James Sterrett

It dawned on me I ought to clarify one thing: the scenario will work better is the players are fairly stable; players popping in and out like popcorn won't be such a good thing. Thus, if you're likely to be playing only briefly, think about coming by and joining as an observer instead. You'll still see what's going on, but you won't be in command of any units.

Anybody can join, yes. Actually, I'd think it would be pretty rude of me to post the announcement publically if I planned to allow only a pre-selected few to play.

It's been way too long since I ran a CPX. Tomorrow just opened up; so I'm running one. Start-time is 15.00 GMT (10:00AM Eastern); teams will be issued orders at that time and will have 20 minutes to give their initial orders. Teams will be the ever-popular Red and Blue. I haven't chosen the map yet or, in fact, generated the scenario. So no further details are yet furthcoming! 8) IRC Server: schlepper.hanse.de, port 7024, primary channel #tacops Fallback server: www.combatmission.com port 7023

- You need IRC. Look for IRCLE, that's what MacPeople seems to like. (mIRC for PC.) IRC is actually quite simple to use. Trust me. - As a player, you'll need to sign onto the IRC site designated by the umpire. Then launch TacOps and start a Multiplayer Internet Game - Join. Choose the map and scenario designated by the umpire. - When instructed to do so, select the "Network - Join Network Game" menu item. Put in the IP address given to you by the umpire, and put in your IRC screen name. Click Join. - You're in! Virtually all of the complex stuff comes for the umpire, really.

Thanks for explaining. Don't even start on the re-calc for my sake... I tend not to like buying forces by points in any event.

Interesting concept. does Opfor score less for kills because the Canadian force is less capable?

For the most part, and hour or two. I ran into a few gotchas a while after - the biggest was something with helicopter transport. I don't recall the details exactly, but I think it involved a help window which, if clicked away, meant the program assumed you no longer which to designate a landing zone and thus the helo transport order aborted. 8(

Actually, for small nukes, you can use the bombs with a large blast radius. You miss out on a lot of the secondary effects, but you assume both a lot of hardened electronics, an airburst that minimizes the dust, and ignore progressive radiation casualties, you do at least simulate the blast.

Ruthless: I found that DA's interface did take some getting used to. [There are three really hard-core modern wargames on the market: TacOps, DA, and ATF (which is a major upgrade to BCT). TacOps has the best interface by a long shot. ATF is supposed to have a much better interface but I have not spent any real time with it yet.] However, I do not find it *boring*. It focuses on a higher level of war; if you want to see individual tanks explode, you're looking in the wrong place. If you want to worry about orchestrating division- and corps- level operations, then it's extremely good. Part of DA's learning curve is the interface, but even more so is the sheer complexity of the tasks handed to you. [ November 22, 2002, 05:00 PM: Message edited by: James Sterrett ]

Get both. For a taste of TacOps, try the demo (download it from ftp://ftp.battlefront.com/pub/demos/tacops4/tacops4demo_i.exe (Windows - I presume you do not have a Mac since DA is not out for the Mac AFAIK.) I wrote a review of Decisive Action for GDR: http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/reviews/pc/aug01/da.html

Regarding reading on Soviet tactics, try the rough draft on RT's website: http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacops/HQ/files/sovtac.zip (in zip format) Or use this link: http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacops/HQ/text/intel.html and scroll down to the Russia/USSR section for a Mac version. Let me know if you have questions on it; I apolgize for its state of incompleteness.

Oh come on, Redwolf - we've gotten the network running on schedule on some occasions! 1.5 hours at a time is an impediment, I'll admit, for the games with pre-planning. You could certainly drop in and observe for a bit. On the other hand, the games that sometimes get run (they were common in testing) which allow anybody to drop in, grab some tanks, and have at it, won't be much harmed by players coming and going with every change in the wind.

Not necesarily. As CO, I had artillery, logistics, air defence, and a bunch of random infantry teams. Artillery, of course, had priority and I could usually get through its fires, even at the height, in about 1/2 to 3/4 of the time I had. For a while, logistics had the next priority, until I decided I was safe from CB and lumped all the logpacks with the firing batteries. (Thought this introduced another coplication later when our mortars ran out of ammo and neded to move to the logpacks; I moved them as they ran out of ammo, so this was spread out.) Resupply of arty ammo became a priority as and when batteries came close to running out of ammo. Moving the air defence came nxt, as and when I had new ideas on plans to nail those ehlicopters. In and around this, I plopped the infantry in new locxations to better provide last ditch defence of our HQ. A lot of this involved knowing what was important and what needed to happen next. It'sa true that with units in frequent (they were in occasional) combat I'd not have had enough time unless I sequenced things better: combat units begin moving up, then arty prep gets put on target and started; then the combat units move out, and so on. As it was I was petty ad hoc about sequencing after dealing with artillery.

Nothing to add to Redwolf's comments in most respects - they mirror what I'd post up. Just to note that I'm a big fan of tight time limits, both as a player and as an umpire; IMO the fact that we are are forced to think ahead (plotting for multiple turns, prioritizing tasks) is fun.

This is the Red Commander's AAR for the game that Drew Slaggg set up and Redwolf eventually hosted, on Nov 9 2002. Red Players: We had a lot of players that came and went. My apologies if somebody goes missing from this list, and I'm pretty sure several have. 8( Goran Semb Dan Fraser Henk Stoffers Brian Oliver Redwolf Tim Harmon Macinlew Randy Martin Sgt Casey Mission: --------- Chief Freedom Fighter-- A little background on who you are and why you're doing this: As Leader of "Fighters for Freedom from Tyranny" or F4T you hold in your hands the future of every Man, Woman, and Child. Recognizing that the corrupt actions of a Western-based economic structure is bound to destroy all of civilization, you are determined to bring this economic tyranny to a halt through a series of actions. Your exploits lately include... (snip) However, three days ago, one of your high ranking officials was captured by Western Military Forces on the way to his mistress's home in Vierstadt. It was at first hoped that He was able to die honorably without divulging any information about your Family. Recent troop movements have proved otherwise. A large force of UN armor and troops was seen by a loyal informant travelling south on what could only be a path seeking your destruction. Your current HQ, located at Grid 1103, is the likely target. Terrain models suggest the likely axis of advance of the interlopers as approaching from the west. While the current makeup of the Enemy's force is unknown, several loyal witnesses have described endless lines of "many, many tanks and many large guns with very long barrels". Initial unit placement: No further West than Easting 11 No further North than Northing 04 HQ initial placement in Industrial Complex, vicinity of Grid 1103. HQ may be displaced to Dreistadt suburb, vicinity of Grid 139059, no sooner than 0715Zulu and no later than 0720Zulu. Thereafter, HQ displacement restricted to a 2km zone from initial placement. HQ displacement time restriction will only apply to when the displacement begins. Mission Objective: Prevent the capture/destruction of F4T HQ. Destroy the Infidels. Further the glory of F4T and spread your doctrine among the native civilian population. You may order the placement of 5 minefields, placement no further West than Easting 07. ------------- We were later assigned an extra mission: "A group of Foreign Dignitaries are in the area meeting with the local government. Government officials, upon hearing of the impending conflict, have requested your aid in the evacuation of the Dignitaries and government Officials. They have promised that when the safety of the evacuees is assured, any local forces available will aid you in the coming conflict. The evacuees will be awaiting pick up just West of Sechstadt, vicinity of grid 0501." We accidentally translated this into "they will be *in* the town", which may have cost us the pickup when we wasted time on trying to find them there. Planning: I broke the units into a set of task forces: Sterrett: no units TF South: 10 T-80U 20 BMP 30 infantry squads 8 infantry teams 9 AT-5 ATGM 20 PKM MG 7 AGS-17 2 motorbikes 3 trucks 2 SA-16 5 minefields TF North: 30 BMP 30 infantry squads 11 AT-5 ATGM 20 PKM MG 9 AGS-17 2 motorbikes 3 trucks 2 SA-16 TF Backstop: 21 T-80U 6 Leo 2A5 13 BMP 10 infantry squads 2 AT-5 2 AGS-17 10 PKM MG TF Recon: 8 BRDM-2 1 motorbike 9 infantry teams 4 PKM MG TF Rear: All logpacks Our Glorious HQ 4x ZSU-23-4 (will arrive after game start) 3x SA-16 18 infantry squads 10 trucks TF Artillery: All artillery and mortars (18 of each) Taskings... You'll note I have no units. That means I'm going to be completely dependent on you guys for news on our own situation. Please do take the time to report in during the turn exchanges. 8) I will see spotted enemy units, so you don't need to report them specially. If there's something of note about one, then please do bring it to my attention! TF Missions: TF South is responsible for the area south of 04 northing. Per prior discussion, attempt to push forward to discomfit the enemy, ambush and destroy their forces. TF North is responsible for the area north of 04 northing. Move northwards rapidly form the assembly area and deploy to defend. TF North and South should work out covering their boundary area. TF Backstop is the main reserve. It should deploy into our rear in backstop defensive positions. If the enemy air threat is either small or neutralized, then it should be ready to counterattack. TF Rear is responsible for air defence, rear area security, logistics, and final defence against an enemy attack. You are responsible for moving the HQ safely from its initial location to the alternate location at 139059. TF Recon should work out ahead of TFs North and South (might be a race in both cases) and try to suss out what the enemy is doing. Drop quiet observation posts and let us know how screwed we are, please. 8) At this time, I plan to take over TF Recon when David has to leave; chances are there will be little of it and less for it to do by that time. 8( This isn't the world's most detailed order, because we've been over a lot of this before. If any of you have questions or need further guidance, then please let me know; you've been left a lot of latitude intentionally but if you feel uncomfortable with that then I'll get more detailed. In addition, please post your planning to all of us so that we all know what each subunit is planning. It's my intent to get an ops overlay done this weekend, detailing various battle positions. Goran, if you can get your mine plan to me, I'd like to include the minefields on that. Everybody, if there are battle positions you feel you are particularly likely to use, let me know and I'll include them. ------------------ We were fairly worried about blue airpower throughout planning. Blue UAVs could have spotted artillery into our rear and Blue helos or airstrikes could soften us up. In the event, it turned out that Blue did irritate us with airpower, but not as we had envisioned. 8) What happened: First, we spent some six hours getting nowhere. People couldn't stay connected through the initial updates or the first turn. Eventually, frustration got to the point where the notion arose of either my or Redwofl's hosting the game instead. Redwolf became the host and things improved a great deal. The constant flux in players on our side meant frequent changes in command. Our TF North commander, Brian Oliver, had to go shortly before the game got moving for real; somebody (I forget who, I'm afraid) took over, but didn't have the planning for TF North. The TF moved out but neglected the 04/05 northing area. Just as the TF began to make contact, that player left and Henk Stoffers returned. On his earlier departure I'd taken over artillery, and with that figured out I figured it would be less disruption for Henk to take TF North. The upshot of all these changes: TF North moved out slowly, did not reach its areas in the time planned, and fought an initially confused battle. This was not helpful for us. 8) TF South had the same commander throughout the game (Goran Semb), but was working in conjunction with a brand-new TF Rear commander. TF Rear had been assigned the task of actually getting the dignitaries. We did, however, get our forces dropped into their battle positions and more or less deployed for defence. Meanwhile, Blue was surprising us by smoking the heck out of numerous locations in the far west. Turns out they had been told we would be there. I carefully refrained from artillery spotting rounds farther east, hoping to assist in whatever (then unknown to me) confusion was taking place.) Blue ran a really good recon battle. Small groups of tanks, PCs, and infantry slowly wormed their way forward and through our security positions and destroyed them, with much help from mortar fire. The fight went well enough for them that I occasionally wondered if fog of war was off for them! Full points to blue for this. 8) Blue also used its only two airstrikes of the day in recon attempts on our rear. The irritating thing Blue did with airpower involved the use of 4 Blackhawk helicopters which would move in, disgorge infantry from NOE in the orders phase, and then fly away safely. The counter for this, of course, was to have mortars ready to pound on the infantry thus dropped off, but it took a while for me to have that properly set up, and soon after I did the character of the battle changed. Blue periodically showed slightly larger forces, in the south, then the north, then the center. We'd about convinced ourselves that they had figured out our weakness in the center when a battalion or more began to appear in the south. TF South and Backstop hastily reorganized to stop this force, while the artillery prepared to stomp it; the tube artillery ammo had been carefully preserved awaiting such an opportunity - and better still, the enemy force was heading straight into a kill zone stoppered with a minefield. To our delight, the enemy bunched this battalion into an area the size of two 122mm splash zones and thus permitted me to play ICM all over it while our missiles and local infantry units worked over it as well, turning the small valley into a large barbecue grill. The fly in the ointment? First, some of our missile units had "pop smoke on firing" set, and vehicle smoke blocked thermals - and the range was such that the smoke promptly blocked the vehicle's own shot. Argh! This cost us, by my count, at least 20 missile shots. So some of the enemy force drove northeast out of the trap and started advancing into a forest which contained more of our infantry waiting to pop enemy vehicles with RPGs. Meanwhile, in the north, another enemy force appeared. Better coordination on Blue's part might have overwhelmed one flank or the other, but as the attack in the south moved out of LOS the one in the north moved into it, and the steel rain shifted north, again inflicting mass casualties. As this was going on, we hit the point of exhaustion for the Blue CO (Matt Ohlmer) and the game ended. Blue had a bit over two companies in the south of the map, and the better part of a battalion in the north. Our forces were chewing on those in the south and TF Backstop was moving to counter the threat in the north (which was also under the steel rain of ICM.) Blue's mission turned out to have been to capture our HQ with minimal losses, specified in debrief as 10-20%. Loss stats from the end (note that the Red loss stats include 30 BMP, 30 infantry, 10 AT5, 9 AGS17, 2SA16, and 20 PKM MGs that were never in the game: TF North disappeared at one point (rated "dead" by the game) and was added back in) -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Status: UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED Tank, M1A1D..................... 116 49 67 0 Inf, Scout Team................. 28 19 9 0 ATGM, Javelin Team.............. 72 57 15 0 APC, M3 Bradley CFV............. 28 10 18 0 Mortar, Carrier 120mm M1064..... 30 30 0 0 Howitzer, SP 155mm M109......... 6 6 0 0 APC, M113....................... 8 8 0 0 Inf, Team....................... 104 91 13 0 Helo, UH60 Blackhawk............ 4 2 2 0 Logistics Package............... 20 19 1 0 Truck, Cargo 5t M923............ 6 5 1 0 FAASV, Arty Ammo Supply Veh M992 3 3 0 0 APC, M2 Bradley IFV............. 104 51 53 0 Inf, Sniper Team................ 2 1 1 0 RECV, SpPz Fennek............... 4 4 0 0 ATGMV, JgPz Jaguar 1 HOT........ 4 2 2 0 APC, SPz Marder 1A3............. 14 10 4 0 ATGM, PzAbwTrp Milan............ 5 5 0 0 Inf, PzGrenGrp.................. 9 7 2 0 Tank, KPz Leopard 2A5........... 14 8 6 0 Civil, x1 Dignitary............. 5 5 0 0 Civil, x1 Government............ 10 10 0 0 Force Lethality Value, Start: 34334 Force Lethality Value, Now: 20677 Casualty percentage: 39 Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1.5:1 Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1.6:1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Red Status: UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED APC, BRDM2...................... 6 0 6 0 Inf, Team....................... 14 9 5 0 Inf, MG 7.62mm PKM Team......... 73 34 39 0 LUV, Motorcycle................. 7 0 7 0 ATGMV, BRDM2 Spandrel........... 9 0 9 0 APC, BMP2 IFV................... 93 20 73 0 Tank, T80U...................... 31 23 8 0 Inf, Squad...................... 118 65 53 0 Inf, AGL AGS17 Team............. 27 15 12 0 Tank, KPz Leopard 2A5........... 6 6 0 0 ATGM, AT5 Spandrel Team......... 33 16 17 0 Howitzer, SP 122mm Type83....... 18 18 0 0 Mortar, SP 120mm 2S9............ 18 18 0 0 SAM, SA16 Gimlet................ 9 5 4 0 Truck, Cargo 6mt................ 19 15 4 0 AAA, SP 23mm ZSU-23-4........... 4 4 0 0 Inf, HQ Command................. 1 1 0 0 Logistics Package............... 10 10 0 0 Force Lethality Value, Start: 22476 Force Lethality Value, Now: 12927 Casualty percentage: 24 Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1:1.5 Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1:1.6 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Point results: Blue Attrition Points - 5527 Red Attrition Points - 13661 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Lessons learnt: Blue's losses had soared in the period of the assault, given the units bunched up under artillery in both north and south, and were on track to continue to do so. The game was judged a Red win. Blue figures it did pretty well given the correlation of forces, which is true; but they had enough force to keep us pretty worried the whole time! Three mistakes on Blue's part: - Stopped the recon battle early. This, apparently, they had no choice about. The recon battle was very well done by Blue, and we were losing it. - Bunching up in the face of our artillery, which cost them them a lot of losses. - Arguably, and paradoxically in light of the bunching problem, insufficient concentration. They had some 230-250 combat vehicles to our ~150 AT systems (remember, 30 of the BMPs and 10 of the AT5s listed in the charts above never existed) , and were adept at leveraging their helos into placing Javelins within firing range of our defences to snipe at our vehicles. Had all of their weight come against one of our flanks, and kept pressing forward at speed while maintaining adequate dispersion, we'd have been shattered. Mistakes on Red's part: - Fear of deep air activity led us to over commit air defence in the depths; it was needed at the front. I was not speedy in repairing this error once spotted. We overestimated how effective our AD fires would be against Blackhawks, which survived an awful lot of fire once we finally did get them in our AD's sights! - Disruption surrounding the replacement of the TF North commander made us critically weak in the center, on the boundary between TFs North and South. Trying to compensate for this without moving TF North, by using lines of fire to the south, led us to leave it heavily committed into a small space in the north where it was pounded with artillery. - Better understanding of the dignitaries goal would have meant we could reorient to use more force in the area and accomplish that objective. We mostly blew the objective off, in the end. - Improper use of pop-when-fire SOPs cost us numerous missile shots around the map, especially in the south. In the north, Blue apparently was most entertained by its ability to shut down our missile shots with its own smoke shots. Part of the answer to the latter is artillery, but during the recon battle I rarely had a target worth shelling. - We needed to have thought more clearly about interlocking the AT fires of our forward strongpoints so that each protected the other and also protected the infantry eyes; and still allowed for maneuver to avoid artillery retaliation. We also needed to be more willing to pull back from our most forward positions and lure blue forward into killing zones. Lessons on running the game: Well, the lesson is stick it out. Eventually the problems cleared up! More technical lessons are probably for someone else to explain, but I'm realizing I really do need to make a v4 CPX FAQ, since the v3 and prior version is completely out of date for these new style games. [ November 10, 2002, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: James Sterrett ]

It isn't perfect, but you can use the Change Units menu item to alter defending Red units into their Blue equivalents. Fire up one of the Blue Attack scenarioms change Red into blue units, and build any force for yourself you want....

It looks very nice, but it's actually a pain to play on in places. Try finding the boundary between high and low ground in the region of 06/03. I believe Darius (the mapmaker) is actually looking into converting it into the style of his other maps (such as the 570 series).

Those TDGs are usually quite clever. Very cool idea.

"I’m getting the feeling that some people think that using BPs, TRPs, and other Graphic control measures are not worth the use." Heh - I'm not on that boat, either. A good overlay is a wonderful thing and certainly does speed up communications - but only the very best overlays mean you don't wind up using grids for something the loverlay doesn't quite cover. The vest thing is to have *both*.

They are essential in multiplayer.

Normally, observers see everything, everywhere. The umpire has the option of creating a neutral unit for an observer, but while we've discussed the concept this hasn't actually been done yet that I know of.

Oz: sorry, I misinterpreted your comment that "Hub, had to leave the CPX on the Blue side. So it will be up to Slaggg to let Jeff Gilbert join the Blue Team."

Dear Mr. Ex-Blue-CO: we'd be happy to discuss the intensity of our planning process in exchange for information on Blue's deployments.

I think you're missing two things in your plan: 1) There's o way to "quickly transfer" units. The umpire has to find the units and change the PINs, then update the relevant players. While this happens - say 30-45 seconds ignoring the time to organize the event - those players cannot do anything (because any orders given will be lost in the update). If you assume the turn time limit is 60 seconds, those two players now have 15 seconds to give orders, or you've given everybody else a bonus 30-45 seconds of orders-giving. In any event, multiple events of this type slow the game down. Second, all players see all spotted enemy units. In terms of seeing the enemy, there's no advantage to liaison units. They're good for seeing *friendly* units. If you can handle the uncertainty and delay of replying on reported positions and states, then you'll have more mental clock cycles, as CO, to worry about how the overall battle is going: what is the enemy doing? How are we countering it? Should we commit the reserve? and so on....

The problem is workload. given enough time and effort, the CO can get a great picture. However, the time and effort taken to get a great picture may be better spent getting an OK picture and then concentrating on orchestrating the battle - kind of along the lines of Patton's comment on "a good plan now is better than a great plan next week". CPX experience is pretty much absolute that the CO should command as few actual units as possible. Dedicated artillery officers have practically always performed better than the CO doing the artillery alongside everything else; once you sink your teeth into it, providing maximally effective fire support is a big job. As a v4 CO, I've tried to have liaison units that ran around with subordinate formations. It's a lot of work to make them keep up. If they get near the front line, they die. If they stay safe, then they don't see enough. It's simpler and just as effective to hand the units to the local commander and get a report - much the same process as in prior versions of TacOps, really. Breaks aren't completely impossible, either. If nothing else, there's the file-exchange times which usually run for 1.5 minutes or more.