through the woods at a target on the other side, but it is possible to target enemies in the woods, at a -1 penalty.

Turn 1
Two of the TF squads enter the wooded area. The remaining squad advances and shoots the closest NC squad, with no effect. The NC power armor fires against the command squad in the woods but misses. It then decides to move closer. The NC squad that was previously attacked moves closer and fires back, killing one soldier and wounding another. The other NC squad moves closer to the forested area and shoots, severely wounding one TF soldier.

Turn 2
The TF command squad fires twice against the power armor, for no effect. The two squads near the top of the board exchange fire with no effect, despite the short distance. Although outnumbered, the last TF squad decides to stand and shoot, getting a single kill and suffering another kill in response. The power armor enters the wooded area to pursue the TF command squad.

Turn 3
One of the soldiers carrying heavy weapons manages to inflict a lot of damage to the power armor. The NC troops on the bottom of the map kill another soldier and surround the squad leader in close combat. He reacts and is defeated. On the top of the map, the two squads exchange fire once more and the TF troops get one kill.

Turn 4
Noticing that they are getting surrounded, the TF squads attack the power armor and the closest NC squads, but miss all shots! The NC squad reposition themselves and the power armor defeats one of the soldiers with heavy weapons.

Turn 5
Not willing to lose any more men, the Terraforce commander surrenders to the NovaCorp troops, who take them as prisoners to an improvised prison camp.

Even though the corporate military were known for their ruthlessness, the NovaCorp planetary commander Tran Derios knew that they would be eventually overwhelmed. Not willing to give up (which would end his carreer in a very bad way) he ordered his troops to take prisoners whenever possible, hoping to have a fair trial after the war.