Halmbarte

I just noticed this detail in the shop posters in Rumpenheim Rumpus. 

H

I beat RR as the Sov and I'm pretty pleased. Potential spoilers below. 
I did something somewhat unconventional compared with how I've seen the scenario played out in various videos. I wanted to solve these two problems: 
1) Find and attrit the enemy.
2) How to hit the enemy with maximum concentrated force. 
Given how your units dribble in over the first 30 minutes I wanted to wait until I had my whole force together before trying to cross. 
My plan was:
1) Don't try and cross the river until the last rifle company arrives (they will go straight from march to assault). 
2) Dismount some of the ATGM battery vehicles and tank crews and use them as scouts to get early spots. 
3) Plaster the mid depth of Rumpenheim with a 152mm contact fused barrage from the start until the 3rd company is crossing. 
4) Hit the side of Rumpenheim facing the river with VT fused 122mm barrage right before contact (heavy/maximum) to suppress any defenders hiding in the building. 
5) Any exposed targets get hit with the 120mm mortars as they are seen, paying particular attention to ATGMs and tanks. 
6) 1st and 2nd rifle companies dismount while out of contact and move up with their BMPs and the tanks. Any enemies that fire back have a tank company and 2 rifle companies with dismounts all looking for them. The BMPs are easily penetrated by pretty much anything that hits harder than a slingshot but this way I only loose the crew and not the whole squad. 
7) Smoke. Smoking the riverfront would just isolate 3rd company from their supporting fires on the other side of the river. I biased tanks and 1st and 2nd companies towards the left and I did use a 120mm smoke mission on the right flank to keep the swimming BMPs from taking flanking shots. 
8 ) 3rd rifle company crossed the river and seized the castle. After that they pushed deeper into Rumpenheim. This gave them access to the cross streets and they were able to kill the units fleeing 2nd and 1st companies when they crossed and grabbed their chunks of Rumpenheim. 3rd was also able to interdict the reinforcements as they tried to get to the riverfront. 
9) 1st and 2nd companies crossed one after the other and grabbed more riverfront before pressing inland. 

The plan pretty much worked. The river was crossed, there was FISH & CHIPS, mouses were holed, and all that good ****e. 
An observation is that the BMP and Sov infantry squad is a pretty lethal urban combat team. The scouts find the enemy (usually by being shot/shot at), the squad suppresses, and the BMP rolls up to the contact having an idea of what to exterminate because of all the green tracer heading out. Stalking enemy armor is another nasty trick the Sov can pull off better than the Americans can. The Sov squad has more RPG rounds than the Americans get LAWs and has another set of reloads in the track, so they don't run out of their organic AT weapon as fast as the Americans do. 
 
Against a human I would have had a tougher time, particularly as my supporting force could only move so much and remain, well, supporting. I did have > 50m dispersion between units and when I did take artillery from the AI I was able to move the affected units out of the bombardment by shifting them around some. 

 
No Soviet AFVs were sunk in the making of this post...

I doubt that in all of history anyone has ever snuck up on anyone in a M60. 
 
If I'm remembering right the early marks of Chieftain also used a spotting rifle. 
And I was wrong earlier, Chieftain did have a composite armor package available that was deployed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stillbrew_armour
H

Wikipedia says the Brits used the Carl G 84mm until it was replaced by the LAW80 in the 80s, along with the LAW. 
I would be happy to get either the Brits* or the West Germans. Both have some interesting kit and using Marders to kill BMPs in Shock Force just isn't the same thing as a central Europe throw down. 
H
*Although going up against T64s with Chieftains is not a prospect I'm really looking forward to. I'm kinda expecting the Chieftain to be like a heavier, slower version** of the M60 series when facing the T64/T72. Pretty much anything can kill a M60 from any aspect and all the armor does is make the tank slower. 
**At least CM doesn't model engine reliability...

Also, if you are new I HIGHLY recommend you watch Usually Hapless's Combat Mission Basics series on youtube. Hap does a great job explaining things in an easy to follow manner. Start here -
 

There was a bug with the Gill missing that has been fixed a while ago. 
Never underestimate the abilities of conscripts to make a hash of things, like locking the Gill's seeker onto a hot rock instead of the tank they were trying for. 
H

I have been slowly playing through Cold War's campaigns and standalone scenarios and have been completely blown away with the fidelity of the singleplayer experience. The AI plans have almost universally been some of the best I've seen in any title. It's been immersive. As I often do when I play, I started snapping pictures and making small gifs. When I arrived to scenario 3 in the US Campaign I thought "I should start making an AAR." So, I paused, went back to play the NTC campaign, a few of my favourite scenarios from the Soviet perspective, and started writing. 
I've learned two things: I can't write to save my life, and I really enjoyed it regardless. I already have 6 AARs completed of my experiences and will share them with you all, if only to distract. They strike a more narrative tone, but I have done my best to explain the tactics and decisions. I will label the scenario/mission at the start of every AAR. Without further ado...
 
Prologue:
Kiev Military District, Ukraine SSR.
It was a clear, late spring day somewhere south of Kiev. The open pastureland was starting to show the signs of recovery following the harsh winter. Grass grew tall and the sea of mud was firming up into dry terrain. To any casual observer it would seem a scene of idyllic pastoral calm.

It is a façade. The calm is shattered in an instant, and a brutish ballet begins.

A thunderous barrage deforms and rapes the landscape. It builds to a howling, shrieking crescendo. A cacophony of mortars, howitzers and “Grad” rockets form the orchestra. The impacts smother two wooded hills with a mix of high explosive, smoke, and chemical irritants similar to CS gas. It was all the fury and violence of war, at its apparent worst.
This was not war, however. Merely a facsimile of it. An exercise. To the stern-faced evaluators observing from several kilometres away, and the attached state TV camera crews, it was real enough. Real enough for citizens of the Soviet Union who would watch these scenes play out on their TVs, real enough for Western defence analysts who would pore over every frame of the video, and real enough indeed for young conscripts sat waiting in their tanks and personnel carriers a few kilometres away, in readiness behind a low ridge.

Belly crawling forward among tree, bush and scrub on this same ridge, were more of these young Soviet conscripts. These men were equipped with heavy weapons:  machine guns, recoilless rifles, grenade launchers and potent anti-tank missiles. They would soon make their presence felt, reaching out into the roaring inferno across the open field, destroying any target they could see which remained unharmed from the bombardment. Their missiles began reaching out, flying towards real and simulated targets. TV cameras panned, keeping up with the missiles, visible as green dots against the background.


The evaluators would duly note “hits” recorded by these weapons and, using an intricate set of rules and modifiers, adjust the amount of fire (and therefore casualties) the unit would be deemed to receive when they began their attack. The prospects were good: everything appeared to be within nominal parameters for this drill. The artillery was on target, the missile fire accurate.
As the artillery fire began to abate, the MRB commander – a tough, professional soldier who had been through several prestigious state academies and had seen service in Afghanistan – knew the time was right to begin his attack. Ensconced within his personnel carrier, his voice simultaneously filled the headset of every vehicle commander of this force: begin, armour forward, came the command.
A company of T-64s, a marvel of Soviet technology and a demonstration of its single-minded design philosophy, rumbled up the ridge they had sheltered behind. Taking effective hull down positions, their imposing 125mm cannons crashed out in volleys, striking targets on the forward edge of the forested hills.

The fire is deemed highly effective, scoring several “kills” of enemy vehicles.  With this report crackling through his headset from the tank company commander, the MRB leader issues the next orders, this time via pre-assigned codeword. Repeating himself so there could be no confusion, he tersely speaks: Hornet, hornet, hornet. The unit roars forward as one.
Again, the tanks lead, pushing up and over the ridge at top speed. They fire, with much less accuracy now, on the move, too fast for even the gyro stabilizers to compensate. It is no matter, movement now is key, rather than fire. 

As they pass the exposed area, their rate of advance slows again. Their fire becomes highly effective once more, volleys crashing out across the valley. The observers would note “losses”, of course, losses would always result as an attack neared an objective. They were well within normal parameters, however. What was expected, acceptable, in the science of the attack.

Then come the personnel carriers, surging over the ridge. They move with alacrity behind the armour, in two extended lines.

With pinpoint timing, the artillery fire redoubles on the wooded hills, once again smothering the MRB’s objectives. Any surviving enemy who would chance a shot at these vulnerable vehicles would undoubtedly be discouraged by the howling high explosives.

Again, losses are incurred by the observer/evaluators. Not enough, however. Again, everything is within acceptable parameters.
The MRB closes with shocking speed, crossing several hundred meters in only a few minutes. The momentum and impetus is irresistible. Most of the tanks halt 500 meters away from the wooded tree line, redoubling their fire into and around it. A handful of T-64s move forward with the personnel carriers to provide intimate support. They close the distance aggressively, moving through the final rounds of their own artillery. This particularly impresses the camera crews, still diligently recording, delighted at the realism of the exercise.


The vehicles rumble into the woods, their heavy machineguns thumping away at silhouette targets meant to simulate enemy infantry in their foxholes. Then, the orders come: “Dismount! Forward!” Soviet infantry scramble out of rear hatches and side doors, over engine decks, and into action. Units move in an extended line, firing bursts from their assault rifles. Occasionally, a squad halts at the knee, spraying down foxholes with automatic fire and rocket propelled grenades. They press forward, moving with astonishing speed, newer conscripts desperately sucking for air as they gallop forward.

Leaning out of the hatch of his command vehicle, the MRB commander witnesses his forward companies safely debussing on the objectives. Smoke, as planned, begins to land at the edges of the hills, isolating them from one another. Exultant, for he knows his unit is performing excellently, he urges forward the remainder of his force. Not onto these terrain objectives, these are not of the greatest importance, but beyond them. Breakthrough.
The tanks form into two columns and  roar through the hole ripped in the enemy’s defence, and the MRB commander pushes his command group, air defence vehicles and his third company through in the vacuum they create. They fire as they move, riflemen spraying the smoke-shrouded treeline from open cargo hatches on the rear of the personnel carriers.


***
“15 minutes.”
“What was that, comrade Colonel?” the TV producer asks, overhearing the supervising Colonel despite the dull thuds and crunches in the distance.
“15 minutes. That’s the average time it usually takes to complete this drill.” He explains.
“Is that good?”
The Colonel laughs, “Yes, 15 minutes is quite acceptable… this commander has done it in 12.”
The dismounted infantry may take hours, in reality, to comb through the wooded hills and defeat the surviving enemy infantry. That they would suffer heavily whilst doing so was not in dispute, nor was it of any particular importance. Even the uninitiated TV crewmen could deduce that. The real takeaway, the true objective, was that most of a tank company and an entirely unscathed set of motor riflemen were through the enemy’s defensive position. Havoc would ensue, and the destruction of the notional enemy unit was almost presaged. What the Colonel observing knew, and that the TV crewmen did not, was that inexorably, inevitably, behind this breakthrough would come a tank battalion, then another regiment, and then entire brigades. Victory would follow. It was as simple as that.
Notes/Thoughts
So, the scenario played here was "Soviet Tactical Doctrine 1 (MRB)" by Miller. I wanted to play because I thought it would make a great little compare and contrast piece to how the US would have to do things, especially in the NTC campaign. It's also just a solid concept for a mission, and a trend that I hope continues. For the absence of doubt, I played it straight, precisely as the briefing guides you to do. 
I also think there's some subtle criticism to be made, through the scenario, of how we know the Soviets trained in reality. Big, choreographed exercises. Useful for producing units that knew a series of SOPs and battle-drill evolutions, perhaps not as useful for producing units that know how to keep pushing through when BTRs and BMPs are exploding. They weren't organic like say, I feel the NTC was. Keep that in your minds for now. 

It is not that he can't ,but there are several layers of friction he has to deal with. First of all he has to admit that it has gone VERY badly so far. He doesn't want to do that. And then he almost has to train the trainers to turn more conscripts than the usual yearly take into even the current lousy Russian standard of soldier. Since they are apparently raiding the training schools for competent personnel now, that is even harder than usual. Then he has too equip said conscripts when 15 years of supposedly significant investment has gone up in smoke. All of these problems could be addressed, mostly, with time and enormous amounts of money. I would hazard a guess that he is a lot closer to two years to show up with a whole lot more army than he currently has, than two months, though.  Even then he would need REAL help from the Chinese to equip them with much more than rifles. Russia's supposedly vast war stocks seem to be mostly unprocessed scrap metal.

That does map onto how the Soviets started fighting the Germans in WWII. 
The problem was the Germans didn't win quickly enough, so they ended up giving the Soviet army a pass/fail education in effective combined arms operations. 
The result of the final played out in Berlin in '45. 
H

If your plan is heavily dependent on the defending army throwing down their weapons and their leadership buggering off to the West you're going to run into severe problems when those two things don't happen. 
H

Seems like the answer is that Russia drank their own cool aid and assumed the Ukrainian forces were a deck of cards stacked out in the east and it would fall in a few days. They've been fighting therefore with both hands tied behind their backs and just tried to kick the door in. They've had greater success in the South
But, they're now spending time re-organising their Battalion Tactical Groups BTGs and about to unleash more of their full power and both continue to isolate cities and achieve control of the borders.

Even the dimmest Modern Soviet Man can see there are better ways to shut down the American meat grinder than by sticking your arm into it until it seizes.
Playing as the Soviets in either WWII or CW I'm always going to try infiltration and recon with the hope of finding an unguarded path to the enemy rear that can be exploited. You don't always have time for finesse and there are occasions where you have to do a full frontal assault. But just because you have a force that's pretty good at hey diddle diddle straight up the middle doesn't mean every tactical problem should be solved that way. 
H

A tank unaccompanied by infantry should be the unit that in danger. Modern infantry can wreck tanks from the top, rear, or sides and the tank crew have very poor situational awareness. 
 
You can see that starting in the Western European campaigns in 1944/45. Tanks can't just roll over infantry anymore as the infantry has PIATs, bazookas, Panzerschrecks, and Panzerfausts and just kills the tanks.
 
And the Soviet RPG is a better weapon than any of those and every squad has one. 
 
H

Hi all, I uploaded a video AAR of Combat Mission Cold War to Youtube. I thought I'd post it here so you can all tell me what it was you believe led to my demise 😉
 
https://youtu.be/qxLCkSFYq2c

A lot of the squadrons have been around since WWII. I suspect that Robotech took some inspiration from them. 
H

A tank unaccompanied by infantry should be the unit that in danger. Modern infantry can wreck tanks from the top, rear, or sides and the tank crew have very poor situational awareness. 
 
You can see that starting in the Western European campaigns in 1944/45. Tanks can't just roll over infantry anymore as the infantry has PIATs, bazookas, Panzerschrecks, and Panzerfausts and just kills the tanks.
 
And the Soviet RPG is a better weapon than any of those and every squad has one. 
 
H

Great summary and to build on that point about AT assets. 
Sov platoons have different AT assets than an American platoon, although in a lot of ways the RPG-7 is better than a 66mm LAW and you have more HEAT ammo than the US  has. BMPs bring their organic ATGMs and BTR companies have the frequently under rated AT-7 and they bring a lot of them.
The thing that is frequently missing is scale. The Sov should never be sending a infantry platoon off by themselves, devoid of long range AT weapons. If it's an important objective then send a company and support them adequately with FOs or other assets. 
H
 

With Sov tactics the structure makes more sense too. You'd not send a single platoon off to do anything important, you send the entire company. The Sov company has the larger command structure and key weapons available to it to make it more capable. 
H

With Sov tactics the structure makes more sense too. You'd not send a single platoon off to do anything important, you send the entire company. The Sov company has the larger command structure and key weapons available to it to make it more capable. 
H

Spoilers:
The easy way up the road is a death trap. 
It takes a long time but the BRDMs and BTRs can drive thru the forest on the left and right and drop your ATGM teams and GMG teams in locations overlooking the town in the forests. Tanks can support by fire from the right hand forest. You can then do a BTR supported infantry assault from the left rear of the town once most of the US vehicles have been taken out. 
It's a long wait for the vehicles to drive ever so slowly thru the woods but you have enough time. 
H

One point to keep in mind is that the western view of Russian tactics has been heavily influenced by German accounts of WW2, notably the notion of “human wave” attacks and that the Russians only won because of overwhelming numbers which makes you think that the Russians just used WW1 tactics. This is wrong IMHO.
As far as I can tell, the Russians used the same infantry tactics in 43-45 on attack as the Germans and Western Allies used, i.e., fire and movement, use of cover, short sprints, etc. The major difference is that the Russians were less concerned about casualties, so they would tend to press an attack when a U.S. commander would be more likely to stop and call in artillery.

Only because some of it leaks into the same antifreeze reservoir where I keep my surplus vodka Commissar.

I do not believe that your unit dispersion is within norms, comrade!
H

I do not believe that your unit dispersion is within norms, comrade!
H

I’ve mostly been playing the Sovs so far. The ATGMs mostly work but they aren’t 100% by any means. 
 
The original MACLOS AT3s are pretty crap when you don’t have a very skilled operator. OTOH, the Sovs had them in wide distribution very early. 
 
CM doesn’t model all kinds of failure modes that exit in real life. Your WWII German tanks show up w/o having suffered 50% casualties from the road march from broken final drives or engine fires, your T34s don’t blow their transmissions, and the M60A2’s systems all work. 
 
H