A Canadian Cat

First Few Minutes – Moving Out and the importance of C2 This is a meeting engagement, even with the twist of the other objectives, so the plan is to get to the bridge fast. The bridge objective is B company's job. 1 Platoon will rush wide and fast to cross the road and get into the woods to approach the bridge. 2 Platoon will follow but stay out of site in the gully at KT5 that connects with KT2. That way 2 Platoon can either cross the road and join 1 Platoon or manoeuvre down the gully towards the bridge which ever seems best. A Company will protect the Red objective and position itself to threaten the Blue objective. All their BMPs and two attached ATGMs will stay on the high ground, KT7, and try to restrict the enemy's movement while the infantry take up a position on KT6 to observe and threaten the farm. Meanwhile 2 Platoon will get into the West end of the KT5 out of site and be ready to respond as needed. A Compnay HQ following along on foot behind 1 Platoon as the cross into KT5. B Company moving off at speed. 1 Platoon is in the lead with 2 Platoon following. After about a minute you can see the plan begin to unfold... The two ATGM teams setup on the high ground – all the see is a BTR for a brief second slipping along AA3. Closer examination shows that they actually do not have as good a view as I had hoped. To be clear they can see a lot and anyone venturing out into the open ground will likely become a target. The trouble is there is a low area along AA3 that is out of their view so the ATGMs and the BMPs will not be in as dominating a position as I thought. To make matter worse I now see that do to comms the BMPs are out of C2 with their HQs which also means no area fire from KT7 in support of the infantry. That is not good. I really want the BMPs to be able to support the infantry. Given their poor visibility I was counting on them for area fire as directed by the Platoon HQ. Without the rules I would happily just leave them on KT7 and blast away at what ever I want them to. But under the Hard-Cat rules they cannot do that. Therefore I need to think like the Platoon commander and get them into a position that can support the platoon. Therefore 1 Platoon and the A Company BMP will reposition to KT6 so they can actually take direction from the their respective HQs. 2 Platoon's BMPs will just join their platoon in defilade and stick with them as reinforcements. The first members of B Company 2 platoon reach their positions with the rest close behind. B Company 1 Platoon cross the road into cover. This was the most dangerous time for them and the all made it without taking any fire. Some screen shots showing the problem with C2. This is after the BMPs moved from KT7 into position hull down on my side of KT6. They are still out of C2 from their HQs. The Platoon HQ is on the other side of the ridge and out of contact. By repositioning the HQ back to just the other side of the ridge now the infantry and the BMPs are in C2. The HQ is also in a better position to observer the Farm but they are also more exposed. Those compromises are the point of the Hard-Cat rules thought.

Nice work collecting all that.

Sounds like a possible bug. If the same goes for NATO forces then it definitely is if it is only Syrian then I'd have a discussion first but it hardly seems fair

I was just forming my thoughts in my head to say just that. I couldn't have said it any better. And you graphics even have my tactical icons, so, my pics wouldn't have looked any better either.

Yep, as long as they don't walk away.

Yep, I would not expect any changes in this either. Seems to be working as expected. I will point out that we sometimes get people complaining that RPGs are under modeled because not enough casualties are caused.

Yikes, I don't remember. Did I give you any feedback?

LOL same here.

Edit to say this is in response to the concerns raises by @Aurelius I am sure no one has any allusions the orders to the soldier would come from anyone other than the squad leader. These rules are about coordination between squads. 3c covers squad leader directed fire. And I thought there was a rule about allowing the tac AI to choose its own targets for spotted units. That too would be the squad leader controlling things on thier own.

That was freaky. What caused that? I am quite certain that falling from windows and balconies is not part of the game. So, what we are seeming there has to be something to do with floors and the game forgetting what floor the guy was on. What floor did you think he should be on? The rest of his team? Any move orders. I suppose it doesn't really matter unless we see this regularly...

Cool. I still have concerns about the limit of two movement orders but it's based on gut feel rather than experience. So I would be willing to give it a shot. My concern is similar to the debate about command delays. A team leader should always be able to get thier men out of trouble or maneuver the final approach to deal with tactical situations. Trying to put restrictions on the number of movement orders could prevent a team from doing something as simple as "go out the back door, through the gate and get across the alley to safety". In my opinion team leaders should be able to accomplish that at all times. I know one move order would not allow that. I worry that two might not. Let's try and see. As you correctly point out how much can actually get done on one minute anyway?

LOL so you see the same as me. Interesting comment. I'll try to remember not to offer my opinion in your issues in the future.

Must be your browser fonts. On my android 9 chrome (and earlier versions) the font is fine. The colour choice is terrible for readability but the font is fine. I was going to post a screen capture as proof but it looked terrible too even though the real view is totally fine when I zoom in. The JPG compression seems to be smudging the nearly invisible letters even more.

Yes, typically to use a demo charge your team has to be in the next action square. To help seal with the angry hornets effect of troops exiting bunkers have one or two fire teams covering the door.

Isn't that worth something?

Dang. I am sure I read it on here but I went looking for an external source but could not.

I like 6. Rule 7 makes me "like smile."

Rule 5. Interesting but yuck. It seems like the single leg move orders is well intentioned but... Let's say I have a squad that has been separated and they need to relocate. They pick a nearby building. That would be a perfectly reasonable squad leader decision but we all know to execute a proper building entry, even a safe one, requires more than one waypoint. First to the front door then inside. At the very least.

I'm still reading but I'm posting as I go... 2c my understanding is the BMP's do use thier smoke system as part of thier platoon's standard maneuver. In this case this rule would restrict a realistic activity. Except list? 3a I thought you did not like this one? I found it frustrating - normally I use it to find out which if my units have spotted the selected unit.

Don't have the game in front of me but the Commonwealth 50mm mortars are not call able. They can only be used in direct fire roles. If that is the mortar type then this is as expected.

The face command can do this without the draw back of preventing the unit from firing on surprise contacts. I don't think so - all this is interesting and could be subject to rules. But then you would be better off just not setting cover arcs. If one is required to based on the rules then that setup a totally unrealistic scenario where an AT unit might see armour and be unable to shoot it - according to the rules - yuck.

Searching and sorting with this might help: http://www.combatmission.lesliesoftware.com/index.html

Or you can use a covered approach and make sure your final movement segment is in the direction of the target. That way you are covered if something unexpected appears and you are still facing the right direction when contact is possible.

Perhaps I should explain here so people get what I am talking about. The above is an excellent example of why I don't use them much. The effect of a cover arc in the game is to prevent firing outside of said arc. You almost never actually want that. Here are the two or three times I do use them: Circular cover arc to prevent a unit from firing on whatever the spot. Cover arcs are designed for preventing firing. These I use for scout teams, HQ teams, FO teams so they can defend themselves if they accidentally get close but also stop them from firing on anything they spot since I don't really want them to reveal them selves. Circular armour cover arc to prevent a unit from firing on infantry when I would really prefer them to use their assets on enemy armour. For example I give tanks an armour only cover arc that is big enough to cover the whole map. I use this to prevent tanks from fire HE on enemy positions that I already have infantry assaulting - prevents friendly fire casulties. Or more importantly Shreck, Bazooka, RPG and Javelin teams get a circular armour cover arc so they don't shoot at enemy infantry when their real job is to fire on enemy armour. Again I don't want them to fire and reveal themselves unless they are targeting something important. 180 degree cover arc for instances where the face command is not appropriate. Here are two times that might happen - tanks driving West East when the threat is to the North and positioning a heavy weapons team that I don't want to fire right away but I do want to control what windows they setup looking out. Item 3 I consider high risk and I only do that when the risk of not doing so is higher. In both cases I want that cover arc off ASAP and it is always 180 degrees - ish.

My point is though putting restrictions on *setting* covered arcs is not a real restriction. I and many players effectively don't use them so adding restrictions on using them is moot. Ah, now being forced to use covered arc - that would be restriction. I would hate that because... Exactly. If you want a squad to watch a particular treeline the use the face command - so they are facing said tree line. Then if a halftrack shows up outside that they will target it. If you really really don't want your squad to defend themselves from unforeseen threats then by all means set a cover arc For sure. I have a write up in the works - hopefully I'll get it out over lunch...