CM Black Sea - Beta Battle Report - US/UKR Side

[Vinnart]

Love the map in post 72.

+1. That must have taken some time making that with the grid and all since I don't think the editor alone has that capability.

[Mord]

Ha! I got those beat. Wait til you see the new Sniper Teams in my next AAR post!

Pretty please?

Mord.

[pnzrldr]

Good report, like it very much. One thing though: your pictures are very wide - wider than my screen at 1440 pixels. That means that I have to scroll left & right. For pictures that's no problem but reading blocks of texts is really, really difficult when you can not see the right end of a line and the next lines beginning on the left at the same time.

Was wondering about that. Wanted to get the map out at a large size, and then sort of figured the splash screen with all text on it deserved a bit of a blow up too. Will limit width to 1600 in the future, and try and keep most at 1280 or 1024. That work?

P.S. You need a bigger monitor! I have (the components for) a new rig enroute to my house now - Black Friday rocked for me! Will get myself another wide monitor for Xmas. Just like in combat, no substitute for the right hardware!

[pnzrldr]

US Sniper team, following alongside US FO team, moving along southern slope of hill 347. These guys were committed to this move before I figured out how far forward the Russian MRC was going to come on the hill. Perhaps an ill fated move! Fairly good picture of their weapons, equipment, and uniform textures. Great work by the art team!

[kuri]

All pictures fine here on 1920x1080 resolution.

Great read pnzrldr, looking forward to the next one!

[John Kettler]

pnzrldr,

Snipers in Stealth ghillie suits, evidently. They're only visible this way when they're not being sought, such as when going to mess. They do look cool, though, in the shadows. One cover man, one suppressed sniper weapon (SCAR H?) and one without suppressor. Who's got the spotting scope? That Ukrainian ATGM guy would appear lucky, for I see no wound indicator to go with the airburst blast now knocking him down.

Regards,

John Kettler

[pnzrldr]

Oh, he is toast. I simply unselected his team for the photo opportunity. That team has more airbursts yet to endure too.

[kuri]

(SCAR H?)

A little googling and picture matching suggests the suppressed rifle might be a Remington MSR (Mk 21). Sadly game overview page does not specify the which sniper rifles are depicted in game on the US side except for the M 110 and M 107.

[grunt_GI]

This is great...keep it coming!

[akd]

A little googling and picture matching suggests the suppressed rifle might be a Remington MSR (Mk 21). Sadly game overview page does not specify the which sniper rifles are depicted in game on the US side except for the M 110 and M 107.

Yup, Mk. 21 PSR. There are 3 caliber options in game (7.62 NATO, .300 WinMag, .338 Lapua). There is also an M110 in the pics, but the texture still needs to be updated to flat dark earth rather than black.

[John Kettler]

kuri and akd,

It's very hard to tell what the stock looks like for the man on image left, but I see no way in which the man with the unsuppressed weapon can be carrying the Remington MSR, from which it visually differs drastically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_MSR

Regards,

John Kettler

[kuri]

Yup, Mk. 21 PSR. There are 3 caliber options in game (7.62 NATO, .300 WinMag, .338 Lapua). There is also an M110 in the pics, but the texture still needs to be updated to flat dark earth rather than black.

Took me longer than i'd like to admit to realise that Precision Sniper Rifle is a specific weapon system not a designation for to-be-revealed rifles of different caliber.

EDIT: The unsupressed rifle is M 110.

[Mord]

Thanks for the pics, pzrldr.

Mord.

[Michael Emrys]

and no commercials. definitely kills the history channel!

That's setting the bar pretty low.

But yes, a good AAR.

Michael

[Holien]

Pzldr,

Thanks for the situational map update and the post that gives your thoughts on the game.

The map looks great and really helps people to understand the action.

Hoping for more updates soon...

This is really selling the game I am looking forward to learning more about the modern weapon systems.

[Frankster65]

Superb DAAR Pzldr! Thanks for doing this.

[satan]

Hey Pzldr,

DO you have any tac. nukes in your artillery inventory?

Just thought you could release some so the battle finishes and then Battlefront will release the actual game.

PS: Thanks for the preview, can't wait for the tactical rumble with 2017 tech (itchy trigger finger).

[pnzrldr]

In Krichek, artillery rounds continue to slam home. As KPT Kovtun directed, the young Ukrainian Forward Observer diligently copied down the fire mission information and plugged it into his vehicle’s network device. As he was doing so, he directed the driver of the PRP-4 – essentially a BMP with extra sensors and radios in place of the weapons - to pull the vehicle forward slightly for a better view. However, as he was tapping in numbers on the screen, his gloved hand mis-keyed a digit, and he had to back out of the menu and start over. Suddenly he realized the armored vehicle was still moving forwards – he looked up startled, and realized they had pulled out from behind the cover of the barn that was sheltering them. “No Maxsym! We must back up...” he never finished the sentence. A burst of heavy 30mm APFSDS rounds slammed into his vehicle at supersonic velocity, shredding the armor of the lower left hull and ripping through the fighting compartment. The first burst was followed seconds later by a second, and then a third. All in all, nearly 25 rounds penetrated. Inside, the young observer never knew what hit him. The gunner leapt from the turret, and the driver was a second behind him. As the gunner hit the ground, another artillery round slammed into the roof of the barn, the shrapnel taking off half of his head as at swatted his lifeless body to the ground. The driver fled for his life, pursued by an airbursting 100mm round from the same BMP-3 that had killed his chief. Peppered with shrapnel, but still moving, he dodged between buildings and dove into the cover of a nearby house, pasty white and shaking.

Elsewhere in Krichek, other elements of the Ukraine Home Guards responded to KPT Kovtun’s orders, repositioning to better meet the threat. They were initially aligned as a perimeter defense, but with no immediate threat from the east, the KPT quickly responded, and despite the continual artillery fire, two BMP-2s rolled from positions looking towards the east, towards the west, seeking gaps between buildings that would let them scan the far bank.

Soldat Koval was scared beyond measure. A veteran of skirmishes against the separatists in 2014, he never imagined combat could be like this. Russian riflemen on the far bank had spotted his team’s Skif ATGM position and were pouring AK fire onto them. Koval and his team crouched low in their hole, as the rounds zipped and sighed past them and through the trees over their heads.

“Look!” cried Vasily the gunner.

“I see,” said Koval, “Fire at him!”

The Skif missile, popped out of its launcher towards the BMP-3 that had just rolled forward into view across the river. A split instant later it slammed harmlessly into a tree.

“Dammit!” he cried, “Reload!” Training paid off as Vasily stayed rigidly locked on target, Koval and his assistant flung off the spent casing and grabbed for another missile. The team rocked as the BMP planted a 100mm round against a tree a few meters to their front. Koval bolted on another missile canister in less than ten seconds –“Go! Fire!” he shouted, and the second Skif flew. The range was short, less than 300m and it popped up then immediately dove directly into the BMP, detonating against the lower hull. An instant later, a tremendous series of explosions rocked the vehicle, as first its onboard ammunition, and then the infantrymen’s ammunition in the crew compartment, spontaneously detonated. Koval and his team picked themselves up, awed at the result, as the resultant wreckage smoked at the bottom of a meter-deep crater. Koval gazed over at his assistant – “Ihor, your hand.” The dazed private looked down and saw blood oozing from a hole in his glove. “Come on, that isn’t the last of them. Reload, and then we will bind that up.” Another AK round zipped through the trees over their heads, unheard in the shock of the explosive violence.

[pnzrldr]

PdPK Tymoshenko spoke rapidly into his cell phone – sometimes old school command and control just worked better, and as the long-time commander of the air defense forces in this sector, he knew his assets closely. Moments later, the Tunguska air defense vehicle of his nearby gun/missile section pulled up onto the crest of the river bank, the eastern slopes of hill 347 bare in front of it. Russian infantry were still slogging unconcerned, but quickly across the wheat field towards the hill. A quick series of orders from the track commander brought the twin 30mm cannons down and into ground mode, and a moment later a two long ropes of blazing tracer rounds erupted from the machine, carving a swathe of dust and fragmentation through the wheat. Then through the trees the commander spotted a tank, rear on to his gun. Eagerly he shifted the gunner, but in their excitement the rounds flew long. They knew they had only seconds before one of the many vehicles managed to swing its turret around, but certainly this had to give them pause, as exposed as they were. The commander told the gunner to reengage the tank, even as he directed the driver to prepare to back down to avoid the inevitable return fire.

LT Upham huffed, as he dropped into the turret of his Bradley after climbing up the front and eschewing the rear crew door. He had unsnapped his combat vest and clipped it behind the turret hatch – accessible, but off of his body armor, which was now ‘slick’ to allow him rapid egress from the Bradley in the event of an emergency. He clipped in his headset – as a scout he wore an integrated headset rather than Combat Vehicle Crewmen (CVC) helmet – and told his driver to back up and then roll forward, and down the hill. “Sir,” his gunner said, “Gotta tell you something. We still got the Javelin in back.”

“What? Oh crap. How the hell... never mind.” Keying his mike:

“Outlaw Two-Tree, Outlaw One-Six, over.”

“23”

“See anything?”

“This is 23, we know where one is, but haven’t got it pinned down yet. Placing icon now.”

“Roger, I see it. Hey, I still have your Jav. Pull back and down a bit, and I’ll move to your fix with it. If he pops up I want you to nail him.”

“Roger, it’ll take us a sec to back down.”

This conversation occurred over the radio while Upham was simultaneously scanning as his driver pulled the track forward along the edge of the hill.

“Okay, driver stop here a sec. Gunner, he has the icon in that copse right... there. Scan it and see what you can make out.”

“CONTACT, BMP!!!” LT Upham was suddenly jarred by the strident voice in his headsest. It took a second to recognize that it wasn’t his own crew, but his heart was pounding nonetheless – one of his scouts was in contact.

“This is Outlaw, One-Six, roger, who and where?”

“This is Hellcat Tree-Tree-Golf, my direct front 800 meters. Engaging, out.”

Hellcat 33 was the Battalion Bradley Master Gunner’s truck. A long-time Cav Scout, SFC Bagby had volunteered to fill out the understrength scout section for this mission, and MAJ Abrams (his boss) had agreed. Now he was apparently on the ground, and his gunner had spotted an enemy vehicle and was engaging with his Mk19 automatic grenade launcher. The Mk19 is an extraordinarily versatile weapon. At first blush, it seems like a souped up M-203 or M-320, the over/under grenade launchers fitted to the M-4 carbine. However, the Mk19’s 40mm grenades fly further, faster, and carry much more punch. For this mission, and most in the Ukraine theater, the Mk19 was loaded with HEDP rounds, which contain both a shaped-charge armor piercing HEAT warhead capable penetrating up to 51mm of armor, with a fragmentation sleeve wrapped around it to kill or wound personnel. The Mk19 can spit these rounds out at nearly 325 rounds per minute, slower than a regular machinegun, but still several rounds per second. However, it is a relatively low-recoil weapon, making it suitable for mounting on standard machinegun pintles rather than in a dedicated turret with recoil absorbing mass or hydraulics. The low recoil is due to the relatively low velocity of the weapon – the rounds leave the muzzle at about 240meters per second – meaning that it is truly a grenade launcher and not a cannon. One can easily watch the rounds in flight on their way to their targets, and time of flight to its max range of 2000m is nearly 17 seconds. It takes training, experience, and a unique eye to be able to fire the Mk19 effectively at ranges outside about 500m where the loft of the rounds really begins to be significant. Fortunately, PFC Purtle had the eye. His first burst plunged down like a series of long fly balls to right field, bracketing the BMP-3 with explosions and rattling the vehicle with shrapnel. The second burst of fire struck home – Purtle saw at least three hits, and one looked really solid. The vehicle backed up and the PFC saw its smoke grenade launchers pop as his third burst was in the air. He also noted with fearful satisfaction that the turret never swung towards his truck, so perhaps they never spotted him. He fired another longer burst to hopefully keep the lethal beast from pulling back up, then told his driver to back up to mask them in case it did.

“Good shooting!” came SFC Bagby came over their internal radio net. “Next time though, announce it before you open up. I nearly ruined a good set of trousers!”

Note: SFC Bagby is visible at right front, in wheat field.

Leytenant Yuri Lysenko carefully raised his head again and peered over the parapet. He saw a puff of smoke from the treeline to his front, followed a second later by the report of a cannon shot, and he tracked the flight of the Russian BMP's shell, praying as it winged towards the base of hill 347. He exhaled loudly, as he saw the round splash just in front of the treeline, and caught a hint of movement as the Ukrainian BMP-2 backed down. After another moment, he paused, and then scanned off to the right, across hill 347 and the rolling fields beyond. Then he dropped back down and made another notation on his laminated mapsheet. He squeezed the handmike, stretched on its cord from the pack on the back of his radioman, and spoke again.

“No, I don’t know what happened to Two-Four in the town. I haven’t heard him either, your radio is good, over.”

A pause, as the other party responded.

“Yes, the Rosiys’ka company is up on the hill, but I don’t see anyone dismounted. But there is a truck at grid November-Kilo 017233. Suspected ATGM position. Fire mission, over.”

Another pause, and the LT nodded in satisfaction.

“Roger, standing by to spot.”

SGT Cox from Memphis, Tennessee could not believe what he was seeing. Not 60m away, just up the hill from the clump of brush that sheltered his three-man sniper team loomed a Russian BMP-3. The SGT had been just a young Private in the 1st Ranger Battalion during the last days of the US involvement in Afghanistan in 2015, and had seen scant combat. He had genuinely looked forward to this fight, and an opportunity to test his skills. Now he knew that if the enemy armored vehicle just lowered its sights a few degrees, his war was over. He was smart and a quick study, and it had seen him promoted to Sergeant after his time in the Rangers was up, and seen him through sniper school at Bragg. He knew the Russian track had a French thermal sight that literally could not miss spotting him and his team members if it was pointed in their direction. He sincerely hoped that someone would at least get out of the thing so he could get off a shot before he was blown to kingdom come. However, once it crested the rise it just sat there, as frozen as he and his two team members. SGT Cox slowly began lowering himself down to the prone, one slow inch at a time, and prayed for the opportunity to get to test his low crawl skills again.

[dan/california]

Not many people on either side are getting the chance to learn from their mistakes....

[c3k]

Excellent! More!

[AttorneyAtWar]

Get Cox the hell out of there Pnzr!

I am loving this so far!

[John Kettler]

pnzrldr,

Forgive me, but I'm mightily confused. Your description of the second Skif's flight path seems to suggest a pop-up followed by a dive, but I see absolutely no reference to such behavior on the actual manufacturer's page for the missile.

http://en.uos.ua/produktsiya/vooruzhenie-i-boepripasi/31-nosimiy-protivotankoviy-raketniy-kompleks-skif

The way it was described in your DAR, I thought it was something like a Javelin. Over and above that, the linked doc self-contradict in describing the guidance method. Somehow it's not MIL and is MIL.

(head explodes)

As usual, a rollicking account full of grog goodness. Very interesting to encounter a PRP-3, a wee beastie with which I was formerly professionally concerned. As in wanting to kill it. Also, I find your AFVs to be evocative. Brother George was, successively, Bradley CFV gunner, Bradley Master Gunner on a CFV, then a Scout Platoon Leader with Black Horse in the Fulda Gap before the Wall came down. Next, he was on Hummers armed with Mk-19s or Ma Deuces in Iraq. In a sense, your posts are giving me a glimpse into his world. Thanks!

Almost forgot. Okay. Forgot but belatedly remembered! The Tunguska shows conclusively that there are simple weapons which can defeat both ERA and APS. Last I checked, ERA wasn't immune to 30 mm fire. Therefore, I imagine it would simply remove at least one brick per impact on the ERA array.

Regards,

John Kettler

[czarejs]

Great read....as good as Red Storm Rising, with the added bonus of knowing that soon we get to play it as well. : )

[LUCASWILLEN05]

Sorry to say it is just a one off - can't remember if Bil or The Teacher built it. Bil I think. Nice to see here for illustrative purposes, but not something that will be included in game scenarios. Did Bil include it in his thread? I am not reading it so don't know. It was available to him, and I know he does extensive terrain analysis.

It would be a really great feature to have in future BF games so you can develop a good overall situational awareness more easily. Not essential of course, just a "very nice to have"