snake_eye

Turn 14 -15 The situation is moving back and forth quickly. The Jalalabad exit becomes the spring board of an attack of fighters in almost platoon strength. Their main attack objectives are the trenches up hill toward the Peschawar exit bunker. The Jalalabad exit bunker MG team do what they can, being under constant RPG grenades volleys. What I feared most just happened. The bunker is destroyed. Yet the 3 grunts are Ok and they have a full load of ammo. As soon as they recover, I can expect to have them back in the fight. 2nd squad A team has rejoined B team in their house, without trouble. In their field of view the killing zone where quite a lot of fighters were killed. Just now the fighters have back up having sustained a withering fire coming from 1st squad B team house. The 50 cal Humvee reversed as, I had planned it. Unfortunately, a kamikaze fighter coming from the street runs after it, firing wildly. The top gunner falls from the hatch being seriously wounded. The driver keeps in reverse till he gets as far as the 1st and 2nd squad houses and stay there. I think I should have the driver bail out and carry with him, the 50 cal, inside the house as soon as I can do it.

TURN -14- 15 JUST BEFORE STARTING THE TURN 14 The Jalalabad exit fighter’s platoon seem to be about to move up hill. Their axis being the trenches near the Peschawar bunker exit. Just before setting the next move of my units, I am conducting an ammo and casualties assessment. - 2nd squad B team has 2 grunts Ok and 1 slightly wounded. Their ammo level is dry, besides few hand grenades. A team has 4 grunts ok. They have some ammo left with 40 mm grenades for their UGL and hand grenades. I should take measure and have them bound together again in order to have their ammo split between them. - 1st squad B team 4 grunts has still a good level of ammo, no 40mm grenades and few hand grenades. A team , manning the MG in the bunker has 3 troopers (yet they are 4 in the shots being taken . Same for the other bunker. Somehow a bug ?) with very good ammo level. But they are under a constant RPG grenades barrage. I fear that that won’t last too long, from what I have seen happening to the Peschawar bunker -1 st Platoon HQ Lt has rifle ammo and hand grenades. More he has good links with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd squads and their respective teams. - 3rd squad A team has 4 troopers with a good level of ammo for their rifle,. They have also 40mm grenades and hand grenades. B team has 2 casualties and 2 slightly wounded. Buddy aid seems not to be given, since they are in a delicate situation.They have few hand grenades, but their rifles ammo is low. I would like to have them united with their A team. But I can’t leave the 2 casualties behind. - The Humvee 50 cal , has 1 guy ok and 1 slightly wounded with a good ammo level. I am going to have it reverse and take position between the house near 3rd squad A team to give them support if needed. - The ANA Recon HQ team 5 soldiers have a low ammo level and good link to the BTR-60. - ANA 2nd squad has 2 soldiers OK and 2 slightly wounded. They have ammo and few hand grenades. They are still shaken and ineffective. Better not ask them anything, they will add to the casualties numbers. - The BTR-60 has a low level of ammo for its 14.5mm gun, but it has some reloads for the 7.62 mm and 5.45mm. Maybe, I should have the HQ team reload? We are approaching the time when the mortar fire mission will start and the QRF arrive near the bridge. Cheers

Turn 12 - 13 I have decided to reinforce the right flank of the village with the ANA recon HQ team kept in reserve in the BTR-60. Since, it looks like the Taliban’s are using more and more their RPG, it would not make sense to have the BTR destroyed and still having the Recon team in it. They are successfully moving to the house located on the far right of the BTR. That house has a stone wall built on its level ground. It should afford them good protection. As soon as they are in the house, they are engaging fighters coming from the valley ridge and these are shot when they get near the trench. Good work. With the good news, comes the bad one. The Peschawar exit bunker is destroyed. Two grunts are trapped in it and I can’t give any order. Maybe I should have them hide when times come, unless they can crawl to the near trenches. Will see later. TheJalalabad exit bunker is getting a flurry of RPG. For the moment, they burst either too high or too low. But just for how long. If the bunker gets destroyed, it will be serious for the 3rd squad. Maybe I will have to bring back the Humvee, since the ANA recon is checking the left Taliban’s spear out of the valley. 3rd squad B team has 1 down and 3 wounded. A Taliban in a good state is firing at them from next door. How could I give them some support ?. It is rather risky to move around. What the QRF is doing ? It should get around here, pretty quickly or we are done If we are slowing down the assault, me might get away from here. But, I am worry about the platoons size of fighters surely around the HQ team seen by the MG crew at the Jalalabad exit. That surely explain the flurry of RPG grenades they are getting. Cheers

I am doing right now an AAR about the scenario A Taliban's Tactical Assault. It takes time and I clearly see that way, the hard work that others have done previously in theirs AAR. I shall try to follow their way and to be at the least as good as they have been. For that reason I don't do any testing at the moment. Keeping the forces alive is sufficiently hair raising and I won't make any bet on the ending issue at the moment. Cheers

Thanks for the comments. I am myself at a decisive time and I hope I will be able to stop the human wave coming at me. The ANA is unpredictable. They can do the best or the worse. The worse that is for the squads completely annihilated (what's left is like it did not exist), the best, that is for the BTR-60. Yet, if it moves into the sight of an RPG armed Taliban, that will be the end of it Cheers

A fighter pretty courageous or is he running on high drug?, is rushing toward its death in front of the house defended by 3rd squad B team 1st Plt HQ has finally decided that to plan a fire mission on the Peschawar exit could be a good opportunity. It will be fire within 7 minutes. I hope that the enemy will still be in that area, otherwise it will be worth nothing. Maybe, the bunker’s MG team (on the Jalalabad exit)should have rather planned that fire mission, since they just have spotted a HQ team. That means there are quite a lot of fighters around ready to move toward 3rd squad. That is a serious threat. Anyhow it is too late to replan the fire mission. Besides they might need more than 7 minutes time, or worst not be able to plot a fire mission. It is time to make a battle assessment. We have inflicted despite the heavy losses sustained by the ANA, quite a lot of casualtie to the enemy. Between 30 and 40, for sure (having done a body count of the one being seen),and possibly up to 60. We still have around the BRT-60. Maybe I should have its HQ team unloaded and take position into a nearby house or rather close to the ETT. That way we could make a last stand like Custer did it at Little Big Horn. I am not pessimist, but the fight might get out of balance at any time. I have urged the ANA QRF to get around here at the soonest. I just hope that they will fare better than their brothers, otherwise the last stand will be for real. That we will discover at the start of the 12th turn in the next release. Cheers

The BTR-60 is shooting from a defilade position Taliban’s trying to approach the houses on the left of the road. It has not taken for the moment a single RPG shot. Hope it stays that way. As can be seen in the rectangle area, the converging fire from 1st squad B team and the BTR-60 is claiming around eleven fighters crumpling in the dirt. Around 3rd squad the Taliban’s sustained quite a few losses. 8 fighters are seen on the ground. Meanwhile the left bunker, which MG is doing such a good work, start to annoy the enemy. An RPG is darting toward it and miss it by a meter or so. A second will do the same less than minute later. Unimpressed the MG crew keeps firing

Turn 8 -11 Follow up A team gets near the house, while the Humvee reverse Oh, no, not that way d…head! Luckily the Humvee is not drawing any fire confirming the sound move of the A team to better field of views. On the Peschawar exit 1st squad defend from a house that has been reinforced by stone walls on the first ground. They have ammo and no casualties. They fare well. 2nd squad A team, from its higher position breaks the assault of the left spear for a while. Yet the Taliban’s are still trying to get trough the withering fire coming also from B team, located in front of their house (they have taken two casualties - one being serious) and from the left bunker MG.

A team gets near the house, while the Humvee reverse Oh, no, not that way d…head! Luckily the Humvee is not drawing any fire confirming the sound move of the A team to better field of views. On the Peschawar exit 1st squad defend from a house that has been reinforced by stone walls on the first ground. They have ammo and no casualties. They fare well. 2nd squad A team, from its higher position breaks the assault of the left spear for a while. Yet the Taliban’s are still trying to get trough the withering fire coming also from B team, located in front of their house (they have taken two casualties - one being serious) and from the left bunker MG. On the right the Humvee left its precarious position and dashed succesfully close to the house where the ANA hunkers down doing nothing

Tanks US doctrine clearly indicated that tank were not to be used in urban area. Yet in the last Iraq war, they stormed Baghdad in the well known and written THUNDER RUN. Since US doctrine about the use of tanks and tracks has been revised. More recently Danish Leopard were used in support of Brits troops in Hemland. Put a tank on an elevation and you can cover a wide area in overwatch to bring MG and gun supports when needed. Yet, they can sustain damage from IED and or mine with the driver killed and other crew chocked or injured,as it happened. Tanks have a long way to go. Not convinced ? Look at the Israelis. They don't give up besides the high losses they had from ATGM. They just revised their tactical use. Cheers

Alex, I've sent you an email few days ago to let you know that the airfield is ready to be downloaded to you though Sendthisfile.com when you give me a clearance to do so.. Reply on my email and will see how we proceed . Cheers

The ANA 1st squad needs reinforcement and quick medical care. I decide to move in the coming turns the HQ team, hunkering down in a house near the ETT 3rd squad B team. The team will be able to give them covering fire during their move. I shall move also, shortly, the A team to a house closer to the Humvee. From there, they will be able to cover the flank of B team heavily fired The HQ team sustaining its first casualty. My god! the HQ team is getting to the door in full view of the enemy, instead of the one on the back. Are they crazy?. They all get mowed down. The Taliban’s shoot at the house to finish the ANA HQ team 3rd squad A team intended tactical move The 50 cal Humvee becomes registered by enemy fighters. Two RPG shots land in the house wall. It is time to back up

To MeatEtr : Thanks for giving the scenario link. Turn 8 - 11 B team is pouring down fire onto the incoming Taliban’s. Unnoticed to me at the time and seen in the replay a SAW gunner was outside the house defended by the team. In the following dreadful event it looks like a miracle that he was able to rejoin the house, Hiding and crawling being partly covered by the smoke of a grenade. The ANA 1st squads is just wiped out by RPG shots at them. There is only one soldier left alive, forgetting the buddy aid and running for its live. He will dash on the other side of the road and rejoin the 2nd squad which has been badly mauled. Yet I have been unable to confirm from where the incoming fire was coming. Crouched behind the low stone wall the Taliban’s are still trying to get forward, two of them are dropped on the left

To Souldierz : Thanks for your comments and I shall try not to forget in the heat of the battle these damn mortars. It will be however tricky to lay them on a target area or in line. I am praying for the ANA QRF time to come. Cheers

The 3rd squad area : Cheers

Setting of the forces Thanks to Adam Miles, I am presently about to defend the village of Haschim Khan located in a deep valley, with cliffs on either side and whose only exit are by the narrow and torturous road leading to Peschsawar and Jalalabad, passing by the Haschim Khan bridge. My US forces comprising 1st plt/C company/1st Batt (1st, 2nd and 3rd squads) will take cover and defend from the houses. The 4th Batt scouts team will manned the 2 bunkers MG. The ANA 2nd Plt /B Co / 3rd Batt ( 2squads and an HQ team)for which we are doing ETT will do the same at the east exit with our 3rd squad, split in A & B teams in support. The others, that is 1st and 2nd squads, split in A & B teams, will take care of the west exit approach with the BTR-60, well hidden along the houses walls. That way it will fire in defilade toward the Taliban’s crossing its field of view. More it will be less prone to get RPG’s shots. Our 50 cal Humvee will be park in a narrow path between the houses. From that place it will be able to engage in front, but also on its right , should a break out occur. The bunkers field of fire have had their range card and trigger line checked once more. The one overwatching the Peschsawar road, will have defilade fire brought near him by the Jalalabad one if the enemy comes to close. Field of fire are more difficult for the latter, yet it will cover rear of the houses it needs come. As for the 2 X 120mm mortars, the time to get a fire plan going is rather delicate. I don’t count too much on them. So, everyone is in the houses to get some protection, since as usual we should be pasted with mortars and when it ends the assault will start. I hope to be able to hold my ground till the ANA QRF comes. In no case should we try to get toward them. We must stay where we are and for god sake not move. The movement in the village will be difficult without any doubt. Another problem and none the less, the ammo expenditure might prevent us to keep a sufficient rate of fire later on. Will see then, what to do. I don’t think that a truck or two, will have help us in any way. To get to the truck under fire, in order to reload and eventually to be blown up sky with it, doesn’t make sense The situation map The location of our forces and their area of fire Turn 1-7 Every one being hunkered down, I am expecting any moment some mortar plastering, just to get us in the mood of what is coming. Here it comes!. The warning incoming and the cracking heard after it makes us crouch and or hit the floor. It doesn’t stop for the next few minutes. Luckily for us, I had decided to move the ANA out of the trenches and into houses. The one that did occupy the trenches near the peschsawar exit would have been seriously hit have they not moved in time. 2nd squad is yelling contact while they fire. Some Taliban’s are using the mortar barrage to move forward unnoticed. Well, they thought they would be. While the mortars rounds do their dance, we are drawing some snipers shots, rather more disturbing than dangerous. The humvee 50 cal locates one on the far cliff on the Jalalabad exit and give it a rough time. The bunker MG team, on that side, do the same to one of them looking straight at them. He is well hidden and they don’t do him much harm. Hope they don’t use all their ammo on him. They will need every round available later on. 3rd squad A & B teams are now engaged by fighters moving along the road and taking cover behind the low stones fences. Every one is trying to prevent them to get to the first house near the road curve. The ANA doesn’t seem to fire. What the hell, are they doing ?

The interesting comments of Adam Miles could not find an answer from my point of view, without fighting once again the scenario. Contrarily to my habitude I played it Turn by Turn, still in Elite. That way, I am able to look at the action globally, to the left, the right and to look more closely at the replay. Believe me, I have been surprised more than once. However at the beginning of the 12th turn, I still have all my US troops (with some lightly wounded however), but the ANA is clearly wiped out and the few remaining are hunkering down without even returning fight. The ETT seems not to have been able to raise their spirit and ability to fight as a team. However, the assault toward the road barricade has been stopped dead for the moment. On the other exit of the village, the Taliban’s managed with heavy losses to hold in the houses of the first road curve. More the BRDM and the 50 Cal Humvee are still in the dance. How long ? they are prime target. I hope to be able to hold the ground with the ANA QRF being due in the next 3 minutes. They might relieve some pressure from the right front and maybe come closer. I haven’t tried the mortars yet since they take a long time to be fire planned, but I should think it over for the 12th turn. I shall post the shots of the fight at the latest tomorrow due to my planning leaving me short breaks. Cheers Post scriptum : The fact to have designed the scenario is not an asset, since that scenario has been made taking in account tactical issues. If you are fighting with the tactic that should be applied in such a fight, you are able to survive or at least to try to. They are not other ways to handle that fight, but there are many ways to end laying in the dust by being careless. The ANA platoon is an illustration of that. I have done the wrong thing at the wrong time and was not forgiven for doing so.

Glad you like it. So, all I have to do now is to work on the Blue and Red A.I and that means quite a lot of testing to insure that the fights are as realistic as they could be. Besides,the balance of the forces and the objectives points have to be done rightly to avoid a too quick surrender from either side. Hope it won't take too long. Thanks for your comments. Cheers

Ok Alex, I shall work on it as soon as I can and see how you can download it. Having seen, what both of you have done on the reported AAR scenarios, I am sure that sure will do part of a good scenario Let you know, when it's ready Cheers

Hi Chainsaw, Not too easy to see more closely the houses in the village on the pictures. Globally it looks good. I will however have more low trees added on to the non desert sector, more gullies and high crops. It should look like a garden, an orchard with no real pattern applied to it. The small houses should not have numerous windows, just one on each side and usually these are rather turned toward a central courtyard, enclosed by the U made by the dependences. The walls toward the exterior are often without any window and or door. You get into the houses through a gate and into the courtyard. Then you can get in the rooms. Don’t forget your engineer’s squads to breach the outer walls for the assault. You don’t want them to go through the central gate and mowed down by a LMG The houses look very often like a small compound, from which the inhabitants can defend themselves and protect the few living stock they might have. Along the walls you should find dried poppy which is used to make fire to cook and to heat a room at the cold season.. The houses are surrounded by low and or high dried mud walls. All the houses are more or less similar and of slightly different shades of mud colours. They are small narrow passage along the houses and the used water is usually thrown in it, along with the rest. The village place is rather small, but wide enough to have a truck getting through it, while hopping from village to village. The road is more a gravel and or dirt one. You have on either side of it numerous trenches, gullies and irrigation sewages. A track, will not go too far without being immobilized and stuck in the mud. The gullies are made in different pattern and in different axis. It should look like a crisscross on the fields. The fields in the Hemland have in some place culture growing into marshes, when they are near the river. Here is a shot of a compound with a 2 stories house in the centre of the village. I am not sure to retain it, in the final scenario. I have also left, some windows, to give some field of fire to the defenders. You can look at the other shots of the compound and or landscape, I have just made for a new scenario http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=92213 Hope these can help you refine a bit what you have already done well Cheers

Here after the latest shots of the airfield after its completion. A winding road going uphill has been added. It goes to a strong point from which you can over watch the area of the airfield, but see as far away as to the dam and the strong point near it. That way, a FO or JTAC team will be able to give support to the squads and or platoons venturing into the Green Zone compounds or along the highway on their way to the dam. Cheers

Hi Alex, If you like the airfield, I can send it over to you. If I can reduce the map to the boundary of the airfield, you can then add landscape all around it and it will look different. What do you think of that ? Here is a new shot, showing the road going uphill to a strongpoint over watching the area. I am posting 3 more airfield views on that post http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=92213 Cheers

I have the same interrogation. If the scouts are leaving, their LOS is lost and if the Air strike still comes, it should be rather misguided toward the targets. Am I right ? Cheers

I have only praise for these scenarios, their designers and the narrator of the AAR. All are inclining me to order the Brits modules and try my hand on the campaign when it will be available. I have found the landscape pretty well done and designed in such a way that it permits a wide range of sounds tactical postures in defence for the Reds. The force are well balanced and the Reds positioning quite convincing. In a word it looks like reality and not a shoot them up scenario. The only drawback, if I can say, is to have to wait for it. Thumb up to you Alek and Alex Cheers

Hi Paper Tiger, For the callsign, they have to be short and precise in order to be understood in the heat of a battle; I think that platoon leaders usually are Alpha, Bravo, Charly. The squads leaders are Alpha 1, Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 and so on for Bravo and charly. The companies could be Devil 1, Devil 2 and Devil 3 or a name you think fit for it. The regiment usually assign the company name. The fact to have a name and then the digit make it easier to understand on the radio chatt. When there are platoons from 2 companies on the field, Alpha 1 could be from first company and Alpha 2 from the second one. Hence Alpha 1-2 will be the 1st squad from the 1st platoon of the 2nd company, if I am right or the contrary. Usually for an assault as Jonny(FGM) said rightly it is 2 up 1 in reserve. It is all about the triangular formation use from centuries back. Waiting for your campaign impatiently Cheers