El Derjine campaign AAR

[TheVulture]

I've decided to try my hand at an ongoing AAR of snake_eye's El Derjine campaign. I've not played any of the scenarios before, so I'm coming at this blind. Hopefully it won't be too embarassing.

Mission 1

I'm given the job of seizing a dam in a night time attack. The forces at my disposal are:

1 marine platoon (HQ, 3 x 13 man squads, 2 x MMG, 2 x SMAW)

1 sniper platoon (4 x 3 man teams, plus an HQ)

1 javelin team

1 FO

1 60mm mortar battery (3 tubes)

1 120mm mortar battery (2 tubes)

The briefing suggests basically attacking the village and positions on the surrounding hills first, and using those as a base of fire to attack the dam. Sounds fair enough to me. There are 7 or 8 victory objectives on the map in the village, trench positions on various hills, and the dam and surrounding buildings. I have 30-40 minutes to complete this.

The Overall Plan

Phase 1

Clear the village and surrounding high ground (ridge and hill 67 in the map below) of enemy.

Phase 2

Reposition fire base to hill 67, regroup, and attack the dam complex.

Yeah, it's not the most complex of plans. In a little more detail:

Phase 1

I divide my forces up in to 3 groups

Group R

1 infantry squad, 1 MMG, 2 snipers, 1 SMAW, 1 javelin

These guys will sweep to the west of the village up to the ridge, and then work their way along it. The ridge has three separate trench positions (each one an objective). I intend to put mortar fire on each trench before assaulting it. Hopefully most of the support units will therefore be redundant and can use the high ground of the ridge to harass enemy units in the village.

Group V

1 infantry squad, 1 MMG, 1 sniper.

This infantry will move through the trees and into the irrigation trenches in the fields just south of the village. I'm praying they won't be mined. The trenches allow access right up to the houses. The MMG and sniper will deploy at the start position as a fire base.

Group H

1 infantry squad, 1 SMAW, 1 sniper.

This group will ultimately occupy hill 67, but their first task is to support group V attacking the village. Basically both infantry squads will attack through the trenches, and once I'm happy that the situation is in hand, they'll break off and take the hill.

I also plot a pre-planned barrage of the two trench lines on hill 67 - one linear target from each mortar asset. So hopefully group H won't actually have to fight for the hill top, just waltz in and throw the bodies over the edge.

There is some flexibility in this - group R will be on high ground above the village for extra fire support from a different direction, and it will be easy to divert the infantry squad in to the village should it be necessary.

[TheVulture]

Turn 1

Plan

Already covered the opening plan...

Action

Immediately Syrian artillery starts to fall near our line of departure. In a stroke of good fortune it happens to land between group R in the west and group V in the east, and the teams from group R that are closest to it happen to have a decent bank of earth between them and the surface detonations. Two men pick up minor injuries. One of them is the SMAW AT specialist, and it slows him down considerably, what with carrying the SMAW around as well.

A few enemy contacts are detected: one pickup between the dam and hill 67, and two MG bunkers near the dam covering the approach routes.

[TheVulture]

Turn 2

Plan

Group H's sniper team looks for a position to engage the pickup from. The FO is directed to the group V fire base (I foolishly left him languishing away with group R, which seems like a perverse decision in retrospect). I'm tempted to drop some 120mm mortar rounds on one of the bunkers to see if they have any effect (although obviously they are currently tied up with the pre-planned fire - forgot to mention that I timed the missions on hill 67 to start in 5 minutes time).

Action

Group R continue their move and get far enough away that the Syrian arty won't bother them any further. Group V reach the irrigation ditches, apparently without having been spotted.

[hcrof]

Great, another AAR - and this one couldn't be more different to mine!

I will be following this closely, I may pick up some tips for my game against Mike Churchmoor

A question. Will you be putting in suppressive fires on the village as you start to assault or are you going to try and sneak in quietly and only fire if the enemy opens fire on you?

[TheVulture]

A question. Will you be putting in suppressive fires on the village as you start to assault or are you going to try and sneak in quietly and only fire if the enemy opens fire on you?

I'm going for the sneaky approach. Partly because that is my playstyle (in PBEM I do tend to keep everything out of sight and keep my opponent guessing; less so against the AI since it can't use the info), and partly because with 7 or so buildings facing out over my direction, I can't suppress all of them, and area firing one or two buildings is often a good way to get the 3 other occupied buildings opening up on your overwatch units, with negative consequences. I prefer to let them reveal themselves and then have my overwatch return fire with overkill.

But obviously is does depend on the situation.

[TheVulture]

Turn 3

Plan

Group H will move to join the men in the irrigation ditches, except for the sniper who goes for a wander over to the east to try and find a vantage point to see over the dam complex from. So when the attacking squad move up through the ditches they have a second squad, MMG and SMAW potentially in overwatch. I'm a little wary of letting the MMG loose though, since it is in LoS to one of the bunkers at about 500m range. The sniper in that group is engaging the pickup this turn to drive it out of the area. Group V infantry will wait about 20 seconds for the men joining them in the ditch, then hunt forwards through the trenches by fire teams.

Action

Before group V start their hunt move, a Syrian MMG team is spotted on the roof of one of the buildings. A few bursts of fire take out one man, and another is seen running down into the building. The sniper fires off one shot at the pickup, which as expected hits reverse and scurries backwards until it is behind a building. At the end of the turn, an enemy rifle squad is spotted in the house next to the one with the MG. Group H exchange a few cursory shots with it, but to no effect.

[TheVulture]

Turn 4

Plan

I decide to risk the MMG opening up on the rifle squad house (it can't see the squad, so area fire time), since none of the units in the trenches have good enough LoS to area target the house. All the trench units will hold position and cover the houses for better spotting, and to return fire on anyone who shoots at the MG overwatch.

Group R will regroup in some trees and let the stragglers (particularly the injured SMAW gunner) catch up before starting the climb up the ridge.

(NB infantry in trenches split in to teams, red circle indicates position of enemy MG team)

Action

Group V's MMG duly opens up on the house, but no reaction is visible. No enemy contacts at all this turn. The only event of note is one of those exciting bits of pathfinding fun where the FO, chosing a route from A (with forest) to B (with forest) strays out of the forest, and loses his radio operator to a piece of shrapnel from a shell 80m away. Bugger. Fortunately the observer himself is fine, so he should still function okay. Will send the lurking sniper HQ to treat the casualty once the artillery stops.

[TheVulture]

Turn 5

Plan

The infantry squads of groups V and H will move up through the trenches towards the houses, V up the left, H up the right. They are split in to teams and will move with 10 second spacing so we have more guys stationary at any time for spotting. The MMG stops its suppressing fire and goes back to overwatching.

Group R start to climb up the ridge.

Action

Damnable MMG - forgot to set its cover arc after cancelling the fire order, so it decides to target the bunker instead. Spends the whole minute pumping rounds in to it. Fortunately the Syrians are unable to spot where the fire is coming from and do nothing. One of my marines gets the "unlucky bastard" award as he advances up the trench, only his head above ground level, and is taken out by a piece of shrapnel from 150m range. But otherwise, the movement up the trenches gets no response from the defenders in the village. Hopefully that means that the suppressive fire has been effective.

Just at the end of the turn, the reversing pickup hails back in to view, back by the bunkers and the dam. The second bunker is at the location of the contact markers in the bottom right.

[TheVulture]

Turn 6

Plan

The sniper is going to play games with the pickup some more, since it's there. The MMG however will not continue playing with the bunker and will get back to the overwatch job on the village. The squads in the trenches will continue their advance on the village by fire teams. There is only one building with a door facing the tenches (visible in the first turn 5 picture above), so one fire team will put area fire on that building since we are going to want to go in there. The SMAW team will nip over to give buddy aid to the marine wounded by the artillery.

Up on the ridge, contact with the first trench is unlikely this turn, but we should be getting close to LoS. Since this group have a nice vantage point over the village, one of the sniper teams and the MMG will deploy in overwatch where they can cover the roads in the village, and more particularly, the exits from the known occupied houses.

Action

My pre-planned barrages start to pound the trenches on top of hill 67. With the Syrian artillery still falling, there's an awful lot of HE flying around considering the extremely limited contacts so far. LOS is gained to the first two (of three) trench positions on the ridge, and each one contains an MMG team. Their night vision is about as good as the bunker's it seems, since we've been moving with 2-300m of them in full(ish) view without them noticing.

The first susprise of the mission:

There seems to be a recon patrol returning to the dam area. 2 BDRM-2 and a BTR, currently stationary in the next valley. Probably a good thing therefore that I have a javelin team and a SMAW team up on the ridge. Not sure yet whether to let the javelin loose - it's possible overkill given that the SMAW and organic AT assets of the infantry squad are more than capable of killing the vehicles in the right situation.

Here's my best estimate of the current disposition:

Unit markers are placed where there are confirmed contacts, even if the units are guesswork. With one squad and an MMG seen in the village, my guess is that it is defended by a platoon reinforced by one or more MGs. And I'd imagine that the final trench on the ridge, and the hill 67 trenches (see the red circles) are occupied - probably another MMG on the ridge, and an MMG and infantry squad on the hill.

[TheVulture]

Turn 7

Plan

I check the LoS of the FO to the ridge trenches, and discover he can't see them, so he repositions ready to call in the mortars next turn, when they'll be freed up from the pre-planned mission. Group R are mostly up on the ridge now, the exception being the SMAW team (the one unit I want to use) due to the injured man. I've decided to let the SMAW take on the vehicles (if it gets up there in time).

Group V are going to force an entry to the nearest house this turn. This is the point at which one well placed RPG (or badly placed, depending on your point of view) can really mess things up. There is also the chance of getting shot at as we run from the trench to the door, but since we've been sitting in that trench for a minute firing at the building in question, surely anyone who was going to see us would have done so and returned fire by now.

Group H are at the end of their trench too, at the other end of the first row of houses. From here they can branch off up the hill or provide fire support. They stay put this turn to cover the buildings.

Action

The BDRMs in the recon platoon start to rumble forwards through the wheat fields. Damn - was hoping they'd stay put for a while. The last few mortar rounds on hill 67 burst in the air. With luck, that's put pay to anyone who was up there. In group V, two fireteams charge the house, and find it unoccupied, while the third team of the squad watch closely.

Unfortunately I forgot to reset the cover arc of that third team, and they catch sight of an MMG team in the second ridge trench (turns out it is the HQ of the MG platoon). They fire off a few rounds, and immediately get heavy return fire from a nearby building, which takes out two men. This comes from a Syrian rifle platoon HQ in the building next to the one we've occupied:

You can see the route my teams covered from the trench to the building, right past the window with some Syrians peering out. The team that got shot at is just out of picture a bit further up the trench. Why they ignored the area fire smacking the building next to them and the 9 moving soldiers is anyone'e guess. Distracted watching TV? In a further bout of surrealism, my men in the building have spotted the HQ, but it is just outside their cover arc, so they ignore it firing at their squad mates (and likewise, get ignored).

[TheVulture]

Turn 8

Plan

Since the recon platoon vehicles are starting to move, and my SMAW team are still a long way behind, I decide to let the javelin team take out the BTR on the premise that I have a chance to now, may not again, and getting rid of a vehicle potentially loaded with an infantry squad isn't a waste of a missile. I'll have to worry about the BDRMs later - my fallback plan is to get group H's SMAW team set up on hill 67 where they can hit them as they come out of the valley on to the road into the dam complex.

In the village, everyone with LoS will open up on the Syrian platoon HQ (well, not the SMAW team doing buddy aid, but everyone else). One fire team of group H will start to climb the hill to see if they get shot at, and to gain another high vantage position over the village.

The FO calls in the 60mm mortars on the first of the ridge MG positions. I also plot a 120mm 'armour' target against one of the bunkers - I have no idea whether that's going to be effective or not, so it is a bit of a gamble.

Action

Turns out that not everyone needs to open up on the platoon HQ - the sniper team virtually does it with one shot. Although it is probably thanks to a bug. The 3rd man of the sniper team is the 'security' guy (with sniper and spotter), who has a rifle with M203 UGL. Being a stealthy sniping squad, this guy fires a grenade from the launcher at the target. As it happens, it kills 5 of the 7 man squad instantly, but I'm sure it's bad practice. The MMG team members are doing similar things, firing their rifles rather than just the MMG. Seems to be a new problem in 1.21.

Sadly I don't have a screenshot of this. My strategy with saves was to save when I'd set up the orders before I hit 'go' so that I had a record of the orders available, and assumed I'd get the same results each time from the simulation. Turns out not to be the case. So when I'm going back over the saves to generate screenshots, some things end up different to how they first played out, including this legendary M203 sniping moment. The net result is the same though, since the entire HQ is dead within 10 seconds, thanks to the men in the house next door:

The sniper then continues a succesful minute by switching back to the pickup, hitting it a few times, and forcing it to reverse back even further amongst the buildings of the dam complex. Then he gets a bit cocky and starts shooting at the bunker, which steadfastly refuses to pay any attention.

Fortunately javelins are much more reproducible in saves, so we have the obligatory javelin launch picture:

And the obligatory explosion of vehicle hit by a javelin picture:

No survivors are seen bailing out of the vehicle.

The team climbing up hill 67 go unmolested, stop for some scenic shots of the village in the moonlight, and spot an HMG team on the far side of the valley of the BDRMs (in the turn 6 map, it is right at the top, a little left of the road). Doubt it is going to do anything to influence this fight, given the inability of the Syrians to see anything at all.

[TheVulture]

Turn 9

Plan

The two fireteams of group V inside the village split up - one puts some smoke grenades out in the street and covers the area while the other moves in to the house the enemy HQ was in to ensure it is clear. Bad experiences have taught me some caution here - a waypoint directly from one house to another will often have men running up to the roof, across the tops of buildings, and down into the target house. This is often a really bad idea, although possibly less so if the bug causing extreme vulnerability on rooves has been fixed. Instead I make sure to put a waypoint out in the street between the houses. This causes some potentially dangerous extra delay as the men gather there, but with the smoke and darkness to cover them I'm not too concerned. The moving group have a 20 sec pause first to give the smoke time to develop.

The rest of group H start to follow the lead team up hill 67 (with the SMAW lagging behind as it has been doing buddy aid). Group R meanwhile just hang around, waiting for the mortars to do their work on the trenches. And the poor injured SMAW team are left running desperately along the ridge to try and get a firing position on the BDRMs before they leave the area. I hope being injured and thoroughly tired doesn't interfere with his aim.

Action

The village maneouver works nicely. Smoke develops, the team moves out into the next building, confirm everyone is dead, and then spot some men from the MG team previously driver off the roof, along with some men from an rifle squad. That's 1 platoon HQ and 2 rifle squads (plus MMG) found so far in the village - my 1 platoon of defence estimate is looking about right.

Red circles indicate the houses where squads of the infantry platoon have been seen. Three men in the target house are killed (including the RPG soldier, which is good - I don't like those being fired at me).

Up on the ridge the mortars start to fall on the first trench:

The troops are having a bit of a rest and quick drink whilst waiting for the shells to finish. The SMAW team still don't quite get into LoS of the BDRMs by the end of the turn.

The sniper back at group V/H's fire base continues to take shots at the pickup. It continues its advance to the rear, comeing to a stop in the middle of the dam.

[Other Means]

Brilliant - cheers.

[snake_eye]

What can I say, but ""BRAVO !". One of the best AAR I have read so far. It is clear, well described, with good tactical approach, pictures and maps very well done. What more to ask, but to have the others later on. I am growing impatient to read them

Keep doing so, Cheers

[TheVulture]

Turn 10

Plan

Rinse and repeat in the village. Most units of group V target the house with the enemy contact, while the ridge overwatch cover the only exit. The rear fire team leapfrogs into the next house along, adjacent to the enemy (there is still plenty of smoke around from the grenades for concealement too). The sniper continues to harass the pickup.

Group R will wait out the turn for the mortars. They should only be falling for about 20 seconds more, give or take, but I'm in no hurry and I'd rather be safe than run forwards and lose several men to a late mortar round. The SMAW team will continue to run their little legs off and should reach a position with LoS to the rear of the BDRMs pretty soon.

The first team of group H will reach the trenches this turn, with the rest of the rifle squad and a sniper team close behind, and the SMAW team a little further back. While I'm confident that there won't be any meaningful resistance, it's not entirely unknown for a few people to have survived and take pot shots, and it is rather exposed for the last 10 meters before reaching the trench...

Action

Team V's sniper succesfully hits the pickup a few more times, and it runs off to hide behind the buildings on the far side of the dam, now completely out of the action. I don't think we've caused any casualties in the crew, but none the less it has been removed as a factor from the fighting this side of the dam. The MMG meanwhile pounds the occupied house while the squad nearest it take care of the men seen moving at intervals during the turn. Four more kills are chalked up. The moving team have an event-free jog in to the adjacent building, and incidentally tick off the village 'touch' objective.

On hill 67, the trenches are reached safely, and the bodies of two syrian MMG teams are discovered. No survivors detected. Yay for artillery!

You can see the dam and surrounding buildings in the background, along with some hill/trench positions on the far side of the dam. The second team up take the trench overlooking the dam, and get a nice view over hill 53 below them, where an enemy rifle squad can be seen in trenches. Hmm... 300 m range, night time, elevated firing position so their trenches are almost worthless, while ours are very effective - I think we hold all the cards in this matchup.

The first team up also catches sight of the HMG team in the north mentioned previously, and fire off a few bursts towards it - as does one of the group R snipers; two causalties are caused.

Group R mostly wait the minute out as mortars fall on the first trench. Pretty sure it is clear after that bombardment. The SMAW team do finally gain a firing position and set up to take their shots. Fortunately a nearby rabbit with a telefoto lense camera was able to record the event (you can see the smaw team in the top right corner):

(The video isn't exactly what happened when I played through, but isn't different in any important respect). The direct hit apparently did no damage, and two more shots during the turn both miss. The BDRM is clearly still functional - witness the rotating turret

[Other Means]

Love it.

[TheVulture]

Turn 11

Plan

In the village I will continue leapfrogging the fire teams along the enemy line house by house, while the third team of the squad in the trenches assist the MMG in overwatch / suppression. This turn we will move in to the house occuppied by the enemy MMG team and rifle squad. Of the 3 man team and 9 man squad, we have 2 and 5 confirmed kills respectively, so there could be some defenders alive, but having taken casualties and still being under suppressive fire I don't see them as a problem.

The first fire team of group R will move along the ridge to occupy the first (cleared) MMG trench, while the FO points the 60mm mortars at the next trench (MMG HQ). I forgot to mention that last turn the spotting rounds for the 120mm strike on the bunker started falling. The SMAW will continue to take shots at the BDRMs, while the sniper will continue to target the HMG on the other side of the valley.

Group H's main squad will position themselves to engage the enemy below on hill 55 (I mistakenly called it hill 53 last turn, and can't correct that now). The sniper and SMAW teams will move up too - the sniper to engage targets of opportunity in the dam area, the SMAW to wait for the BDRMs as they come around the end of the ridge, if they make it that far.

Action

The charmed lives of the BRDMs continues. One hit on a turret, with no effect, and one miss. The turret in question is later seen moving, so it seems to have suffered no ill effects. The fire team advancing on the trench reach it at the end of the turn, and it is clear no-one is at home. The sniper gets another one of the HMG team - only one man left there no, and I think he's having a bad night.

The target house in the village is succesfully entered:

A quick count shows 3 dead from the MMG team and 7 from the rifle squad. There is no way the other 2 men could have got out, so they must have routed. Contact is re-made with the squad seen back in turn 3 in the next house along; the last squad of the defending platoon. One Syrian is seen and shot, and two more bodies can be seen through the windows. Six men left in that house at most then. Looks like my estimate of 1 platoon plus MMG is right for the village defence (barring anyone hiding further back).

Group H engage the enemy forces on hill 55, and succeed in killing 2 soldiers and a bush:

The arrows indicate the location of the bunkers. The left hand bunker has spotting rounds falling near it this turn. A reserve company HQ is seen in the trench with them, and another rifle squad is detected in a trench on the far side of the river.

The orientation of the bunkers and the defenders on hill 55 (and the original position of the pickup) suggest they were expecting an attack from the village around the south of hill 67. Shame then that my plan has always been to come around the north side, which by a happy coincidence renders both bunkers almost entirely useless.

[TheVulture]

Turn 12

Plan

On the ridge, more men move up to occupy the first trench, and prepare to advance on the second once the mortars have tidied it up a little.

For group H it is merely a question of waiting for everyone to arrive, and setting target arcs to cover known enemy positions. That pickup is in LoS of the infantry now on the far side of the dam, so that gets included in the target options.

The fire team in group V that took the two casualties whilst lurking in the trench has finished evactuaing their wounded, and been providing covering fire for the other two teams in the meantime. They are now ready to move up. I'm not quite ready to move in on the last occupied house yet, since the only door in to it is in an unfavourable position.

The door is indicated by the red arrow. It is out of out LoS, and within sight lines of several other houses that are currently hidden from us. I'm not in a hurry to go rushing in in that situation, so instead I bring that rear fire team up to a position covering the blind spot. It also gives the team overlooking the enemy to have more chances to soften them up.

Action

Group R properly occupy the first trench, triggering the 'touch' objectives for all the trenches on that ridge line. More elements move forwards, while the mortars begin fire for effect on the next trench. All very routine and by the book - not that I've read the book. The BDRMs are remain stationary in the valley, presumably trying to figure out why the ears of wheat around them keep detonating.

Group V see intermittent signs of life from their opposition, and stomp on each one. By the end of the turn they've brought the causalty list in that house up to 7. Max 2 men left. No other signs of life in the village, which considering we have eyes on it from all direction means there is a pretty good chance the place is as good as cleared.

Group H have the most fun. The pickup gets well ventilated, causing a causalty. The trenches of hill 55 get hit repeatedly with small arms fire and grenade launcher rounds. The sniper team continue to exhibit their idea of stealth by firing the M203 grenade launcher at a bunker. The inability of the bunker crews to spot the continuous tracer fire from the hill above them is remarkable, and indeed, I have now remarked upon it. An MMG is spotted in the final trench of the ridge. No great surprise there. A second pickup is spotted down in the dam control complex. And the 120mm mortar rounds fall all around the bunker. Not one hits the target. I've obviously been spoiled with British art which would have put at least 50% of shells on the roof of the bunker in a 'target armour' mission. I don't think mortars vs bunker is a winning strategy here.

[TheVulture]

Situation Review

Syrian forces seen so far:

6x MMG teams (5 eliminated)

1x HMG team (3 of 4 men killed)

2x MMG bunkers

2x MMG pickups

1x reserve infantry company HQ

2x reserve infantry platoon (1 almost completely eliminated, one with some casualties)

1x recon platoon (with 2x BDRM-2)

1x BTR-60 (burning nicely).

I don't actually know how many platoons are in a reserve infantry company, but I'd guess 3.

Current situation map (and plans):

Will anyone who is familiar with NATO military symbols please excuse my terrible misuse of them The empty red squares are the pickups. The bunkers are indicated by what I believe are actually anti-tank asset symbols (inverted V). Not sure I have any of the other symbols or modifiers correct either for that matter...

Group V is working along the ridge nicely with the aid of the 60mm mortar battery, whilst also providing AT assets against the recon platoon and MMG/sniper support for the village assault. The platoon HQ is also up there, currently providing some security by continuing to watch for any more enemy entering the valley area. One of the enemy MG positions on the ridge is still shown despite being very likely eliminated by mortar fire now or extremely soon. The HMG team in the north is actually 1 scared guy hiding.

I'm guessing that the defence on this side of the dam, on hill 55 and in the complex, is roughly reinforced platoon strength.

The village is now under our control. I figure on at most 2 Syrians left in the house, and no-one else in the village (although I will be careful sweeping through it rather than just assuming that it is safe). Then they will move around the road north of hill 67 and attack the trenches on hill 55, which should be virtually cleared by the time they get around there. With the 'up' defence in the village certainly smashed, the overwatch for group V (MMG, sniper and FO) will now move up to hill 67 to reinforce the base of fire in preperation for the attack on the dam.

The general idea is to have group V come in to the dam down from hill 55, while the infantry squad of group H come down the hill and move in from the south west (once the bunkers are taken care of; I envisage group V attacking the back door of the first bunker from the hill, and using a javelin on the second one, but obviously it depends who things turn out).

Once the BDRMs are taken care of, the support from group V (MMG, 2 snipers, javelin, and SMAW with no ammo) are freed up in theory to add to the base on hill 67 too. With 20-30 minutes left of the operation we have no great time pressure and can wait to bring suitable assets into position to be useful.

EDIT to add: friendly casualties are currently 4 men out of action (3 from infantry squad of group V, one from the FO), with a further 2 men at 'yellow' wounded status.

[c3k]

TheVulture,

Thank you for taking the time and effort to post this. It's revealing that I've tried several times to click on your screenshots to select the units or change the camera view.

Keep 'em coming!

Ken

[TheVulture]

Thanks, everyone who is enjoying this (and thanks JonS for alerting me to the existence of MILSketch which makes annotating images much easier).

Turn 13

Plan

On the ridge, more units of group R will move up in to the first trench, and wait around for the mortars. The HQ and the out-of-ammo SMAW will be a little gamey and continue to watch the valley for any contacts entering or on the hills to the north. Flank security is your friend.

Group V's support set off up the hill, while the infantry send a team in to the defended house to mop up. Group H will just sit tight and shoot at anything that exposes itself. The FO - about to start off up the hill from group V's firebase position, plots the last few rounds of the 120mm mortars on the occupied trench on hill 53, on the far side of the dam. That battery is virtually out of ammo, although the 60mm mortars have a good number of rounds left yet.

Action

Nothing exciting for group R, waiting on mortars. BDRMs hold position. Nothing exciting for group V, who find the house empty aside from 7 bodies.

Group H meanwhile are in the thick of the action, and as a bonus, at no personal risk to themselves. The hill 55 trench is targetted, causing several casualties; up to 5 or 6 now in total from the rifle squad and company HQ. The new pickup is targetted, and three of the occupants are quickly killed as it tries to reverse to safety. The driver has enough and bails out. The MMG in the final trench on the ridge suffers a casualty and ducks out of sight. The southern bunker is raked with fire and also suffers a casualty. And not one Syrian returns fire, or shows any awareness of where my men are.

[TheVulture]

Turn 14

Plan

More of the same. Group R move units up to the next trench, including a sniper to get the last man of the HMG team which is hard to spot from his current location. One infantry fire team will move down through the trees in to the valley to see if they can do anything about the BDRMs with their one shot AT assets (LAW, AT4). Group V start to check the other houses in the village. Group H continue their reign of terror from the heights of hill 67.

Action

Group R complete the move in to the second trench, where the bodies of the MMG HQ team lie. The team despatched to the valley stop a few feet away from having LoS to the BDRMs. Grrr. Fortunately the vehicles remain stationary. Group V find no-one in the village. Group H cause a few more casualties in the trenches of hills 55 and 53.

[TheVulture]

Turn 15

Plan

The BDRM hunters will inch forwards to gain line of sight, and should be firing at about 45m range, so I fancy their chances. In a fit of being slightly rash, I decied the final trench on the ridge is sufficiently suppressed with fire from hill 67, so rush a team forwards to clear it out. I'm slightly nervous about this; it would probably be better to have someone area fire the trench for a turn first, but for some reason I go ahead.

Group V will continue to sweep the village, and group H will continue the general mayhem. Some support elements of group R (javelin, sniper, MMG) are repositioning to hill 67 to reinforce the fire base.

Action

In the valley the men indeed cautiously advance until the enemy vehicle is spotted. Then the LAW, AT4 and M32 grenade launcher all open up at the same moment.

The BDRM is pretty light armoured (although evidently enough to survive a few SMAW hits ), but being hit by 2 AT rockets at the same time is enough to give it some trouble:

There are two almost simultaneous explosions there, honest. The crew and passengers bail out of the ruined vehicle, and come under fire from the squad, killing 2 of them.

The team storming the trench do a fine job, spotting and quickly killing the other 2 men of the MMG team (and to show I was a) right to be nervous and rather lucky the two times I replayed it from the save to get screenshots, I lost of the attacking men, although when I actually played through the first time I lost no-one). The sniper who was moving up to the middle trench got there, went back to targetting the HMG team, and dropped the last man.

Nearly every building in the village has been checked now, and no-one is home. I'll scout the last few buildings just to be thorough though.

Once again, a few more defenders on hill 55 are killed. The original pickup which I've been harassing for a long time now advances back on to the dam and comes under fire. It too loses 3 men, and the lone survivor bails.

Just for good measure, the last 2 men of the MMG team in the southern bunker are killed, leaving that bunker empty. Not the best constructed bunker of all time, perhaps. If I'd known they would be that painless to take out from the front I wouldn't have wasted any mortar rounds on one.

A pretty succesful turn all round: one BDRM, one pickup, one MG bunker, one MMG team, one HMG team and sundry infantry on hill 55 all removed from the equation.

[TheVulture]

Turn 16

Plan

With the success of the AT4 and ILAW against the BDRM, I send another fire team over to the north side of the ridge to deal with the second vehicle. If the BDRM doesn't move they should have a perfect flank shot at about 50m range. Not much else to plan this turn - most units are in the middle of the reorganisation for phase 2 - the attack on the dam and surrounding buildings.

Action

A recon HQ squad bailed out of the BDRM hit last turn, and makes a run for it along the valley, trying to gain the cover of the trees. One of them is hit as he goes. Meanwhile a few men rush to positions perfect for targetting the second BDRM, take aim with the AT4:

They nail it first shot. The poor Syrian running past, refugee from his own defunct vehicle, probably doesn't have his day improved by the vehicle next to him exploding in a ball of flame either.

Another 2 man crew and 4 man recon squad bail out, taking fire as they do so and becomming pinned in the fields around the vehicles.

Group H for some obscure reason ignore the last few men cowering on hill 55 and instead spend most of their time peppering the abandonded pickups with bullet holes. Ours not to reason why... The 120mm mortars start putting spotting rounds on the trenches on hill 53 on the far side of the dam. They should get a few rounds of effective fire off before running out of ammo.

[TheVulture]

Turn 17

Plan

The village is totally cleared, and the squad there will now regroup in preperation for advancing to hill 55. The ridge has also also secured, and all the vehicles in the valley are now eliminated. The squad up there will mop up the surviving crew and passengers, and then stay on the ridge as security to cover the road into the dam area, and also act as a reserve for the dam should they be needed. Hill 67 is of course totally under our control. The javelin team and a sniper team arrived on the hill last turn, and another sniper, MMG and the FO should get there by the end of this turn, or very early next turn.

I think it's fair to call this the start of phase 2. We have just under 15 minutes (plus up to 10 minutes variable time according to the briefing) to control the dam, which is plenty. 3-4 minutes to clear hill 55, another 3-4 minutes to clear the dam complex on this side, and by then the mortars will have emptied the trenches on the far side. Barring reinforcements or a buge IED in the dam complex, this should be plain sailing.

Action

A few more defenders on hill 55 are killed, bringing the total to 9 - 2 from the co. HQ and 7 from the rifle squad. So that trench system is virtually cleared before the infantry even start to get near it. The other rifle squad of that platoon is in the trench on hill 53, and the 120mm mortars do indeed get some effective rounds on target on them this turn before running dry. The platoon HQ hasn't yet been spotted, although there is another trench of the far side of the dam...

The bad news is that some of the infantry on the ridge advance on the rear BDRM wreck to bag the crew. As they advance, the lead man is shot down. This annoys me since it was so unnecessary - I could pretty well have sat on the ridge and left them be, shooting the occasional guy who popped his head up. Ah well, 'tis done now. That's my 5th casualty of the mission.

Friendly units from left to right:

SMAW team, watching the road from the north.

Two fire teams of the infantry squad.

Sniper team.

Third fire team of the infantry squad.

MMG moving into position.

Javelin team (1 missile left).

Sniper.

Enemy units:

Co. HQ being peppered by M32 rounds (he dies a few seconds later, and a little to his right you might just see the red cross where the last known man of the rifle squad fell).

MMG bunker

Trench with 120mm mortars airbursting over a rifle squad.

Abandonbed pickup.

Lone surviving memebr of pickup crew.

Another abandoned pickup.

And just on the right edge of the picture on the far side of the dam is the hill/trench position where I suspect the platoon HQ of being.