The Final Battle, Commonwealth vs Spoilers
Note, this battle involves spoilers, so if you don't want to know about them, avoid please!
March 6, 2108: This is a momentous day! On this date the Assault Fleet sets out for Abyss, escorting the last ground troops assigned to the invasion force. It will take two months for the force to arrive at the base on Alexandria II, where they will refuel and load the other ground troops assigned to the invasion. All told, twenty-six warships, twelve interceptors, eleven heavy fighters, thirty-nine ground attack fighters, and fourteen divisional transports are assigned to the assault. The ground invasion force is composed of three entire corps of heavy and superheavy armored units, approximately 720,000 tons all told. In addition, seven smaller troop transports accompany the force, carrying replacement units that can be fed into the frontline units as needed. It has taken the Commonwealth thirteen years to complete this massive military buildup.
June 11, 2108: Finally, the day has arrived. At 15:45 hours the landings on Abyss begin. The first on the ground are the leading elements of the three armored corps, dropped from the orbiting transports. The replacement and reserve units will arrive later.
Estimated Enemy force (Beginning):
Battlewagon 371
Combatwagon: 223
AA Tank 60
HQ 23
Warrior: 5929
Anti-V team: 110
AA Team: 150
From the very first the Commonwealth’s losses were heavy. Even the superheavy Bolo Mk II tanks were being taken out at an alarming rate. It very quickly became clear that the orbital support and artillery were not performing as expected, and the heavily dug in enemy was largely proof against their fire. Only direct fire by the heavy and super heavy tanks were having an effect, and they were taking immense casualties in taking the fight to the enemy.
By the 13th it was clear that the invasion was in trouble. The three assault-corps have been reduced to 50% strength and the enemy’s attacks are unrelenting. Now would be the time to commit reinforcements, but there are none. Everything was committed to the initial assault.
By the 17th, the invasion had failed. Most of the heavy and superheavy tanks have been destroyed, and the enemy is now cutting into the headquarters formations, slaughtering everyone they find. Captain Pohlen, CO of the Assault Fleet, acting on orders from Earth, orders her fleet to switch from ground support to wide-spread bombardment of the planet and the defending forces. Her orders were clear, If the invasion were to fail, the planet will be glassed. Captain Pohlen was appalled when she received the orders, finding the thought of bombarding the surface of a habitable planet repellent, but after watching the decimation of the ground force over the last several days her hesitation had dropped away. The aliens were evil and would be destroyed, at any cost.
The bombardment is intense. Beam weapons of all descriptions, from heavy plasma weapons to point defense lasers, lash out at the ground targets. They accomplish little. The ground targets are small, and evasive, and there are few hits. The missiles, though, began carving a swath through the enemy ground forces.
After thirty seconds Captain Pohlen ordered the beam bombardment stopped, as the continuous use of the beam weapons is causing failures in the equipment that are growing increasingly concerning, and their bombardment has been almost useless. The missile bombardment continues, though, and intensifies as she orders the anti-missile frigates to join in.
The carnage on the ground is terrible. The enemy infantry bears the brunt of the orbital assault, and many are killed. Unfortunately, relatively few of the enemy tanks are killed by the missile attack. Eventually, with missile stocks depleted, Captain Pohlen orders the rest of the fleet to cease fire, while her flagship, the Star class strike carrier Pride of Sol, continues the bombardment alone.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the bombardment ended. Captain Pohlen had drained her flagship’s magazines of both the larger standoff missiles and the smaller standard missiles carried for the ship’s fighters and interceptors. There was nothing left. Below, the planet’s atmosphere was choked with dust and the surface temperature had dropped one hundred degrees. The planet was effectively uninhabitable for the near and medium future. In spite of this the carnage on the surface continued as the rear area human forces were cut down mercilessly. It finally ended a day and a half later when the last human forces surrendered.
Summary
Invasion started on June 11, 2108
Best estimate enemy ground forces (40% error) Early in battle
620xTank, 210xCombat car, 38xAA Tank, 11xTank HQ, 5061xWarrior, 129xAV team, 80xAA team, 3xPL Def HQ
Human losses
8xGS Fighter, 1946xHvy Tank, 356xSHvy Tank, 545xFFD team, 337xAA tank, 270xHvy aRty Tank, 86xSHcy HQ, 7xInf HQ, 183xHvy AA, 413xMed Arty, 12xCorps HQ, 24xArm Div HQ, 3xInf HQ
Alien Combat losses
224xTank, 59xCombat car, 155xWarrior, 38xAA Tank, 6xAA Team, 3xAT Team, 1xTank HQ, 2xPl Def HQ
Alien Losses to orbital bombardment
33xTank, 9xCombat Car, 906xWarrior, 1xAA Team, 2xAA Tank, 6xAA Team, 17xAT Team, 1xTank HQ,
Best estimate of enemy strength towards the end of the battle (9% error)
388xTank, 147xCombatwagon, 29xAA Tank, 12xTank HQ, 4623xWarrior, 93xAT Team, 74xAA Team, 2xPlanetary HQ, 7xWarrior HQ
13 years of preparation, 30 Ground Force Construction Complexes
The invasion was a disaster. Three heavy armored corps were lost, a planet was irradiated. Worse, the enemy was defiant, broadcasting taunts as the fleet pulled away.
This single event caused a change in humanity’s course. The Commonwealth’s government fell when the word of the defeat made it back to Earth, and riots and dissention rocked the planet and the Solar colonies. For weeks civilization tottered on the brink, and then finally, when all else had failed, an officer took action. On August 23, after the mobs stormed and burned the government capital complex in New York and killed most of the ministers that had stayed to try to deal with the defeat and its aftermath, Brigadier General Hans Blackstone ordered his marines into action. General Blackstone, along with several other generals and colonels, had tried to convince the government to allow them to put down the unrest, to no avail. The Parliament had insisted that the people would see reason, after being allowed to “blow off steam”, and had refused all efforts by the generals to secure governmental operations. After the burning of the New York complex, the generals commanding the divisions that had remained on Earth fell to arguing among themselves, and General Blackstone was left to act. His was the smallest command on Earth at the time, but the marines were the elite of the ground forces.
The Marine EVA Regiment was composed of four marine boarding platoons and four marine EVA battalions. Each marine was equipped with the latest heavy powered armor and heavy crew served ant-personnel weapons. A marine in heavy armor could walk through a bonfire untouched, and nothing short of a military class armor-piercing weapon could penetrate their armor. General Blackstone unleashed his marines on New York, and in a matter of hours the rioters had been put down. No marines were killed in the action, although the death toll among the rioters was high. At that point no one cared. The people were tired of the unrest, and were ready to follow anyone who could restore order.
With a fragile peace achieved in and around New York, General Blackstone ordered his marines to round up every government official who had survived. In the meantime, General Blackstone ordered the other generals commanding Earthside units to move into the nearest cities and restore order. Although he wasn’t technically authorized to issue such orders, most of the generals had been waiting for just such an order and they leapt to obey, especially as Blackstone’s assurance that no one was going to look very closely at how they restored order accompanied the orders.
Within a week order was largely restored across the planet, although several brigades refused to obey orders and had to be forcefully confronted before they backed down. Only fourteen members of parliament had been found alive, and neither the Prime Minister or his ministers survived. At Blackstone’s urging, they formed an Emergency Council two weeks after the riots were put down. Their first official act was to appoint General Blackstone head of the emergency government and military.
Over the next year General Blackstone spearheaded the reconstruction of Earth and the colonies, and exactly one year after the fall of the Commonwealth he crowned himself Hans the First, Emperor of Mankind, vowing vengeance on the aliens who had threatened humanity.
Final Notes: The orbital support was relatively useless. The beam weapons had a very hard time hitting the dug-in ground units, and when they did hit they largely didn't penetrate their armor. My ground support fighters were steadily whittled down and also had little effect. As others have said, my AA units were useless, as the enemy didn't use air units at all. My artillery was also not particularly useful. I believe this is largely because I didn't update it when I updated my tanks to the latest tech, so they were older and smaller than they should have been, and had a hard time penetrating the enemy's armor.
My strategy was largely developed after my first disastrous attempt. My plan was to confront the enemy with heavy and super heavy tanks with the heaviest armor and weapons I could field, as I needed to penetrate the enemy's armor, which was significantly boosted by fortification. The heavy and super-heavies were equipped with auto-cannons to make them at least somewhat capable of engaging the enemy infantry. Unfortunately, the enemy proved to be more than capable of engaging even my super heavies, and my tanks, while capable of destroying enemy units, couldn't do it at a rate that would make a difference. My tanks outnumbered the enemy's by almost four to one, but completely failed to destroy the enemy tank force. I didn't include infantry this time because they so completely failed to deal with the enemy's infantry last time. This was probably a mistake.
If I could go back and do it again, I'd include heavy infantry and more advanced heavy and super heavy artillery. At this point I think I'd need a force at least twice as big, maybe three times, to defeat this enemy. That would be 1.4 to 2.1 million tons of troops.
At this point I'm considering moving on from this campaign. I feel like I've learned what I can at this point.