Various Flavours Of MOUT

[LongLeftFlank]

Given Steve's comments in other threads about MOUT being the best way to give Red a fair chance of winning or at least bloodying Blue's nose, and in anticipation of 1.06 and ELOS, I set down some thoughts on the different types of Syrian urban areas, what conventional combat would probably be like in each area, and a few elements I'd like to see added to the game or the editor in order to create truly interesting (and deadly) cityscapes. Comment and elaborate as you wish...

1. City centres. Dominant terrain: densely concentrated and generally multistory cement buildings laid out in regular blocks (except in "Old Town" areas). Wide, paved main streets with narrow sidestreets and unpaved back alleys. Lots of ground floor shopfronts with pulldown/accordion gates and narrow sidewalks. Lots of parked cars, vans and lorries -- which make lousy cover but obstruct LOS and AFV movement into the narrower streets.

Combat will be focused on the streets and on any rooftops or buildings commanding them in defilade. AFVs will be very constricted and extremely vulnerable to fire, especially from above. It will be hard for an attacker to identify obvious strongpoints or ambush zones.

Suggestions: Thick cement walls are badly needed. The major flavour object missing is parked vehicles (using lots of destroyed uncon taxis is a resource hog). For souks (markets), shopfront awnings would also be nice (slightly tweak the bus shelter and slap it up against a facade). To jazz up the rooftops, I'd like to see small utility sheds and sat dishes per the attached photo (from the Anbar Government Centre, Ramadi, Iraq).

2. Industrial estates. Dominated by large, cinderblock-walled and tin-roofed workshops and warehouses, with large interior spaces and lots of ventilation. Sprinkle in some smaller administrative and utility buildings and maybe some Sov style proletarian housing nearby. Both the shop floors and the freight yards between them are cluttered with machinery, piles of materials, cargo containers, and other hard goods, many of which provide better direct fire cover than do most of the buildings. Decent space for AFVs to move around and stand off, and even hide inside the buildings. Yards may have enclosing walls.

Combat will be mainly hide-and-seek for skirmishers, since it's unlikely Syrians would seek to dig in here in force Stalingrad-style. With few civilians around, the US can use fire support much more freely, and overhead cover is bad or absent.

Suggestions: Open plan warehouse structures are missing. Also, could BFC possibly pop in some generic rectangular and trapezoidal flavour object MDR files of different sizes that we modders can texture mod to create whatever flotsam suits us: cargo containers, outhouses, drill presses, whatever?

3. Poor residential areas. Dominant terrain: densely packed, haphazardly sited and poorly built shacks and shops, of varying ages, mainly single story with limited roof access. Lots of little tin-roof outbuildings, useless as cover but block LOS. Frequent patches of waste ground or ruins filled with trash or jungle thickets. Little to no pavement. Fewer cars and trucks, more motor scooters. Ramadi again here:

Combat in these areas will be fluid and confused. Because the cover is relatively poor, units will need to displace a lot, shooting and scooting. Close support AFVs might have a little more elbow room here than in other urban landscapes (but still need an infantry screen). On the other hand, heavy weapons use could be heavily constrained due to presence of many civilians with nowhere to flee to.

Suggestions: Outbuildings are the main elements missing at present, together with crooked utility poles/wires and stray dogs (the latter two would be a bit of a stretch to model). Otherwise, this environment can be modeled fairly photorealistically in the current game, Oh, and a minaret (read, spy OP) for the neighborhood mosque would be nice too, but that's a separate issue.

4. Wealthier residential areas. Dominant terrain: 2 story row houses with rooftop patios and gardens; perhaps some larger mansions. Fewer outbuildings. All homes surrounded by high walls. Given any notice at all, most residents will have fled with their cars but US fire support will still be constrained. Roads are mainly paved and wider.

Combat here is tricky, deadly and time consuming, since most buildings and walls are sturdy poured cement, and the rooftops offer lots of good sniper positions. The enclosure walls also create a maze that aids infiltration and makes life hazardous for AFVs.

Suggestions: This environment can also be modeled pretty well right now; the forest of rooftop satellite dishes is all that's missing. Would love to put some metal gates in high cement walls (i.e. a "door") as opposed to either having a large gap that a tank can drive through or no opening at all.

5. Agricultural suburbs. Buildings are similar to those in poor residential areas, single story mudbrick houses clustered together with even more ratty outbuildings, barns and sheds. But because the residents mainly garden or farm for a living, there's more space around them: fields, orchards and paddocks, enclosed with low walls or vegetation, or nothing at all. All roads are dirt. A fair amount of trash, farm equipment, etc. In river valleys, drainage and irrigation ditches and dikes can provide crude cover.

Combat: With more open space, there's more room for AFVs. Buildings on the other hand generally provide poor cover unless fortified in some way.

Suggestions: Outbuildings! Again, largely useless as cover, but some LOS effect.