CMBS Russian Campaign: The Mountains of Allah:Operation Scepter

[dragonwynn]

Good point also. I will look at pulling them out.

Getting some good feedback from the guys kind enough to test this thing. I want this to be a good experience so I will invest the time to incorporate the suggestions to get this thing up and going.

I'm still learning the modern battlefield especially from the Russian side and I want it as right as I can get it so keep the suggestions coming. 

 

Edited April 30, 2016 by dragonwynn

[TAKODA]

I called a ceasefire with 20 minutes remaining in the first battle because I just didn't have enough strength left to take the crossroads. Every single objective was a scene of horrific close quarter combat, it was pure bloodshed. Brutal support fire from brilliantly placed enemy fighting positions really decimated several of my assaults.

The crossroads was pure hell.

I had a quick look at the start of mission 2, the map and the winter camouflaged armour looks incredible, really looking forward to having a crack at that mission tomorrow.

Judging from what I have seen so far a lot of effort has been put into this campaign and it's going to be one of the best, great work dragonwynn.

 

[Kinophile]

I modded this battle to give the reg inf mortars, and 2 MGs and Snipers per Co  to the Spetsnaz. 

Very different fight. 

I'd suggest giving the rebs some off map mortar,  to counter fire. 

Or instead give RUS some early air support with limited load,  ie good for a few light runs only. This would give the tactical problem of where/when to use (break a key hilltop or save for the crossroads?)  but very effective when used. 

Then give the rebs a manpad or two,  at most. :-)

[dragonwynn]

3 hours ago, TAKODA said:

I called a ceasefire with 20 minutes remaining in the first battle because I just didn't have enough strength left to take the crossroads. Every single objective was a scene of horrific close quarter combat, it was pure bloodshed. Brutal support fire from brilliantly placed enemy fighting positions really decimated several of my assaults.

The crossroads was pure hell.

I had a quick look at the start of mission 2, the map and the winter camouflaged armour looks incredible, really looking forward to having a crack at that mission tomorrow.

Judging from what I have seen so far a lot of effort has been put into this campaign and it's going to be one of the best, great work dragonwynn.

 

Thanks Takoda. 

 

3 hours ago, kinophile said:

I modded this battle to give the reg inf mortars, and 2 MGs and Snipers per Co  to the Spetsnaz. 

Very different fight. 

I'd suggest giving the rebs some off map mortar,  to counter fire. 

Or instead give RUS some early air support with limited load,  ie good for a few light runs only. This would give the tactical problem of where/when to use (break a key hilltop or save for the crossroads?)  but very effective when used. 

Then give the rebs a manpad or two,  at most. :-)

I reworked this battle as well as several adjustments to others based on input. 

I changed the Spetsnaz forces oob. I used recon forces based on a suggestion which gives them a few more special weapons as well as more nvg assets. I dropped the mech force showing up and thinned the trees some. Also took out the atgm and put in the mortar assists that I had accidentally left out. The updated cam file is available as I have a couple of guys checking it out. 

Also changed the name of the Chechen leader slightly as the original one didn't have the correct Chechen endings. This was based on a suggestion from one of our Russian players who has great knowledge of the early wars with Chechnya. 

I will continue to make adjustments based on you guys input. 

Thanks 

Michael

[TAKODA]

I have played the 2nd mission twice now, in my first attempt I was pressed for time so I basically tank rushed the villages and my armour was thoroughly obliterated in a very short time. I tried the mission again today and approached the villages with more caution, my dismounted infantry fought their way into the village outskirts but soon required close armoured support. Once again I wasn't patient enough and suffered heavy armour losses.

I'm going to try again tomorrow when I will have more free time on my hands, this is a great mission that definitely requires patience and close infantry/armour coordination and I'm giving it a 10 out of 10 score. Very challenging and fun and has a real winter feel to it.

 

[dragonwynn]

Thanks Takoda. Yea those Chechens are a feisty bunch. Historically the Russians had fits with them. The first war in the mid 1990's was a disaster for the Russians due to poor tactics and the mindset of underestimation of the Chechens. Much like our experiences in Vietnam. The second war in 1999 went better simply due to the fact that Russia used more highly trained troops instead of the conscript forces used in the first conflict and more heavy weapons which the Chechen forces lacked. However it still was a bloody affair.

The Chechens are a warrior society who have no superiority of rank and never had and the word command is not acknowledged. The Russians found them to be tough, skilled fighters who were masters of guerrilla warfare. In fact the Russians called them "spooks" in the first war due to their ability to pop up anywhere, especially in urban combat. I tried to model this as well as I could with their motivation factors.

 

Michael (dragonwynn)

[Kinophile]

Is it still the same download link? 

[dragonwynn]

No I will pm you the link. 

[VladimirTarasov]

On 5/5/2016 at 6:33 AM, dragonwynn said:

Thanks Takoda. Yea those Chechens are a feisty bunch. Historically the Russians had fits with them. The first war in the mid 1990's was a disaster for the Russians due to poor tactics and the mindset of underestimation of the Chechens. Much like our experiences in Vietnam. The second war in 1999 went better simply due to the fact that Russia used more highly trained troops instead of the conscript forces used in the first conflict and more heavy weapons which the Chechen forces lacked. However it still was a bloody affair.

The Chechens are a warrior society who have no superiority of rank and never had and the word command is not acknowledged. The Russians found them to be tough, skilled fighters who were masters of guerrilla warfare. In fact the Russians called them "spooks" in the first war due to their ability to pop up anywhere, especially in urban combat. I tried to model this as well as I could with their motivation factors.

 

Michael (dragonwynn)

Let's keep in mind, the Chechens fought in the first and second Chechen war were terrorists, and that there were Chechens fighting against these groups as well. Historically Chechen rebellions have been hard to put down, they are great warriors, very fanatic and keen. 

 

As for the First Chechen war, that was a great disaster, If I were to show you the battle plans you'd be like "wtf" 

[dragonwynn]

1 hour ago, VladimirTarasov said:

Let's keep in mind, the Chechens fought in the first and second Chechen war were terrorists, and that there were Chechens fighting against these groups as well. Historically Chechen rebellions have been hard to put down, they are great warriors, very fanatic and keen. 

 

As for the First Chechen war, that was a great disaster, If I were to show you the battle plans you'd be like "wtf" 

That's true Vladimir there were Chechens who fought against the militants and were used quite effectively in the second conflict. 

I've read quite a bit of material on both conflicts when I was building this campaign and you are right wtf would be putting it nicely. The use of conscripts and a very poor battle plan cost the Russian military dearly. Especially the urban fights where the Russians were unprepared for. 

[VladimirTarasov]

12 hours ago, dragonwynn said:

That's true Vladimir there were Chechens who fought against the militants and were used quite effectively in the second conflict. 

I've read quite a bit of material on both conflicts when I was building this campaign and you are right wtf would be putting it nicely. The use of conscripts and a very poor battle plan cost the Russian military dearly. Especially the urban fights where the Russians were unprepared for. 

You know, The worse part about it was not using conscripts as even conscripts are trained and can fight. But the worse part is that maps or any knowledge of where they were simply did not exist. The high command assumed sending some forces into areas would work or something like that.

[Rebby]

23 hours ago, VladimirTarasov said:

You know, The worse part about it was not using conscripts as even conscripts are trained and can fight. But the worse part is that maps or any knowledge of where they were simply did not exist. The high command assumed sending some forces into areas would work or something like that.

New Year's Day of the Maikop Brigade in Grozny... 

[dragonwynn]

Yea I remember reading about the Russian troops scrounging through villages trying to find local maps. The conscripts were indeed trained but based on what I read I think there was confusion on the purpose of bring there which contributed to somewhat low moral, much like our soldiers experiences in Vietnam. This would effect their ability in combat plus not being prepared for the type of hit and run, ambush combat or the brutal urban combat like Groznyy. 

I haven't heard much more from the testers so I will probably put the campaign up for public consumption soon. I hope it will be worthy of a campaign from the Russian point of view. 

Michael 

[HowMuchForYou?]

I'm very excited for this campaign

[Kinophile]

Just played the first battle again. Much better frame rate (I also tweaked a few card settings at my end). The 3 UAVs are...kinda handy I guess...but still no mortars? Getting frustrating.... 

I captured 2 hills (4 positions). 170 Chechen / 330 Rus KIA. I could probably get two more hills if i'd had more time, but the village would be a bloodbath and probably render me combat ineffective (necessitating a reinforcing/rescue battalion to prevent a Chechen counter attack wiping them out).

I flanked my captured hill tops (the left hand one in front of the reg infantry, and Obj D at the back) from two sides, crept in close with very short fire arcs. The few MGs i had were set up, hidden, short arcs also. Once my men could see the majority of the defenders I opened up. Within a minute most of the defenders are sheltering safe inside their trenches, so I cease fire (ie short arcs) and hide. In about two minutes the defenders are back up looking around and WHAM i hit them again. By now the supporting hilltops are starting to reach out, so I short arc one more time and after another two minutes open up and Assault two corners.

Its a simple, effective tactic (5-10 mins to capture each hill, once in place) but it requires time to maneuver. 

Spetznaz/Recon did a good job on the far, far right back enemy position, and supported their compatriots assaulting the Obj D. Their assaults especially are effective. The regular infantry did a good job also.

Give me ONE, just ONE platoon of mortars and I can win this in reasonable time and with reasonable losses.

I'd rather not play this map again (its been 4 tries and I'm pretty sick of these hills).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2016 by kinophile

[dragonwynn]

Let me check again Kino. I added the mortars in. I may have uploaded the wrong cam file. I had several saved. 

[dragonwynn]

Yea my bad guys. I uploaded the wrong stupid .cam file to my dropbox. The new one is up and I will PM the ones testing with the new link. Sorry bout that Kino. Your mortar crews should be on duty now. lol I completely understand if you need a break from mission one. Thanks for your input and I will probably be releasing the campaign soon anyway. Hope when your bored with the other CM stuff you can give it another go. I'll PM you the link for a later playtime when you feel up to it. Its not an easy campaign. 

Michael

[TAKODA]

I finally completed Mission 2 and gave the rebels a solid thrashing, patience was the key. I just had a quick look at the mission 3 map but haven't started the mission yet, the map looks awesome and I'm anticipating a vicious dirty close quarters battle fighting my way through all those rows of houses.

Edited May 10, 2016 by TAKODA

[dragonwynn]

Thanks for the update Takoda. Glad you experienced success. The third mission may be a bit tricky. Your after some high value targets in a village full of militants on a timed schedule

It will require some finesse to keep losses acceptable. 

[dragonwynn]

Ok I am going to release the campaign for download. I have made the changes as recommended by the play testers so the included .cam file is the latest. I also made a few corrections and changes in some of the briefs. Once again I made a name change of the Chechen leader to hopefully a more "Chechen" name. (Thanks to rydlock for help with this).

It is a hefty download due to the winter mod files. Just place the mod folder in the dataz directory and the .cam file into the campaign directory. This was created with the latest patched version of CMBS. It is playable from the Russian side only. It is a big campaign with some fairly large maps at times so older systems may struggle a bit.

The above threads will explain what the campaign is so I won't cover all that again.

Here is the link:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/xyrv9j6junse8o0/The%20Mountains%20of%20Allah.zip?dl=0

I hope it proves enjoyable and let me know of any additional issues that arise. My effort here was to help fill some requests for some additional campaigns from the Russian perspective. I hope I was able to convey that in this campaign.

Thanks to all the testers who were able to give me some feedback.

Michael (dragonwynn)

[banned]

For now I just had the chance to get a first look but let me already tell you this: The prologue scene with the boy setting for a gritty atmosphere, followed by interesting facts, and subsequent the escalation of conflict - This was one of the best campaign introductions I´ve read in CM. The personality and top-notch writing of your briefings and soldier accounts/stories is what I´ve ever missed in the official campaigns.

[VladimirTarasov]

Possible spoilers: 

 

 

First mission I got a Russian army minor victory, I held 4 hills and wasted a brigade worth of guys. I inflicted over 200 casualties while suffering 48 losses and 76 wounded. I have one suggestion for this awesome campaign (probably the best campaign) the spetsnaz lads are only veterans they should be at a higher skill set ranging from crack to elite.

[HUSKER2142]

I am wondering why the battalions are not supported by at least an artillery battery (122-152 mm). The battalion will never be sent into battle without adequate fire support.

^{"Меня интересует почему батальоны не поддерживаются как минимум артиллерийским батареей (122-152 мм ) . Батальон никогда не пошлют в бой , без надлежащей огневой поддержки ."}

[dragonwynn]

Thanks guys for the comments. 

46 minutes ago, HUSKER2142 said:

I am wondering why the battalions are not supported by at least an artillery battery (122-152 mm). The battalion will never be sent into battle without adequate fire support.

^{"Меня интересует почему батальоны не поддерживаются как минимум артиллерийским батареей (122-152 мм ) . Батальон никогда не пошлют в бой , без надлежащей огневой поддержки ."}

Some of the later missions will have the arty as well as air assets. The first mission was designed as a quick strike airborne operation to secure the route for the mechanized forces. 

[HowMuchForYou?]

Just beat the first mission. Loving the campaign so far! Definitely a challenge.