El Derjine campaign AAR

[TheVulture]

*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.

Patience, young Padowan learner. We were doing Secret Santa at work, which delayed me for 45 minutes

[TheVulture]

Turns 33-35

Radar Station

First things first: I set up a secure base of fire around my tower, so that the SMAW team have a safe run up to breach the walls.

As they start on their way up the hill, a special forces team charge out of a tower at the other end of the compound.

The immediately come under heavy fire, and one man is killed while the rest quickly duck back into their building. A few moments after that, the SF platoon HQ leads a mass exodus of units from the control building, with all the surviving men from the roof tops.

That doesn't work too well for them either. Nine men are seen and shot. Then the SMAW unit is in place, and does its job with the demo charges. A marine squad flood through the gap, even though we know the enemy that were here have done a runner. The SF team in the other tower make a second sortie, this time heading for the gate. Two of them are killed, and the third gives up and dives into another doorway.

Happy Valley

Nothing much happening here. The wounded snipers are evacuated. Two platoons of the marine company advance on foot. The third company mount up their MTRVs to act as a fast reserve force.

Belatedly it occurs to me that those trucks might have spare javelin missiles in, and a quick check shows that they do. The two empty javelin teams are sent scurrying fowards to restock.

[TheVulture]

Midoum Valley

The mortars find quite a few targets who are trying to gain the town, mostly the MG teams and their HQs. The AT platoon on the other hand appear to be heading over the bridge to the Juno and Sword strongpoints. But by this time my recon platoon have reached the far side of devil ridge and secured the area, so they start harassing the men below them. The MMGs of the radar platoon are also both now providing long range fire

The MMGs aren't a huge threat (although I know they have scored a few kills), but the combination of the recon platoon from the side, the mortars, and the MMGs is pinning men and causing havoc.

The end

And then I'm surprised by another surrender. I never had time to get those javelin teams their new missiles; hope that doesn't come back to haunt me next mission. But for now, it's another US Marine Corps total victory. At the end I have lost 4 men KIA and 7 WIA; 9 men lost from the group attacking the radar post, and the 2 men of the sniper team I threw away. Final score is 3100 vs 500 (they got 400 for "Midoum Exit" which I assume is points for getting units in to Midoum village; 4 rather beaten up units made it amongst the buildings).

Syrian end state:

46 men okay

113 KIA

67 WIA

6 MIA

3 pickups destroyed.

The vast majority of the units are again MG teams and HQs , generally 1 or 2 men alive in each, exhausted after their long run, and with quite a lot of yellow injures. I count around 13 bodies dead in the northern pass where my snipers and LAVs harassed them as they ran. The mortar alley has another 15 dead, mostly from mortars, although a few will probably be from the crossfire.

No evidence of any mines or AT assets in the southern pass - I could in fact have rolled those LAVs right up into Midoum and met the retreatin Syrians head on and killed the lot of them.

One quirky uint survived in Happy Valley:

They seem to have been dumped on to impassable terrain, and were unable to move. And most of them were stuck in positions where they couldn't see a damn thing. So they are the unit in the best shape out of all the Syrian forces.

There was a special forces company HQ lurking in the radar station building still; a squad of 13 marines bludnering in to them would win the fight, but I might have lost a man or two in the process.

After the ominous briefing, this mission turned out to be a bit of a walk in the park, although I dare say it could go badly wrong if you don't keep the northern attack force penned up in Happy Valley; if they overwhelm the defences there and break out, it could get quite ugly until the main company arrive.

So, according to the campaign flow chart, I am on to the last battle...

[Blackcat]

Nice one, Mr. Vulture.

I think this mision could go awfully wrong if you pay too much attention to the briefing (rushing off from the start line and so allowing the AI to cross Happy Valley, as you identified), or one is too careless in tacking the Radar Station. Avoid those two errors, and believing the briefing is the easier one to make, and as you demonstrated, it becomes soemthing of a turkey shoot.

Thanks for another fine installment, and good luck with the last battle.

[TheVulture]

Al Hillah Battle

Dashed green lines indicate (very roughly) where low ridges overlooking the start town are. The spiky lines indicate cliffs. Red dashed lines mark the edges of impassable swampy terrain.

The plan laid out in the briefing is to capture the three strong points on the ridge first (all trench systems, so break out the mortars), then the southern road objective that goes past the bottom of the ridge, and then on to the village. The final objective is the left most objective labelled "Al Hillah exit". The ridge breaks the line of sight along the northwest road around there too.

My forces:

3 infantry platoons (2 at full strength, one that attacked the radar station; it has had some replacements, but still has one squad at 6 men instead of 13).

3 M1 Abrams tanks. One of which is a battalion commander, so I imagine that is a priority target for the enemy.

3 FOs (2 x 2 man, one 5 man with air and artillery observers)

3 javelin teams (resupplied)

1 ATGM humvee

4 MTVR trucks (mobile ammo dumps)

plus the usual plethota of HQ and command units.

The good news from an anti-armour perspective (aside from the tanks) are 14 javelin missiles and 3 launchers available.

The swamps and objectives do rather funnel me up out of the town, along the ridge, and in to the village from the south. So I want to find a different plan

The first question is whether to drop pre-planned barrages on the three trench strongpoints. Are they occupied now, or are they just observation posts (which might be occupied by nearby troops soon). Suspect I'll hold off, since 81mm mortars don't exactly take a long time to call in if I decide I do want to hit the trenches...

[TheVulture]

Turns 1-2

I've decided on my initial deployment, which isn't radically different to the default positions of the troops. The three platoons are in basically the same places (one of the platoons is locked to some extent since 2 squads and an MG are outside the setup zone). I spread the javelins and FOs around to cover all directions and bunch the tanks up together in the town. The only significant change is to stick one infantry squad towards the top of the setup zones in one of the trenches. Since I want to recon out in that direction to start with, I might as well get a head start.

Hitting 'go' however reveals a number of problems. Three artillery strikes kick off immediately. The one on my troops who were stuck outside the setup zone amongst the trees is fairly lethal - one shell lands right in the middle of a squad. By incredible judgement on my part, I had moved the platoon at the southeast end of the setup zone from amongst the trees, a little further north into the buildings. Shells proceed to land right next to the buildings, causing more casualties. And that unit I put up in the trenches along the road? They get airbursts happening just across the road from them, barely a few meters away.

Not a great start. Predictably I try to get my men the hell away from impact zones and into buildings and trenches for more cover. Mostly this works, aside from the squad pinned by a direct hit. But one of the squads running for shelter wanders out in to the open, and discovers the location of a recoilless rifle in one of the trenches.

By the end of turn 2, I have lost 3 men in the SE platoon, and 12 from the platoon directly under the barrage (3 of those killed by the recoilless). The only platoon untouched by the artillery is the one that lost men in the radar station assauly, so now all my platoons are under strength.

Then a pair of BDRM-3 ATGM variants come trundling in to view.

Unfortunately they drive right in to the line of sight of my 3 tanks, and I'm sure you can guess the outcome of 3 stationary M1 Abrams vs 2 moving BDRMs

One of the tanks also lands a shell right on the recoilless rifle, killing the only visible crewman and destroying the actual weapon.

Coming soon: how to clear out recoilless rifles from trenches using mortars...

[TheVulture]

Turns 3-6

More artillery continues to fall as I struggle to get my men to safety. Only when I am taking a picture for the army tourist brochure does it occur to me that they are dropping smoke shells.

Apparently I'm still a little slow after the work party last night. My thought is "that won't have much effect on disrupting my attack".

I set about clearing the next recoilless out of its the trench with mortars. But the smoke interferes with FO's spotting, and the rounds end up long:

I take a few more casualties from the smoke shells - one squad is completely wiped out, and I've lost about 20 men in total. I see one or two Syrian soldiers coming down from the ridge towards the town through the smoke, and a few more loading up in to the trenches nearest the south road. So I plot a fire mission on that trench, and send one of my tanks down to watch any serious action on that flank. This turns out to be a fortunate move, since a BMP-2 suddenly arrives behind the trench

The BMP-2 autocannon causes 4 casualties to infantry in the buildings before the tank rounds the corner and quickly destroys it.

[TheVulture]

Turns 7-8

Things start to go badly wrong. With the arrival of the BMP, and the spotting of a guards mech inf platoon HQ elsewhere, it finally dawns on me that the smoke is there to start a Syrian attack on my position. Over the next two turns more and more units are seen, as the smoke slowly starts to disperse. My men aren't remotely set up to defend this; too many men exposed to BMP fire, not enough AT assets in the right places, tanks not well positioned, two MTVRs visible from the ridge where the Syrians are (they both get destroyed by BMP fire). If I was setting up to repel an attack by a mechanised company, I'd have done it rather differently....

Still, I have to make do with the hole I'm in, and start to reposition. The one thing that worked in my favour was that the wind was at least blowing in a direction to keep the smoke away from the only routes over the swamp in to the village.

The artillery I ordered on the trench turns up just as the trench is fairly well occupied by several units, causing mayhem. The tanks are also covering that area, as 3 more BMPs turn up. One is destroyed and the other two start to maneouver to new positions. Another pair of BMPs is seen further back, and one of those is also destroyed. But the main attack is coming up the middle, where 6 BMPs are seen with a lot of infantry running around.

My defenders bring what AT they can do bear: 2 BMPs are destroyed, and the exposed Syrian infantry take numerous causalties and their advance stalls.

But the BMP overwatch continues to take a toll on my men. I've lost track of just how many I've lost now, but its all getting a bit ugly. It appears that there are two mech inf platoons advancing on my position, with the south west one trying to hold position in the trench to provide a base of fire. That base of fire has been decimated by mortars and tanks, but there are at least 7 BMPs still running.

[BlackMoria]

Looks like you need to have a serious word with the S2 staff.... again.

[TheVulture]

Turns 9-10

My attempts to reorganise my position from 'preparing to move out' to 'receiving an attack from a mechanised company' finally work out. The javelin teams get into position and get off several launches each, while I manage to get my tanks into decent positions to see the oncoming BMPs. The result is that all visible IFVs are soon smoking nicely.

With the BMP threat mostly eliminated, I can move my infantry back in to their 'up' positions to fire on the Syrian infantry, and this, combined with the tank support, very rapidly results in a lot of dead men. My isolated squad out along the road, now safe from airburst bombardment, can stick their heads up and provide a bit of crossfire too. The Syrian attack is soon decimated and the survivors are mostly running for the hills.

The javelin teams take the chance to head to the trucks to restock on missiles, waiting for the reappearance of either the 4 BMPs that have ducked back in to cover on the ridge, or another wave of attackers.

The recoilless that I missed with the mortars earlier pops up to take a shot at one of my tanks through the trees (I'd hoped they'd obscure visibility, but not enough). There is minor damage to optics and MGs, but the tank is still fully functional for all intents and purposes. Time for another round of mortars on that spot, this time without the smoke to mess things up.

I'm a bit happier now; the attack has been beaten back (not a surprise - the odds of them making over the narrow approaches through the swamp were always tiny), and I've not lost any more men in the last few turns, whilst inflicting heavy casualties. Still, I've lost far too many men in this fight already.

[VonWebb]

I am playing this same campaign and basically we are at the same point EXACTLY- though I am playing realtime. I started playing it because in skimming your DAR it looked like a good campaign (i'd played the second mission as an independent download). I didn't want to spoil my experience so I really hadn't delved into your Report untill after i'd finished said mission. We are at the exact same point ,though I've actually returned to a save gave from "Minoun" because i had lost too many men taking that damn radar station and had made another stupid error trusting the pathing of a transport vehicle to the AI (it rolled right into Minoun --- Emergency mortar strike now!!!) and lost two Javelin teams and a Assault Team.. damn. (i still won with a VERY early surrender and total victory).. but last mission as i found out.. here comes the armor!

Anyway very fun to read this DAR when I've just done the Action. very cool to see contrasting approaches. Interestingly enough the 2nd time I tried the Radar station my mortars did NOTHING to those guys!!! I had LOS and was able to do a linear drop on the three rooftops. The AI has gotten much better. at first round they must have descended into the structure.

I have repeatedly loose too many men to that damn tower!

Awesome.

[Blackcat]

Looks like you need to have a serious word with the S2 staff.... again.

Too right, he does. I told TheVulture to sack his S2 after the second mission but did he listen? Did he heck.

[snake_eye]

Too right, he does. I told TheVulture to sack his S2 after the second mission but did he listen? Did he heck.

Thanks Blackcat for your renewed advice. I think, that I am going to make a special scenario for you without any S2 !.

As a matter of fact the first mission and or dream of "Defend Jsir Al Doreaa" will have you with your Commander, just telling you to get the hell out and rejoin a barrack compound in that village to turn it in a COP and that is all. Guess that the next scenario you'll wish to have an S2, doesn't mind if he is out of his shoes. The Intelligence world has always been surprising !

Look at the post and the first shots at CMSF Forum

Cheers

[Blackcat]

Snake Eye,

Be nice now. Not only do I admire your scenarios and campaigns enormously (the El-Dejine is excellent, even if the S2 is an incompetent idiot), but I actually have a copy of "The Defence of Duffer's Drift".

My edition of Duffer's Drift is the one from 1949 with a foreword by Earl Wavell whch concludes with "If after studying this little work, any offcer decides that he has learnt nothing, I can only recommend him to apply for employment in an Administrative branch of the War Office; for he will certainly be a danger to troops in the field". Maybe your S2 needs to follow Wavell's recommendation!

[snake_eye]

Snake Eye,

Be nice now. Not only do I admire your scenarios and campaigns enormously (the El-Dejine is excellent, even if the S2 is an incompetent idiot), but I actually have a copy of "The Defence of Duffer's Drift"......... Maybe your S2 needs to follow Wavell's recommendation!

Hi BLACKCAT, I was just pulling your leg. Thanks for your praise. Needless to say, the fact that you follow so closely, the very well written and illustrated AAR of THE VULTURE, was recognition by itself.

I did not know, before reading “Defend Jsir Al Doreaa” that“Duffer’s Drifts” was so well known.

You are right about the S2 and like earl Wavell said, he should go to administrative work.

Since you know the book, will you be please to play test the 1st dream ? Your insight of the book should be an asset.

Cheers

[Blackcat]

Snake Eye,

I'll happily test the 1st Dream. I'll give it a go this afternoon - my wife is away for the weekend and so I can play too my heart's content.

As for Duffer's Drift, I don't think its a well known work these days, (my father gave me my copy when I was doing my infantry training many years ago) but according to the fontispiece in my copy the book was translated into Urdu for use by the Indian army, into Spanish and was used as a training manual by the Unted States Army. So presumably it was quite influential at one time.

Anyway best go, as I don't want to be accused of side-tracking TheVulture's thread when he comes back on Monday.

[TheVulture]

Snake Eye,

Anyway best go, as I don't want to be accused of side-tracking TheVulture's thread when he comes back on Monday.

I'm here now, fools! Mwahhahahhhahahha!!!! I just don't have a machine that runs CMSF very well at home

The S2 has recently joined one of CMSF's carefully modelled mine-detection squads.

@VonWebb: I think the mortars only killed 2 Syrians for me; they are just too quick to get in to cover. That first tower is always going to cause problems though - it is virtually impossible to spot the squad before an RPG round takes out most of a team. Knowing now how the defence is arranged, you might be able to do it by attacking the first tower while dropping mortars on the main building to keep them inside, so that there is only the one tower. And drop mortars on the first tower in preparation, and start the advance while the last few rounds are falling. You run the risk of losing men to friendly mortar rounds, but if you get 2 squads up there, and they are stationary when the Syrians are running back up to the roof, you'll probably spot them first and wipe them out.

Of course there is always the chance that you hit one guy, and the rest hide on the middle floor permanently, and instead cause casualties when you try and flush them out.

I think you'd have to be pretty lucky not to take significant casualties on the radar post. if you are going to attack it .

[snake_eye]

Hi The Vulture

About Midoum Radar Station

That radar station, which is a strategic objective, is a pain in the A...But since it is offering a perfect overwatch on the valley toward Sidi Brahim and Midoum. It has to be taken at all cost, since you can bear Artillery, Chopters and Aircrafts with the FO, landing with the Plt. (However, you have to let him out of harm way , during the assault) .That does not mean, that you have to get all your grunts shot to piece.

There is or are ways to take that radar station without too much casualties. That you learn after few saving played again differently. But, I recognize, The Vulture doing it straight is not so easy and I did not do better in my testing trials.

Be careful with your home computer The Vulture, with the intense Red attack you just had, it might have its video card hang up. That I am sure will make us have a bad Week End without any AAR news ! We are praying for your computer.

Cheers

[John Kettler]

TheVulture,

Superb stuff, and as you can see from my sig, I'm qualified to comment! You seem to have both a clear concept of what you plan to do but can also describe it to the reader. And do your screenshots and tactical diagrams ever tell a tale!

This is the first campaign AAR I've ever read, and I must say, I find it refreshing to see the commander sweating losses in every fight because they have so much cumulative impact. I don't understand at all why the Syrian T-90s didn't use HE-Frag from their 125mm main guns to pulverize likely U.S. positions, though I did see the NSVT being remote fired in one of the screenshots. It, of course, is much nastier than the coax MG. As for the LAVs, I fear you've confused their armament with that of an AH-64 Apache, for LAVs carry 25 mm Chain Guns, while the Apaches have 30 mm Chain Guns.

LAV-25 Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAV-25

AH-64 Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH-64_Apache

These are nits, but I'm much more interested in the quality of the tactical information you had on what you were doing to the Syrians from turn to turn. Did you have FOW off? If not, how were you able to gain such detailed information on the punishment you were dealing out?

Please continue to post your AARs/DARs, for they're a treat to read. With a sharp tactical mind like yours, it'd be interesting to see how you fared in a competitive environment like CMx1's RoW format.

Regards,

John Kettler

[TheVulture]

TheVulture,

I don't understand at all why the Syrian T-90s didn't use HE-Frag from their 125mm main guns to pulverize likely U.S. positions, though I did see the NSVT being remote fired in one of the screenshots.

The t-90s did get one main gun round off, and it killed 4 men; the squad had already started to leave the other side of the building, or it could have been worse. But generally the tanks lost sight of my men before they could fire, and the AI doesn't do area fire. It will do the tacAI thing of firing at a position where enemy were seen but then lost, but my guess is (from this campaign) that they will only do that if they have fired some aimed shots at a definite enemy first; seeing and losing a target before getting a shot off won't trigger the 'shooting at a contact marker' behaviour. And I'd guess the tanks will only do such area fire with MGs, not the main gun (the remote fired NSVT you mentioned was doing exactly that even after the building was empty).

As for the LAVs, I fear you've confused their armament with that of an AH-64 Apache, for LAVs carry 25 mm Chain Guns, while the Apaches have 30 mm Chain Guns.

I'm sure you're right; I'm a but lazy about looking up exactly what armaments things have sometimes (witness my mixing up AT3 and AT4 for the marine one shot AT weapons earlier). I tend to label all those rapid fire, mid callibre weapons as 30mm (probably because the BMP-2 one is 30mm and was the first one I looked up); while there are no doubt differences between bradley, LAV, warrior and BMP weapons, they are all quite similar in their effects - devastating vs infantry and lightly armoured vehicles, useless against tanks. SO I got lazy about telling the difference

but I'm much more interested in the quality of the tactical information you had on what you were doing to the Syrians from turn to turn. Did you have FOW off? If not, how were you able to gain such detailed information on the punishment you were dealing out?

I was playing in elite mode. It's a mixture of counting the screams and red crosses, knowing what enemy unit TO&E is, estimates based on experience (a full marine squad shooting at an occupied house 80m away with no incoming fire is likely to have wiped out anything that didn't make it out of the back door pretty quickly), and guesstimates based on what I see of the enemy afterwards. I get it wrong sometimes; in Sidi Brahim one of the HQ units (southern trenches) that I thought was down to 1 or 2 men was actually at 4 men, and it caused me to lose 2 men when I rather recklessly moved a squad in the open in their LoS. And their are 'gamey' clues that I don't go looking for but use when I notice them; the enemy unit marker is placed on the centre of mass of a unit, not on the centre of mass of the men you have spotted. If you see a lone man with the marker right above him, he is the only man alive. If you see 2 men with the marker behind them, there are another 2 or more men coming along soon.

Glad you're enjoying the read anyway.

[John Kettler]

TheVulture,

Appreciate the clarifications! Evidently I was so tired I missed the main gun's firing from the T-90. Was thinking the lack of such firing might've been tied to a need to preserve structures for the Syrians, but I didn't realize it was an AI issue. I think your lumps would've been much worse from the tanks had you faced a live human on the other end. Had I been running them, there would've been a need afterward for urban/village renewal. The American 1000 pound bombs took care of that matter, though!

As for IFV/ICV light cannon ineffectiveness vs. tanks, I believe you'll find this thread of considerable interest. Bradley cannon vs. MBTs!

http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/2-14635.aspx

This embedded link is simply astounding--T-62 frontal kill!

http://yarchive.net/mil/t62_kill_25mm.html

T-72 flank kill!

http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/2-6630.aspx

Regards,

John Kettler

[Blackcat]

John Kettler,

Wotcha John,

Of course The Vulture would have suffered worse against a human opponent. That is the tragedy of CMSF.

Unfortunately some years ago Battlefront took the decision that TCP/IP WEGO was not sufficiently important to be worth their while. You and I may disagree with that decision. We may both wonder that the decision was one of few occasions, if indeed it was not unique, where the passage of time and the advent of broadband actually resulted in reduced multiplayer functionality.

[TheVulture]

Turns 11-12

With the mechanised infantry attack defeated, my javelin teams (and a SMAW team) pile in to the MTRVs to restock on missiles, while I generally reposition units, particularly my tanks, so that their flanks are less exposed and they are covering the areas I want. The mortars are also called in on that recoilless rifle.

This again take a turn for the worse, as I seem to have played into the hands of the Syrian commander. A t-90 appears on my left flank along the road looking right down the street. All of my tanks have LoS to it; but all also are showing their sides whilst looking in different directions. Its first shot takes out an MTVR whilst a javelin crew was inside grabbing missiles. The only good point is that this is right at the end of the turn, so I at least get a chance to respond quickly. I get my last truck hidden and eveyone out of it very quickly, and try to point my tanks in the right direction.

They respond to my orders with an exercise in futility. The nearest M1, at about 600m range, scores a direct hit on the front of the t-90, which does nothing to slow it down. He doesn't see my tank, but has spotted one further away (900m range) and proceeds to nail it with a side hit.

Red circle is the t-90 position, blue circle is an ATGM just launched by the humvee on the right (and you can see the smoke and flames of the burning truck just behind a building). Notice also lots of men completely exposed crossing the road. The ATGM flies straight and true - until the last 100 meters when it starts to veer wildly and ends up hitting the ground some 100 meters beyond the tank.

The other M1 in the picture gets off a shot, which breaks up on the armoured trees down the middle of the road. Thats 0 for 3 on succesful anti-tank attempts so far. The upside is that the t-90 is nervous with all this attention, and pops smoke and reverses away. But not before the recently restockled javelin team has got out of the truck, found a firing position and got a shot off in an incredibly short time.

Javelin inside the red circle. The tanks breaks LoS before the missile hits; it dives down out of sight, apparently functioning well. The hit is exactly where I'd expect the tank to be if it continued backing up at the same speed. But I have no idea whether it was a kill.

Two more t-90s come in to view in the same area. My closest tank is thankfully hidden behind trees, but able to see out, and spots and fires first. The round smacks in to the ground short at 600m range. My other tanks also gets off a second round at the other t-90, but again is foiled by the trees down the middle of the road. The humvee is hit by MG fire and loses its driver; the commander quickly grabs the wheel and gets the vehcile out of sight of the tanks (although now in sight of the ridge should those BMPs reappear).

I've had some pretty poor luck with the armour war here. 3 complete misses at ranges that ought to be virtually certain hits, one hit with no effect (that's not a massive surprise vs a t-90, on average they will survive one or two frontal hits from an M1), one ATGM miss, and a javelin hit of unknown effect. On the other hand, I think I'm quite lucky to only be down 1 tank and 1 truck on the opening exchange.

[TheVulture]

Turn 13

My Battalion HQ tank - that's the one nearest the t-90s continues to be at the sharp end of events. Through the smoke, the commander spies the turret of one of the enemy tanks:

Finally the vaunted targetting of the M1 lives up to its reputation, and the direct hit passing straight through the turret of the t-90 triggers a catastrophic explosion. Two down.

The sharp-eyed commander then spots a BMP cresting the ridge several hundred meters behind them, through the trees, and promptly spins the turret around to greet the new target.

There is plenty of other action, but is it mostly Syrian infantry trying to find a way around the swamps and taking heavy casualties from machine gun fire as they do so.

[TheVulture]

Turns 14-15

In the south, three more BMPs come roaring over the ridge and take up firing positions to support a new wave of advancing infantry. Looks like a second push, trying to take advantage of the confusion caused by the t-90 platoon.

Much to my amazement, the BMPs don't get off many shots and I don't lose any men to them (yet).

The battalion HQ tank once again spies only the turret of a t-90 behind the ridge, and once again scores a first shot hit that goes straight through.

Just when I'm thinking that that's the whole t-90 platoon in the bag, the platoon HQ reappears, having apparently survived the javelin hit. The damn thing is built like a tank! The good news is that it is currently hidden behind the ridge - only one of my MG crews can see it, so it isn't about to shoot anyone.