writes:I am preparing a little campaign involving sci-fi mercenary forces. The Rust Devils are the opposing team (the 'competition').
The campaign scenarios will use the Dirtside rules, which I have heard many good things about, but have not played. So it will be interesting to see how my vehicle designs fare on the battlefield.
Background
Please see my previous article for a general overview.
With the sudden financial collapse of Strathmoore, their mercenaries are pulling out and leaving the Manky up for grabs! Terradyne Corporation orders their own security forces, the Rust Devils, to descend into the Manky and seize as much territory as they can!
The Rust Devils are initially positioned in the Keech Massif, east of Manky. They are track-equipped, and it will take great difficulty to descend the caldera wall to reach Manky. But once they reach the bottom of the caldera, they will be in striking distance of the major objectives, which are clustered in east Manky.
1st Scenario
The initial scenario will be a vehicles-only meeting engagement between the Wildcats and Rust Devils.
The first wave of Rust Devil units have laboriously descended the treacherous mountain roads. Now they plan to move away from the cliffs, eager to reach the Minging River and the major settlement of Shunky. Any interference from Wildcat scouting forces will be swept aside.
The Rust Devils are organized for reconnaissance, supported by limited amounts of heavy armor.
The terrain is flooded swampland crossed by a causeway. In the east, there are wooded foothills. In the west, there is a small farming settlement. Rust Devils enter from the east…
The Rust Devils' objective: Exit the west side of the map.
Rust Devils Vehicle Stats
What makes the Rust Devils unique or different? Back to my notes:
The Rust Devils come from an industrial world on the Periphery, desperate for cash. They field a wide variety of tracked vehicles which they have bought, captured or salvaged over the years. Almost all of their vehicles are equipped with basic ECM (manufactured on their homeworld) and are amphibious.
The initial vehicles available (in other words, the ones I've painted up!) are:
- Bimp 2000K Command Vehicle
- Terran Main Battle Tank
- Rhino Tank
- Leopard 2000 MBT
- Scorpion 2000 Scout
I have used Andy Cowell's excellent Vehicle Generation page to produce the game stats for Dirtside II.
Bimp 2000K Command Vehicle
I've modified the Bimp 2000 to create a command variant, which I call the Bimp 2000K.
This looks to be a Class 2 hull ("small APC"). The short, fat gun I'll take as a missile launcher. I assume there's an anti-personnel weapon that can fire from the front of the casemate.
Since Andy's system doesn't cover the Command/Communications Center from the rules, just remember that it takes up all of the remaining 8 spaces and adds 100 points to the cost.
So it's actually 161 points with no space left over.
Terran Main Battle Tank
These models were Shapeways prints, and to me they look like ancient, weathered relics the Rust Devils scavenged from some forgotten battlefield.
Looks like a Class 4 (large) vehicle to me. The "oval" gun probably isn't an autocannon or high-velocity cannon, and is too large to be MDC or HKP, and lasers don't need long barrels… so I went with a Direct Fire Fusion Gun (DFFG). The other weapons are the rocket pack on the turret top, the machinegun turret on the main turret rear, and the machinegun in the forward hull. I didn't know what the "strapped on tubes" on the turret side were, so assumed they were part of the ECM system.
Rhino Tank
Essentially a missile carrier with some armor. Slow. Armed with missiles (in the hull front and more on the turret) and lasers (three on turret). I'll simplify this as a single Salvo Launched Missle Pack (SLAM) and a single High Energy Laser (HEL). The BattleTech fluff says the Rhino has fusion power, but the rules only require a Hydromagnetic Turbine (to power the lasers), so I'll downgrade to the turbine powerplant.
Leopard 2000 MBT
This tank has a good-sized hull, with a rear-mounted turret featuring two main guns. There are also two "outriggers" on the turret, which I painted up as missiles.
I decided this fits as a Class 3 hull (though on the large size for the class), and that the main guns would be high velocity cannons (HVC). To make everything fit, I decided the two guns 'count as' a single gun when firing.
Scorpion 2000 Scout
This small vehicle has a long, slim gun barrel connecting to a structure on the back deck, with a "brace" under the forward part of the barrel – I assumed the gun is intended to be fixed to the hull, rather than in a turret.
I rated this as a Class 1 vehicle, and the gun as a Rapidfire Autocannon (RFAC).
The extra space can be used for transporting a prisoner or retrieving a small prize.
1st Scenario Rust Devils Roster
The first scenario is intended to be a small-scale meeting engagement between groups of vehicles. In fact, according to the rulebook, this is about the smallest recommended scenario size! The Rust Devils will show up with:
- 1 Bimp 2000K Command Vehicle (161 points)
- 1 Terran Main Battle Tank (188 points)
- 1 Leopard 2000 MBT (119 points)
- 1 troop of Scorpions (5 x 39 = 195 points)
For a total point cost of 663 points, compared to 672 for the Wildcats. (And the Rhino misses this one!)