Green 9 - 1st Bn The Welsh Guards - Helmand 2009

[MOS:96B2P]

10 hours ago, Combatintman said:

<Snip> This is a semi historical Iraq mission featuring Bravo Company 4-31 Infantry   <Snip>   in essence it will involve a Company level clearance operation in order to allow a convoy of engineer stores for the construction of further battle positions to move along the Mullah Fayyad highway to the Rushdi Mullah FOB. <Snip> 

Sounds very interesting.  Looking forward to crossing the Line of Departure on this one. 

 

9 hours ago, borg said:

Amazing piece of work... <Snip>   

Yes, @Combatintman always turns out excellent scenarios.  He also designs scenarios for Battlefront that are included in their CM releases.  It is well worth it to find and play any scenario he is associated with.       

[Combatintman]

You're too kind @MOS:96B2P I've not actually done that many for the releases - from memory I did Missions 1,2 and 7 for the CMSF British Campaign and I needed a lot of help from Paper Tiger to get Mission 1 right.  I did a map for the Canadian Campaign in the NATO module and two standalone scenarios for the CMFB title - Victory at Verdenne and Probing around Poteau.  The latter I very much regard as a beer and pretzels scenario even if it did take a lot of work to make it a historical as I could.  I still regard myself as a vaguely competent amateur in scenario design when I look at the work that some of the other Beta testing crew members turn out.  I see myself more of a scenario tester/advisor than anything else.

@borgagain thanks for your comments.  Current events in the Middle East don't actually light my fire too much scenario creation-wise mainly because I'm more interested in what happened in Iraq during and after the invasion in '03 when the Coalition had a strong presence and the long coalition campaign in Afghanistan.  Having served in both countries gives me the motivation and knowledge to tackle historical or representative missions set in those places.  Don't get me wrong - CMSF for me IS the title to best depict what is going on in those places right now - but Iraq ideally requires some Modding effort if you are going to reasonably portray the Iraqi security forces.

As I say in many threads where I offer scenario design advice - Rule 1 is you've got to want to make the mission in the first place followed closely by Rule 2 which is to establish the narrative.  Although I've slightly downplayed Rule 2 for my proposed Mullah Fayyad Highway scenario because I haven't fully nailed down the mission concepts, I do have a broad idea of what the thing will look like.   However Rule 1 is being strictly adhered to.

Anyway this is getting slightly OT - I'm sure we'll get to discuss this further when I get around to kicking off a thread for my planned scenario.  In the mean time ... anybody who wants to create new missions but don't know how to do it and want advice - I am always willing to offer help.

[cns180784]

Just played this scenario and going into it i was very intrigued as i had watched the episode of Our War that this is based on.

But...i did poorly and got a minor defeat despite securing all compounds and the CP. The main problem was casualties i finished with 5 killed and 16 wounded and the casualties gave the Taliban 100 points. I presume casualties doesnt include the badly wounded and just relates to the killed right? well i had 4 of my engineers killed (the other killed was an ANA soldier) when blasting through and assaulting the Northern compound. I had them blast through the side knowing this should stun the enemy inside and they would be easy kills but this wasnt the case they werent stunned at all and killed 4 of my men before we killed them. I had the ANA on point up to a point where we were pushing on the Northern compound and i had them positioned on the rooftop of a compound building (think it was the complex just north of the Central compound). This was to give overwatch to 7 Platoon and the engineers as they moved on to the Northern compound and served a purpose in suppressing a group of Taliban in a ditch to the West of the NE compound.

I think my main error was not using the FSG at the CP enough to suppress the compounds, but at one point they couldnt provide support as they were under attack by Taliban reinforcements coming from the NE and SE. My mortars ran out of ammo fairly quickly and the Apaches didnt arrive till about 30 mins of the scenario left. One thing i liked was i used the Javelins to strike the Taliban in the ditch near the NE compound which took some of them out and suppressed them to a degree. I wasnt impressed by the Apaches when they were called in, dont think they inflicted any casualties and didnt seem to suppress the enemy in the Northern and NE compounds. Used all of 7 Platoon HQ's mortar smoke and HE rounds, the GPMG at the CP fired over a thousand rounds mainly just at the reinforcements that attacked. I think if those 4 engineers hadnt been killed then i would have been awarded points, i guess 100 for keeping deaths to only 1 and the Taliban wouldnt have been awared the points instead, maybe then i would have had a minor victory. In the AAR none of the Talibans' overall objectives for Ground, Targets or Parameters were met and for me only Ground objectives had a tick.

Looking at it from another point of view they had 60 killed and more wounded with 26 missing so their losses were much higher, and i secured the ground so you could say the objectives were met...but at too high a price. The enemy in that Northern compound should have been stunned from my engineers demo charges but they werent which was what really cost me. Great scenario though lots of fun and thanks for sharing.

 

Looking back at a save there were Taliban in both buildings of the Northern compound, what i should have done was split the engineers into 2 teams and had them blast through the side of both buildings but still, the building that was blasted didnt suppress the enemy inside. Also it was compound 5 i had my ANA on top of (North of the center compound). I had my troops climb to the rooftop of each compound that was secured as we went along to serve as overwatch and one section suppressed an attack from the West (reinforcements) before rejoining the rest of the platoon. There were things i could have done better for sure.

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by cns180784

[MOS:96B2P]

20 hours ago, cns180784 said:

<Snip>  what i should have done was split the engineers into 2 teams and had them blast through the side of both buildings but still, the building that was blasted didnt suppress the enemy inside. <Snip> 

Splitting squads (including engineer squads ) into teams is a good idea and I do so in every mission.  For engineers I use the standard split squad so the demo charges are more or less equally divided.  For infantry squads I split using the assault command so I have an assault team with most of the grenades (A-Team) and a base of fire team (B-Team).  Also for a Quick Battle PBEM game I take regular engineers since regulars will Blast at 15 seconds which can be used with the Pause command (See below).  Of course this was a scenario so it was not your choice what experience level the engineers were and I don't remember now. 

I agree that after a Blast the OpFor inside a building are normally suppressed.  I'm not sure what happened but it would probably be worth while to figure out so in future missions you can get better odds of a more favorable outcome.   Below is my TACSOP for blasting into an occupied building.

1. Identify a wall, especially a blank wall, that is advantageously located.

2. Split Team to divide Eng. squad into 2 teams. 

3. Suppress OpFor in building with Target area fire.

4. After OpFor are suppressed Quick demo team to 2 Action Spots (A/S) from wall.   

5. Give regular demo team 45 second Pause.  

6. Place Blast waypoint next to wall. 

7. Highlight Blast command waypoint and give Face command into wall.

8. The Blast will occur just before “Done” appears on the screen.

9. Next turn Slow entry team into building while other teams Target light.

10. Set the final waypoint, inside the building, of the entry team to 360^o.

Notes: Elevation mismatches cause engineers to go around instead of through a breach so check this first.  Blast is a movement command that causes troops to move at Fast after Blasting however troops do not stop to shoot while moving at Fast.  (Another reason to use an assault team to make the actual entry.)   

 

20 hours ago, cns180784 said:

<Snip>  There were things i could have done better for sure. 

IMO this is one of the most interesting parts of the game.  Trying to figure out what worked and what did not work and why.  Then updating my TACSOPs and going back out on another mission.

Thanks for sharing your mission.  

Edited November 11, 2016 by MOS:96B2P

[Erwin]

"9. Next turn Slow entry team into building while other teams Target light."

If this works best, it's a game issue - not quite a RL tactic.

[MOS:96B2P]

2 hours ago, Erwin said:

"9. Next turn Slow entry team into building while other teams Target light."

If this works best, it's a game issue - not quite a RL tactic.

The reason for Slow is if there are additional OpFor along the backside of the building (typically driven from the building by suppressive fire).  On Slow they will stop and fight if necessary.  During the next orders (command) phase If there is nothing around to shoot at and they are still moving at Slow  it can be cancelled. 

And of course in RL you would not fire into a breach a friendly team had just entered.  So yes, I would agree.  * For game use only.  Not necessarily applicable to real life.

[Erwin]

"On Slow they will stop and fight if necessary."  I didn't realize that. 

I recall how units HIDING could be literally walked over by enemy and killed easily.  I thought that moving SLOW would be similarly suicidal when adjacent to enemy units.  Thanks...

Edited November 11, 2016 by Erwin

[cns180784]

Good tips there but i noticed they're based on playing as WEGO? i play in real time but with regular pauses to issue orders so i guess it doesnt matter either way?

Well despite the poor outcome in this scenario i just played one of the original base scenarios with CMSF called House Cleaning. A good scenario where you have a company of infantry (minus one Platoon) with Strykers (US Infantry) and i got a Total Victory. The mission was to assault and clear quite a big building (hospital) of Syrian infantry as well as some other smaller surrounding buildings. Used the Strykers as base of fire firing on as much of each building as i could and had my 1st Platoon acquire (all three squads) javelins with 3 missiles each and all were used to smash the buildings, mainly the hospital. 2nd Platoon arrives about 15 mins in and from that point i start to move my 1st Platoon forward to the gully, South side of the outer wall.

I moved them using set waypoints with fast commands and at each waypoint i had them pause for 15 seconds to target a building that would come into their LOS or just to target any building where enemy are firing from. I got this tip about pausing at waypoints to target something in another thread on here and found it very useful, this worked like textbook and i got both Platoons by the wall with just one casualty. Then i decided to blast through 2 gaps in the wall with demo charges to create a "murder hole" so my men could fire at the buildings at ground level (as the wall was blocking their LOS) and then i had 2nd Platoon blast through the wall where they could fire out to one of the small buildings only about 20 or 30 metres away. How i did this with these murder holes (not exactly little holes in the wall, rather a good section of the wall was taken out but i like calling them murder holes lol) was as soon as the charge detonated i would cancel the blast command so they wouldnt run through the gap and just had them target whatever. This proved effective.

I wont go into it anymore, only i learned how best to blast through walls and how to more effectively have my Platoons fire and maneuver. These types of scenarios assaulting buildings especially where theres a good number of them are tougher as you never know how many enemy there are or what weapons they have as your men run across open ground to reach them. Its all about suppressing fire, fire and move and using smoke if possible to not allow the enemy in other nearby buildings to fire at your men. I'm really starting to enjoy CM more now and i'm soon going to take on a big scenario, another beast made by Combatintman called Habillolah Kalay (think thats how its spelt) and its 4 hours long.

[MOS:96B2P]

3 hours ago, cns180784 said:

Good tips there but i noticed they're based on playing as WEGO? i play in real time but with regular pauses to issue orders so i guess it doesnt matter either way? <Snip> 

I play in WEGO so I can replay and watch the action multiple times.   It helps in trying to figure out what worked, what did not and why.  I think the TACSOP would work in real time as long as you cancelled the engineers "charge into the breach" after the Blast.  Wouldn't even matter the experience / timing of the engineer's so in some ways it might be easier.  I just need the replay that WEGO provides.  

3 hours ago, cns180784 said:

<Snip> as soon as the charge detonated i would cancel the blast command so they wouldn't run through the gap and just had them target whatever. This proved effective.  <Snip> 

This also proved effective for me.  Engineers are to valuable to go charging into the breach and infantry A-teams are better equipped for this type of activity.