Defense of Vega - Legions of Vega; 3028

- November 21, 2022

Emblem of the Legions of Vega

The world of Vega has played a central role in the Draconis Combine for a long time, but has taken special place in the lore of House Kurita since the formation of the Legions of Vega in 3011 by Takashi Kurita as a dumping ground for DCMS soldiers who were... sub par; by the standards of the Dragon. The Legions of Vega are the worst disciplined, worst supplied and generally worst all around units of the DCMS. In 3025 they are described as lacking enough supplies to even paint there mechs in a uniform color. Described as being composed of the DCMS misfits, the remnants of shattered mercenary units who fell victim to the 'company store' policy of the professional soldierly liaison's, and deserters from other house armies it is the last stop on a downward trajectory of ones career. As a sign of supreme dissatisfaction; or perhaps distrust; by his father Theodore Kurita was assigned as the commander of the 3 legion regiments in 3025.

Vega itself is a hot, miserable world with little to recommend it beyond its strategic position in the Draconis Combine. By the time the fourth succession war kicked off there was little industry of value left on the planet - most of the factories are but bombed out remnants. The world his hot, dry and generally a good field for mech combat.

Planetary map of Vega

During the initial invasion of Vega the DCMS regiments consisting of the 2nd and 14th Legions of Vega and there attendant 40 conventional armor and infantry regiments. Opposing them were the 3rd Lyran Guards and an assorted hose of supporting arms. The 3rd Lyran Guards made quick work of the defenders forcing them from 2 of 3 continents and herding them into a cantonment near the capital city. It was not until Theodore Kurita, fresh the the defeat in Marfik and a miraculous escape arrived on world that the Legions of Vega rallied against the invader.

Teddy's Breakout

First raiding supply depots, then advancing under cover of heavy storms which grounded the superior Aerospace assets of the 3rd Lyran's Theodore managed to force a wedge between the Lyran units and eventually a forced withdrawal.

The Legions of Vega have always been a favorite of mine to paint, they fun in terms of lore, prominent in the history given Theodore Kurita's involvement with them, and the paint scheme of light grey and red highlights are fun to paint. For this project to showcase the defense of their homebase I choose to represent an old school Ral Partha classic - the recon lance. This unit was sold as a set back in the 80's and I have updated the collection with the new Mechwarrior Online print versions of these classics. Consisting of a Phoenix Hawk, a Stinger - in this case a version I kitbashed to make a STG-3G, and a pair of Locusts. In the old school version they were both the 1V variant (who mounts machine guns on a 20 ton recon mech...) but I diversified and chose the IE laser variant. Base coat is done in Vallejo Cold Grey with the accents done in Khorn Red by Games Workshop.

For the infantry I 3d printed a batch of M113 carriers to represent the Mechanized Track Infantry and used a 3d printed 6mm infantry. These guys are pretty fragile and I am partial to either death ray design or the metal infantry available from a bunch of suppliers these days, but this was actually my first attempt at infantry, agros dune contrast a with a torso grey base to add color to achieve the multi-tone Kurita uniform look. The M113's are in death corp drab, which in my opinion is a little dark after seeing them come out.

I choose to go with a little known Kurita classic for the tanks in this mixed company with 2 original 3025 era TKG-150 Tokugawa heavy tanks, Iron Wind Miniatures versions of these. I mixed them with a couple of proxies from Death Ray Designs (Churchill tanks from Solar Shift) for my Bulldog Medium Tank proxies. I really love the Death Ray Designs miniatures for BT proxies, they are well made and have excellent detail. I painted these in a WWII North Africa Corp inspired desert camo scheme - not sure if I love it but it has a certain desert/junkyard vibe I like. Base is a khaki by Vallejo, the camo is done in Cavalry Brown and Olive Drab.

Mechs represent the 14th Legion of Vega (because they get destroyed in the clan invasion so might as well make an appearance here...) and I extrapolated some of the conventional unit names from the Draconis Combine Field Manual. The armor represents the 53rd Vegan Lancers and the infantry the 88th Vegan Mechanized Infantry.