MTNS OF ALLAH CAMPAIGN NOTES

[Erwin]

***********  POSSIBLE SPOILERS *************

Just completed the first mission (ELITE/WEGO).  Really enjoyed this.  Great map and interesting challenging situation with lots of options for a strategy.  I learned a lot about the very real challenges of handling Russian forces (in the game).  But, a few comments/issues (see below).

Result:

CHECKNYA

65 OK

144 KIA

90 WIA

1AFV KIA

3 VEH KIA

RUSSIA

370 OK

43 KIA

87 WIA

1 AIR DRONE KIA

I could have CF'd earlier to get a victory with less friendly casualties but decided to play on to completion to see what happened.  Got a TOTAL VICTORY with about 5 minutes left on the clock.  I considered my Russian casualties were unnecessarily high - primarily due to shockingly bad arty and (especially) air strike accuracy.  If this is a realistic/accurate depiction of Russian arty and air strike capability, the Russians are in a lot of trouble today.  However, can one really believe this?

Comments: The additional arty and air support in this version of the mission were a welcome and imo realistic addition.  One doesn't need all the infantry now.  In fact imo this mission now probably has at least two companies of infantry too many.  I suspect that with less infantry, the troop density would be lower leading to more care and less casualties.  It gets tiresome to move so many inf units when only 20% seem to needed at any one time.

The 81mm mortars were disappointing re accuracy and effect.  It was bad to select more than one mortar per arty attack as each mortar insisted on using its own spotting rounds(!).  That really wasted a lot of ammo.  Surely this is not the way it is in RL?  I used the 81mm for foxholes.  But, with about 230 rounds between 6 on-map tubes - only a few dozen rounds actually landed usefully on target. 

The 122mm guns were also inaccurate - caused many friendly casualties - one really doesn't want to have friendlies within 150m+ of target.  But, even if a few landed on target they were devastating to the enemy.  The 122mm was invaluable in bombarding the defenders making it easy for small numbers of inf to mop up.  But with only one battery of 6 tubes it made the attacks very linear as one had to wait for the arty to become available again before proceeding.  I wish the 122mm had been divided into 2 batteries so that one could have two bombardments going simultaneously.  They were great for destroying the hilltop defenders in their trenches.  However, the 122mm was relatively ineffective vs the defenders in the village buildings.

The air support was, in the immortal words of President-elect Trump, "a disaster".  The three drones were wonderful to spot enemy locations for arty and air support.  But, some of the airstrikes hit places I couldn't see, or just cancelled themselves.  When one of my Air FO's was KIA, and his radio operator was still alive, his drone kept giving information, but could not be controlled or cancelled.  You would have thought that without an air controller, the air strike would automatically cancel.  But, no...  About 6 minutes later his airstrike still went ahead (killing some friendlies who in the meantime had captured the objective by themselves).  As only Air FO's can call in airstrikes, the loss of one of the two Air FO's was serious.  I ended up with aircraft with quite a lot of unused ammo. Perhaps it's best to use the fixed wings for preplanned attacks.  However, the helicopters were reinforcements, so...

Eventually I sent the surviving Air FO RO on a suicide mission to kill him (felt quite guilty for the poor guy who had so heroically carried the radio all this time).  That was the only way to get the drone recorded as KIA.  But, the airstrike had finished by then.  So, not sure if killing the FO unit completely would have cancelled the airstrike or not.  Again in Trump's words: "Very sad."  You'd think this sort of issue would have been sorted out by now in CM2.

Setting up Mission #2 now.  Again, great map and interesting situation completely different from Mission #1.  I also appreciate the radically different unit composition - Mission #2 is mostly AFV's and IFV's.    

 

 

 

 

[Erwin]

2nd mission:

Am approaching halfway and am enjoying this even more than the first mission which was also very enjoyable albeit a bit WW1-ish in terms of costly mass inf assaults. 

This is an Ardennes-like mission with a mech force trying to make it down 2 or 3 narrow roads thru woods to take a couple of towns and some high ground.  Map is a good size - about 2200m x 1000m.  One can select a variety of strategies to accomplish the missions.

The mixture of units in Mission #2 is great - a Brigade-sized force with a battalion of mech inf in BMP2's and a company of T-90's plus HQ and supporting units including AGL's and on map 81mm mortars plus a couple of batteries of 152mm all with ample ammo.  Weather is supposed to be poor so no air.  But visibility seems unaffected.  There seems to be more than enuff force to do the job properly (so far) and with good recon and planning one can spot the ambushes and deal with them with the appropriate weapons systems. 

Am about to start the assault on the larger town.  We'll see how things go from here.

[dragonwynn]

Thanks Erwin. Glad it is proving fun.

[Erwin]

With about 40 minutes to go.  Several ambushes located and destroyed.  But, I got a T-90 pranged. My fault, I shoulda used AGL teams to deal with the target instead of moving up the tank. 

Also, got a team of 3 shot up when I approached what seemed to be unoccupied buildings.  But, I guess the enemy had very short target arcs.  Yes, I shoulda hosed down the buildings first, dammit.  My problem is that, coming from a poor immigrant family, I am hard-wired to save every penny or bullet.  It's very hard for me to order speculative area fire/recon by fire as I hate wasting ammo - even in a game!  Instead, I wasted 3 loyal troops instead. 

Should I relieve myself from command for incompetence and restart the campaign?  (Um, no thanks...)   Perhaps a therapist to change my stingy attitude?

[Rebby]

On 23.11.2016 at 4:35 PM, Erwin said:

With about 40 minutes to go.  Several ambushes located and destroyed.  But, I got a T-90 pranged. My fault, I shoulda used AGL teams to deal with the target instead of moving up the tank. 

Also, got a team of 3 shot up when I approached what seemed to be unoccupied buildings.  But, I guess the enemy had very short target arcs.  Yes, I shoulda hosed down the buildings first, dammit.  My problem is that, coming from a poor immigrant family, I am hard-wired to save every penny or bullet.  It's very hard for me to order speculative area fire/recon by fire as I hate wasting ammo - even in a game!  Instead, I wasted 3 loyal troops instead. 

Should I relieve myself from command for incompetence and restart the campaign?  (Um, no thanks...)   Perhaps a therapist to change my stingy attitude?

If I were you, I would first blast the hidden enemy mortar line at town on the right using own arty.In this mission, there are only some RPG hunter-killer teams to be feared. 

I know it might sound like a spoiler but, be on a lookout for an hostile MBT, it randomly patrols through the area.

[Erwin]

TMI.  Don't need to know that.  But, thanks for the thought.  Fortunately I will have forgotten all about this by the time I press "Submit Reply".

[borg]

Hi ladies. I was thinking... just a thought..

since this campaign contains Chechen , and since a number of Chechen indeed do join along Al Q ranks... 

is it a remote possibility to have US vs Chechens, in CMBS, that possibly possibly might resemble the battles encountered in mountainous northern Afghanistan ? Just gently asking.

[Combatintman]

On ‎4‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 7:27 PM, borg said:

Hi ladies. I was thinking... just a thought..

since this campaign contains Chechen , and since a number of Chechen indeed do join along Al Q ranks... 

is it a remote possibility to have US vs Chechens, in CMBS, that possibly possibly might resemble the battles encountered in mountainous northern Afghanistan ? Just gently asking.

Gently asking - which battles in particular in northern Afghanistan.  And before you get carried away - I am not asking in order to get references for a scenario. The answer to that question will probably frame the response.

Of course you could always create your own content ...

[borg]

9 hours ago, Combatintman said:

Gently asking - which battles in particular in northern Afghanistan.  And before you get carried away - I am not asking in order to get references for a scenario. The answer to that question will probably frame the response.

Of course you could always create your own content ...

Ok ! - so - I was generally referring mostly to operation enduring freedom when most US forces would battle Taliban and Al Q. However , in reports there was also the assumption that 'foreign fighters ' would join the ranks of Taliban and AQ, and have a distinct fighting style (see http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/secret-battles-us-forces-chechen-terrorists/story?id=22580688)

the battles might probably take the form of Op Neptune Spear in CMSF since these US SOF vs insurgents (i use the word insurgents on purpose so as it fits loosely with fighters who support the taliban/AQ ) 

Logar Operation seems a genuine / interesting one.

thanks @Combatintman for giving this a thought. I knew I'd get your interest. Couldn't resist a SOF could you ?  me neither. I'm no gifted person with CMBS scenario Edit. You on the other hand (hats off)

[borg]

Not sure if words or acronyms like ISAF can be embedded into CMBS too.. seems fitting with what I'm trying to convey above.

[Combatintman]

Ok - understood - if you read the detail of the article it indicates that the jury was out regarding the numbers of such fighters.  If I had a quid for every Afghan who had told me that the Taliban in their area were foreign fighters I would be a rich man.  While they were certainly present, in my experience the reporting was pretty patchy.  It is the same in Iraq - while the presence of foreign fighters there is beyond doubt, most of the people fighting under the ISIL banner are locals.

Bottom line is that there is no real scenario here over and above a bog standard Afghan scenario which is better handled in CMSF because the Blue Force TO&Es are accurate for the period and the Red Force pick has UNCONs.

[borg]

Understood. That's clear, more reasons for CMSFII  

thanks Guys. Good week ahead !

 

[Euri]

I did not enjoy much battles 1,3 and 4 but battle for Komarovo (n5) which I am playing now is very good and of course the second one is excellent

[Euri]

Battle of Komarovo was very interesting. My only comment is that due to casualities defenders surrender earlier than one would expect. If they held their ground it would be much more difficult for the Russians to push through. 

[dragonwynn]

1 hour ago, Euri said:

Battle of Komarovo was very interesting. My only comment is that due to casualities defenders surrender earlier than one would expect. If they held their ground it would be much more difficult for the Russians to push through. 

Thanks Euri. All suggestions are being noted for future use. Not sure why they bugged out so early unless the new V4 rules are impacting that behavior. Most of the Chech behavior is set to extreme or fanatical so they should be fairly stubborn. Or maybe they feared the wrath of Euri . What about mission 3 and 4 did not appeal to you? I note all input to my campaigns to hopefully help me improve on any future content.

Michael

[Euri]

The following is presonal prefernces but I did not enjoy 3 & 4 a lot.No 3 was too much unecessary bloodshed and no finess (a "carnage" to use Trumpian terminology) while 4 was quite "medival" (in the sense of conquer the castle on the top of the hill) :-)

Edited January 24, 2017 by Euri

[Euri]

"Battle of Atcha Hita" is another excellent mission with a very orignal concept on a great map. Congradulations

My only comment is that I would need 2 air controllers to take full advantage of the air support. 4 assets for 1 contoller results in some of them remaining redundant during the battle

[dragonwynn]

Glad you enjoyed Euri. Ill make a note of your suggestions.

Michael

[Euri]

A very important point for Battle of Atcha Hita (which makes it a non excellent mission unforunately): The blue reiforcments arrive TOO late. Red is able to make a pincer move and advance with easy via the red right flank. As a result he can be at the reinforment arrival zone way ahead of time. Blue forces should at tha edge of the map there from the beggining and maybe get reinforced gradually. They should be at full strength at minute 15 the latest. And I recommend to make the righ side advance a bit more challenging for red.

[dragonwynn]

2 hours ago, Euri said:

A very important point for Battle of Atcha Hita (which makes it a non excellent mission unforunately): The blue reiforcments arrive TOO late. Red is able to make a pincer move and advance with easy via the red right flank. As a result he can be at the reinforment arrival zone way ahead of time. Blue forces should at tha edge of the map there from the beggining and maybe get reinforced gradually. They should be at full strength at minute 15 the latest. And I recommend to make the righ side advance a bit more challenging for red.

Thank you Euri for the input. I will look at making that adjustment.

Michael

[Euri]

Bridgehead to Grozny is a small intense mission. If the red commander reads the terrain correctly, he could obliterate the first line of blue defences with air strikes and artillery barrages before getting into any real contact. I opened the way on my right flank and the rest was easy. I played it in real time for a change. It worked well although I like the subtelties of turn based

[dragonwynn]

Thank you Euri. This battle was designed to go a little easy but still put some stress on the core units. By this time in the campaign depending on how successful the player has been the core units would be fairly well tasked. I figured this would give the player a  small challenge but still enable him (or her) to move into the final battle with a decent core still intact. Also it follows the storyline as the Chechs would have suffered heavy losses if the player had been successful to this point and they would be preparing for the defense of Grozny.

Michael