gunnersman

"Set piece" is the opposite of "meeting engagement". The scale does not matter, although it's usually used in terms of large battles since all the pieces include the panoply of supporting arms and fires. Both sides are ready and have their forces on the field of battle.
 
There is no feeding in, or meeting. The front line is fixed before the battle and one side crosses it into a prepared defense. The offensive side has arrayed it's support and coordinated with all the units meant to fight.

...meawhile, modding to kill time:
 
I hoped these high voltage towers were added as new big  flavour objects (maybe they will one day), anyway, trying to make the usual old horizons "feel" a bit more modern:

(terrain and foliage fully modded as well)

Yes, it happens and it would seem impossible at times, but that is part of it.
 
Of course some of them guys were so high on drugs, that they did not know better that they were dying and bleeding out.
 
Almost like shooting a deer, you know it is going to kill them but the question is how far can they get before they bleed out.
 
That was one reason the M16 had such a bad rep. (No knock down power) I have heard of many cases how shot enemy soldiers would keep assaulting even after major hits. But again they normally were doped out of their minds anyway.
 
But that fact still is, they were not going home to their shacks the next day.
 
If you think it is all that safe, go spend a day out there and let me know how it goes with all these none lethal modern weapons out there.
 
To convince my Sons that they really did not want to be a soldier like their dad, We play a simple game, Pick a soldier to represent you in any CM battle. Lets keep track of what happens to him and how things go. Even if you cheat and try to take extra good care of him (which we had some house rules to help prevent that) there was many a bad day.

^^^
 
27 1/2 years of service in the USAF (active and reserve) and you've just hit the nail on the head. I'd type more, but the AF says I need 10 hours of sleep a night, and my aide has yet to turn down my bed. Sigh. Cutbacks suck. I'll probably have an unironed bathrobe in the morning.

Just passed my 7th year of service in the British Army. Did 1 year and 3 months of initial and combat infantryman's training which was.... horrific! Joined the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment (Vikings) and was deployed to Afghanistan in late 2009. My company was posted to Musa Qaleh in Helmand province, IED's and small arms were common and a couple of times we encountered some very close IDF from an AGS-17 the Taliban had acquired which was probably the scariest thing I've ever come up against. Handed the AO over to the USMC at the end of tour and we freaked the **** out of them and stole an entire pallet of Gatorade, sorry about that!
 
I deployed to Kenya on exercise in 2011 and nearly got killed by an elephant, this sucked.
 
2012 saw me return to Helmand Province as an IED detection dog handler and my pooch found the largest IED of the summer campaign. Transferred to become a dog handler in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and its where I'm at now.

Greetings from Finland, this is my first post to this forum.
 
Thank you for all the participants in this topic, it has been a fun and very informative subject to read. I'm eagerly waiting for the CMBS to be released. I even bought new computer to play the game. 
 
As beign aging reservist by myself, I would love to see some reserve, Category B or C units in the game. No matter what conflict would it be, real or fictional, all the sides would use and deploy similar units to the operational area to hold the ground and occupy area, to free better units to more critical tasks. And when or if the conflict escaletes to "worst case scenario", these troops would be used to direct combat tasks (like German Volkssturm in Seelow heights in 1945) to fullfill the gaps and lack of more suitable infantry combat units.
 
Ukraine has it's national guard activated last year and Russia has long history of deploying and arming pro-russian militias in occupied territories (like all major military powers have done in most of the large scale armed conflicts over the past decades and centuries). Seeing catergory B or C units in CMBS with simplified OOB, older and/or lighter equipment and more modest soft factors would be a fresh experience. 
 
Ps. While our nicknames are quite similar, I hope all of you won't confuse me and member "Weer" with each other.

Enlisted in the regular United States Marine Corps (USMC) at 19. Served four years as an F4-B, RF4-B, and F4-J hydraulic/pneumatic mechanic, and six months as a cell-block sentry in a "red-line" brig (as part of a fleet augmentation program). Deployed to Fleet Marine Force, Western Pacific (FMFPac) and spent a year in Iwakuni, Japan. I believe I was one of four Marines who never went to Viet Nam. Largest "pucker factor" was when I was on duty as Assistant Squadron Duty Officer (aka radio watch), and a North Korean cruiser shot down an American weather plane over the Straits of Japan. Two squadrons of F4s, two squadrons of A4s, and two squadrons of A6s scrambled with armor piercing bombs and rockets. The Wing Commanding General came into our ready room and kept the 60 plus combat airplanes from obliterating that crusier.
 
I then served eight years in the USMC reserves (USMCR) as infantry; 0311 - rifleman, 0331 M-60 machine gun section leader, 0341 60-mm M2 mortar section leader, and finally 0369 - Infantry, Small Unit Leader (rifle platoon sgt). Biggest pucker factor in reserves was when we were "activated" for a three-day readiness test that seemed an awful lot like Staging (where as "airwingers" we refreshed our infantry skills before deploying to FMFPac). Learned about 10-years later that it wasn't a test. We were being activated to invade Iran to rescue the hostages. The Soviets had our Navy Crypto codes and massed 26 divisions on the border. They said "if you invade, we will drive you out. Carter called off the invasion. Got out of reserves in 1981. Qualified evey year with M-14 rifle at 500 yds, M-16 at 300 yds (all with open sights), and M1911A1 .45 caliber pistol at throwing distance (my issued pistol was manufactured by Singer Sewing Machine Co. in 1943, so it was a bit loose, that is to say worn out).
 
At that time, the transportation for Marine Infantry was primarily "leather." Our normal combat load out was helmet, flak jacket, two canteens of water, eight 20-round magazines for an M-14 or eight 30-round magazines for the M-16, four fragmentation grenades, two claymore mines, two 60mm mortar rounds if the platoon had mortars attached, two boxes of 7.62mm rounds if we had M-60 machine guns attached, six to eight 40mm grenades for the M-79 "blooper" and if unlucky, an M-72 rocket launcher. Add to that three meals, clothing changes, health and comfort items, and we generally weighed in a more than 100 lbs (45kg) over our normal weight. Maybe that's why they referred to us as "heavy infantry."
 
I had very little work with "combined arms" when infantry, and the lethality of Black Sea weapons absolutely terrorfies me. I wouldn't want to "see the elephant" in this new environment.

That was one of the main reasons I wanted to become a vehicle operator actually. My Father was a career officer in the 336th Naval infantry brigade back in the 80's, so I heard plenty horror stories not to use feet as my main locomotion in the army.   

I remember that in front of our barrack there was a large rock that seemingly often needed to be painted a different color.  Salary was difficult to obtain, but the budget was always available for paint for that rock.

Since Poesel too was a draftee I jump into the thread. 1 year in the '80 in a artillery rgt. Barracks was so close the yugoslavian border that you almost could throw a stone and hit a "graniciari", yugo's border guards, in the head. Anyway was a really quiet period. There were people of my unit sometimes crossing the border in civilian clothes in order to join some local festival on the other side. Patrol. Yugoslavian hills in the background.

Conscript in the German army for one year in the early 90s. My 'oh crap' moment was during basic training when our Hauptmann came over and told us that there was a revolution in Russia (the one with Jeltsin). If that had escalated I would have been automatically enlisted for an indefinite time. Yeah, great - just when the cold war was supposedly over.
 
Served in the canteen for the rest of the time but did not peel the infamous 'Für Schweinemast und Bundeswehr' ('For hog feeding and Bundeswehr') potatoes.

'Set-Piece' (or deliberate) attack is at the grand-tactical/operational level, not strategic - mainly because you don't bother about battles at the strategic level, you're worried about campaigns. Op COBRA and Op QUEEN were both set piece battles. Basically, the idea is to take the time to get all your ducks in a row before the battle starts. That means arranging the fire support, conducting battle-specific training, organising units into assault - 2nd echelon - reserve, and positioning them accordingly, preparing and delivering orders down to a very low level (ie, the corps commander prepares and presents orders to his divisional commanders, who then derive and prepare their own orders and present them to their regimental commanders, who then prepare and present their orders to the battalion commanders, who prepare and present their orders to the company commanders, who prepare and present their own orders to their platoon commanders, who prepare and present orders to their squad commanders, who brief/present orders to their squads), distribution of aerial photos and maps with intel overlays, stockpiling of ammunition, fuel, and specific stores that might be needed (such as bridging material), etc. Then the whole thing kicks off at a specific time according to the designated H-hour, with all the various parts moving in a coordinated fashion and thus maxmising the  leverage that combined arms brings to the battlefield, as well as any other specific advantages that the attacker might have (such as better training, or comms, or intel, or night vision gear, or fire support, etc.)
 
There are loads of examples of set piece battles from Korea, as well as some from Vietnam. The opening ground phase of Op DESERT STORM was a set piece too, especially the USMC assault straight up the guts into Kuwait. Crossings of major rivers are often set-piece, mainly because of the pronounced advantages the defender enjoys and the need to bring up bridging stores.
 
The downside of set-piece is that they can take a while to set up, and thus generally give the defender more time to prepare his defence and/or divine exactly where the boot is going to fall and prepare appropriately. Often once a front has settled down for a while, a set-piece is appropriate because the defender will have thoroughly prepared his defence, and the attacker is not required to press the tempo by attacking ASAP. Surpirse can be tricky to accomplish in a set-piece, but on the other hand the time taken to tee-up a set piece means that a comprehensive deception plan can be prepared and enacted, to generate a very high degree of surprise - Op DESERT STORM is a great example here. Saddam knew the Coalition forces were coming, and he knew down to the day when they'd be coming. But he had no idea where they'd be coming, and was soundly thrashed in part because of that surprise.
 
There isn't really a sharp split between meeting engagements, hasty attacks, and deliberate/set-piece attacks. The boundaries between them are quite fluid depending on the specific circumstances. An operation can also transition quickly between the three - Op COBRA, for example, started as a deliberate/set-piece and stayed that way for 2-3 days. After that there was a short period of hasty attacks, then it transitioned again to meeting engagements as the Americans made a clean break through the complete depth of the German's prepared defences. Sometime later it transitioned again to a hasty attack by the Germans at Mortain.

You might as well go ahead and make this your signature. 
 
Thanks for the stories!

Maybe this helps a little?

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/48646/what-is-the-meaning-and-origin-of-set-piece-battle

Yes, I'm used to the term in context of Napoleonic battles - both sides needed to find each other, there were numerous skirmishes between garrison forces, scouting cavalry and detachments up to even battalion size, but eventually the bulk of 2 entire armies would be near each other, each side would take the decision that "we can win this" and usually the following day, almost the entire (field) army on each side would deploy and fight - and that would be the "set piece battle".
 
 
 

Military service began with 18 years in 2008. First conscription 2008-2009, was the war in South Ossetia as part of a peacekeeping battalion, and later served in the 4th military base in South Ossetia. Then he continued to serve under contract. He graduated from officer training was promoted to lieutenant (Second Lieutenant)  in 2010, in 2013 the senior lieutenant (First Lieutenant) . Participated in the CTO (counterterrorist operation) in the North Caucasus June 1, 2015 will be as 7 years in military service.
 
 
 
I apologize in advance for my bad English, I use Google translation.

I've created this topic for members who have served in the army to tell their experience, and also ask question for the members who have served which would help give information.
 
 I have served in the VDV 2008-2011, I've been deployed to different bases, And even seen action in Caucasus and South Osettia. I got training in Tula base, I was not deployed during the Georgian conflict but after it. In 2009 in South Ossetia I was deployed to a check point. And one day during the morning time I was on guard duty and machinegun fire ripped threw the block post and landed near me and then other firearms shot at us,  The whole squad got ready and we were in a engagement I was shot at somepoint and did not realize it until afterwards, We shot into the forest killing most of them and they made their biggest mistake the group engaging at us brought in a van to escape which my unit and I destroyed.  There were survivors which a special forces detachment found and killed im not sure if prisoners were taken. 

I've wrote this because I thought it would be a lot of information, If there is any questions about my service or what ever feel free to ask.

Nod to Gunner for the HHGTTG reference.

If you use your Stryker as a fighting vehicle, I'd imagine no, if you use it in it's intended role to transport and provide local support for the infantry...  I served for 6 years as an infantryman on BTRs and BMPs.  The BTRs just took us to dismount points and we did our mission on foot, our BTR was not trying to fight other vehicles.  I son't know te USA doctrine, but I don't think they are going to put a company of Strykers on line and assault through an objective with them.

It is a poor man's AT weapon.   Modern warfare tends to be a 'come as you are' warfare because gone are the days of factories pumping out X number of tanks or aircraft per day like in WW2.  Modern equipment is so complex and so expensive that it takes months to produce and will take considerable time to replace when lost.  
 
The MT-12 is a product of a mind set typical of Soviet thinking of throw nothing away, it may have use somewhere, even if it is just training reservists.  In a 'Come As You Are' war, such weapons will use in third echelon units and as replacement weapons when the higher priced and more capable weapons get attrited to the point that it is either use the older piece of equipment or do without.
 
Let's face it, a Abrams is going to laugh in the face of a MT-12, because it is going to do very little to a Abrams.  But to a Hummer or a not upgraded Bradley or Stryker, the weapon is still dangerous.
 
That said, I am not going to be a happy soldier if I am told that WW2 era anti-tank gun is going to be my AT weapon to face off with modern tanks with...

Well, while not in game I  think it could probably kill a T-55, or T-62.  Last year during the Maiden protests the protesters got a hold of some of these and put them in the barricades.  I imagine that at the close ranges of a street battle it has a chance to knock out nearly anything the Ukranian government would send down the street.  HEAT rounds could probably threaten tanks without ERA defenses as well.  Still it is a museum piece and it doesn't look like something you move around very easily, but it can still kill people.  Soviet designed armored vehicles that aren't tanks, such as BMPs, BTRs, SPAAGs etc would all be easily knocked out.  The wiki article says that it can fire a guided missile which could possibly disable a Western tank.

That zealous brad gunner hung onto the trigger for another 7 rounds after his vehicle was hit with a kill shot, now that's dedication.