El Derjine campaign AAR

[TheVulture]

Turn 39-40

There are no startling developments. The enemy defence and counterattack is essentially broken, and there are just isolated small groups of men holding out. I clear out the mosque, finish off the surviving HQ members lurking in the southern trenches, kill a few more in the valley, kill a few more in the trenches east of the village, bag a few more in the houses just to the east of first platoon (and there may be one or two men left there from HQ / MG teams). Some of these involve pretty intense firefights, and I lose 3 men in the process (not best pleased with that), but over 20 enemy are accounted for.

With the enemy armour accounted for, I move one of the spare LAVs forwards to support the squad at the valley entrance in a push to clean out the enemy there so I can free up that squad. The rest of the reserve platoon also start to move forwards with the intention of taking up the advance out of the village.

The only new developments of note are the spotting of a second recoilless on the ridge to the east, and confirmation that more enemy are indeed heading in from the north east, where I moved a squad to secure the flank.

Situation map:

Yellow enemy markers are for areas where there are troops, but no real intact units.

A standard reserve infantry company is:

1 HQ (3 men)

1 command squad (5 men)

2x MMG (3 men)

2x HMG (5 men)

4x rifle platoon (25 men in 3 squads).

Of the company intially defending the village I have now located all but the company HQ. There are perhaps 10 men left in total from this company; about 5 units reduced to 1-2 men each.

The counterattack force (discounting tanks) was the heavy infantry company of the battalion, which is the same but with 2 RPG teams. I think I've accounted for all the MG sections, the RPG teams, and 3 of the platoons, plus the HQ and command squad (again, may be isolated survivors lurking in various positions). It looks to me that the last platoon of this company is the one now charging in from the northeast.

The final company of the battalion is the one that lost all its MGs and half its platoons in the first mission. So my estimate now is that the eastern objectives are held by those two platoons, apparently with some bonus AT assets such as the two recoilless rifles already seen.

There have been a depressing number of friendly causalties so far though.

[TheVulture]

Turn 41

I start to clean up the valley situation. The LAV has arrived in the area, and is dumping its recon team out of harms way just in case. Meanwhile the squad edge forwards again, since most of the enemy causing trouble last time have been removed. I aslo get a sniper on to one of the rocky outcroppings (this is far too short range for sniping, but it is the only convenient unit nearby).

The sniper confirms the presence of a platoon HQ hiding in the valley, and that the nearby trouble makers are no more.

The only other action is continuing to move through the village, while various men fire bursts at the occasional sighting of scattered Syrians in the trenches and trees.

[TheVulture]

Turn 42

With the rooftops now being a safe place to be, with no enemy close enough to cause trouble, the various sniper teams are now deploying in high places. Some of them start to engage with the recoiless rifle teams.

Nice to see they can be effective.

With the enemy platoon making their way in from the northeast via the trenches, I notice that I should be able to gain LoS to their route by moving the men in the field up to the walls at the edge, leaving the comfort of the trenches. And I'd rather not be sitting there like a lemon if Syrians are about to appear at those walls via covered routes and engage at very short range. So I move my men up.

As it happens, this moves them in to grenade range of what defenders are left in the trenches.

The targets are engaged and killed or driven off, but not before I manage to lose three men at various points.

One more of my men is hit by a bullet, making it a bad turn all round. The LAV redeems things by finally clearing out the valley of all opposition.

That's four squads and one HQ totally wiped out. The HQ for the second platoon is spotted in the north-east platoon move, so that's the valley clear. I can get the squad there involved in something useful, although I'll leave the sniper there just to be paranoid.

The north east attack seems to be one platoon (HQ, 2 squads) plus the HQ that never joined the valley attack. The first squad has broken into the fields east of the village, but the other units are pinned down by my northern flank squad.

I decide to call in a mortar strike on that area to save some of my men from getting shot flushing them out. I also recall the harrier, and give it a large area target that covers most of the eastern objectives, well away from the fighting. I figure it will make a few passes and hit whatever targets of opportunity it finds in the trenches around there.

[TheVulture]

Turn 43

The NE squad that made it close to the village advances through the fields.

Unfortunately for them, I now control the houses overlooking these fields, and they join with the remnants of the defenders there in suffering heavy casualties; at least five of the squad are killed.

The lone surviving Syrian inside the village is found in a high noon moment.

The marine wins the draw, and that's the village wiped clean of defenders.

One of the recoilless teams on the ridge is eliminated, and the snipers start to work on the second team.

[TheVulture]

Turn 44

More of the same - occasional units are spotted, usually single men, and dealt with. The second recoilless team suffers a causalty. Spotting rounds fall on the pinned NE counterattack, and fire for effect is called. A company command squad is seen running up the slope towards the recoilless ridge, but some accurate M32 work takes down all but one of the men, and the last one is pinned in fairly open ground.

At the end of the turn, we control the final row of houses, and are starting to move up in to the trenches. There are bodies everywhere - around 150 men have died in this area.

With the mortars about to fall next turn, and all my reserves just about in the village area as well, it is time to get people restocking ammo from vehicles, reorganising and getting some rest for the final push of the mission.

[TheVulture]

Turns 45-46

More gentle progress. The mortars hit the enemy platoon position. Only one or two enemy are seen in the trenches, generally cowering or heading for the hills. An ATGM team is spotted up on the southern most of the far objectives, followed shortly by a second one. I start to move the LAVs into the village for resupply, and move the third platoon up into the field to prepare to advance on the next objective plateau once second platoon have cleared the ditches.

Some nice mortar strikes at the ATGMs are in order I think, while the last recoilless is nearly dealt with, and the harrier checks in to begin his attack.

And then the Syrian's surrender...

[Blackcat]

"And then the Syrian's surrender..."

I thought they might, do you mind telling us the casualty figures?

Thanks again for a great AAR. I am really looking forward to seeing how you do in the next battle of the campaign.

[TheVulture]

Sidi Brahim Village, post-mission

US forces win a total victory, 5000 pts to 287. Our final standings are:

191 men okay

10 KIA

24 WIA

Ouch - not a pretty result; at least not in a campaign where troop conservation is even more important. 1st platoon took a nasty beating, while 2nd platoon suffered a fair number of largely unnecessary casualties.

The Syrian side at the surrender:

81 men okay

140 KIA

109 WIA

14 missing

3 t-90 tanks destroyed.

There was 1 man left of the initial defending company, and 8 of the counterattack company.

The disposition of the remaining men:

There are two untouched infantry platoons (as expected), and an anti-armour platoon which has taken losses (the HQ unit is the command of the anti-armour men).

The two yellow units closest to the village are both down to 1 injured man (both HQ squads of various types). The left-most is 3 men (1 injured) that is all that is left of the north-east counterattack platoon (another HQ). The final yellow infantry squad is 4 men of a command squad running away.

The harrier would be most likely to pick up the enemy platoon at Omaha Blue. The last recoilless has a very low life expectancy, and with the mortars about to be called on the ATGMs, that only really leaves one platoon that is completely out of position that would healthy when I encountered it.

I'm moderately satisified for now, but worry that the losses are going to hurt me in later missions.

[snake_eye]

Hi, The VULTURE,

You fare well in the fight of Sidi Brahim. I felt the worst for your troops, when the Harrier nearly got a blue on blue. That was pretty close !

As for your Total Victory, that is not bad at all.

While play testing it I got a Syrian surrender and a Major victory with 39 KIA, 61WIA and 3 AVL destroyed. Then in the campaign testing at TLR, I got a Tactical Victory with 9 KIA and 14 WIA and 1 AVL destroyed.The Syrian got only 2 tanks out ! You did not loose a single vehicle and bagged the 3 tanks !

All these were done Real Time Elite. So, the last one, comes close to your victory. If it was not the time induced by Wego and that 1 minute during which nothing can be changed, I will play that way. That allows splendid illustration for AAR. You did pretty good Tactic choices, AAR shots and comments. I was really hang up to the next post.

I am waiting for your next fight around Midoum. Thanks again for the difficult job of doing the AAR during lunch time. I hope that some of the Red counter attack have not made you loose your appetite (just kidding)

Cheers

[SSG Grymm]

Great scenerio/campaign, great AAR. I look forward to the next one in the campaign.

[TheVulture]

Mission 3: Midoum Village

With the village of Sidi Brahim secured, what little was left of the enemy battalion has pulled back and we've had time to resupply before the next phase of the mission starts the following morning. The intent this time is to capture an enemy radar station and a number of strong points. My force will be basically the same as last time, with 1 infantry company and a recon platoon, but with more air and artillery support this time. Again, no enemy armour is anticpated, so I'm expecting a company of anti-grav laser tanks with tactical nuke shells.

For the opening phase I just have the LAV recon platoon, plus the sniper platoon (of 6 teams) - plus the usual morass of HQ units. Per the briefing, these guys are meant to occupy the 'China curves' (magenta box on the map). We will apparently get an airborne insertion to attack the radar post and use it as an observation / FO point (bottom right of map) Then the infantry company take over and will capture Midoum (east of China curves) and the various strong points to the north (top right). Very mountainous terrain again, with lots of routes funneled by impassable cliffs.

My immediate plan is to dismount the recon team and move forward in foot via the roadside ditches, while some snipers scout around for nice vantage points. Other snipers sit in overwatch in buildings, although with limited views. The LAVs will sit out of sight, ready to move to where they can be most useful.

The sniper platoon is normally 6 teams (3 squads of 2x3 man teams), but with one of the teams losing 2 men in the last fight, I am down to 5; one of the squads can't be split and is in effect a 4 man team with 2 security men rather than 1.

Turn 1

Various people head out in relative peace. But one of the overwatch snipers in the buildings sees some old friends on the left flank - some of the surviving units of the reserve infantry battalion. We start shooting at them, with the snipers being close enough that the rest of the team join in with rifle and UGL fire. And for some reason, artillery start hitting the ground in the valley between us.

So far 2 rifle squads (from the rear platoons not engaged in last battle), 1 command team (last seen running for the hills) and 4th platoon HQ (last seen cowering in trenches and rather the worse for wear) are seen, and 2 men are killed by the sniper team.

I'll probably rumble a pair of LAVs over there to clean things up from a distance too.

[TheVulture]

Turns 2-8

The dismounted recon platoon make their way cross-country towards the village of China bends. As they get close to the houses, with no enemy contact, I decide it is safe enough to bring up a pair of LAVs for overwatch. But in seems to me that the village is devoid of resistance. The first teams reach the houses:

The fun is happening on the north flank. I do indeed put the LAVs over there amongst the buildings (so they are not too exposed), and between the 3 sniper teams that can see the area and the 2 LAVs, the Syrians lurking amongst the trees take a bit of a mullering.

One sniper also spies an HMG team hiding further east in the forests, and takes out both men that he can see. After a few minutes of shooting fish in a barrel, some movement is observed. First a combatant team is seen leading a charge across happy valley:

The wisdom of their choice of route is questionable, since their path goes within a few feet of some of the craters left by the ongoing Syrian artillery (or, alternatively, it might be friendly artillery plotted by the scenario designer - not sure...). This is the spearhead of a more general movement of the other units seen to also head down (some directly into the artillery) to advance on my flank position.

Units seen so far: 2 infantry platoons, 2 HMGs, some command / HQ level units, and one combatant team. Anyone coming over the ridge to my buildings is going to be in full sight of the LAVs, and the sniper HQ (a whole two men!) is also doing nothing but covering the ridge line to slow any enemy down in case the LAVs are a little slow reacting. By my reckoning 36 enemy from this attacking force are already dead, possibly more if the artillery takes a bit of a toll on them. The size of the attacking force is in the ballpark of 70-80 men from what I've seen so far, so about half of them are already accounted for. I'm not greatly worried; the forces I have there should be more than capable of holding the flank.

Regular readers may have noticed that I am obsessive about keeping men guarding my flanks and having reserves to bolster them when needed. It seems that this is a good idea when snake_eye is designing the scenarios

[TheVulture]

Turns 9-11

The preliminary sparring continues. The enemy, in full view of the LAVs with no real cover to speak of take more casualties; another 15 or so by my estimation. It's not clear, but I think there is a third platoon there as well. The combatant HQ is spotted and IDed as "huge combatant". The first few men charging across happy valley make it up the slope towards my position - the artillery has now stopped - and are welcomed to happy town:

10 minutes in, at 5:30, the airborne force has landed and is ready to move out. There is one full strength marine platoon, with an FO and a javelin team, ready to move on the radar station.

From their vantage point, they also see a pickup heading around the south flank. It might not surprise anyone to learn that I already have one of my HQ LAVs enjoying the view in that direction. Pickup not in range yet, but thaniks to the cliffs there is no way for it up to my rear area without wandering in to the LAV's target zone.

The cliffs extend from the left past the position of the sniper.

Just next to that small mosque, engineers seem to have moved the burning wreck of a t-90 tanks and filled in the huge crater left by a harrier bomb. They even re-tarmaced the road.l Nice work boys.

[Blackcat]

I am really looking forward to tomorrow's installment.

[TheVulture]

Turns 12-13

In the battle of happy valley, enemy units continue to move forward irregularly and to take casualties for their trouble. I've lost track of how many platoons and combatant teams are in the area now, but there must have been of the order of 100 men intially, and probably 60 or more are dead already. I don't fear much from what is left on that flank.

The recon dismounts sweep the village and confirm that it is safe, and then advance on to a variety of vantage points to look out over the main valley from high up. One team spot a few enemy units moving in the north east, and then see more and more of them; at least 4 MG teams, a command team, an FO, a few rifle squads. They appear to be moving back east towards one of the objectives in that area, rather than forwards to attack my flank. Their movement also brings them in to the view of the LAVs at happy valley, and I'm happy for them to suffer some minor losses as they move back to wherever they are going.

The pickup seen in the south is joined by another. Eventually one of my snipers gets in position to see the apparent pickup staging area:

Three vehicles: one 50 cal MG, one 7.62mm MG, one RPG. The LAVs waiting for them, being command variants, don't have the much-loved 30mm cannon, just MGs. It ought to be enough to hose down some pickups, although the RPG one is conceivably a threat. The sniper will focus on that one first I think, to see if the weapon can e de-crewed.

Up at the radar station, one team is sent hunting forwards through the trees. Unfortunately their spotting isn't the best: tracer fire starts coming from one of the towers, but no enemy is seen. And then an RPG round hits the team:

(Trees not displayed for clarity). Three of the five man team are down. It's a fairly safe bet that the other forward tower is occupied, as is the main building. So I'd guess roughly platoon strength defence, mostly on rooftops (very few windows). This is going to be one of those areas where line of sight kills my ability to attack effectively.

So now that a clearer picture of the tactical situation is appearing, here is my estimate of the current order of business:

Red lines show where some of the impassable cliffs are - the ones that are relevant right now. Blue lines show our 'secure' areas. Arrows are apparent enemy movements. I've estimated that the NE enemy is a company - they seem to have a company's support assets, although I haven't seen more than one platoon's worth of infantry yet. But there will be a company spread somewhere around that area.

[TheVulture]

Turns 14-18

Up at happy valley the attack seems to be petering out. The same 3 or so units are spotted repeatedly, but no others, suggesting that all the others are eliminated or nearly so. Another brave soul makes it across the valley, and discovers why a few men on foot charging armoured vehicles and infantry in buildings is a bad idea.

Over the turns I edge one vehicle to a better view over the valley, and then the other forward to the lip of the ridge the enemy are coming up. Probably another 10 or so men are killed in this time; only 2 or 3 are seen skulking in the trees on the far side now. One sniper can hold this flank secure now should the other assets be needed elsewhere.

In the pickup area, the sniper gets off one shot, causing a vehicle to retreat, but then when I give him a cover arc over the staging area, the sniper moves away from it back to the center of his action spot and loses sight of the vehicles. The men attacking the radar post join in with some long range fire (600-900m) which succeeds in knocking out one of the pickups, killing two crew and the third bailing out. With the recon dismounts having their perimeter secure, I bring one of the LAVs with them around to support the pickup reception line, since with there being an RPG pickup I'd rather have a turreted LAV that can kill light the pickups very quickly. Which is pretty much what happens - the RPG vehicle and the LAV trundle in to sight of each other at short range, with predictable results.

At the radar post in the southeast, the trees and ridges are causing trouble. Only a few of men men are above the ridge line, and they are outgunned and evidently not spotting as well at the Syrians in their elevated positions. So I decide to pull back out of sight and let the mortars clear some of the roof tops. Unfortunately the advance team is too exposed, and all five men are lost before I can get them back to safety. A command LAV with suitbale line of sight calls in mortars on the main building and one corner tower. Unfortunately the one that shot at my men is not in line of sight to anyone. I'm relying on a bit of luck here too - we are within 80 meters of the target point, so the potential of a spotting round landing somewhere inappropriate is a danger.

But the first mission (60mm mortars on main building, anti-personnel) is spotted and fired succesfully, and from the number of rounds landing I suspect the roof will be nice an clear. One sniper is on the highest roof, and judging by the tracers, a rifle squad on one of the lower buildings.

My men are behind the ridge on the far side of the complex, furthest away from the entrance. The top right tower is the target of the next mortar mission.

In the north east the stream of HQs, MGs, FOs and a general variety of support units continues.

Their route seems to be up to the slopes above one of the objectives, but they are definitely heading east. They appear to be moving past the first objective, on to the furthest one. Snipers and LAV fire at long range cause a few casualties, but not a huge number. Most enemy make it through untouched. I think I've killed maybe 5 or 6 men.

So with only a small handful of enemy left in the northern attack, one vehicle left in the south (and in LoS to the LAV), and a perimeter set up in the China curves, the recon platoon has been very succesful in securing their objectives and the flanks, and have provided useful intel on the enemy. The air inserted platoon however have just blundered around in the trees and taken casualties. Once the mortars have removed the threat of incoming fire though, they should be good to go (with a little care).

[TheVulture]

Turns 19-20

The low-level skirmishing continues. In happy valley, an LAV hunts towards the slope. One man is surprise at short range; he gets a grenade away before he is shot down, and damages the wheels of the LAV, slowing it somewhat but still mobile. The LAV continues into happ valley, and confirms that it is devoid of life, while the second picks off a few men on the other side of the valley. Probably no more than 2 or 3 men left there now.

In the south, the second pickup is set ablaze as expected. I hunt the LAV around the south to take out the final abandoned vehicle (and last surviving crew man) just to be tidy. Soon all three vehicles are smoking, and all men dead.

At the radar base, the platoon settle down for a few minutes to wait for the mortars. One of the sniper teams has reported that he can see the other occupied tower, so the 60mm mortars are directed towards that target. When the two strikes are done, that will be all platforms facing my direction dealt with (unless I make some of the strikes too light...).

Business as usual continues in the north east too, with the general movement of men through the pass region. I've only definitely seen support units and HQs, not any rifle platoons, so my initial estimate may well be wrong. The platoon attacking the radar station also report some movement from Midoum village north towards the far end of the pass. A recoilless team and an ATGM team are IDed, and a number of unidentified units are seen moving. So that is probably the anti-tank platoon seen in the last mission (and curse that surrender for letting them get away before I could drop HE on their heads).

No screenshots this time, since nothing terribly exciting has happened. On the map posted previously it looks like all red units (aside from the radar station) are now located in the top right quarter of the map, and the western half is completely under my control.

[TheVulture]

Turns 21-23

With the pickup threat in the south removed, two LAVs sweep around the south, while the snipers head east to vantage points to secure approaches to my positions. The recon dismounts start to move across the valley below the China curves. There is a north-south valley, then a north-south ridge which overlooks Midoum village in the next valley along. The recon platoon are going to gently probe that ridge.

In happy valley, the mobility impaired LAV is pulled back to be a small reserve, while the other LAV provides overwatch for the HQ and sniper team to head over to the Syrian area to mop up the stragglers. They find one man amidst the carnage, who has more grenades than he knows what to do with (turns out he doesn't know what to do with any of them...)

It takes about 30 second to get him, and all in all I'm rather lucky not to have lost anyone in the process. Another man is spotted briefly further up the hill by the overwatch, so they'll hunt in his direction next.

In the north east the general eastward flow of MGs and HQs continues, with the occasional shot being taken at them to little effect.

Up at the radar tower the mortars shift fire to hit one of the near corner towers, and then the next. By the end of turn 23 'end of mission' has just been called on the last strike, so it is time for the men to make another probe to see whether the defence has been removed. The platoon have passed the time by watching Midoum village. The AT teams seen heading north were in fact heading for a way up on to that ridge mentioned previously.

The LMGs deploy and harass them at about 800m range. One body can be seen lying in the open once all the enemy have disappeared from view.

So, the enemy AT assets seem to be deploying on the same ridge that my recon dismounts are heading for. The 16 man recon platoon might be enough to cause some havoc there if I keep them close together and find the targets one by one - and as long as there is no screening infantry. Failing that they can at least identify enemy positions for the mortars.

It's mostly a matter of taking the radar station, and being cautious every where else until the main assault force arrives to make a move on Midoum.

[Blackcat]

"It's mostly a matter of taking the radar station,"

That seems to sum up this mission.

Again I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment.

[TheVulture]

Turns 24-27

With the mortars finished at the radar station, I send the reduced squad (minus the 5 men who were killed in the previous failed recon attempt) back up over the edge into the trees, along with an MMG just over the lip to cover the main building. They quickly start taking small arms fire from the same tower, and take two casualties. Just when I'm thinking that at least the mortars seem to have taken out the RPG soldier, a dedicated RPG team pop up on another building and take aim at the MG crew. The first shot is high, although lands not all that far from an LAV in the valley below. The second shot is short. The third shot though is just right:

Notice also that the guy is carrying an RPG-29. Combine that with the black armour, and we are looking at a Syrian special forces unit. That's not good. I decide to pull back the MG team, and instead flood the right side with as many men as I can cram in there. The idea is to get full LoS to outgun the nearest tower whilst obscuring the LoS to the main building as much as possible with the trees.

This works reasonably well; a second squad rolls in to position and gets to work. The unit on the tower is spotted and IDed as a split team from a rifle squad, special forces. Three men seem to have survived the mortars (tough little buggers apparently). Lucky too:

The bullet passes under his arm and he carries on fightinhg. Eventually the 20 v 3 fight takes its toll, and they are suppressed and two killed, while the last crawls down off the roof into the building.

A total of 2 sniper teams, one RPG team and another split squad are seen on the main building roof. I'll have words with the mortar teams about their using water balloons instead of mortar rounds for ammo. The sniper teams are both killed, while the rifle team is sent crawling in to the building. Contact is lost with the RPG team; unclear whether they have gone indoors or just ducked out of sight.

As my third squad comes into play as well, we now have clear fire superiority on this side of the building. Now all we have to do is get in to it. Time to send the SMAW guys in with the demo charges to make a hole in the tower wall.

Up in happy valley, things are equally mixed. The snipers continue to hunt around, but once again the targets they are hunting get the drop on them and establish grenade superiority. Sadly there are two Syrians this time, and better aims, and I lose two men to grenades. To rectify the situation, the LAV thoroughly stomps the area with cannon fire before the rest of the men prepare to go in.

Once again, wanting to tidy things up has cost me unnecessary casualties. It's an unhealthy habit.

Things are quiter elsewhere. The southern LAVs rumble around to the entrance to the southern pass without meeting anyone (as expected). The recon platoon cross the valley and start their climb up the ridge - which is very high. Enemy movements are more sporadic and more unclear. Rifle squads and an MG team are seen moving south to Midoum. The AT platoon HQ, last seen heading south on the ridge, reappears going back the way it just came, heading north. I'd hazard a guess that they are going to set up an infantry position in the town, with AT assets on the ridge to hit me as I approach, and a blocking position in the northern pass. I'd guess there is something covering the Syrian end of the southern pass too, but I have no intention of going down there for now.

[TheVulture]

Situation Review

The green lines are to show where the impassable cliffs are. There are three routes into Midoum: north pass, south pass, and over the ridge. Obviously I am reconnoitering the ridge route at the moment, both for intel and to remove the suspected AT positions. There general flow of enemy units is shown. Bottom right is of course the marines vs Syrian special forces battle for the radar post which is also providing good intel on the movements in the Midoum valley. The next 5-10 minutes will give a clearer picture of whether any units are planning to stay and hold the north pass or occupy the northeastern strong points.

My general preference right now is to come over the ridge with my main force (when it arrives - still 13 minutes before it comes on map, and probably another 10 before getting close to the ridge). But that obviously depends a great deal on what I see the enemy doing in the meantime, and what turns up for them by way of reinforcements. I suspect the main enemy force is something I haven't seen yet, since I've not really seen much of anything. I'm not too fussed about the northern and southern passes. Yeah, they are objectives, but I tend to ignore map objectives to a large extent, going with the JasonC maxim of "kill the enemy wherever they are, and the objectives take care of themselves".

[Blackcat]

Great stuff.

A thought occurs if the RPG team can land around near a LAV in the valley below, could not said LAV put some fire down on the central tower?

With regard to mortars, I have noticed that when trying to clear roofs with them the AI is very quick to duck downstairs. My current theory is that anyhting more than a "Quick" mission is a waste of rounds unless the infantry is moving forward at the same time.

Cross fingers that the SMAW team make the wall in one piece. Once insde the compound you should be at less of a disadvantage.

[TheVulture]

A thought occurs if the RPG team can land around near a LAV in the valley below, could not said LAV put some fire down on the central tower?

With regard to mortars, I have noticed that when trying to clear roofs with them the AI is very quick to duck downstairs. My current theory is that anyhting more than a "Quick" mission is a waste of rounds unless the infantry is moving forward at the same time.

I assumed the AI was doing something like getting indoors once the airbursts started and coming out again when they finished, since if they'd stayed on the roofs they'd all be dead - I saw what similar mortar strikes did to the trenches in the first mission. I kept the missions very short though, worried about that eventuality.

The LAV can't help unfortunately. The round only just missed the lip of the ridge, and curved a fair bit as it fell down the hillside. The LAV doesn't have LoS to the buildings. And anyway, it's guarding the pass entrance now.

Turns 28-30

The clean-up crew at the Happy Valley Massacre continue to pick through the bodies, with the LAV sweeping the area ahead with MG fire.

One more man is found and put out of his misery. The HQ member seen earlier seems to have routed. One more man is glimpsed further ahead, apparently stuck on a cliff. The LAV will move around to deal with him while my men take care of the wounded in the sniper team.

At the radar installation, we now control our side of the area. The SMAW team run forwards to blow a hole in the wall (but not go through), while an infantry fire team take up positions to enter the breech.

Figuring that the special forces soldier will be in the middle floor, I set area targets on that floor. There are no windows, but I'm hoping that bullets penetrating the walls will give some suppression to the man inside. Or maybe I'm just wasting ammo. Anyway, the team go in:

One man down - the special forces guy is a good shot and apparently unfazed by my attempt at suppression. But he is quickly dealt with, and the team head up to his floor while the SMAW team enter the ground floor to deal with the fallen man.

I'm pretty pleased with that result. It means we can have a nice base of fire on the roof (maybe set one up on the other tower on this side too, although I might want to save that demo charge for entering the main building), and have, in effect, a covered route into the compound.

My recon platoon continue their ascent of devil ridge, without encountering any opposition. Their first order of business is to seal off the southen end of the ridge, clear and hold that, and then advance to the north until opposition is met.

In Midoum valley, the fleeing enemy units are seen heading south to Midoum en masse, with 1 command squad, 3 HQs and 3 MGs now seen moving. The rest will be along shortly as their varying states of exhaustion permit. The rest of the AT platoon meanwhile joins its HQ in reversing course and heading north towards the pass. 2 ATGM teams (one confirmed AT-3 Sagger) and a recoilless team (one man of, anyway) are seen moving, which is consistent with what survived the last mission of the AT platoon located there.

In the south I just hold position at my end of the southern pass. I'm not quite daft enough to drive unsupported LAVs through a very narrow pass that is ideal for mines and AT kill zones at the far end...

[Blackcat]

*Enters, looks around. No sign of today's installment. Mutters a gentle curse and exits mumbling*

Come on, TheVulture. I am getting withdrawl symptoms and am getting desperate to know how you got on with the Radar Station.

[TheVulture]

Turns 31-32

My marine company arrive at the start of this turn, although still in a rather battered state after the last mission. The infantry are just west of happy valley, while 2 FOs, 3 javelin teams (2 out of ammo), some HQ units, two humvees (50 cal and ATGM) and 4 MTVR trucks turn up in Sidi Brahim. Unsure how much use I'll get from the trucks; I'm not going to send them anywhere they might get hit by AT weaponry, so until I'm sure that devil ridge is relatively clear, they can't go much further than where the infantry currently are.

In Happy Valley, the last surviving Syrian is hunted down and killed, and the men there get to work evacuating the injured members of the sniper team. That also frees up an LAV to do some work elsewhere.

The radar station unit are doing all the work at the moment. With the corner tower now secure, I get two teams up on to the roof (which makes it quite crowded up there), with the third team of that squad providing lower-floor security. Then I bring up the SMAW team with the remaining demo charge. The plan is to go in to the main building via the section that had a sniper team on the roof that were all killed; with no windows in that block, it is very unlikely that anyone else is in that part of the building, so it is likely to provide the most unopposed entry route. Then it is just a matter of getting as many men as I can find in to the building to simply out-shoot anyone inside it.

The FO with the radar station assault group is meanwhile watching more units appearing and heading south to the town. So I decide to try using some quick reaction 60mm mortars to take advantage of knowing the route followed by the lead units, and set up a little kill zone for the men out for their morning jog.

One mission gets going a little more quickly, and is firing by the end of turn 32, while the other one is just starting spotting. The first volley of fire for effect rounds drops one man from an MG team, and will hopefully slow the other units up enough that the second mission will fall on them too.