THH149

This seems to affect the way the AI plays too. AI plans seem to force BMPs and infantry just charge into attack without applying doctrine, I find it annoying and unrealistic from the AI, and encourages unrealistic human play too.

Thanks for the tip, it works real easy, didn't even have to creat an account!

Just looked at the scenario in the Editor, and most of the good Syrian weapons are manned by Green troops, so the Syrian result is even more amazing (the German result one isnt). To win as Syrians, they'd need to inflict significant damage on the Germans, while keeping their own losses extremely low, as the German's have enough combat power to occupy the Victory Zone whenever they want. THH

And here is a narrow loss by the Syrians (against AI) knocking out 3 Leopards and 14 Marders...

So here is my complete and overwhelming victory just by moving the Leopards forward (the rest of Blue Force stayed in its setup zone and didnt move or shoot) and doing all the work:

Howdy Played this scenario a few times now and find it very interesting problem for the Syrians (as usual, they're overwhelmed). The basic set up is that - at midnight - four Leopards and a company of troops in Marders with offmap artie - assualt an isolated village in a flat-ish plain defended by 4 T-72 TURMs and a company of BMP 2 enabled troops and 4 ATGM AT-4s. During daylight this would've been a tough problem if the BMPs and AT4s get lots of spots. The landscape is small ridge ahead of the town and then a flatish a depression on the german right, which is shelted from fire from the village, a handy place to form up and prepare to assault the village. To get there, the Syrians drop a mixed 120mm MTR barrage on the zone which Instead, I sent the four leopards forward to the ridge, then blasted everything they could see slowly moving forward, scored a major victory pretty quickly with the Syrians surrendering. But they lost only two T-72s as the germans remained outside the town, so the syrians still had some dangerous armour. The germans had no casualties though they were a couple of times by RPGs which left the Leopards undamaged. I flipped this one over and then played as the Syrians, set-up some nice ambush positions and got some nice kills. The best result I could achieve was destroying three leopards and 14 marders, but still couldnt hold the objective zone and suffered bad casualties including all 4 T-72s. But, the action was intense, especially on real time play, so very enjoyable. The Blue AI seems to have only one attack: up the german right over the ridge into the depression and then turn left into the village, so a little predictable. The BMP2s and AT4 seem to have a problem spotting at night, so I had to help them a little with targetting, even point blank vs rear of Leopards! It'd be great to add screen shots to show the results, but restricted to 13kb (weird!) What do you think of this one? Best THH

Thats very good advice, and what my H2H opponent was doing.

This is going to be a dumb question, but how do I select the training shooting range map to test how units/weapons spot/operate etc without having to build a scenario? I've searched on different forums and YT channels, but no luck! Thanks THH

Thanks everyone for helping me out, I have a great insight into Russian thinking about war at many levels. I was interested specifically in reading some of the doctrine around attacking as Russian (maybe it applies to Syria too!) of endeavouring to attack with a 3:1 combat ratio (don't Western countries try to do the same?) and heading that attack with tanks, followed by infantry dismounts then BMPs, helped by significant artillery support etc. So it would seem the lead tanks are significantly disadvantaged vis western forces. Maybe T90s are suitably protectes but other types would find it hard going if they tried to act as heavy tanks eg like Jagdpanthers in a WWII german attack. I wonder if that finding was correct and what doctrine would be more successful (maybe infantry first as scouts to identify targets and tanks/BMPs are direct fire support?), so that's a neat puzzle to think over in CMBS and CMSF2. I was also surprised to read that Russian forces have ground to ground radar at the platoon level, both attached to weapons and networked (syrian arab army was doing that in 2016), and wondered whether/how CMBS represents that maybe by better spotting? Thanks again everyone THH

The AI plan is more like stand at the windows and get shot, until all the conscript and green units get rattled. As the human Blue, shoot at anyone you see for most of the game (call it getting fire superiority), then remove the Red in the flanking outbuildings, then advance on main building, then advance on deep flanking buildings.

They most certainly do! I'd say the reverse, the H2H labelled scenarios are very lopsided (in the sense that both sides dont have an even chance at achieving the scenario victory conditions, even if one side gets smashed in units killed). See UK H2H British Armour Mix vs Syrian Armour mix, for instance which is heavily biased in favour of the Brits vis the victory conditions.

Very interesting, thank you so much. I wanted to attach an article as a returning gift, but I'm only allowed 13kB! sorry!

Nope, the only victory condition is the control of the objective zone, nothing else matters, so its a knock down drag 'em out fight! Fantastic! Especially as the Brits mainly sit and defend, but having said that one Challenger actually moved from its position and drove down a hill amongst the Syrian's which promptly RPG'ed it, scratch one Challenger. Something in the AI plan or the unit AI may have triggered it, maybe some red forces a bit further away and didnt see the closer Red squads Hiding nearby.

Nope, I'm only doing the Steam method, but hoping CMBS comes soon.

A decent H2H wouldn't do that, they know they're going to get annihilated if they churn the Red force to stand by the windows and get their heads blown off.

A question I have is what sources are good for descriptions of Russian (not Soviet) military doctrine - operational and tactical operations? By Russian i mean post the fall of the Soviet Union, so after 1991. A google search turns up either to much rubbish or to little useful material. Thanks THH

I did it, but I'm disappointed that I couldn't destroy the third Challenger!!! The three T72s were closing in on it, but the Brits gave up with ten minutes to go.

Hero of the Syrian Arab Army? T72 with 2 Leopards and 3 Marders to its name....

Not bragging but scored this against a very experienced H2H opponent ... but i think the scenario favours the Amies about 70/30 (in terms of Victory Conditions being able to be met), so the Syrians should be tougher (eg able to set up anywhere in the hospital complex).

Yep the different style of play is extra gravy to the game.

Played this one against my regular H2H adversary, I took Blue Force and he took Red. This one I came away with a win, with 10-15 mins left to play as we agreed to ceasefire (as we always do 'cos were gentlemen). The situation is Red green and conscript troops are holed up in a hospital complex of 5 stories across 15 action spaces (which doesnt seem like a large complex!), while Blue Force attacks across open ground to a perimeter wall which has to Blasted, then assault the hospital by Blasting more entrances. All the while Red has LOS from upper stories to interdict open ground movement. Blue has one platoon of infantry, two MGs, and four Stykers (3 of the 40mm Mk19 kind), and another platoon of infantry coming as reinforcements. Red has a mixed force of infantry with some MGs, recoiless rifles and RPGs. Blue objectives were to capture the hospital and touch 5 other objectives within the walled compound (essentially meaning Blue had to destroy Red there as well). In the first phase I got the infantry to the wall and blasted holes with Styrker covering fire, but didn't follow through, so two of the Amie squads got shredded by Red at ground level so bad I left them in the backfield rattled and broken. The second phase I used the Blue reinforcements to Blast the wall again aided by Stryker and Infantry smoke, and then blasted a way into the complex (no doors closeby). From there it was a grind as I stepped my men forward into a new square/level only to run into Red point blank fire. As Blue responded Red force become rattled broken and paniced, taking casualties and being unable to be led effectively, but Red new platoons were soon fed into the grinder. Sure enough my own squads had suffered casualties, become nervous and rattled themselves, but worst of all was running short on ammunition. I had to shuffle them in and out of a Stryker that had lost its gunner to pick up more. The Strykers were also running out of 40mm too, and were so worried about RPGs they were defilading every salvo, I felt I just couldnt get them to fully apply their combat power. That slackening of my tempo from ammo shortages also allowed Red force to reorganise just a little bit. Meanwhile, the shattered squads from the first wall breach were lending long range support with MGs and Javelins to wipe out Red troopers holding the other touch objectives. Soon enough, Red ran out of men (he fought 'til only two were left - the last team was decimated as it tried to snap shot an RPG at a stryker), so we ceasefired. Total Victory to the Amies. I didn't feel like Blue was sure of victory at all, Blue had lost a few men and were very tentative on the advance late in the game due to being Nervous/Rattled. But the tale of the tape shows the outcome, and I'd be happy to give Red a boost in quality from consript/green to green/regular if it meant the contest would go closer to the wire (and possiblyt some extra help like another RCL or more ammo, better leadership?). Red played a crafty game to, remaining hidden/faced away/close target arcs to spring ambushes with point blank fire, so lasted longer than most I guess. But he said he couldn't quite get his RPGs organised to get shots on Strykers and could've used the hospital roofs a bit better. Maybe its worthwhile playing against Red AI to see if I can get it to lose faster. The Mission Objectives in the briefing were mixed up: they only showed 3 of the 6 Ground Objectives (the briefing had more objectives mentioned) and points for enemy/friendly casualties (for a possible 575 VPs available to the Blues, and 500 for Red), so the points award was a surprise. Have you played this scenario H2H? What do you think? THH

Red is quite a bit more demanding than Blue (which is like fighting the Death Star), so yeah Red and Blue is fun to play, the troops aren't real so who cares if they die so long as they contribute to victory!

This fella went above and beyond the call of duty, his family will be rewarded .... 24 casualties, 2 Leopards and 3 Marders before succumbing to the invaders ... From the scenario : NATO H2H German Mech vs Syrian Mech SF2. The Germans (AI) won with a tactical victory after having a Leopard and a Marder in the objective. THH

This little fellow swam the river on his way to counterattacking Blue Force from the rear ....

Don't get me wrong here fella, I know there are people behind all of these designs. I think the process you've outlined was the issue (and behind that the underlying design of the scenario template, the logistics and economics of the re-release etc), meaning the scenario templates as a whole probably didn't get the love they needed. And while I've found some poor scenario's from a H2H view, many are exciting and worth playing twice or more h2h. There could've been some easy work arounds to be more revealing on the scenario VC eg just include the full list of VCs in the designer notes, or in the scenario briefing. It's quite disconcerting to see a scenario say it will award 70 points for victory actually award several hundred or a thousand points by your own side. On the game itself - Jisrash Shugur - if the US can surgically eliminate the Syrians in 50 minutes, then maybe they're OP and need less time which would force them to be a bit more aggressive (say shave it down to 40 minutes) for a more competitive H2H game. Best THH