Chelco

Thanks to all of you for reading! The Plt commander moves to the roof of building 11 to get a better view of the battlefield. As soon as the Plt HQ team reaches the rooftop, it receives fire from across the street. Enemy spotted in buildings 31 (AK47 fire) and 46 (RPG team).

A bit more detailed view of the battlefield. The US platoon waits orders in a small park to the lower left. The suspected enemy positions are painted red. The numbering of buildings is the same as before, but for clarity only a few buildings are labelled.

1st Plt is on point for Alpha's Co and receives a warning order to clear the irregulars from their positions north of the intersection . Enemy strenght is suspected to be platoon level. UAV surveilance has been kept on that area and no further movement was detected. Indirect fires are prohibited until new orders. 1st Plt is composed of 3 squads of Bradley IFV mounted infantry. Graphics overlay for the upcoming action. The boundaries for the platoon are indicated by lines. Buildings 11 and 21 are clear of enemy troops. (Note how I screwed the building numbering, should have used counter-clockwise numbering, doh!)

I need to get a grip on CMSF's MOUT. I assembled this tiny and quick scenario to help me with that and I wanted to share with you how it went. The fictional story behind the scenario goes like this: Two hours ago, battalion level reconnaissance assets were advancing along a fictional highway (route red) when their left flank was attacked by irregular troops. The enemy harassed the reconnaissance column with machine gun, RPG and even ATGM fire. One vehicle was lost, but as per its SOP the reconnaissance column avoided becoming decisively engaged and continued moving along its route. An UAV reconnaissance picture of the ambush area. The smoke column in the highway comes from a destroyed US reconnaissance vehicle. Irregular troops are suspected to be hiding in the road that runs perpendicular to the highway (diagonally from right to left in the picture). [ August 11, 2007, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: Chelco ]

Indeed your opinion matters to me Darren. Point well taken here. I just don't have time to write right now, so I will e-mail you later if you don't mind. Gotta go!

Oh, this is great. I recall a guy writing in these forums about smashing walls with the rear end of a stryker and then dismounting the troops inside the building. In real life. My only concern is: any time one of my vehicles hits a wall, it is very difficult to manage them afterwards.

Darren, nice post. I'm not defending the game. It has its flaws I reckon. Also, there are not vicious attacks anywhere, just a complete inability to let go. I appreciate your sense of humour but I don't think we are reading the same forum. Darren, are you aware that there are people out there telling BFC how to (or not to) design games? Have you read things like "this is computer game, not a wargame"? Not me. One example in 200+ pages of things. Big deal. After all I read, I have the right to vent my crap too. Thanks for the effort in embelishing it. Still prefer my words. I'm too old to disguise what I really think. I hope you don't mind if I think that if you are throwing present-paper-covered crap at somebody is still crap.

Ah, give me a break! Let's take off the masks fellas! Grog, what grogs? The ones who would discuss 10 pages of threads about if the PzIII should have the number 13 in the cuppola painted white or light blue while happily let go a game mechanic that was basically combat chess? That's not grog, that's hardware fetish fed with Amazon books. I've seen people that make military grade simulations for a living giving praise to the game. I've seen people who have been in the military giving good feedback too. Are they kiddie-clickfesters too? Are out there bigger and better grogs than the ones who held the real weapons and rode the real machines of a state for a living? You should stop acting like you are the center of the universe. How many of you are calling BFC for a "soul searching" and "going back to your roots"? 25? 100? Don't fool yourselves: you may be visible and vocal, but you are just a fraction of the market. Don't self-appoint yourselves as the chair commitee that preserves the holy grail of wargaming. I would share my tootbrush with any you rather than to agree to the convoluted pseudo-logic you use to cover the bitterness from the realization that the train has left without you this time. This game is clearly not for you. I already know what you think. Time to let it go. Edited for ESOL.

I agree with that. Also, don't forget about target arcs for the units providing overwatch and for those conducting the assault.

Maneuver warfare is not the doctrine of the US Army. Even when their newest FMs claim so.

I think the Stryker is not an IFV and it is risky to use it as such.

Hi Snydeman, Good point. I haven't played that scenario yet. But I wonder if area fire on suspected enemy positions could help.

Bump!

Bump! Hi Scipio, RE: elite. I have noticed that out of LOS infantry falls from C2 when they are advancing and that I cannot give commands to them until C2 is restored some time later. The thing that I wonder is if a friendly unit out of C2 having known status and position to the player (just by clicking in the map)is an intended feature or a bug?

Same feelings here.

Issue a "target light" command

Ey Zip, I hear you. LOL on the hunt command! Please don't take me wrong, my questions asked in good faith, since I want to learn too. After all you are the soldier in this discussion! But anyway, here is what I do: point squad split into two fire teams. Bounding overwatch with those two fire teams. If there is any spotting to do, has to be done with the overwatch fire team. The fire team moving is not expected to provide too much spotting at all, and is moved from cover to cover on "quick" orders.

Yup, it becomes a bit complicated. But can you imagine the adrenaline rush of calling indirect fire support and then realizing that you don't have a clue of where is one of your squads? Still it is great as it is now at elite difficulty level. Kinda forces you to keep it real with your troops.

Thanks Zipuli. Great point. To solve this: have you tried a bounding overwatch?

Double post. Sorry

I'm not saying that you said it. What I'm saying is that the player/commander always knows the position of his troops. That means this is not a fully fledged friendly FOW.

I don't know how extensive is the friendly FOW in elite difficulty. You can just click in the map and all friendly positions will be revealed to you, no matter if they have a comms link with the HQ unit.

Elite is great. I love when the troops are moving and you loose radio link with them. Forces you to think a lot before sending your guys in.

There is still this "destroy" objective for the enemy TacAI. Will that make the enemy TacAI to chase a specific player unit all over the map? Man, so many things to try! [ July 30, 2007, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: Chelco ]

I was surprised to read was that in order to make the AI more aggressive you have to issue an "advance" order instead of "assault". That's something I want to try. But I think we will need more in depth documentation for the scenario editor. The TacAI is an unknown quantity to me right now. This morning I created a map/scenario: a US platoon (no vehicle support) in high ground trenches overlooking open terrain in where two reinforced platoons of Republican Guards advanced. The Syrians had tanks and BMPs at their disposal. I cranked the Syrians skill and leadership to the top. Still they would not attempt to avoid the massacre and use an obvious covered route on their side (created that route on purpose). Two things were cool, however: (i) as the Syrians advanced they appeared to be using overwatch; (ii) at certain point in the battle the Syrians brought the BMPs closer to the trenches and mauled my platoon really bad. The tanks never left their deployment positions, but when I reviewed the map, the tanks were out of the C2 structure, so maybe they didn't even get orders from the TacAI at all. I will keep trying.