Bil Hardenberger

That looks like an anti-armor ambush to me... first round missed the BMP, second, from a different launcher, takes out the tank.

1000 pages.. what a landmark occurrence!! Too bad only about 250 of those are worth saving for posterity. Still, a worthy thread that will be mined by future historians for hundreds of years. Bil

Don’t have time to participate in the actual game, but I would be happy to jump in your thread and give some words of wisdom when I can. This is a great idea. Bil

The Spoiling Attack is supposed to be a wake up call.. you are supposed to learn that rushing in to an uncertain situation can be costly. The artillery in this scenario in particular is meant to canalize you into a certain path, where they can kill you better... if you ran into artillery right away then you drove into it... there is no artillery set to hit the blue player on the set up zone. I hope you take this campaign for what its meant to teach: how to husband your force, conduct a proper recon, follow proper tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP), including use of terrain masking, and most of all respect the enemy.. they are very capable in the NTC campaign... oh, and recon! If you continue with the campaign, your situational awareness and ability to deal with the OPFOR should be dramatically improved... that will be fully tested in the final exam scenario at Red Pass. Bil

@Ridaz, I will respond in the thread you started on this subject.

This is the first time I've seen a thread with over 1 million views. Amazing conversation, amazing and insightful contributors. Must be the best non-professional source on the war online.

Steve, thanks for this post... just finished reading it, and it has some real nuggets that are applicable to my "day job". Thank your buddy for his insights, and.. more detail like this please. Bil

@Rinaldi, this was intended to really push the player to the limit.. and it sounds like it did just that. You played it exactly like I had hoped someone would, using the terrain as a force multiplier. I purposefully and painstakingly built in all of the little wadis/gullies and other terrain features from satellite photos so this type of maneuver was possible, so I really appreciate your approach. Another really fun read.. I especially appreciate seeing an AAR of this battle, as very few people have reported on it... it can be a humbling scenario if you don't approach it in the manner you did, aggressively and with flexibility. Not sure if something is wrong with the scoring, or if the fact that the OPFOR attained their terrain objective is what pushed them over the top. Maybe @George MC can comment.

@IICptMillerII outstanding!

In my opinion, you can never scout too much... it is something that should be a constant focus, from first turn to last. Bottom line, I rarely enter a game with a plan in hand.. I only form a plan after I have done as thorough a recon as possible and uncovered as much about the enemy disposition as I can... still I do not stop there, even after I have decided on a course of action... I continue to scout, as the enemy is constantly reacting, or being proactive.. with out a plan to gain intel on those activities you will be taken by surprise and take unnecessary casualties. I have written a lot about this subject... here are some links to my blog posts that I think will help answer your questions.. or at least maybe get you to start thinking a little differently about what recon really means. Reconnaissance The Patience to See (written by @pnzrldr ) Command Push Recon Pull - my preferred method Platoon Scouts Listening Halts Masked Movement The Decision Process

@Rinaldi, at least they gave you a bit of a challenge this time. Your stuff is easy to read and your graphics are perfect. Well done.

@beeron has done an amazing job on this AAR. I love the floating icons too. There are so many high quality AARs getting posted recently, it is very nice to read and experience them.

Agreed.. I'd like to see how @Rinaldi approached the Red Pass defense.

Someone needs to build this out in CM.

@Rinaldi, you are creating a masterwork here. I have only skimmed this one, but really look forward to reading it and soaking up the detail. All the more interesting because this is one of my scenarios (with a LOT of help from @George MC ). Bil

We need to wargame this out Warren. There is some real cutting edge stuff happening in Ukraine right now, but offensive success, on both sides, is not where it is happening. I agree 100% that striking the enemy throughout its depth, but mainly in the rear and along the MSRs is the most effective and quickest way to break up an enemy offensive... it has worked for the Ukrainians over and over again in this war. I think there needs to be more work on how tactical (CM size) formations of Brigade-Battalion and below operate while on the offense... because frankly its at that level that both sides have had poor and underwhelming results so far... that is a missing ingredient that I think we can wargame and come up with a few possible concepts of employment... using distributed infantry forces, UAVs, artillery, rocket artillery, tanks (massed at key points and times), and information warfare. Those make up what I think of as the new-combined arms force and working out how they operate together would be an interesting experiment.

That’s one of the optional rules. Feel free to modify them as you like. I do see your point though, that a team or squad leader would be able to give his team these types of orders.

I haven't played CMRT in a while.. but when I did the BETA AAR for the game I used the Russian Infantry as follows (quote from my AAR): There is no reason you can't use proper tactics when playing the Russians in CM... you will need to watch them though as a split Russian squad becomes very fragile when out of C2. Many people will tell you that splitting Russian squads should not be allowed, but I contend that, especially by this point in the war, they must have used a fire and movement/squad attack drill type procedure when operating. The basic Russian Rifle squad is organized for it with an LMG Team, a Rifle Team, and an SMG Team. For more on basic tactics visit my CM tactics BLOG (link in my sig). Bil

@IanL - for your SA I have made some additions and small edits to these rules. I added "designer notes" (look for the green boxes) and cleaned up the rules slightly. The designer notes are intended to supply an explanation for some of the more controversial rules. I hope they do the trick. Post here if you have any questions or comments. Here are the basic rules - a formatted PDF Version available at this link This PDF includes all of the latest additions (version 2H) - UPDATED 01JUN22 Click the image to see full size. The following Advanced or Optional Rules also fit on one page, they are on page two of the PDF linked above. Click the image to see full size.

Beautiful work... brings a tear to my eye.

I’ll check this out this weekend!

Yeah sorry about that. CMCW work and the followon stuff, plus my new job really out the brakes on the blog posts. I do have one in progress that I need to concentrate on and finish up. Bil

Took the word right out of my mouth.

Second video is pretty good.. maybe at the end there, if the tank had used target light it would have had a better chance of suppressing that retreating SOF solder. The Russian lack of infantry really hurts them in these types of engagements obviously... and that is something that is not going to be easy for them to address.

The advantages with a hull down tank are with spotting... and probably the to-hit chance as well. I will always use hulldown when possible because I have too many examples of hulldown tanks dominating their side of a map and never being spotted (see any of my AARs for examples). As far as the hulldown commmand goes.. I have tried it out a few times, but I think it's a shortcut that I don't need, so I never use it, preferring to enter hulldown manually, I just feel more comfortable have the control of where my tank comes to a halt. It isn't the way you get into hulldown that is important, though, its that you ARE hulldown... if you are comfortable with the command, then by all means use it. Bil