Battle of Osmar Mountain

Battle 1 of the Lucranian Campaign

Background
The scourge of Aetheria, the brutal Empire of the Iron Fist, is once again flexing its might. It has in its sights the independent nation of Lucrania, which sits upon the Empire's northwest border. Steep, cloud-enshrouded mountains divide the two nations. Fearful of Imperial intentions, the Lucranians have purchased some advanced aircraft from the Confederation and are constructing anti-aircraft batteries upon strategic mountaintops.

One morning, the Lucranian lookouts could hear the drone of engines. An invasion force was on the way! The Lucranian Air Force scrambled its defenses to stop the Imperial assault.

Scenario
For my Aetheria air battle scale games, I will be adapting scenarios for Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. For this game, I am using scenario 11 - Surprise Attack.

Note: Here is my list of completed OHW scenarios.

In Thomas's scenario, there is impassible terrain on the right with woods, passable by infantry, on the left. This creates a defensible corridor. The objective is a crossroads near the defender's baseline.

For my version, the crossroads is replaced by a mountaintop battery. The attacking Imperials must destroy the battery by the end of turn 15.

The impassible terrain has become cloud-enshrouded mountains. These mountains are too lofty to fly over, so are impassible. The other "terrain" are clouds; I planned to make the passable by pursuit aircraft only, but they never really came into play anyway.

Opposing Forces:

Empire of the Iron Fist (Red) - 4 pursuit squadrons, 1 attack squadron, and 1 bomber squadron.
Lucrania (Blue) - start - 2 pursuit squadrons, turn 3 - ground battery and a pursuit squadron, turn 5 - pursuit squadron and an attack squadron.

Rules
Because this is a high-level (no pun intended) scenario, with each unit representing a squadron, I don't get into nitty-gritty maneuvering. Thus, I'm using a tailored version of my Song of Blades and Heroes / Memoir '44 rules. If a squadron fails to activate, I am assuming that it is circling in a particular area, looking for targets of opportunity. An exception is bombers, which I allow to move 1 space per turn automatically.

I never got around to gridding my board yet. Instead, I just used the fields as spaces. As wacky as this idea seems, it worked

Battle Report
As the Imperial invasion force nears the border, 2 Lucranian pursuit squadrons scramble.

Opening positions
The Imperial target - Osmar Battery - is at the top

 One of the defending squadrons engages its counterparts while the other bounces enemy bombers.

A huge "furball" ensues, while one Imperial squadron flies around the flank.

As planes go down in flames, the Imperial bombers make it through the mountain pass and approach their target on Mount Osmar.

The defenders pounce on the bombers,

And the bombers go down.

 Dogfights rage around the mountain.

Although weakened, the invaders press on. The defenders lose another squadron.

Another Lucranian squadron is lost!

And an Imperial pursuit squadron strafes the AA battery.

Another defender is lost!

Time out for a cat attack

The Imperials press their attack on Mount Osmar's battery.

 Just before the invaders need to turn back, a lucky shot hits the magazine. The battery goes up in smoke!

With the destruction of the Mount Osmar battery, the air lanes are open for a full scale invasion of Lucrania.