bongotastic
Member
Here is an AAR. Enjoy!
20CMBG is required to defend a desert town against three OPFOR tank Bn. The terrain is wide open across a valley approximatively 4km wide, the visibility is down to 2km due to the weather. 20CMBG is made of three tanks squadrons, one Mech Coy, one Anti-armor section (TOW on M113) and one SP mortar section.
The overall plan is to create a shell around the OA Huron. 1TS will provide a screen to the North of OA Huron and use the high ground of OA Banook as a pivot for a sweep of the defense’s flank. 2TS will position itself south of OA Banook and proceed to PL Harper to engage OPFOR in the open, far from OA Huron. 3TS will advance over the high ground to the south up to PL Harper to covert the southern flank and act as a reserve for 2TS if needed. The infantry will dismount their mortar section and relocate on the edge of the built-up area on OA Huron to setup a second line of defense. The FOO will occupy OA Banook and report on ENY activities up to PL Martin. My intention was to have 2TS be my main force and attempt to use 1+3TS to funnel OPFOR into a kill zone.
The first 10 minutes
1TS first detect and engage one of the OPFOR Bn, assisted with 155mm ICM, the column shatters into plenty of Plt-sized unit scattering ASAP away from the gunfire. Seeing this turn of event, I order 1TS to keep on advancing while OPFOR is being shelled. The advance of OPFOR in this sector is stopped completely at heavy cost in Canadian’s armor. As I attempt to withdraw my limping tanks toward OA Huron, some scouts and what appears to be a brand new Bn hugging the northern edge of the map finish 1TS off.
2TS are locating a very large formation of armor inside PL Martin and engage. Almost all 155mm available gets assigned to support them. Again, the artillery scatter the OPFOR Bn as long range fire and more ICM shelling cause heavy casualities on Red. 2TS suffers very heavy casuality and must retreat behind a smoke screen only some 500m away from OA Huron. So much for a defense in depth anymore.
3TS is struggling on the high ground and rough terrain. By the time they can perform a flanking maneuver, there is not enough elements left in 2TS to pursue the attack. OPFOR is now scattered and I doubt that the fire support will be as effective as in the past few minutes (as it was fantastically effective in the first place).
Fire Support I spent all my time before the engagement fire ranging shots to register as many coordinates as possible. As I only have two strike from my US friend MLRS systems, I intend to use them only if I have a very good solution. The problem is that the battle lasted for barely 5 minutes, and by the time I had a good solution, OPFOR was then scattered. I ended-up cancelling the MLRS strike.
Mech Coy + antitanks section deployed they mortar sections and proceeded around the town’s limits. The 60mm mortars did not have the range to support the main effort, and due to OPFOR shelling on the edge of town, I decided to cancel the deployment into the town. As the battle has been lighting fast, I fear that a static defense under ENY shelling was a poor gamble to take.
The outstanding issue here is whether the full Arm Coy seen in the north was a fragment of the shattered Bn from the previous engagement or a brand new formation. I do not have many platforms anymore to run around the battlefield, and frankly overestimated the survivability of the C2 vs the T-72. If I am right to think that the force that opposed 2TS were in fact 2 Bn, I think that the OPFOR assault is broken and I can cautiously wait for the next 50 minutes: prepare good registers to focus the fire support and everything should be OK. If the flanking force is a full size Bn, I am in trouble since the only force that can oppose it is at the other extremity of the map.
Up to 30 minutes
The charge from the North materialized, 1TS and 2TS are evaporated and only a few elements of 3TS are left after the counter attack on the 2nd advancing Bn. I shifted the infantry to the north, deployed them in the open and retired the APC behind the Eryx’s teams screen. The riflemen seems to be pretty resilient to ENY fire, but the APC are not much more than fodder. At min 30, considering the number and type of spotted OPFOR, my available units and that my fire support had ran out, I decided to pull out. I scramble anything with a personel carrying ability to pick up everyone under a screen of smoke. It is not a gamey decision, but I don’t think that I can achieve my objective so there is no point in sacrifying whats left of my force.
The last 30minutes.
A rear action is taking place, my few tanks left and the TOW-M113 section are giving hell to OPFOR. However, without shelling to support, their advance resume and there is nothing that I can do about it. Shortly before minute 40, I get a fresh supply of artillery fire! With a new complement of ICM and two volley of MLRS strikes, I decide that I possibly can hold for 20 minutes. I order every one to assume picket position around OA Huron to direct the artillery. The TOW-M113 section and the last few tanks are doing the killing while the shelling keeps OPFOR pinned. Two mostly blind MLRS strike later, the only OPFOR that gets spotted are riflemen. With 10 minutes to go and enough HE shells to last until 17:59, the outcome end up being a TacOps victory. However, I don’t see it as such, with 89% attrition. It turned out as a successful delay action, not as a decisive victory as I owe the victory almost exclusively to the lucky 2nd batch of fire support ammunition.
Lessons from Pipes v.1
1 . A tank squadron and a OPFPR tank Bn mutually anihilate each other in clear terrain. Therefore, I should have concentrated my main effort with two tank Sqdrons and not worry about having a strong screen throughout their lines of advances. OPFOR could only get even by coordinating pincer movements or by concentrating likewise, which the AI didn’t do.
2. My situational awareness was bad. Every vehicles would get blown to pieces as soon as spotted in open terrain and bad whether (which forced shorter detection ranges). Having known about the lack of mobility at the end the the scenario, I wouldn’t have retreated.
3. It is hard to maximize the effect of a MLRS strikes in a very fluid situation, but shelling of even HE ammunition seemed to be enough to pin OPFOR in place long enough for them to get nailed.
4. If OPFOR would not have bothered with a long, long flanking maneuver but a coordinated effort, with focussed fire support: Blue would have had a real hard time to pull this one as a “mission accomplished”.
I may try to replay this scenario while playing both sides, just to see whether I am right on point 4.
Final Report from TacOPS
Time Left: 0 minutes
Mission results:
Blue - Mission accomplished
Red - Mission failure
Point results:
Blue Attrition Points - 16136
Red Attrition Points - 6112
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Blue Status:
UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED
Tank Leopard C2(+) Cmd.......... 6 2 4 0
Tank Leopard C2(+).............. 48 0 48 0
APC M113........................ 16 3 13 0
Inf HQ Command [-].............. 4 1 3 0
Inf HQ Ops Tm................... 3 1 2 0
ATGM Eryx....................... 1 0 1 0
Mortar 60mm..................... 4 4 0 0
Inf Section + Eryx.............. 9 5 4 0
ATGMV M113 TUA.................. 8 0 8 0
APC Coyote Command.............. 1 0 1 0
Inf Team w LMG.................. 1 0 1 0
FSCV FOO/MFC M113............... 1 0 1 0
FSCE FOO Team................... 1 0 1 0
Mortar Carrier 81mm Bison....... 4 0 4 0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 6794
Force Lethality Value, Now: 682
Casualty percentage: 89
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1:2.6
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1:2.1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Red Status:
UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED
APC BRDM2....................... 21 3 18 0
Inf Team........................ 25 11 14 0
Tank T72M [IQ91]................ 168 0 168 0
APC BMP1 IFV.................... 48 5 43 0
Inf Squad....................... 36 16 20 0
Inf MG 7.62mm PKM Team.......... 24 8 16 0
ATGMV BRDM2 Spandrel............ 3 0 3 0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 17574
Force Lethality Value, Now: 1438
Casualty percentage: 91
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 2.6:1
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 2.1:1
The attachement is the snapshot after 30min, when I chickened out for a brief moment.
20CMBG is required to defend a desert town against three OPFOR tank Bn. The terrain is wide open across a valley approximatively 4km wide, the visibility is down to 2km due to the weather. 20CMBG is made of three tanks squadrons, one Mech Coy, one Anti-armor section (TOW on M113) and one SP mortar section.
The overall plan is to create a shell around the OA Huron. 1TS will provide a screen to the North of OA Huron and use the high ground of OA Banook as a pivot for a sweep of the defense’s flank. 2TS will position itself south of OA Banook and proceed to PL Harper to engage OPFOR in the open, far from OA Huron. 3TS will advance over the high ground to the south up to PL Harper to covert the southern flank and act as a reserve for 2TS if needed. The infantry will dismount their mortar section and relocate on the edge of the built-up area on OA Huron to setup a second line of defense. The FOO will occupy OA Banook and report on ENY activities up to PL Martin. My intention was to have 2TS be my main force and attempt to use 1+3TS to funnel OPFOR into a kill zone.
The first 10 minutes
1TS first detect and engage one of the OPFOR Bn, assisted with 155mm ICM, the column shatters into plenty of Plt-sized unit scattering ASAP away from the gunfire. Seeing this turn of event, I order 1TS to keep on advancing while OPFOR is being shelled. The advance of OPFOR in this sector is stopped completely at heavy cost in Canadian’s armor. As I attempt to withdraw my limping tanks toward OA Huron, some scouts and what appears to be a brand new Bn hugging the northern edge of the map finish 1TS off.
2TS are locating a very large formation of armor inside PL Martin and engage. Almost all 155mm available gets assigned to support them. Again, the artillery scatter the OPFOR Bn as long range fire and more ICM shelling cause heavy casualities on Red. 2TS suffers very heavy casuality and must retreat behind a smoke screen only some 500m away from OA Huron. So much for a defense in depth anymore.
3TS is struggling on the high ground and rough terrain. By the time they can perform a flanking maneuver, there is not enough elements left in 2TS to pursue the attack. OPFOR is now scattered and I doubt that the fire support will be as effective as in the past few minutes (as it was fantastically effective in the first place).
Fire Support I spent all my time before the engagement fire ranging shots to register as many coordinates as possible. As I only have two strike from my US friend MLRS systems, I intend to use them only if I have a very good solution. The problem is that the battle lasted for barely 5 minutes, and by the time I had a good solution, OPFOR was then scattered. I ended-up cancelling the MLRS strike.
Mech Coy + antitanks section deployed they mortar sections and proceeded around the town’s limits. The 60mm mortars did not have the range to support the main effort, and due to OPFOR shelling on the edge of town, I decided to cancel the deployment into the town. As the battle has been lighting fast, I fear that a static defense under ENY shelling was a poor gamble to take.
The outstanding issue here is whether the full Arm Coy seen in the north was a fragment of the shattered Bn from the previous engagement or a brand new formation. I do not have many platforms anymore to run around the battlefield, and frankly overestimated the survivability of the C2 vs the T-72. If I am right to think that the force that opposed 2TS were in fact 2 Bn, I think that the OPFOR assault is broken and I can cautiously wait for the next 50 minutes: prepare good registers to focus the fire support and everything should be OK. If the flanking force is a full size Bn, I am in trouble since the only force that can oppose it is at the other extremity of the map.
Up to 30 minutes
The charge from the North materialized, 1TS and 2TS are evaporated and only a few elements of 3TS are left after the counter attack on the 2nd advancing Bn. I shifted the infantry to the north, deployed them in the open and retired the APC behind the Eryx’s teams screen. The riflemen seems to be pretty resilient to ENY fire, but the APC are not much more than fodder. At min 30, considering the number and type of spotted OPFOR, my available units and that my fire support had ran out, I decided to pull out. I scramble anything with a personel carrying ability to pick up everyone under a screen of smoke. It is not a gamey decision, but I don’t think that I can achieve my objective so there is no point in sacrifying whats left of my force.
The last 30minutes.
A rear action is taking place, my few tanks left and the TOW-M113 section are giving hell to OPFOR. However, without shelling to support, their advance resume and there is nothing that I can do about it. Shortly before minute 40, I get a fresh supply of artillery fire! With a new complement of ICM and two volley of MLRS strikes, I decide that I possibly can hold for 20 minutes. I order every one to assume picket position around OA Huron to direct the artillery. The TOW-M113 section and the last few tanks are doing the killing while the shelling keeps OPFOR pinned. Two mostly blind MLRS strike later, the only OPFOR that gets spotted are riflemen. With 10 minutes to go and enough HE shells to last until 17:59, the outcome end up being a TacOps victory. However, I don’t see it as such, with 89% attrition. It turned out as a successful delay action, not as a decisive victory as I owe the victory almost exclusively to the lucky 2nd batch of fire support ammunition.
Lessons from Pipes v.1
1 . A tank squadron and a OPFPR tank Bn mutually anihilate each other in clear terrain. Therefore, I should have concentrated my main effort with two tank Sqdrons and not worry about having a strong screen throughout their lines of advances. OPFOR could only get even by coordinating pincer movements or by concentrating likewise, which the AI didn’t do.
2. My situational awareness was bad. Every vehicles would get blown to pieces as soon as spotted in open terrain and bad whether (which forced shorter detection ranges). Having known about the lack of mobility at the end the the scenario, I wouldn’t have retreated.
3. It is hard to maximize the effect of a MLRS strikes in a very fluid situation, but shelling of even HE ammunition seemed to be enough to pin OPFOR in place long enough for them to get nailed.
4. If OPFOR would not have bothered with a long, long flanking maneuver but a coordinated effort, with focussed fire support: Blue would have had a real hard time to pull this one as a “mission accomplished”.
I may try to replay this scenario while playing both sides, just to see whether I am right on point 4.
Final Report from TacOPS
Time Left: 0 minutes
Mission results:
Blue - Mission accomplished
Red - Mission failure
Point results:
Blue Attrition Points - 16136
Red Attrition Points - 6112
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Blue Status:
UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED
Tank Leopard C2(+) Cmd.......... 6 2 4 0
Tank Leopard C2(+).............. 48 0 48 0
APC M113........................ 16 3 13 0
Inf HQ Command [-].............. 4 1 3 0
Inf HQ Ops Tm................... 3 1 2 0
ATGM Eryx....................... 1 0 1 0
Mortar 60mm..................... 4 4 0 0
Inf Section + Eryx.............. 9 5 4 0
ATGMV M113 TUA.................. 8 0 8 0
APC Coyote Command.............. 1 0 1 0
Inf Team w LMG.................. 1 0 1 0
FSCV FOO/MFC M113............... 1 0 1 0
FSCE FOO Team................... 1 0 1 0
Mortar Carrier 81mm Bison....... 4 0 4 0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 6794
Force Lethality Value, Now: 682
Casualty percentage: 89
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1:2.6
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1:2.1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Red Status:
UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED
APC BRDM2....................... 21 3 18 0
Inf Team........................ 25 11 14 0
Tank T72M [IQ91]................ 168 0 168 0
APC BMP1 IFV.................... 48 5 43 0
Inf Squad....................... 36 16 20 0
Inf MG 7.62mm PKM Team.......... 24 8 16 0
ATGMV BRDM2 Spandrel............ 3 0 3 0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 17574
Force Lethality Value, Now: 1438
Casualty percentage: 91
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 2.6:1
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 2.1:1
The attachement is the snapshot after 30min, when I chickened out for a brief moment.
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