E
Enderminion
Guest
The Setting
This was not set in the real world or any real or hypothetical conflict but instead set in a fictional universe with technology roughly equal to the 1940s or 1950s with the conceit that rocketry and electronics are about a decade more advanced. For the context of this ground operation this didn't mean that much, our tanks had autoloaders and rocket artillery was much more sophisticated, but otherwise this is mostly WW2 levels of technology, except for the ATGM batteries.
The political situation leading to the conflict is not especially complicated, the Sunset Lands Republic (SLR) and Kingdom of Serenity (KoS) are traditional rivals having had on and off conflicts for over 100 years over control of the Rugajmontoj peninsula. The Rugajmontoj peninsula is across a narrow strait from the Sunset Lands Republic (SLR) and borders the core regions of the Kingdom of Serenity (KoS). The Rugajmontoj peninsula is loosely modelled on northern Italy and Korea and is colloquially known as the "Peninsula of Attrition" the terrain is not great for anything except dying. The current bout of conflict was caused by KoS forces invading a resource rich region of the Federal Midlands Mandate (FMM), the Lop Province, pursuant to their mutual defense treaty the SLR issued an ultimatum to the KoS to withdraw to their pre invasion positions, they refused, and a major war broke out.
After air and naval skirmishes in and around the Rugajmontoj peninsula including artillery battles over the line of control the SLR National Guard Ground Command (as an aside, all SLR military formations are under the aegis of the National Guard, from carrier groups at sea, Strategic Air Command bomber regiments, to humble infantry divisions) launched a major ground offensive codenamed Stablehouse with two main objectives, dislodge KoS forces from their (well fortified) pre war positions and to seize control of the entire peninsula. The SLR 44th Infantry Division as a part of the southern army group (SOUTHAG) was initially considered to be a secondary front in the peninsula campaign but as of the start of the Kriegsspiel part SOUTHAG and the 44th have been especially successful, more importantly the 44th have dislodged some KoS conscripts and secured four bridgeheads across the strategically important Acolin river (Duke Milhaly Bridge [DMB], Count Carlos Bridge [CCB], Queen Katerina Dam [QKD], Princess Helena Dam [PHD]) (listed from north to south, there will be a map later), of these only QKD and DMB can support heavy armor, CCB can support light armor, and PHD can only support foot crossings. A fifth crossing far to the north of the area of operations also only supports foot crossings. The 44th Infantry Division is tasked with holding these four bridges so that SLR armored units can cross the river later to continue the offensive.
Both sides have both large stocks of Mustard gas, and effective CBRN defense. At the point of this engagement neither side has used chemical weapons, radiological and biological weapons do not exist, and nuclear weapons are about a decade away. Neither side has used any CBRN weapons and as of this battle neither side plans to start.
Blue Force Order of Battle
Blue Force primarily consists of the 44th Infantry Division and some corps level fire support assets. Three regiments of Fusiliers light infantry (7th, 8th, 114th) make up the core of the 44th division, these guys are essentially leg infantry, each regiment also has a battalions worth of 77mm anti tank guns equal to the French 75 of 1897 (which is to say terrible) and a battery of 77mm artillery, of note given the expectations of the militaries of the setting basically everyone has a submachinegun of some similar capabilities to the M2 Carbine or M2 Hyde. The 88th Tank regiment is the last significant part of the 44th Infantry division, and has a total of 12 armored companies to distribute to infantry battalions as support, 6 light tank (basically Chaffee's, same gun as the at guns), 3 medium tank*, and 3 assault guns*. Division artillery assets consist of one battery of 146mm guns, one battery of 110mm rockets (in theory part of the Tank regiment), three batteries of 110mm guns, three 77mm anti aircraft gun batteries (Skysweepers are the reference here), three extra AT gun batteries, and three ATGM batteries (MCLOS, 2.5km range, 175mm diameter), rounding out the force are three companies of combat engineers. Corps level fire support consisted exclusively of a single battery of 146mm guns.
7th Regiment has taken some losses due to the previous days activities clearing KoS conscripts from the area.
Blue Force is permitted to destroy PHD, and Blue Force wanted permission to destroy DMB, Blue Force must hold QKD.
*It is worth expanding on the medium armor and assault guns briefly, technical tangents are fun and these things are wild. The primary SLR medium tank is the brand new T-40 medium tank, armed with an 88mm/70 caliber autoloading cannon and with 60mm of front armor the T-40 is generally superior to the KoS M993C medium tanks, and is designed to take out KoS heavy armor. The assault gun is the same hull but armed with a 99mm howitzer and allocated to the 88th Tank regiment's anti tank battalion.
Red Force Order of Battle
Primarily Red Force consisted of the 8th Guards Imperial Household’s Lancers Division (8th GIHLD) consisting of two tank regiments and two mechanized infantry regiments (note these are square regiments and SLR regiments are triangular). The 8th Lancers also have a battalion of heavy tanks, and a massive quantity of self propelled artillery support (SLR artillery in the 44th is all towed) and massive quantities of air support (importantly the KoS Air Force uses large cannons frequently, their primary ground attack plane has twin 55mm cannons, by comparison SLR Tactical Air Command uses guided bombs, bombs, cluster bombs, rockets, and guided rockets). Their understanding of their task is to clear the East bank of the Acolin river (their bank) and to prevent the destruction of the DMB to allow for the KoS counterattack to continue.
Red Force is permitted to destroy CCB, and must take DMB intact.
Maps
This is the Big Map, green is forested areas, grey is urban, yellow is mountainous/higher elevation.
There are major roads along the railway lines and along the river.
Up in A3 you can see the 5th crossing (infantry only) while the other four (and the only four either side care about) are concentrated around H10/Honfleur.
The course of the river neatly splits the SLR areas of responsibilities into three regions, the northern DMB group, southern QKD group, and a reserve force in and around the woods north west of Honfleur.
SLR forces can be deployed essentially anywhere south of Granville (in fact the whole E11 grid square is valid) and intelligence reports that KoS forces are likely to come from the east to avoid the natural Granville rail route, they have local guides to get through the forests at speed with heavy armor.
Initial SLR Deployments
The initial SLR deployments reflect two key facts, the enemy is faster than us, and has more tanks. The 7th Regiment being depleted is held in reserve with three coys of light tanks, an AA battery, and an engineering company attached to various units, one battalion is (the more depleted one) is deployed to D8 to cover against a dismounted KoS infantry attack from the north (never comes) and the other two are deployed around Honfleur. The 114th Fusiliers regiment has the anti tank battalion (assault guns), two ATGM batteries, an AT gun battery, and three companies of light tanks attached to it, plus the standard AA battery and engineering company; the 114th is deployed with two battalions on the East bank and one battalion and HQ on the West bank, in the event of a push on QKD they are to push around Big Bend (I12) to swing in behind any KoS attack on CCB or QKD (PHD would be blown to cover SLR flanks in any push that pushes the 8th Regiment over QKD or CCB). The 8th Fusiliers Regiment, consisting of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Fusilier battalions with the attachments of an AT gun battery, ATGM battery, anti aircraft battery, engineering company, and the three medium tank companies is deployed on the East bank of the river, with the 5th covering CCB, 6th covering QKD, and 4th held in H10 (immediately moving out), the HQ of 8th Fusiliers is with 6th Battalion (immediately moving out), the 8th's plans are similar to those of the 114th, either a fighting retreat over QKD or swinging around Big Bend (I12) to hammer a KoS attack on DMB.
The expectations of the SLR was an attack against either QKD or DMB, and with no way to know in advance were forced to commit a regiment to each.
Initial KoS Deployments
As the 8th Household Guards Imperial Lancers Elite Armored Division players understood the mission their job was to clear the East Bank and to secure DMB and QKD, they had roughly the same amount of infantry, a lot more armor, and a lot more supporting fires including both air and siege artillery. Their plan was a long plan and ENDEX occurred long before it could be implemented.
The KoS split their forces into a North Group, Center Group, and South Group. Initially their plan was to have the south group swing around the south, over QKD, and attack SLR forces in the north from the south in conjunction with the North and Center forces in and around DMB. It is important to note that the KoS forces had local guides allowing their armor to move at speed through the forests. The KoS intended to use their superior fires and heavy armor to demolish everything in their path and were expecting most SLR forces to be on the west bank of the river.
The KoS commanders expected most SLR forces to be north in and around DMB, with a token force defending QKD (if that).
In the North
In the north the KoS north force entered Granville and was beset upon by divisional artillery of the 44th Infantry division, the north force was eliminated as a military formation and it's survivors fled to Villenoire linking up with the undetected Center force, the spotters that had been observing north force was the SLR 110mm rocket artillery battery (towed) and KoS return fire detonated their ammunition, as such Granville continued getting corps and divisional artillery fires even though most of the KoS forces had vacated the town or been killed trying to leave the town, or in the town. More worryingly the center force was undetected in Villenoire. Prior to the center force arriving in Villenoire it was subjected to significant KoS artillery fire to eliminate any SLR defenders in the town (there were none).
Endex occurs before anything else exciting happens on the northern front of the engagement, but more on that later.
In the South
Turn One
The 4th Grenadiers Battalion was the first KoS unit to make contact, they spotted two things that dramatically misled them, a fleeing infantry unit and tracks of a battalion leaving H10, the KoS commanders assumed that the SLR 4th Fusiliers Battalion had retreated across the CCB and that some other unit had been broken by artillery fires, as such the 4th Grenadiers attempted to secure H11 near the CCB, running face first into the SLR 5th Fusiliers, the 4th Grenadiers were repelled with heavy losses to the 4th Grenadiers and moderate losses to the 5th Fusiliers. More importantly the 4th Grenadiers reported that everything in H10 had been killed, this was false and the KoS commanders rightly figured that out, after the second round of air and artillery hit H10 the 4th Grenadiers reported nothing was alive in H10, this was true, the 4th Fusiliers moved out between the 1st and 2nd artillery hits to H10 in good order with minimal losses.
Turn Two
Other elements of KoS South Force move into position for a push towards QKD, they are expecting minimal resistance, notably the 8th Carabineer battalion with attached heavy and light tanks and the 7th Carabineer battalion with their own armored support, the 4th Grenadiers is still the only unit in contact with SLR forces but the SLR can see more. KoS forces bombard SLR troops of the 8th Fusilier regiment with artillery but yet again the 4th Fusilier escapes serious damage to fires support. Grid square I10 is stacked with SLR forces but KoS artillery fails to inflict serious damage except for one shell from the interdiction fires against QKD going long and precisely obliterating half of the 8th Fusiliers Headquarters.
It is worth repeating that the KoS plans call for minimal to no resistance in the south and the system in play has a cost for deviating from a plan, the KoS does not have the command agility to both keep south force alive and bring center force into play and is forced to choose, they choose to try and keep south force alive. Every unit in the south is taking heavy air and artillery fire and despite the smaller number of guns available to the SLR, their artillery is generally providing more effective fire than the KoS guns.
The 8th Carabineers, an armored infantry battalion with a company of heavy, and a company of light tanks in support assaults into grid square I10, opposing them are the 1st, 4th, and 6th Fusilier Battalions of the 7th (1st) and 8th (4th, 6th) Fusilier regiments, two companies of medium tanks explicitly designed to kill KoS heavy armor, a company of lights, some AT guns that don't matter and an ATGM battery of KTM-1 Divine something or another. Despite being outnumbered 3:1 in terms of infantry and 3:2 in terms of armor, the 8th Carabineers almost break through, KoS heavy armor is in fact that good, SLR command is presented with the choice of falling back or counterattacking, but the SLR had nowhere to retreat and counterattack. The ATGM battery obliterated the light tank company of the KoS, and the SLR AT guns were ineffective against the KoS heavy armor. The 8th Carabineers was rendered ineffective as a military formation, as was the 6th Fusiliers, combined the 1st and 4th Fusiliers total about 1 reinforced battalion, together, but they're still alive and the QKD is still in SLR hands.
ENDEX
The last significant action of the battle was KoS fires into the 114th Regiment, their air support misses, badly, and drops a large amount of fires onto DMB, the bridge, the single most important objective for the KoS armored division, collapses due to a KoS airstrike stranding the 8th and 9th Fusiliers battalions on the east bank with a large, undetected enemy force superior to the 8th Carabineers opposed to them. The forces the 114th has on the east bank are inferior to the forces that repelled the 8th Carabineers, to say the 114th is in a bad place is an understatement, they cannot run north, there are no bridges, they cannot run south as the 7th Carabineers blocks the road, and superior enemy forces are preparing to launch a frontal assault into their positions. With two ATGM batteries and a lot of anti tank guns and assault guns, with essentially all of the division level and corps level fires supporting them, it is probable the 114th might have held out until corps level engineering forces could throw a bailey over the destroyed bridge, or until the 7th and 8th regiments (which by this point had what amounted to three and a half battalions out of six) could swing around Big Bend and relieve them, however we ran out of time and called it there.
After the Action
The KoS commander turned what was left of his division around, smashed the airbase his air "support" had been coming from, and declared himself to be leader of a small and independent fiefdom on the frontlines, with a cult dedicated to SLR corps level artillery. Corps level fires of which there was one, consistently killed whatever they hit.
It was revealed that the GM's were using 1d12 rather than 2d6 making extreme outcomes more likely than they should have been.
The SLR probably had two extra indirect fire assets they weren't using (only one assault gun fire mission was tasked each phase).
The way the AT guns were organized in the SLR order of battle meant that they tended to act like shields against indirect fires, most of the units in the 8th Fusiliers regiment lost their AT gun batteries quickly but were otherwise mostly intact despite apocalyptic levels of fire being applied to them. Given that the AT guns proved ineffective against KoS heavy tanks (of which they had three, and three heavy assault guns that weren't much less heavily armored) this was no great loss.
The SLR was not told that they had been able to dig foxholes.
4th Battalion Fusiliers was memed about for awhile in the discord because of just how much they survived. I was unaware of just how many assets were dedicated to destroying them. They were reported dead at least twice and misled KoS forces in all the right ways (for the SLR).
The SLR was considering requesting permission to blow DMB after pulling back to concentrate on holding QKD, this proved unneeded as the KoS accidentally blew the DMB.
This was not set in the real world or any real or hypothetical conflict but instead set in a fictional universe with technology roughly equal to the 1940s or 1950s with the conceit that rocketry and electronics are about a decade more advanced. For the context of this ground operation this didn't mean that much, our tanks had autoloaders and rocket artillery was much more sophisticated, but otherwise this is mostly WW2 levels of technology, except for the ATGM batteries.
The political situation leading to the conflict is not especially complicated, the Sunset Lands Republic (SLR) and Kingdom of Serenity (KoS) are traditional rivals having had on and off conflicts for over 100 years over control of the Rugajmontoj peninsula. The Rugajmontoj peninsula is across a narrow strait from the Sunset Lands Republic (SLR) and borders the core regions of the Kingdom of Serenity (KoS). The Rugajmontoj peninsula is loosely modelled on northern Italy and Korea and is colloquially known as the "Peninsula of Attrition" the terrain is not great for anything except dying. The current bout of conflict was caused by KoS forces invading a resource rich region of the Federal Midlands Mandate (FMM), the Lop Province, pursuant to their mutual defense treaty the SLR issued an ultimatum to the KoS to withdraw to their pre invasion positions, they refused, and a major war broke out.
After air and naval skirmishes in and around the Rugajmontoj peninsula including artillery battles over the line of control the SLR National Guard Ground Command (as an aside, all SLR military formations are under the aegis of the National Guard, from carrier groups at sea, Strategic Air Command bomber regiments, to humble infantry divisions) launched a major ground offensive codenamed Stablehouse with two main objectives, dislodge KoS forces from their (well fortified) pre war positions and to seize control of the entire peninsula. The SLR 44th Infantry Division as a part of the southern army group (SOUTHAG) was initially considered to be a secondary front in the peninsula campaign but as of the start of the Kriegsspiel part SOUTHAG and the 44th have been especially successful, more importantly the 44th have dislodged some KoS conscripts and secured four bridgeheads across the strategically important Acolin river (Duke Milhaly Bridge [DMB], Count Carlos Bridge [CCB], Queen Katerina Dam [QKD], Princess Helena Dam [PHD]) (listed from north to south, there will be a map later), of these only QKD and DMB can support heavy armor, CCB can support light armor, and PHD can only support foot crossings. A fifth crossing far to the north of the area of operations also only supports foot crossings. The 44th Infantry Division is tasked with holding these four bridges so that SLR armored units can cross the river later to continue the offensive.
Both sides have both large stocks of Mustard gas, and effective CBRN defense. At the point of this engagement neither side has used chemical weapons, radiological and biological weapons do not exist, and nuclear weapons are about a decade away. Neither side has used any CBRN weapons and as of this battle neither side plans to start.
Blue Force Order of Battle
Blue Force primarily consists of the 44th Infantry Division and some corps level fire support assets. Three regiments of Fusiliers light infantry (7th, 8th, 114th) make up the core of the 44th division, these guys are essentially leg infantry, each regiment also has a battalions worth of 77mm anti tank guns equal to the French 75 of 1897 (which is to say terrible) and a battery of 77mm artillery, of note given the expectations of the militaries of the setting basically everyone has a submachinegun of some similar capabilities to the M2 Carbine or M2 Hyde. The 88th Tank regiment is the last significant part of the 44th Infantry division, and has a total of 12 armored companies to distribute to infantry battalions as support, 6 light tank (basically Chaffee's, same gun as the at guns), 3 medium tank*, and 3 assault guns*. Division artillery assets consist of one battery of 146mm guns, one battery of 110mm rockets (in theory part of the Tank regiment), three batteries of 110mm guns, three 77mm anti aircraft gun batteries (Skysweepers are the reference here), three extra AT gun batteries, and three ATGM batteries (MCLOS, 2.5km range, 175mm diameter), rounding out the force are three companies of combat engineers. Corps level fire support consisted exclusively of a single battery of 146mm guns.
7th Regiment has taken some losses due to the previous days activities clearing KoS conscripts from the area.
Blue Force is permitted to destroy PHD, and Blue Force wanted permission to destroy DMB, Blue Force must hold QKD.
*It is worth expanding on the medium armor and assault guns briefly, technical tangents are fun and these things are wild. The primary SLR medium tank is the brand new T-40 medium tank, armed with an 88mm/70 caliber autoloading cannon and with 60mm of front armor the T-40 is generally superior to the KoS M993C medium tanks, and is designed to take out KoS heavy armor. The assault gun is the same hull but armed with a 99mm howitzer and allocated to the 88th Tank regiment's anti tank battalion.
Red Force Order of Battle
Primarily Red Force consisted of the 8th Guards Imperial Household’s Lancers Division (8th GIHLD) consisting of two tank regiments and two mechanized infantry regiments (note these are square regiments and SLR regiments are triangular). The 8th Lancers also have a battalion of heavy tanks, and a massive quantity of self propelled artillery support (SLR artillery in the 44th is all towed) and massive quantities of air support (importantly the KoS Air Force uses large cannons frequently, their primary ground attack plane has twin 55mm cannons, by comparison SLR Tactical Air Command uses guided bombs, bombs, cluster bombs, rockets, and guided rockets). Their understanding of their task is to clear the East bank of the Acolin river (their bank) and to prevent the destruction of the DMB to allow for the KoS counterattack to continue.
Red Force is permitted to destroy CCB, and must take DMB intact.
Maps
This is the Big Map, green is forested areas, grey is urban, yellow is mountainous/higher elevation.
There are major roads along the railway lines and along the river.
Up in A3 you can see the 5th crossing (infantry only) while the other four (and the only four either side care about) are concentrated around H10/Honfleur.
The course of the river neatly splits the SLR areas of responsibilities into three regions, the northern DMB group, southern QKD group, and a reserve force in and around the woods north west of Honfleur.
SLR forces can be deployed essentially anywhere south of Granville (in fact the whole E11 grid square is valid) and intelligence reports that KoS forces are likely to come from the east to avoid the natural Granville rail route, they have local guides to get through the forests at speed with heavy armor.
Initial SLR Deployments
The initial SLR deployments reflect two key facts, the enemy is faster than us, and has more tanks. The 7th Regiment being depleted is held in reserve with three coys of light tanks, an AA battery, and an engineering company attached to various units, one battalion is (the more depleted one) is deployed to D8 to cover against a dismounted KoS infantry attack from the north (never comes) and the other two are deployed around Honfleur. The 114th Fusiliers regiment has the anti tank battalion (assault guns), two ATGM batteries, an AT gun battery, and three companies of light tanks attached to it, plus the standard AA battery and engineering company; the 114th is deployed with two battalions on the East bank and one battalion and HQ on the West bank, in the event of a push on QKD they are to push around Big Bend (I12) to swing in behind any KoS attack on CCB or QKD (PHD would be blown to cover SLR flanks in any push that pushes the 8th Regiment over QKD or CCB). The 8th Fusiliers Regiment, consisting of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Fusilier battalions with the attachments of an AT gun battery, ATGM battery, anti aircraft battery, engineering company, and the three medium tank companies is deployed on the East bank of the river, with the 5th covering CCB, 6th covering QKD, and 4th held in H10 (immediately moving out), the HQ of 8th Fusiliers is with 6th Battalion (immediately moving out), the 8th's plans are similar to those of the 114th, either a fighting retreat over QKD or swinging around Big Bend (I12) to hammer a KoS attack on DMB.
The expectations of the SLR was an attack against either QKD or DMB, and with no way to know in advance were forced to commit a regiment to each.
Initial KoS Deployments
As the 8th Household Guards Imperial Lancers Elite Armored Division players understood the mission their job was to clear the East Bank and to secure DMB and QKD, they had roughly the same amount of infantry, a lot more armor, and a lot more supporting fires including both air and siege artillery. Their plan was a long plan and ENDEX occurred long before it could be implemented.
The KoS split their forces into a North Group, Center Group, and South Group. Initially their plan was to have the south group swing around the south, over QKD, and attack SLR forces in the north from the south in conjunction with the North and Center forces in and around DMB. It is important to note that the KoS forces had local guides allowing their armor to move at speed through the forests. The KoS intended to use their superior fires and heavy armor to demolish everything in their path and were expecting most SLR forces to be on the west bank of the river.
The KoS commanders expected most SLR forces to be north in and around DMB, with a token force defending QKD (if that).
In the North
In the north the KoS north force entered Granville and was beset upon by divisional artillery of the 44th Infantry division, the north force was eliminated as a military formation and it's survivors fled to Villenoire linking up with the undetected Center force, the spotters that had been observing north force was the SLR 110mm rocket artillery battery (towed) and KoS return fire detonated their ammunition, as such Granville continued getting corps and divisional artillery fires even though most of the KoS forces had vacated the town or been killed trying to leave the town, or in the town. More worryingly the center force was undetected in Villenoire. Prior to the center force arriving in Villenoire it was subjected to significant KoS artillery fire to eliminate any SLR defenders in the town (there were none).
Endex occurs before anything else exciting happens on the northern front of the engagement, but more on that later.
In the South
Turn One
The 4th Grenadiers Battalion was the first KoS unit to make contact, they spotted two things that dramatically misled them, a fleeing infantry unit and tracks of a battalion leaving H10, the KoS commanders assumed that the SLR 4th Fusiliers Battalion had retreated across the CCB and that some other unit had been broken by artillery fires, as such the 4th Grenadiers attempted to secure H11 near the CCB, running face first into the SLR 5th Fusiliers, the 4th Grenadiers were repelled with heavy losses to the 4th Grenadiers and moderate losses to the 5th Fusiliers. More importantly the 4th Grenadiers reported that everything in H10 had been killed, this was false and the KoS commanders rightly figured that out, after the second round of air and artillery hit H10 the 4th Grenadiers reported nothing was alive in H10, this was true, the 4th Fusiliers moved out between the 1st and 2nd artillery hits to H10 in good order with minimal losses.
Turn Two
Other elements of KoS South Force move into position for a push towards QKD, they are expecting minimal resistance, notably the 8th Carabineer battalion with attached heavy and light tanks and the 7th Carabineer battalion with their own armored support, the 4th Grenadiers is still the only unit in contact with SLR forces but the SLR can see more. KoS forces bombard SLR troops of the 8th Fusilier regiment with artillery but yet again the 4th Fusilier escapes serious damage to fires support. Grid square I10 is stacked with SLR forces but KoS artillery fails to inflict serious damage except for one shell from the interdiction fires against QKD going long and precisely obliterating half of the 8th Fusiliers Headquarters.
It is worth repeating that the KoS plans call for minimal to no resistance in the south and the system in play has a cost for deviating from a plan, the KoS does not have the command agility to both keep south force alive and bring center force into play and is forced to choose, they choose to try and keep south force alive. Every unit in the south is taking heavy air and artillery fire and despite the smaller number of guns available to the SLR, their artillery is generally providing more effective fire than the KoS guns.
The 8th Carabineers, an armored infantry battalion with a company of heavy, and a company of light tanks in support assaults into grid square I10, opposing them are the 1st, 4th, and 6th Fusilier Battalions of the 7th (1st) and 8th (4th, 6th) Fusilier regiments, two companies of medium tanks explicitly designed to kill KoS heavy armor, a company of lights, some AT guns that don't matter and an ATGM battery of KTM-1 Divine something or another. Despite being outnumbered 3:1 in terms of infantry and 3:2 in terms of armor, the 8th Carabineers almost break through, KoS heavy armor is in fact that good, SLR command is presented with the choice of falling back or counterattacking, but the SLR had nowhere to retreat and counterattack. The ATGM battery obliterated the light tank company of the KoS, and the SLR AT guns were ineffective against the KoS heavy armor. The 8th Carabineers was rendered ineffective as a military formation, as was the 6th Fusiliers, combined the 1st and 4th Fusiliers total about 1 reinforced battalion, together, but they're still alive and the QKD is still in SLR hands.
ENDEX
The last significant action of the battle was KoS fires into the 114th Regiment, their air support misses, badly, and drops a large amount of fires onto DMB, the bridge, the single most important objective for the KoS armored division, collapses due to a KoS airstrike stranding the 8th and 9th Fusiliers battalions on the east bank with a large, undetected enemy force superior to the 8th Carabineers opposed to them. The forces the 114th has on the east bank are inferior to the forces that repelled the 8th Carabineers, to say the 114th is in a bad place is an understatement, they cannot run north, there are no bridges, they cannot run south as the 7th Carabineers blocks the road, and superior enemy forces are preparing to launch a frontal assault into their positions. With two ATGM batteries and a lot of anti tank guns and assault guns, with essentially all of the division level and corps level fires supporting them, it is probable the 114th might have held out until corps level engineering forces could throw a bailey over the destroyed bridge, or until the 7th and 8th regiments (which by this point had what amounted to three and a half battalions out of six) could swing around Big Bend and relieve them, however we ran out of time and called it there.
After the Action
The KoS commander turned what was left of his division around, smashed the airbase his air "support" had been coming from, and declared himself to be leader of a small and independent fiefdom on the frontlines, with a cult dedicated to SLR corps level artillery. Corps level fires of which there was one, consistently killed whatever they hit.
It was revealed that the GM's were using 1d12 rather than 2d6 making extreme outcomes more likely than they should have been.
The SLR probably had two extra indirect fire assets they weren't using (only one assault gun fire mission was tasked each phase).
The way the AT guns were organized in the SLR order of battle meant that they tended to act like shields against indirect fires, most of the units in the 8th Fusiliers regiment lost their AT gun batteries quickly but were otherwise mostly intact despite apocalyptic levels of fire being applied to them. Given that the AT guns proved ineffective against KoS heavy tanks (of which they had three, and three heavy assault guns that weren't much less heavily armored) this was no great loss.
The SLR was not told that they had been able to dig foxholes.
4th Battalion Fusiliers was memed about for awhile in the discord because of just how much they survived. I was unaware of just how many assets were dedicated to destroying them. They were reported dead at least twice and misled KoS forces in all the right ways (for the SLR).
The SLR was considering requesting permission to blow DMB after pulling back to concentrate on holding QKD, this proved unneeded as the KoS accidentally blew the DMB.