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RAMADI (Iraq): Mother of All MOUT Maps


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Briefing map done, briefing nearly done.

WWbriefscreen.jpg

Here's an excerpt:

SITUATION:  FRIENDLY FORCES

1.  FORCES. At start you stand in the boots of Col Connor, DEVIL SIX, and his Army PSD squad, 15 rifles. You are riding with unarmed (Spy) Anbar officials who need protection from their countrymen. More usefully, 3 Arab speaking CIA contractors from Triple Canopy also happened to be riding along. These guys are elite ex-SF operators and very handy in a fight, but they also aren't bulletproof.

2.  POSITION. Per SOP, units don't normally abandon disabled vehicles (al Jazeera loves to film them being torched by jubilant mobs). So the PSD has dismounted and formed a tight 360 perimeter to ID and suppress incoming while keeping nearby buildings and alleys scanned for threats, especially keyholding RPGs.
a.  Most of your group's firepower is in the two armed humvees. Be ready to reman them if gunners get hit.
b.  There aren't enough dismounts to sweep all the adjacent houses and alleys before the QRF arrives. But if you linger in the open eventually the snipers will hit you. No perfect choices here.

....

a.  Even 18 months after the invasion (OIF-1), Marine and Army tactical comms still aren't seamless. But word is LTC Kennedy's column (BASTARD SIX) is en route from the hospital (about 1km north). ETA unclear, but he'll arrive on the far side of the big mosque. Listen for shooting. Marine Cobra gunships are also inbound. (Hopefully those bubbas know an Army Humvee when they see one).

b.  QRFs have already rolled out from Combat Outpost: (G/2/4 Marines) plus 1/16th Army Infantry COLD STEEL Bradleys. But there is heavy fire coming from the Ag Center OP (off map), out of sight about 400 meters east along MICHIGAN, so they could be hung up there some time.

....

It's half past noon, face melting heat (42 deg Celsius / 122 Fahrenheit). Summer in Ramadi

....

COMMANDER'S INTENT

1. OBSERVE. [COL Buck Connor] "A lot of bad guys moving around out there, more than we've seen since April. That, plus the second ambush behind us (off map) makes this a 'closed ambush', a planned op with some brains behind it. Has some new talent come in from Fallujah maybe? I told Bremer that leaving that nest of scumbags there is bad news."

2. ORIENT.  "This isn't the usual hit-and-run job. The closed ambush is holding DEVIL SIX in place, so they can follow on with some kind of complex attack, either on us or the QRFs, or both. Is this a planned hit on the US area commander? even a kidnap attempt?" [Connor glances at the Anbar officials, but they look terrified, not complicit]

3. DECIDE.  "Well anyway, it's on. We're exposed here, but displacing is as risky as staying.  With RPGs all around, a thunder run in Humvees is suicide.  Can we Alamo into a building and hold it?  But then we lose our MGs and vehicles."

"The wild card is that Paul Kennedy's Marines are (reportedly) close by and riding down from the north, not the usual QRF east-west route along MICHIGAN.  Wonder if the enemy  reckoned on that?"

4. ACT.  Your call, DEVIL SIX. "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."

 

 

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Ok, anyone up for playtesting this over the weekend?

With all the AI variations, it ought to be good for a few replays. I am optimizing for RT and present players a satisfying challenge and firefight in a single sitting (40-50 mins game time, with additional "lulls" in the firing abstracted and not on clock).

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By the way, there's an astonishing "red pill" backstory to the US campaign in Anbar that really ought to be told someday, and which continues today. It is a fit-for-HBO drama of Sopranos-meets-TE Lawrence infighting among leading clans and their sheikhs, who were alternatively courted and attacked by Saddam, the Americans, al Qaeda, the Shiite dominated Baghdad government and later, ISIS.

On the other hand, all the would-be puppet masters lost control of the strings at times.

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My first take is that I liked the briefing - clear and concise. Map is wonderful (of course).

Liked the original ideas like giving negative points for occupying a location and later arrival of a burning truck to give info on another VL.  Don't recall seeing anything like that in any other CM2 scenarios.  Good start!  On to the mission...

 

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

 

 

At the start I simply occupied adjacent buildings. The Elite SEAL team were good at killing snipers but one got hit.  Interesting that they have AK's and no ammo resupply so their ammo runs out quickly.  One of the other teams suffered a casualty and I sent the SEAL team to do medic but they didn't pick up the WIA M4. 

The beleaguered formation didn't have a lot to do (kinda boring) until the uncons started to do suicide attacks and then the uncons were wiped out easily as they all attacked along the same direction.  Once the Army starts arriving from the east, the grenade throwers were useful.  But I saw little reason to move the army force much since they all have long range AGM or HMG weapons and hardly any inf.  I moved them so they could over the roads.  Somehow a AGM Humvee got KIA with its crew but I didn't see how. 

Got bored at the halfway point and sent the two surviving SEAL team guys to the immobilized HUMVEE to pick up 5.45 ammo just to see if they could use that in their AK's.  But they got KIA. 

Can't see how to take the "secret objective" with on-map forces.  The choppers can't kill the bunker - which was disappointing.  Didn't find anything useful for the choppers to do actually.  I guess one has to wait to Ollie North.  But, was bored with the static nature of the scenario so CF'd with 17 mins to go and never got to meet Ollie (got a draw probably due to loss of HUMVEE and men).  I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with the forces available other than wait for rescue.  Doing nothing seemed like the best strategy.  But, that's not fun.  Lots of saved game files if you want em. 

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With Erwin no doubt testing in WEGO, I've opted for Real-Time.....Set a couple of generous arcs on the Humvees gun-trucks and clicked go!

First impressions.....Well it's LLF's Ramadi Map innit, so it's lovely and some of this bit is all new!  Nicely detailed and immersive battle area and it all runs smooth as silk on my powerful but fairly elderly PC (I7 Quad, 16GB RAM, GeForce 660GTX, Win7):

RamTest1%20-%20Start_zpswnzuz6cd.jpg

But things did not go at all well after that.....A narrow miss from an RPG opened matters and a series of direct hits from same ended them!  First to go were the security contractors:

RamTest1%20-%20First%20Casualties_zpsobi

Two more RPGs fired in rapid succession, one from what may have been a second RPG team, took care of the surviving contractor and then Devil Six.....I'm hoping this was at least in part an outlier, because TBH I quit without remembering to take a screenshot!  :(

However I did make a couple of very silly mistakes.....Firstly I forgot to turn Icons, Objectives and Landmarks back on after taking that first screenshot and secondly, well that one is for other players to figure out for themselves in due course.  Don't worry, I'm not even slightly discouraged, will clearly have to try harder in my next attempt.  ;)

Other notes and thoughts, I was surprised (and slightly impressed) that the Humvees never managed to draw a bead on the uncon softskins, very well played those drivers!  A trivial but possibly worthwhile adjustment might be to rename the security contractor team leader.

PS - Only just noticed but my PC was also running a CM:BS scenario while I started my test!  :o

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Wow... such a different experience.  The AI plans must be significantly different.

I recommend saving every few turns. I sent my saves to LLF so he can figure out which AI plan it was and also what I did and why it seemed like nothing much was happening most of the time.

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Favourite moment so far:

EatThis_zpsxbhi9bsb.jpg

"Get some!",  "Eat This!" etc. etc.  :D

First significant issue:

OfficialDown_zpskoq3o27v.jpg

Just had a Spy rout out due to an extremely short-lived enemy being in the alley outside, possibly another in the adjacent building.....I'd recommend you consider kicking the 'Population Density' up a notch or two.

Summary so far.....Lots of fun, eminently replayable (I'm on my fourth go), hate those bloody balconies (most of my casualties have been down to the TacAI deciding to run out into the open to take a shot it could easily take from inside)!  :rolleyes:

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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That was great fun!  B)

CeasefireTime_zps69yhzsch.jpg

Here are my results:

Outcome_zpszvsrz5bq.jpgDetails_zpsjnvxtx75.jpg

This was probably the closest call

ClosestCall_zpsi6chbd2x.jpg

The only things I'd be inclined to look at are the 'Population Density' and renaming the Security Contractors and their unit leader.

As you can see from my results the unfortunate routing of the Government Official didn't screw me (he's the single dude listed as missing).....I had to physically restrain his colleague from grabbing an AK and attempting to take revenge!  :o

Going to play it a couple more times before I look in the editor, but on the basis of this session, this is a top notch scenario already.....Outstanding!  :D

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Many thanks for the great feedback, gents. I won't be able to nose through it for a week though. Erwin, DEVIL SIX indeed has fairly long stretches of inactivity if it sits tight, especially with AI plan 3 where the JTJ fighter group goes after the Marines instead. So if they are safe, focus on the Marine force; they have a tough challenge too, to get across the map in relatively light vehicles. The mech QRF will likely arrive too late to do any more than finish up an attack already underway.

The AI Banzai charges are *very* hard to get rid of because of the annoying 2 speeds of the CMSF AI - it pretty much exclusively either runs or crawls (exhausting in high heat), making no use at all of tactical cover.

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This plays very well in 5-10 second chunks real-time, it's too intricate a battleground to just let it run apart from in the few lulls (think I hit the same AI plan as Erwin this time).  Letting it run for longer than that during the fire-fights can end badly, quickly.....All part of the deal IMHO.  B)

My Marines never made it past the Saddam Mosque, they settled into a hedgehog position with one of the FIST teams on the four storey apartment roof near their spawn (and with Ollie North locked in a shed to keep him out of trouble) and then pulverised CINU from a safe distance (What does that stand for please?).

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Coalition for Iraqi National Unity, a supposedly pro-Baghdad party (that still exists btw, although like all other parties it's just a platform for a specific clan or sheikh).  I didn't see value in delving into that in the briefing as the historical section is lengthy enough. But there's a specific reason they decided to begin shooting at Coalition forces - and specifically the regional commander - at this particular time. The coalition had been arresting "terrorist smugglers and financiers" but this group included the leading clans of Anbar who had been smuggling for generations. 

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