Debal'tseve Pocket -- Good topic for Map/Mission/Campaign?

[Capt. Toleran]

Trying to make sure I adhere by the no-politics rule here -- There is a lot of fighting around Debal'tseve lately due to that city, and ones adjacent to it, being major rail hubs and central to a lot of stuff going on in the area.  Apparently the Rebel side has been trying to close a pocket there.

 

I myself have thought about doing a map but know others here will get to it faster and do it better.  I would humbly suggest that it would make a good campaign for either side (or H2H), and there are multiple scenarios that could be set on this map or maps.

[Zveroboy1]

I have been following the news and watching the events there unfold too.

 

 

The fighting seems to take place in both Vuhlehirs'k and Debal'tseve. As far as I understand the situation, Debalt'seve is a road/rail hub linking the two separatists strongholds of Luhansk and Donestk. It is halfway between these two points and also alongside a NW-SE highway originating at Artemiv'k that the Ukrainians use for supply and reinforcements.

 

So it sounds like it could make for some interesting scenarios. But how do you portray the fairly low intensity fighting taking place there compared to the full blown war depicted in CMBS? And how do you represent the separatists? Until we get militias/irregulars in a possible future module, do we simply use lowish quality/equipement Russian units?

 

What the community could do is split the work between several mappers as you suggested. Maybe one could select an area of interest and then highlight it on a reference map here so we don't have two people working on the same sector.

 

 

For instance I have been working on a small map covering the area inside the red rectangle in the image below. I have no idea if any fighting occured there, but it looked like it could be suitable for a small fictional ME and the terrain looked interesting.

 

 

 

 

[Capt. Toleran]

I don't want to get dinged because of politics, but this map seems to at least highlight where some of the recent fighting is:

 

http://liveuamap.com/en/2015/2-february-terrorists-have-shelled-the-bus-with-grad-during?ll=48.63155;38.37009&zoom=8

 

Looks like some good possibilities for large-scale (or small) battles to the northeast of town, and also on the rail hubs in the smaller towns further south and to the west.

[Zveroboy1]

The thing is this is probably a good opportunity to get started with mapping. So why don't you pick a small sector, say no bigger than 600 X 600 to keep it manageable in a spot that you find interesting and see what you can come up with? As long as it is in the general area it should be fine really. I doubt we'll ever get to know where precisely the fighting took place. You hear about fighting in the town centre or at a railroad crossing, but which one? So just picking a likely spot is probably good enough imo. It could be a particular couple of blocks or a long stretch of road leading to Debal'tseve. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter as long as it is in the general area and it makes sense tactically to fight there.

[TacKLed]

I have been following the news and watching the events there unfold too.

 

 

The fighting seems to take place in both Vuhlehirs'k and Debal'tseve. As far as I understand the situation, Debalt'seve is a road/rail hub linking the two separatists strongholds of Luhansk and Donestk. It is halfway between these two points and also alongside a NW-SE highway originating at Artemiv'k that the Ukrainians use for supply and reinforcements.

 

So it sounds like it could make for some interesting scenarios. But how do you portray the fairly low intensity fighting taking place there compared to the full blown war depicted in CMBS? And how do you represent the separatists? Until we get militias/irregulars in a possible future module, do we simply use lowish quality/equipement Russian units?

 

What the community could do is split the work between several mappers as you suggested. Maybe one could select an area of interest and then highlight it on a reference map here so we don't have two people working on the same sector.

 

 

For instance I have been working on a small map covering the area inside the red rectangle in the image below. I have no idea if any fighting occured there, but it looked like it could be suitable for a small fictional ME and the terrain looked interesting.

Honestly mate, you portray it by making smaller scaled maps.

 

I think people need to stop thinking the "Battalion vs Battalion" mindset that is prevalent because of the WWII scenarios. Make it much smaller as a PLT vs PLT affair or if you want something more realistic, PLT vs Squad affair (which isn't really fun if you are playing a video game). So just make something that is smaller. The days of large scale of high intensity warfare are far from happening if you want to portray something realistic and relevant to the war.

[Capt. Toleran]

Sounds reasonable to me -- plenty of opportunity given that area to do Company vs. Company, etc.

[LUCASWILLEN05]

Not that there is anything wrong with battalion size scenarios or larger. We would see battles of that size frequentyl in 2017. However a Cmpany Combat Team sized engagemen is just as good for shorter, smaller engagements.

 

The Russian seperatists these days seem to have quite a lot of heavier equipment (assuming they are not actual Russians there, le us say "unoffically" To represent these Motor Rifle units are probably as good a choice as any (and you can always delete the vehicles if you don't want them). GHowever, I hope BF will produce militia type units for the Ukranians,and the Russian seperatists in he first expansion. And, of course expand the time frame allowingg for winter conditions.

 

Scenarios could then include actions during the Ukranian civil war and various incidents leading p to the outbreak of the full scale war in 2017.