CameronMcDonald

Splitters.

Cold Warriors.
  Well it looks like Steve has already dropped the mic over on the annual update thread, so let myself, Bil H and Cpt Miller (along with a small team of unwashed heathens - two of whom are actually from the UK), be the second to announce the first CMCW Module - CMCW - British Army On the Rhine (BAOR).

We are still in development so I will only outline the broad strokes of what we are working on, and insert the caveat that we reserve the right to add/subtract - 
 - Time frame of the game is going deeper backwards into the Cold War.  We are setting the clock back to 1976, so CMCW will now encompass 1976-1982 (including some minor tweaks to the existing US orbats).  As has been noted we are less interested in the later Cold War years largely because they really do start to resemble the later CM titles and we are shooting to keep CMCW distinct in its own right.
- UK BOAR - right now we have a pretty comprehensive build planned for the UK units as they transitioned from their 1974 structures - to where they landed in 1980.  As per the picture above players should be able to become deeply engaged within the historical BAOR sector of the ETO.
- And because I just have to represent the home team, we are also doing the Canadians.  That little black box is the planned 4 CMBG AO - you will note this was right at the tail end when the brigade was still part of the BAOR, although for those that really want to play First Clash and park them down in Lahr you are fee to do so because the basic unit structures remained the same.
- We do have plans for the Soviet side, but are going to hold off on details until we zero them fully in...more to follow. 
- I will let you all speculate and discuss what new vehicles and weapon systems we are talking about but there is a not insignificant list of new ones we are planning - more as we start to get some cool screen shots.  
As noted by Steve, we are well on our way and are planning for a release this year - content and full scope remains TBA.
Thank you all very much for your support, the response to CMCW has been well beyond what we were expecting and that is entirely thanks to you guys.

Great read once again - thanks! 😀

In the Fulda Gap, that most terrible dawn came and went for the US V Corps. The 11th Cavalry had bent, but it had not broken. Exercising units that had been caught flat-footed largely made good their escape, battered but capable of reconstitution. NATO deployed, alarmed but resolute, to protect this retreat.  The allied air forces made a herculean effort to create space through strikes in the enemy rear areas. The Elbe crossings were hit, hard. Much closer to home, crossings over the Werra were hit with equal violence. The cost was great, the Soviet air defence asked a high price for admission to these lucrative targets. Nevertheless, the initial Soviet supplies and follow-on forces were slowed.  The powerful shock forces immediately in the battle area still had to be dealt with, but that was a more manageable battle.
Anyone who knew anything, knew this: the initial move was a Soviet masterstroke and had shaped things to their advantage nicely. NATO, however, hadn’t been put in checkmate.
It was a different B Team, but the situation is not all that different: once again thrust into a nightmare scenario against the best an enemy had to offer. That is the situation B Company, 2nd of the 28th Infantry, 1st Brigade, 8th Infantry Division found itself in as July 16th dawned.
CPT Booth was still attempting to recover his balance. The war had come as a violent shock to everyone. His company’s war was not even 24 hours old, and yet his command had already been handled roughly.
First had come hurried orders on the 15th of July to take blocking positions. They were to hold until friendly exercising units could retreat through them. The friendlies had all gotten away and clean, but the enemy forward security element that had been hot on their heels had only been stopped at egregious cost. B Team’s first ever fight started well enough: the company’s ITOWs and attached scouts had flamed several enemy BMPs and a tank. Then the sheer force of enemy fire had sent them reeling backwards to new, hasty positions. An unexpected and sudden flank from several T-80s creeping through dead ground had almost spelled disaster. They been stopped at the ten-yard line in a point-blank engagement. The effort had nearly destroyed Booth’s command. When they received the order to pull back, they left behind three burning M60s – one containing the decapitated corpse of the Tank Platoon leader (he couldn’t even remember the man’s name) – a scout track, and several ITOWs, some from the Scouts, some from his Weapons platoon.
That had been the toughest moment of his life so far. Booth had learned from his first day of OCS: don’t leave your dead, never, ever, leave your wounded. The bastard that had said that had clearly never imagined what this war would look like. Booth’s FSGT, a dependable, quiet Vietnam veteran found him early that evening, weeping in the woods, a shuddering mess. Without a word the NCO clapped a hand on his shoulder, then turned around to go make sure no one would find their CO before he regained his composure.
Though Booth could hardly take credit for it, things had improved after that. An ambush conducted by his 2nd Platoon, surviving scouts and ITOWs had mauled a Soviet security element in the thick forest astride the MSR.  When they pulled back in their M113s, th
ey had left a platoon of T-64s and almost a company’s worth BMPs burning, piled up on the asphalt and along the shoulders. Similar, less dramatic, ambushes had been pulled off by the TF’s scouts and A Company. It had bought the battalion what Booth had already learned was the most precious resources of all in war: time. More importantly, it had burgeoned their sagging morale and showed them that the enemy could be defeated. So violent were these ambushes, they had compelled the Soviets to halt for the evening and night, to deploy their main forces for a deliberate attack.
TF “Dragon” had been able to dig in, lay obstacles, rest, reorganize, conduct proper terrain walks of their next intended battleground and even rehearse planned movements and retreats. Better yet, Booth had been able to sleep. The Soviets were now facing the unenviable task of regaining momentum through a set piece attack into prepared defences. Booth’s company, deployed in front of the suspected main effort, was going to stop them.
Chapter 4: Equilibrium
Neuhof, Forward Edge of the Battle Area. July 16th, 1100 hours.
Ten Fateful Minutes

A quiet stand-to. The Soviets didn’t come in the morning mist. The TF’s S-2 had estimated they were not capable, but Booth hadn’t really believed it. It had given the men a chance to have a hot breakfast, and for his rifle platoons to rehearse their drives into their pre-selected fighting positions. They had now once again returned to their hides, and Booth was going over the plan one last time with the headquarters’ team. Sitting on the ramp of the M113 with an overlay awkwardly spread out over both knees, he went over the scheme, taskings and timings once more.

He had called in the unfamiliar commanders of two attachments made to his unit: 1LT Lyles, a tanker cross-attached from a neighbouring armour Battalion and 1LT Swafford, a platoon leader from the Anti-tank company. They so far had made good impressions. They had been deferential but confident in advising how their commands should be used and had had a great role in shaping the battle plan. Lyles’ M60s were equipped with Tank Thermal Sights and were referred to as TTS. They would be a key component of the plan, a potentially decisive advantage. Swafford’s TOW launchers were older M150s, and would work closely with the TTS to make up for this.
“Let’s make sure we’re all clear on this. Each BP needs to position its vehicles to be able to fire into at least two EAs. We need to create a cycle of combat.”

There it was again. Booth had used that phrase ad nauseum all through yesterday evening and morning. It would have made his special platoon leaders exchange wry looks if the situation wasn’t so serious, and if the plan didn’t make so much good sense.
“Forward deployed units need to get their shots in and hand off the engagement quickly, falling back after the first couple of shots. No delay. The scouts, with some help from your platoon, Lyle, will handle those early engagement areas.”

Nods all around.
“We’re going to operate on the assumption that the other team are going to get to the goal line. We’re going to let em through but make sure they arrive in no position to cross it. Rifle platoons will clean up, Lyle’s main BP will hit anything heavy that manages to get into these final EAs.”


"Alright. That’s it. Get to your positions. Expect them before the morning is through.”
Booth had learned from his first encounter with the enemy. If they wanted to get through somewhere, they could do it the first time with high probability. It was better to bend rather than put up a wall early and watch the Soviets knock it down. He also remembered how his Company had almost immediately descended into chaos when trying to fall back to several successive positions. Too many successive BPs complicated things. A set of main BPs to fall back into was preferable.
He moved into the cargo space of his command track. As the ramp closed behind him, he went over his scheme once more…
His thoughts were interrupted by a squawk over the radio. Through light interference came the report: Dorfborn was coming under artillery fire.

“The centre of town is being hit hard. No casualties so far.” Dull crumps reverberate through the hull of Booth’s M113. “Sir, Neuhof is getting hit pretty hard” the gunner informs him. In the latter case, at least, the Soviets were not at risk of hitting any of his men, who remained to the rear in hides. The locals who had remained had, he hoped, listened to his missive to remain in their basements.  

Here we go. Booth thinks to himself as he tightens the straps of his steel helmet. Further reports were coming in now from Dorfborn: enemy vehicles in column, fanning out into line. Nodding at the company FIST, pre-planned fires are called upon to begin laying a thick fire down in front of the enemy’s axes of advance. The battle for Neuhof had begun.

For the Soviets, the fight begins disastrously. Several BMPs are destroyed trying to run the gauntlet of artillery fire. The FIST’s face betrays no satisfaction, or any other emotion, as he acknowledges the fire and attempts to keep the artillery fire shifting in line with the enemy’s advance.
Despite the pounding the bulk of these lead forces push through the fire, T-64s in the lead. The first direct fire engagement then begins, as the forward deployed TOWs and armour pick up these targets. In two minutes, TOWs managed to destroy several enemy recce, anti-tank and ADA elements that had exposed themselves in the treelines lining the valley floor. They also engage several T-64s that are furtively pushing forward, with catastrophic effect. Within two minutes, a platoon of the enemy’s tanks are burning. 


Scattered throughout the valley are American OPs, who help Booth tightly control the battle and report these initial successes. Prompted by the reports of the continuing Soviet advance, Booth’s attached TACP requests the pre-planned interdiction sorties to begin. A-10s which had been flying a race-track pattern behind friendly lines acknowledge, drop altitude and vector themselves in.

Within two minutes, the better part of an enemy company has suffered severe attrition. The start of the battle has gone almost precisely as Booth had planned. Almost. The initial exchange of fire is not one sided, and just as one of the forward ITOWs start to pull back, it is struck by a Spandrel. Its crew does not survive.


In Dorfborn, the NCO leading the scout section can see another enemy company crossing the River Fleide, entering into engagement area Blue. His men take up the awkward, cross-legged firing position with their M47 Dragons and remove the covers from the thermal sights. Concentrating hard, and trying to ignore the reverberating thumps of artillery hitting the town only a few dozen meters behind their positions, they begin to engage. A T-64 is soon burning.



A second soon joins it. The third shrugs off the Dragon as if it was nothing. Its turret orients towards the village, and sweeps back and forth, trying to pinpoint the firing position.
“That’s it, pack up and move next door. They’re onto us!” a SGT screams at his two scouts, straining to be heard over the screaming howls of the still-intensifying artillery. The Scouts brave the streets for brief moments at a time as they dash between houses, safety, and new firing positions. As new positions are taken up, they continue to report back to Booth. The enemy are flowing like water on either side of the village, and are beginning to present their flanks. These are choice shots, and the scouts make the most of the opportunity, hitting another pair of BMPs.
Then, the A-10s arrive. Two are shot down immediately by ADA, but the other pair close up and push through. Cluster bombs drop onto a buildup of enemy BMPs crossing the bottleneck at the River Fliede.

Back in Booth’s command track, 2LT Bartels, the TACP officer, officer looks shaken. Despite all the artillery fire onto identified enemy ADA, the Soviets still had more out there. It had been so effective. The remaining pair of A-10s don’t try their luck for a second pass and try to burn their way out. One of the two remaining A-10s is badly damaged by an anti-air missile and comes down extremely hard on landing back at base. Three A-10s for, at best, a handful of BMPs. He reports the ineffective air attack to the CO. His part in the battle is done. He can’t help but feel he’s somehow let his comrades down.
Meanwhile, the enemy continues to bypass Dorfborn on either flank. The Scouts are beginning to run low on Dragon missiles and their escape window is closing. Radioing a warning to the forward deployed TTS on their left flank of the targets coming their way, they close up shop and mount up. A harrowing cross-country dash in their M113s shortly follows, but they are all able to pull back behind Neuhof intact and in good order. The scouts never learn just how timely their retreat is, for as they are pulling back, a platoon of enemy BMPs finally breaks off from the pack and enters Dorfborn.

As the scouts are preparing to pull back, Booth is able to piece together the battlefield based on the reports from them, and the forward deployed armour. The enemy, as was expected, is bypassing the village on either side. Neuhof was clearly their destination. With the covering forces displacing, it was time to put the rifle platoons into their battle positions. With a terse codeword across the company net, he orders his tracks out of their hides and into their positions around Neuhof. They had rehearsed things excellently: it will take around 5 minutes to get set up.


As the tracks rumble towards BPs 1A and 1B respectively, the platoon leaders exercise the independent authority Booth has trusted them with. The first of many decisions: do the M113s remain in the BP, or out? In 1B, the platoon leader decides he will order his three M113s to pull back to their hides. His position is closest to Neuhof’s town centre and he knows enemy artillery fire can intensify on it quickly. In 1A, the platoon leader has already decided he will disperse the tracks into fighting positions. He needs as much firepower as he can get, as there are a lot more ingress routes to his position for an enemy to take.
The covering battle is over, and the fight begins to shift to the main BPs. SFC MacDade, Lyles’ platoon NCO opens up the engagement. Hidden away in BP2 with a OP/LP, he is told that a better part of a MRC is fully in EA Blue now. He orders his TTS and his wingman forward, using the treeline, a cottage and its hedged garden as a attack by fire position. MacDade accounts for two T-64s in rapid succession, guiding his gunner on with alacrity with his commander’s override.



The savage enfilading fire seems to sap the Soviet company in EA Blue of some impetus. They hesitate, then briefly halt. MacDade and his wingmen hit several more BMPs, despite the enemy attempting to return fire. The laser rangefinder equipped TTSs are proving as decisive as Booth had hoped.

The BMPs surging to the left of Dorfborn run into the outposted TTS that had covered the scout sections’ retreat. In quick succession, the gunner knocks out two BMPs as they push past the treeline. The TC, a SSGT, is too focused on looking through the CTSD at his gunner’s handiwork. He never identifies the third BMP, skulking in the treeline, as it hits his tank with a Spandrel. The jet of chemical energy eviscerates the entire crew. The SSGT never knows why he died, indeed never has a chance to realise he is dying. The M60 shudders and burns.


The surviving Soviet squad leader has no radio transmitter with which to report that the way around Dorfborn is open; and so he clambers out of the forward hatch, awkwardly fumbling to produce a green flare pistol from below. Aiming straight at the sky he fires it through the canopy of the treeline, willing it to be seen. His prayers are answered: his Battalion commander sees it, even in the bright summer morning, and immediately orders the surviving elements of this MRC to push towards it. He promises a redoubling of the artillery effort to the Major leading this thrust.
There’s a gap in Booth’s armour, and he doesn’t yet realise it.
MacDade, for his part, knows he’s overstayed his welcome in the firing positions. It has only been two minutes, but he knows that is a long time in this type of environment. He orders his wingman to pull back after his own tank. Just as his tank is arriving in cover behind one of the German cottages in the BP, his wingman’s tank is struck by a missile. He doesn’t see from where. Immediately, he thinks: that could’ve been me, and then, glad it wasn’t. A pang of guilt at the selfish thought when four men have just died. Then, relief: the TTS stirs. A slight move of the gun. Hatches open, cautiously, and a man clambers out of the turret. He turns around and helps lift an unconscious second crewman out, aided by the third, who unceremoniously is pushing the stricken man out by his boot soles . A fourth crewman is seen rounding the front end of the tank, arriving to help take the wounded, with almost careful reverence now, down from the engine deck of the tank.
MacDade waves them into the nearby cottage. The three men, a bit shocked but otherwise alright, quickly comply, the burly driver fireman carrying the wounded, unconscious gunner.

Across the battlezone, the Soviets bite back, no longer mere targets in the distance. Unbeknownst to MacDade, the T-64 that took out his wingman is itself shortly knocked out from BP 3B, as 1LT Swafford orders a pair of his TOWs to move forward and engage from the giant potash pile that looms over Neuhof.  As these TOWs are pulling back from the edge of the plateau, one is struck, and it is ripped apart in a blinding flash as its missiles touch off.

This gory disaster doesn’t discourage them. Swafford then orders his other pair of TOW carriers forward in BP3A. These, at the base of the potash mound, creep into hulldown positions on a forested slope. Another T-64 burns. This time they pull back safely into their hides.

The direct fire engagement in EA Red and Blue slackens as MacDade and Swafford pull their vehicles back into hides. The Soviets regain their composure, close formation, and surge onwards. The battle will have to be picked up again in EAs White and Yellow, as Booth’s infantrymen bottle up the Soviets on the mine fields protecting the approaches to Neuhof. For now, the tanks and TOWs lay low, their commanders seeking new firing positions in their respective BPs, anticipating the next engagement.
In BPs 1A and 1B, the infantrymen have debussed from their M113s. Booth and his command team have joined them in 1B, near the two intact bridges that help the town straddle the river Fleide. The decisive engagement was now a sure thing, as the Soviets seemed intent to press forward despite the mauling. 

Booth was fighting the surging adrenaline, trying to stay objective whilst monitoring the engagements on the company net. His XO was sending him SITREPs from the rest of the TF but whatever he was told was forgotten almost immediately. The rest of the Battalion could be on Mars, as far as he was concerned. His entire universe had shrunk to the small area of Neuhof and its approaches. So far, he was still master of this domain. Despite the almost non-factor combat aviation had been, the engagement had gone almost as well as he had planned it. He took mental stock of the situation, collating the many reports that had come in over the last few minutes, trying to form a cohesive image:

The company team was doing alright. For the loss of two tanks and two TOWs, they had accounted for an estimated eight T-64s, nine BMP-2s and five BRDMs.  The equivalent of a tank company and an MRC had been mauled across the first two EAs. So far, the enemy’s courses of action had conformed to what he had expected. They were bypassing Dorfborn, and appeared to be aiming to strike Neuhof from his left flank with one MRC, whilst another beelined for the train station to his front-right. What remained to be seen was whether they would stick to the low ground on the right, heading directly for BP1A, or try to climb the flat hill he had emplaced his surviving two M60A1s, under the command of SGT Marx, on. Another unknown, and a growing disquiet in his mind, was what was happening on his left. They had no eyes there since the scouts had pulled out, and the outpost TTS never pulled into MacDade’s position. It was tough terrain, but if the Soviets wanted to squeeze through it, they could.
It was 1110 hours. It had taken only ten minutes for this carnage to develop.
The Decisive Engagement
Artillery once again dominates the battle on both sides. Dorfborn, despite the Soviet intrusion into it, is hit once again, hard, by their artillery. Just as they did in the start, they pummel empty air. BMPs begin to press forward again, a bit more raggedly now, behind this renewed barrage.
American artillery answers, with fires coming down on TRPs that hope to close the exits from Dorfborn. 1LT Snook, the company FIST, had rode into BP 1B with Booth and had deployed forward in a rail house so to better guide the artillery. Now that his fires were under direct observation, rather than simply being from an overlay, the American artillery began to show increased agility. Fires chase the Soviets all the way and punish any halt.
A brief conversation between Booth and SGT Marx about the situation, results in his tank section pulling back to an alternative position behind BP 1A. They pull back swiftly, grateful to no longer be out on a limb with what’s left of a MRC bearing down on them.

A brief lull, filled only by the artillery fire from both sides, ensues. At 1116, the first Soviet BMPs erupt forward, nosing into the second and final set of EAs. A BMP enters into EA white, and is engaged from BP3, with Lyle and Swafford’s vehicle creeping forward once more. A TTS misses, but a TOW doesn’t. A second one follows, and this time it is shot up by the riflemen of 2LT LeBlanc’s platoon stationed in BP 1A.

The OP/LP assigned to MacDade’s BP feeds a steady report of more enemy vehicles.
“Oscar 2 send for Bravo 26. This callsign currently observing three times BMP in EA Blue and two times BMP in EA Yellow.”
“Bravo 26 copies. Out.”

Booth forewarns BP 1B’s platoon of the encroaching Soviets. It’s leader, 2LT Clausen, affirms and goes about ensuring his Dragon teams are deployed and ready. By 1117 they spot the enemy. Clausen wisely orders his men to hold fire, waiting for clearer shots, husbanding the limited ammunition his M47s have. Over the next three minutes, the OP/LP report more and more contacts heading for Neuhof via Dorfborn. It is the missing third Soviet MRC.
At 1120, the BMPs in EA Yellow are close enough and providing good silhouettes. Clausen orders his anti-tanks to engage at will. A BMP platoon is destroyed several hundred meters away from Neuhof. 


Clausen, like the scouts before him, instructs his Dragon teams to displace between shots. The men dash between neighbouring suburban houses. The civilians, almost all sheltering in their basements as instructed, wince every time they hear the heavy thuds of GI’s boots thumping against their floorboards and stairwells. Their terror is borne out of a helplessness, and ignorance.
“The Soviets must be at the edge of town!”
“Hush! Stay quiet, lay still”
A whispered exchange in German between an elderly man and his wife. They cannot know that the battle is going splendidly, that the Soviet advance, in the face of their losses, means nothing.
1LTs Lyle and Swafford continue to conduct berm drills in BP 3, nipping at the flanks and rear of the enemy surging into EA Yellow. What the infantry are unable to see or engage, they do. The dispersion of fire is excellent, and to Swafford’s particular relief, none of the finite number of TOWs are wasted firing at already destroyed enemy targets. 


The fight in EA Yellow reaches a crescendo as the reinforcing enemy MRC arrive in strength. Burgeoned by the reinforcements, the Soviets redouble their efforts to break into Neuhof. As the BMPs surge forward, they strike the minefield that had been laid through the middle of EA Yellow. Many strike mines and are immobilized. Several other BMPs managed to skirt the edge of the obstacle belt, moving along the rail line. That fight falls to Clausen.

For the majority of the MRC, milling along the obstacle belt, their situation soon becomes incredibly hot. First, they come under crushing artillery fire. Booth, from his forward command post in BP 1B, can see that a unique opportunity has come to destroy the majority of this MRC in a very short span of time. The ITOWs that had fallen back harass the halted enemy, knocking out a few from the agricultural plots behind Neuhof. 


Booth thinks quickly. Then, taking the handheld from the RTO, broadcasts across the company net. Like the voice of God, his voice punches into the ears of all his mounted platoon leaders.
“This is Bravo 26, all Bravo Tango callsigns to move forward and attack by fire enemy MRC in EA Yellow at 1125 hours. Repeat: H-hour is at 1125 hours.”
To Booth’s grim delight, he sees more and more enemy BMPs begin to pile up in front of EA Yellow’s obstacle belt. A target rich environment.
For surviving veterans of 2-28 INF, in the decades that follow, at reunions amongst themselves and in interviews for the media, much will be made of B Company’s “mad minute at Neuhof.” For the men who were there, it would become a moment of pride. Enlisted men would, during their dusty recollections, say this was the moment they believed they would win the war.
At 1125 hours, SGT Marx, 1LT Lyles, and 1LT Swafford order all their vehicles forward. Booth, likewise, orders the ITOWs under his command to engage. The TTS open the wound, with Lyles’ tank striking a BMP in EA Yellow. 

Then, an ITOW behind BP 1A adds to the tally.


The surviving TOW vehicle on the potash mound picks off a straggling BMP in EA Blue.

A TOW in BP3 claims a second BMP in EA Blue. The carnage proceeds: SGT Marx’s wingman — even with the far less accurate M60A1 — manages to destroy a BMP in EA Yellow as well - an ITOW behind Neuhof hits a BMP skulking in Dorfborn. Finally, Lyle’s wingman engages a BMP just as it fires a Spandrel missile. The BMP explodes as its missile pitbulls harmlessly off into the sky, to destinations unknown. 


The assault is utterly devastating on the Soviets. Within 60 seconds, 7 BMPs are burning. All that make it through the gauntlet of fire are the aforementioned pair of BMPs, which snake their way into Neuhof along the low ground. Dutifully, amazingly, fanatically, they disgorge their infantry, who storm into Clausen’s positions. The 2LT cannot but admire the courage of his Soviet counterparts.

Nevertheless, admiration doesn’t translate to pity. A M60 and a Dragon were already pre positioned to watch this entrance into town, and their fire forces the Soviet dismounts to duck into an alley, and right into his first squad. It’s hardly a fight. Caught in the open, the Soviet riflemen are gunned down in a violent fusillade. The only return fire the infantry receive comes from the final Soviet, caught by a M60 burst, who fires his AK in a reflexive spraying arc as he slumps over, dead. Mercifully, his steel helmet slides forward and covers his face, sparing his killer from having to humanize him in the fatal moment.


By 1135 hours the enemy’s attack is clearly shattered. The only surviving enemy are seen deployed at the forward edge of Dorfborn. An eerie silence momentarily falls…but is quickly shattered by a heavy Soviet barrage on 2LT’s Leblanc’s position in BP 1A. The initial pounding kills a pair of men, but the platoon is able to crawl into shelter on the bottom floor, and wait out the barrage in relative safety, even as it ruins and rubbles the buildings they are in.

Again, the American artillery responds in kind, with much more effect. Guided on by 1LT Snook, 155s expend their remaining munitions on the forces in Dorfborn. The fire, so heavily concentrated in such a small space, rips some BMPs apart, flips others, and peppers the survivors with shrapnel. 

Booth briefly toys with the idea of counterattacking Dorfborn, encouraged by the scout sections report that a covered, undefended route onto the flank of the shattered village is open through the trees. He ultimately declines to do so, however. Cognizant of the diminished ammunition of both his direct and indirect fire weaponry, and the importance of making sure Lyles’ and Swafford’s platoons do not suffer unnecessary losses (their parent units will need them, after all), he decides against risking a broken neck so late in the battle.

It becomes a moot point: under the cover of smoke and diesel splashed on engine decks, the surviving Soviets pull out of Dorfborn, slinking back in the direction they came. The Battle for Neuhof is over. It is 1142 hours.
As the pounding of artillery fades, the first thing Booth notices – strange as it seemed – was that he could hear birds chirping; had they returned that quickly, or had they simply stayed throughout the fire and fury? The next thing he noticed is that he didn’t feel tired, at all. Wasn’t he supposed to feel fatigued as the adrenaline poured out of his body? All he felt was exhilaration, and satisfaction. They had stopped the Soviets cold, and mauled (no, he corrected himself, destroyed) a MRB for functionally no loss.
His XO was already taking stock of the casualties. Booth knew he would not have many more letters to write, not much more than a dozen, at best. Unlike yesterday, he did not feel a man’s life had been lost in vain. That made it easier. His dependable FSGT had already departed in the TACP’s track to go fetch ammunition from Battalion. Battalion, he thought, how had the rest of the TF done? He couldn’t hear any sounds of battle on either flank…but he could see in the distance to the right, black smoke spires wafting over the forest dividing him from A Company’s engagement areas. A good sign. He concluded. Turning to his RTO, he dictated his SITREP for TOC...

oops... the score for Mission 2B should be 160 points for BLUEFOR dismounts but due to my fat climber fingers I typed in 8160....
You wuz robbed @Rinaldi that CPT did weel to keep his gob shut. he knew it!
I've attached the tweaked version. I'll let @BFCElvisknow.
NTC 1982 Training In The Desert_v2.cam

We're back; and we're here. The end of Part 1 of this little project (don't worry, I've already typed up Missions 03 through 06 of the 82 campaign). Red pass. The big one. The centrepiece. 
Chapter 2: Counterattack at Red Pass!
October 21st, 0630 hours. Somewhere south of Hill 644.2.
“I am expecting a pure MRB, with no frills. Probably coming in three echelons, a MRC each, and you can bet the bottom dollar those lead MRCs are going to go for the flanks and hold the shoulders for a final assault on your main positions…”
It was the TF S-2 talking, addressing the three company leaders. They were stuffed into the TOC, and the close proximity was rapidly driving the temperature and humidity up to unbearable levels. It was affecting Wren’s ability to focus, but he willed himself to concentrate on the briefing. It was an important one. This was their final test. The TF had a hard-fought 20th of October. The heavy team and C Company had spent themselves unsticking die-hard enemy reconnaissance elements and an MRC in the vicinity of Hill 644.2. They had succeeded, but so comprehensively ruined was the tank-heavy team that they had been functionally disbanded, and surviving tanks folded into platoons in the rifle companies. The TF had gone firm to lick its wounds and await the OPFOR counterstroke, the topic of the briefing. The Battalion scout platoon, well forward and in good hides, had identified the main effort: Red Lake Pass. B Team’s area of responsibility.
The S-2 finished, and the LTC stepped forward.
“Gentlemen, step outside and catch some air, and follow me.” They tumbled out of the TOC and followed the Old Man around its side, to see yet another sand table. They looked expectantly at their chief. Slowly and deliberately, the LTC took a marker meant to represent B Team, moving it onto a mound of sand representing Benchmark 2108.

“As you know, the engineer platoon got chopped up pretty badly during the last attack. They don’t have enough men to go around to dig us in before the OPFOR are expected to go in. To my mind, that makes the coming fight an ultimately offensive operation.” He paused to meet his subordinates’ gazes. He clearly liked what he saw, continuing, “we’re going to assume some risk here, I’m going to shore up C Team with your – “he nods at Wren “M150s and a rifle platoon, they’re also going to get most of the engineer support. A Team will also provide M150s to C.  That should allow them to hold a larger-than-usual frontage and make up for their losses. That will free up A Team as a reserve. Once we confirm the main effort is in B Team’s sector, I’m going to let them off the leash to counterattack. B Team’s going to fix them, attrit them, force ‘em to dismount. Then A team is going to finish them.”
Wren liked what he was hearing, and it was completely in line with his own aggressive thinking. The TF had learned from the Brown Pass fight that the way to counter the OPFOR’s clockwork-like battle drills was to get them off balance early and often, and counterpunch frequently. His combat team being halved for the battle was disquieting, but he knew fortune favoured the bold. It was a solid plan, based on excellent intel, and he knew the terrain would allow him to push his thinned-out company to maximum effect. He looked up to see the LTC studying him, as if trying to read his thoughts. Finally, the boss said: “Captain, tell me how you intend to fight the initial battle, and we’ll plan around it.”
“Well sir, as I see it, we’re going to have to accept a decisive engagement to take advantage of our superior dismounts. The Tanks are going to have to fight forward to force the enemy to deploy and to feel out their main effort. With some range cards and sufficient fire support, say priority from the 155 battery and some combat aviation, we can bleed them at range well enough to fix them close. I’m envisioning two engagement areas…”
Eight helmeted heads crowded around the sand table as Wren outlined his basic plan with emphatic gestures and sweeps of his hand. They would need another hour or so to flesh it out on the map, and another two hours after that to walk the intended ground with their platoon leaders and fire support officers, but the nucleus of a winning plan had formed. Wren’s defence was aggressive and scrappy, and more importantly, shaped an excellent flanking counterattack for A Company. 

Later that morning, Wren and his counterpart in A Company explained the taskings to their own subordinates.
Initial Tasking:
-  B Company (-) – Task: Fix
o   Tank Platoon (-) – Raid to Benchmark 2108. With the following attachments:
1st Squad, 1st Platoon FO, 1st Platoon o   1st Platoon (-) – Task: Occupy main BP vic. Benchmark 2124.  With the following attachments:
Company HQ Tank section o   Mortars – Task: Priority of fires to 1st Platoon (-). Position in “Sandy Wadi”.
o   Company FIST: OP on Benchmark 2124.
Reinforcement:
-  A Company (-) – Task: Flank
o   Tank Platoon
o   1st Platoon
o   2nd Platoon
Fires and Combat Aviation:
        Cluster 155mm at H+5; and        1 x Flight of Cobras at alert 15. Though Wren’s team did little more than follow and support during the night attack to seize 644.2, the job of clearing out die hard infiltrators had inevitably caused some losses. Most of 1st Platoon had suffered at least one or two men critically or lightly wounded in the squads, and they were down a basic load of ammunition from the sporadic fighting and patrols. More critically, two TCs in the tank platoon had been wounded by mortar fire earlier that morning, leaving two tanks understrength. Wren opted to take those two tanks into the main BP, where proximity to the infantry and OPs would hopefully make up for the crew deficit.
They were as ready as they were going to get. The men of 1st Platoon rested in shifts, and improved their fighting positions throughout the morning, awaiting word from the TF scouts about whether the big one was indeed coming their way. The sun reached, then passed its zenith, baking the men and causing much discomfort.
Then, came word: 40-50 vehicles were approaching the dry Red Pass Lake. Ten minutes later, a lone scout track came barrelling through what was going to be EA Red and pulled back along Bitter Springs MSR. Wren, deployed forward of Benchmark 2124 with the sniping tanks, could see it for himself: a massive cloud of high, hanging dust in the distance. A veritable stampede. It was 1250 hours.

The horde advance with alacrity, and by 1255 hours he could begin to spot individual vehicles through the dust. It was the main element of the MRB, just as the Battalion S-2 predicted. Travelling well in front of the main herd was a platoon of BMPs, in line, coming right down the middle towards Point 606.1. Artillery began to crash several hundred meters off Wren’s right, along the goat trail that constituted Bitter Springs MSR, smoke shells began to billow among the explosive bursts of HE.

“Bravo 26 send to Papa 66.”
“This is Papa 66, go ahead” – An unfamiliar voice, one of the Duty NCOs at TOC, responds.
“Bravo 26 reports contact with enemy main body.”
“Bravo 26, this is Papa 66. Roger your last. H-Hour, H-Hour. Out” – The Old man himself is on the horn now, announcing the start of the planned final battle.
It was 1300 hours.
“Bravo 26 send to Bravo Tango. Get your men moving, out”
“Bravo Tango: acknowledged”
1LT Harmon’s tank section, on this signal, moves out in column. The company mortars, monitoring the net, provide pre-arranged smoke to mask this movement. The destination: the rolling hills on the company team’s left flank.

It only takes them two minutes to arrive at an appropriate attack-by-fire position. The two carriers rolling with them, carrying 1st squad of 1st platoon, and the FO, roll on towards the more complex terrain.

Harmon pushes his men up for a quick attack by fire, but the engagement proves frustrating. Such a mass of enemy targets are impossible not to identify, but at such extended range, the small, speedy BMPs make difficult targets. Little is accomplished, and the 1LT doesn’t waste any further time in the position: he signals with his hands from his cupola, telling the section to orient on him.

As the tanks pull back into cover and rumble on, the promised priorities of fire from the supporting 155 battery are released to Wren.  The battery is immediately tasked to fire on the building concentrations of BMPs along Benchmark 2033 and Point 606.1.
From his OP position, well forward, Wren can see more BMPs entering the area. It appears to be another company. Like the lead forces, this unit initially speeds across the dry Red Pass Lake, but then wheels smartly to the north and disappears behind Benchmark 2108. Are they heading for 1LT Harmon’s position?  

1LT Harmon is trying to remain calm. There’s a lot of combat power driving right at the rest of the Company, and the compulsion to rush is almost overwhelming. “Move deliberately” he chides himself. “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” he repeats to himself, mentally. The sandy desert floor was treacherous, and his tanks were likely to throw a track if they rushed unduly or made too sharp a change of direction. Nevertheless, he pressed his men on as fast as he dared. It took just shy of ten minutes to reach a second attack-by-fire position. This time, gunnery is much more satisfactory, aided no doubt by the fact that the BMPs are entering terrain they had previously ranged out. A BMP is destroyed at Point 2033.

More and more BMPs array themselves on and around Hill 636.2 and Benchmark 2033. Harmon isn’t sure what they’re waiting for, but he’s glad they’ve stopped. His tank section continues their attack by fire, doing berm drills to avoid the growing attentions of his erstwhile targets, and the volleys of Sagger missiles they send his way.
Then the artillery ordered by the CPT arrives. Bomblets immediately make an impression, and another BMP is flamed in the beaten zone, compelling BMPs to fall back in a hurry.

The retrograde movement is fleeting. The moment arrives: the mass of BMPs, despite the discomfort of the artillery fire and Harmon’s flanking fire, surge forward. The MRC that had earlier disappeared to the north reappear, forming up only a ridge away from Harmon’s positions. Wren is able to raise his tank platoon commander on the net and inform him of the impending threat. A strained acknowledgement is received. To his relief, he sees the three M60s swiftly pull back and orient to face this.

Would Harmon be able to hold with just three tanks and 12 dismounts? Pulling back to the main BP in time is simply out of the question. Wren winces, realising that to have asked such a small force to punch out so far forward was a mistake: he just hoped it wouldn’t be a fatal one. Little further time could be spent agonizing over the matter, as another MRC competes for his attention to the southeast. They are straddling the Bitter Springs MSR and flanking to the south.
“The S-2 will be glad to hear how correct he was about the enemy scheme.” He thinks bitterly.

Despite how well-predicted and doctrinal the assault was, it hadn’t done them a whit of good. Astonished by the pace of advance, they haven’t whittled down the lead OPFOR units anywhere near as much as they had hoped or planned. There was no time to dwell on that now. Nor was there time to alter the scheme. Wren was experienced enough to know to do so would only cause undue, possibly fatal confusion.
“Time to get in this fight.”
Scrambling down the sandy embankment, Wren rushes towards the nearest M60, waving it forward. He hoped that as the range closed rapidly, his own gunnery would become far more accurate. He had high expectations that this forward sniping position would put a hurting on the BMPs as they entered EA Blue. 
As the M60 rumbled up the ridge to a firing position, the SPC commanding the (under-strength) tank slips into the turret and slams the hatch shut behind him. His wingman, no doubt alerted via the platoon net, shortly does the same. One of the pair expertly two BMPs in as many shots, but before it can pull back into cover it is struck by a Sagger missile from somewhere to the north.


The other M60 also finds success. It flames a BMP with its first shot, destroying it even as it attempts to return fire with a missile. A second round impacts on the next nearest BMP, which explodes with such violence that a third, trying to skirt around its stricken comrades, is also knocked out. 


The sudden violent attack by fire sows confusion, briefly, among the OPFOR . The BMPs must slow their rate of advance to push past their burning compatriots and deploy back into an effective line. CPT Wren and the surviving M60 take this opportunity to make good their escape, falling back across several ridges and washes to take position in the main BP.


 *** To 1LT Harmon what is happening several hundred meters to his right may as well be in a different universe. He is entirely preoccupied with the immediate fight, which rapidly descends into what can only be described as a confused melee.
Upon being warned by the CO of the impending attack, he had just enough time to deploy his three tanks into somewhat effective battle positions. There was a massive blind spot on his left created by a low spur, and the best he could do in the time he had was to give vague orders to the infantry NCO to get over there and “deal with it.” No sooner had he given that unhelpful order, then the first OPFOR BMPs crested the ridge to his immediate front.
All three TCs dropped into their cupolas, slamming their hatches in near unison. Three cannons snap in quick succession. Harmon had failed to assign any fire sectors. 3 HEAT rounds smash into the same BMP, which shudders and explodes violently. 

The next couple of volleys are better controlled by the hard-pressed platoon leader, and three more BMPs are destroyed. The OPFOR surge roars forward, almost heedless, and Harmon realises they’re going to go right through him at this pace. He urgently orders the tanks to retreat, heading for a ravine in the rear slope.

Chaos reigns. Harmon bounces between the vision blocks in his cupola, in an attempt to figure out what the hell is happening. He’s astonished to see a BMP surge right past his tank, beelining into a scrub-filled ravine to his rear. Slewing the turret with the override, he gives the surprised gunner firing point procedures, even as he sprays frantically with the .50 calibre. The BMP is knocked out.

“There’s a freakin’ BMP to our front, it’s practically kissing us!” it’s his driver on the intercom. Even as they were dealing with the BMP to their rear, another one had charged right at them. Harmon hadn’t even realised. The Gunner, calmer now, quickly slews the turret. The vehicle fills the entire FOV of his sight. At this range, he cannot miss. The BMP explodes in a fireball. Harmon’s two wingman tanks report their own successful engagements in similarly messy, point-blank scraps.


The attached infantry are equally astonished to see BMPs driving right past them, their firing ports flashing and winking with rifle fire. Having grabbed as many LAWs as they could before dismounting, they are able to destroy several BMPs from the flank and rear. 

The M113s, hidden away in the washes near their dismounts, are likewise able to knock out a pair of BMPs, firing into their sides and rear.

Belatedly, a few surviving BMPs disgorge dismounts, who try to work their way down into the washes. They are able to knock out the M113s as they crest a ridge but have more trouble dealing with the dismounts. In a shootout right out of a Western, they are sprayed down at close range and forced to retreat.

It’s chaotic, it’s messy, but it ends decisively in Harmon’s favour. In two extremely confused minutes, he has removed an enemy company from the larger fight. He takes a minute, trying to restore his situational awareness (and his frayed nerves). The head count takes longer than he would like, and his stomach drops at the thought that all his dismounts are dead. The M113s don’t answer, and his worry mounts. Finally, breathing heavily, the FO NCO reports in and confirms his left is secure. He is also able to re-establish contact with the company HQ via radio and gives as accurate a SITREP as he can, given the circumstances.
“Good, we’re still in this fight.” He concludes.
“Alright, we need to sweep this ravine for any stragglers we missed. Gunner, scan every BMP, some might be playing dead and waiting for a chance shot. Driver, advance. Speed: 1.”
***
Wren is equally focused on his immediate fight, and after having guided the surviving M60 into a good hide, has once again taken as exposed from which he could control the battle. 1LT Voegt, from his position near Benchmark 2124, reports the OPFOR beginning to dismount within EA blue. It's an excellent sign; the enemy would be basically fixed in position as they tried to climb up around the flanks with their dismounts first, at an infantry pace. 1st Platoon and the surviving M60 are now decisively engaged.  It is 1320 hours.

Then Wren’ radio squawks:
“Alpha 26 send to Bravo 26: we are now exiting Sierra Whiskey.”
Sierra Whiskey – the Sandy Wadi. A Company had arrived, with impeccable timing.

Risking a somewhat lengthy radio message, CPT Wren does his best to update his counterpart on the current situation. The decision ultimately lies with A Team’s CPT: the counterattack is on…but how?
Leaning out of his command track’s hatch, the newly arrived leader takes a moment to gather his thoughts. The thrust on the northern flank sounds like it had been stopped cold, if not destroyed. He could push his team in that direction, wheeling right to hit the enemy engaged in EA Blue from the flank and rear. Alternatively, he could push his entire team into the main BP and engage the deployed enemy head-on. He had to decide, and quick. Ultimately, he chooses the bolder option, rationalizing that wheeling right through B Team’s tank platoon would:
Reinforce a success Help mop up any straggling or infiltrating enemy; and Avoid a complex forward passage of line through the main BP and into the teeth of an attacking MRC.
Ordering a tank section to take a support-by-fire position near point 632.1, the rest of A Company (-) move out of the Sandy Wadi in column, keeping Point 632.1 to their right, and begin their attack. He informs CPT Wren of his scheme of manoeuvre. All 1st Platoon and its attachments must do is hold on. Cluster munitions shift, in the meantime, to deny the ground the OPFOR are attempting to advance through. The hope is that it will buy enough time to vector Cobras onto the surviving enemy.
As A Co roars forward and through a brief danger area, the number 3 tank from the company’s tank platoon foolishly halts to engage a BMP several kilometres distant. It misses, badly, and is immediately struck by a Sagger missile for its wasted effort. The tank platoon leader can only swear to himself and urge the rest of his callsigns to be less foolish.
 

It only takes a couple of minutes to link up with 1LT Harmon’s surviving callsigns. The hard-pressed armor officer was still rooting out surviving enemy dismounts and BMPs that were scattered around the ravine. In the hide-and-seek firefight that resulted after the melee, he had lost both M113s and one of his tanks had been damaged by a BMP’s 73mm gun. The point element of A Company arriving swings the balance firmly back in Harmon’s favour, and they announce its arrival in style, the lead tank knocking out one of these sheltering BMPs.

As the tanks advance, they take small arms fire from surviving OPFOR dismounts, they report it for the following infantry and press on to link up with Harmon. The combined two tank sections take effective hull down positions and attack by fire. Despite the long range they are able to knock out several BMPs at the edge of EA Blue are knocked out. 


The enemy attack appears to be stalling, the main effort in EA Blue reduced to a bloody dismount-forward assault. Then the OPFOR helicopters arrive. Despite the VADs best efforts, the pilots skilfully evade and devastate the company mortar platoon with gun runs and rockets. The weapons platoon leader is killed in action during one of these attacks.


While frustrating, and devastating to the rear area of B Team, it doesn’t give the attack the impetus it needs. The BMPs, taking cover as best they can in the washboard-like terrain in EA Blue, fill the air with Saggers, searching out for the surviving M60 which has been making a deadly nuisance of itself, ably directed by Wren into, and out of, firing positions.


 Eventually, however, the M60’s luck runs out. An enemy Sagger finally strikes, disabling the tank. Nevertheless, the MRBs losses rise inexorably. The “battlefield calculus” is overwhelmingly in A and B Team’s favour thus far.

Back in the ravine, 1st Squad from B Team’s 1st Platoon continue to root out enemy dismounts. They are shortly joined by the infantry from A Team, who dismount behind a low berm and effectively engage the enemy, who have expertly and calmly sheltered in any fold of terrain they could find. They take casualties, but the firefights go overwhelmingly their way, often aided by the M113s.



The battle is reaching its climax. The surviving BMPs are fighting gamely from decent cover, and at least of company of enemy dismounts are continuing to advance. Wren gets on the horn:
“Bravo 26 send to Alpha 26.”
“Alpha 26 here.”
“Cobras are telling me they’re Winchester and we’re in a firefight here with multiple dismounts. If you’re going to make a move, make it now. Out”
The stress is evident in Wren’s voice, and it spurs A Team’s leader to action. He tells his tank platoon (-) and to get moving, and the unengaged 2nd Platoon to follow and support. The three M60s do one final jockey into a firing position, scanning for targets, then roll up and over the ridge. 

The tanks surge forward, aiming to hit the rear of the OPFOR’s formation. Advancing on line and at a steady pace, they hose down the washboard terrain with coax, in an attempt to keep the OPFOR dismounts pinned. Despite the volume of fire, the platoon leader’s tank is disabled by a die-hard RPG gunner. Nevertheless, the two remaining M60s push through and begin to sweep away the surviving BMPs.

While the balance of A Company is driving into the MRB’s flank and rear, its 1st Platoon, having finished mopping up OPFOR infiltrators, climbs Benchmark 2108. A beautiful sight greets them. Excitedly, the platoon FO requests for priority of fires. “We got the whole logistical tail of the MRB here!” – He gets his fire mission. Several minutes later, the 155 scattering the soft skins that are taking cover behind Hill 636.2 and destroying two.

The roaring battle slowly peters out, as A Company’s 2nd Platoon root out the enemy from the washboard terrain.

Even at this late stage, the OPFOR dismounts fight tenaciously. Almost all of them must be killed in close assaults by the riflemen. None surrender.

Then, the radios across the Taskforce crackle: “End-ex, end-ex, end-ex.”
The fight is over. Indeed, the battle and rotation are over. The burning vehicles and the dead men fade into what they really are: blinking MILEs lights and disappointed soldiers sitting cross legged on the desert floor, signalling they are “killed.” To Wren and the entirety of this TF however, it was real enough. This final fight was nothing short of harrowing. The OPFOR were relentless, quite literally storming through their positions at times.
While the field of ruin that used to be an entire enemy MRB is a gratifying sight, and would appear to be clear evidence of a smashing success for the TF, determining who won was a matter of difficulty. 

Controversy ensues during the final AAR. The observers and evaluators can hardly agree among themselves how to rate the TF’s final performance. The OPFOR brigade commander, the NTC coordinator, ultimately declares it a minor defeat. He cites, absurdly to Wren’s mind, the dismounted losses taken by A and B Company Team as being unsustainable. Worse still, CPT Wren is criticized, though not with enthusiasm, for accepting a decisive engagement.

The TF commander is lauded for his aggressive plan, and equally importantly, for trusting his subordinates with planning and command decisions. The LTC had the idea, and a framework, but how it was accomplished was rightly left to the two CPTs who would have to fight the actual battle.
The tank losses are brought up and are bitterly criticized. The US Army CPT who was leading the main MRB battalion (the OPFOR always lead “one up”, so a LT often lead a company) is conspicuously and noticeably quiet throughout the debriefing. Wren and his counterpart in A Company take this as the greatest sign of how the battle really went.
The vivid image of the MRB’s logistical units’ MILES indicators blinking in the desert heat was evidence enough for the officers and men of the TF. The criticisms raised did ring true, and the NTC had shown itself to be a harsh master. Years later, men of the TF would say it was, in many ways, harder than the real thing. The OPFOR pushed through often murderous fire with a unity of purpose and fearlessness that no unit could maintain in the face of such heavy losses. Real men in a real battle fear death, are awed by the sight of burning, twisted metal and flesh, the howl of artillery and the screaming of the wounded. No matter how realistic the NTC was, Wren mused, a self-confident OPFOR could never be convinced to halt their attack when they are simply resurrected for battle the next day.

Despite this, the TF had won. This rotation was firm proof that the Soviets, the real opposing force, can and could be defeated.

Both highly recommended reads, that have graced my book shelf for quite some time.

I think there's some criticism to be made, with hindsight, of some of Bolger's sources, but the book is a product of its time and he worked with what he had to hand. As a resource for future map makers and scenario designers though it's a goldmine, I agree. 
Now, without further ado...
 
Chapter 1.2: Pursuit, Interrupted
 
16th October, 1300 hours
It had taken much longer than Wren was happy with for the order to resume the advance to be given. Problems had developed at the Brigade level, with the neighbouring task force reporting extremely heavy resistance as they conducted their own movements to contact. The hold order, Wren found out, was born out of a worry that the spread-out companies of his own TF would get defeated in detail or hit in the flank by the enemy’s reserves, which had clearly not been needed elsewhere.
So, both B Team and the surviving OPFOR bided their time and licked their wounds. All was not still, though: violence had occasionally punctuated the time since his morning’s fight had ended. Mortars, and the odd machinegun burst had kept both sides’ security elements discomfited, and had equally frustrated the infantry’s attempts to dig any type of scrape in the rocky desert floor.
Wren had hoped he could make the most of the late morning to reconstitute and rearm his forces. No such luck, however. The Battalion trains had been incredibly overstretched between the widely separate teams and canalized geography. The Battalion XO had managed to push forward much needed fuel to his tracks and tanks, and even hot food for the men. Nothing further was forthcoming. The TOWs, already low on ammunition, would have to make do with what they had. He was likewise running low on Dragon missiles in his rifle platoons.
Worse still, his tank platoon was still down to only three effective tanks. With no crew casualty replacements, the stricken tank was too undermanned to be worth a damn, and he had sent the disappointed crew back to Battalion. The Platoon leader’s gun would require legitimate maintenance, and he was effectively a machinegun bunker. Command devolved to SFC Rosenberger, the tank platoon NCO. Vehicular woes did not end there, two M113s had broken down (little surprise, given the state they were in when his unit collected them) late in the morning, and they were still in no condition to fight by H-hour.
Nevertheless, word had come down at 1100: B Company Team was to pursue and destroy surviving enemy in vicinity North of Brown Pass. The rest of the tank platoons were being returned to the control of their parent company and would follow and support Wren’s efforts. It had now become a Battalion-level affair, to a degree. H-hour had been set to 1300 hours. He had been warned by the TF’s S-2 to expect the enemy to redouble their effort with the injection of more combat power in his AO, likely armour. The time had come.

The plan was simple: Hug the same key terrain he had anchored his company on earlier that morning and attempt to continue that right-wheeling attack his unit had been completing when the stop order arrived. He integrated an air and artillery interdiction effort, once again, into the scheme; making the most of his trip back to TOC to liaise with combat-aviation and the Battalion FIST. Fires would land, and Cobras would prowl about on the likely axis of advance for any reinforcing enemy armour. Wren did not feel fully satisfied with the plan: it was predictable and merely a repetition of the morning’s efforts, but it was what he could do with the little time (and resources) he had. It would have to do.
B Company team had assembled once again in the small bowl that denoted the exit from Brown Pass. Just like that morning, the lip of the bowl provided an excellent battle position and location from which to provide cover. Sure enough, as soon as the lead vehicles creeped into a hull-down position to establish such positions, they reported and destroyed a lone BMP. The assaulting forces snake forward even as this occurs.


Something's up...and something's wrong.
The SBF and the point elements all report the same thing: enemy dismounts retreating from PL Chariots towards PL Stripes. Why fall back now? Wren ponders.
Whatever the OPFOR have planned, for now, Wren doesn't interrupt his own. It only takes a few minutes for 2LT Bunting to report his dismounts and Rosenberger's tank section, in position. They will form the anchor on the mountainous left flank. The infantry, established on the cliffs, have set up OPs/LPs and anti-tank blocking positions. The tanks take an attack-by-fire position at the base of this same terrain and begin coaxing the enemy infantry earlier seen falling back.


All is soon revealed when the SFC reports that he has contact with enemy armour, in about company strength, approaching from the north.
A flurry of code words are fired over the net, signalling the pre-arranged artillery and combat aviation missions. Cobras, loitering to the west, swiftly respond and take firing positions. Artillery confirms fire for effect with cluster munitions. The intention is to give the OPFOR armour a hot reception. Too hot of one.
It doesn’t quite go as planned. The flight leader of the pair of helicopters reports coming under heavy fire and cancels his engagement after only a single clear-cut kill. They must evade swiftly, practically bouncing off the desert floor to break radar lock and line of sight. Having anticipated more of the same from this morning, the OPFOR commanders had attached a “Shilka” – an anti-air gun tractor – to the relief force.

The vehicle spits out fire like a dragon, breaking up the Cobras’ attack without much effort. Rosenberger announces he is beginning a direct fire engagement, but two tanks M60s fighting off an entire armoured company is long odds by any measurement.
Then the artillery weighs in. The T-72s boldly surge through it and are out of the danger zone quickly. Wren and his FO scramble to begin shifting the fire. 

Having emerged from the maelstrom, the T-72s open fire. It is only the combination of excellent hull-down positions and frequent jockeying that spare Rosenberger, his wingman, and the supporting positions from being removed from the fight immediately.

Things, to put it mildly, were not looking hot. CPT Wren knew he had lost control of the battle. There was little he could do now: he had played his cards, and the OPFOR hadn’t even looked at them. A direct-fire engagement was roaring across the entire length of the desert and all the infantry and their carriers could do was find some cover. The Sioux were closing in, whooping and hollering, and all his command could do was return fire, as best they could, and await the Cavalry.
Return fire they did. B Company’s heavy-hitters were stationary and in good cover, whereas the enemy was in the open and on the move. Speed protected the OPFOR to a degree, but they would need to halt, or slow their rate of advance, to give accurate return fire. Despite the mounting pressure on their battle position, Rosenberger’s wingman puts a T-72 down. Then, the TOWs secure two kills themselves, exhausting the remaining ammo on these vehicles. 

The fierce defensive fire buys precious minutes. Under heavy fire and mounting losses, the OPFOR Tank Company leader issues brisk orders to begin advancing more cautiously. What was once a surging wave becomes a series of aggressive bounds. Fire becomes much more accurate, as a result, and Rosenberger’s luck finally runs out. In swift succession, his tank, then his wingman’s, are destroyed. One burns fiercely, its entire crew killed.

With the tanks duelling at extreme range, Wren finally feels secure enough to attempt to get back into the fight. OPFOR dismounts were still attempting to filter back to safety, and he reintroduces himself to the battle by ordering the M113s from Bunting’s platoon to move forward and engage them. They put down heavy enfilading fire, and the hapless enemy fall steadily to the thumping fire. Bunting’s M60s can reach out at this extended range, albeit less effectively, to add to this fire.
Reports confirm that about 5 OPFOR T-72s are still operational. Slowly wrestling the initiative back from the enemy, Wren begins coordinating with his supporting assets a renewed joint-fires effort on the now stalled-out enemy. Ten minutes. Ten minutes until these assets could be guided onto target. Realising that the enemy ADA was still out there and exposed, Wren tells his counterpart to prioritize the Shilka. He gets an affirmative response from the tank leader.


“This is Tango 26. Roger Bravo 26, we’re going to go for that ADA. Wait one.”
The imposing line jockey forward and backwards over the next couple minutes, again duelling with the T-72s, as they search out for the high value target. A SSG on the third engagement spots the Shilka, and in a remarkable feat of gunnery, guides his gunner on for a kill.

“Tango 26 send to Bravo 26: tell the birds they’re in business. Out.”
CPT Wren, and the surviving elements of the company team, had at last found their equilibrium. A plan had formed in his mind, clear and apparent, and involving all elements. Risking excessive radio communications, he runs it past the Tank Company leader. The aggressive-minded cavalryman agrees without much hesitation.
He issues his orders: 1st and 2nd Platoon’s Dragons to work forward on the high ground and engage T-72s on the left flank of PL STRIPES, Renfro (and the sole combat effective tank) to take his platoon and carriers to mop up the enemy dismounts, all the while the Tank Company surged forward in bounds towards STRIPES. Mortars would support Renfro, air and artillery the tank company. It was just similar enough to the original scheme that the pivot could be done quickly and without confusion, but unlike the original plan, it properly involved the tank company.
The Dragon gunners get moving, hustling to be in position before the air and artillery signal the start of the attack. Soon they are putting fire down on a pair of T-72s hidden from the Tank Company’s sight. They report no penetrations, but the heavy hits undoubtedly effect, to a serious degree, the enemy armour’s ability to participate in the coming fight. 


Then the combined fires of the Cobras and cluster munitions renew. No radio communication is necessary, with the tanks getting a primetime view of the cluster munitions impacting among the enemy’s positions. Their young 1LT issues the order to attack. Wren, hanging out the cargo hatch of his command track, sees this movement over his right shoulder, and orders his own men to go.

The T-72s, now largely stationary, feel the impact of the cluster artillery much more keenly. It disrupts their return fire, as the bomblets cause spalling and much discomfort within the fighting compartment of the vehicles. The initial bounds of the heavy company proceed unmolested in large part thanks to this.


The OPFOR had not been idle during this impasse either, however. Their own artillery falls on the assembly area of B Co, and Bunting and Renfro’s men find themselves chased all the way back to their M113s by impacting high explosives. A Dragon team are cut down. Despite the heavy fire, the Company is able to remount, and make it away and clear out of the heavy shellfire before more misfortune can befall them.


Armour begins to dominate the fight, though not entirely. As the heavy team fights slowly forward, bounding by platoons down from the high ground, Renfro’s platoon is able to hit OPFOR dismounts in the flank, sweeping along the plateau just in front of PL CHARIOTS. It’s hardly a battle. Exhausted from their morning ordeal and caught in the middle of a raging firefight between two groups of tanks, the OPFOR are swept away. 

The friendly tanks bound through, and past them, and report PL CHARIOTS crossed by 1328 hours. Then, inexplicably, the enemy armour rumbles out of their hasty battle positions and once again attempt to surge forward. The firefight rapidly accelerates to a conclusion, as the outnumbered T-72s take a shellacking from the M60s. 


Outnumbered and outgunned, by 1333 hours all that remains of the OPFOR armour are shuddering, popping wrecks, most burning fiercely. The hard-bitten OPFOR dismounts scatter if not compelled to surrender, and escape and evade into the desert, no longer a coherent fighting force. Those that survive the trek back to safety will be in no condition, physically, to fight.

Exhaustion blankets the two companies and like an insidious fog, it slowly creeps across the entire task force. Heat, thirst, hunger, the release of adrenaline, and sheer physical fatigue root men to the spot. CPT Wren and his sweat-soaked counterpart from the tank company have difficulty even getting their swollen tongues to move when they deliver their situation reports back at the TOC:

To everyone’s immense relief and satisfaction, the LTC, after hearing their reports, had some good news: They were getting 24 hours for much-needed maintenance and rest. Then, between the 17th and 19th of October the unit would be in the Northern Corridor, conducting live-fire exercises. They would be spared the attentions of the OPFOR until after that time.
The officers and men of B Company, salt-stained, hot and exhausted, slept like the dead that evening. 

The Bulldog's Make Their Stand

Life has gotten in my way of making another update, but I finally have time to conclude this AAR. Contrary to what I said before, I will not be making a Battle for Normandy AAR next but another SF2 one (I'm pretty excited about it). After the conclusion of these two AARs, I will be gone for a period of 5+ months, so enjoy my writing while it's still here! Anyway, it's time to witness some very intense combat, probably the coolest CM experience I've had in my year and a half of playing. 

The situation as of last post. 2nd platoon with the help of a Stryker MGS is able to suppress a sniper in Ar Sariya. Luckily, the two men that are hit by the sniper are still alive and we were able to evacuate them. Meanwhile, 3rd platoon holds the decisive terrain on the map and starts engaging whatever they can see in the valley. The first target engaged is a BMP-2 which is promptly smacked by a javelin missile. I was feeling pretty confident at this point, but little did I realize how serious things were about to get.

3rd platoon spots a platoon of T-72 tanks entering the battlefield from LOA Tennessee. This is obviously the SLA battalion's CAR (combined arms reserve), and I waste no time engaging them. 
 
A Javelin gunner from 2nd squad, 3rd platoon flings a missile towards the lead T-72.

In a excellent display of timing and SLA incompetence I am able to nail both tanks with one missile. #1's wingman made the mistake of trying to pass him and they both paid the price.  

3rd platoon fires another missile, this time from 1st squad. The result is extremely disappointing. 

(How many times have you had a Javelin fail to penetrate?)
Despite the dangerous threat the appearance of the CAR presents, I still feel very confident. After all, where can they hide? I can see everywhere into the valley. As always though, my overconfidence is soon checked by the enemy. 

More armor begins to appear, and I suspect the SLA commander's CAR has at least a company sized element of T-72s at his disposal. 3rd platoon also has another issue - only a single Javelin missile remains with the dismounts, with 2 more in 3rd platoons Stryker's below the hill. With the possibility of a push onto OBJ Bear, it's time for me to activate my reserve - 1st platoon. 

3rd platoon is able to hit the remaining tank again from the first tank platoon we encountered and destroy it, but now they have no means of dealing with the other T-72s. Spotting rounds are also falling, but I keep my men hunkered down in defilade. We cannot abandon this hill.


With a somewhat safe route cleared, I move 1st platoon up the hill mounted in their Stryker's. They dismount on the reverse slope and begin moving to reinforce 3rd platoon. Feeling I had control over the battlefield, I was oblivious to the nightmare about to unfold.

Those previously mentioned spotting rounds turn into a FFE call, likely air-bursting heavy mortars. It's not the most accurate fire mission, and I have decent cover from it, but the shrapnel exploding overhead does cause casualties. The rounds incapacitate a team leader from 1st Pl, 3rd Sq and give light wounds to various joes. The casualties are not good, but the worst part is that 3rd platoon is suppressed and unable to observe the CAR's movement in the valley. This scenario has turned into a good example of why IDF doesn't have to always kill to be effective. At this point I can surmise the SLA commander is likely coordinating his fires with his armor's movement in order to give himself some freedom to maneuver. After a couple minutes, the barrage ends and I move the Javelin teams from 3rd and 1st platoon back into position to observe the CAR's movement. My jaw drops at what I find.

I find a friend waiting for me, and a sudden feeling of dread hits me like a train. I am realizing now how bad this situation is quickly getting. I am about to have to fight for my company's life.

Yeah... this is quickly developing into a nightmare situation. Two platoons of T-72s are barreling towards my dismounts, the men have no choice but to brace for impact. Loosing OBJ Bear to armor would probably result in the destruction of my company, there is no choice but to stem the tide. The next few minutes will consist of decisive action, and friendly casualties will be inevitable. 

I am shown a beautiful flank shot on one of the tank platoons, which is going around OBJ Bear on my left flank. The MGS platoon is deployed in BPs below the hill and 2nd platoon is watching the left flank as well.

(Scratch one)

(I was watching this with my jaw dropped)
A bad situation is soon turned worse... a platoon sized element of BMP-2s crest over the hill to the north and begin suppressing OBJ Bear with their 30mm auto cannons, blowing a javelin gunner to a few chunks. The anti tank gunners retreat to the rest of their respective platoons in defilade between them and the BMP-2s.

In a role they were not intended for, the MGS can be quite useful against armor in a pinch. Two SABOTs from the MGS platoon take out a T-72. I can only imagine the intercom chatter during this, the T-72AV TURMS-T is a scary threat in an M1A2 SEP, let alone a Stryker MGS. 2nd platoon takes IDF and their PL and a Javelin gunner become casualties, severely wounded. I have no choice but to pull them off the hill, leaving the MGS platoon alone to defend the flank. 

The situation develops more, and another SLA mechanized infantry platoon reinforces the effort to push me off OBJ Bear. I am extremely worried about these BMPs, they pose the biggest threat to the dismounts on OBJ Bear. However, I am quite confident in my company's ability to win a dismounted fight. Communist armies never seem to excel in training effective infantrymen (they are good at cooking them in the back of their personnel carriers though). 

Another T-72 destroyed by the MGS platoon.

A 1st platoon Javelin team gets an angle on a BMP-2 and smacks it with a Javelin missile.

The situation after less than two minutes of combat. This fight is happening very quickly, and it's far from over. Much to my annoyance, I have a platoon leader and his HQ stuck in front of 1st and 3rd platoon's positions. However it's safer to keep them put than to risk those BMP-2s shooting at them. To make matters worse, a T-72 on my left flank is in an area where the MGS platoon cannot see it.

(Oh ****)

The shell hits 1st platoon's positions, killing a grenadier in 2nd squad. Looks like there is another enemy tank platoon exploiting my weak flank. 

This presents a very big problem. My company is unable to engage this tank platoon breaking through my flank, let alone see them. My whole company is now in a very bad spot, especially my Stryker's that are no longer in cover from the enemy with their flanks exposed. On OBJ Bear, I take another javelin gunner KIA from BMP fire, and two radio operators are casualties from tank fire, one killed and one wounded.

The MGS platoon gets an angle on a T-72 cresting over the hill, but I am still mostly blind to their movement.

A BMP crests over the hill and is promptly destroyed

The first round is shot back at the MGS platoon, fortunately it is way short. Annoyingly, the two SABOTs that impact on the T-72 do not penetrate it and it reverses into cover.

Concurrently, the first BMP-2 moves into OBJ Bear, right into 1st and 3rd platoon. It's an awesome slaughter that's almost an homage to the halftrack scene from SPR.

An AT-4 eliminates a BMP, killing everyone inside. We're in business!

The situation has improved in many ways, but I still have the problem on the left flank. All but two T-72s have been eliminated, but even one is a massive threat to my men. The MGS platoon is punching well above their weight, I had only intended to use them for fortification busting and sniping the occasional BMP. At this point in the battle I am also wishing I had a platoon sized element of anti tank Strykers equipped with TOW missiles to help me out. 

Another BMP is destroyed by an AT-4. You never know when you might need these things, it's worth humping the extra weight. Remember the lessons from the Battle of Mogadishu!

The SLA mechanized infantry platoons are quickly disintegrating, thanks to poor tactical employment of their vehicles and dismounts in typical 3rd world army fashion. Great for me.

Another great little victory for me - a T-72 I couldn't previously see is engaged & destroyed by a Javelin gunner on OBJ Bear. You can see 2nd platoon in the distance moving to engage this guy, luckily they didn't end up needing to.

"BMP, Cover!"
Both 1st and 3rd platoon light these guys up. So many rounds were fired at these poor bastards the game couldn't process the audio. The CAR is almost completely eliminated now, only two tanks remain and the mechanized infantry elements have been rendered CI, only stragglers remain. However, those two tanks now have spots on 1st & 3rd platoon's Strykers. I have no choice to push the MGS platoon out of cover to engage them. I am prepared to lose them in order to save the rest of the company.

The last two tanks are destroyed, but an MGS is destroyed, killing everyone inside. Kudos to the infantry for saving the other MGS with a Javelin through the top of the turret. The loss of the MGS is rough, but it was necessary to prevent further damage. Lots of medals will be handed out after today. 

The intense report of small arms and tank shells flying through the air dies down, replaced by the screams of the wounded and the crackle and fire & secondary explosions. In the span of 6 minutes of combat, the entire SLA combined arms reserve is destroyed. 3 platoons of armor, and two platoons of infantry disappear in minutes. I finally have some time to compose myself after some of the most intense combat I've had in Combat Mission.

Wounded & dead men are removed from the battlefield, while my platoon leaders get ammo & headcounts from their squad leaders. Considering the circumstances, friendly casualties were not high. I'm still angry that I lost so many men KIA, but we made those bastards pay. 

While decisive action may be over, there is still work to do. 2nd platoon will take over as the company reserve and hold OBJ Bear while 1st & 3rd platoon clean up stragglers. 

While waiting for their Strykers to arrive, 2nd platoon gets sweet revenge when they hose down a fleeing tank crewman with their SAWs. No mercy.


The battlefield looks like something you'd see in a Fulda battlefield, destroyed eastern bloc armor litters the field like trash thrown from a window. It's an awe inspiring sight.

The mop up operations move smoothly, the broken tank crews & infantrymen scattered around the hill offer little resistance. 1st platoon starts doing ammo runs up the hill with their Strykers. 

 
The Bulldogs are good shots, best in the battalion.

No SLA soldier can hide from the men on this hill.

The company's FSO calls for fire on a group of stragglers, the 120mm airbursts rip them to shreds. 

Annoyingly, SLA in-direct continues to be an annoyance. Waiting for their Strykers to arrive, a soldier from 2nd platoon is killed and another wounded from it. The craters in this photo illustrate how much ordinance was dropped on 2nd platoon through the scenario. Repositioning every five minutes does get old after a while. 

Another key-holed BMP-2 is destroyed in Ar Sariya, contributing nothing toward the SLA effort. 2nd platoon mounts up and moves out towards OBJ Bear.

Mopping up the stragglers is an easy affair, everyone gets some.


Even a Stryker is able to have some target practice.

The battle is just about won at this point. 3rd platoon is bounded up to hill 92, covering the rest of the valley. I move them dismounted for fear of ATGM ambush, the last thing I want is to get men killed for the sake of convenience. Eventually, 1st platoon joins them while 2nd platoon holds OBJ Bear.
 
The rest of the scenario consists of movement with no more fighting. I will spare the boring details, but the forest on the eastern side of the map proved to be an excellent infiltration route for my dismounts. LOA Tennessee is reached, and I call for a cease fire. 
Conclusion

The battle is a tactical victory, I was able to achieve my objectives outlined at the beginning of the AAR. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs lost 8 men achieving this outcome. Enemy casualties were far greater, with 31 vehicles destroyed and 128 personnel killed or wounded. The combat power of the SLA battalion in the area is severely depleted. They certainly do not have the ability to conduct offensive operations in their state. Hours after this battle, the Bulldogs will be reinforced and the rest of the SLA battalion destroyed in place.

Lots of SLA dismounts remain on the map, unable to contribute to the battle. Unsurprisingly, most of them occupy the various villages.
 
The most surprising find after the battle concluded was this platoon of T-72s & platoon of BMP-2s on the western slope of OBJ Bear. Had the enemy commander chosen to commit this element on my weak left flank with the rest of the attack, I am sure my company would have been destroyed. 


Moving dismounted to LOA Tennessee was the right call, turns out three AT-3 Sagger teams had eyes on the decisive terrain the whole time. Even with fancy thermal optics, the infantryman's ability to conceal himself will always be a lethal ability. Moving those platoons mounted through the open would have likely been catastrophic.

The MGS platoon leader deserves a congressional Medal of Honor for his platoon's role in the battle. Without them, I am sure B/1-24 would have been destroyed in place by Sahrani armor. The MGS platoon is accredited with four T-72 kills & a BMP-2 kill. The infantrymen punched way above their weight as well, with 4-8 AFV kills per platoon. 

The 2 F-16CJs tasked with destroying targets of opportunity didn't hit anything except this recon team. Not much is left of them. Supporting fires weren't utilized as much as I wanted, mainly being used to deny terrain. I am curious how the BMP attack would have played out if I was able to get the battery of 155s dropped on them, after all I had sufficient cover to do that. I was at least happy I got some mileage out of the 120mm mortars though. Usage of supporting fires will be something I continue to work on.
My Thoughts

"Stryker's Attack" ended up probably being the greatest CM experience I've had. My fundamentals were tested, along with my ability to use a SBCT formation against a near peer enemy equipped with armor. As he does with his other scenarios, GeorgeMC provides challenging AI plans that keep you on your toes and surprised at moments, like I was. It is very easy to tell when a scenario is play-tested well, and "Armor Attacks!" is definitely one. I was seriously impressed by the AI's suppression of the decisive terrain and subsequent thrust to drive me off the hill. I was literally giddy with excitement while the big battle for OBJ Bear took place.
One of my favorite parts of this experience was demonstrating the ability of the SBCT in the offensive. The Stryker gets a bad rap from those ranging from morons or to people who don't understand it's capabilities & correct usage. Here it was utilized in it's correct application, an infantry carrier and ammo hauler. It's not a Bradley with ****ty armament, it's a way for the infantryman to be taken to point A to point B with protection from shrapnel & small arms with plenty of ammunition resupply. Stryker infantry in real life can dismount up to 10 km away from their objective. It's a vehicle best concealed from enemy fire, much like the American half-tracks of World War 2. Operationally, the Stryker is an excellent rapid reaction force, with the ability to deploy to areas much quicker than their heavy counterparts.
Similarly, the Stryker MGS is a very misunderstood vehicle. It isn't a very good vehicle by any means, with a small ammo complement & notorious mechanical problems. However, that doesn't mean you can't use it in the way it was intended pretty effectively. That means engaging buildings, fortifications, and the occasional light vehicle. If you've ever taken Stryker infantry into urban areas in CM, you've probably gotten good mileage out of the thing. The 105mm round makes short work of enemy strongpoints. That being said, the MGS does have the ability to engage armor, but it isn't a good idea unless you absolutely have to. As evidenced by this AAR, the 105mm round struggles to penetrate modern T-72 tanks at times, although older tanks like T-62s or T-55s and light vehicles will be cut through like a knife through butter. The MGS also obviously lacks the armor to be engaged by anything bigger than 12.7mm. When you stop treating the MGS as a bad Abrams, it does have a role that can fit into the modern battlefield.

This AAR also demonstrates the punching power of the modern US Army dismounted infantryman, the firepower a single platoon can dish out will never cease to be incredible to me. The Javelin missile gives incredible capabilities to the infantryman, from the ability to engage armor at 99% kill rates, to the ability to destroy enemy strongpoints and weapons teams. The AT-4 continues to be a reliable killer of light vehicles & armor at close range, much like the LAW that the Cold War infantryman humped. When it comes to killing enemy personnel, the SAW will remain the #1 killer. Accurate, a high rate of fire, reliability and ammo combability with the rest of the squad makes it the best tool for the job. The two M240Bs the platoon's weapon's squad compliment the SAW with their ability to kill the enemy and/or keep their heads down. At the end of the day though, "There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.” Even with the best infantry & armor in the world, CM commanders still managed to get their pixeltruppen killed in droves. I've personally rendered US Army heavy company teams combat ineffective as the Syrian/Red player. I've seen other red commanders to do the same on "Armor Attacks". It is insane to see the best of the best units in the world dominated by inferior enemies, but again, they aren't a magic win button. Poor employment of your assets will always result in good men dying, and embarrassing defeats.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the hell out of this scenario. Not only for the entertaining combat in provided, but also the excellent lessons it demonstrated. Your fundamentals are guaranteed to be tested. Play any of the versions of "Armor Attacks!", they are all great experiences, but "Stryker's Attack!" will test you in it's own cool way. Stay tuned for my next AAR, GeorgeMC's Passage At Wilcox with a light infantry company from 10th Mountain attacking the town.
 
 
 

Apologies for the delay on this one. I had to travel for a significant part of May and was unable to finish this before I left. Without further ado, the concluding post, along with a link to the entire post consolidated on my blog: https://millerswargamingvault.blogspot.com/2022/06/visualized-in-combat-mission-killing-fse.html
Hasty Debrief
This was a resounding success for the US. The Soviet FSE was stonewalled, and 2nd platoon was able to fall back into friendly lines without further incident. Under combat conditions, this is probably the best outcome that could be realistically hoped for.
Some might make an argument that the position was abandoned too early. After all, the enemy was destroyed for relatively little loss, and the position is a good one. There were AT weapons remaining in the platoon (roughly half the dragon missiles and LAW launchers), the defensive fortifications were intact, and the M113’s were unmolested. They could have displaced later in the fight after potentially causing more damage to the Soviet attack.
However, this would have been cutting it too close in my opinion. The platoon had stopped the initial probe of Soviet forces and helped determine and shape Soviet intent. Staying in a good position isn’t always the right call. After all, the main goal of US forces in this scenario is to hold out long enough to allow logistics unit to pull out of the town and then have the combat forces fall back as well. Leaving 2nd platoon far forward could have risked them being cut off, either physically or by fires.
In the end, the decision to fall back is a subjective one made by the commander in the field. There is no perfect solution, but there are certainly wrong solutions. Many times, the difference between a good plan and a bad one is a simple matter of timing.
How did the Soviets fare? From the US perspective, they were soundly defeated. From the Soviet perspective, it is not quite that clear cut. Jokes about political commissars and propaganda spinning aside, this is not as bad for the Soviets as one might think. The job of the Soviet FSE is to find and either destroy the enemy or fix them in place. In this case, the FSE found the enemy and engaged it. The engagement was not successful, but the enemy was found. As a result, the Soviet main effort went down the other flank, avoiding the defensive position that caused them problems. Had 2nd platoon stayed in place, they would not have been able to effectively engage the Soviet main effort as it conducted its attack down the left flank and could have easily been cut off and unable to return to friendly lines. Plus, the Soviets do eventually take over the village and surrounding areas, which is the overall Soviet objective. While not blatantly successful, the efforts of the FSE have aided in attaining that goal. Finally, the entire FSE did not perish. Roughly half of the tanks and a 3rd of the infantry were lost discovering 2nd platoons location. The remaining tanks and infantry were able to establish initial positions in the center and left side of the map, revealing those routes to be viable avenues of approach for the Soviet main effort.
When viewed through the somewhat brutal lens of Soviet battlefield arithmetic, one can begin to understand how the Soviets might not view this as a resounding defeat. This understanding reveals insight into how the Soviets thought about success and defeat on the battlefield.      

Loading screens for Combat Mission Black Sea. (the pic above shows only some examples out of over 200)
Attention: rar is 182 MB - unpacked .brz file is 474 MB !!!
Content: War in Ukraine/Donbas/Novorossiya 2014-2022
-> https://www.mediafire.com/file/hf7kkglyaq3x6b2/CMBS+sawomi+Force+Backgrounds.rar/file
Download, unpack and put the .brz in your ...mods/Z folder
------
I also made similar mod for Combat Mission Cold War :
 

Continued...
Wren had been monitoring the fight, listening to Bunting control the point element. Things appeared to be going well, but he could tell the pressure was on. Each report from his senior platoon leader was rising an octave, a sign he knew well from countless exercises was a sign of stress. He urged the main body of his force on, because it was clear that contrary to fixing the enemy, Bunting appeared to be getting pinned himself. By 0908 hours, Wren and the balance of the company team arrived in the hasty fighting position. The cross-attached armour platoon under 1LT Harmon pushes forward, taking hull down positions all along the ridge.

The moment had come to take the fight forward. Wren required only a couple of minutes to appraise himself of the situation, his track nudging itself in next to Bunting’s. Whilst the company leader was briefed by his point platoon leader, the company mortars set up a hasty firing position. They were soon firing a repeat mission at the OPFOR dismounts, who were still working their way around the right flank of the Company’s position. 

The situation was still very confused, but Wren was able to come up with a straightforward scheme of maneuver based on what appeared apparent:   He knew there was remnants of a BMP platoon to the right flank, practically on PL Toto. 2nd Platoon would sweep and clear them off the heights with priority of company mortars. Tank platoon (-) to punch straight towards PL Yazoo. TOWs and the rest of the tank platoon to support by fire. Air power, if he could raise it again in time, would support. 1st Platoon to remount, rearm, and follow and support (2). 
It was a good plan, all things considered, but it was based on shaky info in a highly fluid situation. Wren was still giving his tasking orders when 1LT Harmon broke in with a contact report. A single T-72 had just been knocked out by his unit at close range, and there was an unspecified amount of BMPs making smoke and driving (once more) towards the high ground on the right flank.

FO teams that climbed the craggy cliffs on the left flank firmed up these reports in due course. The OPFOR appeared to be going all in on the Company’s right flank, and Wren duly modified Harmon’s mission to sweep to the northwest, rather than directly north, to account for this.

Wren keyed his microphone, and issued his FRAGO:
“All callsigns this is Bravo 26. Orders: Situation. One times Mike Romeo Charlie approaching north, vicinity phase line TOTO. Mission. Destroy. Groupings and tasks. Bravo 22, move northwest, orient north, assault one times Bravo Mike Papa platoon.  Bravo Tango, you are the main effort. Move towards phase line YAZOO, orient northwest. Provide one times support tango each to Bravo 24 and Bravo 22.  Bravo 21 and this call sign, to follow and support Bravo Tango. Bravo 24, continue with current task. Acknowledge and questions, over?”
A satisfying chorus rolled in over the company net from his platoon leaders, all repeating some variation of acknowledgement and indication of no questions.
Supporting by fire, the TOWs open the engagement, reaching out to touch the enemy as they began to expose themselves in their approach.


The OPFOR increasingly show signs of being disoriented, caught off guard. What had been a single-minded effort to seize key terrain was becoming a fight for survival. The worm was turning, with initiative firmly passing to Wren’s company team. Roaring forward in column behind a wedge of three M60s, Wren was greeted by the satisfying sight of his joint fires coming to bear. His hurried call for further gunship support had been answered, and he could see TOW and rocket fire creating havoc, black spires of smoke testament to their effect. Then, a few hundred meters to his front, he could see Harmon’s M60s fire a volley. The RTO’s radio crackles, and the young PFC awkwardly hands the receiver to him in the cramped cargo space:
“Bravo 26 this is Bravo Tango. Am engaging three times B-M-P, repeat I am engaging three times BMP, you may want to hold your callsign back sir, out.”

Somewhere off to their right, 2LT Renfro’s reinforced platoon was snaking forward in column, forming the right arm of a pincer. Renfro did his best to ensure his group kept, as far as the terrain allowed, the main effort in sight. He knew Wren intended this attack to be mutually supporting.
“Bravo Tango send to Bravo 26.”
“This is 26. Send.”
“Have engaged and destroyed three times BMP. Am resuming advance. Out”
The enemy’s second echelon had been caught in the open and devastated by the balance of the tank platoon. What the slow-moving sweep does not kill, the overwatching TOWs and trailing tank does. Caught off guard, the BMPs attempt to make smoke and reverse into some approximation of a hull down position. Their dismounts likewise attempt to find cover, but most are chopped up badly by the M113s. It is a testament to the professionalism of the OPFOR that, despite the unfolding disaster, they are still able to put down heavy, often accurate, return fire. One tank is penetrated and suffers crew casualties, and Harmon’s tank has its main gun damaged in the exchange. The BMPs die hard, but die they do.


Harmon’s Platoon NCO, who had been in the trail tank with the TOWs, now moves forward to take over for his leader, whose disabled tank falls back. With most of the BMPs destroyed, the fight returns to the infantry, and surviving OPFOR dismounts fight tenaciously from every scrap of cover and concealment the terrain can provide. Renfro’s unit mops up the shattered BMP platoon, .50 calibers thumping as the infantry bound forward.

One of 2nd Platoon’s Dragon teams identifies two BMPs in ambush near the main effort’s position, and duly report and engage them. The wisdom of ensuring the platoons remained in mutually supporting distance is made clear by this incident.

By 0918 hours, Wren’s command group and most of 1st Platoon had outflanked OPFOR dismounts by climbing Hill 165.5 and had begun to pour fire down their flank. Despite the dominating position, the American infantry take accurate, shockingly accurate, return fire. Three casualties are suffered in the exchange, but the result is preordained. Bunting, with the other half of the platoon, bounds forwards. With grenade and bayonet, the OPFOR dismounts are either killed, wounded, or captured. It is an ugly, intimate firefight – not what the casual observer would expect in desert terrain.

By 0926 hours, the fight is over. Individual survivors are picked off, caught in a crossfire between the vehicles of 1st and 2nd Platoon’s as they attempt to escape the close assault. Word filters down from brigade, to TOC, from TOC to Wren: ceasefire, assume a hasty defense and stand by for further orders.
 
***
The lead OPFOR battalion commander was perturbed. This was not the type of aggressive response he expected.  He was not an overly prideful man, he knew a battle lost when he saw one, but he was also not accustomed to defeat. Not on his home turf. He could turn the enemy’s success into defeat, the enemy Battalion was pushing through separate passes, outside of mutual support, and the company-sized force that had just savaged his combat reconnaissance patrol and forward security element was now out on a limb, outside of the mutual support of its sister companies.
He knew he needed to redouble his efforts and try to catch the enemy while they were either rearming or attempting to pursue his lead force. The surviving forward officer reported his men were going firm, as was expected of him, to try and fix the enemy for as long as possible.
“Adjutant, get me Regiment. Request release of the armour reserve.”
They would be ready by this afternoon. It should be soon enough.

Using Steam is optional, you can continue using the battlefront installation

The Battle Continues 

Bravo

The battle continues! Bad news, another AT-14 team is spotted on the left side of the map behind defilade by Bravo. Luckily, they won't be able to get a shot on my men unless they reposition. Bravo will keep a close eye on them and report in.

The BMP-3 that was harassing Bravo's men reappears, pouring down coax fire onto SSG Raney's position. Luckily, his grenadier SPC Bannon was able to send a 40mm HEDP round onto the front of the turret. This round partially penetrated the turret, but more importantly scared the **** out of the BMP-3 crew. 

Bravo's 3rd platoon takes contact from a SLA sniper across the bridge leading into town. Other than that, Bravo's sector has no other significant events.
Delta

Back to my company. The first spotted AT-14 is knocked out by my first platoon (led by 2LT Valente, a great armor commander), specifically SGT Lerner's M1A2 SEP. 

The last major event of the second minute of combat is the spotting of a second AT-14 on the mosque hill by my men. Luckily, the 107mm mortars are doing a great job of keeping the crew's heads down. Unluckily, from what my men have reported, the AT-14 crew is unhurt. Good thing I have tanks
 
Had a bit of a hiatus between turns, but I should be back to posting updates pretty regularly! In the meantime, enjoy some action shots of us boys from TF 1-8.
 

(My company is so close to helping Bravo, but we can't rush in and get murdered by those AT-14s)

(SPC Bannon taking aim with his M203)

(PFC Olson laying down fire with his M249)

(SLA paratrooper shooting at Bravo Company men with a Krinkov)

(SGT Lerner's M1A2 SEP engaging an AT-14)
 

The Battle Begins for Delta

It is go time! The first minute of the battle begins. My forces are deployed in the manner shown above. My company team is holding, waiting for the AT-14s to be suppressed before they advance past the muddy stream bed. Meanwhile, Bravo Team fights for their life in a bloody firefight. Only 14 Men are not casualties. Meanwhile, 3rd platoon of Bravo Team is pulling security outside of Brandenburg. Unfortunately, 3rd platoon has no Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFV). I will likely keep them in a reserve, the last thing I need is to divert forces to rescue another cutoff platoon.

(Bravo Team's fight for their life)
Immediately, the kill zone inside Brandenburg erupts into a symphony of automatic rifle fire and grenades. Within 15 seconds the first enemy casualty is caused when a burst of 5.56 from a SAW zips through an SLA Sniper.

Suddenly, a BMP-3 appears in the street in front of the survivors of 3rd and 1st squad. This is a serious threat, fortunately the BMP's gunner misses before the commander orders them to reverse. Bravo only has a single AT-4 between their 14 men. This means Bravo will likely be engaging the BMPs with HEDP rounds from their 203s, or die trying. 

Shortly after, Bravo-6's fire mission splashes down on the SLA side of the street. The 107mm mortar rounds are landing within 70 meters from friendly forces, almost right on top of them. Thankfully, the buildings mostly protect my men from shrapnel. Hundreds of rounds have already been fired in the first minute alone.

(Rounds impacting while both sides engage fire)
Unfortunately, Bravo's first casualty inside the buildings is sustained when a SAW gunner (carrying the only AT4) is seriously wounded by AK74 fire. Bravo has now lost their only real anti tank asset.

Meanwhile, my company has spotted one AT-14 team on the southern hill, obviously the first of many. Shortly after, my preparatory fire begins landing on their head. Unfortunately, he is not mulched into ground beef, but at least the gunner is suppressed for now. My company will hold until I can identify more AT-14 positions on the hill. Suppressing one AT-14 does not guarantee the safety of my men, and those AT-14s are more then capable of destroying my tanks while crossing the muddy stream.

(107mm airburst shells impacting around an AT-14 position)
With that, the first minute of action has been concluded. Stick around, there will be plenty of killing. In the meantime, here are some pictures taken by a couple of reporters attached to the battalion.

(SFC Bobbitt's M1A2 SEP, PSG of 2nd Platoon, Delta Team)

(SSG Raney's men fight for their lives outside of the Brandenburg kill zone)

(Bravo's 4th BFV burns in the kill zone)

Just can't keep those SLAgs down - looking forward to the rest, beeron!

Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 AAR
Attack in Brandenburg
By: beeron

Introduction
I decided to create this AAR after being inspired by my wargaming heroes, Bil Hardenberger, Jeffrey Paulding, IICptMillerII, Domfluff and several more on the CM discord and forums. You will see their influence in this AAR. For this battle, I chose GeorgeMC's excellent scenario "Tactical Vignette 98-3 Attack in Brandenburg SF2". The battle is an intense one, with the remnants of a company team fighting for it's life against a competent near peer threat, while a QRF rushes to save them and finish the mission. I have modified many aspects of my game visually, including BLUFOR and OPFOR skins. Feel free to ask if you'd like them. 
Mission
TF 1-8 INF is to push through the town of "Brandenburg" in order to secure the bridge that crosses the "Ohio" River. Bravo Team was ambushed while rushing to set up a SBF position, and must be rescued before they are annihilated. Brigade has ordered me to take over their mission to secure the bridge and rescue their survivors.
Objectives
Neutralize Sahrani Liberation Army resistance in the town of "Brandenburg" Occupy Objective White Rescue surviving elements of 1st platoon, Bravo Team Reach Route MOE, the MSR Desired End State
Resistance in the town suppressed Bridge across the Ohio River secured Surviving elements of Bravo Team rescued and casualties MEDEVACED Tactical Map

Enemy Forces
S-2 had limited intelligence on the enemy, they suspected veteran SLA mechanized airborne units reinforced by Crack Special Forces elements. Unfortunately, they were right. Bravo-6 radioed they were ambushed by a company sized element of SLA mechanized airborne, reinforced by a few BMP 3s. To add insult to injury, my Delta Team has spotted several SLA Special Forces AT-14 teams by the Mosque, a serious threat to the well being of any human being in an armored vehicle. These forces are no joke, an overconfident commander could easily take heavy casualties before reaching the town. The AT-14 does a good job at killing any American armor put in the wrong hands. The are the biggest threat to my company right now, located on the southern part of "Brandenburg" by the mosque. These AT-14s occupy the high ground, which gives them the ability to overlook any avenue of approach my company team can take. They must be neutralized before I can execute my maneuver plan.

(SLA SF Operator)

(SLA Airborne Trooper)

(SLA Airborne BMP-3)

(A Knocked Out Special Forces AT-14 Team)
Terrain & Weather
The weather is good, if hotter then hell. There is a gentle breeze from the west to cool off the troops just a tad. This town hasn't seen rain in about 2 weeks, leaving the sky clear and the ground very dry. Off road driving should not be too complicated. 
The terrain surrounding Brandenburg is hilly, with both the north side and south sides of the town containing high ground. I expect plenty of ATGM teams from both sides. The town of Brandenburg itself is pretty small, with tiny communities on the outskirts. Civilians have evacuated the area, and only a few remain leaving the ROE extremely flexible.  However, before my company team can reach Brandenburg, they either must cross two streams, or take the MSR that Bravo was ambushed on. I decide I don't want to suffer a similar fate to Bravo and opt to cross the streams.
Troops
I am in command of D/1-8 INF attached to 3rd BCT, 4th ID. Delta team consists of two tank platoons of a mix of M1A1HCs and M1A2SEPs and a platoon of mechanized infantry riding in M2A3 Bradleys. None of my vehicles are equipped with ERA or any extra protection against shaped charges. Supporting fires consist of a platoon of 120mm mortars, with the addition of a 120mm mortar carrier riding into battle with my company.

(A Squad Leader from my mechanized platoon engaged with the enemy)
Initial Scheme of Maneuver

The time is 11:10 and I have 1 hour and 20 minutes to achieve my mission. Delta will move to the high ground at Hill 37.9 and then into the town to rescue the remnants of Bravo and destroy the enemy. Delta's preparatory fires will be with a section of 107mm mortars firing airburst on the AT-14s down south. Bravo has called for danger close mortar fire across the street onto enemy positions, practically on top of themselves out of desperation. They are fighting for their lives and must be rescued as soon as possible. 

https://imgur.com/a/Sv3OEjk
 
Currently playing around with different AAR formats, pleased with imgur so far since it allows a lot of flexibility with file sizes and videos.

Glorious March to Victory, Final Post - "Like Tears in Rain"
Well big thank you to all who watched.  I figure I should stop leaving you all hanging, so we cease fired on the last turn (33 I believe).  Now take the end-screen with a grain of salt:

So first off there was a dumb double-accounting error for the Soviet side.  Basically the parameters were:
En Cas 50% = 50 VPs
En Condition 50% = 50 VPs
Dollbach Village = 100 VPs.
The error was the Soviets had another 100 VPs for having fewer than/better than 50% cas/cond, so I subtracted that because if we had paid attention Bil was above 50% too.  So the score was really 100 because I held the town.  (Note, also a small error in that his M150s were counted as tanks...a bug we noted for fixing)
The outstanding question is "could Bil have reduced me to 50% without going there himself"...that one is tougher.   So for Soviets:
215 men: lost 71 = 33%
17 Tanks: lost 10 = 58%
17 AFVs: lost 9 = 53%
For the US:
138 men: lost 56 = 40.5%
12 Tanks: lost 6 = 50%
17 AFVs (also counting his mortar carriers): Lost 6 = 35%
So this was by no stretch a "Total Victory", that was straight up on us for not checking the victory parameters.  I hold the village but given the drubbing I received in taking it, I am not sure I can put a statue up in Red Square for this either.  Add to this the fact I started with a lot more men and tanks, it starts to push the whole thing into Draw territory to my mind.  
Now Bil had much better arty, had air (I had none) and EW which made my arty next to useless without TRPs (which I did not have) so there is that.  And my starting position was not the best but it is a poor craftsman that blames the workbench.  
I will let you all judge for yourselves.  Regardless, was a helluva fight, the kind that comes around only every so often,  and we are all working to get you guys a chance at it yourselves soon enough.
 

I love this stuff - thanks for sharing!

There's a 3.3 floating around!

Glorious March to Victory Post #13 - "The Song of Small German Town 1980"
So on the very next turn Bil has offered ceasefire...we have playing together for a long time.  We have decided to do the final debrief at the same time, so I will wait for Bil to catch up a bit.
But I could not leave the second to last turn hanging because it represents this battle so well:
You remember the stand off on the Red Knoll at the end of turn 31...well here is how it played out:

My T62 got off the first shot and it was a killer (note the now-deaf-est Soviet Pl HQ in the ETO circled)
Then this happens:

Seriously, this is like the freakin ending of Reservoir Dogs at this point.  BTW I found out later, that M60 is immobilized by my heroic second squad.
So here we are at what is essentially End Game:

I will leave you to speculate as where things landed....
I can tell you that the fight over this non-descript little town in West Germany created so many pixel heroes in less than an hour.  I hope you have enjoyed it a fraction of as much as it was to play.
 

Im going to bed now LMAO!!!😅

"You need to have the answers ready before the problems arise, and learn the lessons today, because tomorrow could be too late."
...and for those who just want synthwave with a Soviet flavour, click here.