5 Core: Battle for Meridian Prime, pt. 3

crackle...crackle...."Bravo 2, this Blue Leader, respond."
"Blue Leader, this Bravo 2, over."
"Bravo 2, be advised, the rebels have broken through. They will be approaching your sector very soon. Hold your positions until relieved. I repeat, hold your positions until relieved. The bridges must be held. Sending a squad of Heavies your way. Over."
"We won't need them. Just rebels scum si........", crackle, crackle.
"Bravo 2, please respond! Bravo 2, what's happening?"
"Blue Leader, they have a tank"
This was I third round of games using the Core 5 system. I really like these rules for small unit actions. We've learned a lot along the way. I've been slowly adding things from other supplements and borrowed some ideas from the company level rules for tanks and vehicles. This is still and infantry game at heart, so the vehicles are really a support feature, and not the main part of the game. They proved impressive and fragile at the same time.

The Rebels have won the last two games.  It was time for the Union forces to make a stand. They were given 3 mechs to defend the town. Tough enough to shrug off small arms fire, but not anti-tank or vehicle mounted weapons. They would get reinforcements in the form of some tough-ass, power armored Union Marines if I rolled a "1" on the Event dice.
The Rebels got some troops to bring in later, too. A sniper, and a walking tank.

The first couple of turns were spent getting into position. Several "Scurry" results on the Action dice helped both sides with this. Scurries, are not subject to Reaction fire.
Then, the Union machine gun team opened up from a rooftop. Several Rebels either went down or ran off.
There were short burst of Firefights and some sneaking about, and definitely a lot more death than we have had. Most losses until now have been do to soldiers running off.
At one point, one the mechs got in a beautiful position, and unleashed a flame thrower. Truly a terror weapon. Not only did he cook several rebels, but forced more to run off. But then he got his. The tank used his "laser" to smoke the mech.
Then the tank was in turn, hit by an anti-tank round. BOOM!
I

n the end, the rebels just couldn't push through. A great game, though.
For the Union counter attack, I'm going to scale up battle-wise, and scale down miniature-wise, for a big battle with tanks and air support. Meridian bleeds on...