During Action Report - hcrof vs Mike Churchmoor!

[Alan8325]

Sorry guys, just for clarification, the whole team got wounded (red) and the UAZ destroyed. I have only one FO left who is capable of calling in artillery but obviously my officers can call in what is left of my mortar support.

I was in a bit of a hurry last night and didn't read my post as thoroughly as I should!

Oh, well that's even worse! Hopefully you can still make some use of your last tank. Perhaps place it in a keyhole position overlooking one of the objectives or a choke point. And if you still have your troops in an area that resulted in successful ambush of the enemy, watch out for artillery!

[hcrof]

Inexplicably, the enemy BMPs pulled back behind the hill. Back to safety.

As my troops continued to stream down the road they came under even heavier fire. The agile UAZs where not hit but my tank limped along the road, damaged tracks squealing.

Suddenly there was a bang and the vehicle slewed round - they had been hit!

Their immobilisation was the least of their worries.

'Enemy tank at 9 o'clock! 2000 meters!'

[acrashb]

'Enemy tank at 9 o'clock! 2000 meters!'

A cliffhanger in the finest tradition.

[hcrof]

They had found a great spot to break down – almost completely shielded from view by trees. Unfortunately that was the only good thing that could be said about their situation. The gun had taken a bang and appeared to be knocked out of alignment – three shots missed the enemy tank!

The enemy tank as seen by my commander

My tank as seen by the enemy gunner. In fact, he doesn't appear to have spotted it. Both images taken at 20x zoom.

[hcrof]

As the enemy machine backed into the trees, the tank commander switched targets. The Massed BMPs attempting to storm the farm on the hill made easy targets and shot after shot slammed into the ruins, knocking out several vehicles. In the excitement, the commander barely noticed the return fire until a round slammed into the turret armour.

Surrounded by BMPs firing from concealed positions, the tank finally succumbed when a round hit the engine, killing the power to the turret.

Death by a thousand cuts...

A sad sight - death and destruction around the ruins of HILLFARM

From his new HQ at the river crossing the battalion CO wearily gave the order he had been considering for some time.

'Dig in boys, we aren't going to take our objectives today.'

Mikes troops dominate the map though had he attacked BIGFARM, he would have payed dearly for it.

Well that's it I suppose, although the score is a bit lopsided due to my surrender I would put it at about 800-349 to Mike. Still, I enjoyed that game a lot and have learned (and relearned!) a couple of lessons from it.

1)The T-62M is a great anti infantry tank – It might not stand up in a modern armoured battle but it can shrug off RPGs easily and has a pretty respectable firepower. I can see why countries like Russia still use this machine.

2)Putting vehicles in light forest can give very good protection from just about everything. They are concealed by the trees but also the vegetation will 'catch' incoming HEAT rounds.

3)Surprise is not as effective as in the real world. Mike reacted immediately to my attack and was able to quickly move reserves to fill the gap.

4)Aggression early on is key to a meeting engagement, once Mike had captured the important high ground, he was impossible to shift.

5)Saggers are completely useless in any kind of restricted terrain. Due to vegetation and moving vehicles (as well as their guidance system obviously) I must have achieved a hit rate of around 5%. I don't think their '73 success could have happened anywhere other than in a desert!

6)If something can go wrong it will. And then something worse will happen. Always build redundancy into any plan.

7)You can never have enough smoke!

So, could I have done better? Well obviously, but my plan was flawed from the start – I assumed the hill was indefensible and I was proven wrong in quite a bloody fashion. Also, had I decided to include best case/worst case/probable scenario thinking into my planning of the attempt to retake the hill I might have done better. On the other hand, CMSF is not my job. I don't want to get too serious or I just wouldn't enjoy it!

I hope everyone enjoyed that battle as much as I did – it was quite a fight

[jkobmadrid]

you are the winner in my point of view.

thank you for a wonderful story.

[Alex]

It was a very interesting report, I was watched on it all time.

Only own I want to ask hcrof, maybe you can put this scenario into repository, because now not so many good H2H Red VS Red scenarios for CMSF, but this looks good.

[Sivodsi]

Brilliant DAR, loved the use of pictures and dramatic narrative.

Now that its over would love to hear Mike's side of the story!

How about it Mike? A bit of feedback to complete the story?

[Mike Churchmoor]

Very well written DAR! Very entertaining.

I'm on my way to add few screenshots to explain how I saw things and what were my plans. A good fight it was!

[vincere]

Here's a lurker that enjoyed reading your battle. Top quality, thanks for sharing. When's the next?

[afreu]

Great event! Are you going to publish the map? Would like to edit it for a singleplayer scenario. BTW, which mods did you use while playing this game?

[souldierz]

Hcrof and Mike,

Good game, I was also hanging on every move that got posted.Looks like there was a lot more casualties then what I thought.You guys really pounded the hell out each other.All those smoke plumes signal that a fierce battle took place.

Congratulations to Mike, for coming out on top with the victory.

Congratulations to Hcrof also for putting up a good fight and for posting the DAR, made for a good read when checking the forums.Great stuff.

It will be interesting to read Mikes point of view on the battle now.Looking forward to your report Mike, along with some screen shots.Well played:)

[lomir]

Excellent! Congrats to both of you, Mike Churchmoor and hcrof - for the victory and for this action report so enjoyable to read. Thanks!

[Grunt0302]

From a lurker and CM:SF newbie, thoroughly enjoyable! Thank you for taking the time to bring us along.

[Mike Churchmoor]

Ok, here is The Plan:

So my plan was simply poke in the south (left from the bridge) and hit in the north.

My southern forces were ordered to advance to the village and to the center and to take defensice positions there.

My northern forces were ordered to take the hill farm.

After taking the hill farm my plan was to advance from the hill farm while southern troops providing support.

For some reason I was pretty comfident about taking the hill farm but as our forces were mirrored I wasn't expecting much about rest of my plan.

Before the battle I was worried about two things most: hcrof's tanks and arty. I our earlier games he gave me painfull lessons how to use them properly. My biggest fear was 'armor fist' coming from my right flank going for the brigge.

More screenies to follow.

[Mike Churchmoor]

My main attack group to the northern hill was as follows (on the background):

3 x T-62M

2 x mech. platoon (BMP-1)

1 x BMP-1 with 1 x recon squad + HQ squad

1 x BMP-1 with command squad + FO

On the lower right corner is main reserve force with:

2 x T-62M

1 x mech. platoon (BMP-1)

1 x weapons platoon (BMP-1)

Then there is one T-62M on the center right on over watch to the south / on reserve.

In the cross road on the left is company HQ with command squad + BMP-1.

[Mike Churchmoor]

My forces advancing to the center:

Left: 1 x mech. platoon (BMP-1)

Top center: 1 x mech. platoon, 1 x weapons platoon

Defending the bridge:

5 x BMP-1

1 x RPG-team

1 x Company HQ

[Mike Churchmoor]

My forces advancing to the village and beyond (recce):

1 x mech. platoon (BMP-1)

1 x recon squad (BMP-1)

1 x FO (UAZ)

There is also my huge southern reserve:

1 x RPG-team (UAZ)

1 x command squad + company HQ (UAZ)

[Mike Churchmoor]

On the left faced to southern farm:

1 x AT-3B (this one got that first BMP-1 of the battle)

1 x FO

On the center faced to the center and to the northern hill:

2 x AT-3B

1 x antitank HQ

On the lower right corner providing overwatch to the north:

1 x T-62M

[Mike Churchmoor]

Remaining troops not listed above were:

On the center:

1 x AT-4A

1 x FO

On the right:

1 x AT-3B (in the picture)

1 x battalion HQ (BMP-1K)

[Wiggum]

Bit Off-Topic but...

@ Mike Churchmoor

On the pictures it lokks like trees are pictured far away, did you dont have such problems ?

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=90147

Great AAR by the way !

[Mike Churchmoor]

My left hand platoon fires as it leapfrogs its way up the hill while their BMPs provide overwatch. The right hand platoon pause and regroup, ready to advance through the wheat field. Spotting rounds crash down onto the tree line near the enemy, one of them treebursting. This barrage will be devastating...

My infantry will continue with the advance with the BMPs in overwatch. As soon as the mortars start falling they will get more aggressive!

North hill

This is how things looked from my perspective when hcrof made his first counter attack to the north hill. At this point I have brought my main reserve force to the hill.

Like I emailed to hcrof, if he would brought his all armor including BMPs to this first attack it would have been a close one. It was pretty easy to defend from the attack. My BMPs and tanks had pretty good narrow LOFs from the trees.

South

Doing what I planned in the south. Advancing to defensive positions in the village and in the center. Doing recon on the southern hill with my south reserve. That wasn't planned but I really wanted to look what was on the other side of the hill.

At this stage I didn't know where hcrof's tanks were which worried me a lot.

[Mike Churchmoor]

The other spotters on the south hill couldn't see anything, they could just hear gunfire and a few grenades followed by silence. A few seconds pass and suddenly there is a huge explosion where the FO used to be. What happened!?

My Radio operator in the south died but just as the enemy overran his position there was a large explosion. I don't know what caused it but his men are probably all dead or wounded by now!

The artillery is about to start and my guys are getting ready to go. Mike has sent me an email and I suspect he knows what will happen. It doesn't really matter now to be honest, nothing short of a full tank company will stop me now!

North

Yep, at this stage it was obvious that this is it. A decicive battle. The picure is taken just before hcrof's first T-62 will come from the right.

My infantry is inside carriers waiting for arty to start falling and I have pulled most of my troops back to avoid lucky hits. I have also brought more troops from the bridge to join the fight (2 x BMP-1, 1 x RPG, 1 x MG, 1 x HQ).

South

In the south I moved my troops from the village to take the southern hill. This was done because I wanted hcrof to believe that I'm attacking in the south, to drive his troops of the hill but mostly because of this:

To be able to drive two of my BMPs to the southern hill to get flank shots to his armor attacking on the northern hill.

[Mike Churchmoor]

Mike has just declared all in! The cards are on the table now and suddenly I am outflanked and outnumbered in tanks now!

Center and north hill

At this stage I was still quite confident. I knew where hcrof is going to attack and it was just matter of moving my troops to meet his.

On the left my lonely platoon advances to make contact and to be later ambushed by the enemy. It lost both of its rifle squads and retreated back.

On the far right I put together this:

My reserve force which later attacked hcrof's flank.

[Mike Churchmoor]

On the north hill it was quite close one. Hcrof's two T-62s almost got through before I was able to knock them out with my reserve. After that it was basicly game over IMO. I had two T-62s remaining and I hold the northern hill which dominated the map. I wasn't sure if hcrof is going to attack from the south so I pulled back there to be better protected by my ATGMs.

So there. Short AAR which hopefully explained some of my moves.

Great battle which I enjoyed very much. Thanks to hcrof from this DAR and being a classy opponent.