Battle of Saffel (2787)
Sarna News
- Shadow Of Kerensky Review - Clanners On The Salvage Menu
- In The Shadow Of Kerensky With MechWarrior 5 Narrative Director Chris Lowrey
- Your BattleTech News Round-Up For August, 2025
- Getting BattleTech: Gothic With Herb A. Beas II
- MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat’s 30th Anniversary Retrospective
- Read more →
| Battle of Saffel (2787) | |
|---|---|
| Conflict details | |
| Part of | First Succession War |
| Start Date | April 2787 |
| Planet(s) | Saffel |
| Result | Federated Suns maintain control of system |
| Attacking Forces | |
| Affiliation | Draconis Combine |
| Commanding Officer(s) | Tai-sa Shiro Knutesson |
| Defending Forces | |
| Affiliation | Federated Suns |
| Other Forces | |
Overview[edit]
After the fall of the Star League, the Federated Suns took control of the world. The AFFS used Saffel as a staging area for an assault into the Draconis Combine. In 2787 the Combine retaliated and tried to take the world, but was unsuccessful.
The DCMS assault on Saffel in April 2787 had been intended to seize Saffel, but the Sixth Benjamin Regulars soon discovered that the Twenty-first Rim Worlds Regiment - a former Rim Worlds Army and Amaris Empire Armed Forces regiment that had become a part of the Blue Star Irregulars mercenary unit - were active on Saffel. The Twenty-first was evidently attempting to secure a cache left behind by the Amaris Empire, and Warlord Jinjiro Kurita - son of the Coordinator - had issued very specific instructions to his forces along the border with the Federated Suns and conducting operations inside the former Terran Hegemony; any encounters with the AFFS, mercenaries in AFFS employ or possible allies of the Federated Suns were to be met with the minimum necessary force, so as to preserve the illusion that the Combine was focused on operations against the Lyran Commonwealth, while Jinjiro massed forces for an imminent invasion of the Federated Suns.[1]
The orders were galling to Tai-sa Shiro Knutesson, as it meant that the Sixth had to deliberately lose to the mercenaries, a particularly bitter pill given that the Regulars regarded the mercenaries as honorless dregs from the fallen Republic, but Jinjiro's orders left no room for misinterpretation. Knutesson acted accordingly, ordering his forces to disperse across multiple settlements, to give ground easily and to feign weakness and incompetence. Reminders of the consequences of Jinjiro's presence kept his command in line, and after ten days the Regulars retreated from Saffel, just days ahead of the launch of the Combine invasion of the Federated Suns.[1][2]
DCMS Stalkers were on the receiving end of Davion Archers and Trebuchets, but after a retreat behind the fortification walls the Davion forces were surprised to find those Stalkers waiting and offered a stiff resistance.[3][4]
Units involved[edit]
Draconis Combine[edit]
Federated Suns[edit]
- Twenty-first Rim Worlds Regiment (mercenary)