Recommendation/Discussion: Joint Venture

[tyrspawn]

A scenario by "afreu:"

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=491

I don't know if there is already a thread on this scenario.. I searched and couldn't find anything, even though I vaguely remember seeing one, although I might be confusing that with the thread on the Wanat battle. In any case...

I have to recommend it, it is basically a take on the Wanat battle (although I don't think it was intended to recreate it). You have to hold off a fortified compound with a mostly Afghan garrison (british and US advisors) against hordes of veteran Taliban fighters which attack from all sides. You have to call in accurate CAS to win the battle, as your forces are slowly diminished by attrition. After an hour-long epic siege, in which you are almost eradicated, a USMC patrol arrives and you have to relieve the battered force to eventually counter-attack and secure the countryside.

One of the most intense scenarios I have played, a real nail biter, and I highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a quality CMSF experience.

[Homo ferricus]

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The battle is absolutely brutal. On my first try a couple of days ago, I think I ended up with something like 48 KIA and 100+ WIA, enemy had 400+ KIA, 200+ WIA and 9 MIA

I got surprised big-time when hordes of Taliban came out of the forest immediately next to the compound, lots of casualties, RPGs being fired point blank, etc. etc. Needless to say, by the time the Marines got on-map, the majority of my original defenders were dead or dying, and the survivors had virtually zero ammunition, some of my units literally just watched the Taliban roam around the compound because they had no more weapons with which to resist. Defending the compound had worn me out so bad that I commanded the Marines rather badly, causing unnecessary casualties, and running into much more roadblocks to progress than expected. Needless to say, my QRF landed in the clearing with enemy eyes and weapons still trained on it, more casualties ensued. The going was too tough and since I maneuvered my counter-attack forces so poorly, I found myself largely pinned down and unable to breakthrough safely. A thunder run into town with a truck from the Marine convoy to resupply my original forces still in the compound ended with a burning truck in the street. So it ended up that I brought up spotters to the highest floors of buildings I could and started plotting targets to my motley crew of Army A-10s, USMC Cobras, British Harriers, and Dutch F-16s as it got dark and turned to night. I actually hammered ANA hill so hard with CAS that I satisfied victory conditions for retaking it, considering it was one big smoking crater after a Harrier dropped what had to have been a 19,000Ibs JDAM on it. All-in-all, crazy tough scenario, quite stressful. I don't recommend tackling it in one sitting unless you really have your stuff together, in terms of this game.

[Dietrich]

*** FILMED IN SPOILER-VISION! ***

The thing that gets me about MOUT defense against Red infantry that are of higher veterancy than Green is that even with point-blank-range cover arcs on my defending troops, as soon as they open fire on a squad that runs into their field of fire, at least one RPG comes flying out of nowhere and nails them, wounding several and suppressing the rest.

On my third attempt playing this scenario, I spent half an hour just setting up my troops in the compound so that as much as possible they would only come under fire from enemy units which infiltrated the compound. Even so, my compound defenders took heavy casualties and were definitely no longer combat effective by the time the Marines arrived.

I'm tempted to suggest that the scenario designer omit RPGs from the arsenal of the Uncons tasked with attacking the compound. But that would -- in a relative sense -- be cheating.

However, the ubiquity and effectiveness (if only in shredding my infantry's morale) of RPGs presents what I find to be one of Blue's major challenges in MOUT. The equivalent BLUFOR weapon -- the SMAW -- is relatively rare and comes with not that much ammo. Maybe I just need to assign specific Target orders to suspect buildings so that my squads dish out their AT4s and M72s to greater effect; most often, the guys carrying the AT4s/M72s get WIA/KIA before they have a chance to use them.

[noxnoctum]

Tried downloading it but the link appears to be down, could I get someone to email it to me please ? (or give me a link to a download site like yousendit or something similar)

[tyrspawn]

Tried downloading it but the link appears to be down, could I get someone to email it to me please ? (or give me a link to a download site like yousendit or something similar)

http://www.krauselabs.net/dump/JointVenture.zip

RE: Dietrich

Yeah, I have always said that one of the big advantages of REDFOR in general is that light, common and extremely deadly HEAT weapon. At ranges sub 200 meters, it is damn deadly. NATO doesn't really have a good substitute for that (the AT4 sucks and the SMAW is part of a dedicated AT element), although the grenade launchers in the marine platoons are comparably useful.