AAR UK Armoured Squadron VS Wehrmacht, MilSketch experiment

[Calgar]

Hello CM Community!

I just got registered and think it is always nice if somebody new can contribute something, or at least tries to. Currently I´m running a PBEM match against my neighbour and thought this would be a good idea to try and document every minute with a program called MilSketch. This allowes you to draw battlefield graphics on an image, for example a screenshot of the map you play on.

And guess something, I´d like to share these with you. Just let me make some things clear to begin with:

- I do not intend to draw a 100% realistic SITMAP. I do have military background but I´m still in training. I´m 70% autodidact when it comes to tactics, battlefield graphics and co. So expect mistakes to happen, those of you more familiar with the application of such graphics are highly welcome to point out mistakes

- These images where never intended to be published on a Forum. I may add a comment here and there but the maps I have drawn for now should be more or less self explanatory. Feel free to ask if something is unlear.

- Also new to me is this whole screenshot thing. Suggestions on how to crank up the resolution and so forth are also welcome.

- Correct my english whereever you want to. No hard feelings. I appreciate every chance to improve my english.

OOB will follow shortly. Let´s begin with the settings.

AUG ´44

Mission: Attack

Size: Medium

Map: Medium, Random

British Army as attacker (me) against Wehrmacht.

Weather: Clear

Time: Day

Rarity: Standart

Combat forces on both sides are mixed, no force adjustment.

OpPl.:

Note: All elements are depicted on the Operationsplan, except of two 25 pdr Gun troops and an AO.

Min 1

Min 2

Note: Armoured Recce Squad consists of 1 Humler III and one Daimler II each

Min 3

Note: 1 Humber III destroyed by what looked like a Schreck

[Calgar]

Min 4

Min 5

Min 6

Best wishes,

Calgar

[John Kettler]

Calgar,

Welcome aboard!

Never heard of MilSketch, but it appears you can do at least some of the things with it that several/a bunch of us would love to have as a tactical overlay. While I understand the basic symbology you're using, I've never seen the little circles inside the frame, nor any strength percentage below. Nor do I get that red diamond thing with the three dots outside the diamond. I recognize an ATG, think I see an MG and am fairly certain I see a Panzerschreck or some such. Could you please provide a symbol key, since you've got stuff there I've never seen before?

So far as displaying screenshots and such, I'm absolutely the wrong person to talk to about such matters. What I can say, though, is--nice post!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Calgar]

Thank you John for your kind words. Let me first of all show you my OOB:

C Armoured Squadron:

1st Armoured Troop:

- 4 x Sherman V

2nd Armoured Troop

- 4x Sherman V

3rd Mot. Rifle Platoon

- PltLeader

- 2 Sections

FAO

Armoured Recce Troop

- 2x Humber III, 2x Daimler II

Gun troop A

- 4x 25 pdr

Gun TroopB

- 4x 25 pdr

Enemy OOB: unknown.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding the symbology:

I am thinking about creating a simple image showing the most common symbols, but everybody who has the slightest idea of the immeasurable masses of these symbols knows that even the most "common" will probably blast the frame of an simple pic. So I´ll proceed as follows:

1.) I will explain some very fundamentals for everyone who never seen these before.

2.) I will explain every symbol used in the last SITMAP for clearification.

1.)

Basic Forms

Red Diamond: Enemy Unit

Blue Square:: Own Unit

the most important "fillings":

Saltire: Infantry

Oval: Tank

Oval and Saltire: Armoured Infantry

One diagonal line (as seen on the recce Squads): Recce

One Black dot in the Centre: Artillery

One triangle: Anti-Tank

an "E" turned down, so the open side faces the bottom: Engineer

percentage indicates combat strenght

Equipment/Weapons

no frame OR a circle. Faction is indicated by colour.

doubblepeak: Rocket

Singlepeak: Rifle

upwards pointing peak at the bottom of the centreline Anti-Tank

two parralel but shorter lines along the Centreline: /GunCannon

slashes in the centre always represents light/medium/heavy.

no slash: light

one slash: medium

two slashes: heavy

2.a) Own Units from bottom to the top (reference is SITMAP in the last post):

I.) FAO

II.) Armoured Troop

III.)Armoured Recce Team

IV.) same as III

V.) same as III, except it is an Humber III and is destroyed.

2b.) Enemy Units and Weapons. Right side first, bottom to top

I.) MG 42, quantity 2

II) next to the MG a PzSchreck

III.) Infantryplatoon, Combat strenght 93%

left side

IV.) same as I, except quantity 1

V.) same as II.

VI.)Heavy ATG (Heavy meaning more than 75 mm, in this case a PAK 43)

VII.)Unknown Infantry contact

2c.)own AND enemy mission graphics from bottom to top:

I.) Attack (though this is the only Attack arrow MilSketch offers, this is not the proper one)

II.) Bypass

III.) Withdraw

Further reading:

http://www.defence.org.cn/aspnet/usa-mil/UploadFiles/2009-01/200901232153112968.pdf Field Manual on Tactics, showing very good how things should look like when in proper use.

http://www.mapsymbs.com/APP-6ADRDCValcartierEdition121%28Mod%29.pdf APP- 6 (a): All the symbols that are out there. It is possible that there is a newer version, but this is more than sufficient.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Change of plans: I will post SITMAPS every few minutes, not for every single one. I would like to provide normal screenshots of the actions, but the result was this:

Does anybody know where the trees are gone?

Sincerely,

Calgar

[A Canadian Cat]

Never heard of MilSketch, but it appears you can do at least some of the things with it that several/a bunch of us would love to have as a tactical overlay.

I came across Millsketch a while ago but never put any time into playing with it. I tried a different font based system but it really did not work well for graphics. For my current AAR I hand drew the symbols because I wanted to use period German symbols for on the map - as far as I know MilSketch does not do that.

Millsketch lets you do everything using the modern system (2500 built in symbols - talk about overwhelming)

http://www.historicalsoftware.com/HSC/HSCmilsketch.htm

While I understand the basic symbology you're using, I've never seen the little circles inside the frame, nor any strength percentage below. Nor do I get that red diamond thing with the three dots outside the diamond. I recognize an ATG, think I see an MG and am fairly certain I see a Panzerschreck or some such. Could you please provide a symbol key, since you've got stuff there I've never seen before?

Same symbols are used inside the frames. The frames themselves represent hostile vs friendly forces. The blue rectangles are for friendly forces and red diamonds are for hostile forces.

The Wikipedia entry is pretty good summary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Military_Symbols_for_Land_Based_Systems

The full information comes from these official, as far as I can tell, docs (warning these are pretty big documents - OK really big over 1100 pages between them and 12Mb in size):

Operational Terms and Graphics

Common Warfighting Symboloby

[A Canadian Cat]

Man ninja'd again. Nice summary @Calgar. My next post was going to be a suggestion that you to put some action screen shots along with your sit map images. Apparently you read minds:)

The trees do look a bit odd but there is also not very much detail in your terrain either. Could it be your display settings are turned way down? Or are you saying your screen capture is not matching what you see in game.

[Calgar]

Or are you saying your screen capture is not matching what you see in game.

Thats what I´m trying to say, the resolution goes down the moment I paste the shot into Irfanview or Paint to save it. And the trees disappear also, but appearently only the ones from a specific distance onwards.

While I have the chance, I´d like to ask a few questions. this is just my fourth game, and first as the attacker.

Question1: How do you use the open up command? My Recce guys drove forward but even on pretty high distances in 3 times out of 4, the commander dies the moment small arms fire is opened up. And all that without even getting some "unknown" markers on the map. Any suggestions on that? (maybe don´t even use it or only when not moving?)

Question 2: The manual seems not to mentin anything on the exact effects on subsystems(e.g. Weapon controls, optics). Does anybody know their exact effects?

Question 3 I bought an motorized Rifle Platoon which is appearently....not motorized. The moment they were on the map I had to note that they came along with not a single vehicle.

Is there a source with all the TOE´s? E.g., where can I find out what the difference is between the two Sherman regiments in the Purchase Screen, except of buying both and than compare them Coy by Coy, and Tank by tank?

It would be great if you can open up the datasheets of the Vehicles your are about to buy in the purchase screen....

Sincerely,

calgar

Edit:

OK really big over 1100 pages between them and 12Mb in size

Just in case some of you who are reading this and are interested in using these documents, but are overwhelmed by the size: Always remember that you can use Ctrl+F in such documents to open up a searchbar. If you are interested in something specific, just type it in there and you will jump straight down to the spot.

[A Canadian Cat]

Thats what I´m trying to say, the resolution goes down the moment I paste the shot into Irfanview or Paint to save it. And the trees disappear also, but appearently only the ones from a specific distance onwards.

Wow that is odd. I have never seen that before. What are you using for screen capture? What platform are you using?

While I have the chance, I´d like to ask a few questions. this is just my fourth game, and first as the attacker.

Question1: How do you use the open up command? My Recce guys drove forward but even on pretty high distances in 3 times out of 4, the commander dies the moment small arms fire is opened up. And all that without even getting some "unknown" markers on the map. Any suggestions on that? (maybe don´t even use it or only when not moving?)

The open up command has a subtle colour change to represent toggling it on and off (same for the hide command). If you want to close up the AFV click on the Open command once and highlight colour will be removed. However AFV's do not have nearly as good visibility when buttoned as the do when opened. Infantry standing on the ground near the AFV will hear approaching enemy before the AFV will. Recon on foot offers better spotting.

Question 2: The manual seems not to mentin anything on the exact effects on subsystems(e.g. Weapon controls, optics). Does anybody know their exact effects?

Once your AFV's optics are damaged the gunner will be less accurate, if the weapons controls are gone some of your AFV's weapons will no longer work. If the Radio is destroyed the AFV will be out of C2 whenever they are out of LOS of their HQ. Etc

Question 3 I bought an motorized Rifle Platoon which is appearently....not motorized. The moment they were on the map I had to note that they came along with not a single vehicle.

Yes, I have had this surprise before. Then I noticed the options panel at the bottom of the purchase screen. For example when you purchase a motorized infantry battalion. As you select an HQ, on the right hand side after purchase, you will see a small panel at the bottom of the screen where you can select options that apply to the selected formation. In your case you can choose if company is motorized or not. It is worth exploring this for any of your purchases because you can switch between different kinds of tanks, tanks with various gun configurations and all kinds of cool stuff. What you select governs what options are available.

Is there a source with all the TOE´s? E.g., where can I find out what the difference is between the two Sherman regiments in the Purchase Screen, except of buying both and than compare them Coy by Coy, and Tank by tank?

It would be great if you can open up the datasheets of the Vehicles your are about to buy in the purchase screen....

I am not aware of an game related TOE listing. I purchase the formations I am interested in and explore. Having said that, on the left hand side of the purchase screen you can see some basic information about what the formation contains. Just not the details of each vehicle etc.

[Calgar]

Thank you very much ian, that was helpful.

I make the screenshots with the alt+print. Then Ctrl V to paste it into IrfanView or paint. Windows 7, nothing fancy.

[Sergei]

Printscreen capturing produces poor results in Windows 7, there is some kind of communication issue between the OS and the game there I think. I use Fraps for both screenshots and video capturing but IrfanView should work as a free alternative.

[Baneman]

... However AFV's do not have nearly as good visibility when buttoned as the do when opened. Infantry standing on the ground near the AFV will hear approaching enemy before the AFV will. Recon on foot offers better spotting.

In theory

You will find several threads around asserting that tanks ( even buttoned tanks ) spot far too well - often better than infantry. But it will never be the case all the time, so it is better to assume that the poor spotting is the norm - at least that way you wont be caught flat-footed the one time you really need it to spot

...

if the weapons controls are gone some of your AFV's weapons will no longer work....

If the "weapon control" damage indicator is Red, none of the weapons work. At least with Main Gun damage you can still fire a tank's MG's. But once you get the dreaded Weapon Controls damage, you may as well park it at the back ( or on an uncontested VL ).

[JonS]

In theory

You will find several threads around asserting that tanks ( even buttoned tanks ) spot far too well - often better than infantry.

It remains true, however, that unbuttoned tanks spot better than buttoned tanks.

[Sergei]

If the "weapon control" damage indicator is Red, none of the weapons work. At least with Main Gun damage you can still fire a tank's MG's. But once you get the dreaded Weapon Controls damage, you may as well park it at the back ( or on an uncontested VL ).

Bow MG is unaffected by Weapons Control damage, I think. You just need to avoid hull down positions.

And if you really don't care for your tankers' lives, you can park them between your infantry and enemy machinegun nests to shield your grunts.

[Calgar]

I used the Screenshot method prvided by IrfanView. No better results.

However, my neighbour just came over to wave a white flag(literally) at my frontdoor. He had no AT assets left and saw no option of destroying my Sherms. Still I´d like to share the finishingscreen with you.

The hero of the day is the Daimler II in the centre, commandet by Corporal Garden. 26 confirmed kills. He was the only survivor of this vehicle.

In case I fix the screenshot issue, I will start a new AAR on the next mission (Meeting Engagement, SS VS his majesty´s finest) and will provide you with SITMAPS and action shots alike.

Anyway, thanks for such a nice welcome to the Forum!

[A Canadian Cat]

In theory

You will find several threads around asserting that tanks ( even buttoned tanks ) spot far too well - often better than infantry. But it will never be the case all the time, so it is better to assume that the poor spotting is the norm - at least that way you wont be caught flat-footed the one time you really need it to spot

Oh I know there are issues regarding tanks and spotting. I was actually commenting that infantry on the ground spot better then buttoned or unbuttoned tanks - at least at some things. Clearly the TC being higher up has some advantage. The big difference is that tanks do not hear other tanks approaching - but infantry do.

A case in point I had a platoon of Royal tigers that were over the hill crest waiting for infantry support to arrive and an artillery barrage to end. They thought the were all alone. When the infantry arrived and dismounted the immediately heard enemy tanks in the next field over (separated by a woods and road and more woods). It turns out my opponent was getting ready to attack my flank. Sadly for him his tanks were unaccompanied by infantry so he did not realize I had tanks so close.

So because of my infantry hearing the enemy tanks I surprised him and had a wild romp over his flanking force.

Just another reason to make sure your tanks have infantry with them.

Full video here:

It starts out at a very high level and then replays the 3 minutes of action a few times from the point of view of some of the tanks involved. First POV sequence starts at 3:20 ish in the video.

If the "weapon control" damage indicator is Red, none of the weapons work. At least with Main Gun damage you can still fire a tank's MG's. But once you get the dreaded Weapon Controls damage, you may as well park it at the back ( or on an uncontested VL ).

I was sure I had a tank with no weapons control that could still shoot with an MG so I stand corrected.