LongLeftFlank

Sgt S., A few last further observations on the Mosul fight before i leave you to it, honest for real this time, lol. http://iswresearch.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-campaign-for-mosul-november-16-21.html Looks like the heaviest action in East Mosul suburbs took place Nov 4 - 15. The CTS "Golden Brigade" was reduced to 50% effectives by early December. And the below seems to be a lot of the reason why. Talk about starting your scenario off with a bang!!!! I am not going to link directly to dirtbag jihadi websites from here, but the above ISW link contains a link to a video of a VBIED attack that seems to date from this time and place. I captured a couple of stills that could be helpful in pinpointing both the action location and mapping it out.... that divided highway, traffic circle and the apartment blocks/offices nearby ought to be fairly readily identifiable with just a little Google Earth / Wikimapia browsing. (EDIT: well, maybe not so easy. Ah well, you're doing "semi-historical" anyway) Also, Arab armies really like to laager their plentiful vehicles cheek by jowl in walled car parks, but then the idjets don't put any Hesco barriers or at least a sideways APC blocking the entry point!!!! -- wtf? I've seen a bunch of these hits against Assad's army too! This shot is half a second before a big mushroom cloud. You can see a couple of jundi dashing for their lives. And heck, nothing lighter than that is going to stop one of these puppies (unless it hits a pothole of course). JAC

So back to Ramadi. Oddly, there is only a single terse AAR covering the vicious 2/4 street brawls of April 6-7, including the subject matter of the JOKER THREE scenario. I guess they had better things to do than write reports... https://wikileaks.org/irq/report/2004/04/IRQ20040406n329.html 2/4MAR WAS ATTACKED WITH SAF AND RPG IVO THE GOVERNOR'S COMPOUND. THERE ARE APPROX 60-70 IZ GATHERED AROUND THE GOVERNOR'S COMPOUND. AT 061520DAPR: FIRE FIGHT IS STILL UNDERWAY. 062123APR04: 1BCT, 1-34, 2/4 COMPLETING CONTACT. ENEMY REPORTED TO BE USING DISCIPLINED, AIMED FIRE. CURRENT KIA/DAMAGE: 11X KIA, 9X WIA; 16X EN KIA, UNK EN WIA. DAMAGE: 1X BRADLEY IFV, 1X M1A1 TANK (DAMAGED BY 4X RPG). FURTHER INFORMATION IS PENDING. CCIR# 10 UPDATE 070144APR04: 12X KIA/22X WIA Also, whose dead dog mod are you using? https://wikileaks.org/irq/report/2004/04/IRQ20040409n244.html 1-77AR REPORTS AN IED IN SIDE OF A DEAD DOG AT MC20655836 1.5KMS NORTH OF ROUTE PEGGY ON MSR TAMPA. THE DESCRIPTION IS A DOG CARCASS WITH WIRES COMING OUT OF THE HEAD. PATROL FROM TF 1-77 HAS THE SITE SECURED AND BYPASSING TRAFFIC AROUND THE IED. C/1-26 WILL ESCORT EOD TO THE SITE.

No sweat; I learned something new which is what I really do this all for anyway. Seems like the neighborhood you matched wasn't the very hottest fight but wev.... A black metal finish should be readily obtainable from somewhere in the game system - CMFI perhaps? There's also a good photo in one of the Arab clips of the logo on the back of the turret, but I guess it isn't much help since there aren't turreted Humvees in game. I'd be tempted to reskin a BRDM or sumfink. Looks like the police uniforms are in fact police troops while the CSF are in camo. Just who the press were riding with. Ryujin also did an IA jundi mod for me, praise be upon him.

Eastern neighborhoods, early November. I can see why you needed the Mulaab section.... CTF, battle for Mosul University, Jan 2017

Curse you, SGT Slaughter (showing my age there), you're pulling me away from Ramadi ;-) As I browse those IWF links I kindly dug up for you on the battle for Mosul, and then click through the embedded links to the Arab language source media (lotsa photos, but be ready to get put on a NSA watchlist), I notice that a lot of the ISF units don't wear standard jundi drab, but rather the police commando blue camou that Ryujin was kind enough to work up for me before I changed my mind and decided on plain blue police tunic. You'd need to lose the IP armband, but otherwise good to go! The uniform mod should be somewhere around.... obviously, it mods CMSF Syrian Special Forces. Oh, and here's the operational map for day 1 of the long hard fight that lies ahead. As I advised though, you should probably start your own Mosul 2016 thread so's I can get back to the ancient history of USMC Ramadi. http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Mosul City Campaign Nov 3 PDF reduced.pdf ....OK, I'm starting to get it now. http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/campaign-mosul-november-16-21-2016 The likely attrition of the CTS is extremely dangerous for the Mosul operation; the CTS is the most elite unit in the ISF and the only one with sufficient training in urban warfare. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraq-has-never-seen-this-kind-of-fighting-in-its-battles-with-isis/2016/11/11/96af671e-a524-11e6-ba46-53db57f0e351_story.html?utm_term=.cf0b5d119065 It was one of six neighborhoods that the elite units stormed Nov. 4, on a day that was initially trumpeted as a success before it became clear that their early gains were not sustainable. After pushing forward with relatively little resistance, the forces were ambushed and cut off. A CNN team was trapped with them and surrounded for more than 24 hours after their convoy was attacked. The house shook as a pickup truck full of explosives rammed into a convoy of Iraqi security forces nearby, scattering debris and body parts onto the street. Iraqi forces have little time to react, let alone call in airstrikes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/05/these-images-show-how-islamic-state-forces-have-dug-in-for-a-fight-in-mosul/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.4eaf351afccd

Cripes, dear old Uncle Sam as subtle as two short planks as usual, with the "surgical strikes". "We had to destroy the city in order to save it" has a long history. Manila, where I live today, would be a very different city but for MacArthur's egotistical insistence on Returning.... I don't believe there is any in game distinction between stone and brick walls: cosmetic only. There should be, but don't get me started - I have a long long wish list for CMx2 terrain.

For Fallujah house to house battles, breach teams would be essential tools. For Ramadi fights, identified insurgent strongpoints were generally handled at a safe distance using direct fire or JDAMS. There may be exceptions but I haven't seen them. Breaching steel gates with small charges during cordon-and-knock missions is another thing altogether of course.

Interesting re exit zones. I have no experience with them. A further useful distinction with regard to the proposed Uncon Rout feature would be that it would not apply to Fanatic units. Those nutjobs don't rout and don't surrender. Go directly to Paradise, do not collect 72 doe-eyed virgins. Hopefully someone on the mysterious 'inner boards' is taking notes. None of the above requires new brain jar programming; just a tweak of features already in game.

You do me honour, truly. I am not a vet, and I'm doing this for my own reasons, but as I research I become keenly aware that even a decade later, fine people still wear the scars of that place. I recently ran across this 2/4 Weapons vet trying hard to work out what it all meant, in 2016: https://ramadibastards.wordpress.com/ He was even in the 2/4 action I am working on, but just read his gunner's level view. No game can ever replicate these feelings of terror, confusion and... indifference? I hope he writes his book. https://ramadibastards.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/post-7-op-hotel/ I’m not sure if there were actually insurgents in OP Hotel. I’m not sure if that building was called OP Hotel [it was].... So here it is. Me taking a picture like a retard when I should have been pulling my trigger, shooting at nothing like a good Marine. I’m starting to realize that **** like this isn’t just a desperate grasp at historical immortality. I think there’s something pure and honest about wanting to be remembered…just a little. Or a lot. Semper fi, sergeant. One day I will find time to set that lame Wikipedia entry to rights, as my homage to the vets, and the citizens. Maybe it won't really help anyone who was there answer Why, but I have 120 pages of detailed chrono notes from 2003-2007, well footnoted, giving accounts from generals to grunts. It wasn't random, it just largely seemed that way at the pointy end....

Well there are - or used to be - plenty of designers out there putting together "semi-historical" scenarios for the various CMx2 games. I've tried to play so many scenarios and one after another quit them saying "this just feels off". They may be brilliant as games but they don't scratch my particular itch. Like Combatintman, I choose to go full historical. Just my particular thing. I don't really "game" as such. Think of this as a 3d extension of historical reading, putting me in the boots of the tactical leaders. I want to face what they faced, within the constraints of the tools available. And in any case, it's a satisfying diversion from work and family life.

In a perfect world, yes indeed. But I don't see a large confraternity of OCD loons developing historical scenarios. Reality is, most CMers want tank fights. Nothing wrong with that of course, but there's only so many historical 73 Eastings and most are lopsided turkey shoots.

Just curious: is it possible to change the size of objects, at least their visual display even if the game ignores them for LOS, shadows etc.? e.g. crate upsized to shipping container. I also realized the simple post flavor objects in CMSF could make nice abstract minarets or factory chimneys if they could be "gigantified" (I actually dont want units entering them).

Triggers will definitely help. I was also thinking that a way to mimic "shoot and scoot" ambush tactics for an uncon AI fighting in dense terrain would be to give Uncon combat teams a "rout" (!) feature similar to that of Spies. Once brought under heavy fire in cover terrain they don't just pin until killed (or captured) , they just "melt away" and don't count for casualty VP. The designer can then bring in reinforcements that represent the fallback positions they displaced to, if any. Simple enough and gives an authentic 'feel' of fighting guerrillas who don't stand and fight, and will work in forested areas as well as urban.

Well Sir Knight, get a cesspooler mob together, with torches and pitchforks and march on Vermont! It's the thing to do these days, it seems. I suspect though you'll need to first use a pitchfork to prod those lazy brutes to bestir themselves. And when did you dotards last change that thread of yours? -- it stinks all the way over here! Even the CMA folks are complaining, and overcoming the stench of goat dung takes some doing, believe me. Anyway, as you can see from this view down the master map, adding 50meters to the north edge opens up the dusty battlespace in the industrial area, and also gives the player a limited (long left) flanking option as an alternative to slugging it down IED-infested Route Michigan.... The master map dimensions are now 1776m E-W by 680m N-S.

Hey, I'm just pleased somebody else is getting mileage out of my mapwork! I also just realized that Wikileaks provides official AARs for every incident that went on in Iraq, including map coordinates.... https://wikileaks.org/irq/report/2004/07/IRQ20040714n468.html So guess what? Turns out I need that extra 100m north after all. Will try to crank it out tonight.

Great, I look forward to seeing it released, although I probably can't do more than browse the map. In any case, I have noticed though that Tiny/Small scenarios playable in a single evening have a much bigger audience than monster fights, at least based on DL count. Not that that always matters of course.... Here's the unbroken links to the Baba Amr discussions btw in case others are interested.

Also, I don't know if you ever ran across this, but in 2012 I did a Red SF v Uncon Syrian semihistorical Civil War engagement for which I modified a submap of Ramadi to create a denser, more "high rise" neighborhood in Homs. A lot more of a Stalingrad fight here, though rebels are very badly outgunned... This is the link to the scenario itself; there's also a link to a design and playtest thread. (Speaking of which, where's SBurke, the other CMSF loyalist who haunts these deserted halls? Hope he's ok and the cesspoolers haven't abducted him or sumfink)

Good luck on the Mosul project. A few thoughts: 1. For buildings, the key tactical elements are: (a) for security and privacy, pretty much all houses and most commercial offices as well together with their parking areas, sit inside high walled compounds with a single entrance; (b) except for shopfronts, there are pretty much no ground floor windows facing directly onto public streets; (c) respect your players: if you build a single building using multiple tiles, be sure to show it by matching the paint jobs and window framing. Also make sure the interior doors match up to prevent pixeltruppen rushing out suicidally around the block when all you intended was to move them elsewhere in the same house. My Ramadi map won't look quite right btw unless you use my 3 additional building textures: Shopfront, collonaded mosque and ruins. If you don't use them it will pick at random. PM me if you have trouble finding them. 2. Mosul is a very ancient city although it's also grown substantially, so keep in mind nearly all of my Ramadi map is an area built in the late 20th century. Medieval rabbit warrens of piled up mud houses, tiny alleys and courtyarded havelis are a completely different animal tactically. In fact, I don't think any force would be stupid enough to attack into such a district if it was held by armed men who knew it. 3. I am hardly an expert but Mosul is a good bit more hilly than pooltable flat central Ramadi (or Fallujah), although there are certainly flat portions. Adding terrain undulations will give a very distinctive feel to this map with limited effort. But it will also likely play holy hell with framerates (the master map wasn't intended to be played full size in any case). I wouldn't even attempt this on my 2006 vintage Dell Latitude! I also think there are a lot more deciduous trees, gardens and tree lined streets in Mosul than in Ramadi owing to the higher elevation and higher precip. But take a look at some YouTube footage and decide for yourself. Note that only certain ground types will show trees on the map even if you've placed them in the editor. Cheers, LLF

This is a long thin submap roughly, covering the northeast quadrant of my master. I decided not to extend it north but did push it a couple hundred meters further east along Route Michigan, a stretch of road that saw considerable (ambush) action.

And this heeyah is the Marine impromptu relief column, MAP-1, moving in two elements. The second includes the 2/4 command personnel, BASTARD SIX and the S-5, as well as 2/5 officers doing a left-seat/right seat drive and Oliver North and his film crew. I am still noodling the specifics of the ambush by the 1920 Brigades and will limit spoilers here. I spent a few hours playtesting the siege of DEVIL SIX. It's quite tense, and I haven't even programmed maneuver plans for the uncon RPG gunners yet. Key lesson so far -- don't go anywhere unless it's in squad strength (not so easy, as you have a lot of 2 man sections). Also, as we know, the armed humvees are NOT guntrucks. Guntrucks (with turrets providing the gunner all-round protection) didn't start showing up until late 2004.

OK, with map and battlespace squared away (for now), time to pick and deploy forces. I decided on 5 Humvees for the DEVIL SIX column, of which 1 has a .50 cal HMG and the other a M240 -- that's the ambushed unit's fire support, unless you find a target for a LAWS. This includes a GAZ jeep which I will reskin as a Humvee (but that's optional). Of course this vehicle is unarmoured -- that was still true of a lot of Humvees in 2004 -- but it carries 8 passengers instead of 4/5. Clearly, it won't be doing much in the firefight other than staying out of harm's way, like the other 2 unarmed Humvees (one of which is immob). I also decided to add 2 unarmed civilians (Spies) plus 3 special operators from Triple Canopy who happened to be riding back to base with Colonel Connor when the column got hit. These contractors are training pro-government Iraqi fighters, so they've gone native -- so I'm using Syrian Special Forces for them. But they're Elite ex-SFers. Initial deployment: When the scenario opens, the lead humvee has hit an IED and is immob in the open. Rockets are starting to come in, so the crew has bailed and is hunkered down next to the vehicle. The rest of the column has promptly executed its standard 360 contact drill, which not being a veteran I am just guessing at here -- so actual vets ***please*** chime in. I will give the player the ability to reposition at setup if he has a better idea. The primary menace here is RPG rockets. 1. So the two guntrucks are back to back, facing each direction, with the M2HB engaging the incoming pointing down past Saddam Mosque. The other 2 vehicles are pulled into the comparative shelter of walls opposite and the crews have dismounted. After the April 4 2/4 Echo fiasco, everybody fights dismounted except guntrucks. All vehicles have chosen spots that avoid being keyholed by rocketmen deep in the alleys (red arrows). 2. The dismounts are covering their alleys but also keeping an eye on the upper building storeys opposite them -- (2),(3) for example. If enemies show up there, they will light them up while the GIs on the other side assault the building. But you don't have enough men for too many clearances. And it might not be a great idea to wander too far away from the vehicles before help arrives. But that's Army SOP -- the Marines think a little differently of course.... 3. Lastly, Buck Connor has taken cover with the civilians in an unoccupied shop (1). If the big dog gets KIA, you lose this scenario automatically, so don't take chances with him..... I hope this is interesting to the few who are reading this, btw. I was so fascinated with Combatintman's various works that it pulled me back into CMSF after a long absence. And maybe my resumption of efforts here will help persuade the good folks at BFC to do a CMBS War on Terror module where we can bootstrap all this great content....

Nah, truth be told I actually find mapmaking and scenario design more fun than actually playing. It's been several years since I last sat down with it though, so a little rusty. I decided not to build anything north, so contented myself with pushing Route Michigan another 200m east, relocating COP HOTEL (it wasn't occupied as yet at the time of this action), plus a couple of additional Mulaab city blocks, including a block of apartments. See screenie looking southwest. Everything this side of those long sheds (that's a cement batch plant btw, with a gravel heap etc.) is new.

.... As we read in the AAR, both US forces were ambushed, the Army column in a planned hit, the Marines more impromptu. 1. DEVIL SIX was caught in a "closed ambush", bottled up both by the need to guard the immobilized humvee (and its stranded crew -- plus we don't need still more Al Jazeera footage of Arab crowds joyously torching a US vehicle) and by the (suspected) presence of two VBIEDs a quarter mile ahead and behind. The IED went off just before ASR MICHIGAN branches at the water tower, and the other 3 humvees are strung out behind -- about a 200m stretch, engaging the ranged pot shots coming down Michigan in defilade and trying not to get keyholed by RPGs from the adjacent alleys and rooftops. 15 shooters probably aren't enough to clear the houses until help arrives, so it's pretty hairy. But of course that's all your call (and what CMSF is really all about). Just be advised that if you're wrong, tomorrow's WaPo headline will read that the brigade commander is KIA or worse, a hostage. So I am pushing the Michigan strip a further 200m to the east, with more of the Mulaab residential blocks you've come to love from JOKER 3 to the south and a mash of shopfronts and workshops / open yards in the industrial estate to the north. This also allows me to put the hotel that later became OP HOTEL (aka "the Ramadi Inn") further east, nearer to its historical location. 2. MAP-1 (I misnamed it MAP-3 above) didn't get an IED, but was hit by a shower of RPGs and grenades as it rolled past an enemy building complex at the Y intersection (where Racetrack runs into the mosque). SGT Drake has 27 shooters in 2 elements, plus various officers who are riding along, so he has a few more tactical options than does SGT Henry; plus, the kill sack isn't as well defined. However, he's under close attack from all sides, and defining the enemy centre of resistance -- what to flank and kill, per Marine SOP -- is going to be tough. And remember, you need to do all this with no body bags. Especially not Ollie North and his FOX camera crew. The column's 2 elements are strung out along several hundred meters of road, but I don't have patience to build yet more blocks of look-alike residential housing to the north. So I will likely depart slightly from history and stick MAP-1 in the east west street running parallel to MICHIGAN. Same tactical position, just the wrong street.

So, battlespace. Here's the northeast quadrant of my full Ramadi map, but after reading the AARs, I can see already I need to build out some more blocks to represent the area of engagement properly. You can see the space I have added to my master with a couple of road outlines roughly sketched out.