Red mechanized reconnaissance

[Stimo]

You are red recon.
You've been carried along in your transports for some time but now that's it: you know the enemy is out there in the opposite corner, and he knows where you are and where you want to go.
He can hide and see through smoke. You can't. Can you?

What can you do to help the main force seize those 3 terrain objectives in 30 minutes?

[ThathumanHayden]

I try to use recon a bit more aggressively as Red in CW than I would normally. I've had some succuss bounding BRDMs forward quickly from positions of cover to other positions. I recommend getting the scout teams out quickly and staying in heavy foliage. Remember that they can listen for vehicle noises. The BRDMs can be used a bit like trip wires, one getting annihilated telling you where Blue can see you. Any BRMs I recommend putting in 'ambush-esque' positions, where they will be stationary before any Blue forces roll into their sightlines. This seems to give you a bit better odds.

Honestly, my advice is probably crap. I love playing as Red, but I struggle a lot when Blue gets thermals. I hope I interpreted your elegantly worded question correctly.

[domfluff]

BRDMs are excellent reconnaissance assets, but they're divisional assets, not battalion ones. Their job would usually have been to scout ahead of the main body, confirm the route is still valid, bridges are intact and unmined, and to find approximate enemy position - essentially they're there to let you know that there are enemy forces somewhere on the map before you start, so for a red player in a cm context their work has typically already been completed.

Recce then is done throughout, but typically initiated by a mechanised infantry platoon, sometimes reinforced with a single tank. These are not dedicated recce assets, these are just guys from the battalion who are taking point.

In the Soviet context, you start with a centralised, top down plan. The entire battalion will have a single task, with perhaps three objectives - an initial objective, a further objective, and a line of further advance. Thinking of things in this structure forces you to always think of "what's next?", you always have an idea what you're doing afterwards, which helps to avoid being paralyzed with choices. Importantly, it also helps gain and maintain tempo (used in the chess sense of the word, of being some moves ahead of your opponent).

The problem with this kind of top-down structure is that it can be a big gamble. If you roll the dice on a single COA, then you can win big or lose, either way pretty quickly.

One of the methods to round out this dice roll is to echelon - have successive elements, where each element can set the conditions for the following, and each following element can adapt to the preceeding. These aren't "reserves", these are committed troops who are working towards the same goal, just not all at once.

The role of Soviet recce is then to set the conditions for the following element.

At game start, the divisional recce has let you know there are enemy somewhere on the map. The battalion recce (CRP) then have the role of finding specific lines of resistance and enemy locations.

Their job is to scout aggressively, take key terrain and find enemy positions. This is not necessarily "recon by death",  but it's fast, and it's risky, and the entire crp dying isn't a major problem, if that uncovers key information.

Recce will be both mounted and dismounted. You do want to survive long enough to report back information, but the important thing is that it's fast.

A winning state here is spotting the enemy, regardless of your losses. A losing state is if the CRP is wiped out and no information is gained on enemy disposition. This is why recce screens are so important for blue, and why a tank may be part of the recce force, to overmatch blue recce elements.

The following element to the CRP should be a combined arms company. This will be tanks, mech inf and artillery. A mech inf version would be a tank platoon, infantry company and one artillery battery.

This is a strong, capable force, but it's not the main effort just yet. This forward security element (FSE) will have the job of setting the conditions for the follow-on force.

If the CRP has died leaving no information (read: you are losing), then the FSE needs to take over the recce job. The FSE typically follows the same route as the CRP, but not always. If the CRP vanished, then the FSE needs to transition into a cautious, probing attack to gain the same information, for the main body.

In an ideal situation, the CRP has found the enemy, possibly with their face, and the FSE then can set the conditions for the main body. This FSE ideally creates a base of fire to fix the enemy, restricting their movement and controlling their possible responses. You cannot do this effectively without sufficient information, so the CRP sets conditions for the FSE, which sets conditions for the main body.

All the while, the FSE is also gaining information, and this all feeds into where the main body goes in.

That decision will likely be pre-planned, and there will be multiple COAs defined. One could be to attack along the same axis as the FSE, one could be to flank elements that the FSE is engaged with, or to attack in a completely different sector, since the FSE will be fixing the enemy somewhere else. Again,  all of these decisions will be based on the recce picture built up by the lead elements, but the tension here is that this is all *fast* - it's important to keep moving, keep pushing, and keep steps ahead of the enemy at all times.

 

In an ideal situation then:

Lead platoon finds enemy positions through any method they can.

Lead company then fixes these positions.

Main body then uses this recce and fixing to win the battle.

 

CMCW is most interesting in 1979/1980, since the later stuff ends up looking more like CMSF.

Thermals and any of the later kit make this a little harder, but they do not change the fundamental scheme or what the battalion has to do.

Relying on equipment to spot for you is nice, but ultimately dismounts with binoculars in good concealment are always going to be an invaluable asset, regardless of your time period or level of equipment.

[Halmbarte]

Really great points by domfluff. 

One of the things I try to do playing as the Soviets is run by recon pull. Investigate the back ways and push through the gaps to flank and bypass the Americans. The Americans almost never have enough assets to cover every avenue of approach and you avoid rolling up into the planned American kill zones. 

There are other ways to play the Soviets besides the 'stick you dick into the meat grinder until it stalls' methodology. 

H

[domfluff]

Yup yup. I think that last point actually bears some expansion. A soviet plan should be top down and preordained, but that doesn't mean it's inflexible and doesn't have options... They're just options you've previously planned for.

Equally, "go down the road until you explode" should never be plan A, but the key is to set up the overall plan such that you can still get good information, even if that's the eventual result.