My first battlerep in this addition of the rules was from a game played between my two sons. It was an entertaining little bloodbath that was anyone's game right till the last dice rolled - just the way it should be!
Army Selection
My oldest son Ryu has been playing Peace River for a while. He chose his regular setup for this game.
- His CO leads a heavily armed fire support squad comprised of a Warrior IV Chieftain, a Destroyer Crusader IV, an Argus and a Cataphract. The squad is backed up by an attached pair of skirmishers for forward observation.
- The strike squad is ably led by a Scourge Warrior IV. A Sweeper Warrior takes care of pesky infantry, annoys armour with solid shot and ECMs when he's not busy. The Scourge Warrior tries to emulate his boss and a pair of Vanguard Warriors take out flanking gears.
- Lastly, the poor bloody infantry - A rifle team leads the platoon with an attached recon drone. An AT Squad and Mortar Squad is serviced by a pair of Observer Teams. A Sniper Team is there to finish off gears winged by the AT Squad and keep infantry away from his mates.
My youngest, Kai has gotten into Heavy Gear with the arrival of the kickstarter as he liked the look of the Caprician mounts. He had his heart set on a blue colour scheme and wanted as many of the nasty, heavy mounts as possible.
- The CO leads the strike squad in a Support Kadesh giving orders while crippling things with his particle accelerator. A Close Support Kadesh provides anti-ECM cover. His pair of Meggido (Support and Close Support) are affectionately known as "the Rape Scorpions" for the chaos they've caused in their first few games. The squad is rounded out by a pair of acco.
- The recon squad is led by a Jammer Bashan. A regular Bashan forward observes for the attached Missile Support Ammon. A trio of Stalker Acco keep infantry away and annoy armour with solid shot.
The Mission
Corner deployment was rolled along with the "Shiny" special condition. We rolled up a 7 turn limit for the game. Considering this, we came up with the following;Peace River forces moved to occupy a small, Southern affiliated industrial city. The daring move was based on intel that the city hid an entrance to the MacAllen tunnel network that was being used to house a research facility. The Capricians got wind of their plans and moved to secure the entrance before the PRDF. Overwhelming numbers of southern reinforcements are already en-route meaning the two forces will have to fight quickly to see their enemies off and claim their prize before they are caught by the advancing southerners.
Deployment
The PRDF won the initiative and chose a deployment zone in a heavily built up area of the battlefield. The Capricians mostly stuck to the trees on the other side of the field. 
The Ammon set up shop in a copse of trees at the back of the field. The Cataphract trained his railgun on the objective, daring the Caprician mounts to break cover and claim it.
Turn 1
Caprice, despite rolling 1 less die on the init roll managed to win. The Caprician strike squad activated first, with the Support Meggido going on standby with its LATM. The Close Support Meggido fired its MGL at a few members of the PRDF FS squad by only managed to nail the Recon drone. The CO took aim at the Cataphract looming over the building and managed a MOS 1 hit causing a damage point due to haywire and crippling it for a turn. Predicting this outcome, the Cataphract had chosen to snap fire. His railgun shot struck the Support Kadesh despite the tree cover causing a damage point in return. The rest of the caprician shooting whiffed and the squad's activation ended.
The PRDF activated the Fire support squad. The Argos opened up on the Caprician CO (Support Kadesh) with his heavy rotary cannon causing a point of damage. The Destroyer Crusader followed his lead with his linked MRP for the same result - as well as scratching 2 damage points each off a pair of Accos that were hiding nearby. The skirmishers moved into spotting positions and used their ECM defence.
The Caprician recce squad began with the Ammon going on standby to wait for fire co-ordinates. The Bashan spotted the Cataphract and scored a pair of comms successes and contacted the Ammon and the Support Meggido. Three missiles pounded into the massive gearstrider and caused four damage points, the crippling effect of the light particle accelerator taking its toll.
Next, the PRDF strike squad broke cover and raced to try to flank the Caprician position.The squad leader called the evade order and most of the warriors activated their ECM defences to increase their chances of making it across the road alive.The funniest moment of the turn came from the Vanguard Warrior who decided he was well enough covered by ECM so took a wild spray on the Bashan that had targeted the Cataphract. Despire only having a single dice (BD2D6 +1Burst -1Top Speed -1Evade) versus 4 dice (Bashan had hard cover) he managed to score a margin of success of three giving the Bashan a serious black eye!
Lastly, the infantry platoon moved around a bit, but whiffed all of their rolls, causing no damage.
Turn 2
The PRDF win the initiative roll off 7>4 and activate their strike squad. The Vanguard that pulled off the trick shot in turn 1 takes careful aim and overkills an acco and spreads his fire to the Meggido causing a point of damage. The Meggido snap fires but misses horribly. The rest of the squad manages to miss or fail to damage the Meggido despite a coordinated attack order on it!
The Caprician strike squad retaliated next - the Close Support Kadesh scoffed at the ECM defence of the approaching PRDF strike squad and let loose with his rocket pack. After the dust settled, he'd wiped 2 damage points off each of the Vanguards and the Scourge Warrior, but missed the Sweeper. The Meggido took his lead and jump jetted to the roof and blasted a Vanguard dead and winged the Scourge Warrior IV for 1 damage with his rotary cannon.
The fire support squad had a front row seat to this carnage and needed to hit back. The Argos started proceedings by taking aim at the Caprician CO. The Argos got 7 (5,4,3,2) and the Co's Kadesh got a 6 (6,3,1). Being 1 damage off crippled, the CO decided that he could hope for a 7 on three dice and re-rolled... scoring a 3! (331) Poor guy took 4 damage and was well and truly crippled. The CO had declared a snap fire and managed to score a nice 4 damage hit on the argos. The Cataphract took aim at the Meggido on the roof and missed. The Crusader IV fired his snub cannon at the Close Support Meggido blowing a big hole in it, leaving it crippled. To cap things off, a Skirmisher forward observed a pair of Accos and the Argos' artillery rocket pack almost crippled both of them.
The Capricians answered back by activating the recon squad and killing another Vanguard and damaging the Sweeper with a Bashan. The Ammon got coordinates from an acco and hit the Argos with a rocket but only did a single point of damage. The Meggido took a swing at the Scourge Warrior IV and missed despite it being a rear strike with a brawler bonus!
The PRDF infantry embarrassed themselves - missed everything! A sad end to the turn.
Turn 3
PRDF wins the initiative roll and activates the fire support squad. The Argos, Cataphract and the Crusader IV all opened fire on the Meggido on the roof - the Crusader being the only effective one, downing the mount with his snub cannon. The Skirmisher forward observes the Caprician CO and the Cataphract answers with his mortar - they both roll terribly - 2 versus 3 with the Cataphract winning. Knowing this will kill his CO they both re-roll - and get both get 6! The strength of the Mortar means that it still penetrates the armour - killing the CO!
The Caprican recon squad activated with the Meggido trying again to hit the Scourge Warrior IV and only managed 1 damage! The Accos opened fire on the back of the now crippled Argos and killed it with their armour piercing frag cannons.
The PRDF strike squad saw the Argos go down and made a fighting withdrawal towards the objective. The sweeper activated his ECM defence while the Scourge IV missed the Meggido with his bazooka, The remaining Vanguard crippled an Acco with his autocannon.
The Caprician strike squad's Accos hit back smashing a skirmisher down to 1 point of damage and spraying the CO with a rocket pack for 2 damage. The Support Kadesh Managed to cripple the Vanguard and the Scourge IV in one shot.
The PRDF infantry outdid themselves - the observer sent an AVM flying towards an Acco - rolling a 7 answered by a double 1 from the Acco - overkilling it!
Turn 4
PRDF wins the initiative roll and activates the fire support squad. The crusader goes into standby and the skirmisher tries to get revenge on the Accos that crippled him by forward observing them. The Cataphract's mortar and the Crusader's rocket pack and mortar pummel them but only manage to cripple one. The Cataphract does better - smashing a Bashan for 6 damage!
The Caprician Strike squad activates and the Meggido cripples the Sweeper and kills the Vanguard. The other members whiff their rolls and achieve nothing.
The PRDF strikers achieve little more managing to damage an Acco and the rocket toting Kadesh. The Caprician Recon squad's Ammon strikes again annihilating the Crusader IV with a forward observation from the Bashan. A Stalker managed to put another damage onto the Scourge Warrior IV.
The infantry embarrassed themselves again... Missing a lot!
Turn 5
The Capricans won the roll off and the Kadesh smashed the Scourge IV killing it, but missing his friend the Skirmisher due to "agile". The Meggido jumped to the roof and crippled the sweeper. An Acco finished it off.
The PRDF Fire support squad (all two of them) took aim at the Meggido with coordinated fire. The Cataphract caused 4 damage, crippling it, but the CO missed completely! The Capricians returned fire with the recon squad swatting the CO with the Ammon, narrowly doing 6 points of damage in two hits, killing it. The infantry hit the Meggido for another point of damage with their missile. The rest of the turn passed without incident.... but the PRDF commander had something cooking...
Turn 6
The PRDF commander sees that he's got almost no one near the objective and very few gears left. He calls "Last Turn" to try and make sure the Capricians can't get a clean win. He saw that he would have no one left if the game went for 7 turns. The PRDF wins initiative and the Cataphract splats the Meggido with his rail gun. The Capricians answer by wiping out the remaining gears with their strike squad. The accos try to wipe out the infantry, but an observer squad and a rifle squad remain - in the 6" capture zone of the objective! The recon squad blows up the Cataphract and the rifle squad - but run out of guns to finish off the observers! Game over!
Conclusion
The PRDF, seeing that their forces would be unable to secure the objective, made a fateful call - the brave observer team ran as fast as they could through bullets and chaos calling for an airstrike on their position. The Caprician Bashan strode towards them just as they heard the howling of the falling bombs. The Capricians won the battle, but at what cost?The "Shiny" objective was a wash - both sides contesting it! However the Caprician side won on casualties 68 points to only 6 left alive on the PRDF side. A bloody, entertaining game!
