Operation Clean Sweep

[ThePhantom]

New scenario - On CMMODS....

The 1rst Marine division is tasked to begin Operation Clean Sweep. The time has come to eliminate the enemy harassment positions along highway 5m. Intel reports a hidden enemy training facility south of the highway. A disabled M1 marks the ambush location. We also need that vehicle recovered.

This is a sweep operation the 3rd battalion 7th Marine regiment is to push Kilo Company south from the highway to the enemy training center. A blocking force of Lima Company will catch the withdrawing enemy force at Medinna Ridge.

Talk to me - Tell me what you think.

[theFightingSeabee]

Just played it. Got a tactical defeat.

I wasted a lot of units, but what a battle! Lima was able to hold the line, but barely. 2 red soldiers ran into the line, but I shot them down quickly. I barely held on! The hammer part of the anvil was much tougher than I thought. Eventually, I was able to surround the enemy, but it took many lives to do so. I did have troops in the school area, but they were still fighting the tough resistance inside.

A very bloody battle, but very fun. Nice! The map was well made and the AI was great. Good job!

[ThePhantom]

Glad you liked it FightingSeabee. A tactical defeat - Good, that means it's re-playable. Did you play it in real time? Big difference with real time and turn based. Real time is a lot harder.

[theFightingSeabee]

Played it real time. Next time, I'll know a little more what to expect. This was a crazy mission because it just got crazier and crazier as the time went on! I'll be ready next time through. Thanks for the scenario!

[ThePhantom]

The scenario is based on a sweep that took place with the 1rst Marine Division on the road to Baghdad. Marine armor went up the road first and then the infantry had to sweep the Iraqi ambush sites. On one occasion the 7th Marine Regiment stumbled on a well trained insurgent training facility. Needless to say things got a little crazy. Of course I had to add two companies of Syrian mechanized forces to heat things up. A great book to read (One of my favorites!!) is The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1rst Marine Division by retired Marine Generals Bing West and Ray Smith. These jokers went along with the armor in a civilian vehicle - because they thought they would be safer. The most interesting part of the book is the stories of the grunts who did the dirty work, cleaning out the bad guys positions. Several of the locations the Marine companies encountered had unknown enemy strength. Yet, the Marines cleaned out each and every one. Most of the time they were seriously outnumbered and there was no armor available - The armor was already in Baghdad. This was grunt against pajama man and it was crazy and bloody.

[theFightingSeabee]

I'd rather be in a tank.

Sounds like a good book. Must have been one heck of a brawl. I heard some crazy stories about taking Baghdad. One where an rpg bounced off a Marine's kevlar helmet! It only knocked him out but, thankfully, he was fine. Hope to see more scenarios from you.

[Secondbrooks]

Damn what a battle! I was sure Lima was lost and enemy managed to get that break-thru it seemed to want so had. At one point of time my men had only handgrenades they could throw at charging enemies , but in the end they did juuuust fine. Kilo Company went kinda bad. I kinda paniced at certain looking destiny of Lima Company and started to press enemy defences heavily. I'd say it was useless effort in the end, i never got good swing but gained lots of WIA and KIA while trying to get it.

Total victory when enemy (finally) gave up... I was just preparing my heavily supported assault to school.

[ThePhantom]

"Damn what a battle!" Sounds good, Secondbrooks. You played the turn based type I assume. I tried to keep the red side up for the full 1 hour and thirty minutes in turn based. It just seems they fall apart at the end. However, that first hour is a lot of fun. I think with turn based you don't waste anytime. Your men move with coordination and work more efficiently. With real time you waste a lot of time. Minutes click away and your forces miss opportunities. Sure glad you liked it.

[cabal23]

**SPOILERS**

Wow! This was awesome. My blocking force was decimated as they patrolled through the forest. Then that APC found my survivors and gunned the survivors down. Like three guys escaped. Brutal. This should be a training mission for infantry. Wow, so many ways this battle could turn out. I will go back and try again tonight and approach with even more caution. I probably should have actually blocked instead of investigating the magical forest of doom.

[afreu]

#CONTAINS SPOILERS#

Incredibly tense mission. End result: Total Victory with 14 KIA, 41 WIA and 3 armored vehicles lost. Deployed most of my blocking force southwest corner, because I received fire from that area. Managed to hold the line with one platoon and the two 50cals. After ordering the four AAVPs round the forest in the east to the blocking position, they provided additional direct fire support. With that support in place I sent all three squads to the forest. Two to the western most part (at the end of the map). They cleared the enemy out and managed to hold on to that position during the rest of the game. The third squad wasn't so lucky. After receiving a few harmless potshots from inside the forest they went in to investigate and ... only one lonely soldier returned. :[

The two platoons in the northeast, near the highway, moved to the nearest forest and tried to work their way west. BMPs and entrenched enemy troops were dealt with by CAS and mortars. Although I soon noticed that that wasn't enough to convince the enemy party on the small hill to stop fighting. So when the recon element arrived in their LAVs arrived, I moved them and the thrid platoon round the forest to the southeast and advanced along the road west towards the hill and the compound.

Meanwhile in the south another platoon and the mk19s arrived and simulteanously an enemy counterattack through the forest commenced. It was repelled with the help of the AAVPs.

In the middle of the map, on the southeastside, my troops slowly advanced on both sides of the road. They were stopped shortly before the forest ended, in sight of a few houses. Now there were two platoons, and the LAVs area firing towards the west while in the south the blocking position still struggled to repel the enemy counterattack. Tracers everywhere! That was probably one of the most intense moments I ever had in CMSF. The force in the middle finally managed to push forward. Of course while being harrased by enemy troops somewhere in the forest to the south.

After reaching the few houses the mission ended with full victory.

FANTASTIC MISSION!!!

*I've to admit that I cheated by deleting all mines. As long as it's not possible for troops to detect mines, they are just a big fun killer. I hope that gets fixed with the next patch.

[cabal23]

Yeah but would you be detecting mines unless you thought they were there? Not really a fun killer, more like realistic. Marines don't go around searching for mines unless they suspect they are there. I had no idea that the mines would pop up, which I took wounded from, and had to divert my path. I think the intention worked well.

[afreu]

Yes, but from one mine strike you don't know how large the minefield is and where/if there is a way around it. The way it is in CMSF right now, you can't do anything else but keep sending your troops into another direction hoping you are lucky enough to find the right path. That's like Russian roulette. In reality, once you hit a mine, you can try to locate a secure path through or around a minefield.

Not being able to detect mines is clearly a design flaw of CMSF. That's why I don't like to play scenarios with mines included.

[ThePhantom]

Hello Afreu,

Great After Action. I’m glad you enjoyed that one. Did you really bring the Amtracs over to LZ Lima? I never thought of that… Too cool! I have to admit that scenario gets truly intense about 50 minutes into the game. I sort of agree about the mines. If a Marine squad identifies a mine area during an assault they will drop to the ground and start picking through it with a bayonet (I don’t know about today. However, in the early nineties that was standard procedure). I have noticed the slow command allows the unit to advance over the area. I do understand reoccurring mine casualties can be extremely frustrating. So deleting them is understandable. The other side of the coin is mines are real and extremely effective. Any defending force that can call itself a military (of sorts) will use mines. I do wish there were more effective ways of combating mines in CMSF. As it stands right now, you have to go around or move slowly through them. Maybe, once the mine field has been identified that mine hex should be ineffective.

Hello Cabal23,

Yes, Lima must block, did you really try to go into the magical forest of doom? My god that must have been brutal!!! Please try it again – That to me means it’s a great scenario if someone says it is replay able – I’ve accomplished my task, thanks man.

[Secondbrooks]

"Damn what a battle!" Sounds good, Secondbrooks. You played the turn based type I assume. I tried to keep the red side up for the full 1 hour and thirty minutes in turn based. It just seems they fall apart at the end. However, that first hour is a lot of fun. I think with turn based you don't waste anytime. Your men move with coordination and work more efficiently. With real time you waste a lot of time. Minutes click away and your forces miss opportunities. Sure glad you liked it.

First game was real time. I played it again in turn-based today. Cladly (for AI opponent) my computer crashed and i have last save game from time where i had over hour left. most fierzest part of battle still ahead. :mad:

I play this game other way around. In real-time i'm usually like rabbit which has drank too many energy drinks. In Turn-based i take it more relaxed as bad decissions can can back-fire pretty badly. Minute is enough long time to get men killed because bad decissions. Example from this battle was that i lost one third of my Marine platoon when they stubmled into minefield... At start of the turn, when they were to fierzely assault suppressed and decimated enemy squad. I kinda told TacAI that it was a moron and deserved it.

Again i like it, very nice and challening mission. Makes my brain say to me "Think stupid, think!"

[BlackMoria]

Quick and Dirty AAR.

First off, excellent scenario. Very intense combats, and uncertainty about where and when the enemy would attempt to break out. Only criticism is the #$@%^! minefields. Keep them but scale back on the number. They seemed everywhere and about half my casualties were to mines. It was hard trying to push in on the objective when my marines hit minefield after minefield.

I got a Total Victory.

My losses: 44 KIA, 56 WIA, 1 Hummer.

Syrian losses: 258 KIA, 176 WIA, 1 MIA, 15 Armored Vehicles, 1 Other.

Base Plan - started to push in with Kilo Coy and hit minefields as I started to worked west (right flanking) with one Plt. Spotted a few BMP and engaged and destroyed with Arty. Other Plt mounted up and went left (heading south) in the AAVs and made good progress. Used a side road which headed west as a phase line and dismounted the Plt and started to work my way west. Two AAVs went south to join Lima Coy for fire support and two AAVs remained with Kilo Coy.

Lima Coy when it arrived spread out along the south, west and east to establish the anvil. Kilo Coy (the hammer) continued to try to push in to the objective and the northern most plt had to orient west due to mines and try to find a clear way in. Spotted bunkers and dug-in MGs on the high ground called Baldy and first CAS mission was called, along with mortars. Baldy was hit hard and two bunkers destroyed but some MGs were dug in deeper than an tick and continued to fire for most of the battle.

Second plt of Kilo worked its way towards the middle and got contact and got involved with a platoon size enemy force in ditches in the treeline. First plt of Kilo continued to hit mines and opted to move west on the north side of the treeline and head towards the building near the stalled tank. Got engaged by small squad ambush points and slowly worked it way west.

Big surge of enemy cut across the unnamed high ground south of the objective and the western elements of Lima Coy and the two AAVs cut loose on them. The enemy kept surging out of the objective area and Lima keep pounding on them and other enemy coming out of the southernmost forest to escape. Lima ground them relentlessly in the anvil while Kilo struggled to keep pressure up with the hammer. CAS and mortars pounded positions on Baldy, Turkey Knob and the high ground south of the objective. BMPs where hit with Apaches or Mortars when discovered.

I made the assessment that it was too dangerous for Kilo's 2 AAVs to try to push in due to the RPG fire and numerous BMPs so I dispatched them to help reinforce Lima. Soon enough, reinforcements of the other plt of Kilo arrived with Hummer support and proceded to secure the buildings immediately south of the highway and work toward the disabled tank, and to assist the first plt of Kilo who suffered moderate casualties due to enemy fire and mines.

Kilo's second plt had worked it way toward the middle of the map but got held up due to heavy resistance from dug-in infantry on west side of Baldy and from several buildings. The second plt found itself in a intense firefight as a BMP and several BTRs showed in the area. A hasty 'broken arrow' situation developed which had me send all Apaches and mortars to support Kilo's second plt as it was apparent that the poor plt was faced off with about a coy worth of infantry and vehicles. The fire power set the Syrians back and the situation stablized. Meanwhile Kilo's first platoon started to work in towards the south and ran into scattered infantry and three BMPs. An intense fight developed that went on for some time and the plt couldn't make headway. By this time, the plt had nearly 50% casualties, so the Marines hunkered down to await the LAV armed Taskforce that was expected to arrive shortly. Third plt moved to marry up with first plt and assist. Second plt remained engaged with sporatic elements and made little headway towards the objective, which was so close I could taste it.

Lima in the meantime, held the line with the help of the four AAVs and no enemy made it more than dozen feet from the tree line towards the Lima troopers before being cut down by 40mm grenade fire and a steel curtain of 5.56 and 7.62 fire.

Support element joined Lima on the line and then all hell broke loose and a coy strong enemy force rushed out of the forest towards the more thinly held Lima line. One hell of a fireworks display occurred and CAS, AAVs, Mk 19s and a storm of small arms cut into the closing enemy as other enemy forces erupted out of the tree line. The most intense battle yet raged for nearly 5 minutes as more and more forces streamed out of the trees. Lima held firm and the enemy dies within 10 meters of the trees they left. The Syrian version of Pickett's charge was defeated and dead littered the edge of the treeline.

Reinforced with the LAV25s and third plt, the first plt of Kilo resumed the advance and fought their way in from almost due north of the objective. With nearly 20 minutes left in the scenario, the Marines fought across Baldy and took the high ground over the objective. Then they pushed hard in the objective and an intense fight developed as there was still 3 BMPs in the objective area. As the marines took the two northernmost building of the objective, I got the Total Victory screen with 12 minutes on the clock.

Mission accomplished. It was on hell of a fight and there were alot of intense moments with two 'broken arrow' situations where one plt of Kilo got in over their heads and the main enemy push on Lima's line.

Good map and great fun. I look forward to playing it again.

Great job and a big thank you.

[ThePhantom]

Great stuff, BlackMoria. You're right, my next one I will limit the mines. You didn't lose one armored vehicle? I've always lost at least two while testing the scenario. That sir, is impressive. I like the statement, "Syrian version of Pickett's charge." The poor bad guys walk into a serious wall of steel if you setup your defensive line properly. Reports like this make me want to do more scenarios. I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I have to say good job overcoming the obstacles and accomplishing the mission.

[handihoc]

I was anticipating excellence here, based on the quality of your previous scenarios, and boy, I have not been disappointed! This battle is an absolute blast!

I'm about 40 minutes in, so still haven't completed nor (by what I pick up from the posts above) have I reached the high point. But it's getting hairier and hairier!

I love the jungle/forest terrain - it gives a feel of the Pacific, or 'Nam. Quite different to other battles.

Given your briefing proviso on restricting friendly casualties, I've taken it fairly slow so far. Even so, a couple of incautious early advances cost me dear, and sent me back to the beginning. I have no problem with the mines (apart from the fact that my men ran into them!). I cuss like hell when that happens, but it's hardly a surprise to discover that your enemy has anticipated you in the nastiest possible way.

I'm playing WEGO and having great fun going back over most turns to check out the hotspots and action points. Very much looking forward to completing it. Definitely one of the best single scenarious out there.

[ThePhantom]

Hey Handihoc!!! I was waiting for your input. This scenario does indeed bring in the Pacific Theater, WW2. "Old Baldy" - "The Turkey Knob!!!" These were the areas that made up the Meat Grinder on Iwo Jima. How on earth you put two and two together is beyond me....? I made this scenario thinking of how the Japanese would have setup defensive positions (excluding caves and tunnels). I'm glad you like this one. Tell me how you finished it.

[handihoc]

****Slight Spoilers*****

Somewhere deep in the dark, festering recesses of my mind the names 'Old Baldy' and 'The Turkey Knob' were registered, but have been long forgotten, so it wasn't them that made me think of the Pacific. It was simply that, right from the off, I felt the dense jungly terrain, isolated outposts, jungle trails, 'primitive' huts and buildings etc were reminiscent of Pacific island locations. Even more so as I stumbled on trenches and dugouts concealed in the undergrowth, populated by quite deadly and determined enemy fighters who were plainly prepared to die for their cause just as long as they could take as many of my boys as possible with them.

I've finished it now and it really has been a great fight. I scored a Total Victory with 12 dead, 40 wounded and 4 vehicles lost. Had I played it through without pause or reversion to saves, though, I'm in no doubt my losses would have been much higher, and I don't think I'd have won.

Holding the Lima line turned out to be not such a problem. I spread my men along the vicinity of the line and waited. The 'banzai' charge was fun to witness, but something of a turkey shoot. Didn't lose a single guy there, but the enemy paid very heavily indeed.

But the sweep part of the mission was a very different kettle of fish. Some very tough firefights in numerous locations simultaneously, with extremely well set-up ambushes and a very convincing foe. I really had to rethink my tactics quite a lot in order to put massive firepower on single enemy positions. Had quite an interesting time with my artillery, too. Twice it was inaccurate, bombarding empty jungle some distance from its intended target, which played havoc with my plans.

There was no enemy artillery strike, which surprised me, particularly as in the latter stages I took out a spotter who I would have thought had a good line of sight on me throughout the battle.

I'm wondering if there's more than one AI plan, as I'll play it again at some point?

Anyway, anybody reading this, if you fancy a tough infantry-based challenge with a strong jungle-combat feel, this one's highly recommended.

Thanks, Phantom.