One Night in Waziristan

[Clavicula_Nox]

This was just uploaded and I am interested in feedback. Everything from the briefing, to the map, to the actual mission. I'm also curious in what results people were able to get. I have not been able to play this without taking at least 2 casualties, and I have taken upwards of 9.

Testing this mission made me see some issues. First, my 203 gunners love shooting grenades at their own feet, or at bad guys who are surrounded by other soldiers. This is really annoying, and I wonder why anyone in their right mind would be running around a small house shooting grenades. Second, the spotting issue comes into play whenever entering and clearing a house, leading to some situations where overzealous soldiers rush straight to the otherside of the building where some bad guys materialize and finish them off.

Anyways, feedback is cool.

[Sivodsi]

Call me lazy, but it would help if you linked to it.

[Clavicula_Nox]

It's at the top of the page.

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=583

[Gpig]

Played it last night . . .

***spoilers***

Total U.S. Victory.

only 2 WIA for the US. 29 KIA for the bad guys (only 11 left standing). All parameters achieved/satisfied.

Fun little battle! Nice immersion, small scale, pretty interesting tactical challenge. Pretty much went exactly as I'd expect a real world situation with the same parameters/forces/situation. (i.e. Rangers kick but!)

I loved being able to use the assault platoon. Being able to break up the squads into assault teams was a real tactics helper. The platoon and squad level tactics I chose seemed to work out well for me. The DEMO charges being a real treat.

Blasting through walls, and then blasting through buildings. The Crack Rangers set the charges relatively quickly, and I could follow on with the rest of the squad to infiltrate the building and neutralize the stunned defenders. Worked like a charm. Like a movie!

(Having night vision devices was certainly a helpful aid for the Rangers.)

Suggestions for improvements:

The enemy compound is cool. Easily defensible, one would think. (Not at night, vs. Crack Rangers). The enemy forces did not put up much of a fight. Perhaps there could be one enemy squad (the leader squad?) equipped with night vision? Or two?

Enemy forces did have some pretty good kit (thermo warheads and what not), but luckily I managed to eradicate the sentries with suppressive area fire before they could be brought to bear. I suppose the game could have turned out differently if I had guessed wrong . . .

The map itself is fairly plain. Nice compound, but very little detail on the map itself. (I understand it's not really the point, but I feel it could help a little to have grass or bushes or flavour objects here and there.)

OVerall, I had a great time playing the short battle. It's almost a byte battle. (In fact, you could upload it to the CMSF Byte Battle page.) It turned out as I exptected it would. There were no surprises other than the sudden ending (when the enemy surrendered).

Actually, I was surprised how my Rangers owned the bad-guys in house to house fighting with grenades and accurate fires. Entering a building at night usually results in me losing lots of dudes. I guess it helps if you make your own entrance.

Thank you very much for the battle!

Gpig

[Clavicula_Nox]

Thanks for the reply. I would REALLY like to give GRYPHON NVGs, but I don't know how to do that. Giving them "Excellent" equipment doesn't seem to do it.

This was kind of a proof of concept. I was thinking of making the map larger, stretching back to the DZ and having the player infiltrate to the compound while avoiding contact with other bad guys. If I do this, the compound will be larger.

Glad you liked it and good suggestions.

[Gpig]

Hey C,

Yes, I suppose there are all kinds of ways to make the scenario MORE difficult. But as it stands right now, it works well as a U.S. ass-kicking battle. Ooo-Rah!

***SPOILERS***

I opened up the battle to see if I could try it as the bad-guys and discovered that most of the red-force are conscript, with a few greens sprinkled in. That removed my enthusiasm for battling as the red-force. Facing crack G.I.'s at night, no thanks.

The fact that the opposition is conscript and green also made me feel like my first run-through as the Rangers was not all that much to hoot about afterall.

Would you consider raising the quality level across the board, for the red-force? Maybe just make the conscripts green, and the green's regular?

I really like your idea of making the map larger. Perhaps adding an enemy patrol to dodge, etc.

Good luck with it,

Gpig

[Clavicula_Nox]

Hey C,

Yes, I suppose there are all kinds of ways to make the scenario MORE difficult. But as it stands right now, it works well as a U.S. ass-kicking battle. Ooo-Rah!

***SPOILERS***

I opened up the battle to see if I could try it as the bad-guys and discovered that most of the red-force are conscript, with a few greens sprinkled in. That removed my enthusiasm for battling as the red-force. Facing crack G.I.'s at night, no thanks.

The fact that the opposition is conscript and green also made me feel like my first run-through as the Rangers was not all that much to hoot about afterall.

Would you consider raising the quality level across the board, for the red-force? Maybe just make the conscripts green, and the green's regular?

I really like your idea of making the map larger. Perhaps adding an enemy patrol to dodge, etc.

Good luck with it,

Gpig

Well, the Blue side doesn't have any AI plans, so they won't actually do anything to you.

For raising their skill level, I'm not so sure. When I first started testing the scenario, I could walk away with only 2 or 3 casualties. But now, I find that I routinely take 6-9. I've even lost an entire squad once due to some ******* firing a grenade at everybody's feet, pinning himself, and being executed by the sole surviving Muj in the building. I might try it, just to see what happens.

The idea for the "larger" map is to have several patrols, or areas occupied by Muj, that the player will have to navigate around. Too bad there are no triggers, otherwise I could have Muj hunt Blue upon detection and chase them around the map.

[SSG Grymm]

I also found the 30 min time limit restricting. I would have tried to move my forces close to the base slowly before breaching a wall. I took almost all my casualties on the movement to the base. Once the wall was breached I had little issues.

Fun scenerio thought.

[Clavicula_Nox]

This is why I like other people playing my scenarios. I have never taken a single casualty outside the walls, and I'm usually done within 10 minutes.

Grymm, where did you position your men and at what point did you lose guys? Thanks for playing and responding, too.

[SSG Grymm]

I started them where they were placed by you, 2 teams in 3 spots. I used bounding overwatch to move 2 breach teams up and then breached in 2 spots. The building that shares a wall with the perimeter wall, next to the target house. And near where the angled hut. Once I breached and had control of the huts, it was smooth. Moved teams to cover and suppress as I assaulted the target building. Very text book, I think. I just would have like my breaches to be a bit more of a shock.

The only squad to take KIA's was the one breaching at the angled hut. My other breach went off without a hitch, a few minor wounds but all members fighting when it ended.

[souldierz]

Finished the mission - One Night in Waziristan

SPOILER

I found the Briefing to very well done.Grade A stuff and clear as a whistle and very professional like.Good job.

Nice quick raid.The Red forces never had a chance.The second they popped up the Rangers knocked em down with precision, plus area fire just decimated them.Had lots of M203s so the rangers were able to constantly shoot them into the buildings where the enemy were.ATs made quick work of the enemy on rooftops.A compound in the middle of nowhere was a bad choice those Muj made lol.They surrendered before I even got most of my forces in the compound.Guess they figure out they had Crack US Rangers outside their door when the fireworks started going off and they decided It would be better to surrender.

The Raid was done by 3rd Platoon(2nd Lieutenant Mack). North West was 3rdPlt HQ(2ndLieutenant Mack) who quick moved behind 2nd squad(Staff Sergeant McIntire) as he shifted East with bounding over watch(assault) to the the North of the compound.As they shifted enemies appeared on some rooftops and were neutralized on the move by 2nd squad(Staff Sergeant McIntire).2nd Squad then split into 3 teams and advanced South to the wall of the Compound and blew 3 holes in the North compound wall behind 2 houses.From there the 3 teams approached each hole and threw grenades into the compound and with the help of 3rdPlt HQ(2ndLieutenant Mack) both houses were simultaneously rushed and the Rangers cleared both houses swiftly putting down any threats.They then continued to lay area fire on roof tops and houses where enemy were discovered.

Simultaneously, 1stsquad(Staff Sergeant Flaim) was located North East of the compound and shifted West using bounding over watch.They also identified enemies on the roof tops a shot them down.Also North East was 4thsqd Ateam MG(Staff Sergeant Mannering) where they remained and laid down area fire on the roof top of the North east house in compound where a sniper was spotted.After 3rdPlt HQ(2ndLieutenant Mack) and 2nd squad(Staff Sergeant McIntire) secured the two houses North West in the compound,1st squad(Staff Sergeant Flaim) then moved South and breached a hole in the North wall behind the North East house in compound.From there they quickly threw grenades an rushed the North East house in the compound quickly putting down any threats and clearing the house.They also continued to area fire on suspected enemies on roof tops and in houses.4thsqd Ateam MG(Staff Sergeant Mannering) then moved to take up positions in the same house so 1st squad(Staff Sergeant Flaim) could pull out and meet up with 3rd squad(Staff Sergeant Springer) and then breach and assault through the East wall of the compound to clear the East houses in the compound.

Also simultaneously,3rd squad(Staff Sergeant Springer) who was located South West, shifted East then North using bounding over watch.They moved to position themselves on the East of the compound.The 4th squad Bteam MG( Specialist Rapier) shifted East to remain at the South of the compound where they could get good LOS with the 2 outpost houses.By time 3rd squad(Staff Sergeant Springer) got east of the compound the other Plts had already breached and cleared their objectives.3rd squad(Staff Sergeant Springer) rallied with 1st squad(Staff Sergeant Flaim) where they both split into assault teams.They breached the East wall by creating 4 holes.As each team was approaching, throwing grenades and clearing out the East houses in the compound, the enemy surrendered with 12 minutes and 25 sec left on the clock.

Ali Hasan Ibn-Mohammad Sharef,codename Gryphon, has been captured alive by 3rd Platoon( 2nd Lieutenant Mack) form A Company/1st Battalion/75th Rangers,along with 11 other men including his veteran bodyguard force.Do to the quick raid, intelligence has been found and gathered before it could be hidden or destroyed.It appears that 2 men managed to slip away out of the compound, but the Rangers found and got what they were looking for.Mission Accomplished.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Thanks for the AAR.

About the surrendering. I can fix that by simply having some Red forces off-map, is that worth it? I have played it this way, and they do fight to the death.

Glad you liked the briefing. It isn't perfect, and I have to get back into the habit of writing a proper OPORD. It's been awhile since I had to actually do one, so I'm still rusty.

To achieve 0 casualties, did you blow open the walls, cancel movement order, and then fire into the buildings? I always take casualties on the actual room clearing. On occasion, someone will get hit while trading shots with bad guys in other buildings.

[souldierz]

Well no matter how much rust you got, the briefing still shined in my eyes as professional.Maybe I'm just to easy going:)

For the wall breach's, what I did was exactly what you described, except I had 1 team from the squads demo the holes in the wall and move to the side.The other teams that had no demo moved up close to the hole in the wall and area fired to get the enemy heads down.Then they were moved closer simultaneously to the holes in the wall to throw grenades and then assault.The enemy AT team on a roof fired a few burst's and just missed the right ear of a couple Rangers moving in.

EDIT-Maybe put more baddies in the inner compound then the outer, so they don't surrender when the baddies are almost wiped out in the outer compound.I could be mistaken, but if there's a certain % of baddies who get killed then the others will surrender.Try to find the balance and make it so the inner compound is the one that triggers the surrender.Someone else might have better details on that, but if you beafed up the inner compound a bit maybe they will stand and fight for a longer period.Just a thought.

On top of that if it's a made up situation, then maybe you could create a map that revolves around the compound.Make roads and bush areas, maybe a stream or small houses near by with hills and so on.Just another thought:).