The third installment of our VTOL series is focusing on a Liao unit, the 976th Air Support Squadron based on Sapho in approximately 2830's. This unit's garrison duty was interrupted when the world was hit with an overwhelming House Marik invasion force which quickly overwhelmed the conventional resistance on the world. The squadron joined the other House Liao units in fleeing into the hinterlands, hoping to hold out until a relief force could be mustered.
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| Jungle airstrips look like loads of fun... |
ThThe 976th Air Support Squadron resisted the Marik invaders as best they could, teaming up with some Karnov pilots they had been able to evacuate ammunition and spare parts (and presumably the maintainers and tools associated to keeping aircraft flying) and escaped with a dozen Guardian VTOLs. With the aide of a lance of Vuclan Battlemechs the squadron kept flying, coming in fast and low to surprise unsuspecting Marik forces with a load of iron bombs and napalm. After some attrition due to enemy combat air patrols the impromptu guerrilla aviation unit was finally put out of action by Marik Jump Infantry who had stumbled upon there makeshift airfield.
There are a few accounts of this kind of thing, guerrilla fighters sporting advanced pieces of military hardware like... you know... giant walking war machines. The prospect of servicing a battlemech or aircraft in the middle of a jungle is probably not overly realistic for any length of time. Guerrilla warfare is hard enough when you just need to supply small arms and food to infantry, let alone an advanced peice of equipment or spare parts for a fighter jet. Also these things are crazy fragile in game play - you basically touch them with mech grade weapons and they crash and burn spectacularly.
None-the-less I enjoy the more niche elements of the game - it adds flavor and a dash of variety. I decided to do a pair of each unit mentioned, Karnovs in there modern sculpt done by SirMortimor which look awesome, though they are a bit fragile on the tails (I broke one and am claiming it was from ground fire...). The Guardians were 3d printed and look pretty amazing if I do say so myself. I actually saw a steel miniature for these VTOL fighters the other day but not sure if it was a custom job or just that IronWind does not sell them anymore.
In any case; the 3D prints look quite good. For this one I went with a vallejo Green Grey paint scheme for simplicity - nothing fancy here, just a couple of air breather fighters out for a bomb run.
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