HQ units....Military exercises

[_Neptune]

Hello, I have been playing TacOps for some time now, but still somewhat of a beginner. I was wondering about a couple of things: How are the Hq and Command units to be employed in TacOps? I haven't been able to find an in-game purpose for them or any benefits they have over they're "non-hq" counter parts. I often don't know what to do with them.

Also, I have been studying doctrine (mostly US) for about the past six or eight months, focusing on Platoon/Company sized ops. I have been mostly studying FM 7-7J and 71_1, both included in TacOps library.One main problem is that there are so many manuals that it easily becomes overwhelming when trying to decide which ones to focus on. I finally chose the two mentioned above. Although I have gained a sound knowledge of TTP's, SOP's, ect., I lack the knowledge of exactly how these would be employed in an organic situation. There are the doctrinal diagrams and such, but they seem to represent the ideal situation in order to illustrate the tactical maneuver clearly. Also I have been trying to stay away from "pre 9/11" manuals, because the US military seems to be in a major transformation, and I don't know whether they would be relevant or not.

What I have been looking long and hard for, is a detailed AAR of a smaller- sized exercise. A sort of "blow by blow" account of how it played out, including the exact ORBAT, positions of Red and Blue forces, how many of each were destroyed and by what weapons. I can't imagine that all of these are classified, as I have seen these types of things on TV, such as "Dateline", or "60 minutes", with an embedded reporter. Of course they were drastically condensed for air-time. I have a FPS simulator, enhanced for realism, and want to practice small unit tactics in a realistic "scenario" , but fall short because of the lack of examples. For instance, If a Mech Inf Company was tasked to defend an objective, I would like to know:

1. What types of fire/air support would be able to assist a force of this size, for them to realisitcally be put in this position.

2. At what point would they decide to call for support, or retreat, ect.

3. What types of Recce elements would be available, and how far would they placed from the Objective. What would be an appropriate distance for FO's LOS. (like a what the minimum range of field of view around the perimeter would be acceptable. eg; 5km radius)

Those are the three main things that I can't realistically duplicate, and feel that a single analysis of an actual exercise would help me immensly. Sorry for the long post. I posted on this forum because most of the main military forums are usually filled with people who like to talk alot but know nothing. Any help greatly appreciated.

[dhuffjr]

The HQ markers are just that markers. Other than that they can move shoot like any other unit. They do not have a special game function.

There are some units such as engineer, FO, FIST, LRASS to name a few that do have game funtions.

Some CPX designers use HQ markers as part of objectives so it is important to correctly model how a unit would fight and manuevr the HQ units appropriately.

As far as how much fire support/recce assets I would say that depends. Not much of an answer but it is how it is. In Afghanistan you had 12 man SF teams directing dozens aircraft overhead.

The SBCT FM's give a good feel for recce assets at the brigade level and the direction the army is heading. Not sure if there are UA FM's out yet.

As far as putting it all together your on the right track! There is a book used by the Canadian army detailing a clash in Germany for training that could be of use to you in this regard. The name escapes me at the moment. Others that might be useful are Thunder Run, an excellent description of urban combat in Iraq.

Dennis

[tar]

I believe the Candian Army book you are thinking of is "First Clash: Combat Close-Up in World War Three" by Kenneth MacKsey. Seems to be available via used book sellers through Amazon.

I thought about it as a source for TacOps material, but concluded that most of the action was described at a little bit too low a level for the actions, even though the formation covered is brigade sized. Nevertheless, the situation would make for an interesting set of scenarios.