Area 19 · Act 4 · The Eastern Front
The Battle of the Passes
Blue Mountains — the narrow sandstone ridgeline the Great Western Highway and railway squeeze through at Katoomba and Mount Victoria; cliffs, switchbacks, and one-truck-wide cuttings.
DAY 218: THE MOUNTAINS THAT STOPPED AN EMPIRE FOR A GENERATION ARE ASKED TO STOP A BIRD.
The history behind it
For 25 years colonists failed to cross the Blue Mountains; the army now stakes everything on the fact that surely emus can't either. The defence is modelled, badly, on Thermopylae — the local paper calls it 'the Three Hundred, give or take conscription issues.'
Outposts (4)
Take all of them and the area is yours. Retreat halfway through and the ones you already hold stay held.
Victoria Pass Barricade
Artillery battery · Defence tier 4
Two stacked Lewis Gun Posts firing down a one-truck-wide cutting laced with Barbed Wire. The wire is the real enemy: it funnels the swarm into overlapping cones. The Weave earns its scrap here.
Katoomba Funicular Battery
Gun post · Defence tier 3
Field Artillery crew lobbing shells from the scenic railway platform, spotted by a Sandbag Officer with opera glasses. Rush the crew up the incline — pecks win instantly at melee, and the view is lovely.
Zig Zag Rail Tunnel
Rail siding · Defence tier 4
Armoured Car patrolling the old Lithgow zig zag. Immune to pecks — lure it onto the rotten trestle timbers (bog tiles) or bring rocks. Tunnel mouth is a safe capture zone once it's stranded.
Explorers' Cairn HQ
Country pub · Defence tier 4
Farmhouse HQ at the Blaxland-Lawson-Wentworth memorial, garrisoned by Rifleman Lines and one Searchlight Tower sweeping the fog. Break line of sight in the canyons, or rock the lamp for the glass sound.