Mexican Drug War Campaign for winSPMBT AAR

[Spark Vark]

I've started playing Double Deuce's new Mexican Drug War campaign, and I've decided to put up after-action reports for everyone's benefit. The scenarios are small (at least the ones I've played so far, so if you read them you'll know EXACTLY what will happen in each mission. Thus, if you don't want spoilers, avoid these posts! Also, for clarity's sake, I'll refer to directions using the four sides of the computer screen (i.e. up is north, down is south, etc.).

[Spark Vark]

Core force:

4 x USNG infantry squads
4 x Stryker APCs
1 x MG HMMWV
1 x HQ section (Lt. Jones)
1 x security team


Object for this mission was to secure an assembly area and meeting site. No support forces or other units were allocated.

All units started on the east side of the map loaded into their vehicles. My force proceeded west along the road toward the meeting site and assembly area which I had been ordered to secure. According to the mission brief, no enemy units were supposed to be present, but I advanced using overwatch anyway, just in case. In this case, the brief was correct though. No enemies were encountered, and the objectives were secured without incident.

Obviously, there were no casualties in this mission.

[Spark Vark]

Orders for this mission were to advance across the Rio Grande River into Mexico, in order to secure the crossing for heavier follow-on units. Support for this mission consisted of one lightly-armed US customs unit on the American side, and several squads of Mexican security forces located on the Mexican side guarding a railroad cut and customs station. The brief stated that an attack was expected by drug cartel members on the Mexican forces at the customs post and surrounding areas.

My force again started on the eastern edge of the map and moved west toward the railroad bridge that was to be our crossing point into Mexico. I left the US Customs unit where it was on the American side of the river because it was so lightly armed that it would have been very useful in a firefight.

As I crossed the bridge, numerous cartel "squads" came into view of the Mexican security forces stationed on the north side of the rail line. I quickly moved my Strykers up the north embankment and opened fire on the cartel members with the machine guns on my vehicles.

About this time, the security forces at the Mexican customs post came under fire from two squads of cartel members that had just appeared nearby. The security squad was well armed and managed to inflict a few casualties on its attackers, but because it consisted of green troops they quickly retreated toward the railroad bridge after losing two of their number. To prevent the cartel from seizing the bridge, I stationed the Humvee, HQ unit, and security detachment at the west end of the bridge.

Meanwhile, a major firefight was going on along the land north of the railroad. As with the customs station, the Mexican security squads stationed here were only able to inflict minor casualties on the enemy before being driven back, and one squad was even totally wiped out. The Strykers slowly gained the upper hand, however, sweeping from east to west and driving the cartel squads before them. The terrain was relatively flat and open, and my troops mostly stayed in their vehicles because they were too vulnerable to suppression and casualties in the open terrain with so many enemy squads around. Thus, most of the damage inflicted on the enemy was done by vehicle-mounted machine guns.

The enemy squads were gradually destroyed or forced to retreat, and once it was clear I was forcing them back, I moved one Stryker back east to retake the customs station. The two cartel squads which had taken the station had already been destroyed after making numerous futile attempts to cross the railroad bridge and being stopped by the forces I had stationed there. The customs station was reoccupied without further incident.

Not long after, all of the enemy units were destroyed or had retreated off the map, and I was in control of all objectives. This ended the scenario.

There were 103 enemy casualties. US and Mexican forces sustained 21 casualties (nearly all of which were Mexican security forces). Result was a decisive victory for the US/Mexican government side.

[Spark Vark]

The situation for this mission involved cartel members and civilian sympathizers attempting to seize control of four villages in a rural region. Objectives were to drive back all cartel and sympathizing units, as well as to take control of all four villages, arranged in a rough north-south line. Also, all friendly civilans were to be protected from cartel attacks. My units were placed on the northern east-west road of the map to start. Support for this mission included two platoons of Meixcan security forces, starting in the hills on the east central map edge.

At the start of the mission, I quickly began moving friendly civilians out of all four villages toward the east, while simultaneously moving US and Mexican government forces westward. The Mexican security troops played little role in the early operations, as they were on foot moving through rough terrain and could not move rapidly. Initial resistance was very light however, consisting of cilivan cartel sympathizers with minimal armament, so the presence of the Mexican troops was not missed.

Because of the minimal resistance, and the desire to seize the objectives as quickly as possible, I split up my four squads in their Strykers to different points on the map. This allowed me to quickly occupy most of the objectives, the exceptions being those in the southernmost village and the crossroads beyond. As I was doing this, enemy presence became stronger, with cartel gang units replacing the destroyed and retreating civilian sympathizers. Most of these new arrivals moved toward the two southern villages, causing me to concentrate my US forces there after occupying the objectives elsewhere.

Though I was having great success further north, cartel units were taking advantage of my preoccupation there to make inroads in the southernmost village. Fortunately, the Mexican security forces made it out of the hills and were able to hold off the attacking cartel members long enough for me to shift support southward, driving back this last attack. The mission ended after I finally secured all of the objectives under my control.

US/Mexican government forces suffered 12 casualties in this mission. As in the last mission, nearly all of the damage was done to the Mexican units, largely because their training was poor and because they lacked the Stryker transport/protection/supporting fire that my US forces enjoyed. Unfortunately, I did not catch the number of cartel casualties, though I would estimate it to be well above 50. Result was a decisive victory of US/Mexican government forces.

[Spark Vark]

Orders for this mission were to drive cartel forces out of three villages in the region. The terrain included a main east-west road. There were two villages in the eastern area, one north of the road and one to the south. A third village in the west straddled the road. My core force started on the eastern edge, lined up to advance along the road. Allied forces included a company of Mexican security forces in the woods south of the southern eastern village, and a company of Mexican Army troops in the hills south of the western village.

I opted to let each of the three forces move on a separate village. My USNG force attacked the village north of the road, driving the enemy forces there out relatively quickly. The cartel forces were in good positions, and managed to inflict 5 or 6 casualties, in addition to damaging one of my Strykers with an RPG.

To the south, the Mexican security forces advanced rapidly. Despite some fire coming from the village, they were able to maintain a fast advance becaues their sizable force was able to put down a heavy suppressing fire on the defenders. They drove out an occupied all of the objectives at the cost of some 15-20 casualties.

In the west, the Mexican Army troops were not immediately engaged due to the fact they had to cross a valley and advance up a hill to reach their target. Fortunately, they were protected from enemy observation by the layout of the village and the trees of a nearby orchard. A heavy firefight erupted as they reached the edge of the village, but was this was brief in duration because the US forces, having already cleared out their village, moved up to provide support. In the process, one Stryker was immobilized by an enemy hand grenade (talk about unlucky!). Nearly all the enemy units on the map were destroyed or dispersed, and all objectives occupied.

US/Mexican government forces suffered 41 casualties in this mission, and two vehicles received minor damage. Cartel forces took 99 casualties. The result was a decisive victory for the US/Mexico side.

[Spark Vark]

For this mission, I receieved orders to occupy a small town and defend its mayor from besieging cartel units. The town was well west of my starting position on the main road. The only support for this mission was a company of Mexican security troops, who were located a little to the southwest of my jumping off point. Also present were three security checkpoints at the entrances to the town.

At the very start, several bombs went off in the town and on the road to it. None were close enough to have an effect on my main force, but the three checkpoints were all "hit" and heavily suppressed. I immediately began moving my troops west at top speed. This was easy for my Strykers, but the Mexican security forces were not close to the road, and could not make a fast overland advance due to a high hill and rough terrain to their west. Consequently, they moved very slowly and took no part in the fighting at all.

On the way to the town, my Strykers encountered two squads of soldiers who I presume had set the bombs that detonated on the road [they were labelled as Al Quaeda, which I presume was a mistake]. They were quickly destroyed, and I continued my advance to the town unmolested.

Before my Strykers reached the town, cartel troops began attacking the security checkpoints. Though the checkpoints were able to hold the enemy off for a while, they were all eventually overwhelmed and destroyed. Fortunately, their fighting bought me enough time to get US forces into the town.

Once in the town, I immediately loaded the mayor onto one of the Strykers for his protection. I then dispatched one Stryker to the west entrance, two Strykers to the north entrance, and one to the south entrance of the village. Though I moved my forces around a bit during the fighting, this was the general ratio that prevailed during the battle since most of the cartel troops were coming from north of the town.

The combined effect of the Strykers' machine guns and the dismounted infrantry squads slowly but surely pushed back the tide of advancing cartel units. The firefights were heavy in all parts of the town, and the US forces took more casualties in this battle than in any of the previous ones by far (partly because the cartel had two 81mm mortars that they used to bombard the village).

Eventually, I gained the upper hand against the onslaught. As it became clear that the cartel offensive was petering out, I moved the south Stryker out of the village to destroy the enemy mortars, which I was able to locate due to the smoke generated by their firing. Finally, I mopped up the remaining enemies and recaptured any objectives that I had lost during the battle, leaving me in control of the map once more.

Total US/Mexican government casualties were 21, with almost 2/3 of these actually being US troops this time (the rest coming from the destroyed security checkpoints). Cartel losses were 119. The result was a decisive victory for the US/Mexican government side.

[Double Deuce]

On the way to the town, my Strykers encountered two squads of soldiers who I presume had set the bombs that detonated on the road [they were labelled as Al Quaeda, which I presume was a mistake]. Ahh, the plot thickens. :smoke:

[NickFlynn]

This may not be the place to post this question, but I had a problem running this campaign. I installed the campaign files and started the campaign - I got through Scenario 1 (no combat) fine. In Scenario 2, when I got my forces across the bridge into Mexico, the game locked up. I restarted it from the saved game several times, with the same results - I never saw an enemy unit, so I assume that perhaps when they fired upon my forces, that cause the game to lock.

I've got WINSPMBT 2.51, otherwise unmodified. I've had no problems running any of the supplied scenarios before (probably played about 25 scenarios total).

Any ideas?

- Nick

[Double Deuce]

It may be a problem with the changes from when it was designed. It was originaly created in 1.0. I may need to update all the scenarios and rebuild the campaign files.