Brad Sallows

Are the optional OPFOR attack helicopters employed? Assume the OPFOR regiment is the divisional main effort and assign the divisional aviation accordingly (6 aircraft?). For greater fun, strip out the Stingers. With the Canadian variants, the flavour differs remarkably.

The solution may not necessarily lie in implementation of direct fire at unknown targets. Alternate suggestions: 1) Provide a game option for an alternate artillery feature (selected at start of scenario). Retain current functionality as one option. The second option would be based on a requirement that the user specifically select a spotting unit when initiating a mission (marking a target), and that spotter would thereafter be highlighted whenever the corresponding artillery unit were being employed (ie. during an orders or artillery dialog). If the spotter has no direct LOS to the marked location, the fire would be subject to inaccuracy on its initial round, but thereafter would be corrected commensurate with movement of the TRP. Whenever the spotter has no LOS to the impact, only explosions would be heard (no visual marker). Allow the player to transfer spotting control between units. Allow the the player to choose between regular or harassing/suppression effect (the former being the current effect, the latter allowing for increased footprint and reduced effect). One highly significant benefit of this mechanism is that it would provide players with the ability to shift indirect fire to suppress targets in depth when assaulting a wooded or urban location; the current implementation simply results in fire which roams around a grid square. 2) Enhance reconnaissance capability. Units which remain in a fixed location should have a possibility of detecting enemy units in LOS which are not yet revealed. This could depend on the defender's terrain, the spotter's equipment (eg. thermal capability, radar, optics), and if the game in any way distinguishes recce-specific units, they should be more likely to successfully spot. Notwithstanding these suggestions, regarding the proposed feature: ? What to call the feature? "Area Fire" ? Perhaps similar in operation to the "Set DFTRP" button? Agree. ? Area fire will be very unlikely to kill hard targets such as armored vehicles? It will be reasonably likely to suppress and occasionally cause casualties to soft targets? Does anyone have data that would bear out a belief that random direct fire is likely to suppress, let alone cause casualties (or provoke a response) among reasonably disciplined troops, since TacOps adopts the general philosophy that all troops are highly capable (all-around spotting and acquisition, etc)? ? How much ground should a basic level unit or weapon be allowed to try to suppress? I suggest a 10m x 10m footprint for the basic level, based purely on gut feel. I don't believe the footprint should increase significantly (perhaps as the square root, assuming it would be applied linearly with insignificant increase in depth) with increasing assembled unit size but effect (eg. suppression/casualty probability) should increase. ? Probability tables...there should be a very low probability of getting anything other than transient suppression. Agree. ? One approach... How easily could the existing indirect fire model be used, with a restriction to prevent small arms from achieving kills on armoured targets? ? Since the standard target... Agree. ? A unit must remain stationary to execute Area Fire? Not necessarily, particularly for those units with stabilized main armament. ? A unit firing Area Fire become active, revealed, and or spotted the same as if it were doing normal fire? Agree. ? A unit firing Area Fire expends ammunition at the same rate as if it were firing normal fire? I would recommend less (and with proportionately less effect). I suspect most troops in a combat situation tend to maximum rates of fire when engaging known targets, but slower rates of fire tend to be ordered for suppression. ? A unit firing Area Fire expends more ammunition than it would if it were firing normal fire? Depends on rate and duration. ? A unit firing Area Fire will continue to do so until... Agree. Area fire used as covering fire would have a duration contingent on some other activity being completed, so the player must assume responsibility for control unless game effects (eg. being fired upon) intercede. ? In the case of unspotted infantry targets... Agree, except perhaps explosions should only be heard unless a friendly unit has a direct LOS to the location.

More suggestions...I have only played BG Fullerton, the Canadian version, which has no attack helicopters but provides more ATGW capability and, more importantly, a few more light mortars. 1) Smoke is the key. TacOps does not enforce ammo type limits within the total number of rounds for onboard artillery and mortars; I use 60mm strictly to fire smoke and almost never fire HE with the 81mm. Use smoke to isolate small portions of the encampment into easily assaulted chunks. Use it sparingly and carefully. Ensure you retain about 5 fire missions per group to help deal with the counterattack and 2 fire missions per group for the extrication, not to mention most of your 155 smoke. Screen the BTRs while you approach them with dismounted ATGW to blow them away. (All this usage probably exceeds realism in terms of effect and quantity, but sure makes the scenario easier - mind you, a commander might plan to take that much smoke.) 2) Left to their own devices, the snipers will take down most of the small teams (MG, SAM, etc) in the outposts along the wire while your ground assault is forming up. They need help only in the form of smoke. Use smoke to screen off targets not being engaged by the snipers; it is critical to screen off BTRs and PKMs. The snipers must be positioned to cover the bulk of the fence line with either some decent lines of fire into the depth of the encampment, or within a short move (2-3 turns) of a good secondary position. 3) There are some obvious positions where the ATGW can be sited to cover approaches from a distance which allows them to engage at long range (most importantly, remain outside MG range of BTRs), including the northwest hilltop (which restricts the enemy's approaches to elevation 0). If BTRs start to close with the ATGW, use smoke to give yourself one-way vision. 4) Save all air missions for the counterattack and time them to arrive in a single turn to reduce the effect of enemy SAMs (which should only be those SAMs in the counterattack force if you have used your snipers effectively). 5) My preference is to use the road along northing 009 in grid square 0100 as the DZ/assault line for one company, and the northeast edge of the woods in grid square 0102 for the other company. The disadvantage is that your force is separated for much of the scenario and you must carefully manage your indirect fire support, but the advantages are that your lift aviation can approach and depart unmolested, it enables you to quickly achieve all objectives, and provides excellent all-round defence when the counterattack arrives. 6) Your infantry, supported by 155 HE and mortar smoke, should be adequate to the task of clearing the objectives. The mounted and dismounted ATGW (and attack helicopters) must be set to brunting the counterattack. Even if your assault is not complete when the counterattack arrives in strength, you should be in a position to complete your assault purely with the infantry. 7) Extrication is greatly simplified with smoke.

To amplify on artillery: although TacOps does not let you bring down unobserved fire with much predictability, it does allow you to correct the point of aim beyond what is possible in real life. Thus the secret is to position some forces such that most of OPFOR's approaches into your deployment area are under observation, and attrit them (with artillery) while they are in march columns. This can be achieved by splitting your M3's into single-vehicle units. Either position some on the east edge of the deployment area and immediately move them eastward to increase your security zone (observation), or allow yourself to ignore deployment limits for the M3's and their infantry teams and position them east of the deployment area from the outset. Deploy dismounted infantry teams to one side of the potential approaches in rough ground or woods, and the vehicles likewise but only in woods. You should be able to set engagement ranges down to 100 or even 0 for the dismounts and use them as lay-back patrols; the M3's will eventually have to fall back since OPFOR will be able to spot them from a few hundred meters away. Position a couple of TRPs on each approach. Between the TRPs and your recce screen, you should be able to bring ICM right on top of some of those stacked BMP companies before they disperse, or even better get a battalion-sized grouping under the footprint of a MLRS fire mission. (For a more realistic challenge once you get the hang of estimating how much ground OPFOR will cover before your fire missions arrive, don't allow yourself to correct the point of aim when a mission has less than 60 seconds before arrival, and don't allow yourself to correct the point of aim of MLRS at all once it is requested.) Until then, you should find that a mission with 10-15 seconds left to arrival can be adjusted just on the leading edge of an enemy unit in order to hit it dead center. Even if you fail to get many kills, OPFOR will scatter out of march columns; this can also happen as OPFOR approaches an area in which you have been adjusting TRPs, so even the threat of artillery is useful - once the march columns scatter, the units tend to approach your main defense area in smaller (platoon-sized) groupings which are easier to nail in a single volley. Eventually, OPFOR will find and destroy your recce screen; deploying them off rather than right on the main approaches helps delay this inevitability. As a rule, I have learned to never try to get more than one ambush volley out of a position. Also, don't try to sneak into a new fire position with light armour (even in woods) at anything under about 2000-2500 meters, or you are likely to be spotted and nailed; fall back and try to maintain maximum engagement ranges with ATGMs. Use reverse slopes always. This does not literally mean that you always defend on the back side of a downward elevation change, but means conceptually that you deploy so that the enemy can not physically see you until he is within direct fire range of your weapons; it also includes deploying to one side of an OPFOR approach so that the flank you position toward the enemy's approach is covered from enemy view. This is effective when you manage to get OPFOR to scatter as noted above; ideally, small groups of enemy will trickle into your kill zones each turn to be blown away in a single volley (hard to achieve in practice), while the OPFOR covering forces further back are unable to physically see to engage you. Position your platoon HQ teams in forward slope positions (ie. where they can see the enemy coming at long range once OPFOR passes your recce screen) so that OPFOR can't surprise you in your MDA. Position a few tanks and/or M2's outside your main battle positions where they can nail the OPFOR recce screen (those 2-3 vehicle combat recce patrols that precede the main columns) well forward of your MDA - actually, the M3's are excellent for this once the infantry teams have been positioned as lay-back patrols. If you add aviation to the OPFOR orbat, make sure these forward elements are under your anti-air bubble. If you add aviation to your orbat, use it to assist in destroying the company-sized forward security elements between the combat recce patrols and the main body; then, retire it to your rear area to pick off enemy vehicles that make it through your MDA (aviation will have difficulty surviving the main defensive battle owing to the density of OPFOR SAMs). The sparsity of TacOps terrain makes it difficult to truly employ mobile defense in the face of ATGMs, especially if the OPFOR tanks also have ATGM capability. However, try to deploy in battle positions from which you have a covered (unobserved) route of escape to the next (fall-back) position. Infantry will often have no choice but to fight to the death if they have no vehicles to hand on which to escape; vehicles have a decent chance of being able to move to a new position. When playing the computer opponent, bear in mind the OPFOR artillery will arrive immediately on a position on the next turn after it is revealed (eg. fires something) if you didn't manage to kill off all the enemy that can see it.

Breaching by hand under fire is too time-consuming for the game time scale. Most AVLB (armoured vehicle launched bridges) could deploy in a few minutes (5-10) to span small gaps (ditches, small streams), but how many scenarios will feature deliberate assaults where this equipment was available or required? It is true that tactical minefields (large ones) were sown in areas where they were not necessarily covered by fire. However, in most cases it was normal practice to cover any type of obstacle with fire (direct or observed indirect).

I wasn't thinking about how each weapon/vehicle engages targets. Normally as a force commander one can issue orders for specific assets to be first priority for everyone in the force to engage when a variety of targets present themselves. For example, in some situation you might want all available weapons to engage tanks as first priority, in other circumstances you might want to engage APCs. If you are relying on aviation to take out the bulk of the enemy armour, you might want ground forces to attack enemy air defence weapons before any other target. I would rather be able to designate force-wide target priorities than to micromanage each unit by designating a particular target.

I've only played the commercial demo and am awaiting the CF version (I am a Canadian reservist). One feature I've missed as a "task force commander" is the ability to designate target priorities for the overall force by class of weapon/vehicle (in a broad sense). For example, it would be nice to be able to set my force-wide engagement priorities as air defence, APCs, tanks, artillery, etc.