L0ckAndL0ad

Sitrep @ 9:50 Alright, it's the final stretch! 1st Platoon has finished securing Obj Vasquez! Overall, starting from the entry point, there were no enemy units at all. Which is great, because 1st Platoon has suffered enough already. 2nd Platoon has finished securing Obj Rick! There were also very few enemies during the assault. I suspect that most of the enemy southern force have died at Obj Morty. Was there something in USMC MOUT docpub/manual about defense that said you should not have lots of troops in forward positions? They are needed there only to force the enemy to deploy his forces earlier and to stall him. Oh well. There's a lowland area to the north of 2nd Platoon, called "Green Zone". I will send a couple of squads there to keep increasing the pressure on the Objs Phelps and Jones from SE direction. 3rd Platoon is doing great so far. But as I suspected, there are too many buildings on the southern side of the road, and I need additional manpower to clear them. For that, I'm deploying a smokescreen to let one more squad move across the road. Additionally, I will move up parts of the 1st Platoon there to relieve defensive line (overwatch/BoF units), which will allow the 3rd Platoon to continue moving as a whole unit. LAR Platoon took 5 WIA casualties storming the compound I talked about earlier. Damn hand grenades are deadly. This is totally my fault, because I've failed the fire & maneuver principle. I was not firing at the building. I was relying on my troops to fire by themselves upon contact. Very dumb on my part, especially after I specifically said that "now I'm free to hose this house with lead". Yeah... Screenies time. 1st Platoon exercises "Top to Bottom assault" by moving over the roof into the adjacent building (just as in @IanL example from the previous page). There were no enemies there though, but still, just wanted to show you how I use this method myself: 3rd Platoon's adventures: LAR Platoon dismounts assault the compound: Some other enemy at Obj Jones tried to fire LMG at LAV-25's unbuttoned commander (but missed and will get whacked on the next turn): My current situation and imaginary (not 100% guaranteed to be accurate, as in with blown up AAV earlier) front line/line of control. 1st Plt is to move up to 3rd. 2nd to continue move north into the Green Zone:

Sitrep @ 9:46 Wow, I am amazed by what's happening right now. The way my Marines handle the firefights is just majestic! Even though quite a lot of them are regular level troops, and many being morally depressed (cautious or scared, borderline panic). 1st Platoon entered the Obj Vasquez compound without any resistance. No contacts so far. But their AAV was attacked by an RPG guy from the Obj Phelps. The RPG gunner missed though, and was killed by AAV's quick return fire. The vehicle commander was up on the turret, unbuttoned. 2nd Platoon meets very small resistance as it moves through Obj Rick. Just a couple of guys that were dealt with surprisingly well at a disadvantageous situation for my Marines (they were out in the open, while the enemies were inside the building and fired at them at almost black range. But the Marines killed both and then cleared the house completely. Remember that compound at Obj Jones that my LAR Platoon dismounts were about to storm? The one where I created additional entry points in the walls. I am specifically forbidden to fire indiscriminately at the buildings if I'm not fired upon from them. So I was not firing at the buildings, just made some holes in the walls, nothing dangerous, let me assure you. However, the enemy might not even be aware of this. He opened up early and fired at one of my LAV-25s. It was a near hit (not direct). Small damage to LAV's wheels, but everyone's OK. LAV commander was unbuttoned when the RPG hit nearby, and he immediately closed the hatch afterwards and directed the gunner to open up on the building with 25mm. And I think we've killed the guy who fired the RPG. Also, now I can freely hose the building with lead before entering. Now unto the most action heavy part. 3rd Platoon's adventures. Remember the plans I wrote on the previous page? So far I'm sticking to it. 2nd and 3rd Squads have reached the northern end of the planned route, the one with a burning car in the yard. They've uncovered multiple enemy groups and are in the middle of a vicious firefight. They are to stay there and will cover 1st Squad's movement. 1st and Assault Squads are crossing the road, moving to the southern side of the Obj Phelps. They will blow a hole in the wall and will proceed clearing the southern side of the Obj Phelps. It might take a while, and I'm afraid that I'd need additional manpower to be sent to the southern side, but we'll see. The fighting is going very well so far. I'm proud of my little pixeltruppen. 2nd & 3rd Squads of the 3rd Platoon exchange lead with the enemy:

Sitrep @ 9:43 So far so good. For the most part of the mission, my Marines were able to achieve local fire superiority upon enemy contact. Almost each time. I intend to keep this trend until the end of the scenario. The pockets of resistance here and there that I encounter are quickly dealt with, all thanks to Marine TO&E and target area isolation. I can target most of the buildings from multiple sides at the same time, and most of the outer ones with heavy weaponry. So as soon as the enemy is spotted, there's little chance for it to escape. Elements of the 3rd Platoon on point: Encounter with survivals of the previous firefight: In the mean time, 1st Platoon is seconds away from storming Obj Vasquez: 2nd Platoon assembled and lined up along the Obj Rick: Fire & maneuver of the 3rd Platoon continues: LAR Platoon's LAVs create an additional entry point in preparation before storming one of the Obj Jones compounds:

Sitrep @ 9:40 Mkay, so there's only 20 minutes remaining. What do I have to report? 1st Platoon is moving into position to storm Obj Vasquez. Obj Morty has been secured. 2nd Platoon is almost in position to start clearing Obj Rick. 3rd Platoon is swarming through Obj Phelps like little ants. LAR Plt keeps clearing the lowgrounds in the north. I'm confident that I'd be able to clear Objectives Vasquez and Rick in time. Unless 1st Platoon decides to go AWOL during the assault. Their morale is pretty low, so I keep the Squad Leader team where it is needed the most. Obj Phelps will most likely not be fully cleared by the end of this mission. 3rd Platoon had only two breaching charges. The first one was used at the initial entry point: One of the RPG guys at Obj Phelps survived and managed to run away: The swarm of Marines @ Obj Phelps:

That's a negative!

Nope! I'll announce the answer to our little quiz upon completion of this Nasty AAR! Sitrep @ 9:33 1st Platoon is making itself useful! Not only did they manage to spot an enemy sniper, moving to a new position, but they also skillfully supported 3rd Platoon's movement! I love when my pixeltruppen actually do what I wanted them to. Enemy sniper is a High Value Target in my book, so his location was targeted by a Javelin missile strike. And a focused fire by several vehicles. Time to surgically destroy another building. So 1st Platoon's successes... Right, right. I set them along the Obj Drake border to support 3rd Platoon moving into Obj Phelps (*smooth jazz tune slowly increases in volume*). 1st Platoon had to do just one thing, and one thing only. Watch out for any signs of trouble. The alleys across the bridge were still and silent, and only barely noticeable desert wind kept the men aware by throwing small pieces of sand into their tired, wary faces. - Come to me, darling, - Sergeant broke a brief moment of silence. - I ain't no detective, but I WILL get to you. Aren't you tired of running?, - he spit into the sand and continued thoughtfully gazing into the far reaches of the valley ahead. So, the 1st Platoon was watching. Watching.. And suddenly, the shots erupted, sounding from the other side of the bridge. An RPG team appeared on a rooftop, barely noticeable for the Marines. Then came more shots, and another team of armed men appeared on a distant roof. The Sergeant awoke from his short moment of quaint absence and started shouting orders to the men: - Two o'clock, three hundred meters, rooftops! Light them up, boys! One after the other, the 1st Platoon Marine teams, beaten but still very much trigger-happy, acquired their respective targets and started firing. The whole valley awoke with loud noises of a firefight. The Marines managed to successfully suppress the enemy, giving time to several distant vehicle crews to figure out they also have to tune into this chaotic rumble of death and destruction. Ahem.. Yeah, I got carried away a little. Wink. Wink. So.. 1st Platoon reacted good! More info to come.. Enemy sniper changes his position: 2nd Platoon awaits for the smoke screen before entering the enemy compound. Also, just a weird scene. 1st Platoon covers 3rd Platoon's movement:

Cool! CMSF1? I don't think so. I think direct fire airburst munitions were first introduced with BMP-3 (and later for some version of M1 Abrams) in CMBS. Any notes on LWR and other defensive capabilities? I remember in CMSF1 there were some strange armor stats for CV9035NL, having lower protection values compared to other (older) western IFVs.

Okay, I'll give you another hint (you all missed the first one apparently). They are both fictional characters (just like the others, duh) that are not directly related but have something strong in common.

Thanks! Actually, I completely forgot to include AAV crews into the calculations. Now I see I'm exactly at 80% threshold. But there's no way I'm gonna be able to keep it that way. BTW, nobody still managed to guess what Objectives Phelps and Jones refer to

Sitrep @ 9:31 So there were at least two guys in that ditch. The first one (who ran away) seems to have died on a previous turn. On this turn, his buddy tried to get another shot off, missed by a couple of meters. The AAVs cut him down with 40 mike mikes and M2s... 2nd Platoons have cleared 2/3 of Obj Morty. Here's the contested part (with like 5 dead dudes seen on the roofs) that the Marines are about to storm: In other news. Obj Drake is now fully secure! Do you feel secure? I'm sure 1st Platoon is filled with great joy by now. Somebody should tell them they gotta take the Vasquez also. And provide some overwatch for the 3rd Platoon. Speaking of 3rd Platoon. Here's a preliminary movement plan I came up with: Since there's little chance that 3rd might be able to reach Obj Jones in time, LAR Platoon, with only 4 dismounted teams, can try and grab one or two buildings there. Like these two. Should be enough to seal off the northern entrance to the village and provide some sort of control over it. Headcount tracker says I'm at 77% manpower. Which is below 80% required from me by the briefing. But this is MOUT. In MOUT, you should always expect at least 50% casualties. Overall picture:

Final piece of the puzzle. A picture and a video of the same CV9035NL with DAS smoke dispensers & LWR block visible. This event took place in Oirschot (Netherlands), June 1 2008. Same CV9035NL appears @ 1:00 minute mark: https://youtu.be/THbCwYpkL5E?t=59 So... it is in CMSF timeframe, folks! Looking at CMSF2 demo, neither M1 Abrams tanks nor the Bradleys have LWRs... ADDED LATER: There are 4 LWR sensor blocks in total, covering full 360 degrees. Position of two aft LWR sensor blocks on the turret can be seen on this photo:

Well, with some further googling, I came up with a solid confirmation. Here's pdf file from 2005 describing CV9035NL specifically which confirms both of my suspicions - the Dutch CV9035NLs that were built in 2008 had airburst and LWR features built in. http://www.limburgsejagers.nl/nieuws/42alg_200504_05.pdf The original is in... Dutch? I dunno for sure, but I gave it to Google Translate and received the following: Page 3 (written "12") presents two pictures ("Programmer and KEFs System" and "KETF targets") of how airburst actually works: The next page 4 (written "13") shows a picture of "Laserwarning threat display" and short system description: Photo evidence: Here's a 2008 photo of the Dutch CV9035 with the same smoke dispenser pattern (single line of 5 canisters, that is distinct to Mk3) and LWR box: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CV9035.JPG

Yep! From your links: I've already spotted what I think are Laser Warning Receivers:

The only thing I personally dug up with google is this article http://fighting-vehicles.com/cv9035/ Which talks about Mk3 model (I suppose that's the CV9035NL we have in the game) in terms of the following game related features: SAAB soft-kill APS programmable ammo The question is.. if true, what year does this correspond to?

Hello everyone! One of my favorite vehicles in CMSF was CV90. There's little info, but maybe somebody else knows... ( @Artkin maybe?) The vehicle in the game is CV9035NL with Bushmaster III 35/50 gun. Does it have airburst-capable rounds IRL? And were they available in CMSF timeframe (2008)? I remember reading about this back in CMSF1 days, but now I can't find it. And how does it really compare in defensive qualities and features compared to other IFVs? Both in terms of armor, passive measures and active. APS integration (Iron Fist), from what I've read so far, is being talked about since 2016 only.. So outside of CMSF timeframe. Are there any other interesting things about this vehicle maybe?

Sitrep @ 9:30 3rd Platoon is as lucky as the 1st it seems. The route I showed you.. There are these trenches and canals that I can't control without populating them with infantry. I had many different vehicles on overwatch in the area, but it wasn't enough.. So the good old Murphy's law works again. The route I expected to be the most secure... wasn't secure. The front line that I held was broken & infiltrated in exactly the area I used for 3rd Platoon's insertion.. The results.. a destroyed AAV, multiple casualties, and a premature deployment of the 3rd Plt, which means the Marines now have to go even further.. And it's 30 minutes till the end of the mission. I don't think I'd be able to reach Obj Jones. Maybe with LAR Platoon...? But unlikely.. 3rd Platoon's AAV takes an RPG hit: The perp, running away, being chased by 40mm grenade explosions:

Sitrep @ 9:26 1st Platoon needs to clear one more row of buildings before declaring Obj Drake secure, but I feel like there's nobody there left. I'd be careful anyway. 2nd Platoon has cleared 1/3 of Obj Morty. 3rd Platoon is en route to Obj Phelps. LAR & Scout Sniper Platoons have nothing to report. One of the two Company HQ-assigned AAVs got stuck dead in the mud in the dried up creek @ SE corner. I ordered the crew to dismount and head to 2nd Platoon's position to treat the casualties. Wonder if I'd get the AAV as "killed" in the end during the scoring. It's mission killed and won't move anyway.. 3rd Platoon passes by 1st Platoon's AAVs that overwatch the Obj Drake: Elements of 2nd Platoon react to contact while clearing Obj Morty:

As I wait for my partner to send the next turn, I wanted to say a few words. First, huge thanks to @akd and @GreenAsJade for their outstanding work! I'm using @akd sound mod for greatly improved sound effects and @GreenAsJade's CM Helper (via Dropbox) to facilitate smooth PBEM experience. Thank you, people! It wouldn't be as great without your work! Second, I want to talk about building clearing procedures that I use. There are two general ways I execute an entry: No enemy contact. Hunt command with reduced range (200-300 meters max) and 360 firing arc. I suspect that Hunt makes units less visible/noticeable than if they were running, and more prepared to return fire than normal Move. That presents a problem - a team on Hunt order may stop when fired upon, and the area they've stopped could be exposed and deadly to stay on (example). Known enemy position. There are two ways to approach an enemy position (a building in our case): a) Using a covered route (that does not expose your assault team), b) Using a more direct route that makes you place the assault team in front of the windows. In either case, great amount of suppressive fire is required. When coming from a covered route, you can stop outside the house/room and use delayed attack so that your assault team throws in some hand grenades. But then it'll have to run inside, preferably. If you can't approach the target building from a safe direction, you'll have to run either way. But that's the problem. Running into a room with enemies is also very dangerous. Sometimes more than giving a hunt command (unit will stop right away). What is your preferred way of moving into the buildings? Sitrep @ 9:23 Marines of the 1st Platoon win a firefight against several enemy groups while clearing the Obj Drake. Only one team was moving into a new building and made contact across the yard, so all the other teams were able to respond with fire immediately, and from multiple angles. Also, 1st Platoon may be seriously battered and understrenghted, it's still alive and kicking enemy's arse.

Sitrep @ 9:22 1st Platoon, slowly but surely, moves forward to secure Obj Drake. Resupply is almost complete, though not without some quirks. 2nd Platoon got a new casualty the moment the first element reached the outer fence of Obj Morty compound... Nothing I can do about it. The route for 3rd Platoon's movement is still not secure enough, so I wait before committing them. LAR Platoon is on the move. I spread everyone out along the northern front, leapfrogging forward. Also ordered the LAV-25 crews to stick their heads out for a bit to check out the surroundings. The northern flank presents a dilemma. On the one hand, there's ~80% flat terrain, more suitable for mounted forces, and making dismounted recon elements very vulnerable. On the other hand, there are ditches and tree lines capable of hiding enemy infantry and AT assets. The ideal solution would be using LAVs on flat terrain while sending dismounts over ditches and tree lines, but that's not always possible due to some unique terrain features. So yeah, I kinda struggle to advance as quickly as I anticipated. Scout Snipers have reached the Point 37 near Hill 42 (SE corner of the map). I'm not 100% sure if I should send them further north to the low ground area, or keep them at Point 37 hill where they'd have better overview of the area. Enemy HQ combatant at Obj Vasquez managed to survive the Javelin strike! The fella lying next to him is supposedly the RPG-29 gunner. 2nd Platoon's being hit: LAR Platoon leapfrogs eastbound on the northern flank:

Sitrep @ 9:19 I've got two Javelin teams placed strategically at high ground in order to be able to quickly hit High Value Targets as they appear (also for better spotting). The room that the RPG-29 gunner appeared the last time in is the same room an enemy HQ combatant have run towards/into. So I ordered an immediate attack on that room with a Javelin missile. The room has collapsed. In other news, 1st Platoon got another casualty during resupply... 2nd Platoon is still facing opposition in the first line of houses near the trenches but is ready to move into Obj Morty any minute now. Enemy HQ spotted @ Obj Vasquez: 2nd Platoon receives fire from the buildings @ Obj Morty: Javelin attack on enemy HQ & RPG-29 position: 1st Platoon is trying to resupply during combat, but can't find a better place for it. There's a large ditch on the left side of the road, and no way to drive into the alleys on the right side. So the resupply has to be done right in the middle of the street.

In my current CMSF1 game, Syrian sniper managed to kill TOW humvee operator from 500-600+ meters in ONE SHOT _and_ remained undetected. I assume he was operating from the desert tiles (a mid sized hill), no woods or buildings. That's regarding the accuracy of what I think was an SVD shot at half-seen figure. Another enemy sniper in the same mission (I think...) operates from the buildings and killed quite a few of my Marines who were in the open. Also haven't managed to spot him yet. I've got my own snipers in that mission, but the enemy is too illusive to be targeted, so not even attempted shots for me so far.

Sitrep @ 9:16 Hmmm. I've got 45 minutes until the time runs out. This is that phase I'm sure many of us have experienced when you think you're not making in it in time and rush things, making it worse for yourself. I kinda have to deploy 3rd Platoon to its objective areas ASAP. But the direct route there isn't cleared yet. What do I do? This is the route I think might be relatively safe: LAR's LAV-25s roll over Hill 55 to support 1st Platoon: LAVs level the building with the RPG guy inside: RPG-29 dude @ Obj Vasquez is out again to ruin my Marines' day:

Yes, indeed. Sitrep @ 9:13 I'll keep it short and let the screenies talk. LAR dismounts kill 2 out of visible 3 enemy SF FO team (hand grenades FTW!): 1st Platoon's positions: fighting in the streets, flanking fire by LAV-25s onto hit&run RPG guy, one of the fireteams resupplies from the amtrack: Most of the 2nd Platoon is in the trenches by now. And we've got some enemy HQ pinned down @ Obj Morty:

Sitrep @ 9:12 Oh my.. Now the real chaos of war starts. LAR dismounts uncovered enemy special forces FO. 1st Platoon is in firefight against some AK & RPG dudes who do hit & run in the alleys. Fortunately, LAV-25s are there to fire on the northern flank. But the real meat of this story is with the 2nd Platoon. They got an RPG in their faces (after my semi-failed smokescreen rush) and uncovered SIX enemy teams, 4 on Obj Morty, two in the trenches. The ones in the trenches are dead by now (I think...). But the guys in the buildings & on rooftops are harder to target due to all the smoke.. LAR & enemy FO encounter: Chaos of war: 2nd Platoon edition

Yeah, I know there are some quirks with throwing smoke, but in this particular instance I used a dedicated team to do it. Originally, the team in question (4 men MMG team) had 360 arc. I gave them a Face order and a Pop Smoke order. They were in the building, first floor. Ordering them to Face while having 360 arc on turned them facing 180 in the other direction. Then they threw smoke. What I actually did wrong was that I did not wait for the next turn for the other team to run across the danger area. I gave them 40-45 sec delay instead. Which wouldn't be enough for the smoke to deploy properly anyway. So that's 100% on me, regardless.