Sakhara 3.2
The Tuesday lectures had been more of the same, up until they'd been told today's exercises were supposed to help prepare them for exercises at the end of the month, which was fast approaching "AH, fuck," Justin hissed as his restraints arrested his momentum. The Battle Company fought like an avalanche, they had boxed his lance in and pummeled them to the point his simulated gyro overloaded and pitched him sideways. The simulator was a pain in the ass, and tried to force the computer to let him stand up his mech, but another wave of blistering LRM fire flashed. The incoming fire warning went silent as his screen went black.
The simulator pod reset and he leaned back, grumbling to himself as he worked the harness loose, before rotating his sore arm.
He couldn't console himself that they'd at least heavily damaged the company again. Oh sure that was true, but he hadn't been expecting six Trenchbuckets to floor it once they'd wiped out the only mechs that could hope to physically catch them.
That was part of where his mistake had been was losing any outrider to warn them of an enemy maneuver before they were right on top of them... even if some of that was just the limitations of the simulators and their fake battle space.
"Fuck," One of his lancemates grunted all but falling out of his own pod, "And that was without any of the new mechs too." ...that detail hadn't escaped Justin either, having to contend with a jumping seventy tonner in the canyon map would have been a mess.
"Stop talking," Clay growled coming around the corner, "Go to the debrief room, and start writing what you think happened, and where you went wrong. Go." He gestured towards the door. Justin wasn't surprised that they weren't the first ones in here, he'd seen the sensor returns in the simulator disappear as the conflict had gone on... but the number of people strongly suggested the class had lost.
He'd expected that, but he didn't have to like it... what was worse was that his lance mate was right how would they have done against other machines ... probably not better.
Henry checked the display, but they were still waiting on final scores... which really meant they were waiting for a final review from the other instructors. This wasn't the first time the cadets had run this map of course, but the decision to do so had been at the insistence of other instructors ...
--
A few hours later Henry punched up the diagrams. Sakhara had been an SLDF paradigm school, that was to say it had been founded to produce cadets fit to serve in the SLDF and it still retained a corpus of material that dated to the Star League which weren't really applicable to the armies of the modern inner sphere. They were slightly more applicable to his own house troops, but that wasn't the lesson he was trying to drive home per se.
"The Terran Hegemony made the decision fairly early on to simplify logistical foot prints in army units by consolidating on a number of front line designs, and by establishing standardized formations around battlemech weight classes." That was to say generally at company level all machines were the same model.
The Battle Company that he frequently used against the cadets had League pilots at their core, but the formation while built around a common logistics basis and weight and with a degree of uniformity wasn't an original SLDF formation.
A series of diagrams unfolded. "No one expects your class to fight a significantly larger formation than your own on your own. What that actually means is that while simulated lance mates are never as particularly intelligent or as effective in responding to a changing battlefield, on graduation you will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the AFFS. So what we will be doing is immersing you into the expanded combat simulation. Where each of you is commanding a lance, now this will not strictly speaking be particularly realistic at least in some ways."
Justin must have done the mental math, and realized they were going to be fighting a massed combined arms formation, because he groaned looking at the charts.
Don Juan had other interests in the chart, "That says experimental, so we're fighting the new BattleMechs this time am I right?"
"You are indeed." Henry replied. The class's square company expanded turning from the roster of cadets into pips with space for three mechs underneath their listed 'mech. That put them as an over strength Battalion by default. "Ordinarily this would be run against the Rangers, and you will play against them at a later date. This weekend however we will be focusing on putting you against a combined arms task force. This is intended to give you somewhat more hands on experience with the tactical aspect of wider operations, the war gaming you will do with pen and paper over the next few months is to ground in the costs and realities of maintaining forces in the field... this is to look at what happens when there are a hundred plus combatant units are active in an engagement. This is organized chaos, as you will know doubt experience first hand."
The table for the opposing force was left up. He had decided ahead of time not to use the Shogun in his line up, which Coleridge hadn't objected to when he had put a response forward to the Vice Chanellor's 'suggestion'. He had also made the decision not to include the Zoryas in the line for other reasons. Leaving the Falchion off had been an easy enough decision
The Cataphract, and Longswords would have been the main focus of the force, what the cadets were not likely going to enjoy was that while they had a larger margin than in the normal games all of his 'mech lances would be outfitted, paired with a pair of ASF, which no one seemed to have commented on at this stage. They would all be slantbacks for simplicity sake he wasn't going to field death stalkers, the F 77, against the cadets.
A single binary worth of tanks was being borrowed from the RAC with probably predictable contingent of demolishers and shreks. The cadets might well have been taking that too in stride, it did remind him though that he needed to handle familiarization with some of hte other tank designs being worked on in conjunction with the lighter machines, BattleMechs.
Two Fusiliers, Two Rifleman -P, two more slantbacks. Two Cataphract, Two Longswords, two more F 90. 1 Centurion, 1 Alecto, 1 Sentry, 1 Antares two more birds for the nest. Two companies of 'Mechs total. Twelve ASF
Alexandria raised her pen, "Is this the prototype Centurion?"
"Its not," He replied, "The 9AP variant Mitchell will be running is distinct but isn't carrying the MML 3 Launchers you saw on New Avalon." The comment attracted looks.
Still no one commented on the twenty eighty ton tanks. He supposed some of that might well have been a result of this morning's simulation and having the terrain turned against them. The last lance was more of a demonstration of the Sentry and Antares, but also to facilitate using the mixed lance as a blocking force and ... depending on how things went as a tactical close air support controller element.
The other matter was that the cadets would be facing all human opponents, not digital simulations of hostiles... not occasionally bone headed AI. This would in all likelihood turn into a centerline mech slug fest... but...
"Do we know where we're going to be fighting?" Another cadet asked.
"Do you know where we're going to be fighting?" Some one else asked.
He shook his head, "Colonel Coleridge hasn't announced a battle map at this time." There were only so many he could pick from in the simulator, but thus far Henry hadn't been told so he didnt' even know if the vice chancellor had selected one. "It gives you time to prepare. You should have packets of your lance composition in your emails by the end of the day."
Which was another thing he'd yet to be told either, but that was okay.
