MedicineLakex

Battle of tukayyid

The world of Tukayyid was primarily an agricultural world in the Free Rasalhague Republic at the time of the Clan Invasion. The world was picked to be the site of a proxy battle fought for control of Terra between the Clans led by ilKhan Ulric Kerensky and ComStar's led by Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht. The actual battle was broken down into ComGuard-defended objectives that the Clans would try to conquer. If the majority of these targets were conquered by the Clans then Terra would be allowed to fall into which ever clan could advance to it first. If the Com Guard successfully defended the majority of the targets, then the Clans had to abide by a 15 year truce with the Inner Sphere in which no Clan elements would cross the plane emanating from Tukayyid and extending to the edges of the Inner Sphere perpendicular to the Clan Occupation Zones.
ComStar had operated under a policy of active co-operation with the invading clans since the Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht had met Ulric Kerensky during the early stages of the Clan Invasion. The Primus of ComStar, Myndo Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)

Waterly, saw the Clans as a unique tool to crush the Successor States, allowing their vision of a ComStar dominated future for the Inner Sphere to be brought into being. To this end, the worked to help provide Clan Wolf with a great wealth of Strategic and Tactical intelligence on planets they planned to attack. And when those planets then fell to the Wolves, ComStar was engaged by the Clan to serve as administrators on their behalf, considerably smoothing occupation of these worlds and allowing the Clans to quickly move on to fresh targets without needing to leave major concentrations of troops to secure their rear areas.
This policy of co-operation and administration was highly successful for the Wolves. While the pace of the Ghost Bears, Jade Falcons and Smoke Jaguars invasion increasingly slowed as they become bogged down in drawn out conquests of worlds, the Wolves surged ahead, ultimately resulting in the ilKhan calling a at Radstadt in an attempt to slow the Wolves down, a fateful decision that resulted in his death at the hands of Tyra Miraborg. It was however to prove a boon to ComStar with the election of Ulric Kerensky as ilKhan; their policy of providing information and administering worlds now became the policy of all the Clans, with the Precentor Martial himself serving as the personal envoy to the Clans from the First Circuit.
ComStar turns hostile
Primus Myndo Waterly arrived on to meet with the ilKhan for the first time on the 7th of January 3051, a day after the humiliating defeat of the Smoke Jaguars and Nova Cats at Luthien. Here it was shown for the first time to ComStar that the true goal of the Clans was in fact Terra itself, the home of ComStar for hundreds of years, core of the entire Inner Sphere network and birthplace of the Star League. Under such a direct threat, ComStar could no longer remain neutral, but they in no way wanted to see Terra, humanities birthplace, torn asunder by an enormous battle the likes of which the planet had not seen since 2777. Confronting the Clans, Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht was sent to ilKhan to issue a . A Clan Trial of Possession would be waged on a proxy world for control of Terra, the world of Tukayyid inside the rapidly diminishing Free Rasalhague Republic. All civilians would be evacuated from the planet well before the battle started, and ComStar and the Clans would each cover half of the cost of damages to civilian infrastructure resulting from this trial, set to begin in May of 3052.
While possession of Terra and ComStar was a clear outcome for the Clans should they win, the bidding was fierce over Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)

what precisely ComStar would gain should they win. Focht's initial position of a permanent truce line drawn at Tukayyid was countered by an offer for a one year truce, with both sides gradually reducing their positions until a Fifteen Year Truce was Bargained and Done. Twenty Five Galaxies from Seven Clans would face off against Twelve entire Armies of the Com Guards , each Clan being assigned two objective cities to take. If ComStar won, they would buy the Inner Sphere invaluable time to fortify to the point of becoming an almost impossible target for the Clans to take on. If ComStar lost however, they may well have doomed the Inner Sphere to conquest by the Clans at a stroke.
The Clans Prepare for Battle
The ilKhan presented the terms of the bid to the Clan Grand Council, all of whom eagerly endorsed and ratified the bid.
The vast majority of the Clan Warriors when presented with the battle saw an easy victory over the mystical warriors as a forgone conclusion, and the bidding in the Grand Council for the 'best' place in the invasion was fierce. The Smoke Jaguars and Nova Cats, eager to regain the face they had lost in their failed invasion of Luthien, bid dangerously low to gain the 'honor' of being the first Clan on the planet, all the Crusader Clans conspiring to ensure the Wolves would land last, with the least 'glorious' targets to strike at long after the Trial was expected to have been decided, an insult the Wolves were suspiciously happy to accept.
In the end, the battle objectives were divided by the Council as follows: • The Smoke Jaguars would land first, with the cities of Dinju Heights and Port Racice their targets, two of the largest cities on the planet.
• The Nova Cats would attack the cities of Joje and Tost.
• Clan Ghost Bear was assigned the cities of Spanac and Luk.
• The Steel Vipers bid for the objectives of Kelly Springs and the Kozice Ranch Station.
• Urcunat and Kozice Prime were the targets of the Diamond Sharks.
• The Jade Falcons chose Humptulips and Olalla as their targets.
• And the Wolves were given the remaining targets of Brzo and Skup, as well as the final 'drop slot' onto the planet. Five days after the Smoke Jaguars would set foot on the soil of Tukayyid.
Each Clan would fight its own battle and Stand or Fall on its own leadership, the ilKhans offers of advice would Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)

henceforth be ignored by all Clans save his own.
The Com Guards Prepare
The architect of the Com Guard strategy, Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht, had been preparing for the battle since returning from his first visit with the Clans in 3050. Running simulations and war games using ComStars stores of advanced Star League era 'Mechs, much to the annoyance of the Primus who - at the time - anticipated no possible conflict between the Com Guards and Clans. Armed with both first hand observations of the Clan leadership, strategy and tactics, combined with countless examples of engagements across the Inner Sphere, Focht carefully constructed his plans. Scoffed at by most of the Clans as a 'paper-General' leading a glorified honor guard for an organization of bureaucrats, the man who had once been Frederick Steiner - a decorated and highly capable Commander in his own right - systematically laid the groundwork for his defense.
With only a few exceptions, the Clans had run roughshod over all Inner Sphere forces they had come up against during the invasion. Their superior technology mated with their strategic initiative let them pick and chose the battles, and apply sufficient force to win on almost every occasion in very short, sharp battles pitting strength against strength; in short, playing to the Clans strengths and preference for direct, 'trial-like' encounters. With the exception of Clan Wolf, the Invading Clans lacked the knowledge, logistics, training, equipment and mindset needed to fight anything outside of direct force on force confrontations.
As such, Focht built his battle plans around a classic long-term Battle of Maneuver. He would deny the Clans the short, sharp 'Trial' like battles they were suited to fighting. Instead, he would use terrain and mobility to erode them by Cluster with a series of rapid and never ending hit and run attacks combined with massive air and artillery strikes, until he could crush what was left of each Clan on his own terms with overwhelming firepower. Tukayyid offered excellent defensive terrain that the Com Guards prepared to great effect; bridges were rigged with explosives, shielded bunkers constructed from which units sized from Lances to Regiments could appear without warning were scattered in strategic locations and entire cities were razed and recreated as little more then giant traps. Focht's Star League era Command and Control systems allowed he and his staff to fight the entire planet as a single theater seamlessly, and the Com Guards were well briefed in their part. Other key factors included; • Uniformly, the Com Guards were using Star League era military technology that was a far closer match to that of the Clans then any of the Successor States, a match that became even closer with the use of Terrain and mobility.
• The Com Guards would be facing the Clans collectively in a series of waves, meaning units unengaged could be shifted as needed, where as the Clans were determined to fight their battles alone, with only minimal thought to a Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)

cohesive, wider strategy.
• The Com Guards would be well prepared for the type of battle they had planned, the Clans - with the exceptions of the Wolves - were not.
The Battles
The Battle of Tukayyid took place from the 1st of May to the 20th of May and can be broken down into Seven theaters of battle, corresponding to each of the Clan attackers.
Clan Smoke Jaguar
Still smarting over their humiliating failure to capture Luthien, the Smoke Jaguars won the right to land first, but only by bidding away an entire Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)

, a third of their force. Further dooming their chances, the Jaguars assumed that only one galaxy each would be required to capture the target cities defended by the Com Guards 5th Army, with the Khan Lincoln Osis led Alpha Galaxy establishing a landing zone in the mountains near Dinju Heights and the saKhan led Beta Galaxy staging a combat drop into the marshes of the Racice River Delta in prepration for an assault on Port The assault on Dinju Heights started well for the Jaguars, with the Sixth Jaguar Dragoons wiping out the green 50th Division to secure Alpha Galaxy's drop site. As the Dragoons and Jaguar Grenadiers started their march for Dinju Heights, they didn't realize the modest resistance offered by the remains of Fiftieth was but a cover for heavier elements of 299th and 323rd Divisions hidden in the Dinju Pass.
Viewing the seemingly undefended pass as too good to be true, the unClanlike caution of Jaguar Grenadiers commander Star Colonel Brandon Howell led him to suspect it was an ambush, sending a probing action to smoke out any hidden Com Guard troops while ordering the rest of his OmniMechs to run along the pass walls at flank speed.
While almost completely obliterating the probe force, the 299th and 323rd could only engage the bulk of the Grenadiers briefly before they raced passed, inflicting heavy losses but unable to prevent a sizable portion of the Jaguar unit making it through to reach the outskirts of their target city. However when the Sixth Jaguar Dragoons attempted to make their own run, the Two-Hundred and Ninety-Ninth and Three-Hundred and Twenty-Third had emerged from hiding and were crowding the floor of the pass, creating a gauntlet of overwhelming firepower with Khan Osis seemingly killed as the Dragoons took heavy casualties.
Meanwhile, the Com Guard forces in the Racice River Delta used the advantages offered by the terrain and well-placed artillery fire to herd Beta Galaxy into the marshes. Hit-and-run attacks by the of the Fifth Army drove the Jaguars further and further into the delta, slowing Beta's pace and giving the dug-in Com Guard units amply ambush opportunities while at the same time negating the Clans advantages of weapons range and superior heat sink technology. Drawing the Jaguars further in, the 207th Division eventually succeeded in surrounding Beta Galaxy's Command Star, killing sKhan Weaver.
With the Precentor Martial now reinforcing the Fifth Army with divisions from Com Guards Second Army, the loss of both Smoke Jaguar Khans forced ilKhan Kerensky to terminate the Jaguar campaign. While the demoralized Beta Galaxy dutifully obeyed, those in Alpha Galaxy were enraged by what they felt was a Wolf Clan snub to their sacrifices and vowed to fight to the death. Unable to fight their way back through the pass to save the Sixth Dragoons as the numerical superiority of the 299th and 323rd ground them to dust, the Grenadiers launched a desperate assault against the 82nd and 322nd Divisions outside Dinju Height which pushed them back and allowed the Grenadiers an opening to withdraw to their DropShips.
In all only twenty-two percent of the Smoke Jaguar's two Galaxies made it off Tukayyid, the Jaguars comprehensively Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) unprepared for the tactics and warfare of the Com Guards. The Jaguars had kept up their savage level of combat believing that they faced only a handful of remaining foes, having never realized that the Second Army had been brought in to reinforce the Fifth. Also they remained unaware how close they came to potentially crippling the entire Com Guards command structure and turning the battle in favor of all the Clans, with the 122nd Strike Cluster coming within 30 kilometers of the Precentor Martial's hidden Tamo Bunker, only to be obliterated with a well-placed ambush and aerial bombardment before they could announce their position.
Like all Clans, the Jaguars future was shaped by their performance on Tukayyid. The heavy losses suffered by its most elite Galaxies could not be easily replaced and unceasing raiding from both the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery and Clan Nova Cat prevented them from fully regaining their pre-Tukayyid strength. While the rise of unconventional Brandon Howell to Khan of the Jaguars in the days after Tukayyid raised the possibilities of new thinking that would save his clan, the discovery that Linclon Osis had in fact survived the battle after being found by rescue crews shattered it, Howell ceding his title to Osis and further cementing the Jaguars on the path to their eventual destruction at the hands of the reborn Star League's Operation Bulldog. The Jaguars fate was also sealed through the embittered Smoke Jaguar warrior Trent, his loyalty to his Clan shattered by the trickery and betrayal by his superiors on Tukayyid, Trent aided his Bondswoman and in acquiring the which allowed the reborn to launch Task Force Serpent and complete the annihilation the Jaguars.
Clan Nova Cat
Clan Nova Cat was assigned to take the cities of Joje and Tost, facing the veteran Com Guard Seventh Army bolstered by reserve green divisions from the Twelfth Army. The Nova Cat's Khan chose to launch their campaigns with Nova Cats' daring hover-drop maneuver, with OmniMechs and Elementals leaping from their hovering DropShips in the atmosphere instead of requiring heat dissapating Unfortunately the Com Guards Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) gained air superiority over the dropzones and greatly damaged the landing forces, with a kamkazi attack destroying the Alpha Galaxy command ship with all hands. While saKhan questioned if Alpha Galaxy's terrible losses had effected its ability to take Tost, Khan Leroux led his troops to the city The Cats' Gamma Galaxy and the remains of Alpha pushed past the 244th Division to rush towards Joje, only to be stopped by the 417th and Ninth Divisions at the edge of the city, with the Com Guard forces luring the Cats into attacking via well-defended seeded mine fields. Air and armor harassed the advancing Clan forces, finally stopping them less than five kilometers from their target.
Clan Nova Cat tried to relieve the pressure on their stalled advance on Joje by sending Beta Galaxy's Forty-Fourth Nova Cat Cavaliers east along the Losiije Lake Road toward Tost, while the rest of the Clan redoubled its efforts to take Joje.
However reserve units from were already in position along the road, crushing the attempted break-out.
By the third of May, Clan Nova Cat had made three separate attempts to seize both target cities, but each was beaten back as the Cats quickly ran out of ballistic ammunition and missile reloads. However their repeated attacks had begun to weaken the defenders of Joje with the 417th and Ninth Divisions finally forced to pull back and regroup. With the 467th Divisions attempting to cut the Cats off from their landing zones, a desperate saKhan Carns tried to regain the offensive by ordered Gamma Galaxy and element of Beta to stage a fighting withdraw to draw as much attention to As the 244th and 467th Divisions headed toward the eastern shores of Lake Losije to combine their forces and harass the retreating Gamma, the bulk of Beta Galaxy emerged from the lake, having secretly and slowly followed the Losiije River into the lake. Caught unawares, both divisions were shattered with the Nova Cats captured several ComStar supply depots in the process. While having finely pushing Alpha into retreat from Joje, the Com Guards recognized that the resupplied Beta and Gamma Galaxies could likely take the city. Unfortunately the 13th and were still tied up battling Alpha, and the 167th and unable to not reach the battle field in time, with the Ninth, Four-Hundred and Seventeenth and Hundred and Sixteenth Divisions ordered to leave Joje completely undefended to launch a furious counter-attack.
This tremendous gamble paid off, with the Com Guard Divisions attacking while the Nova Cat techs were still uncrating their captured supplies. Charging into the fray with near-suicidal abandon, the Com Guards pushed the Cats back, recapturing or destroying the supply depots. Both Nova Cat Khans now recognized the battle had turned against them, ordering a general withdrawal to their DropShips. The Com Guards did not let up, continuing to harass the battered Clan Nova Cat forces all their way back to their dropzones, with only a single Trinary of Beta Galaxy OmniMechs making it off-world.
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) Clan Nova Cat lifted off Tukayyid in defeat, having not set foot in neither Tost or Joje. While a mere three Nova Cat had survived intact, the Clan's forces had inflicted greater losses on the Com Guards than they in turn suffered, greater than any other of battle on Tukayyid.
Clan Steel Viper
Assigned the targets of Kozice Ranch Station and Kelly Springs, the Steel Viper Khans bid three Galaxies, the front-line Alpha and Gamma with the second-line Zeta Galaxy as reserve. While earning them an earlier landing, replacing the front-line Beta with a second-line garrison Galaxy was also intended as a insult to the Com Guard forces.
Due to lack of troops, Precentor Martial Focht couldn't assign his desired two Armies to oppose the Vipers, selecting the high-ranked Sixth Army with just two extra Divisions for reinforcements to face them. However the Com Guards defense was bolstered by Devil's Bath, a horrific combination of geysers, boiling mud and narrow paths walled by massive granite columns, stretching for dozens of kilometers between the Viper's intended dropzone and their target cities.
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) Having learned from Clan Smoke Jaguar's mistake, the Vipers set down en masse on the open expanse of the Kozice Plains with Alpha and Gamma solely advancing upon the primary objective Kozice Ranch Station. Harassing the Vipers with artillery and AeroSpace Fighter barrages, the Sixth Division's ground forces held off their attack until the Clan forces entered Devil's Bath. As the Sixth lured the Vipers in, with the tight paths negating the Clan weapons superior range and missteps losing entire Stars to the bottomless pools of boiling mud, Khan realized too late her troops had stumbled into a massive trap.
As the Vipers attempted to withdraw, Precentor of the Sixth Division used his Atlas's Satellite Uplink to personally issue a public challenge and goad them into continuing their attack. Now enraged by the insult, the Vipers redoubled their advance, pushing the Sixth and Seventh-Eighth Divisions through Devil's Bath. While inflicting heavy damage on the Com Guard forces, both Alpha and Gamma Galaxies used up their ammunition at a tremendous rate.
While any hope of resupply was dashed when the elite First Division division struck the Vipers supply lines, Gamma's 57th Striker Cluster finally succeeded in pinning down and obliterating the hated Sixth at the cost of last its ammo.
Ordering Zeta Galaxy to support and escort the virtually unarmed Alpha and Gamma, the Seventh-Eighth also finally crumbled as all three Steel Viper galaxies succeeded in reaching the far side of the Bath.
There they met the fresh and untouched Three-Hundred and Twenty-First and Four-Hundred and First Divisions who stalled the Vipers advance until the First and Three-Hundred and Eighth-Sixth Divisions could enter the fray and finally drive the the Clan forces back. With the defeat of several other Clans freeing up other Divisions from other fronts that could be redeployed against them, Khan Breen ordered her warriors to board their The humiliation of the defeat led Natalie Breen to resign her position, but her decision ensured that her Clan suffered the lowest casualties of any Clan on Tukayyid, which would prove a boon when the Steel Vipers launched their invasion of the Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone as a outlet for their anger. Clan Diamond Shark
Relatively untried in the invasion, ROM's intelligence rated the Diamond Sharks as the weakest Clan to take part on Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) Tukayyid and Precentor Martial Focht selected the relatively inexperienced Eighth Army and remaining green divisions of Second Army to face them. Overeager to try and win first landing rights, the mere six Clusters Diamond Shark Khan bid, two each from the frontline Alpha and Gamma Galaxies bolstered by two from the second-line Omega Galaxy, were easily surpassed by the concessions offered by the other Clans and the Sharks were to land second last.
With both the Diamond Shark's target cities lying twenty kilometers from each other, the Sharks landed in the middle of the Kozice Valley that divided them, Alpha Galaxy's Nineteenth Heavy Cluster and Thirty-ninth Striker Cluster setting out for Kozice Prime with Gamma's 222nd Assault and 369th Striker Clusters heading towards the secondary target of Urcunat, Hawker's hatred of Freeborns leading him to keep Omega in reserve. While the 39th Striker were repulsed by the veteran 31st Division, the 19th Heavy Cluster inflicted losses of over 30% on the green 85th Division even as it bought the 182nd Division enough time to outflank and hold the clusters of Alpha Galaxy in a brutal slugging match. As the fighting between the 182nd and both Clusters of Alpha dissolved into stalemate, despite their losses, the 85th joined the 31st and 56th Divisions in attacking the Sharks rear in an attempt to disrupt their supply lines.
With Gamma's advance on Urcunat also stalled, its Clusters turned to face this new threat, with the 222nd Assault winning the bid to destroy the raiders. The 222nd quickly encountered the 85th Division, but neither side were able to gain the advantage over the other as the fighting became increasingly brutal. After the 85th tied up the Shark's supply lines for an entire day, Star Colonel patience ran out, breaking to order the rest of Gamma to obliterate the infuriating Eighty-Fifth. While the 85th finally crumbled with the remaining bulk of Gamma sent against it, though taking the doomed 222nd down with them, their sacrifice was avenged by the Thirty-First and Fifth-Sixth Divisions who in turn obliterated the entire Galaxy.
So focused on destroying the Eighty-Fifth and with the defeat of Clan Smoke Jaguar freeing up Com Guard reinforcements, the Sharks were totally unprepared when the fresh troops of the Fifth Army performed a combat drop behind their front lines, cutting off both Alpha and Gamma Galaxies from their landing zones and supply deports. As the 82nd, 301st and 182nd Divisions advanced to assist their brothers in the valley, the shocked Shark Khans realized their forces were completely surrounded and dangerously low on ammunition. Regrouping their surviving clusters for a desperate all-out frontal assault in the hopes of breaking through encircled Com Guard forces, saKhan Sennet called in the reserve Freebirth Omega Galaxy to try and rescue the front-line troops of Alpha and Gamma.
While the fresh 'Mechs of Omega were able to fight their way past the 323rd and 299th Divisions, the glorious frontal assault launched by Khan Hawker to meet up with them was effortlessly shredded by the ComStar troops. Omega finally reached the battered remains of Alpha and Gamma and opened a hole for them to escape back to the landing zone, but the Com Guard forces refused to let up and harassed the Sharks as they withdrew. As the massed Com Guards prepared for the final killing blow, despite the fact Khan Hawker so despised them, Omega silently advanced directly into the Com Guards line of attack. Though ComStar's forces utterly destroyed them, their sacrifice allowed the surviving Trueborn warriors of Alpha and Gamma to escape to their DropShips, with a chastised Khan Hawker formally rescinding his ban on Freeborns serving in the Sharks front-line forces in recognition of their bravery.
Clan Diamond Shark paid the price for their inexperience with the tactics of the Inner Sphere, with the Com Guards almost destroying their entire force. Their defeat on Tukayyid, compounded by the loss shortly after of their sole Inner Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) Sphere possession of Nyserta to the Ghost Bears, resulted in the Sharks taking a much more prominent role in dealing with the Inner Sphere and the Clan as a whole. Clan Ghost Bear
The Ghost Bears made an official bid of three front-line Galaxies; Alpha, Beta and Delta with the Com Guards defenders consisting primarily of the veteran ranked First Army supported by the green Fourth Army.
Having earned the right to land in the fifth hour of combat and trusting in the superior strength of their forces, both Ghost Bear Khans laid a simple plan to target both target cities at once with the elite Alpha focused on the target city of Spanac while Beta and Gamma made way for Luk. Fearful that green Fourth Army would break under combat with the Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) ordered them to stay and defend Luk as she sent her First Army to harass the Bears, save keeping her veteran 103rd Division back to defend Spanac.
The battle around Spanac quickly turned against the Com Guards, with the First Army's 308th Division having little effect in slowing Alpha Galaxy down, suffering heavy losses in the process. The fighting around Luk initially was little better with the Bear's Beta Galaxy utterly decimating the 121st Division, until the 91st and 12th Divisions emerged from hidden positions and succeeded in trapping and inflicting heavy losses on Delta Galaxy's 20th Polar Bear Attack , turning the tide and forcing Beta and Delta to withdraw.
While saving Luk from immediate attack, this unfortunately left the Ninety-First dangerously out of position as it fell back to assist in the defense of Spanac, arriving on the city outskirts barely ahead of Alpha Galaxy's OmniMechs. Having made more headway in their assault on Spanac, the Bear Khans ordered Beta and Delta to move and reinforce Alpha's While the Com Guard forces outside Spanac attempted to prevent Beta and Delta from linking up with Alpha, save for the Twelfth Division's brilliant ambush and destruction of Beta's 7th Bear Guards in Holth Forest, the -bulk made it through relatively intact. Unable to reach proper defensive positions while under fire from Alpha, the addition of Beta and Delta allowed the Bears to overrun the 91st and capture most its supply caches intact. Recognizing her grave mistake in only committing the First Army to fight the Bears, Precentor Lucarca ordered her 103rd to keep fighting no matter the cost, until she was forcibly ordered out by Precentor Martial Focht himself, viewing the loss of Spanac a lesser evil over the loss of a full veteran division.
The Ghost Bears had barely claimed the city when two from the Fourth Army launched massed artillery barrages on their positions, covering probing raids from the remains of the 91st and 12th Divisions. In the face of this assault, the Bear Khans ordered Beta and Delta to hold Spanac while Alpha mustered for an attack on Luk.
While the remaining divisions of the Fourth Army defending Luk boasted superior numbers, the elite Alpha Galaxy tore into the untried Fourth as feared and the green Army came close to breaking. Just as Bear's 50th Striker Cluster entered Luk's suburbs, the Com Guard defenders of Luk got help from an unexpected source: Precentor Luarca.
Hoping to redeem her loss of Spanac, Luarca led her 103rd Division along with the remains of the 308th Division in an attack against Alpha's main supply depot. Guarded only by freebirth warriors in second line 'Mechs, the Bears were forced to decide which was more important: the now vital ammunition or continuing the offensive against Luk. The Bears pulled back to reinforce Spanac.
At this point the IlKhan declared the Ghost Bear campaign ended as a draw. Now lacking the strength to take Luk, and with the defeat of other Clans allowing the Precentor Martial to reassign other fresh divisions to bolster the Com Guard defense, the Bear Khans chose to safe guard what they had won and agreed, withdrawing their forces from Tukayyid.
The Precentor Martial also welcomed its end, while the Bears had earned a marginal victory, he could now assign the First and Fourth Armies to fight the equally hard fighting Jade Falcons.
Thanks to their mindset and their partial victory, the Ghost Bears wasted little time in the petty recriminations of the Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) other Clans with the Truce of Tukayyid, quickly moving to reinforce and build upon all they had captured in the Clan Invasion. These efforts would eventually evolve into the startling choice to move their Clan wholesale to the Inner Sphere and the creation of the Ghost Bear Dominion Clan Wolf
The Clan Wolf DropShips landed 40 kilometers southeast of their objectives, the cities of Skupo and Brzo, five days after the rest of the Clans landed. Once down and secure, the Clan Wolf Galaxies lined up as if they expected to fight from the first step instead of forming the loose traveling columns they favored.
Arrayed against Clan Wolf was the Tenth Army, composed of some of the best divisions and regiments the ComGuards had to offer. Having pinpointed the exact position of the Clan landing, Precentor V Margo Koivu deployed her forces along the trees covering the foothills of the Porozistu Mountains.
Contact came as Clan Wolf passed the little hamlet of Forest's End. The ComStar forces engaged the Third Battle Cluster of Beta Galaxy and the Seventh Battle Cluster of Gamma Galaxy, holding the 283rd Division to fend off the Fourth Wolf Guards of Alpha Galaxy. The 283rd, though inexperienced, fought better than expected, and prevented Clan Wolf closing a loop that would have trapped the divisions involved in the primary engagement.
While the 283rd held off the Fourth Wolf Guards, elements of the Clan's right flank were harried by members of the elite Sixty-sixth Division. The Wolf Khans, seeing no easy way around the attackers, hit them in the center of their offensive line. The concerted pressure weakened the ComGuards' formation and forced the 278th from their hilltop position.
Hard-pressed, the ComGuards started to fall back under cover of artillery support. Aerospace elements on either side were of little help to those on the ground, as they were fighting a running battle of their own. The retreat was accomplished in good order, and the Tenth Army regrouped 20 kilometers from Brzo and Skupo, establishing a new defensive line.
Precentor Koivu was concerned when her forces withdrew from Forest's End without pursuit. She had expected to be relentlessly harried, especially since Clan Wolf had blooded several divisions. Yet, as she positioned her forces outside Skupo and Brzo, the enemy was not in sight.
The Precentor's concern was validated when the Clan attempted to skirt the Tenth in an attempt to take the enemy's rear or bypass them entirely in a drive for Skupo. The ComGuards deployed scouts and fighters to find the Wolves, but the recon fighters were harassed by Clan Wolf fighters, and so Koivu's scouts found nothing but trees and hills.
As the ComGuards started to fall back, Alpha Galaxy's Thirteenth Wolf Guards slipped behind the 166th Division. The Precentor immediately ordered her reserve divisions forward, sending the veteran 282nd Division to take on the Thirteenth Wolf Guards and force them away from the 166th and Skupo.
The next two hours would be crucial. The ComGuards began to pull back from their position, only to be attacked by the Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) rest of Clan Wolf. They could not halt their withdrawal without stretching their forces dangerously thin in order to prevent Clan Wolf from slipping through their lines. The Precentor ordered her reserve forces to stand firm in the face of the Wolf juggernaut to cover the retreat.
The 282nd Division made contact with the Thirteenth Wolf Guards, and the ensuing fight, though far more costly for the 282nd, forced the Wolf Spiders to abandon their drive. By the time the Wolf Spiders pulled back, most of the Tenth Army stood on the crest of a series of steep hills overlooking the two cities and the road that connected them, less than five kilometers away.
Before the ComGuard forces could dig in, Clan Wolf launched another offensive. Again they engaged the ComGuards up and down the line. When the defenders weakened, they hit the center of the line with a vengeance, straining the defensive perimeter to the breaking point. Having successfully broken through, the warriors of Clan Wolf stood on the road between the two cities.
It was beginning to look as if Clan Wolf would encircle Brzo, trapping most of the Tenth Army. The Wolf Spiders were in for a shock, however. As they closed on what appeared to be an open hilltop, 'Mechs, tanks, and squads of infantry rose out of a system of trenches to fire on the stunned Wolf warriors. The fighting in the trenches was fierce and unforgiving.
Only sheer stubbornness and an unwillingness to retreat saved the Wolf Spiders.
After an hour of short-range firefights, the ComGuard division pulled back, with the Wolf Spiders on their heels. They reached the road, ready to continue the push northward and threatening to encircle Skupo. Elements of the Ninth Army appeared from the northwest, supported by aerospace fighters and artillery. The fresh troops barrelled into the bulge that Clan Wolf had created between the two cities. Elements of the Ninth were also diverted to reinforce the reeling By midnight the battleline resembled the letter "M." Clan Wolf had suffered a major disappointment in being prevented from closing a loop around either Skupo or Brzo. The ComGuards had achieved a great, but costly, victory because the Tenth Army had held long enough for the Ninth to arrive.
The Precentor and her staff made an important discovery during the fighting. Not only was Clan Wolf being conservative with their ammunition (unlike the other Clans), but they had configured their OmniMechs with a heavy bias toward energy weapons. In addition, most of the Elementals fought without their usual SRM pack, and supply trains were following closely behind the second line. This frugality made one thing certain: the ComGuards could not count on Clan Wolf running out of ammunition.
The fight for Skupo and Brzo continued with only short respites. It was centered on the Wolf Spiders, who renewed their efforts against the 138th Division. Under heavy fire from the Clan, the demoralized and inexperienced warriors broke and ran. Despite the reassignment of reserves from the Ninth Army as reinforcements for the 138th, the Wolf Spiders destroyed their prey completely. As Khan Kerensky hunted, the Eleventh Wolf Guards of Delta Galaxy engaged the 278th Division, and the 166th fought a hit-and-run battle with the remnants of the Thirteenth Wolf Guards.
The ComGuard forces were finally overwhelmed. Skupo fell to Clan Wolf. The ComGuards could not slow the progress of the Thirteenth Wolf Guards as they continued to push north to connect with the rest of their force. The resulting encirclement would trap whole ComGuard divisions in Skupo. Rather than risk the loss of so many warriors, the ComGuards withdrew and conceded Skupo to Clan Wolf.
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) Even retreat would prove difficult, because Clan Wolf launched a major push at virtually the same time. This caused considerable confusion among the retreating forces. ComGuard division commanders are to be praised for preventing the confusion from becoming a panic. As it was, the Wolf Guards captured almost two hundred warriors in their encirclement of Skupo.
The Fourth Wolf Guards and the Third Battle Cluster reappeared in the bulge. Both had been conspicuous by their absence during the past two days, and their arrival was dreaded, with good reason. Their main axis of attack was aimed directly at Brzo. The force of so many Clan heavy and assault OmniMechs attempting to breach the defenses around the city was daunting, and it was understandable when the Tenth Army bent. It is to their credit that they did not immediately break.
The divisions of the Ninth Army did not wait for an order to launch their own offensive in support of the Tenth, hoping to slow the Wolf offensive. The two Clan Wolf assault clusters shifted their axis. The Ninth's assault, instead of helping to hold the Clan forces, allowed Clan Wolf to breach the defensive ring where the two armies should have met. This split the ComGuard forces into two groups, a dangerous situation.
In response to these new attacks, the Eleventh Army was dispatched to reinforce the faltering defense of Brzo. Clan Wolf was expected to attack the Ninth Army, but advance scouts reported the Clan devoting considerable effort to raiding ComGuard supply depots and creating and concealing depots of their own.
Though it was obvious that Clan Wolf was willing to use its mobility to work around advantageous ComStar positions, they remained in the Porozistu Mountains. The Eleventh ComGuards had been assigned to that area to take part in a direct engagement with ilKhan Ulric Kerensky's forces.
Clan Wolf gradually broke off individual battles to regroup for the final engagement in the mountains. The fighting began amid a raging thunderstorm. Clan Wolf moved forward slowly, feinting and thrusting to maintain their advantage. The links to their supply bases held, and ComStar's few attempts to disrupt these lines were quickly smashed. Even with this advantage, what little ground was taken was won at a heavy price. Khan Garth Radick was slain commanding Beta Clan Wolf inflicted heavy enough damage on the ComStar forces that the Thirteenth Army was committed to the mountains. Before the new ComStar force could join the engagement, however, the battle for Tukayyid ended.

Clan Jade Falcon

The warriors of Clan Jade Falcon made the most cautious landing of all. The Clan's DropShips landed in the dead of night on the Prezno Plain, closely guarded by the Jade Falcon aerospace fighters. The Khans wanted to be ready for all eventualities. Their objectives were the cities of Olalla and Humptulips on the Prezno Plain.
Jade Falcon made their advance cautiously, making full use of their recon capabilities. The Falcons' advance was so slow that it allowed the Third Com Guard Army and its reserve, the Eleventh Com Guards, more than enough time to arrange their defenses. The Com Guards initiated a series of hit-and-run attacks designed to force the Falcons to waste time creating multiple Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu) defenses. The Galaxies of Clan Jade Falcon continued their slow advance despite the constant harassment. When Clan Jade Falcon finally reached the banks of the Prezno River, their light Galaxy attempted to seize the two bridges spanning its deep waters, only to see the bridges demolished by Com Guard explosives just as the lead elements of the Galaxy were crossing. A follow-up artillery barrage forced the Clan to pull back to just 20 kilometers from where they had landed, almost 50 kilometers from either of their objectives.
Clan Jade Falcon's advance was blocked by the Prezno River when efforts to find a suitable ford proved fruitless.
Attempts to wade through the river's swift currents also failed. What little success Jade Falcon Clan achieved came through the air, as their fighters established partial air superiority and began to strafe Com Guard ground forces.
Clan Jade Falcon determined that they must cross the river at any cost. The assault opened with their fighters bombarding and strafing Com Guard positions on the banks. OmniMechs and Elementals jumped across the river, followed by the heavier OmniMechs, who attempted to wade across without being swept away by the current. The fight to establish a beachhead inflicted heavy damage on both sides. One Clan Jade Falcon supply depot was destroyed by Com Guard fighters during this battle. The Falcon Guard finally broke through Com Guard defenses on the far side of the Prezno River, cutting a path for the rest of their force. Clan Jade Falcon and the Com Guard defenders fought to a stalemate. As supplies dwindled and casualties mounted, Clan Jade Falcon could do little but recall their Clusters and concede failure.
The Falcon Guards skillfully covered the withdrawal to the pickup zones, minimizing Clan Jade Falcon casualties.
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)

Source: http://battletech.rpg.hu/dynmech/output_pdf.php?uid=168&lang=0