[Poll: New name]

Combat Mission: Syrians gone WILD!

[Reading list/links for CMSF.]

Here are some additional suggestions without specific reference to the Syrian angle - this is simply a modern warfare & small unit tactics oriented list:

*= highly recommended

Military Theory

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*Coram, Robert, _Boyd_ (it's John Boyd's biography, but by reading it you'll become familiar with Boyd's work)

Lind, William, _The Maneuver Warfare Handbook_

*Leonhard, Robert, _The Art of Maneuver_

Small Unit Tactics:

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Antal, John F. _Infantry Combat: The Rifle Platoon_

Antal, John F. _Armor Attacks: The Tank Platoon_

Bolger, Daniel, _The Battle for Hunger Hill_ (JRTC AAR)

McDonough, James R., _The Defense of Hill 781_ (NTC AAR)

Schmitt, John, _Mastering Tactics: Tactical Decision Games_

"Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain" (MOUT) aka "Fighting in Built-Up Areas" (FIBUA), aka "Fighting in Someone's House" (FISH)

=======================

*Recent US Army & USMC Field manuals. The old US Army FM was 90-10 as noted above and 90-10-1 (Infantryman's Guide to Urban Combat) - I believe both of these have since been renumbered and re-issued. The current USMC edition is "Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-35.3 Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain"

Relevant Military History

=================

*Ahmad, Ali & Grau, Lester, _Afghan Guerrilla Tactics_

Bolger, Daniel _Death Ground: Today's American Infantry in Battle_

*West, Bing, _No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah_

Koopman, John, _McCoy's Marines: Darkside to Baghdad_

*Naylor, Sean, _Not a Good Day to Die_ [Afghanistan]

Antal, John & Gericke, Bradley Ed.'s, _City Fights: Selected Histories of Urban Combat_

Any history of the battle of Hue, RVN.

4th Generation Warfare

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*Hammes, Thomas X. _The Sling and the Stone_

a Fun Read

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Christie, William, _The Blood We Shed_ - a novel about Marines and some hypothetical action in the Arabian Penninsula shortly after 9/11.

YMMV,

-Nadir

[ October 16, 2005, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: Nadir_E ]

[Tactics of the Crescent Moon]

I've read three of Poole's books - The Last 100 Yards (had a friend in the military get it for me), Phantom Soldiers, and Tactics of the Crescent Moon. He fills his books with quotes from other sources rather than synthesizing the material into his own narrative. To me, this makes them a tough read.

His basic premise is that eastern armies are better at infantry tactics, infiltration, camouflage, etc. and that we should enhance our abilities in these areas rather than focusing on high-tech and heavy-firepower weapon systems. He also makes reference to some Ninja infiltration/mis-direction techniques, which always gets one of my eyebrows to raise in skepticism.

His best work, in my opinion, was The Last 100 Yards, which focuses more on techniques and less on theory. Of course, as with any author, your mileage may vary - you may love the stuff.

I'll pipe in on the reading material thread with some suggestions for alternatives.

fwiw,

-Nadir

[Small Unit Tactics AAR]

Originally posted by Midnight Warrior:

Some more thouhts on assaulting buildings:

2.This idea that Geurila forces have a planned retreat sugeest that perhaps there should be a new movement order in CMSF where an escape route can be defined by a player but it is not executed until some trigger event occurs. The command delay from defining a new escape route can be large (simlatd that it needs to be scouted out) but once it is defined the execution delay could be very short. (Also, in principle more than one escaperoute could be defined with different triggers but that may be too much).

I'm not sure I agree this should be modeled. With the standard 1 minute turn, it would be possible for the owning player to direct the unit's retreat following the turn. At that point, the path selected is player-specified (and can ignore danger areas like the intersections the article described).

4. The "flood house"...a rough equalvalent to the "assault" comand .... The stealth tactic ....anqalogous to the sneak comand. The hybrid (I forgot what it was caled) may be roughlyanalogous to the "advance" command. However, if this is the case the execution of these coands may be very different in a MOUT situation than in open country or woods, etc.

I agree completely - utilization of existing commands would be best, with some means of the AI indicating whether it thinks we're asking for "open field" or "urban" execution of the order.

6. Urban aeas compartmentalize terrain so that assaulting a house in in effect a game within a game in that one could defne a whole new game with 1 meter resolution 10 seconds turns and command of each soldier to immlement the tactics cited in the AAR at a player corlled level. CMSF could implement this game withing game and have it under the TACAI control. Or CMSF could largely abstract these tactics. It will be very interesting to see how BFC goes about doing this!

I think this is where the biggest challenge lays - under CMx1 I can enter a building from 360-degrees, passing through walls with ease. In reality, of course, I cannot and that is where the urban environment generates its "fatal funnels." Without some means of creating these problems (where do I breach, how else can I get in/out of a building, is there a way out of this street?) we really shouldn't be thinking about the specific tactics in the article. For this to work right (IMHO) the modeling of buildings needs to be radically changed from CMx1.

$0.02 deposited,

-Nadir

[Please Put Infantry Smoke In CMx2]

Originally posted by M1A1TankCommander:

Smoke grenades are not used to cover "hidden moves" They are used when the enemy has the bead on you already... snip... Its better to have a cloud of smoke between you and the enemy, than nothing, especially if you are pinned down

Amen to that. Smoke is frequently identified as having been used to break contact as well as to screen short movements (e.g. city-fighting).

I can understand if coding it is too difficult, but otherwise I'd vote for including infantry smoke capability.

[CM Artillery Synopsis [Treeburst155]]

Many thanks for the clarification, Jason.

-Nadir_E

[CM Artillery Synopsis [Treeburst155]]

When it is stated that HQ's spot for on-board mortars, is it only for on-board mortars under that HQ's control, or any mortar in the friendly OB?

thanks,

-Nadir_E