In which we fight a battle for fun and profit.

So, what are skirmishes? Skirmishes are battles outside of the main storyline that can be fought repeatedly for fun and profit. However, soldier who die in a skirmish die in real life are lost. Additional scenarios become unlocked as the plot advances, and there are also challenges. Those will be covered another day.
Furthermore, the now-introduced player turn/enemy turn-flags come from this map, which will maybe work if I can find the pictures again when it is time to cover the next battle.

The scenario here is simple: some imperial forces were spotted outside of Bruhl, and we have to take them out and capture their base camp. It is a bit weird for a roaming patrol to have a base camp, but then the mechanical idea behind is sound and proven.
Victory condition: enemy base captured.
Fail states: Welkin dies, Gallian base captured, all allies killed, 20 turns pass.
Let’s roll.

The first time ever we have to choose our units for the battle – we have 20 soldiers in our unit and room on the field for nine (including Welkin, so eight more).We choose our units and place them on the circles. I went for one sniper, two scouts, three shocktroopers, a lancer and an engineer. Not the best of combinations for this map, but I didn’t know what we’re getting into.We start with Catherine O’Hara, sniper and EWI-veteran, taking a shot at an imperial scout.Next, we move the Edelweiss forward and take a mortar shot at the one unit on the field posing a danger to the tank: the imperial lancer. Had I paid attention during the unit class-rundown, I would have known that lancers have extra protection against explosive damage – including mortar shells. It is quite effective against the sandbags, however.
After the tank action, we move Rosie forward, taking cover behind another barrier and take a shot at the imperial shocktrooper… …taking him out in the process.
Mika tries the same, but is not as successful. Wendy moves in to support Rosie and opens fire on the imperial lancer, who stands in the open after his close encounter with a mortar shell. And the last action taken in our turn is another sniper shot, taking out an imperial shocktrooper.The imperial turn starts with a scout taking a shot at our shocktroopers. He doesn’t survive the counterfire. Another scout tries the same, supported by a shocktrooper moving in next to him. The last enemy movement in this turn is the lancer taking cover next to his friends and punching the Edelweiss.

We have a nice cluster of enemies standing right behind a wall of sandbags. The best thing against sandbags is a grenade. We move in one of our scouts and take away the cover. Having now a bunch of Imperials in the open, we bring in the tank and repeat the process with the mortar. This liberal application of explosives leaves only the lancer standing.
We bring O’Hara in and take one shot at the lancer.As one can see, she now has one bullet left. Mika also takes aim at the lancer, but doesn’t do much in terms of damage.O’Hara’s last bullet is much more effective. So effective that I wanted her to finish the lancer.One CP wasted. You may guess why.

The one and only thing the Empire does in its phase is missing the Edelweiss.

O’Hara  regenerated a bullet and the lancer regenerated some health. We even things out, and scout Nancy closes the case. Nancy uses her AP to move forward (firing doesn’t come at AP costs), followed by the Edelweiss. The tank hits the scout in cover (and the cover) hard, and we spend our remaining CP to move our shocktroopers in.

The Empire does nothing.

Rosie sprints forward, empties a magazine into the railing of the bridge, moves a bit further forward, disposes of the last scout, and…We use the XP to bring our shocktroopers to level three, and that’s it for today. The story will continue on Tuesday, featuring urban warfare in Vasel.