Haydn's AbsCnC Battleset #1

OVERVIEW:

The Nature of Warfare
The battles are fought on small globe-maps.
Both sides start the game with nice 'bases' (resembling towns rather than fortresses) which include all the 'vital' buildings such as a Headquarters, 'radar' antenna, Intelligence squadron etc (see later list). For a nice touch, there are irrelevant houses and monuments dotted around the pre designed bases. There is a general form of inherent base defence but no walls. There are towers and self-contained mini-fortresses and maybe even ditches and earthworks.
The player starts the game with a chosen unit inventory. There is a steady accumulation of credits (time and intact base buildings rather than harvesting being the concept). This can, at set times, be 'spent' on batches of new units which arrive by shuttle (just appearing off screen?).
The above is basically designed to remove build-ups which are a graphical nightmare and probably complicate the programming as well.
The bases are not too large and are 'implanted' onto the random terrain. There can be a library of base templates which are used on a semi-random basis. -base design could become a modable entity for the less adventurous modder.

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Storyline
There are small colonies and outposts dotted throughout the galaxy. People are generally wealthy, often mining and trading. As you get ever further from Earth and the major colonies, towards the edge of human exploration, the influence of the Earth government is diminished. These colonies are often defenceless and tempting targets for the more ambitious larger states. Consequently, onetime local governors and wealthy landowners became warlords, eager to exploit the wealth of their neighbours. The Smaller Colonies generally began employing the IDC to defend them against the roving armies of the warlords.
One of the larger and more established Colonies, Kamarthia, expanded it's standing army to deter the warlords. As it expanded, Kamarthia annexed many smaller colonies in it's region, mostly by political means. This provided a buffer zone around Kamarthia. In these outer reaches, Kamarthia is more powerful than Earth. Warlords on the boundaries of the expanding Kamarthia soon realised that they had align with either the IDC colonies or accept annexation by Kamarthia in order to prevent them becoming exterminated and replaced. This had a subtle benefit for them, with the might of the IDC or IKA behind them, they could now expand their influence (violently) over their rival warlord neighbours with little fear of effective reprisal (both Kamarthia and the IDC see unaligned warlords as criminals and thus fair targets). This series of expansions led to pretty much every warlord forming an alliance with either the IDC or Kamarthia almost overnight. It also meant that, once the IDC and IKA had taken stock of their new assets (not least wealth), they were set as natural rivals. Both sides represent law and order, being able to control the ambitions of their former warlord governors. The nature of the colonies and outposts dotted throughout the galaxy means that there is not a defined boarder between IDC defended zones and Outer Kamarthia. This means that there are numerous small colonies which, supporting one side, are really in an area dominated by the other. It is these colonies, often of strategic value, which are the scene of skirmishing and all-out fighting as either side attempts to wrestle control from the other.

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Sides
Interplanetary Defence Company (IDC) -A commercial (privatised) future police force-come-army which is responsible (on franchise) for the defence of remote mining colonies and trading outposts throughout the galaxy. Despite it's commercial status, it is popular and well motivated, recruiting widely in the colonies. It is generally equipped with speeders (hover vehicles) but does employ conventional crawlers (tracked vehicles) for heavier units. Units are usually blue/grey (with 'house colours' of course) and this removes the warfare from the camouflage look of today. Many of the units will be conceived as future versions of what is in western service today.
The Imperial Kamarthian civilisation has long maintained a standing army (not surprisingly called the Imperial Kamarthian Army -IKA). Whilst the great expense of this luxury was resented by it's subjects during the long years of peace, it now proves an awesome adversary throughout the galaxy. The bulk of the infantry regiments are conscripted which can lead to low moral and standards. However, core units, such as the Imperial Guards, are professional and loyal beyond question. The IKA makes less use of speeders than the IDC, preferring heavier armour. The heavy taxation of the Kamarthian annexes has provided years of research into advanced weapons and vehicles, resulting in occasionally unrivalled combat systems.

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Life as it is
The general feel of both sides is of a cultured and advanced society with subtle hints of the great civilisations. The IDC colonies and bases are very techy and Sci-fi -whilst industrial, they are clean and comfortable. The Kamarthian civilisation is given to building monumental buildings with clear Classical influences, albeit in sandstone tones.

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UNITS:

Reconnaissance units
IDC - Primarily uses small light speeders brought over from paramilitary roles. The primary example is the RHV-67 'Viper' scout speeder. This small craft has a single crewman in an open cockpit. It has been modified to carry 2 medium subsonic anti-tank rounds, attached externally. The configuration trades armour for speed, economy and agility.
Frontline IDC regiments often deploy more sophisticated reconnaissance assets. The main type is the 'Hawk' light/medium crawler. This vehicle has excellent sensors (mast mounted) and modern plastic armour providing a good balance of speed and armour. However, it's 75mm Autogun is inadequate to encourage deliberate contact with the enemy.
IKA forces primarily deploy light unmanned air drones for scouting and tracking. The logic is simple; they are cheaper than a manned unit. However, in order to keep them cheap and easily deployable, they are not provided with countermeasures to anti-aircraft systems. The standard drone is the Type-A4 'Wasp'. This system is 'fired' from a modified heavy utility crawler and can be assigned a 'target' location in flight. Since each launch vehicle has to control and process intelligence from the drone, it cannot fire a second drone until the first is destroyed. In the absence of a fresh target being directed, the drone will follow a compact circling pattern indefinitely.
If the wasp is unsuitable for the mission, or in short supply, IKA forces must rely on less suited light strike units to fill the reconnaissance gaps.

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Light Strike Units
IDC - Here again the company employs light but fast speeders. The 'Strike Speeder' is noticeably larger than the Viper. It has two crewmen, a pilot and a weapons officer, seated in tandem stepped covered cockpits. It carries 4 (reloadable) Hypervelocity anti-tank rounds in armoured box launchers.
The IKA have two main unit types in this category. The RHV-98 'Cobra' is a more modern purpose built relative of the Viper (the manufacturer now being in IKA occupied territory). It has two crewmen as per the Strike Speeder. It is armed with a single advanced Automatic Grenade Launcher in a remote pedestal mount above and behind the crewmen.
The SAV 'Monitor' is a light crawler with turreted twin 35mm Autogun. The type is widely employed because the designs great age has led to very cheap production costs.

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Close Fire support units and similar 'force multipliers'
IDC - The Space Marines prefer to deploy their own organic fire support rather than rely on their cavalry buddies. The Most widely used vehicle is the Light Speeder Platform mounting a belt-fed 'Wombat' recoilless anti-tank rifle. The weapon is crewed externally.
IKA forces also employ light infantry support units, although in doctrine, for rather more considered reasons. These units can free up more valuable armoured units in areas of low intensity skirmishing or in situations were armour is not required (but infantry alone is insufficient). The primary IKA close fire support vehicles are the Monitor (described above) and the 'Light field battery'. The latter is a powerful 140mm mortar (fired on a flatter trajectory) mounted on a single axle. The crew crouch behind a strong plastic armoured shield, much like 1940s field guns. The unit has a small engine but does not resemble a vehicle in the popular perception.

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Ground-based Air Defence
IDC uses the famed 'Flyswatter' light SAM system. The system is mounted on a medium crawler chassis and is completely self-contained. It has good mobility and adequate armour.
For area air defence the IDC uses the 'Tigeress' missile mounted on the 'SAM-Crawler' chassis. Loosely modelled on the current Russian SA-10 Grumble system. This missile outperforms the Flyswatter in all envelopes, however it is correspondingly more expensive and is less mobile.
IKA anti aircraft units follow the armoured squadron's (rather than the infantry's) design requirements and are thus robust and powerful, using raw firepower rather than sophistication. That is not to say that the radar aimed ''Sky Reaper'' quadruple 57mm multiblaster Flak system isn't up to date. It has relatively good armour and can be fired at ground targets (with moderate success). It is mounted on a modern speeder chassis (although it isn't all that fast due to the quantity of ammunition and it's armour).

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Assault tanks
The IDC still has on hand many hundreds of the old Mk4 Main-Battle-Tanks. These moderately armoured crawlers are comparatively slow and cumbersome. However, their tried and tested technology makes for cheap running costs. The 210mm self-loading main gun is very formidable with excellent range, although it has only modest gun laying and reload rates. The sighting system is ineffective in heavy smoke. The tank is primarily deployed in defensive positions to cover base units and control strategic land.
Current IDC cavalry squadrons form their tactics around the complementary qualities of the AS-22 'Speeder Tank' and the Mk5 'Cruiser Tank'. The Speeder tank, as it's name implies, is a speeder unit. It is a recent addition offering far heavier armour and better armament over the preceding 'Strike Speeder'. It has a turret mounted 155mm Autogun.
The Cruiser tank is much heavier, with heavy frontal armour and a powerful 210mm Autogun. It is a crawler but is noticeably faster than the Mk4.
The standard tactic is to use a frontal tank rush of Cruiser tanks to shock and hold the enemy. As the enemy forces throw themselves at the heavy armour, Speeder tanks outflank the enemy and attack the rear.
The IKA are similarly inclined towards simultaneous attacks of fast medium tanks and heavy assault tanks. The Type_34 'Sphinx' Rocket crawler has medium armour and correspondingly good mobility. It fires salvoes of unguided light rockets which are generally effective against all target types, except aircraft (since it can't aim at them).
The defining tank of the IKA is the MonoCrawler assault tank. It has a single wide track running centrally along the chassis. Either side of this track, single independently turreted 140mm Autoguns are mounted. This tank is very heavily armoured, being far superior to the Sphinx.

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Aircraft- Close Air Support and Bombing
IDC squadrons use the light and agile 'Sky-Speeder' to harass enemy ground forces. It is armed with light general purpose bombs and rockets.
The heavier and more sophisticated 'Predator Sky tank' is like a future Apache helicopter. It carries eight hypersonic anti-tank rounds.
IKA forces operate the 'Javelin' tactical bomber. It is slow and cumbersome but if operating unchallenged over enemy ground forces, it can live up to it's name. It is not a 'heavy bomber', having to reload (time delay) after substantially weakening the enemy units.

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Aircraft- Air to Air
IDC fighters are small delta 'Gnat' aircraft with simple lines. They fire a missile similar to the Flyswatter round.
IKA 'Owl' fighters are more like gunships, being heavy and comparatively slow. They are large and heavily armoured and can dominate enemy aircraft with their awesome multiblaster firepower. They are more expensive than the Gnat, lending themselves to solo deployment.

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BASE BUILDING:
Both sides have similar base units (although graphics will vary)

Headquarters
A town hall type building with no weapons. This building is the centre of your base, if destroyed, your income will fall dramatically.

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Signals Unit
The radar and communications antenna. If destroyed, you can no-longer use the strategic map display.

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Intelligence Corps
An army building which automatically places 'flags' on the battlefield on the last known location of any enemy ground unit your units come across. If destroyed, no more flags. It can also display a brief intelligence summary of the known (seen) enemy units.

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Air Control Unit
An impressive building which allows you to operate aircraft, if destroyed, all aircraft will disappear ('lost'). Because of it's worth, this building is very heavily armoured and typically near to defensive buildings.

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Uplink
A building which allows you to periodically 'order' reinforcements. If destroyed, no more units can be imported.

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Mechanical Engineers Squadron
Allows certain armoured units to self-repair (at a cost).

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