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View Full Version : Colorado Wadi Attack AAR - Long


Scully
12 Oct 03, 12:31
Before you start, I want to let you know this post is very long. :nuts:

After reading everyone's posts on planning an attack, I worked up my own plan and went on the offensive. Despite losing almost my entire task force, I was actually fairly please with my performance. I also came a lot closer to winning the scenario than I thought I did, but here goes the AAR. I've attached a map of the final outcome so all can behold the carnage. :cry: Any and all comments are welcome.

Operation:
My units
C/2-8 Cav - Armor
B/2-8 Cav - Armor
B/2-5 Cav - Mech
C/2-5 Cav - Mech
A/1-82 FA
B/1-82 FA
C/1-82 FA
A/20 Eng
1/A/4-5 AA (BFV Stinger Team)
Mortar Ptn.
4 A-10's
2 Colt Teams
Scouts

Bad Guy's:
3 MRR's at 30% strength - 9/18/9
RAG w/ 18 2S19 and 18 2SI
4-6 sorties Su-25 Frogfoot

Objective Miller is on the Northwest border of the AO with a major hill/mountain directly to the south of it.

The AO is lined with hills on both flanks, but opens up in the Northeast.

My plan:
-Main assault to take place along southern boundary of AO with a flank security moving along and clearning northern hills.
-Assault force will first clear suspected enemy strong point in hills just south of objective, then regroup and assault objective.
-Flanking force will clear northern hills then move around north flank.
-Main assault force consists of both Armor Cav, 1 Mech Cav, Mtr. Plt, Stinger Team, Engineers and ultimately the A-10's
-Flank security is 1 Mech Cav

Phase 1:
-Move assault units to PL Harris, clearing any observers/scouts
-Move Flank security to edge on northern hills
-Move 2 Arty groups up to prepare for assault of strongpoint and objective, leave one ready to fire for support of advance
-Get A-10's in air to patrol

Phase 2:
-Setup stinger team near PL Harris to cover advance
-Setup moving artillery in covered areas
-Move remaining artillery forward into range of objective
-Assault force begins bounding overwatch toward strong point
-Flank force begins clearing out northern hills

Phase 3:
-Assault strongpoint with Mech Infantry serving as fixing force while armor units attack
-A-10's continue patrolling and attacking targets of opportunity
-Move Flank security around northern hills to Opfor flank

Phase 4:
-Pull Mech Inf fixing force forward and setup as Objective fixing force
-Assault with 2 Armor Cav, A-10's and Arty.
-Assault north flank with Flank security troops to prevent counter attack

What actually happened:
-Phase 1 basically went according to plan. My only major mistake was expecting the A-10's to take 15 minutes to get airborne and patrolling. They were already up and flew over the AO before I cleared the area. I lost 2 to SA-19.
-Other than that, I lost a couple of vehicles to enemy artillery and long range shots from the northern hills, but moved everything into position as planned in Phase 1.
-Phase 2 started well with the Flank security team with support from my one Arty group cleared the first section of the northern hills with minimal casualties.
-The assault force on the other hand had some difficulty. The bounding overwatch worked fine for the first couple thousand meters beyond PL Harris, then I began getting hit by AT Guns from the strongpoint. The problem was I couldn't see them at all.
-I began dropping smoke to block their sight and continued moving forward.
-I had a platoon from the Mech team clear out some scouts in the southern hills while the rest of the team moved forward to get into position.
-When I was about 1,500 meters out, I finally started picking up dug in bad guys (all fire teams and AT dismounts) and there were a lot of them.
-I started dropping arty and mortars on their position and moving forward.
-After losing almost an entire Armor Co. and part of the second, I finally cleared the south side of the strong point.
-Meanwhile, the troops in the northern hills continued doing a good job of clearing out bad guys and working their way around to the northern flank.
-I consolidated my troops and began working around to clear the northern side of the strongpoint (just south of the objective).
-And this is where all hell broke lose. Most of my guys were lost pretty quick as I began taking fire from three directions. If there was hand-to-hand in ATF it would've been taking place as I used tanks to suppress and dismounts to move in and kill dug in Opfor dismounts.
-Everyone was right on top of each other. The problem was, the bad guys had a number of dug in tanks taking shots at me from the north side of the objective. I got creamed.
-My Flank security team, however, continued to work its way around and did some damage before finally getting cut down.
-I did manage to sneak a couple of fire teams into the objective, but I couldn't clear it, so I lost. Below is the final tally.

Final thoughts:
-This is a great scenario. Lots of fun toys to play with
-Overall the planning worked well, with the exception that my overall concept was probably wrong.
-I certainly coordinated my attack much better thanks to Kbluck and Deltapooh's advice
-I think I made a huge mistake assaulting along the southern edge. The strongpoint was much stronger than I expected.
-I also didn't use the A-10's very effectively. I don't think they killed more than 1 or 2 Opfor Armor units, though they did a nice job against Opfor aircraft, which ended up including Su-25's and Hind's/
-I dismounted my fire and javelin teams too early when assaulting the strongpoint. They had to walk to far to get into position.
-My Arty resupply efforts weren't particularly fun to watch.
-My Arty planning and use probably could've have been better focused
-I responded to the disaster around the strongpoint too slowly. Not sure what I could've done to change the outcome, but sending guys to the slaughter probably wasn't the answer.

MISSION NOT COMPLETE
Mission ended prior to mission completion.
Mission Objectives:
1. Attrit the enemy to 108 enemy vehicles or teams.
2. Eliminate all enemy vehicles or teams in OBJ MILLER and occupy it with at least 1 friendly vehicle or team.
Results:
1. The enemy has 95 vehicles or teams remaining.
2. 3 enemy vehicles or teams remain in the objective, OBJ MILLER. The objective is occupied by 2 friendly vehicles or teams.

Enemy Starting and Ending Combat Power:

Vehicle Type Starting Ending

BMP-2 IFV 15 6
T-80B MBT 9 4
BRDM-2 with ATGM 7 3
AT-5 Team 16 1
Enemy Fire Team 10 3
2S19 152 mm SP Howitzer 18 18
ACRV (MT-LBu 1V13) 18 18
Mi-24 HIND-E Attack Helicopter 6 0
2S1 122mm SP Howitzer 24 24
2S5 Giatsint-S 152mm SP How. 18 18
2A45 (125 mm Towed) with MT-LB 6 0
Su-25BM Frogfoot 4 0
SA-19 Team 2 0
DRT Team 3 0

Friendly Starting and Ending Combat Power:
Vehicle Type Starting Ending

M1025 Scout HMMWV 6 1
M9 ACE 3 0
M60 AVLB 2 0
M113A3 with MCLiC 3 0
M1A2 MBT 22 0
M1A2 MBT with Mine Plow 6 0
M2A2 Bradley IFV 28 0
Javelin Team 24 1
Fire Team 24 2
M109A6 Paladin 155 mm SP How. 18 18
M1068 Fire Direction Center 6 6
M981 FIST-V 4 0
M992 FAASV 18 16
A-10 Thunderbolt 4 0
M1064A3 120mm Mortar Carrier 6 4
Bradley Stinger FV 1 0
Stinger Team 2 0
COLT Team 2 0

Allied Starting and Ending Combat Power:
No allied vehicles in this scenario.

If you read this far, I'm very impressed. Thanks for taking the time to review. :)

Take care,
Brian

Scully
12 Oct 03, 16:52
I noticed the final map didn't show up. Let's try again. Hmm...still not working. Well, if anyone is interested in see a screen shot of the end of the Colorado Wadi Attack scenario I put out an AAR for, let me know and maybe you can help me figure out why the "manage attachments" isn't working for me.

Of course, why would you want to look at my massacre. :dead:

Take care,
Brian