kbluck
22 Oct 04, 16:43
I've been sitting on this AAR for quite a while. I actually played this scenario the same week the "gold" demo came out, before the game was even shipping. Unfortunately, I never found the time to put it together properly for posting, until now. So here it is.
I'll reemphasize that this is the version of the scenario that came with the pre-release demo. Since the release and now the imminent patch, the play experience for this scenario may well have changed. In particular, I'm sure a few content bugs that I ran across have been fixed since then.
Apparently the board settings have been changed to limit the number of images included with a post. All the screenshots are included as links instead.
***SPOILER ALERT!****
What follows is essentially a recipe on how to win this scenario, complete with pictures. If you want to beat this scenario by your own devices, do not read any further. Once you have read this AAR, you will have an excellent idea of where everything is and how to kill it. Do not read this AAR unless you have already beaten it, don't care about beating it by yourself, or have lost all hope and wouldn't play it again anyway.
******SPOILERS FOLLOW ****
So, reading the order, I determined that I was to force a crossing of the estuary, breach shoreline obstacles, assault a concentration in a cluster of small cities inland, and consolidate. Additionally, I was to continue the advance if enemy counterattack proved not to materialize. Hmm... Sounds like a pretty tall order for a weak amphib battalion, but I'll have to assume the higher-ups know what they're doing. Hooah!
I decided to attack three beachheads: HUSKER, JAYHAWK, and TIGER. I'd put ashore one infantry platoon and one tank platoon at each, each with a slice of support. I'd maintain one infantry platoon in reserve, to follow on most likely to JAYHAWK. The helos would also remain in support, due to the unknown ADA environment; they would lurk on the friendly side of the estuary to snipe any enemy AFVs with missiles as they were encountered by the advancing landing forces. Each landing team would breach their local obstacle and converge on the objective from three directions.
A fourth LZ had also been designated, CYCLONE, but looking at the configuration of the terrain and the sector boundary, reaching it would require a long swim parallel to the enemy shoreline. That looked unacceptably risky to me. I decided to use the fourth team to follow up on JAYHAWK, the central LZ.
I set up pretty much everybody in "hide" positions, as conveniently as possible to their expected axis of advance. The only elements positioned forward at the edge of the estuary were my recon elements, in an attempt to divine any exposed enemy positions before starting across. I also did some LOS fan experimentation and found what I considered to be some fairly inconspicuous crossing locations. I'd have to verify with recon, however, depending on where the enemy actually was.
One problem I noted while setting up was that all my M198s were set up facing north. That meant pretty much every mission they fired would be "out of traverse", causing a significant time penalty. I couldn't assign them a path to change their facing, since they were "locked" units. I did discover, however, that I could assign them a "Position Area" mission. So I did, in hopes they would end up facing the right direction.
Setup (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Setup.jpg)
So, I started the clock. My recon squads immediately picked up a number of presumed enemy contacts. Well and good, now I could pick out the exact routes across the estuary. I found three that seemed reasonably concealed from enemy observation, one for each LZ. HUSKER and JAYHAWK were fairly straightforward. TIGER, however, had some inconvenient enemy units right in the LZ. It looked like I'd have to cross further upstream to avoid them. Happily, my sector boundaries allowed for that, but it meant that my units earmarked there were out of position and would have to do some shuffling. Looks like the TIGER crossing is going to be behind schedule.
Startup (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Startup.jpg)
Now, it would be the recon platoon's job to be the guinea pig and see if they got shot while following these "safe" paths across the estuary. The HUSKER and JAYHAWK squads advanced their AAVP, loaded up, and hit the water. The TIGER squad, on the other hand, started moving away from the shore, to reach a crossing point further upstream. It appeared I had selected good paths for HUSKER and JAYHAWK; the JAYHAWK recon track attracted only a brief burst of machinegun fire as they chugged across, and the HUSKER track none at all.
The recon teams debouched onto the beach in concealed locations, and set about probing for obstacles. Soon enough they found a mine belt parallel to the shoreline. The JAYHAWK squad also spotted a SAM team. By now, the artillery had finished shuffling its orientations, and was ready for fire. A single platoon volley of DPICM took them out of action. Even so, the helos would have to be extra cautious, since it was now clear that the enemy had some significant ADA capability. Having been warmed up, the arty now settled down to preparation fire for the assault, targeting spotted ADA and vehicles, in order of their ability to threaten the crossings. Firing four-round volleys at vehicles by platoons, they gradually began eating through the enemy's assets.
The tracks continued to carefully determine the extent of the belt's frontage, while the recon teams began inching through the belt to determine its depth. The tracks kept moving at all times to avoid enemy arty fire; the recon teams had to rely on stealth.
Recon (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Recon.jpg)
About 15 minutes in, I was satisfied that the HUSKER and JAYHAWK crossings could be conducted with a minimum of enemy interference. Those crossing elements emerged from their hides and proceeded towards my designated crossing lanes. The TIGER group was still repositioning, however, and would probably be about a half-hour late into their LZ. Not a huge problem, we'll catch them up as the landing proceeds. The HUSKER team was out front a bit, and by 25:00 their tracks were pulling up on the enemy beach. The LCACs were following about a klick behind, letting the AAVPs draw any fire before risking their own high-value cargos.
Again, HUSKER went in without a shot fired by the enemy. The AAVPs charged up the beach and dismounted, the infantry pushing through the belt to secure the far side while the tracks patrolled the beach, staying in motion to throw off enemy arty. At this point an enemy MG team was rousted just behind the obstacle. I found out that for whatever, reason, the AAVPs wouldn't fire. I suspect some problem with the fire arcs. At any
rate, this caused some consternation on my part. Their assigned helo platoon also began inching forward to offer ATGM support if needed while attempting to stay out of the enemy's SAM and ADA envelopes.
Crossing (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Crossing.jpg)
The JAYHAWK elements came in as well about 5 minutes later largely unopposed, although they did collect a bit of stray MG fire. The origin was noted for attention by the artillery, and no damage was done to the armored carriers. Otherwise, their landing unfolded much as at HUSKER.
At HUSKER, the LCACs were slow-w-w-ly offloading their cargo. The plow tank came off in the first set, as planned, and set to work reducing the minefield while the other tanks secured the near side. I still had that enemy MG team to deal with, so I maneuvered a tank to fire at it. I prayed *that* would fire properly. Happily, it did.
By the time the remaining vehicles finally came off the LCACs, the plow tank had comleted its breach and the team was pouring through the breach. The LCACs, finally offloaded, were beating feet back to ROK soil. Just as they were leaving, one got caught by a bit of enemy arty fire; it appeared that the enemy had finally woken up to the fact that something was going on at HUSKER. Luckily, they were already in motion; they survived the first volley, and the follow-up shots missed as the LCAC pulled away.
Meanwhile, the TIGER recon had finally completed its approach. The troublesome enemy units in the LZ had been eliminated with artillery, along with a variety of enemy units in the vicinity of JAYHAWK. Having snuck around upstream, the TIGER recon squad verified that the LZ was clean, and the crossing operation commenced.
HUSKER Breach (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_HuskerBreach.jpg)
By this time, the JAYHAWK operation was proceeding apace as well. The plow tank did its thing without much trouble and another breach was opened. The recon track pushed a bit too far and encountered a bit of enemy fire; popping smoke, they pulled back into the concealed zone. The LCACs pulled out without any trouble; it seemed the enemy artillery was busy chasing my helicopters over by HUSKER. To no avail, since the helos were constantly repositioning. I was happy to have them distracted. Frankly, the LCAC offload was the most worrisome phase of the operation to me.
Meanwhile, the TIGER crossing finally hit the beach, and began their offload.
JAYHAWK (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Jayhawk.jpg)
As my HUSKER element left the beach, I determined the best route for them to approach the objective was via LZ CYCLONE. There was a bridge over the ditch and stream there, in a fairly concealed location, and a nice open axis towards HANGFIRE as well. So, up they went towards the bridge, tanks in the lead, destroying a sitting duck 30mm ADA emplacement along the way. There was a brief flurry of excitement as they emerged from some woods, as a BMP-1 popped an ATGM at the lead tank. Its armor worked well; the missile failed to penetrate and the BMP soon succumbed to effective return fire.
The JAYHAWK element started its advance as well. They headed directly towards HANGFIRE to get a first look at the objective. Along the way, they stumbled across and quickly uprooted a DRT team.
CYCLONE (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Cyclone.jpg)
About 55 minues in, the TIGER team had completed their offload and breach against no resistance. I decided to send them north and then east against HANGFIRE, to avoid a sector of rough wooded ground.
TIGER (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Tiger.jpg)
As the HUSKER and JAYHAWK elements converged on HANGFIRE, they each enountered and engaged a BMP. Needless to say, the isolated enemy vehicles didn't offer much difficulty.
Advance (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Advance.jpg)
Another ADA emplacement was IDed as well, and destroyed soon after the BMPs. Otherwise, the advance towards HANGFIRE was proving to be fairly quiet, with not much in the way of enemy vehicles noted along the way. So far, no counterattack seemed to be materializing either. Even the enemy arty seemed to have slacked off. I fully expected to find dismounts galore in the objective villages, though. I was conserving my own arty ammo at the moment, to support the assault on HANGFIRE.
Approach (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Approach.jpg)
A few minutes later, things finally began to heat up a bit. The TIGER element encountered and destroyed a DRT team and a 30mm ADA emplacement. Then, advancing around a village, quite by accident they succeeded in sneaking up behind a platoon of Type 63A amphib tanks. They were able to suppress the enemy tanks before they could draw a bead, and after a short advance while keeping up the fire, destroyed all three. After a quick clearance operation determined there were was no more enemy around the village, they resumed their advance towards HANGFIRE.
Another BMP was flushed and killed by the JAYHAWK group deep inside HANGFIRE.
The HUSKER element, meanwhile, found their own firefight. Apparently, the BMPs destroyed earlier also each had a DRT team and an SPG-9 emplaced nearby. These offered no real threat once identified, and were quickly exterminated before the SPGs were able to range any friendlies. Advancing further towards HANGFIRE, another platoon of Type 63As were encountered. These were ready and waiting, and a lively tank duel commenced. The lightly armed and armored amphib tanks were no match for the heavy K1A1s, though, and before long the enemy tanks had been dispatched.
Duel (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Duel.jpg)
My elements having converged on the objective, I now began the task of consolidation of the objective. I still expected to find dismounted elements inside the villages, so I prepared for simultaneous sweeps of all three villages with my infantry, tanks in support. Long story short, I was wrong. After twenty minutes of tromping through people's back yards, with the exception of a lonely SAM team and some refugees, no further enemy forces were to be found in HANGFIRE.
Consolidation (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Consolidate.jpg)
I continued to forage around in HANGFIRE, setting up to defend against counterattack, and waited for a game hour, as per the order. Nothing happened. I took this as my cue to strike off to the northeast. I was well aware that there was some artillery up there, having obtained some intermittent spots to that effect, so I sent one group off in that direction. Another two headed directly for the highway. The artillery was quickly slaughtered.
One of the other groups spotted some unknown vehicles on a hill in an apparent hide position. Some snooping revealed that they were apparently another platoon of Type 63A tanks, I presume intended for a counterattack that never materialized for whatever reason. Some maneuvering with two platoons of my own tanks, several rounds downrange, four more burning DPRK tanks.
After wrapping that up, the third group encountered yet another battery of towed 152s near the highway. Another turkey shoot ensued. I rolled up the highway, finding no further enemy forces. I settled into hasty defensive positions.
Nothing happened. I waited some more. Still nothing. The game wasn't giving me a victory dialog. Hmm. I couldn't imagine what else there was to do. I ended the game early to see what was up.
Well, how about that... although I had killed every enemy vehicle on the map, apparently I still had to hunt down and kill at least two more enemy dismount units to be accorded a victory. According to the victory conditions, I had to kill all but four of the enemy units to win.
Getting bored at this point, I threw tactical good sense to the wind and started doing sweeps across the map with my helicopters like I was running a dragnet for escaped prisoners. Eventually I found one each DRT and MG teams and gunned them down. Still nothing. I ended the game to check again. Down to three enemy teams, but still no victory dialog. Apparently a bug in the scenario victory conditions. Oh well.
Mission Objectives:
1. Maintain at least 6 friendly maneuver vehicles or teams
intact.
2. Eliminate all enemy vehicles or teams in HANGFIRE and occupy
it with at least 6 friendly vehicles or teams.
3. Attrit the enemy to 4 enemy vehicles or teams.
Results:
1. Friendly forces have 78 maneuver vehicles or teams remaining.
2. No enemy vehicles or teams remain in the objective, HANGFIRE.
The objective is occupied by 45 friendly vehicles or teams.
3. The enemy has 3 vehicles or teams remaining.
Recap
All in all, speaking as a gamer, I was a bit disappointed in the enemy's poor showing. (As a commander, I would have been quite pleased.) My forces encountered surprisingly little resistance, virtually none of it coordinated. The enemy was scattered all over the map in rather exposed postions, with little in the way of mutual support. The result was that each isolated outpost was easily spotted, fixed, and overpowered piecemeal with little risk to the attacker. I suppose it's not entirely their fault; 20+ km of shoreline is an awful lot to cover adequately with a single company of mech infantry. But then, it's also a lot to attack with a weak Marine task force.
I'd be flattering myself to think that I somehow unhinged their plan; my attack was not super well-coordinated, with landing parties all arriving at different times. Nor did I do anything outrageously unexpected tactically, at least I don't think so. My plan was quite straightforward, and not extremely well-executed at that. Luckily for me, I think the enemy's plan and execution was even worse, and their fate was sealed by their poor equipment.
Their best chance to hand me some serious damage was on the beaches, dropping artillery fire on the LCACs while they were unloading; my hovercraft came in sequentially at each LZ, allowing the enemy the opportunity to shift fire and maximize the damage. But they squandered their opportunity chasing my creeping helicopters with fruitless volleys instead. I expected more complex obstacle belts; these were fairly trivial, rather thin, uncomplicated wire and minefields. With no fire covering the obstacle, punching breaches was pretty easy, finished quickly, and involved no elevated heart rate on my part. The hardest part about breaching was seeing my own forces through the smoke. The smoke bitmap is fairly opaque, much more so than ATF's version, and it can be hard to find any icons you may have underneath.
The assault on the objective and mop-up were rather anti-climactic. I expected a *lot* more enemy in HANGFIRE. What little was there was positioned in the same rather exposed fashion, easily spotted from a considerable distance, allowing me to take them out at standoff ranges without having to close to a point their weapons could threaten. I was frankly flabbergasted to find virtually no enemy dismounts in the villages themselves.
I don't know if the enemy was supposed to counterattack at any point. The three amphib tank platoons seemed to be held in reserve hide positions, not dug in, which indicates to me that they were expected to move out at some point, but as far as I can tell they never budged from their start positions and ended up dying in place once I stumbled across them.
The victory conditions seemed a bit grueling to me. Having to root out all but four enemy units, including numerous dismounts, scattered all over 400+ square kilometers requires a fair amount of rather boring bush-beating. I think the order didn't really set the stage for the player to know how to win. The order states that you must create at least one breach, implying that attacking only one LZ is OK, and the advance to the highway is portrayed as purely optional "extra credit". But, merely following the order will not get you even close to "winning". If killing practically every last enemy unit is important to the mission, the order should say so explicitly. In fact, to secure a "win" you *must* clear *all four* LZs, you *must* advance to the highway and destroy *all three* artillery batteries, and you *must* find a considerable number of isolated dismount units scattered all over the map besides. Like I said, grueling. I quit having fun after the assault on HANGFIRE, and became flat-out bored after the triple artillery massacres. It is true that a zone must be properly secured after being occupied, usually by extensive patrolling, but I don't think that phase of an operation is particularly interesting in game terms.
The first half was fun, if a bit easier than expected. But I think the scenario should have been finished once my forces consolidated on HANGFIRE, or perhaps on a secondary objective up on the highway.
I'll reemphasize that this is the version of the scenario that came with the pre-release demo. Since the release and now the imminent patch, the play experience for this scenario may well have changed. In particular, I'm sure a few content bugs that I ran across have been fixed since then.
Apparently the board settings have been changed to limit the number of images included with a post. All the screenshots are included as links instead.
***SPOILER ALERT!****
What follows is essentially a recipe on how to win this scenario, complete with pictures. If you want to beat this scenario by your own devices, do not read any further. Once you have read this AAR, you will have an excellent idea of where everything is and how to kill it. Do not read this AAR unless you have already beaten it, don't care about beating it by yourself, or have lost all hope and wouldn't play it again anyway.
******SPOILERS FOLLOW ****
So, reading the order, I determined that I was to force a crossing of the estuary, breach shoreline obstacles, assault a concentration in a cluster of small cities inland, and consolidate. Additionally, I was to continue the advance if enemy counterattack proved not to materialize. Hmm... Sounds like a pretty tall order for a weak amphib battalion, but I'll have to assume the higher-ups know what they're doing. Hooah!
I decided to attack three beachheads: HUSKER, JAYHAWK, and TIGER. I'd put ashore one infantry platoon and one tank platoon at each, each with a slice of support. I'd maintain one infantry platoon in reserve, to follow on most likely to JAYHAWK. The helos would also remain in support, due to the unknown ADA environment; they would lurk on the friendly side of the estuary to snipe any enemy AFVs with missiles as they were encountered by the advancing landing forces. Each landing team would breach their local obstacle and converge on the objective from three directions.
A fourth LZ had also been designated, CYCLONE, but looking at the configuration of the terrain and the sector boundary, reaching it would require a long swim parallel to the enemy shoreline. That looked unacceptably risky to me. I decided to use the fourth team to follow up on JAYHAWK, the central LZ.
I set up pretty much everybody in "hide" positions, as conveniently as possible to their expected axis of advance. The only elements positioned forward at the edge of the estuary were my recon elements, in an attempt to divine any exposed enemy positions before starting across. I also did some LOS fan experimentation and found what I considered to be some fairly inconspicuous crossing locations. I'd have to verify with recon, however, depending on where the enemy actually was.
One problem I noted while setting up was that all my M198s were set up facing north. That meant pretty much every mission they fired would be "out of traverse", causing a significant time penalty. I couldn't assign them a path to change their facing, since they were "locked" units. I did discover, however, that I could assign them a "Position Area" mission. So I did, in hopes they would end up facing the right direction.
Setup (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Setup.jpg)
So, I started the clock. My recon squads immediately picked up a number of presumed enemy contacts. Well and good, now I could pick out the exact routes across the estuary. I found three that seemed reasonably concealed from enemy observation, one for each LZ. HUSKER and JAYHAWK were fairly straightforward. TIGER, however, had some inconvenient enemy units right in the LZ. It looked like I'd have to cross further upstream to avoid them. Happily, my sector boundaries allowed for that, but it meant that my units earmarked there were out of position and would have to do some shuffling. Looks like the TIGER crossing is going to be behind schedule.
Startup (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Startup.jpg)
Now, it would be the recon platoon's job to be the guinea pig and see if they got shot while following these "safe" paths across the estuary. The HUSKER and JAYHAWK squads advanced their AAVP, loaded up, and hit the water. The TIGER squad, on the other hand, started moving away from the shore, to reach a crossing point further upstream. It appeared I had selected good paths for HUSKER and JAYHAWK; the JAYHAWK recon track attracted only a brief burst of machinegun fire as they chugged across, and the HUSKER track none at all.
The recon teams debouched onto the beach in concealed locations, and set about probing for obstacles. Soon enough they found a mine belt parallel to the shoreline. The JAYHAWK squad also spotted a SAM team. By now, the artillery had finished shuffling its orientations, and was ready for fire. A single platoon volley of DPICM took them out of action. Even so, the helos would have to be extra cautious, since it was now clear that the enemy had some significant ADA capability. Having been warmed up, the arty now settled down to preparation fire for the assault, targeting spotted ADA and vehicles, in order of their ability to threaten the crossings. Firing four-round volleys at vehicles by platoons, they gradually began eating through the enemy's assets.
The tracks continued to carefully determine the extent of the belt's frontage, while the recon teams began inching through the belt to determine its depth. The tracks kept moving at all times to avoid enemy arty fire; the recon teams had to rely on stealth.
Recon (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Recon.jpg)
About 15 minutes in, I was satisfied that the HUSKER and JAYHAWK crossings could be conducted with a minimum of enemy interference. Those crossing elements emerged from their hides and proceeded towards my designated crossing lanes. The TIGER group was still repositioning, however, and would probably be about a half-hour late into their LZ. Not a huge problem, we'll catch them up as the landing proceeds. The HUSKER team was out front a bit, and by 25:00 their tracks were pulling up on the enemy beach. The LCACs were following about a klick behind, letting the AAVPs draw any fire before risking their own high-value cargos.
Again, HUSKER went in without a shot fired by the enemy. The AAVPs charged up the beach and dismounted, the infantry pushing through the belt to secure the far side while the tracks patrolled the beach, staying in motion to throw off enemy arty. At this point an enemy MG team was rousted just behind the obstacle. I found out that for whatever, reason, the AAVPs wouldn't fire. I suspect some problem with the fire arcs. At any
rate, this caused some consternation on my part. Their assigned helo platoon also began inching forward to offer ATGM support if needed while attempting to stay out of the enemy's SAM and ADA envelopes.
Crossing (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Crossing.jpg)
The JAYHAWK elements came in as well about 5 minutes later largely unopposed, although they did collect a bit of stray MG fire. The origin was noted for attention by the artillery, and no damage was done to the armored carriers. Otherwise, their landing unfolded much as at HUSKER.
At HUSKER, the LCACs were slow-w-w-ly offloading their cargo. The plow tank came off in the first set, as planned, and set to work reducing the minefield while the other tanks secured the near side. I still had that enemy MG team to deal with, so I maneuvered a tank to fire at it. I prayed *that* would fire properly. Happily, it did.
By the time the remaining vehicles finally came off the LCACs, the plow tank had comleted its breach and the team was pouring through the breach. The LCACs, finally offloaded, were beating feet back to ROK soil. Just as they were leaving, one got caught by a bit of enemy arty fire; it appeared that the enemy had finally woken up to the fact that something was going on at HUSKER. Luckily, they were already in motion; they survived the first volley, and the follow-up shots missed as the LCAC pulled away.
Meanwhile, the TIGER recon had finally completed its approach. The troublesome enemy units in the LZ had been eliminated with artillery, along with a variety of enemy units in the vicinity of JAYHAWK. Having snuck around upstream, the TIGER recon squad verified that the LZ was clean, and the crossing operation commenced.
HUSKER Breach (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_HuskerBreach.jpg)
By this time, the JAYHAWK operation was proceeding apace as well. The plow tank did its thing without much trouble and another breach was opened. The recon track pushed a bit too far and encountered a bit of enemy fire; popping smoke, they pulled back into the concealed zone. The LCACs pulled out without any trouble; it seemed the enemy artillery was busy chasing my helicopters over by HUSKER. To no avail, since the helos were constantly repositioning. I was happy to have them distracted. Frankly, the LCAC offload was the most worrisome phase of the operation to me.
Meanwhile, the TIGER crossing finally hit the beach, and began their offload.
JAYHAWK (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Jayhawk.jpg)
As my HUSKER element left the beach, I determined the best route for them to approach the objective was via LZ CYCLONE. There was a bridge over the ditch and stream there, in a fairly concealed location, and a nice open axis towards HANGFIRE as well. So, up they went towards the bridge, tanks in the lead, destroying a sitting duck 30mm ADA emplacement along the way. There was a brief flurry of excitement as they emerged from some woods, as a BMP-1 popped an ATGM at the lead tank. Its armor worked well; the missile failed to penetrate and the BMP soon succumbed to effective return fire.
The JAYHAWK element started its advance as well. They headed directly towards HANGFIRE to get a first look at the objective. Along the way, they stumbled across and quickly uprooted a DRT team.
CYCLONE (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Cyclone.jpg)
About 55 minues in, the TIGER team had completed their offload and breach against no resistance. I decided to send them north and then east against HANGFIRE, to avoid a sector of rough wooded ground.
TIGER (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Tiger.jpg)
As the HUSKER and JAYHAWK elements converged on HANGFIRE, they each enountered and engaged a BMP. Needless to say, the isolated enemy vehicles didn't offer much difficulty.
Advance (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Advance.jpg)
Another ADA emplacement was IDed as well, and destroyed soon after the BMPs. Otherwise, the advance towards HANGFIRE was proving to be fairly quiet, with not much in the way of enemy vehicles noted along the way. So far, no counterattack seemed to be materializing either. Even the enemy arty seemed to have slacked off. I fully expected to find dismounts galore in the objective villages, though. I was conserving my own arty ammo at the moment, to support the assault on HANGFIRE.
Approach (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Approach.jpg)
A few minutes later, things finally began to heat up a bit. The TIGER element encountered and destroyed a DRT team and a 30mm ADA emplacement. Then, advancing around a village, quite by accident they succeeded in sneaking up behind a platoon of Type 63A amphib tanks. They were able to suppress the enemy tanks before they could draw a bead, and after a short advance while keeping up the fire, destroyed all three. After a quick clearance operation determined there were was no more enemy around the village, they resumed their advance towards HANGFIRE.
Another BMP was flushed and killed by the JAYHAWK group deep inside HANGFIRE.
The HUSKER element, meanwhile, found their own firefight. Apparently, the BMPs destroyed earlier also each had a DRT team and an SPG-9 emplaced nearby. These offered no real threat once identified, and were quickly exterminated before the SPGs were able to range any friendlies. Advancing further towards HANGFIRE, another platoon of Type 63As were encountered. These were ready and waiting, and a lively tank duel commenced. The lightly armed and armored amphib tanks were no match for the heavy K1A1s, though, and before long the enemy tanks had been dispatched.
Duel (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Duel.jpg)
My elements having converged on the objective, I now began the task of consolidation of the objective. I still expected to find dismounted elements inside the villages, so I prepared for simultaneous sweeps of all three villages with my infantry, tanks in support. Long story short, I was wrong. After twenty minutes of tromping through people's back yards, with the exception of a lonely SAM team and some refugees, no further enemy forces were to be found in HANGFIRE.
Consolidation (http://www.netce.com/ATF/BP/BP_Consolidate.jpg)
I continued to forage around in HANGFIRE, setting up to defend against counterattack, and waited for a game hour, as per the order. Nothing happened. I took this as my cue to strike off to the northeast. I was well aware that there was some artillery up there, having obtained some intermittent spots to that effect, so I sent one group off in that direction. Another two headed directly for the highway. The artillery was quickly slaughtered.
One of the other groups spotted some unknown vehicles on a hill in an apparent hide position. Some snooping revealed that they were apparently another platoon of Type 63A tanks, I presume intended for a counterattack that never materialized for whatever reason. Some maneuvering with two platoons of my own tanks, several rounds downrange, four more burning DPRK tanks.
After wrapping that up, the third group encountered yet another battery of towed 152s near the highway. Another turkey shoot ensued. I rolled up the highway, finding no further enemy forces. I settled into hasty defensive positions.
Nothing happened. I waited some more. Still nothing. The game wasn't giving me a victory dialog. Hmm. I couldn't imagine what else there was to do. I ended the game early to see what was up.
Well, how about that... although I had killed every enemy vehicle on the map, apparently I still had to hunt down and kill at least two more enemy dismount units to be accorded a victory. According to the victory conditions, I had to kill all but four of the enemy units to win.
Getting bored at this point, I threw tactical good sense to the wind and started doing sweeps across the map with my helicopters like I was running a dragnet for escaped prisoners. Eventually I found one each DRT and MG teams and gunned them down. Still nothing. I ended the game to check again. Down to three enemy teams, but still no victory dialog. Apparently a bug in the scenario victory conditions. Oh well.
Mission Objectives:
1. Maintain at least 6 friendly maneuver vehicles or teams
intact.
2. Eliminate all enemy vehicles or teams in HANGFIRE and occupy
it with at least 6 friendly vehicles or teams.
3. Attrit the enemy to 4 enemy vehicles or teams.
Results:
1. Friendly forces have 78 maneuver vehicles or teams remaining.
2. No enemy vehicles or teams remain in the objective, HANGFIRE.
The objective is occupied by 45 friendly vehicles or teams.
3. The enemy has 3 vehicles or teams remaining.
Recap
All in all, speaking as a gamer, I was a bit disappointed in the enemy's poor showing. (As a commander, I would have been quite pleased.) My forces encountered surprisingly little resistance, virtually none of it coordinated. The enemy was scattered all over the map in rather exposed postions, with little in the way of mutual support. The result was that each isolated outpost was easily spotted, fixed, and overpowered piecemeal with little risk to the attacker. I suppose it's not entirely their fault; 20+ km of shoreline is an awful lot to cover adequately with a single company of mech infantry. But then, it's also a lot to attack with a weak Marine task force.
I'd be flattering myself to think that I somehow unhinged their plan; my attack was not super well-coordinated, with landing parties all arriving at different times. Nor did I do anything outrageously unexpected tactically, at least I don't think so. My plan was quite straightforward, and not extremely well-executed at that. Luckily for me, I think the enemy's plan and execution was even worse, and their fate was sealed by their poor equipment.
Their best chance to hand me some serious damage was on the beaches, dropping artillery fire on the LCACs while they were unloading; my hovercraft came in sequentially at each LZ, allowing the enemy the opportunity to shift fire and maximize the damage. But they squandered their opportunity chasing my creeping helicopters with fruitless volleys instead. I expected more complex obstacle belts; these were fairly trivial, rather thin, uncomplicated wire and minefields. With no fire covering the obstacle, punching breaches was pretty easy, finished quickly, and involved no elevated heart rate on my part. The hardest part about breaching was seeing my own forces through the smoke. The smoke bitmap is fairly opaque, much more so than ATF's version, and it can be hard to find any icons you may have underneath.
The assault on the objective and mop-up were rather anti-climactic. I expected a *lot* more enemy in HANGFIRE. What little was there was positioned in the same rather exposed fashion, easily spotted from a considerable distance, allowing me to take them out at standoff ranges without having to close to a point their weapons could threaten. I was frankly flabbergasted to find virtually no enemy dismounts in the villages themselves.
I don't know if the enemy was supposed to counterattack at any point. The three amphib tank platoons seemed to be held in reserve hide positions, not dug in, which indicates to me that they were expected to move out at some point, but as far as I can tell they never budged from their start positions and ended up dying in place once I stumbled across them.
The victory conditions seemed a bit grueling to me. Having to root out all but four enemy units, including numerous dismounts, scattered all over 400+ square kilometers requires a fair amount of rather boring bush-beating. I think the order didn't really set the stage for the player to know how to win. The order states that you must create at least one breach, implying that attacking only one LZ is OK, and the advance to the highway is portrayed as purely optional "extra credit". But, merely following the order will not get you even close to "winning". If killing practically every last enemy unit is important to the mission, the order should say so explicitly. In fact, to secure a "win" you *must* clear *all four* LZs, you *must* advance to the highway and destroy *all three* artillery batteries, and you *must* find a considerable number of isolated dismount units scattered all over the map besides. Like I said, grueling. I quit having fun after the assault on HANGFIRE, and became flat-out bored after the triple artillery massacres. It is true that a zone must be properly secured after being occupied, usually by extensive patrolling, but I don't think that phase of an operation is particularly interesting in game terms.
The first half was fun, if a bit easier than expected. But I think the scenario should have been finished once my forces consolidated on HANGFIRE, or perhaps on a secondary objective up on the highway.