Cuba S2 and Arty CO AAR VORTEX CPX (long)
This is the RED S2 and RED Arty Commander AAR for the VORTEX CPX, run by Jeff Gilbert DEC 16th, 2006.
It will be fairly detailed and long as we have had newbies on the
team as well as on the list recently and as this CPX was a great
example for how to work the details might help.
Scenario: Cuban BDE Intrusion into South Africa on Map 783 (30x6km; dl at
http://www.tacopshq.com/Maproom/index.html#anchor4836993 ), if you only want to take a look at
http://www.eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/cuba_map_overlay.html
Replay files:
http://www.eventfoto.com/privat/mil/dls/cpx_replays.html (2nd below my special section)
BLUE (SADF) team:
Frederik Scheuer (DE?)
Paul Czsokay (AT)
RED (Cuba) team:
John F. Monahan (US), CO + Reserve BN
Matt "Rattler" Ohlmer (DE), S2+Arty
Henk Stoffers (NL), YELLOW Axis BN
Dennis Huff (?), BLUE Axis BN
Tim A (?), RED Axis BN
George (?), TANKS BN
Bernard Cousin (FR), Planning Aide and much missed in actual game
Ken (?), dropped due to taking a suicide pill after a DGI visit :->
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CONTENTS:
1. Planning
2. How it Went
3, Lessons Learned
4. Stuff for Discussion with respect to the TacOps engine
5. Personal remarks
1. PLANNING
I came in a bit late into the team, but nevertheless we had 5 weeks planning left before STARTEX.
CO was already decided, and was given the job of S2 Staff Officer. The material I received was a bit desorganized and ambiguous, so my first job was to parse all what we had got and pester High Command with some clarification requests that were eventually answered.
What we had on our hands was to penetrate with a Cuban BDE ( 2 BTR60 BNs, 1 BMP1 BN, 1 M72 BN) into SouthAfrican territory from EAST to WEST over various rivers (that could be bridged and forded at some places where the rest was not crossable due to impassible terrain) to a depth of around 27 km within 3 hours.
We had some INTEL about enemy force composition courtesy to our Mozambiquian Brothers (basically we were facing a BN+ in the rear of the map, a hastily composed militia type force in the middle and some border posts close to our Assembly Areas), and Bernie Cousin had molded those into some on-map potential OOBs. We knew that visibility at STARTEX was to be 1200 mtrs only, and that only BLUE had limited thermal sights. Furthermore both arty and vehicle smoke would defeat
any thermals.
We had a lot of arty that was supposed to be supplied by log packs, so one of my first jobs after we knew our setout forces was to calc how long we could sustain fires with different mission and tubes combinations. As a result we realized that the 122MRL rockets we were given were quite useless while consuming lots of ammo, and that only by leaving this one out of our plans we could sustain fires (initially we had planned to use mainly smoke) over a large part of the three hour scenario (for anybody interested on how I calculated this,see:
http://www.eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/121606_arty_analysis.html )
Next job almost equally important was to provide a terrain analysis (never managed to finish that and Bernie contributed all essentials in this respect so this moved to backburner), an enemy OOB threat analysis
(
http://www.eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/121606_enemy_oob.html ),
and both enemy and friendly team commander profiles (censored) which I threw out as fast as possible despite heavy spousal unit CB fires at the time consumption... :->
Another thingy we were worried about initially was the fact that
umpire wanted to run the CPX with the "Firing Units Always Spotted" preference turned ON and that enemy could simply by disabling scrolling spot our arty and send out airstrikes after them, which in turn meant we would have to be on the move all the time with the majority of our assetts.
About half of our team was quite participative in this planning stage with lots of comments and ideas crossed, but from Ken (later dropped), Tim, Dennis and George we heard nothing (Tim and Dennis got more active later as game day got closer).
SIDENOTE from soapbox and the heart: This is an important issue, I was quite frustrated about not hearing anything from so many team members until game day, you dont know where you stand (and it had a lot of influx on the actual game as I will comment on later), many of the actual maneuver commanders didnt participate at all in dry runs and only a few in planning to a certain stage, this attitude resulting in the majority of our hickups during game.
In general over 10 years CPXing I have realized that for some reason the more time for planning is availiable the less participative ppl become, probably because they think "Bah, there is still sooooo much time left, I will catch up later...."
MY ADVICE TO UMPIRES:
1. Facilitate decision for players whether to participate and on which side by advising on the degree of planning involved, e.g. SKETCHY, DETAILED or EXTENSIVE, so that players can make up their mind whether they will be able to cope.
2. Dont give more than 2 weeks for planning, the effect will be surprising as you are to get better results due to the time pressure.
MY ADVICE TO PLAYERS: SPEAK UP about what you expect and what you can contribute, drop put if you see you cannot handle what is thrown at your team. CPXes are a team effort and by joining you assume some degree of responsibilty in making this an enjoyable event for everybody. In case of asymetrical missions or attackers usually heavy planning is involved, and if you are too lazy too get organized or even read your emails for a week or so it will be hard for you to follow and stay in the picture just by the sheer load of information dropping onto you that the others already have evolutioned into understanding.
Not acknowledging receipt of OPORDS, OOBs or direct requests within reasonable time (36 hours) is treason to your team members because it introduces a lot of friction, even more so if/when you dont have a clue of what the team effort is about on STARTEX.
MY ADVICE TO COs: If a player starts out or becomes irresponsive and is not contributing or reacting to acknowledgement requests, drop him (as Rikki told me once its more diplomatical to move him "to reserve" :-> ). You spoil your own teams planning effort and the actual game fun if you find yourself with players that are not willing or able to implement commanders intent on game day, better to run with a few
dedicated than with a bunch of lazies.
END SIDENOTE, stepping off soapbox.
Our CO had a plan ready: We would concentrate forces on a two axis advance and smash right through the enemy under smoke cover, wherever possible bypassing anything we would find for sake of speed.
This formed into an initial OPPLAN
(see our map overlay at
http://www.eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/cuba_map_overlay.html ):
2. MISSION:
We will attack westward into the Transvaal at dawn from Beit Bridge,
Mozambique into South Africa along Highway N1 heading toward Pretoria
to destroy SADF forces and create a bridgehead across the far western
river.
3. Commanders Intent:
Advance on two axis ( YELLOW and BLUE) to the west with one Combined
Arms battalion in each column. Lead Battalions will establish Route
Opening Detachments (ROD), one for each axis of advance. ROD to
consist of Reconnaissance, Engineer and Mounted (BTR) Infantry
assets. Helicopter to drop FOs and ATGM teams squads as they recon.
Helicopter will be used for reconnaissance, not fire support. They
will fire in self defense only. Columns will not delay to wait for
tanks. Advance at the fastest possible rate until we secure a
bridgehead over the river vicinity Wambad.
and we decided to run a first test game where our CO would host and
run BLUE and Bernie, Henk and myself would run the BNs to test our
initial plan.
We discussed whether to centralize arty under one command (myself)
but on COs insistance left the mortars with the BNs in direct fire
support for the first test game.
This first test turned out to be a disaster from our Cuban POV: We
got congested on our advance on only two axis, stuck in minefields or
on bridges, got hammered by arty and took way too long to even cross
the first river. Arty wasnt responsive enough.
As a result, the TF composition was changed, the BNs broken up and
recombined and the plan for an airmobile part of ops developed.
In one more dryrun we proved the idea valid while still needing a few
refinements and our CO came up with the FINAL OPORD.
I post it here in full length as its a great example of what you
expect from a team CO in a CPX:
Cuban 1st Tactical Brigade OPORD 1-06
1. SITUATION:
The war between South Africa and Namibia has ground to a halt only 10
kilometers south of Windhoek as massive Cuban reinforcements take
over the fight for the overmatched Namibian Army. The SADF has
committed the bulk of its army in Namibia fighting the Cubans or
scattered throughout South Africa quelling internal unrest. This has
left South Africa's Northern and North-Eastern frontiers almost bare
allowing our Cuban High Command to secretly move three brigades to
take advantage of this opening.
a. Enemy Forces. Overview. The SADF border defense in this sector
is under the command of the 31st Veldt Commando Battalion
headquartered in Wambad vicinity 225399. Despite its auspicious
name, the 31st Veldt Cdo is a reserve formation of second class
troops and equipment. The battalion's main supply depot is located
in a wooded area North of a small town vic 202419 and is guarded by a
platoon of light infantry and light AAA. There are two other minor
supply depots near Neboomspruit and Thorndale. Our operatives are
still attempting to locate them. Your avenue of attack only contains
the 2nd Company, 31st Veldt Cdo, a motorized-infantry unit (truck &
LUV borne) headquartered in Thorndale vicinity 394400. The company
has three infantry platoons, a weapons platoon of light mortar and
minimal AAA. Only one infantry platoon mans the border checkpoints
at a time and rotates out weekly.
b. Border Forces. Approximately a reinforced platoon dismounted
ground troops of reserve quality only armed with small arms and a few
light to medium machine guns and a scattering of infantry anti-tank
rockets. There are three (3) identified border outposts posts and
are located at 453396, 455391 and 444412. Additional border
strong-points are believed to be under construction but no further
information is available at this time. Each post has one or two
infantry teams with their trucks/LUVs within 500 meters. There are
unconfirmed reports that the SADF has been deploying mixed minefields
near the border.
c. Crossing Points.
(1) Bridges. All bridges in this sector are fairly weak with no
more than 70t max load. It is not believed any bridges within 15 km
of the boarder has been set for demolition.
(2) Fords/Crossings. Although mostly shallow, the identified ford
crossings would require vehicles that are amphibious. These fords
could will provide excellent bridging locations for alternate
crossing locations for your heavier vehicles.
(3) The SADF has limited bridge destruction capability. There are
mines but not within 300 meters of the border.
2. MISSION:
We will attack westward into the Transvaal at dawn from Beit Bridge,
Mozambique into South Africa along Highway N1 heading toward Pretoria
to destroy SADF forces and create a bridgehead across the far western
river.
SETUP:
We will deploy east of the far east river in covered positions.
Task Organization:
Cuban 1st Tactical Brigade:
1 x Bde HQ (PIN 21) Assembly Area grid 4739
First Combined Arms Battalion (Call sign YELLOW) COMMANDER Henk (PIN
22)- Axis YELLOW. 2 BTR Company, 1 BMP Company, two engineer squads
in BTRs, one MTK2 Mine clearing vehicle, 1 reconnaissance Platoon, 1
BMP Battalion support Company(-) 1 AT Platoon, two Truck Cargo _ M
ton, 1 infantry command and observation post. Assembly Area east GRID
4737
Second Combined Arms Battalion (Call sign BLUE) COMMANDER Dennis (PIN
23)- Axis BLUE. 2 BTR Company, 1 BMP Company, two engineer squads in
BTRs, one MTK2 Mine clearing vehicle, 1 reconnaissance Platoon, two
Truck Cargo _ M ton, 1 BTR Battalion support Company(-), 1 AT
Platoon, 1 infantry command and observation post. Assembly Area east
of OBJ C
Third Combined Arms Battalion (Call sign RED) COMMANDER TimA (PIN
24)- Axis RED 1 BTR Company, 1 BMP Company, two engineer squads in
BTRs, one MTK2 Mine clearing vehicle,1 reconnaissance Platoon, two
Truck Cargo _ M ton, 1 BTR Battalion support Company, 1 AT Platoon, 1
infantry command and observation post, Assembly Area east of OBJ A
Tank Battalion (Call sign Tank) , COmmander George (PIN 25) three
tank Companies, one engineer squad in BTRs, two MCV IMR2M Obstacle
clearing vehicle, four empty BTRs, four VLB MTU72 AVLB Bridging
vehicles one infantry command and observation post Assembly Area GRID
4739.
Reserve Battalion (Call sign Reserve) COMMANDER REDCO (PIN 21)- Axis
BLUE 1 BTR Companies, one Engineer PLT, 4 FOs, 1 Anti aircraft
Battery, four VLB MTU72 AVLB Bridging vehicles. 5 helicopters.
Assembly Area GRID 4839
Artillery Battalion (Call sign ARTY) COMMANDER RATTLER (PIN 26)- All
Airstrikes, 1 122 self propelled Battalion, 1 122 MRL Battery, 1 220
MRL Battery 3 Mortar Companies, one truck Battalion with logpacks,
four VLB MTU72 AVLB Bridging vehicles. Assembly Area vicinity GRID
4738
Commanders Intent:
Advance on three axis (YELLOW, RED and BLUE) to the west with one
Combined Arms battalion in each column. Lead Battalions will lead
with Recon and BTR units. Airmobile Assault at 07:00 on IRIS by
Reserve battalion. Hinds will be used primarily for reconnaissance,
not fire support. Columns will not delay to wait for tanks.
Advance at the fastest possible rate until we secure a bridgehead
over the river vicinity Wambad. SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE. Do not stop
to clear town or other defended points except OBJ C. Use little
smoke, it blocks our vastly superior firepower. I anticipate a
decisive battle with the enemy reserve between phase line RED and
phase line YELLOW. It may be mobile or a river defense. Counter
battery efforts are my single highest priority. I will reinforce
success!!! Not failure.
Execution:
The three Combined Arms Battalions will advance along their
respective axis at maximum speed. Swim across as needed, do not wait
to throw bridges. Axis YELLOW is the main effort and will receive
priority of support. Reserve Battalion will follow on Axis Blue,
Artillery on Axis Yellow. Bypass dismounted infantry after
destroying their vehicles. DO NOT STOP TO ENGAGE DISMOUNTED INFANTRY
except at OBJ C, BYPASS THEM. Avoid engaging infantry at ranges under
700m (Eryx range 600M). Reserve Battalion will conduct a Company
sized airmobile assault Vicinity OBJ IRIS starting 0700. All
Battalions will detach 2 ATGM teams to the reserve BATTALION,
vicinity GRID 4839 (done in OOB). Artillery will fire heavy rockets
on SADF artillery location at 07:00 (done by umpire). Artillery will
fire heavy prep on OBJ C at 07:00.
Specific instructions:
Bridges will be recovered as the last vehicle crosses. Bridges will
normally need to be deployed in pairs to fill the 200 meter rivers.
Bypass dismounted SADF infantry whenever possible. Try to stay 800
meters away from possible enemy positions (ERYX range 600 Meters).
Maximize combined Arms overwatch. Overwhelm the piecemeal enemy with
fire, each Combined Arms battalion is equivalent to his entire
reserve. Tank Battalion will pick up infantry with tanks as we lose
armored personnel carriers. Reserve company BTRs are allocated to
all Battalions. Deploy into platoons before river crossing. Cross
bridges with only one platoon per turn. Combined Arms battalions
keep type companies together as possible. Push hard, "Even a
victorious army has casualties".
Signal - Channels #tacopsred, All Commanders will set their nickname
to their Call sign. Report passing phase lines and capturing
objectives.
Issues:
How many players will we have?
- If 7 then 1 BRIGADE Commander, 3 Combined Arms Battalion Commander,
1 artillery battalion Commander, 1 S-2, 1 Reserve Battalion
Commander.
- If 6 then no S-2. Artillery officer assumes S-2 duties)
- If 5 then no Reserve Battalion Commander. Brigade Commander assumes
Reserve Battalion Commander duties.
With the plans and the jobs decided (Bernie had let us know that he
was not availiable on game day) CO handed out the OOBs to the players
so that everybody could split them down and deploy in his AA, but
apart from Dennis nobody did so within 48 hours (Tim at least let us
know he had no time but the others didnt even ack receipt). CO had
ordered me to do the work as a backup in the background, so when the
time was up we had them ready.
With permission from CO I requested umpire to accept a pre-setup .tac
file from us on the reason that with such a large force and the
problems at crossing points we would not lose too much time at
STARTEX for everyone to give orders and set target priorities (BTRs
targeting vehicles instead of inf, ATGMs targeting tanks) which would
have been impossible to do with exported OOBs (export would also have
set our log packs to zero again to be filled up manually by ump
before STARTEX).
Permission was granted so I set to work it out and after a few tries
and uncounted hours had a setup ready that would not have us clog up
in the initial river crossings and guarantee a smooth CPX start even
if ppl came in late.
Once having this out the only things to finish were the .names file
for the map (for OPSEC reasons and to faciliate inter-team comms and
calls for fires we had assigned 170 BPs all over the map, basically
one in each square), finish our final overlay and pack a briefing
package for eventual reserves that would have to get to speed
fastest, then we were set to go.
2. HOW IT WENT
At STARTEX most everybody was present except Henk who had announced
he would arrive late, so CO took Axis YELLOW forces.
I had a checklist prepared on final issues and reminders which I
posted to a separate IRC channel for everybody to read and soon we
were underway.
First, from a tech POV this was smooth as can be, great job umpire!
Unlike others I have seen other CPXes run smoothly as well (incl some
of mine), but this one was nearly perfect and we were instantly
submerged in a strainous 1 min turn exchange that I think ran at a
1:3 relation to RL incl all pauses, one of the best ratios I have
ever seen.
Initially things went as planned: We crossed in the center and south
and had the known enemy forces under control there rapidly, but our
first round Rockets on enemy arty failed in turn 1 as it had been set
with accuracy zero. I could compensate a bit with my own 220 rockets
2 minutes later and a rec on airstrike but then botched it in turn 7
when I had forgotten to correct the targets for our 3 follow up
airstrikes that went for the logpacks instead for the battery, still
it was quite successful as we took out 4 of the 6 tubes.
After about turn 10 I realized that we were saving ammo in a much
bigger way than I had anticipated and so could use the Rockets again
after resupplying them, this time targeting the 2nd battery at around
minute 25, another success in combination with some airstrikes.
As I had all hands full as arty commander to coordinate fires and get
my units on the move to follow our advance I cannot comment on the
overall aspects of the game as I only focused on my stuff mainly, but
apart from that we followed the plan successfully basically I still
recall some hickups of interest:
- At STARTEX umpire granted us some bridges in the north which was
counterproductive in a way that neither Commander RED (northern) Axis
nor I as S2 had anticipated: The units had initital orders to swim
the ford in our .tac file (which took them 7 minutes in our tests),
but as they now found the bridges in the way, arriving all more or
less at the same time, they got stuck and it was not until minute 30
that umpire magic-moved them, so we basically lost our thrust
coordination between axis as they were 20 minutes lagging behind our
other forces.
- TANKS commander had not understood that we needed to bridge the
fords below BLUE (center) axis in two lanes and that his bridgelayers
were required for that, didnt happen until ENDEX despite alerting him
various times to the fact.
- BLUE axis commander got stuck in a minefield and allowed the better
part of 2 coys bunching up there and got hammered, also he - contrary
to commanders intent that was to bypass where possible - later
engaged in a town fight in HOTEL and cleared it out losing units big
time.
- CO was overwhelmed with running his air assaults plus the YELLOW
axis forces and so got way stretched out leaving the recon teams
behind that could have spotted way ahead the ambushes that YELLOW
later ran into. Also he didnt have time to clear the minefields at
ford E on his axis (2nd river) which lead to arty getting stuck down
there later when I attempted to close in on the lead units with the
low range mortars.
- Myself had big problems getting my supply train to follow once over
the first river: Because of the fact that my focus lay in the front
where the fires fell 10 km away form my actual units I didnt realize
until too late that I got stuck several times on minefields or
bridges and had to get magic moved as units wouldnt accept orders
anymore.
Partially this is due to an umpires mistake who set the minefields
basically to invisible which had the effect that we couldnt see them
despite being on top of them and had no clue why our units wouldnt
move until maybe two or three turns later when they suddenly appeared
on the screen (this happened various time and probably also was the
reason for BLUEs mishap)
2nd, as arty commander your view is far away from your units and you
only control them every 5 turns or so to see how they follow and to
correct orders, and usually in the heat of battle it might take two
times this to realize they dont move by which time of cause the
situation has developed in something unsolvable by player (units
report 170 hours e.g. to leave a bridge) after getting stuck e.g. on
bridges for reasons I still dont understand: My mortar or support
platoons always had 3 minutes spacing advancing to bridges, still
they would clog up within the 10 or 12 minutes I needed to realize
something was wrong.
Also the bridgelayers didnt work as anticipated, when I had to bridge
ford E (300 mtrs) there was no way to get the third bridge layer off
the bridge and all my units couldnt cross for 30 minutes.
Towards the end of game this really had me go mad and frustrated to
the point that I was about to throw it, as it was simply not possible
anymore to provide arty coverage for the front or to resupply my
tubes (all the magic moving eventually disrupted all my supply train
organization and I could not find the supply depots anymore in the 1
minute turns and 10 km behind the front, and when I finally found
them empty ones had mixed with full ones and there was no way to tell
without clicking at all of them). I sincerely apologize for my acid
remarks during this period to my teammates, I sincerely was at the
point of losing it (which resulted in umpire reporting to the other
side that "RED becomes unglued" as I could see from the transcripts).
Luckily this only took about 7 game minutes only or so and towards
game end we had caught track again of our plan and opted for speed in
smoke tunnels which would have allowed us to finish the job rapidly
with the decimated enemy as ammo was there plenty to smoke him until
ENDEX.
Overall a fascinating and interresting game that had me fully
consumed and was great tun, we figured in hindsight that with all the
hickups we were lucky to have won.
3. LESSONS LEARNED
- good planning and a pre-setup .tac file help a lot for a smooth
CPX. Just imagining the time it would have cost us to give the orders
before STARTEX makes my skin crawl, we would have got stuck all the
way right from start
- during planning phase insist on players acknowledging that they
have read and understood the plan, as basic and gross mistakes are
hard to correct while the battle unfolds. In our case I think that
not every player was at the hight of things at STARTEX.
- a final checklist helps, the idea to post one to a separate IRC
channel I think was a good one
- BDE or REG+ size is too big to run as attacker with only 5 players.
E.g. we never used our many engineer assetts to clear mines, neither
for the leading nor for the following units, and we paid a big prize
for that during the clog-ups and massacres that resulted from them.
Had Bernie been present we should have separated all engineer assets
under his command (he did great in all tests with respect to mine
clearing and bridgelaying and may well be called a specialist in this
respect) like we did with arty to liberate maneuver commanders from
this task and to assure that ways would have been cleared for the
follow up units and bridges laid and recovered. Also CO should be
free to look at the big picture and not run any units whenever
possible, in our case this would have probably prevented the BLUE
axis disaster in the mines and the town.
- Minefields if used should be visible at least 100 mtrs, the way
they were set they were not visible under the markers as units would
only stop right on top of them.
- More than 2 forced river crossings is too much IMHO for a TacOps
scenario of only a few hours. To cross a river under fire takes a
long time and to do so several times on a distance of 27 kms is out
of scale for just one CPX
- use the names files and overlays: I received the majority of calls
for fires by coordinates, which takes a long time to resolve in the
short turn times. Had we addressed them with reference to our BPs
("Smoke north of BP 67") this would have been much easier as I would
not have had to look up the digits in IRC every few seconds
(memorizing 4x 6-digit coordinates at one glance you tend to forget
whether it was 435412 or 453421 that was called for, and the constant
changes between TacOps and IRC take a lot of your precious time,
especially when the coordinates have long scrolled out of sight in
IRC)
- Dont voluntarily play S2 more than once a year: You will suffer
from burn-out syndrome faster than you might believe and the damage
due to friction with spousal or attached units might take some time
to fix... :->
4. STUFF FOR DISCUSSION WITH RESPECT TO THE TACOPS ENGINE
Here some things that I think should be addressed in a discussion on
the list or by the Major:
- It would be great to have a way to discern empty from full log
packs without having to open them, either by symbol or by mouseover
or by right-clicking
- I think it might be about time to advance the import/export feature
to a new level: I know it has never been intended to be used to set
up CPXes, but as far as I see this has become its main use as every
CPX I can recall over the last years relied on it at least partially.
In a first step one column more would carry ammo of logpacks on map
when transferred, currently the logs are reset to zero every time and
the umpire has to set them to the desired levels manually before
STARTEX (in our case I think there were over 70 in total, quite a
tedious work). Alternatively the default for log packs should be 5000
instead of zero as this already would save a lot of work in the
majority of cases. Last a feature to maybe set all seleceted logpacks
to a copied load (like SOPs) would solve this problem.
In a 2nd step it would be really desirable to have exported OOBs
export the target priorities and SOPs set of every unit, again to
shift work from just before startex and connected to host to the
planning stage of a CPX
Optimally an exported OOB would also include any orders given, but I
can imagine that is a lot to ask for...
- From what I have now experienced during the dry run testing and the
game, I think the engineering part of TacOps doesnt follow the basic
conceptual layout (I suspect the reasons are in the specific wishes
the major had to address for his mil contracts, but I still want to
mention it):
A lot of micromanaging is asked for bridging, e.g., and I dont see
the reason why it cannot be addressed like all the other units: In
order to bridge a 300 mtr river I have to not only run the layers to
the ford, but also to withdraw after the 2nd one deployed in order to
allow the third one to deploy....? This is not intuitive and I would
expect that if I sent a platoon of 3 bridgelayers in one marker there
and order deployment it would simply span the river after a given
time. I do not understand why three bridgelayers cannot operate from
one terrain cell without removing one first, as I think in the
conceptual 100x100 mtrs there would be enough space for one to
conceptually get out of the way of the others.
Same with getting stuck on bridges: While I understand the idea
behind it (too many vehicles overload or block themselves) I have the
feeling there should be better solutions to unsolve such a situation:
Either the bridge could simply break (in case of overload) and the
non-amphibs lost, but the rest at least would be able to be addressed
again, which currently is not the case. Or maybe units should be
allowed to be removed from the bridge by orders (maybe just go
backwards?) or sticking times should not be so long (hours to cross a
bridge is not realistical even under the described situation). Best
would be to have units ***automatically*** stop before crossing a
bridge and a button that would specifically order them to "Cross
Bridge", as this would leave the responsibility to order this in a
common sense way instead of leading to the unresolvable clog-ups.
Just some thoughts to start a discussion...
5. PERSONAL REMARKS
Thanks everybody for a great CPX, it has been fun and maybe we should
attempt to replay it with us as SADF, I think Cuba would miserably
fail in the same setup (of cause, replaying as Cubans we would win
again... :->).
Special thanks to Jeff who did a great job as first-time umpire, to
our CO who excelled in planning and motivation, to Bernie who we
really missed during game for engineers ops, to Henk who did a great
jobs w/o recon teams to destroy the major forces of enemy, to Dennis
who took his disasters as a man and made me stay on when they hit
me, to George who reminded me its just a game - two-lane-bridges or
not... :-> . And of cause many thanks to our esteemed opponents for
letting us win...:->
Rattler