HerrTom Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Man, I keep making bad decision after bad decision! 0909 Auschev's platoon continues to advance to the treeline, taking sporadic fire from the buildings. They can't quite see that one BTR yet, but Auschev has his hopes up. Shelgunov and the MTLB reach the gas station and begin to dismount. The MTLB is going to attempt to hunt the last BTR on this side of town after dropping off its cargo. Meanwhile... Strygin's APC takes fire as it attempts to cross the river. The crew panics as shots ping off of its armour. And a lucky shot penetrates the MTLB's thin armour and ignites the ammunition stowage, blowing the vehicle sky high. Strygin's entire squad and the vehicles crew are lost. I can't afford to take losses at this rate! For now, I think I have no choice but to hunker down and keep exchanging fire with the defenders, but any more aggressive action will have to wait for reinforcements. I'm running dangerously low on firepower, and with the loss of Strygin and his squad, the eastern side of town is going to be a challenge to neutralize. The forward scout detachment is now under the control of Sergeant Byvshikh (what a strange name... hope he doesn't become his namesake!). They're going to attempt to engage the BTR with handheld AT weapons. Airburst artillery shells landed near Minaev, panicking the squad. The barrage seems to have been a short one, though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chudacabra Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Great DAR! It has encouraged me to play this battle again. I've been pretty cautious so far, but managed to lose a T-72 to an ATGM. I feel that CM really shines in terms of entertainment when you have slightly scrappier forces rather than tracked gundams. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnO Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Thanks HerrTom for an Interesting DAR, can't wait to see what happens next. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 Not much happened in this dull minute. As such, there's no new map today. Refer to 0909 for the situation. But I can't let you guys go without pictures! 0910 Aushev (right) looks over the town. The burning wrecks of four BTRs can be seen in the background. To the left, an AGS lays fire down on Ukrainian infantry located in and around the buildings. Aushev's men in the treeline return fire to infantry located in some buildings near the western bridge. Byvshikh moves along the river to get a firing angle on the BTR in the farming compound. The MTLB will attempt to distract it by firing HEI shells into the building nearby as Byvshikh moves up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS:96B2P Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 10 minutes ago, HerrTom said: <Snip> But I can't let you guys go without pictures! Very nice DAR and the pictures are very good. Where did you get the map from you are using? It is similar to the 1:50,000 maps we used when I was in. Just no grid squares and I can't make out elevation marks on the contour lines but it is a nice touch to the DAR. Is it accurate down to the placement of the buildings for the scenario? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 (edited) I drew the map myself, but wasn't quite sure how to do good grid squares. I think you can make out the elevation marks if you right click on the maps and open the image in a new tab. I see now that the downsized forum view makes those pretty hard to read! Edit: I'd like to imagine it's pretty close. I mostly traced off of the top-down one I used in the first few posts. Here you can see them overlaid. I got tired of drawing individual buildings, so I did combine a few into blocks. Edited October 24, 2016 by HerrTom 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS:96B2P Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 16 minutes ago, HerrTom said: I drew the map myself, but wasn't quite sure how to do good grid squares. I think you can make out the elevation marks if you right click on the maps and open the image in a new tab. I see now that the downsized forum view makes those pretty hard to read! Edit: I'd like to imagine it's pretty close. I mostly traced off of the top-down one I used in the first few posts. Here you can see them overlaid. I got tired of drawing individual buildings, so I did combine a few into blocks. Very impressive work. The map looks like something made by a professional cartographer. And the DAR is pretty good too . Thanks for taking all the time and effort to put this together. Good job. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 38 minutes ago, MOS:96B2P said: Very impressive work. The map looks like something made by a professional cartographer. And the DAR is pretty good too . Thanks for taking all the time and effort to put this together. Good job. Thank you for the kind words! It's simply having too much free time and access to handbooks on the USSR's topographic map conventions! Honestly, writing these is almost as fun as reading them. I'm pretty glad I got on this track. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 It looks like a good scenario and it motivates me to play it and see if slightly different tactics would work better. (My impression is that too much was expected of the initial "recon" forces.) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hattori Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Because of javelins (yes, I know Ukraine doesn't have them), I've come to look at Russian APCs as tin coffin death traps. I also cry a little on the inside each time one of my pixeltruppen bites the dust. This probably has a big impact on my strategies. Also looking back I realized perhaps I made an assumption I shouldn't have, that all Ukrainian forces were on their side of the river. I didn't see any way to easily get into the city without my vehicles getting wiped out, so I actually decided to pound the living crap out of the city before trying anything. I had all my initial forces in the south east corner as a giant fire base. I hit the southern tip of the city with all my artillery, and slowly set up everything I had in the south east woods, and then opened up on every building I could see. I figured that southern city tip was like a salient, and I could add my reserves later to hammer that section of the city from at least 2 sides. Then I split up my recon squad into half sections, and had them work their way down the highway towards the town. Since I hate losing my pixeltruppen, I was looking to get them as close as possible with no fire or deaths, and hopefully they would spot the enemy for me on the way ... if you work your way down the west side of the E50, there is also a river crossing immediately to the left of the bridge you can use for troops. I was actually able to get them over the river and really close to the town before they ever received any fire (but to be fair, I had everything hose down the town, everyone doing support fire had loaded up on extra ammo ahead of time). Once you start demoing buildings, it actually also starts to work like a smoke screen I find, and really starts to limit how much the defense can help each other. I was actually of the opinion I thought the entire country side to the west was a distraction -- no objectives to capture, and if the enemy wanted to counter attack through there, perfect! As the french said in ww1, 'the more germans on the left flank, the better' (maybe not the best example). I'd rather fight a meeting engagement with my reserves that were showing up in 10 minutes than attack his dug in defenses. Plus by that time if the computer had tried that, I hoped to be partially lodged in the city, and that would give him grief counter attacking that. I tell you though, I agree, that ATGM on the roof of that building was a brave, brave team. Also knocked out an APC while under heavy fire. I just hope no civilians were in the town at the time, and man ... they are not going to be happy when they come back. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 0911 Byvshikh's MTLB lays suppressing fire on the BTR's position. 30mm tracers fly through the air behind Byvshikh's team as they maneouvre to attack the BTR. Unfortunately, it sees them as the first team approaches the riverbank and rakes the squad's marksman with machinegun fire. The squad dives for cover and fumbles for their antitank weapons. The MTLB crew sees what's happening and prepares to advance to attack the BTR from the side. 4th platoon's extra MTLB knocks out the final BTR in the south side of town, exploding its fuel tanks. Not to be distracted by the impressive explosion, they quickly identify an ATGM on an office building on the far side of town, pointed straight at them! 30mm HEI shells explode across the rooftop. They have a better angle than their comrades in the reconnaissance platoon and manage to knock it out! 2nd squad, 2nd platoon, 1st company comes under fire from a machinegun and return fire with small arms and an RPG. It falls short, but manages to knock out another machinegun in different building. Good news at last! 2nd Company has arrived, but they took a wrong turn and ended up at the wrong side of the river. Time to adapt, though I don't want to completely abandon my plan of rolling the town up from the south. Since the other ATGM on the roof is still there, it's probably for the best, anyway. 5th platoon, under command of Lieutenant Chaikin will move its tanks to Shelgunov's position. and suppress the enemy infantry positions in the housing complex in the south side of town. The entirety of 2nd Company. will move into positions next to 2nd platoon and use their amphibious capabilities to ford the river, under cover of the tanks, which are going in better positions to support them thanks to the navigation error. 2nd platoon will stay in place for now, then move to capture the western and northern bridges as 2nd company assaults the town. This should prevent any Ukrainian engineering teams from destroying the bridge before the 32nd Motor Rifles can cross in force. The assault will require some staging and suppressive fire, and I plan to again stick to my original plan of saturating the town with steel. Aushev is calling artillery fire from 2nd Company's mortars on sheaf N:3 in an attempt to make the river crossing uncontested. The plotting is estimated to take around 9 minutes, so the meantime will be maneouvre into positions and direct fire on the town. In other news, another BTR was discovered near the western bridge. It's not in a threatening position yet, though I may use the T-72s to knock it out. If I were to do this again, it may be interesting to try another tack in the assault by flattening N:4 and pushing the entirety of 1st Company through the (presumably) weaker defences in the far West, and hooking around to attack the city from the north, whilst bringing 2nd Company in from the west whilst the enemy is reorientating to defend from the north. If this can be done with enough violence, it may be possible to catch the enemy completely unaware... Hattori, I like the strategy. I, too, try to avoid casualties. Especially in my armoured assets for pragmatic reasons, since they are incredibly useful as fire support platforms. I try to avoid putting ATGMs in obvious places like on roofs, especially since they always get knocked out before they can do anything. I'm amazed that team survived to begin with, let alone hit something! I guess it has to do with the angle you're at. If they have to be relatively close, and you're above them enough, the building provides better cover. If you look at 4th platoon's performance knocking out the other ATGM, they're higher up compared to the building than Minaev's APCs were. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hattori Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I had thought about hitting the west and wheeling around behind to the north, but I believed the entire route north of the river from west to east was too exposed to the town. I was also concerned about time because city attacks frankly take me forever. I also at the time was thinking the scenario designers might give the Ukrainians reinforcements, and didn't want those reinforcements showing up on like minute 40 directly on my flank or rear. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 21 minutes ago, hattori said: I had thought about hitting the west and wheeling around behind to the north, but I believed the entire route north of the river from west to east was too exposed to the town. I was also concerned about time because city attacks frankly take me forever. I also at the time was thinking the scenario designers might give the Ukrainians reinforcements, and didn't want those reinforcements showing up on like minute 40 directly on my flank or rear. Haha true. That would prove bothersome at best! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 0912 That ATGM that I thought 4th platoon had knocked out? It just moved (remarkably quick!). A well aimed shot slammed into 4th platoon's MTLB and exploded it to kingdom come. Spotting shells are landing for the artillery barrage on the building, so hopefully this damn obstacle will be gone soon enough. 2nd company is having some traffic issues in getting to the front, though 1 Platoon, 2 Company has reached its staging position by this time. It's no big problem, it just means that the tanks will be delayed somewhat. Aushev's platoon engages infantry dug in around the housing complex. The wrecks of two MTLBs overlook the first few spotting rounds landing in the town. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about this battle, even though I lost another APC. A whole company is going to cause a lot of pain, though the city fight will be a bloody slog. Byvshikh has also taken three casualties to the BTR, which has done a wonderful job at suppressing them. The MTLB is going to cross the river while it is distracted and destroy the thing once and for all. Spotting shells are landing closer and closer to the ATGM office building, which hopefully should wipe out those well-placed teams. 2nd company has a little traffic jam to deal with, and the tank platoon is advancing. Aushev's AGS has managed to take out a couple of RPG teams near the bridge Aushev's platoon trades fire with the town as the MTLB gets destroyed. Please forgive the temperature, I forgot to turn off f.lux as I recorded it! It's strange that it doesn't look this warm on my own screen, though. Maybe pretend that it's sunset? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 0913 I continue to show my incompetence! The duel with the psychic BTR in the farm complex ends... poorly. The last MTLB on the eastern side of town gets punctured by 14.5mm bullets. I'm honestly surprised that I didn't nail him, since he wasn't even looking at me and I was hunting for him (target arcs and all!). But as he stops, and starts to aim, the BTR turns and pumps lead into him. Такова жизнь. Airburst artillery shells come out of the blue and injure most of Aushev's 3rd squad. 5th platoons tanks continue to make their way to the battle. 2nd company has almost resolved their traffic jam and are arranging themselves around the complex. Man, I completely screwed up everything on Strygin's side. I should have just let that damn BTR stay where it was, but I got this vendetta in my mind, and now I'm short two vehicles and Strygin's entire squad, and Byvshikh is also down quite a few men. I'm sure that BTR crew will be honoured in Kiev. The only good news so far is that one of my machinegunners finally managed to take out one of the ATGMs on the office building. In the meantime, we'll keep trading fire and waiting for everyone to get into position. It has also come to my attention that I actually have a small stock of precision guided shells. I'll be sure to put those to good use on hard-to hit positions or vehicles. I really should've used them way earlier to knock out some of those BTRs or ATGM positions, but I wasted my time spotting rounds for a regular barrage. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 26, 2016 Author Share Posted October 26, 2016 0914 Not a particularly interesting minute. The next few may be similarly uneventful. I probably won't do a minute-by-minute for the next few turns until something worth reporting happens. Aushev's platoon continues to engage enemy infantry in the buildings. Aushev observes the town while plotting the artillery strike. 5th platoon is in position. They're going to hunt forwards until they can start engaging the entrenched enemies in the housing block. 2nd company is also now in position. They're going to wait here until the artillery barrage starts in a few minutes. The overall situation. Not much has changed, except the position of the reinforcements. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 26, 2016 Author Share Posted October 26, 2016 Of course, once I say the next few turns will be uneventful, I turn out to be a big fat liar! 0915 T-72s from 5th platoon engage infantry dug in in the western side of town. A Konkurs slams into the explosive reactive armour, which swats away the warhead leaving the tank unharmed. The platoon quickly turns to engage the new threat. Having revealed itself, the ATGM position is hammered by two MTLBs, both tanks, as well as 4th platoon's AGS located far to the left! It is suppressed but not destroyed. A second missile streaks over 5th platoon and lands in the treeline behind it. 5th platoon continues to engage the ATGM. Meanwhile, four 120mm mortar shells land on that office building, finally knocking out that pesky ATGM team. Aushev's view of the carnage. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 29, 2016 Author Share Posted October 29, 2016 0916-0917 A few snippets. Drone footage captures 1st squad, 2nd company moves into staging positions near Aushev's platoon. Russian infantrymen dart through the wheatfield while fire pours both ways. 5th platoon's tanks engage infantry in one of the tall office buildings in the centre of town. One of 5th platoon's tanks responds to a poorly aimed RPG-7 round. In other news, spotting rounds for the barrage on the housing complex have started landing. Hopefully Aushev can guide these in with haste so we can get into the action of the assault! A new plan to accommodate for the changing situation on the ground should be coming soon, as soon as I can get to drawing it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 As promised: A new plan! Aushev is currently too heavily engaged to effectively maneouvre, even with Chaikin's tanks. This means any maneouvring that's going on is going to rest pretty solely on 2nd company. I've split 2nd company, 3rd platoon under Lt. Sheverin to move on the northern and western bridges. Known enemy forces are a BTR, machine gun, and RPG team. Hopefully this should be relatively simple for him to take on. Meanwhile, the rest of 2nd company, under Lieutenants Nasonov and Nechaev will cross the river using the MTLB's amphibious capabilities and unload to storm the southern end of town. Nasonov will focus his platoon on clearing resistance directly along E50, while Nechaev will carefully advance deeper into town. I expect 1st and 3rd platoon's fight to be relatively brief, especially due to the tank support from Chaikin's platoon on the other side of the river. Once we're firmly in the city, Nasonov will wheel around to support Nechaev's attack through the offices and shops on the west side of town. Sheverin's platoon will capture the northern bridge and set up in the treeline north of the city to assault the apartment complex in sheaf N:4, supported by 5th platoon's tanks. At this point, Sheverin's attached tank may be diverted to assist in rooting out the final resistance in Zhorstokyy. Meanwhile, Aushev's platoon, now freed from enemy fire, will move to secure and overwatch 5th platoon's left flank. The remains of Strygin's brave platoon will advance across the river to capture the farm complex and set up a new OP to better see the rest of town. As a side note, we're considering what scenario to do next, and I was thinking another DAR (perhaps with a bit sparser updates than this one!) might be in order. Any recommendations/desires? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinophile Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 (edited) That UKR convoy ambush is a great short, sharp one. Lots of ways to solve it. Edited November 1, 2016 by kinophile 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pericles Posted November 2, 2016 Share Posted November 2, 2016 Your images and videos look great. What sort of mods are you using? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted November 2, 2016 Author Share Posted November 2, 2016 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Pericles said: Your images and videos look great. What sort of mods are you using? Oh man... now I gotta remember! I'm using Kieme's faction textures, and ground textures. Vein's tracers, version A, Vein's special effects v3, and a sound mod which I've combined from three or four sources. Then, on top of everything, I'm running Reshade to add ambient occlusion and some post-processing. @kinophile I agree, that mission is fun as hell. George (I think?) did an amazing job on it. After putting some thought into it, I started working on something special in the editor. Might post some tidbits as it fleshes out. Edited November 2, 2016 by HerrTom 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted November 2, 2016 Author Share Posted November 2, 2016 Because I'm impatient - here are some previews of a map I'm working on involving a Russian ambush on a BLUFOR column (I'm leaning towards US) which escalates into a pitched meeting engagement. All of this in close quarters, since most of the map has short sight lines due to the forest. I'd be the Russians on this one. My other option is an armoured battle occurring on some real terrain in Ukraine. I'd be the Ukrainians with T-64s against a Russian assault using T-72B3s. Views from the east side: From the air: It still needs a lot of detail. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerrTom Posted November 2, 2016 Author Share Posted November 2, 2016 Well, looks like the highway map is not going to happen. Whenever I open it now, it shows me whatever map I previously had open, whether it be the empty default one or any other map. I guess it's kaputt (and I'm bad at backing up). Unless anyone else has seen this happen. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jotte Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 11 hours ago, HerrTom said: Well, looks like the highway map is not going to happen. Whenever I open it now, it shows me whatever map I previously had open, whether it be the empty default one or any other map. I guess it's kaputt (and I'm bad at backing up). Unless anyone else has seen this happen. Aww, dang and I was just going to write I was looking forward to see the map Maybe upload the file and see if someone esle can salvage the map itself? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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