v4 CPX Saturday October 12

[James Sterrett]

Map: 577 (another of Darius' long series)

Sides are Red and Blue

Missions are... secret. 8) However, the game will use friendly fog of war and limited-length turns, with 1 minute turns maintained as long as possible.

Start time: 15.00 GMT (11.00 Eastern, 1600 London, 2100/2200 Australia, 2000 Hong Kong). I will be online at least an hour early and suggest all players try to be as well, in order to sort out any troubles that may arise with IRC or logging into TacOps.

Expected length: past experience suggests at least 6 hours. I would prefer that all players try to be available for the entire game.

There are lots of slots available. Positions on the map will be fixed at start. If Team COs sign up fast enough, I would like to get them briefings today (Thursday) to give them a leg up on the short planning time.

Players should expect to have 20 minutes after start time to put in initial orders and sort themselves out; then the clock will begin.

Observers are welcome with the single caveat that, in the unlikely event we bump into the 20-participant limit, players will get precedence over observers.

We will use IRC for communications: www.combatmission.com, port 7000, and using the public channel #tacops. (There will be other channels in use as well, but the one channel everybody should be on is #tacops for admin and general chatter.)

Please post here or email me if you wish to join the game, and note a side preference.

[JohnO]

Originally posted by James Sterrett:

Map: 577

Sides are Red and Blue

Missions are... secret. 8) However, the game will use friendly fog of war and limited-length turns, with 1 minute turns maintained as long as possible.

Start time: 15.00 GMT (11.00 Eastern, 1600 London, 2100/2200 Australia, 2000 Hong Kong). I will be online at least an hour early and suggest all players try to be as well, in order to sort out any troubles that may arise with IRC or logging into TacOps.

Expected length: past experience suggests at least 6 hours. I would prefer that all players try to be available for the entire game.

There are lots of slots available. Positions on the map will be fixed at start. If Team COs sign up fast enough, I would like to get them briefings today (Thursday) to give them a leg up on the short planning time.

Players should expect to have 20 minutes after start time to put in initial orders and sort themselves out; then the clock will begin.

Observers are welcome with the single caveat that, in the unlikely event we bump into the 20-participant limit, players will get precedence over observers.

We will use IRC for communications: www.combatmission.com, port 7000, and using the public channel #tacops. (There will be other channels in use as well, but the one channel everybody should be on is #tacops for admin and general chatter.)

Please post here or email me if you wish to join the game, and note a side preference.

As the Red Commander and I can speak for the Blue Commander. Please join in on this weekend mulitiplayer game.

Newbies its not to late to get in on the fun of commanding your own units against another player. Were all here to have fun and don't worry about "I'm going to lose the battle" Who cares, we just want to have fun. As the Red Commander, I would give you an easy unit to control, like maybe recon or helicopters to control. Or if your ready a command of your own Battalion

If you need any assistant in loging in to IRC or to the TacOps game itself. I will answer your questions and help in any way. I have all day today.

Here is my email: josbornesprint11@earthlink.net

Again, please join in on the fun this weekend.

[Redwolf]

Hi,

I hope the guests enjoyed the battle. In case we didn't point that out enough, we had enourmous problems with flaky internet connections today, in fact almost all of the beta battles went technically much smoother than that.

I guess someone should post AARs, but this one was extremly exhausting and I guess everyone was fed up with computers for the day - except sissy activity like playing CMBB

Cheers!

[Slaggg]

From my point of view (observer), the hiccups in the network didn't cause too much of a problem simply because it was so easy to reconnect. I can see how it would be more frustrating for the players, but still much easier than say MOHAA or DoD. All around a good match, although Red could've continued and met their objectives

[James Sterrett]

This is the umpire's AAR for the TacOps v4 CPX played on October 12, 2002. [Reposted from the TacOps mailing list, where many player AARs are also appearing.]

The players were:

Blue:

"Redwolf", CO

Gary Rost

Warwick White (eventually disappeared for reasons uncertain but thought to be related to the Net)

Alex Ingles (present most of the game)

Christian Simon (present through the middle of the game)

Red:

John Osborne (initial CO)

Henk Stoffers (second CO)

Bernard Cousins

Goran Semb

Plus a veritable host of observers at various times....

Orders for each side:

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

Red orders:

You have at your disposal one GenForce tank battalion:

3 Tank companies of 13 T-80 ATGM

2 Mech Companies of 14 BMP3, 6 AT-7, and 6 PKM MGs (plus infantry)

1 Arty BN of 2x 6 2S3 tube arty and 1x 6 SP mortars, and 6 ACRV vehicles

1 AT Battery of 4 2A45 and 4 BRDM-AT

1 Recce platoon of 4 BMP-2 with infantry

1 Engr platoon of 2 MTU-30, 1 IMR, 3 BTR, 2 Engineering Teams

and reinforcement of 1 GMZ minelayer

1 Firefinder radar

Sigint support looking for the enemy Firefinder

1 UAV

2x 2S6 of the battalion's AD platoon

2 Recon Mi-28 Havoc helicopters

Air support is not available.

You begin on the westernmost 12 km of map 577.

Your Recce platoon units may begin anywhere between 08 and 12 easting. One other company may begin anywhere between 07 and 10 Easting.

The rest of your force may begin anywhere west of 07 easting.

You also have an ammo dump in the town at 025025, and 1 truck with which to move parts of it about.

Situation and mission:

Enemy forces have been driving southwards along the coast, to the east of your position. Your force has been assembled for a counterattack into their flank: your mission is to attack, clear, and hold a corridor to the sea. In addition, you are to destroy enemy logistic elements thought to be located in the vicinity of 21/05.

The enemy is armed with modern US Army equipment, but with Leopard 2A5 tanks.

The forward line of enemy troops is thought to be approximately 15 Easting.

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

Blue side:

You have at your disposal one Armored Cavalry Squadron:

2x M-3 as the HQ

3 Troops, each of 9 Leo2A5, 12 M-3 (including infantry), and 2 Mortars

1 tank company of 14 Leo 2A5

1 recce troop of 8 Hummers and infantry

1 155mm howitzer battery and 6 FIST-V

1 reinforcement 155mm howitzer battery

1 Firefinder radar and sigint support looking for the enemy radar

Engineering support from 3 bridging tanks, 1 MICLIC Hummer, 1 Volcano dispenser, and an M-113 with an engineering team.

1 UAV

2 Bradley AD

2 OH-58 helicopters with an AT loadout

Air support is not available.

Your recce troop may begin anywhere between Easting 15 and 19.

One company or Troop may begin anywhere between 17 and 20 Easting.

The rest of your force must begin EAST of 20 Easting.

You also have an ammo dump at the rail yard in 21/05 and a truck to move parts of it about.

Situation and your mission:

Friendly forces have been driving southwards along the coast. Enemy forces are thought to be gathering to the west of this sector, preparing to drive eastwards and cut off our drive. Your mission is to pre-empt this attack, driving westwards to seize the bridges across the river (028012, 032018, 032023, 028043) and destroy enemy logistics facilities thought to be in the town at 02/02. If possible, continue your attack westwards past Easting 00 (exit significant forces from the map).

Enemy forces are well-trained and equipped with the very latest in Russian equipment: BMP-3, T-80 ATGM, thermals, and advanced warheads.

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

Planning:

One interesting impact of the v4 support for CPX play: since the umpire doesn't need to input every player command, the umpire has a much murkier idea of what is going on!

Because time was very short in getting this game off the ground, I'm not entirely aware of player's planning for the game. On the Red side, John Osborne came up with a careful deployment. The recon, bolstered by the BRDM-AT in immediate support, formed pairs for recon along the 12 easting line. This violated the letter of the deployment rules but certainly followed their spirit, since all his other forces began well to the rear in three main groups. His intent was to follow a recon-pull model, seeing where a hole might be found and then slamming the bulk of his force through it, and the deployment supported this plan. Blue deployed its recon hummers in like manner, and kept its forces well back. The plan may have been the same, but you'd have to ask Redwolf.

In the event, when John tried to brief his team on the plan, 20 minutes before the game start, they offered what they thought were suggestions and he thought was revolt; command passed to Henk Stoffers. I'm not entirely sure what the new plan was, but it looked like "everything presses forward to see what they can find".

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

What happened:

We had troubles with the net through the first half of play. Redwolf determined that a number of key links in the net were being worked on or otherwise disrupted; and, for whatever reason, TacOps was much less able to handle recovery from network errors than it had been in testing. As the day wore on, the net got better and matters were greatly improved.

The helicopters dominated the recon battle, destroying or immobilizing most of the recon force on the ground and also destroying 3 out of the 4 helos in the game. Red managed to preserve one of its Havocs, which rapidly transformed into a armor-hunter after Red realized they could re-arm the helicopter from their supply depot.

The aftermath of this engagement left intermingled remnants of recon forces in the hilly belt around 12-15 easting, alternately hiding, sneaking, and ambushing each other. Both sides flew their UAVs overhead trying to get a better idea of what was going on.

Because Blue's forward Cav Troop was closer to the front lines, it arrived in the center and south first. It took heavy losses to Red's helicopter, but it also gave Red pause because of the implication of major Blue forces. Red became more cautious from this point on and tended to be defensive most of the rest of the game.

The counterbattery war began and ended in this timeframe as well. It ended with both sides ignoring it, because even with good fixes on enemy batteries that were not moving, Blue could not hit Red's artillery. Red spotted some of Blue's artillery with their UAV but also missed. After this frustration, both sides ignored this angle of the game. [in manual CPXes, the umpire could give the counter-battery fires a level 5 TRP on the site of the located enemy battery, guaranteeing initially accurate fires and making counterbattery a real threat. I'm still chewing over ways to make this work in v4.]

Blue made two valiant attempts to punch through Red's lines. The first, in the far north, made it past the main defence line but was ambushed as it broke out. The second, slipping through the woods and hills in the south, killed Red's helicopter and came very close to a breakout in real force, but wound up attrited down to nothing in the process of wiping out nearly all of Red's defenders in the area.

At this point, Blue was virtually out of troops and felt it could not continue its mission. Red's losses were severe enough that they thought they could not continue theirs - though, had they known it, Blue was so weakened that Red could easily have continued had it felt confident enough to do so. Fog of war is a lovely thing. 8)

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

Lessons learned:

2 Umpire errors:

1) Putting AT helicopters into this scenario seemed smart when I did it but turned out to be a mistake. They took over the recon phase and rendered what should have been a more interesting sneak and peek into a fast massacre. The fact that players could rearm their helicopters from the supply dump had the unintended consequence of turning the lone surviving helicopter from an observation platform into an important killer. It is probable that without that helicopter, Blue's attacks would have had the strength to succeed.

2) That problem could have been helped, though, if I had been clearer that there was no threat of CAS to either side. Both sides deployed their AD vehicles deep, to cover their supply and artillery from air strikes. Realistic, but it meant that the vehicles weren't providing cover from helicopters and UAVs as intended by the scenario designer.

As always seems to happen in these meeting engagements, who defends wins. This presents a serious challenge to the scenario designer, because you want both sides to attack in order to generate an interesting game! Both sides had the ability to punch through the other if the other chose a cordon defence (as Red essentially did) and the attack concentrated most of its power into one sector: witness the near-success of Blue, twice, in its attacks. That would, of course, mean leaving little power on other sectors of the front; the minelayers were meant to help with this problem.

UAVs seem tougher than they used to be in v3, able to flit about longer in the face of incessant enemy fire. However, both sides eventually lost their UAvs. Blue's was killed by a 2S6 while cruising about in Red's rear, looking for artillery. Red's was brought down by a golden BB from Blue ground fire. I doubt a UAV has ever survived a CPX, because players (including me) tend to send them in where angels would fear to tread.

[ October 13, 2002, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: James Sterrett ]

[James Sterrett]

Reposted from the TacOps list: Goran Sembs' AAR

--------

So, what did I experience in James’ game this Saturday (apart from

whispers of ”fresh meat, fresh meat” all around me)?

Well, if I remember correctly:

A hastily formed Red plan consisted of moving eastwards in two columns,

each with one company of tanks and a company of BMPs, plus two towed

anti-tank guns, didn’t quite survive first contact with the enemy (nor

did I really expect it to). Apart from these two forces, commanded by me

(the southern one) and Bernard C (the northern one), we had a reserve of

one tank company, plus recce units (including UAV + 2 helicopters) and

artillery. Henk S commanded these assets for most of the time, taking

over arty and helos, I believe, from John O when he had to turn his

attentions to home.

The recon ground units, like plans, didn’t long survive contact with the

enemy. Fortunately, Henk could use one helicopter (the other one died

early) to both get info on enemy movements and to attrit away lots of

enemy units. After the recon ground units were killed off, I became very

reluctant to make any bold moves in the south, even if I was supposed to

have gone as far as 22 easting and then turned northwards to help take

the town where Blue had its great supply dump. (I personally would have

preferred to first cut off the enemy’s north-south communications by

moving eastwards, perhaps not all the way to the sea, but far enough to

be able to interdict his movements with ATGMs, and then turn our

collective eyes towards taking the town. However, my military expertise

being what it is, I didn’t think I had enough of a case to argue about

it. Besides, we’d have to do both anyway to succeed in our missions.)

About at this time, I was also spotted by the enemy’s UAV, so I decide

to spread out my units so as to make it harder to eliminate them with

artillery. They took up positions in the woods to be able to check an

enemy push. What recon intelligence we’d gotten, and kept getting,

seemed to indicate that rather heavy Blue forces were moving

northwestwards towards Bernard’s northern task force, so we decided to

hold his advance for the time being and combine it with a careful

advance by me in the south. I deployed my forces more or less in two

lines of defense around the plateau at 120010, the easternmost one

consisting mainly of BMPs with tanks being held in reserve behind them.

I also sent a BMP platoon the forest in 115020to cover the road moving

east-west along the 031-034 line, thus seeking to close lines with

Bernard.

(Actually, I also had a third line of defense, sort of. A Blue artillery

strike, perhaps UAV-guided, hat hit me on the move earlier, destroying

one of the AT gun-towing trucks. Not wanting to risk the other truck, I

sent it off into the woods, then decided that as long as it wasn’t doing

any towing, it might as well ferry some supply. So I unhooked the AT gun

and sent the truck back to our supply base, leaving two AT guns covering

the open space around 110012.)

Moving my BMPs forward, I made contact with a Hummvee which killed two

BMPs before I’d eliminated it and its crew. From its position, the

surviving (for a while at least) infantry team had line of sight to

several of my tank platoons, so I quickly dispersed those.

Very shortly after this, it was concluded that Blue was very strong in

the north, so my tanks were requested to bolster Bernard’s forces. Our

tank reserves would also get behind him to back him up. My BMPs would

move eastwards in a feint designed to lure some of Blue’s forces

southwards; then we would hit’em in the north with all we had, punching

through to one of our objectives, his supply at objective Tango, the

town in 210060.

I moved my tanks up north, positioning the BMPs to be ready to push

forward. This is when Blue starts pushing real hard westwards in the

north, so I position the tanks to cover the east-west road already

covered by a BMP platoon. struck by fear, I also position another BMP

platoon plus its six ATGM teams for the same purpose, temporarily

abandoning all thoughts of a southern advance.

Then, all hell broke loose.

In the north, that is.

Bernard and Henk killed lots of Blue vehicles, by the sounds of it, and

judging by the explosions visible in the north and immediately to our

front, and also judging by their jubilant comments on the Red channel.

Me, I saw the occasional Bradley, and eventually killed a platoon of

them, for a platoon of BMPs. Not impressive, and I was beginning to feel

that I wasn’t contributing all that much to the Red war effort. Henk’s

recon forces reported about Blue forces not-so-far-from-me (though not

always with the most exact positions -- I think he was having quite a

lot to do by then, with the helos, the UAV and the reserve tank Coy all

being active at once), but they didn’t seem to be going my way.

The tanks I moved north weren’t seeing any action, either; the enemy

seemed to stick to the northern half of the map.

It seemed we were slaughtering a lot of them up north, though, so after

a while we were getting optimistic about resuming our attack. I moved my

southern-and-easternmost BMP platoon forward a bit, to a point where it

was promptly eradicated by a platoon of advancing Leopards. I notified

my teammates, and moved a tank platoon southwards to stop this small new

threat.

Except that it wasn’t all that small; after a while, it appeared I was

getting what was at least a tank company and half a Bradley company

towards my two BMP platoons and one tank platoon. Not only diid they

eliminate the helicopter when it came to my aid, they also punched

through with at least a couple of tank platoons. My last remaining BMP

platoon killed a tank platoon in an ambush at 110008 before it was

eliminated by follow-on Bradleys (I think it took some toll on those as

well). After that, I had my two AT guns plus two tank platoons that were

desperately racing southwest to try and get some rear shots in on the

Blue tanks.

The AT guns took out three or four tanks, I think, before eliminated. My

tanks ran into heavy fire, and were all but eliminated, but fortunately,

Henk had moved in with a tank platoon from the reserves. It was

eliminated, but not before it had broken the back of the breakthrough.

My surviving tanks disposed of the remaining vehicles in the south.

Now comes a company of vehicles in the center that I have just

abandoned.

Bernard had a BMP platoon that took out a platoon of Bradleys before

eliminated. That left my 6 Saxhorn teams, but unfortunately the sneaky 9

enemy tanks still advancing took a route that took them very close to my

ATGM guys, frontally, before they could fire at them. (In retrospect, I

should have moved those teams to a more protected position when it

became obvious that they weren’t going to have to stop the sort of

advance I first thought, but by then I was tunnelvisioning on the

breakthrough in the south…)

Before eliminated, those teams at least took out half the tank force,

with one of my few remaining tanks taking out one more; the rest

advancing westwards. I sent my one remaining mobile tank to try and cut

them off. Henk, I think, sent our mine dispenser to cut off one road.

At this point, James asked us whether we thought we could meet our

attack objectives. Getting a negative answer on that, and having had a

negative answer from Blue on their objectives, he stopped the game.

I don’t think a force that has taken so much losses as ours, and who

didn’t have any recon assets left, and had discovered a very strong

enemy attacking us, could have reformed into a coherent attack force in

a short while, so I have no problem with that decision.

So, what did I learn?

1. Recon, recon, recon. Oh, and recon.

2. Hey, Irc wasn’t problematic after all.

3. When you have to do something fast, it’s going to cost you, probably

more than you can afford -- but if you _have_ to do it, you can’t afford

not to do it.

4. Heavy enemy losses doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't have

quite a few units left.

Thanks to all participants and to James for arranging it. I enjoyed the

experience.

/Goran

[James Sterrett]

Reposted from the TacOps list: Henk Stoffer's AAR

--------

Saturday the 12th we had a CPX organized by James S.

Scenario involved blue and red bn sized Combined arms force.

map 577

Reds task was to counterattack blue destroy their supply and create a corridor to the sea.

We had T80 with ATGM and BMP2's in both task forces.

A recon force of 4 BRDM and BMP vehicles,2 Havoc recon units

2 x 152mm batteries, 1 x 120mm mortarbattery,a firefinder radar and an UAV

Blue forces consisted of Leo 2 A5 and Bradleys

Same artillery units and UAV as we had

Recon force with HMVV's and Kiowa recon helos

After I took over command I changed the orders.

Recon units were to find out where the enemy setup his defenses.

both taskforces had to move out to about halfway of the map.

In the north Berny would halt few clicks from the objective towns.

Goran had to advance to gridline 22 and swung north to the obectives from there.

I hoped with that move to attract the enemy to get them in the wrong direction.

But as always a plan never works that good really.

My recon units were taken out by the blue recon choppers.

However I managed to kill both helo's leaving my reconchopper as survivor.

This offered a good opportunity to us and we decided to wait for the enemy attack to loose momentum,trying to attrit their forces with helo and artillery.

This approach helped cause my chopper flew from north to south killing lots of enemy tanks and bradleys.

Meanwhile John was busy with his artillery to get the enemy artillery,he got very close in achieving this.

I saw some very close salvos.

After John left I got to busy to do all this counter battery stuff.

At that point we thought the enemy had moved a lot of units from the north to engage Gorans units.

So I asked him to leave some bmp's in the south and join bernys force with his tanks.

Berny than could mount a direct attack towards our objective.

This was however a mistake made by me.

Cause at that time blue started to attack our lines

Their attack surprised us for a moment and we had to redirect some units,causing losses we could not effort.

These losses prevented us from doing a succesfull attack and we decided to go into defensive mode.

I also lost the last chopper during that fase of the battle.

Both sides had lost their UAV early due to dangerous tactics

At turn 0803 the game was paused by James and after a short meeting both teams decided they could not reach their objectives.

I want to thank James for organizing this CPX

And the other teammembers for their great jobs.

Specially Goran did very well as a new player.

Henk

[James Sterrett]

Reposted from the TacOps list: Bernard Cousins' AAR:

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

Saturday, october the 12th, we had a Tacops CPX organized by James Sterett.

The Scenario involved one blue Bn and one red Bn of about the same size.

It was played on map 577. With most of the time 4 players in the red side.

Reds task was to counterattack blue, starting from the east map edge : to destroy their supply dump (supposed to be in the city near 22/04 - objective Tango) and create a corridor to the sea.

Our force was organized (more or less) with one (small) scouting force, one TF North, one TF South, one arty commander. The north side of the map (from 03 to 07) was allocated to TF north.

I was in command of the TF North : one BP Coy, one tank Coy plus two towed AT guns, one mortar battery and 6 (unmanned ?) recce/arty vehicles.

The orders were to move some km behind the scout screen toward Tango, to halt in view of the objective and support TF South during its attack of the objective.

I plan to move my 6 recce vehicules in front of my own force, and mainly use the west-east (center) road along 04 toward Tango objective until the first contact. Then to move more carrefully using cover until the objective towns.

During the initial movement from the starting location to the main axis of advance of TF north, the battle erupted. In the 5 first minutes, most of our (and their) scouting forces have been destroyed, but we win the air battle : one red helo kept the air.

With the aid of the UAV and helo, we easly could see the enemy coming toward us. The helo taking its (heavy) toll.

This offered a good opportunity to us and i decided to wait for the enemy attack,trying to kill their forces from defensive position.

At 720 a north-south defensive line was set, inside the TF North boundaries - near the 12 gridref line. All units were in defilade mode, the recce vehicles one or two km to the east of the main battle line.

Unloading my BMP in good defensive locations, i discovered that all my infantery troops had disappeared ! No ATGM team, no inf squad, no MG team :-( Just some 4 or 5 scout teams was saved :-(( [i discovered at the end of the game, with the help of the major, that some of these troops were secretly/surprisingly loaded on some of my tanks !]. In consequence TF north has fought without infantery.

Some minutes later the enemy showed up in the north, many blue Bradleys (+/-10) and tanks (+/-10), plus some mortars, being killed for few red loss (+/-4) [red loss mostly due to bad SOP setting]. Red mortars killing some of the remaining blue scout teams.

2 Bradley and 3 M1 were trying to by-pass along the north most edge map. Wanting to keep the defensive line in case of blue following attack, i have called to the rescue the reserve tank Coy, and I have sent one of my own tank platoon in the north. It was enough the destroyed completly all the remaining blue force there.

Then the battle resumed in the far south. Battle which i have heard but seen nothing (blue helo and uav having been destroyed during bold movements), except near the end of the game when several Blue Bradley plattons and a Tank coy has moved west along the west-east valley between 02 and 03.I have extended my defensive line, there, to help my brothers in the south. We managed to kill all the Bradley, but unexpectedly the blue moving Tank Coy managed to kill in less than 3 minutes (all blue vehicles in defilade mode and waiting for the tank Coy) 6 ATGM teams and one tank from TF south plus one BMP platoon and one tank platoon from TF North. 3 blue tanks remaining... bad luck

In this precise case, the lack of TF North's infantery able lucky blue tank Coy to close, discover and kill our ambushed BMP. If TF North's infantery were there (with BMP), it would not happen.

Seeing that, i was sending one of my two remaining tank platoons to the south, and they were in position to interdict any blue move westward, when the game has been stopped.

At this moment i discovered that this tank platoon loaded 2 complete infantery platoons. With the help of the last reserve tank platoon wich was nearer the south edge, the red defensive line holded.

I honestly think that we could move ahead and reach the objective Tango if the game has not be postponed (i estimate that it would required one (game-)hour of cautious moves).

- - -

Our initial scouting force was too small.

Counter-battery was completly inefficient. (Earlier) Arty strikes on attacking blue forces could have helped us more.

We could have done some better use of our mine layering capability as blue movement was often under observation. Overtasking could be the guilty.

Our defensive posture (with the helo help) has achieved complete destruction of attacking blue force.

North then south blue attacks have provoked some disruptions in our lines. At the end, TF North defensive line holded, but the mission was not met. More time was required.

We have re-discovered that helo and uav are very efficient assets, they have made the difference (awareness of blue movements) and one alone helo achieved much destruction (instantaneous helo resuppply from logistics package helped too). Their usage needs to be cautious as told many time by myself and others, during and after the game.

I have re-discovered that lack of infantery at close range against attacking tanks is deadly for the defending side. :-(

- - -

I want to thank James for organizing this CPX, and all my team members for their contribution to a great game.

Bernard Cousin

[James Sterrett]

Reposted from the TacOps list: Gary Rost's AAR:

---------

I was assigned to the Blue Team as the artillery commander. I had 2

batterys of on map 155 batteries, a radar, a UAV, and six FIST teams. I

began by trying to get a FIST into each combat team. I ended up with a FIST

line from N to S but never succeding in catching up with the combat forces.

The FISTs always seemed to be behind.

This caused me problems in directing fire missions onto the enemy. I might

hear fighting but could not always tell which was the enemy and which was

the friendly locations. The internal communications on the team concerning

artillery targets could have been better. The UAV was my best source of

enemy target information.

The UAV intially was assigned the mission of checking the bridges along the

river. The UAV took a southern approach but encountered too many troops so

I could it back and flew it north. The UAV eventually reached the river in

the far north. As it flew south it died, the results of encountering some

ADA.

Without the UAV, and the FISTs being behind, the artillery was blind.

Luckily, the ammo for the batteries was low and I began resupplying the

batteries. We only had one truck to transport the logpaks.

Multiple logpaks stacked in the same location is a waste. In retrospect I

should have pre-positioned logpaks at a location that the artillery would

displace to, and once displacing to that location the battery would find

ammunition waiting. Instead I was hauling the ammo to the battery. Logpak

resupply is very easy but you can only resupply with one logpak per turn per

unit per location, so stacking logpaks is a waste.

James' firefinder radar method was very good. I kept a record on a card of

the time I turned the radar on and when I turned it off. James would send

info on a DCC channel. I fired counter battery missions, came close I am

sure, but without eyes or a TRP the accuracy was low and therefore missed.

On a hasty mission I can see not having TRPs, but in a deliberate mission

TRPs should be provided by the Umpire at random logical locations throughout

the map.

As players entered and exited the game I eventually commanded a cavalry

troop. The troop was assigned a mission to screen the north. As things

progressed it seemed that only the north was advancing. Eventually, about

halfway across the map, I had contact and lost half the troop. I continued

west and got behind some RED forces, but 4 tanks vs 20 is a little lopsided

even for a rear attack. I left my tanks in place 2 minutes too long and

lost almost as many to artillery as I did direct fire.

I was then assigned a tank company (+) in the center of the map. I was to

cover the southern forces advance from any Red troops shifting southward. I

found some ATGMs, and we both died. Tanks without infantry in choke areas

are dead meat. We then told James that the mission could not be fully

acheived.

Mission - the Blue forces were to protect a N to S route along the coast and

prevent Red from cutting that route. Blue was also told to prevent a

possible attack from Red, then if possible, Blue was to exit the SW corner

of the map.

My assessment - A cavalry squadron could handle the screen mission for the

coastal route, that seems a reasonable mission for such a force. An attack

mission into a given area also seems reasonable. However, to combine the

two is not reasonable. This is half of the fun of James' CPX's however. He

forces us to do things beyond what is reasonable and to stretch ourselves.

To be totally fair Blue should have done an assesment and deceided which of

the missions was the most important. The victory conditions could have been

more precise, there was no way Blue could do both, protect the coast and

exit the map. As a result we tried to do both, got attritted, and as a

result, if the battle had not been called, would have failed to acheive

either mission.

Gary Rost

[James Sterrett]

Reposted from the TacOps list: Redwolf's AAR:

--------

Some random aspects here. I think the AAR part is done by the other

mails.

I was actually (network-wise) out of the game for a substancial number

of turns, due to my ISP problems. When I rejoined I had lost a close

grip on the battle, which I didn't regain until very late when I made

the last push in the south. When I rejoined I had troops to play,

which we know doesn't mix with command very well.

I agree that the Helos (and UAVs) somewhat spoiled the game. A

meeting engagement like this requires that you don't have a clue what

the enemy is up to and what he has left. Lower visiblity might also

have helped, the flying recon has to go into HMG reach that way. I

still liked the scenario, though, and I especially liked the fact that

this player group cust through very serious network hickups and played

on, and it worked out.

I still do not really like the way friendly fog of war is implemented

in TacOps right now, ignoring the command structure. I don't want to

repeat my arguments from the last mailing list thread about it (I can

do so in a new thread , but sufficient to say that my helos being

shot down put me into an (IMHO) unrealistically blind position. I

also think it is difficult to observe your own troops because the

flying HQ helo will tip the enemy off.

As for winning or losing this scenario, before my final push in the

south I knew exactly what I was doing and figured I had a 50/50 chance

to break through to the south bridges. It would have even worked if

enemy reserves didn't hit my flank. Question: was the move south of

these reserves a reaction to my breakthrough attempt or was it planned

anyway? In any case, I didn't want to end the battle with both sides

sitting around, so I what-the-hell'ed the situation even though I knew

we would probably be declared loser on losses.

Overall, Blue probably lost from committing its force in a splitted

way, a small free reserve would have made all the difference in the

world in the end. But at each point in time during the game the

decisions to make lead to this, my impression was that the north was

so weakly popolated by Red that we could cross the river in the north

with half-assed forces. We would then make Red move (to prevent us

from winning our objectives) and thereby breaking up their defensive

setup in the south. As always, when looking at it the day after, a

concentrated and echoloned attack at one place would have won anyway,

and at a lower risk. But I play this game to learn stuff like that.

I agree to Gary's points about communication shortcomings in the Blue

team. It's a classic "work harder" situation.

More notes on the scenario: I yelled at congress that I didn't have a

single ATGM. I knew exactly that this would be a meeting engagement

like it was and I wanted to build non-vehicle defensive lines. But

this is not a critique toward the umpire. It is a simulated real-life

fact, you have to live with what you have. As it turned out Red did

us the favour to fight the actual battle in the closest terrain on the

map, negating all the advantage of the ATGM T-80 and high-end infantry

ATGM teams

I like Gorans note on speed: hasty things cost you and it hurts, but

they may be neccessary and if they fail that doesn't mean they were

the wrong decision. I rate the push in the north with too few forces

as an example of this, but then I might be biased.

Lessons learned:

Umpire/scenario: if you do a meeting engagement, you must prevent the

sides from bogging down. Ways to do that:

- they might not know it is a ME (was the case here)

- but then it must be hard to find out. If was too easy here.

Options:

- less flying recon

- and/or lower visibility

- if you want people to assume something you have to be brutally

clear. This has been the case with many CPXes so far - players did

not deploy things in a way which the umpire thought was totally

obviously the best from the briefings. In this case, IRC

communictions inside the teams an the deployment of the AA vehicles

made it obvious the teams didn't get the "enemey has no CAS, too"

message. I think it would have been better to cut into the game and

just tell them and let them re-setup.

Thanks for the game!

[Goran]

Just in case some pictures would aid in the understanding of the AARs above, here's the first of a short series:

This shows the positions of the recon forces at start at 07.00, in the middle of the map. (The plateau at 12/01 is the one TF South would stop and defend in the vicinity of.)

[Goran]

The situation after the majority of recon units have been eliminated, 07.09.

Those are TF South's units advancing along the 01 line. Blue units around 16/02 were believed to be advancing east/northeast.

[ October 15, 2002, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: Goran ]

[Goran]

This was the situation in the center at 07.43:

Note the line of burning wrecks long the northern road at 133052 and the Blue tank platoon that managed to make it through at 116066. Red reserves, a tank company, at 109039.

The TF South tank company has taken up flanking positions against an expected attack in the center in an arc starting at 120027. To the southeast, it is supported by ATGMs and BMPs from TF South. Forces from TF North in position west of it.

AT guns around 107013. TF South weak in the southeast with the barest of screens. At 160019, Blue forces seem to be repositioning for an attempt in the south, together with the forces in the east. When they first hit, the BMPs at 116020 were moved down to 112004, and a tank platoon down to 127017 wheere it died rather quickly.

And finally, the situation post-breakthrough and post-elimination of breakthrough (08.24).

From the south northwards, we see:

The infantry at 105010 is what remains of the great breakthrough in the south. The burning wrecks along the road behind them bear testimony that the red units gave as good as they got. And they got plenty -- at 111004 (barely visible) are the remains of the BMP platoon. At 113017, and NW of that, are the remains of three tank platoons that desperately raced southwest to stop the breakthrough. The tank at 114020 is the last remaining moving tank of TF South, trying to cut off the Blue tanks in 116027. Fortunately, even if it isn't visible on this picture, there were a platoon or two of armored vehicles due west of the Blue tank platoon.

Just east of the Blue tanks (among the burning wrecks of the rest of the nine tanks that tried to break through) are the remains of TF South's ATGM teams. Probably not a whole lot of remains, though; the tanks went right over them.

In the North, TF North seems to have eliminated all attackers, and to also have a few vehicles left.

[ October 16, 2002, 02:05 AM: Message edited by: Goran ]