Bil Hardenberger

As soon as the mortar fires stops or gets close to stopping on the Power Plant I am most definitely going to attack it with the dismounted 3rd MRC. As for the rest, Scott has shown that they have enough teeth to really hurt me so I will need to do something about them as well. But that is for a later time. I am thinking 3rd MRC and the Recon company will have to deal with them and keep them busy.

The Third Minute Note: Don't miss the two links to videos within the text below: A lot of action this turn.. so lets go around the field... starting with the ATGM that was left in the air at the end of the second minute... well, wouldn't you know that Scott was able to back that vehicle out of position before the missile struck. Damn! 2nd MRC: Activity is heating up opposite the 2nd MRC, a few new US contacts, one new Ukrainian BMP 2 (now for a total of 2 in this area), and an unseen grenade launcher tries its luck against one of the GL Platoon BMPs. This image shows the US team heading up the slope towards 2nd MRC... they are carrying a lot of radios and no Javelins (that I can see).. so maybe an FO or Air Controller team? This image shows the BMP3 that came under attack from an unseen grenade launcher.. there were a few penetrations but little damage and the vehicle was able to get out of the impact zone. He also spotted another US team maneuvering on the other side of the hill that 2nd MRC is climbing. Portions of 2nd MRC can be seen just over the engine deck of the BMP in this image. The unseen, unpotted grenade launcher team could be a problem. 2nd MRC also came under fire from Scott's Tunguska in the pocket.. no damage, but that thing is scary and unfortunately I don't have anything to engage it with. I will be placing some area fire on it myself next turn to try to make it back off at least. 1st MRC: There is still no activity in front of 1st MRC and the first units have gone over the top this turn and I have eyes on part of the zone on the other side of the hill. Next turn a few tanks will be moving to get eyes on the area between the two MRCs and hopefully engage those BMP2s and perhaps the US infantry teams. The Pocket Some excitement in the pocket this turn when I moved a BMP 3M forwards to engage an ATGM team. I thought this vehicle had Arena when I moved it forwards.. but unfortunately it did not.. sigh... oh well, live and learn. The BMP got two rounds off, one impacted in the trees well short, the second detonated right over the ATGM team, which nonplussed got a missile off, which flew true... watch the Some happiness in this turn however as Scott moved a Ukrainian observation vehicle forward into the sights of another BMP-3M... the 30mm gun on these things is murder... wish the other would have used the 30mm against the ATGM team.. would have turned out differently I think. Watch the I apologize for the low quality of this video. I will be pulling together an overall view of the action in my turn 4 report on the topo map used during my analysis. Some things are starting to become obvious.. enough that I can make a few determinations.

Sorry guys with the holiday looming I have not found enough time to finish my write up, image/video editing for turn 3.. so while you wait, here is a teaser: What Happens Next?

Turn 3 is an action packed turn and is taking me a bit longer to pull together than I expected.. so please be patient, I hope to get it up tonight.

hey John glad you popped in. Re: the map I showed at the beginning of the thread, I created that in Photoshop from map editor screenshots, etc. Sorry, not a game feature. You are probably correct, but I have played Scott many times before and have done quite well.. I admit that I am a poorer player with modern kit so expect to lose this one. However I will not make it easy for him. I expect the main fight to be fast moving and it will be near impossible to use preplanned fires effectively, that was my reasoning for expending my artillery assets on the pocket to keep their heads down and hopefully cause some casualties. I still have my rotor and fixed wing assets for combat support that I am saving for the big fight.

The Second Minute Here is the image of the hit decal that I promised earlier... Two sightings in front of 2nd MRC this turn, a Ukrainian BMP 2 and a US infantry team, not enough information to make any conclusions yet. I am however very nervous of any US team and getting hit by a Javelin, so I'll be area firing with a few grenade launcher teams to this team's front to try to keep their heads down if nothing else. The BMP 2 was spotted right at the end of the turn by one of my BMP 3s which fires an ATGM which ends the turn in flight.. ARRGGH!! In the pocket, one of the ATGM teams gets hit hard by artillery and BMP fire with at least one casualty... next turn I plan on moving a BMP 3 into a hull down position to take the other ATGM team under fire... should be protected by Arena if my recon team suppression fire falls short no?

Yeah, well if you are going to play this game best to get used to that. For all I know Scott could be lining all of my important vehicles up for long range Javelin shots and I wouldn't know it until they hit. :eek:

Yes, in fact there is one on the rear of that BMP.. I'll show it when I post the next turn tonight.

You know I've been using and creating gifs for years, but never thought about using them in an AAR until I saw Sergei do it in the BETA forum. So I stole the idea from him

The First Minute In the first turn 1st MRC moved quickly forward, the terrain in this area is very restrictive to vehicles so the infantry will be taking the lead as they pass over the top. 2nd MRC quickly converged on the hill to their front as well. The first turn was nervous due to their initial setup and the distance they had to travel. This movement was not without trouble as one of the rear most BMPs took an ATGM from one of the ATGM teams inside the pocket: I should have popped smoke at the beginning of this movement. Live and learn. Following is the intel I have received.. I only spotted units within the pocket this turn. Note that Ukrainian units are in blue, US are in green... I will maintain this color coding throughout the battle report. Note the 152mm fire impacting on the town.. the on map mortars only started to fire at the end of the turn with several rounds in the air.

Yeah I only use Photoshop for my still graphics and Premiere Pro for my videos. There used to be a free version of Photoshop available on line from Adobe. You'll have to search to see if that's still out there.

Thanks Vin.. yeah like I said in an earlier post.. my first impression was that it looks like I was set up to fail in this one. Maybe the forces are balanced enough to make it interesting, but I don't know.. placing a company sized element in the town and then a large relieving force, already known to be about a company (+) in size on the map, with US reinforcements coming... heh.. well, I'll do the best I can with what I have.

Not really I imagine it'll engage them just like any other aircraft. We'll just have to wait and see how it works.

Well that image is at my screen resolution so if you are zooming in on it then you are getting an inaccurate idea of what I am seeing.

INTENT My intent in this battle is to engage Scott as far forward as possible to negate some of his advantages, I want to stay mobile and maintain the initiative, at least until the force against me gets too overwhelming. Then I will transition into a delay operation and attempt to survive the onslaught. I will not be assaulting the pocket, I want to suppress and attrit them with artillery fire and will be expending all of my indirect fire assets on this task. I only want to attempt to keep their heads down. I have invested the pocket with a ring of reconnaissance units to keep an eye on it and give me some warning of a breakout attempt. 1st and 2nd MRCs each with one Tank Platoon (TP) will be quickly moving forward toward the relief force into the best covered routes where I expect Scott to advance. If I have an advantage in this area now I want to seize on that... it’s a gamble and could cost me the battle if he has M1s on the map from the beginning or if he has a US Cavalry Troop... but I have to engage them sooner or later, might as well do it on my terms. 1st MRC is deployed tightly on my left flank, 2nd MRC will be initially deployed in great depth in order to hopefully deceive Scott as to their intention… they will rush into the wooded area in the center of the map and toward Scott’s forces. I expect this deployment might leave a few of them open to fire from the pocket, but I hope that is minimal. Note that 1st MRC’s deployment if detected by Scott (highly likely) might just make the terrain to its front less than ideal for him to advance into. 1st and 2nd MRCs will each have a Tunguska for protection against enemy air. I will be positioning the GL platoon and the ATGM section to protect the flanks of 2nd MRC’s area of operation (AO) and the right flank of 1st MRC’s AO. 3rd MRC (dismounted) will be in position around the Power Station objective and will eventually be tasked with seizing it. The remaining Tank Platoon and the TC commander’s tank are being held in reserve. I am saving my fixed and rotary wing assets for future developments.

TROOPS Prior to discussing my force I wanted to mention that I know that Scott has an intelligence advantage, though how much is unknown. I need to attempt some misdirection in my setup to keep him from discerning my initial intent from any UI contacts he might have. The order of battle of my force is as follows: • Reconnaissance Company ---o x2 Platoons mounted on Tigr ---o x1 Platoon mounted on BMP3M (Arena) Tigr • 1st Motorized Rifle Battalion (MRB) ---o 1st MR Company (MRC) on BMP3M (Arena) ---o 2nd MRC on BMP3M (Arena) ---o 3rd MRC – dismounted ---o Grenade Launcher Platoon ---o ATGM Section on 9P157-2 Khrizantema BMP3M 9P157-2 Khrizantema • 1st Tank Company (TC) ---o x3 Platoons on T90AM (APS) (10 tanks) T90AM • Support ---o x2 2K22M Tunguska (SPAA) ---o x2 120mm Mortar Batteries (on map) (6 tubes) ---o 152mm Howitzer Battery ---o x2 Ka-52 ---o x2 SU-25M ---o x2 Ammo Dumps ---o x5 TRPs 2K22M Tunguska I do not expect any reinforcements, so force preservation is a must. This is a capable force, though even with 10 T90AM tanks I wonder how I am going to deal with a couple platoons of M1A2 SEPs… that could be problematic, especially against Scott who understands like nobody else the strengths and weaknesses of his equipment and the capabilities of mine. NOTE: Keep in mind that this is a BETA and I suspect most vehicle textures are still works in progress.. I am avoiding showing some, and being careful how I show what I am as there are still some issues.

Thanks Alex, I run the game on an i7 Alienware M17 with 16GB RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 660M

Here is the BMP without image scaling... you might see some anti-aliasing issues, but I never notice them and can never understand what all the fuss is about.

Most of you are probably aware but I just started a CMBS BETA AAR, I am maintaining all of the links to each entry on the blog: CMBS Battle Report

I will be maintaining links to each entry as this scenario unfolds on my Battle Drill Blog

Okay.. but this is the last one for today: I present the BMP 3M with Arena:

TERRAIN Looking at the terrain (3 km x 2.4 km) there are a few lanes that seem like obvious avenues of approach for Scott’s relief force. I suspect his units in the pocket will hunker down in the urban and close terrain and await my attacking force. Overall the terrain, though predominantly flat, is rolling and I expect that there will be few long range gun/ATGM duels. The terrain in the upper left corner is the most open, and unless Scott is fielding M1s off the bat I do not expect him to advance through this area in the opening stages of the battle. The terrain in the pocket is dense, urban, and dangerous to an attacker. There couldn't be worse terrain to attack into. ENEMY What do I know about the enemy force? I know that the encircled element is composed of the Ukrainian "4th Home Guard Company" (of uncertain composition) and a "reconnaissance element" (of unknown size and composition) from the "US 3rd Infantry Division and Armored cavalry elements". The relief force is composed of one mixed company of "Ukrainian infantry and armor" (suspected to be mechanized) , and "elements of the US 3rd Infantry Division Brigade Combat Team" (BCT). So at least one Ukrainian company team, and I have no idea how strong of a force the US Army is bringing to the party. I do know that I will be facing M1A2 SEP tanks of an uncertain number at some point. Sobering. Note: quoted unit identifiers above are directly from the scenario briefing.

MISSION My forces have bypassed enemy elements in and around the town of Krichek. I am expected to eliminate the forces that are trapped in the pocket and then deploy in defense against whatever is coming to save them. I am to screen the path of the relieving force with my reconnaissance elements.

Thanks Miquel, yeah I could get into trouble quickly.. a pocketed company sized force is nothing to sneeze at, especially with what I will be bringing to the table. By the way, this battle is already underway, analysis is complete, initial orders finished, and first couple of turns exchanged. My analysis will be posted over the weekend... I also saw many pitfalls with this setup.. and my first response was: "I've been set up to fail".. but I love a challenge, and lose I may, but I hope my approach to this battle will at least surprise and entertain.

Or, as Patton said: Really Ken, I think you might be a reincarnation of the old bastard.