I realized from another post in this forum that some people wanted to know what CPXes are about or how to use seemingly battle uneffective units in TacOps, so here the AAR (After Action Review) for a CPX I held two weeks ago and which was quite interesting in the way we tried to make full use of TacOps capabilities. Enjoy!
Rattler.
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This is the umpire AAR for the CPX held JAN 31, 2004, featuring a Canada vs. GENFORCE engagement.
Custom scenario Canda CMBG, Map109c
Umpire Matt Ohlmer (aka Rattler)
Co-Umpire Paul Csokay
Team Canada:
Mike Veniez (CO), BLUE force color
Gary Chilcote (XO, S3), GREEN force color
Javier Surroca, YELLOW force color
Jens Sarton, ORANGE force color
Team GENFOR
Martiinc Cracauer (CO)
John Osborne (XO)
Matt Fortino
Peter Gower
Replays via my replays page at http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/dls/cpx_replays.html
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CONTENTS:
1. Map
2. Setup
2.a. Background Scenario
2.b. CPX Scenario
2.c. GENFOR Scenario
2.d. CANADA Scenario
3. Game Mechanics
3.a. Introducing a new Recon Concept to CPXing
3.b. Detections and Support Mechanics
3.b.1. GENFOR Probability Tables
3.b.2. Canada Probability Tables
4. How it went
5. Lessons Learned
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1. MAP
Map 109 ( download at http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/dls/map109c.zip ) is a 21x13 map which I constructed over the last year and which I hope to be a new General Purpose map like map1.
It can be played NS or EW wise, also from the middle to the edges or vice versa and holds a series of objectives like a factory, and airport, a port which can be used for unlading boats also a railway station and several towns. Terrainwise it presents everything form steep cliffs to wide planes and lightly broken terrain.
Texture follows the map 1 textures, it should be easy to read.
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2. SETUP
When laying out the CPX I had four things in mind, I wanted to
- feature a small series of 2 or 3 CPX battles embedded in a larger overall scenario exploring GENFORCE doctrine with each successive CPX basing on the outcome of the one before
- introduce a new map (map 109c)
- introduce a new recon concept to CPXing
- simulate RL communications issues like radio silence and loss of comms because of terrain masking
2.a. Background Scenario
POLAND, vicinity WLOCLAWEK/TORUN, River VISTULA. JAN 2010:
political bkgnd: http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacops/MBX/Globalthunder/Text/international.html
sitmap: http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacops/MBX/Globalthunder/Maps/Poland/Poland.GIF
GENFORCE 5th Shock Army, together with 1st and 22nd Combined Arms Army in a swift attack have pressed NATO Forces to make a stand at the river VISTULA. The first echelons have almost achieved a breakthrough in the main axis of attack, NATO situation is precarious. GENFORCE 2nd echelons are about to enter battle to complete the breakthrough, most NATO reserves have been committed to defend along the river. While airspace over the MBA is still contested, GENFOR has achieved air superiority on the flanks of the main axis of attack.
In this situation GENFORCE High Command has decided to execute an encirclement move into NATOs rear on the southern flank of the main axis of attack with the intent to cut the flow of reserves into the MBA and has tasked a dedicated Army OMG (54 MRD) to advance rapidly westwards and secure the advance of the encirclement move as the outher front. To disguise intent and achieve the necessary surprise 54 MRD has assembled some 100 km SE of the MBA in a typical 2nd echelon formation ready to deploy to the MBA.
2.b. CPX Scenario
Sector 109 is located around 200 km south of the main axis of attack in the MBA and has been quiet so far. Terrain is characterized by steep ountains and canyons making radio communications very difficult.
The sector is occupied by a small Canadian security force garrisoned in the center of the map.
54 MRD tasked a RD to reconnoitre this sector for enemy forces composition and for possible river crossings and a general route of advance for the main OMG body.
2.c. GENFOR Scenario
GENFOR had the task to reconnoitre the sector 109, the basic problem was that they had no map (starting out on blank map) and had to find out about terrain. GENFOR was briefed as follows, in two briefings:
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1st briefing:
-snip- overall scenario -snip-
You find yourself in command of the Divisions Recon Detachment (RD) with assigned Regimental Recon Group (CRP) tasked to recconoitre sector 109 for possible advance of the division through it.
You have a big problem, though:
Just before you took command, in a series of airstrikes, not only was taken down the command net and staff net (which means you are not able to contact Higher until the nets are back up), but also your mobile CP and the RD commander, and with him all prepared INTEL material, from maps over HVT descriptions, possible routes of advance, etc. (modelled by you starting out with an almost blank map which will get updated through overlays bit by bit as you advance)
So, all you know about this sector you have had to extract from your people that had actually seen the material, here is to what it sums up:
Sector 109 is characterized by steep mountaineous terrain, divided vertically by the VISTULA river, in the approximate map center there is a big town with a port and other facilities. Also, roughly in the SW , there is located an airport which - if found operative - we would want to deny to enemy or even use ourselves.
Your MISSION:
Enter Sector 109 from the east and within 3 hours provide Division with following information:
- Topographical: Find good routes for our manoeuvre units, especially through difficult terrain that the enemy might consider impassable. Lateral routes, the identification of vital ground and of possible sites for GENFORCE communications equipment and for assembly areas etc, are also important. Access Information on the nature and extent of obstacles, especially important in this context are possible sites for crossing water obstacles and assessments of enemy demolitions and minefields.
- Enemy Forces . The strength, composition, subordination, capabilities, location and intentions of the enemy, also headquarters, communication centres, defended areas and artillery positions
Mission Execution should follow doctrine, be creative...:->
OOB: 3x Recon Coy, Surveillance Radar (due to the terrain wont be too effective, but you have a good chance to register enemy vehicles and personnell at a distance of between 2 and 4 km), organic arty, enigneers, AD and a tank pln attached.
RESTRICTIONS:
- The use of the TacOps Terrain Analysis Feature is ON YOUR HONOR *strictly* forbidden
- LOS tool may be used
You may use radio (communicate on one IRC channel as in other CPXes), but when you do you run a certain risk that enemy will detect you and surprise might be given away. Alternatively you have some liason vehicles at your command for exchanging reports and orders under EMCON. -snip-
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2nd briefing:
Gents,
here goes your OOB for Saturdays CPX http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/310104_gf_oob.html
It consists of
- 54 MRD RD 1st coy - Player A
- 54 MRD RD 2nd coy - Player B
- 54 MRD RD HQ coy - Chief of Reconnaisannce (CO)
- 54 MRD 1st Reg CRP - Player C
The units should be given to the players like laid out above.
After deploying on map hit the tab key and you will see the naming.
Here the details:
- All BRDMs have a recon team with binoculars onboard
- The BTRs hold the engineers with bombs to blow up stuff if necessary/convinient
- The Surveillance Radar has a range between 2 and 4 km to detect enemy vehicles or persons
depending on terrain (I will communicate findings during the CPX)
- The Signals MTLB holds a direction finder and will be able to read bearings to HF and VHF emission sources (in RL up to 80 km, in the CPX terrain up to 3-5 km depending on terrain, will communicate findings during the CPX)
- The liason vehicles are for transfering orders or reports to other units if you dont want to use the radio (remember that using the radio holds a certain risk of being detected by enemy and so might give away surprise for the overall mission). As the arty goes with the RD HQ you will either have to live without it, or lead it with the coys in close contact - doctrine prefers arty in direct fire, btw - or use the radio to call missions)
You have DIV ARTY on call (offmap), also we have air superiority over this sector, but as Command Net and Staff Net are down currently (and nobody knows how long, but the typical GENFORCE redundancy will ensure they are not down forever) you cannot contact them until the nets are up again.
Again I recommend that you read the GENFORCE doctrin (which is different than the old REDFOR doctrine to quite some extent) under the links below (its a fascinating read, in fact), especially the sections on recon in part 007, chapter 3. The success of your mother units overall mission as OMG will depend a lot on your performance.
This is not a CPX with a high probability for a lot of big bangs as, for all we know, sector 109 does not hold significant enemy formations (should it turn into a big-bang-battle you have probably lost...:->), there is even a slim chance you will not make contact at all (which is actually preferred by doctrine at this stage of the OMG attack if no exceptional circumstances make it necessary or desirable), but I hope it will be an enjoyable expirience after all.
Nough said, your mission is laid out and clear I hope, all additional info you find under
http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/ael/pubs/reference/enemy/B-SJ-100-002/pt-007/default.htm
and http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/ael/pubs/reference/enemy/B-SJ-100-002/pt-006/default.htm
The Motherland depends on you!
2.d. CANADA Scenario
Canada´s security force was tasked by Higher to prepare the sector as a staging area for reserves by a) ensuring that HF and VHF communicatiosn are stable overall in the sector ba stablishing relay antennae and making the airfield in the SW of the map operable
Canada team was briefed as follows:
-snip- overall scenario -snip-
The closest enemy element, 2nd Echelon 57 MRD, is located in an AA approximately 75 km to the NE from us and apparently prepares to move NW into the MBA.
Still, Higher has decided to guard against the eventuality that we will have to move reserve forces further north and to rapidly prepare our sector as an AA to deploy forces of considerable size.
This CPX now sees you in command of a small security force and a field signals coy in a garrison in the map center with the task of initiating and overseeing those preparations:
- The terrain in this area is fairly mountainous with the result that HF communication is only possible over fairly short ranges (quasi-LOS). You are to use your singnals platoon to erect relay antennas (simulated by log packs) on various mountain peaks to ensure evenly HF coverage of the sector. In order to achieve this you will have to erect the relays roughly every 4-5 km. NOTE that your forces, too, will not be able to communicate via radio when out of LOS of each other and will have to rely on motorcycles for orders relaying until the antennae are erected (exact rules explained further down).
- In the SW of the map you see a airfield which Higher wants to convert quickly into an operable forward airbase, the necessary equipment, staff and a security force are currently on the way on a transport ship convoy to the port in the map center (only place to unload, ETA ca. 40-45 minutes), from where they will displace under own power to the airport to deploy. You are to secure the safe arrival of the convoy in port and take command of the deployment into the airport.
While no enemy activity has been reported so far in our sector this is no guarantee that we will not see it in the future, so proceed with the necessary caution.
Here is how we are going to model the comms issues:
- Players and CO will have different force colors, separate IRC channels and several motorcycles at their command, FFOW will be ON
- when a motorcycle of one player either reaches team HQ (CO) or another players HQ those may join the channel of the player who sent out the motorcyle and THE PLAYER WHO SENT THE CYCLE MAY SPEAK
- unit HQs that are within 4 km of a relay station (logpack) may join the command channel and can communicate like in any normal CPX
- I will oversee this process and kick players off channels if they forget to log off should the conditions for comms not be met
This will create quite some friction and comms disruption (e.g. if a player oversees a motrocycle that approached him and does not join the correct channel, and since spottings will not be automatically relayed via the screen), this is intended...:->
Find attached your OOB http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/310104_ca_oob.html and map 109c folder.
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3. GAME MECHANICS
This CPX was very challenging from game mechanics POV, as I had to achieve the following things simultaneously:
- introduce a new recon concept for RED
- simulate radio silence vs. adversary effects if not kept in the RED recon effort
- simulate surveillance radar and HF direction finder for RED
- simulate terrain masking adversary effects on comms for BLUE
- evaluate the possibilities for RED comms net coming up and for CAS sorties for BLUE
I was sooon obvious that I had bitten off more than i could chew and I was very happy totake on Paul Csokay on his offer to assist in umpiring and to take care of some of the above aspects.
3.a. INTRODUCING A NEW RECON CONCEPT TO CPXING
The basic idea was triggered by a fairly recent discussion on the TacOps list about how recon in RL differs from what we can do in TacOps because factors as e.g. hearing vehicle engines, smelling gasoil, interrogation of prisoners to gain intel and talking to civilians in the battle zone dont play a part in the game engines form of providing information.
As I had the new map that nobody had seen so far, the basic challenge for RED was easy, they would not know nothing about the sector they were entering and would have to find out about it via theri own efforts. I decided to provide all terrain information that could be gained by RED recon effort visually and all information about enemy positions and intent textually (i.e. via IRC).
To provide the visual information I divided the map in 1x1 km squares and used photoshop to evaluate and draw up the view of the battlefield a unit in one of the squares would have, where necessary separately for high and low ground. During battle I then would use an overlay of the same grid squares, follow the red units and would make visible the views from squares they would move through. Every few minutes I would create an overlay of the resulting graphic and send it out to REDFOR to pass on the information they had gained. This procedure, of cause, would always include a certain delay of the information in comparison to the actual position of the red units, but this was intended (as it would nicely simulate an abstraction foinformation processing within the RD).
This proved to be much more work than I had anticpated, as the map divided into 20x12= 240 squares with about two thirds again divided into low and high ground, i.e. a total of around 400 different drawings of different areas of the map.
I wrote some photoshop scripts to do the basic work for each square (like evaluating the 4000 mtr visibility range and then either remove the High Ground or the Low Ground portion of the picture), but after that I was still left with determining actual possible LOS in the various parts of the leftover picture and subtract the invisible parts manually bit by bit with the polygonal lasso tool). The resulting snippets of the map where than pasted into a new file with a white background, which resulted in a file of nearly 500 MBs and a saving time of around 3-5 min in the end.
After some practice I managed to get as quick as 3 minutes to produce on of the LOS snippets for a given map grid square, still this summed up to a total of 1500 minutes = 25 hours of continous and concentrated work in photoshop to create the neccesary snippets. This again turned into a nightmare with day and night work in my spare time just interrupted by a few hours sleep and time to get some food, and still, on saturday morning I had only managed to get around half of the map done. Desperate to speed things up I decided to not do all map but just probable routes of advance primarily and later, when this proved to still not be fast enough I started grouping the squares and evaluate LOS for each group instead for each grid square individually.
In total, including the time I spent on reading up GENFOR doctrine, finishing and fine tuning map terrain, writing briefings, preparing start files for RED and doing the recon snippets I spent over a hundred hours on the preparation of this CPX during 10 days, way my personal record in this respect...:->
To introduce other means of recon like hearing, smelling, interrogation, reading road signs, etc, I added textual representation into the map in harpoon style imbedded into uncertainity rhombes to provide a rough location hint, like "town", "airport", "garrison" etc. Like this, whenever a red unit would stay long enough in a square (to abstract talking to people, reading signs, etc) I would add more and more of those informations. Due to time shoratge this part of my idea never was fully executed and I could during the game actually just "feed" some basic information this way, when red units entered towns.
To simulate prisoner interrogation (as you can see in the briefing I had hinted to this possiblity) I would pull a piece of paper from a basket filled with the names of all key objectives of the map and then make the according information fully visible in the map overlay that went to RED. This happened twice in the game, in one case RED received a full disclosure on the layout of the garrison, in the second case on the airport layout.
To see the overall effect of this, view http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/overlays_ca_gf/index.html where you see the different overlays sent out to RED as they moved further and further into the map.
Screenshots that show how I made the overlays are at http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/overlays_ca_gf/overlay_making.html .
3.b. DETECTIONS AND SUPPORT MECHANICS
One major part of the CPX layout was to give both teams means at hand to detect the enemy , movment or location, depending on their performance, also support and communication problems were simulated. For all these game aspects I had tables with probabilities prepared which we evaluated during the CPX by die rolls.
Paul Csokay was of invaluable help in this situation as he took over all the SIGINT business and wrote some very useful scripts to facilitate the handling of multiple die roll tables via web pages. All you had to do to click on one of the prepared probabilities and aou would get a RED or GREEN web page informing you of the result. Red page meant that the die roll had produced a game important result, green would mean the die roll had failed. I will name the pages after each individual mechanism described below, they might be really helpful for future umpires.
3.b.1. GENFOR Probability Tables
- Direction Finder (DF)
GENFOR had a radio direction finder in OOB, it could be employed with sense in the CPX:
The direction finder would provide bearings to Canadian radio emitters when it got closer than 4 km to them with a 25% probability during a given turn.
The page we used to determine whether the DF had a bearing on a Canadian emitter was at http://www.csokay.at/tacops/genforce-detection.php.
Genforce did not make much use of the DF in the game, with triangulation they could have pinpointed the Canadian Emitters to the pixel.
- Surveillance Radar
worked within 4 km against vehicles and within 2 km against persons (in RL its much more, detection works well over the map 109 range, but for playability sake and with the reason of the mountainous terrain we kept it at those ranges). Detection at those ranges was 100%, GENFOR would then get a report like: 2 Vehicles detected vic 1234, or 3 groups of personnell detected vic 2345.
Again they did not really use this feature well, they could have avioided much need for contact by employing it over the whole advance had they gone slower.
- Towns
Entering towns had two effects on GENFORCE play: For one it provided them with extra information on their overlays (example: http://eventfoto.com/privat/mil/aars/pages/overlays_ca_gf/pages/overlay08.html), but also (as it is supposedly against doctrine to enter towns for fear of losing surprise) it went with a risk of being detected through Canadians getting informations from Civilians to their HQ which got bigger over time.
The conditions for detection were that CA units had to be in the Garrison (to answer the telephone) and that GENFOR entered a town. We took the time any GENFOR unit entered a town, form this moment the risk of a civilian reporting what he saw in town increased with every turn that passed: In the first turn it would be 1%, in the next 2% and so on, ensuring that after 100 turns they definietly would get the report through. The report for tracked vehicles would be "Civilians report x tanks are in town y", for wheeled vehicles it would be the same, referring to "vehicles".
The webpage executing this script for any given town automatically was at: http://www.csokay.at/tacops/canada-population.php
During the game this report was executed twice if I recall right, once at first die roll (1% probability).
- Air Strikes
GENFORs command and staff nets were supposed to have been strikken just before STARTEX resulting in no comms with DIV. With the built in redundance in GENFOR comms nets it was not expected to stay down long, so after 30 minutes we rolled dice for 5 min periods to determine whether it was up again. The starting probability was 5% to get the net up, the probability increasing by 5% every 5 more minutes.
Paul used a special page which was accessible through the subnet, it worked like this one: http://www.csokay.at/tacops/dice.php
GENFOR was really lucky as immidiately after rolling the dice at 5% probability the net came up and they could order off-map and air strikes again (the scenario had explicity expressed that GENFOR had air superiority over the map).
Interestingly GENFOR never fully understood that their Command net was up again and made not much use of the possibility, only once ordering 6 air strikes in the whole game, and only once asking for offmap MRL (which needed time to get close enough and did not arrive in game time).
3.b.2. CANADA Probability Tables
- Comms Teams
Canadian Comms Teams (all rebroadcaster, antennae and HQ vehicles) had chances to detect enemy HQ vehicles (1 for each coy) if GENFOR decided to break Radio Silence and if they were within 4 km of such an emitter.
If those conditions were met, the Canadians had a 15% probability of taking notice of radio emissions, IF they took notice there was a 85% chance they got a bearing and a 15% chance they got bearing and distance.
The page executing this script is at http://www.csokay.at/tacops/canada-detection.php
As GENFOR soon gave up radio silence those reports were frequent.
- Air Support
Canada had no air support per se (the scenario saw the MBA 2oo km north and with a much more severe situation, against 3 army groups all flybboys were taked there intitially), but had a 8% chance per turn that a plane that had not spent all its ordnance would make the diversion to their sector and help out.
Again we had a page for that, it worked similar to the dice page at http://www.csokay.at/tacops/dice.php.
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4. HOW IT WENT
We had troubles getting off with the game in time:
First a Canadian Player (James Furnival) had computer problems that could not be solved (he was supposed to command the GREEN forces and I took them on automatic as they had nothing to do during first game phase than to travel in boats up-river), he was then replaced after two hours by Gary Chilcote.
Just when we wanted to start the wife of a GENFOR player (Matthias Preischkat) had an accident and he was called to hospital and had to leave, first we redistributed his forces, when this was done suddenly another player turned up and I had to re-re-distribute again.
As a result we started about 2 hrs later than anticipated.
I will leave the tactical evolution of the game to the respective COs and team AARs, suffice to say that GENFOR went into the map fairly fast and soon made contact, which gave away surprise for their mother unit (also they had entered some towns which had - see above - the same effect). While they also had broken radio silence I cannot evaluate this against htem as probably our system - described in the briefing - to exchange messages under radio silence was too complicated and not well executed.
Canada, OTOH, did fairly well given its small forces and towards the end even had a fairly accurate estimate on enemy strength.
The other game mechanics stuff, especially the preparing and sending out of overlays went smoothly, much to my surprise, but at cost of a rather slow game (I had not run on auto and various times simply forgot to exectue combat phase for several minutes) which - combined with the late start - did not allow us to play the scenario to a conclusive end (we played around 55 minutes game time in 4 hrs RL).
When the game ended I evaluated it as "GENFOR has lost this game, but CANADA has not won it", I have since re-evaluated several times but come to the same conclusion still:
- GENFOR did not follow doctrine and by giving away the surprise for its mother unit (Army OMG, 54 MRD) to swiftly storm throught the sector 109 on the way to an encirclement maneuver for the main front.
- WHile GENFOR RD managed to identify the required 100% of vital targets, it failed to provide exact locations of all bridges, approaches to the airport, Canadian OPs, etc which would be necessary to develop a valid fire plan for DIV, also failed to determine the best route for the mother unit (though this would probably have been possible had we played longer)
- This will probably allow CANADA to call in significant reserves and to attempt to block the 54 MRD advance through its sector, also allow NATO in the overall effort to attempt and counter the encirclement.
Based on this I would rate the GENFORCE performance a defeat strategically (the battle was probably a draw tactically).
OTOH Canada did not really manage to achieve its goals fully either: While they managed to establish at least a partial and probably sufficietn radio coverage for their sector, they failed to make full use of their re-inforcements (mostly due to bad luck in the die rolls twhich allowed GENFOR to strike against htme with air in the port) which in turn will especially leave the objective to prepare the airfield for use unattended and will cost them when the reserves have to be brought in.
Based on this I cannot really award the victory to them either, despite their heroic tactical performance.
Overall, I would stick with how I described it immidiately after game end.
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5. Lessons Learned
- I think we should always plan CPXes with reserves that are to be present at STARTEX (even if they dont get anything to do) to get rid of the delayed STARTEX times
- dont have one player command forces that dont have to do anything for the majority of game time. In this case it was Gary Chilcote who did not have anything to do but steer the boats up river until he could unload (which took 45 minutes and left him with 10 minutes to play), sorry again, Gary!
- dont bite off more than you can chew: Had not Paul Csokay relieved me of all detections stuff and radio surveillance I would not have been able to run the CPX as I had planned, it simply was too much for one umpire from start. All things that went less than perfect with the radio silence is entirely my fault for not having briefed Paul sufficieintly (it was his first time umpiring), of cause that my server went down in a Murphy attack 3 hours before STARTEX making email impossible for some time (until Paul helped out by creating an account for me) did not help in this respect...:-/
- Recon which includes RL aspects like hearing, smelling, interrogations, etc. can be incorporated into TacOps CPXes by the way of using overlays, I am sure we will see this approach (if not as strict as starting out with a blank map but rather as an addition to map artwork information) in the future more often.
- A good and playable radio silence concept to increase informational fog of war has yet to be invented, I am not satisfied with my two attempts at simulating it. I think it will have to involve an exchange of messages via web pages whose URLS are either revealed to commanders if certain conditions are met (liason vehicle nearby) or which they thenmselves activate via buttons (My vehile has arrived) to reveal the information. All inpuit on this very welcome!
Overall for me it was an intense and satisfying CPX, I want to thank all participants for their willingness to follow me into this experiment and also Paul Csokay for his help with running it. Players perfomed great and I hope they at least had fun.
Looking forward to players and Commanders AARs,
Regards,
Rattler
