CPX Fester Wille 22 Jan 2005

GCoyote

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This scenario was designed by Ralph Pichocki [aka "Pi"].
I will leave it to the team commanders to present their overall AARs and let Ralph decide whether to post any of his scenario materials here to support the discussion.

The short version: RED was a Mechanized Airborne Battalion (BMD) supporting the RED offensive. Our orders were to sieze several bridges and tunnels over a river and canal, prevent BLUE's recon screen from passing through to the west, assist our recon BN in crossing to the West, and prevent BLUE ground forces from retaking the crossings until relieved. [See TacOps Map 150 ver 101]

We had only general intel on blue forces in the area and nothing specific on blue forces at our objectives. We also lacked sufficient transport to attack en masse. Our plan then was to paradrop 1/3 of our forces west of the objective at 0700 to seize the river crossing. The next 1/3 came in from the east by transport helicopter to the canal bridges at 0715. The remainder arrived overland begining around 0745. We had no off-map artillery and our air support also came in about 0745.

I handled the artillery (a total of 3 x 120mm mortars) and the southern most air assault force (OBJ HONEY). Because one of the 120mm mortars went in with the initial air drop, I got to see a bit more of the action than the other ground commanders.

Our planning anticipated one or more hot LZs and possibly demolition teams working on the bridges. Instead we made almost immediate contact with a Blue air assault coming in from the west. This lead to a pretty furious exchange near the center of the map with scattered RED and BLUE forces. The bridges on the other hand were not occupied so we were able to secure them immediately.

Because Friendly Fog of War (FFOW) was turned on and the terrain was pretty broken up, we had only a general idea of who we were fighting and how well we were doing. We knew we'd shot down numerous helicopters but not what had happened to the troops they carried. We spent a good bit of time explaining to the team commander and to each other, where our own forces were and what they were doing.

As it turned out, the bulk of the blue force had flown directly over our paradrop and taken heavy losses. Pi put in some Blue reinforcements and the game kept going. Blue was eventually able to blow the northern most bridge and sieze some crossing while we held and reinforced the southern ones.

All of the RED players provided at least some planning input and it all seemed to work pretty well. At startex there were very few questions and until we had to start improvising around 0755 we pretty much knew what to do. Overall I'd say it was a good team and I had a lot of fun. :cool:
 
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Red Commander's AAR

Red Commander’s AAR: Fester Wille, 22 January 2005
James Sterrett

Ralf Pichocki set up this CPX mid-December after another one fell through. Red got to work on analysis and the operations order in early January. About two weeks before the game, we had our orders out and were working on subordinate’s planning.

Red was:

James Sterrett (Commander)
Gary “Coyote” (HONEY and mortars)
Jonathan “PapaJ” (Blocking Reserve and SUGAR)
Bernard Cousins (Recce Screen, CUP, and MUG)

John Jones and Matt Ohlmer were present for planning but not the execution.

Our opord:

(See: http://www.war-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21353 for the ops map.)
-------------------
MISSION:

In order to enable friendly forces to pass westwards over the
MITTELLAND KANAL, and prevent retreating enemy forces from doing the
same, 411 Air Assault Battalion will conduct airborne, airmobile, and
overland operations to seize crossings over the canal. Higher
requests a minimum of 3 crossings be seized.

Our key objective is to secure HONEY. Possession of HONEY enables
friendly forces to cross both of the water barriers in Bad Bevensen.
SPOON serves as a supporting objective for both HONEY and SUGAR.

The other major objective is to seize SUGAR and some combination of
CUP, MUG, and SAUCER. SAUCER can be blocked from forces defending
HONEY; therefore, we will concentrate on CUP and MUG.

ENEMY:

Elements of 5 PzAufklBtn are expected to attempt to punch westwards
past our positions. Strength unknown, but weakened through previous
fighting.

Elements of 21 PzBrig are expected to be operating in the area.
Recon has shown singletons and pairs of Marders and Leopards. It is
not clear if this is establishing a new security zone, or recon prior
to moving a major force into the area. the enemy's potential main
defence location is not known.

Enemy forces defending the bridges are not known but assumed to be
no more than platoon strength per bridge.

Task Organization and missions:

PARADROP: into the designated drop zone at 0700:

A Company: 10x BMD, plus infantry and SAMs
HQ 411
1x 2S9 mortar

Missions:
Seize and defend SUGAR; defend it against assault from the EAST.
Establish defence towards the WEST with reconnaissance at
least to easting 02 (Barum/Seedorf).
Secure SPOON.

HELIBORNE ASSAULT: arrives 0715:

B Company: 10x BMD, plus infantry and SAMs
2x 2S9 Mortars
6x grenade launcher teams
3x ZU-23

Missions:
Sieze and defend HONEY, CUP, and MUG, in that order of priority.
Each assault force gets 2x AGS-17, 1x ZU-23, 1 platoon of BMD.
HONEY assault force gets B Company HQ and mortars as well.

Prepare to defend to the EAST after taking the bridges.
Force at HONEY should be ready to destroy forces moving towards
SAUCER.

OVERLAND: expected arrival 0745:

3 trucks
3 ASU-85 (T-34/85)
3 BMD-1
3 BMD-2
3 BRDM-2/AT

Mission: Force reserve.

Assignment of units to players:

Everybody except James has forces in the initial assault and also
forces in the Overland force.

James (CO): None.

Gary:
HONEY assault force (2x AGS-17, 1x ZU-23, 1 platoon of BMD, B Coy HQ)
3 BRDM-AT (reserve force)

Chimera:
All air and artillery assets (3 mortars, 4 airstrikes).
ASU-85 (reserve force).

Berny:
CUP and MUG forces (each 2x AGS-17, 1x ZU-23, 1 platoon of BMD);
3 trucks (reserve force)

PapaJ:
SUGAR assault force: 1x BMD platoon from paradrop
3x BMD-2 (reserve force)

Matt:
Recon & west defence force: 2x BMD platoons, HQ 411, from paradrop
3 BMD-1 (reserve force)

All these forces are pretty small. Fight smart and it'll work. I hope. :)

If you are unhappy with the force you've been assigned to, please let me know.

EXECUTION:

We need to discuss this. Think over your role in the battle and how
you want to go about it.

I'd like to do the heliborne insertions in the order of HONEY, MUG,
CUP, where we cannot do them simultaneously. Flying stright in from
the east, dropping on or near the target, and bugging out, will make
best use of surprise but may get us butchered by ground fire. :-/

Plan to work with Chimera to get your support fires. You'll need to
tell him what spots you can see so he can fire registration rounds or
suppression. In the initial stages, any unit assaulting a bridge has
priority of fires over other tasks. HONEY has highest priority, SUGAR
is second, CUP third, MUG fourth.

It is my expectation that the battle will stage in more or less this manner:

1) We land and grab the bridges from local defence forces and/or lead
elements of 21 Brig.

2) 5Bn tries to push across the Kanal where we hold it.

3) 21 Brig's forces arrive from the west and try to retake the crossings.

4) Our overland force arrives.

It probably won't be that clear-cut; I fully expect that 1 will merge
into 2 will merge into 3. However, assault forces need to concentrate
on stage 1. The faster and better we accomplish that part of the
mission the better we can handle stage 2. Meanwhile, Matt's platoons
need to deploy to ensure that we're as ready for Stage 3 as possible.
If we wind up having trouble with 1 or 2, then having his force hold
off the bad guys well to the west is going to make it a lot easier to
finish 1 & 2 without a bunch of Panzers nosing around and asking for
lunch.
---------------

What happened:

Early on, I wanted to delay the paradrop to land everything at once. Fortunately, the rest of the team talked me out of this idea! I am very happy with the degree of team input into our planning process. Everybody contributed something.

In the event, neither Matt nor Chimera could make the game. Berny took over the recon aspect of the western blocking & defence force. Jonathan (PapaJ) took over the defence aspect of that force. Gary took over the mortars, and I took the airstrikes. We knew they would not be there about a week before the game.

In planning for their missions, the players with helicopter assaults planned to move an Mi-8 in as reconnaissance, then move the main force in. Both players had planned primary and alternate landing sites.

Our paradrop scattered forces near the drop zone, and we started the game. We soon spotted blue helicopters, in ones and twos. Since there were never many in view, and they were flying at medium altitude, they took a lot of fire. We did not think we had accomplished much, but it turns out that the occasional (to our eyes) kills were amounting to a significant fraction of Blue’s force.

Events unrolled pretty much according to plan for us. By the time our heliborne assault was able to come in, we had units on SUGAR, SPOON, and HONEY, our recon screen was reporting itself in place, and the blocking force had been placed as a reserve.

Shortly after our heliborne assaults landed on HONEY, CUP, and MUG, Blue tossed in the towel. After a discussion between the commanders and the umpire, the game started again, with additional forces for Blue, including a great deal of artillery support and more ground forces. Blue’s westward-retreating recon unit showed up at about this point. After some initial bad luck, we found that we defeated much of this force pretty handily. The HONEY force took a pounding, especially from artillery, and I sent the reserve to shore it up. A mistake, it turns out, though not a game-losing one.

I should have sent the reserve towards SUGAR. Blue put in its most successful assault of the game there, eventually clearing us out of the area despite our desperate attempts to reinforce or retake it. Blue also blew the 60-ton bridge there with an airstrike. We spent the last of our mortar ammo trying to hold SUGAR. However, in the end, we got a reprieve of sorts - Blue fired its artillery mine strike onto the western side of the bridge. This denied it for our use, and incidentally trapped a couple of blue units in the mine pattern.

However, we still held HONEY, reinforced by our overland force’s arrival (and these units were then slung into the attempt to hold SUGAR). The lead units of our approaching Recon battalion finished off the last of Blue’s retreating recon battalion (with some trouble in the north, where Berny had to take down a Blue tank without any heavy anti-tank assets) and one third of the force proceeded across the southern section of the map and off the west edge. Towards the end of that process, Blue began withdrawing from the map via helicopter (which we did not know at the time).

Major changes to the plan during the execution:

- The force initially designated as blocking vs enemy land forces to the west got used to reinforce HONEY. It should have reinforced SUGAR, though the indicators to know this were not available that the time.

- We originally intended to pass the northern elements of the recon battalion over CUP/MUG and SUGAR. After the mine strike made this impossible, we rerouted those recon battalion via HONEY.

- The overland force was initially committed to taking out enemy forces near HONEY in the mistaken belief that there were some. It was then sent to try to shore up SUGAR. In a perfect world, we would have gone directly towards SUGAR.

-----------------------------

Lessons learned:

1) Used badly, helicopters are dead meat. Blue suffered heavy losses to its helicopter force because they flew over our paradrop at medium altitude and in small numbers. This ensured that virtually all of our paradropped company could engage one or two helicopters at a time. As a result, even these low-odds fires eventually shot the helicopters down.

As a test, I took the initial save file and altered blue’s helicopter movement orders: one third took an NOE path across the top of the map; one third took an NOE path directly over the paradrop; one third took an NOE path along the southern part of the map. Each one headed to a major bridge site. The Blue helidrop took moderate losses, but dropped significant forces onto each bridge site, which then proceeded to obliterate the red helicopters sitting at the edge of the map waiting to arrive.

Also, after the initial massacre, Blue started flying at NOE, and their loss rate plummeted. They did not lose any of their reinforcement helicopters, despite flying them into hot areas.

Despite ground fire and SAMs, none of the airstrikes in the game were driven off.

Lesson: handle your helicopters properly, and they will live a lot longer. Keep them at NOE unless you have specific reason to fly them higher. When entering hot areas, enter in mass. If the enemy can shoot down 2 helicopters every minute, and you fly 2 helicopters past them every minute, you lose all your helicopters. However, if you fly 8 helicopters past them all at once, you lose 2, and 6 get through unhurt. Nasty math, but saturation has long been a principle of overcoming air defence.

Second point: Had Blue gotten its forces onto the bridges, this battle would have gone very differently. Grabbing bridges fast, and forcing the enemy to come to you, appears to have been the key to victory in this scenario. Blue retook one bridge, and had lots of artillery with which to do it. We had no artillery, and I’m not sure we could have taken our bridges if Blue had gotten its forces into place unmolested.

2) I ran the battle without owning any ground units or seeing any Red units on the map. This was possible because my subordinates gave me timely reports on their status, activities, and position. This left me in position to try to figure out if we were on track with the plan, think about where the battle was going, and to try to stay ahead of events. We intended, at one point, to have an S2 player – a player who did nothing except try to figure out what Blue was up to. Unfortunately, that did not happen, but I’d like to try it next time we get a chance.

3) Getting the entire team involved in planning paid off well for us, because everybody not only knew their job, but also knew how their job fit into everybody else’s job. This meant, among other things, that there was no complaint when some units were denied mortar support on the grounds that they were not the main effort. No plan survives contact with the enemy - but a well-understood plan is a mutually agreed upon basis for change, providing a common frame of reference for actions. My thanks to the rest of Red: this would not have worked without you.
 

GCoyote

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I was wondering about the effectiveness of the single 120mm mortar tubes. Except of one landed helicopter that I killed with a lucky shot, the small number of mortars we didn't seem to produce much in the way of kills/supression. Perhaps it would have been better to keep all three tube together to maximize target effect.

Opinions?
 
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I agree - in a perfect world, we'd have kept them as one unit.

However, I didn't want to break up the desant companies, so I didn't have a lot of options, so I hoped we'd get some suppression out of the single tubes....

I think that any leg unit under a arty spalsh marker, in TacOps, gets suppressed - perhaps not very much or for very long, but some suppression effect.
 

JohnfMonahan

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BLUE AAR

Blue CO had no help in planning. No player helped him after repeated attempts. This was very discouraging. Blue CO planned with all available intelligence (none). The only support for the Blue airmobile force was one salvo of MLRS and some airstrikes. No escort, no prep and no intelligence except a brief warning, while en route, that Red might be in the area. Upon Startex, the 3 subordinates followed the plan and flew forward. I made a large mistake by not flying them in one large group. We lost all of the first and second platoons. The only reason 4th platoon was not hit was JohnO had communication difficulty and his units did not receive orders. I took his units over after he gave up trying to play. There was a force ( better than ours) of Red mechanized paras in front of us. We eventually got two platoons (-) into town but they never had a chance of success. We then reset the Blue forces with some arty support. The Blue recon bn (-) entered, but as they were faced east, took many hits the turn they appeared and were never a significant force. Blue got some more forces into town but were outnumbered and only took one bridge. Our overland element never made it past the RED mech para company that lay astride their route to town. I made a second mistake of not shooting the arty minefield soon enough. It was part of the Blue reset and was not planned for, as I had asked for some and was told no. After the Blue CO decided he could not accomplish the mission, he ordered all forces to exfiltrate.

The game, technically, went brilliantly. By far the best CPX I have participated in. Good number of breaks and the hosting went great.

Beginning of rant- As a scenario, it was a fiasco. The actual Blue situation was to conduct a unescorted, unprepped, un reconned airmobile assault onto a force twice it’s size with no intelligence and little arty support. The recon force was never effective as it was placed , on the map, in the enemy line of fire. Ralf did a brilliant technical setup for this scenario for which I am grateful. I know how much work it is. I will not participate as a CO for a very long time, however. I have no desire to play 20 questions with an umpire who tells me to ask and use my own S-2 and 3 (which do not exist in a company) and who set up a situation that is improbable to the point of unplayability. I am sure, with hindsight, I could have done much better. I would certainly enjoy some rational, probable scenarios. I have no more desire to see how clever we can all be. End of rant.


OPORD:
Situation: per Brigade OPORD
Mission:
•3d Coy ParatrooperBn 313 (3./FschJgBtl 313)
reaches and achieves hold of BAD BEVENSEN (BB) (0783) area
conducts a passage-of-lines operation at the MITTELLANDKANAL (073817)
protects evading parts (approx. two coys) of PzAufklBtl 5
lets those parts cross the MITTELLANDKANAL via paths 'A' and 'B'
attrites RED forces and prevents their crossing of MITTELLANDKANAL
evades on command in one step behind PzgrenBrig 21 and becomes reserve.
•Rest of 3./FschJgBtl 313 will arrive after 0730 at 980823 or 980816 or 980794 at will
.

Commanders intent:
We will move, via helo and convoy to vic Bad Bevensen. 1st platoon on the north, second in the south, third and forth in reserve. I assume that OPFOR can only bridge the MittellandKanak at existing bridge sites. We will defend BB. We will blow the bridges and force the OPFOR to mount a hasty river crossing. IT IS CRITICAL THAT THE BRIDGES BE BLOWN TO PREVENT OPFOR CROSSING THEM

Execution:
We will move in via helo and ground convoy (se annex A). We will blow the northern two bridges ASAP. The northern engineer squads will then reinforce the southern engineers and provide redundant demolition on the southern bridges. We will prep the southern two bridges to be blown. The first and second platoons, as possible, will prepare wire obstacles covering the east side of the bridges. Each of the first 2 platoons will send one recon team over the kanal to set up an observation post. (OP). We will let PzAufklBtl 5 pass through our lines. We will defend BB with the first and second platoons forward and third and fourth platoons will reinforce/counterattack on order. The first and second platoons will surveille the kanal and defend in sector. Boundary between platoons is xxx825. Second platoon CDR has authority to blow the bridges in his sector. IT IS CRITICAL THAT THE BRIDGES BE BLOWN TO PREVENT OPFOR CROSSING THEM. We will withdraw on order.

Attachments and detachments: Co HQ (pin11) Recon weisel, two ammo trucks. First (PIN 12) and second platoon (PIN 13), 3x 4th platoon recon teams each. Third platoon (PIN 14) all engineers, demo charges, one FO, MILAN section and MK 19 section. Fourth platoon (PIN 15), TOW sections and one FO, less 6 recon teams.

Command/Signal
•3./FschJgBtl 313 will be lead directly on Brigade radio circuit
•Support consists of two 5 ton trucks with logpacks (UMP please load each with 5x 1000 point logpacks). One will collocate with the mortar plt, one will resupply on order of the Co KDR. Medic, Maintenance and play no role, but are considered sufficient



Annex A: Movement
Helo: All helos go in at 07:00, nap of the earth.

2 helos with Co HQ and one FO in vehicles to 062823

2 helos with first platoon, one stinger wiesel, 3x 4th platoon recon teams, one engineer team, 2 demo charges and one platoon truck to 067827

2 helos with second platoon, one stinger wiesel, 3x 4th platoon recon teams, one engineer team, 4 demo charges and one platoon truck to 072817

4 helos with third platoon, one stinger wiesel, two MK19 teams with wiesel, 2 MILAN teams with wiesel, and one platoon truck to 062823

8 helos with 4 wiesels from 4th platoon and 4 TOW wiesels to 062818

Ground convoy:
In order, 4 x Fire support weisels, recon wiesel, 4th platoon FO, 4th platoon recon truck, mortar platoon, ,AA plt HQ, 2 stinger wiesel, 2 ammo trucks, 6 remaining platoon trucks, 2 x Engineer trucks.

John Monahan CDR, George Murphy 1st platoon, Chaim Krause 2nd platoon, Paul Csokay 3rd platoon, John Osborne 4th platoon, Cornel Bruecher Fire support, Peter Maidhof spare

[CO21] Each of your platoon's sections (all together: nine) has material for ONE "wire obstacle" (standard settings), which, however, means that this squad has to work 30 minutes (!) on this (rule: ROE defense only, engagement range set to zero, units not in defilade mode). You can employ two or three squads for one obstacle, lowering the duration to 15mins or 10mins.
In addition, each of your engineer sections can build a wire obstacle, too, and - as that's their job - they need only half the time (i.e. 15 mins.)

[CO21] According to the current situation, retreating paths 'A' and 'B' will be shifted south, so that 'A' uses the bridge at 074819, and 'B' uses the bridge at 073806. Thus you may destroy the two northern bridges at will and have to keep the two southern bridges open until PzAufklBtl 5 has passed your lines.
 

pichocki

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Hi, JohnM!

Sorry that you feel this way, and I won't argue with you, but I'll try to give some answers to some unexpressed questions anyway:

> Blue CO had no help in planning.
Yes, that's true, and you very much had my sympathy during that phase.

> play 20 questions with an umpire who tells me to ask and use my own S-2 and 3
However, I did not feel obliged to serve as your S2 nor as your S3 in that situation.

> As a scenario, it was a fiasco.
Sorry, but I doubt that. I offer to play this scenario every time against anybody as BLUE (which, of course, is easily said, because I now know the idea of the sceario... ;-)

> Blue situation was to conduct a unescorted, unprepped, unreconned airmobile assault
Yes, that was BLUE's mission, and in this case, extreme caution should be paid on whether the place you go is free of enemy, is full of enemy or whether you don't know.
The backbone of the scenario was that RED was in the same situation as BLUE was: he had to conduct this attack into the same terrain with the same lack of knowledge on enemy presence BLUE suffered.
The only difference was that RED could paradrop 12 vehicles at STARTEX, BLUE could fly in 18 vehicles at STARTEX (arriving a little after that), and RED could fly in another 12 vehicles at STARTEX+15 (arriving even later).

> assault onto a force twice it’s size
Wrong. RED had 12 vehicles in place at STARTEX, compared to 18 CH-53 helos for BLUE.

> with no intelligence and little arty support.
Oops! The same was true for RED.

> I will not participate as a CO for a very long time, however
... which I very much regret - really - and I hope to convince you of the opposite.

>umpire (...) who set up a situation that is improbable to the point of unplayability
I am very sad if you really think so and renew my offer to play this. I think even JamesS offered to play the scenario again with switched roles.


Regarding BLUE's opord:

> We will move in via helo and ground convoy
In the German Army, we distinguish between "erreichen" (occupy, no enemy contact to be expected), "gewinnen" (take, enemy contact possible) and "nehmen" (seize, enemy contact expected) - and in this scenario, at least for BLUE, it was to take or even to seize the objective.
Although I don't want to be too smart-assy, let me say: Opposite to RED, BLUE did not reflect in his plans the possibility of RED being somewhere present in the objective already, at all. BLUE's plan is very understandable and will most likely work - if BLUE gets into his objective - which cannot be seen as guaranteed in this situation: it plays 25km East of the main battle line!


Regarding the late time changes in the scenario:
> [CO21] According to the current situation, retreating paths 'A' and 'B' will be shifted south
May I remind of the fact that BLUE leaked the information on the bridges he wanted to destroy to the mailing list (thus to RED, too), and that after this the BLUE CO asked the umpire to "make some changes" regarding the bridges?


And now again to *my* personal lesson (hopefully) learned:
As I said before, it is not wise, to base a scenario on (however basic) an idea or concept that has to be realized by one team or both teams before the game to be able to succeed. I admit that after the initial blow, BLUE did not really have a chance to recover - except maybe by a total reoganization, reboarding the helos and trying a complete different approach - which virtually is undoable. I acknowledge that the mission for BLUE was *very* hard to accomplish, but I am still sure that it was possible.

p.s.: I will post this reply to the TacOps list, too.
p.p.s.: *Any* comments welcome.

Best regards, Pi (Ralf Pichocki).
 
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