Rebellion: 2021! A Steam Punk Campaign, Part 1.

 

Rebellion: 2021! A Steam Punk Campaign, Part 1

 

Context

In this Steampunk universe, motive power is based on steam, not the internal combustion engine.  Gas provides lighting.  Airships are used for military and passenger transport.  Trains haul heavy freight over land.  Steamships carry freight over the seas.

Weaponry mass produced after 1860 in our universe does not exist in this Steampunk universe.  This includes machine guns and accurate, large-bore artillery. Bullets can be mass-produced but production cost and logistics are prohibitive for armies with small budgets.  Soldiers are expected to aim their rifles instead of spraying bullets. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

 

 

Alternate History

After the American Civil War, the United States slowly tried to heal itself while also expanding to the west.  A bellicose attitude appealed to the national psyche, leading to a war with Spain and other conflicts. When a devastating and unnecessary war exploded in Europe, the USA joined in decisively.  This was a contributor to a world-wide flu epidemic that killed uncounted millions of people.  The Constitution was amended to ban alcoholic beverages.  This led to an enormous violent crime wave, political corruption, and wide-spread breakdown in respect for established institutions. Economic activity was feverishly intense in the 1920s but it led to a stock market crash and the Great Depression.  The American citizen was reeling from these blows and just starting to feel recovered when another war broke out in Europe. A generation of young people was sent over the Atlantic and fought its way across the continent.  The trench warfare of WWI had been replaced with a military dogma that called for constant frontal attack based on the theory, derived from analysis of the war between Russia and Japan, that aggressive offense would always overcome defensive positions.  Millions died in insane charges.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Assaut-Kin-Tch%C3%A9ou.jpg

 

By the end of the war, the American voter was finished with trusting their government.  Isolationism was the preferred policy stance for almost everyone.  The draft was remembered as gross overreach by an oppressive government.  A small standing army was retained but for the most part, the national defense would henceforth rely on voluntary support from local militias.

Europeans agreed that their governments had been devastatingly incompetent.  Revolutions across the globe destroyed nation-states and returned to smaller entities.  Citizens strongly believed in their right to bring down any oppressive government.  Most families had guns and were willing to use them.  Exceptions were empires in Britain, Japan and central Russia which emerged from WWII shaken and shrunken but still strong.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Revoluci%C3%B3n-marzo-rusia--russianbolshevik00rossuoft.png

 

The remnants of the old governments persisted in their warlike tendencies.  Simmering conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, South America, the Balkans, central Asia, north Africa, east Africa, southern Africa and other places exploded successively.  These conflicts did not become world wars because most countries lacked the national will for heavy commitment into foreign wars.  The USA sometimes sent expeditionary forces that were small and composed only of professional soldiers.  This allowed them to support allies and train their troops without losing a lot of resources or inciting a political backlash.

In the year 2021, the state of Wisconsin was a largely agricultural state populated by people who cherished their liberties and distrusted central governments. Many were combat veterans and still owned rifles, with which they practiced grimly in preparation for the time when resistance to the central government might be necessary.  They anticipated that day might come soon, because the state legislature had developed a taste for raising taxes on the smaller towns to support the large cities. In January, most people in the small city of Fort Atkinson ignored the presidential inauguration.  Instead, they turned their attention toward Madison.  A delegation was sent to the capitol formally informing the Governor and the legislature that recently enacted tax increases would not be paid. They declared themselves to be a Free City. The simmering pot had come to a boil.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/German_airship_bombing_Warsaw.JPG

 

 

The Battle

Three platoons of the mech infantry company sent by Madison to restore order came in armored personnel carriers. They were accompanied by a tank unit. All vehicles were steam powered. They drove east on Highway 12 then took Highway 18 to Jefferson.  A field artillery unit was loaded onto a barge on the Rock River.  They would move southwest toward Fort Atkinson. An elite platoon of airborne infantry was carried by airships.  When the units arrived by road and boat for the assault on the city, the airborne unit would drop through the clouds into Barrie Park by the pavilion for a surprise assault from the rear.  The field artillery piece would be fired from the boat. In sum, the State units had one artillery unit, two APCs, two regular infantry, one tank unit and one airborne ranger unit.  The battle plan for the State forces was to capture the fortified municipal building.  However, they were unaware of the ambush that has been set for them.

 

Map 1.

 

The Free City was defended by a citizen militia company composed of six mech infantry platoons.  All were combat veterans.  Sentries monitored the train station and roads while fortifications were constructed in strategic locations. Encircling the city with a wall was not possible.  Instead, defense relied on stopping the advance of the attacking force north of the city where Business 26 enters the town near the Rock River (see first map).  A wooded area at that location (Klement Park) offered cover and allowed ambushing either the road or the river, or both (see second map).  City leaders hoped to hold out until militia units from other towns could come to their aid, just as hundreds of patriots rushed to Lexington and Concord in 1775.  Four steam-powered Humvees were placed in the park.  Two others were behind the industrial center where they could reinforce at the opportune moment.  The Humvees carried anti-tank guns as well as machine guns.  They were lightly armored. The defenders were in an excellent position for an ambush but were unaware of the airborne rangers and did not know the barge with its artillery unit would be coming toward them.  The ambushers had cover and the advantage of surprise but they had placed themselves in a box.

All reinforcements arrived in Round 5.

 

 

 

Map 2.

 

In picture 1 below, you can see the attacking units advancing toward the positions where the ambushers could begin firing.  The APCs each carried one unit of infantry (3 figures) who offloaded as soon as the action began.  The ambushers were forced to fire both east and west.  This prevented them from being able to concentrate their fire.

 

Picture 1.  The attacking units are moving toward the ambush point. 

 

As the battle progressed, the infantry moved after leaving their APCs.  Damaging armored vehicles that were protected by cover was not possible for the infantry so they moved into the park where they had clear shots.  The reinforcing airborne rangers also moved toward the ambushers.  Two Humvees held in reserve by the defenders advanced on the column and began hitting the tank with antitank rounds.  However, their shooting was poor.  They destroyed the tank but were too damaged to resist fire from the nearest APC and were eventually destroyed.  The ambushers destroyed the artillery unit on the barge and some of the infantry but in the end only one Humvee remained and it had to flee (see picture 2).

 

Picture 2. The surviving defender retreats.

 

On the second run-through, the ambushers were more protected by their cover and the reinforcing Humvees had better aim.  The final result was a clear victory for the defenders. See Picture 3.  The APC was destroyed in the next round.

Picture 3. Alternate Ending: The ambushers were successful.

 

 

Conclusion

The airborne rangers were important to the attack.  The attackers also had a tank but that was not more effective than an APC because the Humvees had anti-tank weapons.  It seems they should have left their tank at home and brought another APC with infantry unit.

The ambushers had placed themselves in a box.  They could not concentrate their fire on the road. After the attacking infantry breached the tree-line, the four Humvees were in trouble.  And when the attacking APC was able to move to where it could get a clear shot, the advantages of the ambush position were nullified.

Seven units against six was a toss-up.  Either side could win in this scenario, depending on the luck of the die.  More battles will have to be fought before we know whether the Free City or the Government forces will prevail in this war.