Attack on Vega - 3rd Lyran Guards ca. 3028

- November 22, 2022

Following up on my previous project detailing the Legion of Vega's defense of Vega its only appropriate I represent the other side of the coin, the attacker. This is a new format I am using where I do full company (either entirely mech or combined arms) to represent interesting campaigns of moments in lore. Here we have the 3rd Lyran Guards represented in there attack on Vega in the first wave of the 4th Succession War. When I chose the mechs for this lance I asked myself what is the quintessential Lyran Guards unit? Well four Atlas mechs in a scout lance seemed a bit trite so I went with an assault lance of mechs I knew were Steiner favorites - and low and behold I found this image of exactly this unit sporting exactly these mechs.

The Lyran's have a habit of landing heavy and slogging thru defenders; and while the lore is often happy to explain how the heavy units get outmaneuvered etc by there lighter opponents, at some point those light units need to come into contact with the big boys of the Lyran units - which means speed is life for the typically lighter Kurita units, and when they do get tagged by the Lyran's its usually a bad day. Such was how Vega played out in the opening gambits of the invasion, with the inferior Legion of Vega mechs - both in terms of tonnage and maintenance - forced to keep ahead of the blue and white wall of steel descending upon them. Before long the Legion was contained around the planets capital city, back to the sea.

In the older lore sources, particularly the house sourcebooks and the Military Atlas of the Fourth Succesion War the use of Mechs in much more akin to armored knights of old medieval Europe, really how they had been originally conceived and written in the original texts. Mechwarriors were minor nobles of the Inner Sphere, with any other ranks to pay them respect due there position. And so the description of the battle of Vega displays this. After Kurita's breakout and division of the 3rd Lyran Guards a Legion of Vega mech regiment supported by 20 armor and infantry regiments is facing 2 battalions of Lyran Guard mechs and 6 armor and infantry regiments. The text describes how the Lyrans are backed against a massive soft sand desert and about to be surrounded - but hold their own against the legion of Vega (as one would imagine could happen when you have significant tonnage advantage). The determinant comes from the overwhelming armor and infantry forces.

This is a feature of the succession wars where Mechs are more valuable and the bulk of any invasion force are the infantry and armor. Much akin to foot soldiers of medieval Europe, most of the fighting power belonged to the pikeman, the foot soldiers, while the glory came down to the heavy horse knights breaking open and hole in the lines or fighting there mirrored foes in the enemy force. This aspect of Battletech is lost in later eras; starting with the clans and there abandonment of infantry (sans elementals of course) and armor. WizKids attempted to reclaim this in the dark age narratives, but did a poor job of it in my opinion when its really a story telling aspect. Its simply easier to employ large numbers of tanks than it is Mechs in terms of maintenance etc.

Maintenance is often overlooked in later eras. The GDL trilogy explored this nicely in its examination of how hard it is to keep something as complex as a battlemech functioning versus a simple hover tank or infantry.

In any case I digress - For this project I choose a lance of iconic Steiner succession war era designs, the Zeus, the Atlas and the Banshee. Partly for miniature availability options I went with the up-gunned 3S Banshee, first produced by Defiance industries on Hesperus II in 3026. This lance is what I consider the quintessential Steiner assault lance, and classic in all the best 3025 vibes. I painted these with a base coat of Roya Blue from Vallejo and did a white overcoat with the Games Workshop Corax White which has a heavier quality which allows you to overcoat with it.

I compliment these assault mechs with some heavy hitters in the armor platoon. I choose the brand new (in 3028 anyway) Rommel and Patton tanks for this platoon painted in a Army Painter army drab tan to match the desert terrain. I used the Ironwind Metals miniatures for these. I find with the smaller detailing lines in metal mini's that a wash really helps sell the detail so I went over these with a dark tone wash to bring out the finer points. These tanks are all time favorites for me, despite the recent 'cancelation' of the Rommel name. Solid designs that can slug it out in the 3025 era with medium mechs, they are potent armor to attack defensive positions or support a heavy mech lance. They are also classically Steiner designs being produced by Defiance Industries. I drew from the Field Manual for some tank units and settled on the 881st Tank Regiment for these guys.

Finally I wanted Infantry as well and absolutely love the quality of the Infantry from Death Ray Designs. These are awesome miniatures which scale well for battletech and fit a whole squad on a hex. I used the quad mounted miniatures to represent some motorized troops and painted them with the Agros Dune Contrast paints by Games Workshop - contrast paints are generally a go to for small stuff like infantry so you can bring out the lines. These guys are assigned to the 608th Lyran Motorized Infantry.