Battalion Defense Tutorial Part Two posted...

[ScoutPL]

Go to www.geocities.com/fpd131.

Enjoy! Any and all comments are welcomed.

[Murph]

ScoutPL:

Definitely looking forward to reading it!

...but the url is not working. I'm getting one of those "your page was not found" Geocity notices.

Murph

[BK6583]

I was looking forward to reading it too but I get the same results as above.

[JoePrivate]

The URL should be http://www.geocities.com/fpd131/

Excellent analysis and presentation. I'm curious about the intel you said a realworld recon would be able to get for the attacker. Wouldn't the defenders also have patrols out to deny that level of information gathering?

[ScoutPL]

The biggest hazards for a reconnaissance of enemy positions will usually be their LP/OP's (listening/observation posts). Fortunately, these posts are manned by regular line troops that are often rotated through every few hours. An alert RT can idenify and sneak past an OP line relatively easily. Mainly because an OP line is meant to give early warning of an attack, not small teams trying to infiltrate behind the line. Troops tend to talk, smoke, eat, sleep etc. All of that will give their position away. OP duty is often looked at as time away from the sergeants which translates to goof off time. Other factors can give them away too. Forgetting to camoflage the fresh dirt from a hasty fighting position or continually following the same path back and forth to the point it becomes worn, are other examples. Once an RT gets behind the outpost line its pretty easy to move around. The enemy is always much more relaxed and takes fewer precautions when he thinks he is safe. A good RT can take advantage of that and accomplish their mission.

Also keep in mind that the RT's were forced to break contact and go to ground after only accomplishing about half their goals. The S2's final analysis is still about 50 % knowledge and 50% guesswork. But its alot more then the commander knew at the beginning.

[This message has been edited by ScoutPL (edited 02-03-2001).]

[Guest claespiper]

First question:

ScoutPL, where would I find an explanation of the different icons you are using to depict infantry, tanks, etc (the boxes with dots on top)

Second question:

"Real world that recon would have been much more successful. RT’s rely on stealth and patience." (taken fron recon page 8)

Did you use half squads as recon elements or sharpshooters? Could the sharpshooter (in CM)more accurately mimic the real world recon elements?

Regards

Claes

[L.Tankersley]

Originally posted by claespiper:

ScoutPL, where would I find an explanation of the different icons you are using to depict infantry, tanks, etc (the boxes with dots on top)

Those are standard US/NATO military symbols. If you get Army FM 101-5-1 (pretty sure it's available in PDF form in Major H's TacOps or on his field manual CD, and possibly elsewhere on the web) you can see them.

[update: this site

http://155.217.58.58/atdls.htm has PDF versions of LOTS of FMs and other documents. Thanks to coralsaw for pointing it out in the main CM thread.]

Or, you could download the COCAT tool written by Pal Woje ("Hawk") from the CMHQ Annex; among many other cool features it illustrates most common unit symbols.

Or, failing that, here's a quick primer:

Unit size (echelon) is depicted with symbols on top of the unit "box":

1 dot: squad

2 dots: section

3 dots: platoon

1 bar: company

2 bars: battalion

3 bars: regiment

1 X: division

...and so on. These echelons can also be used to indicate the size of a unit that would occupy, say, a battle position depicted by an irregular shape.

Unit type is shown by what's inside the box. An oval signifies armor. Crossed diagonal lines is (leg) infantry. Put both of them together, you have mechanized infantry. A triangle pointing up is anti-tank. A dot in the center of the box is artillery (combined with the armor oval, it's self-propelled artillery).

That's just a smattering, but enough to get you started.

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

Leland J. Tankersley

[This message has been edited by L.Tankersley (edited 02-09-2001).]

[coralsaw]

As per LJT's pointer, the Nato manual for military symbols.

http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacops/HQ/files/app-6.zip

Regards

[ScoutPL]

The problem really isnt with unit size, though that does play a little into spotting, but more with CM's spotting rules. If you can spot a unit then chances are good that they will be able to spot you. Another problem is that units cant be made to break contact until they are broken or routed. Which means either you give units commands to move forward a yard per turn until they spot something and hope they dont get spotted in the same 60 seconds (which would take forever and ruin any fun in the game) or admit that stealthy recon just cant be simulated using CM. Not too shabby and admission given the overall quality of the game.

[Guest claespiper]

Originally posted by L.Tankersley:

Or, failing that, here's a quick primer:

Unit size (echelon) is depicted with symbols on top of the unit "box":

1 dot: squad

2 dots: section

3 dots: platoon

1 bar: company

2 bars: battalion

3 bars: regiment

1 X: division

...and so on. These echelons can also be used to indicate the size of a unit that would occupy, say, a battle position depicted by an irregular shape.

Unit type is shown by what's inside the box. An oval signifies armor. Crossed diagonal lines is (leg) infantry. Put both of them together, you have mechanized infantry. A triangle pointing up is anti-tank. A dot in the center of the box is artillery (combined with the armor oval, it's self-propelled artillery).

Thanks, a great summary that helps a lot!