A Brit vs Syrian PBEM DAR

[TheVulture]

Since we need something to pass the time while we wait for Steve to share the tiniest morsels of information on CM:N with us, I'm starting a DAR for a PBEM I've been playing recently. The scenario is the British mixed army vs Syrian mixed army meeting engagement from the Brit module.

Obviously, there will be spoilers for that scenario.

I'm playing the Syrians. Since I've never played Syrians vs Bluefor (only red v red in PBEMs before), this will be a new experience for me.

Setup

Map

The map is a village of around 100 buildings of various types. All are single buildings; no complicated multi-building buildings. The ground is pretty flat, but slopes very slightly to a high-point in the middle, lower along all four sides. This has the effect of breaking the LoS along the long straight roads, and makes them possible sources of hull-down cover for AFVs. It is largely a map without obvious significant features, so will be one of those games where tactical significance is acquired depending on how both sides position themselves.

Friendly forces

I have essentially a company of infantry, a platoon of tanks, and some recon assets.

More specifically:

1 Infantry company (HQ, command squad, 2 MMGs, 4 platoons; each platoon is 25 men in 3 squads with one RPG-7V1 per squad).

1 platoon of 3x T72-M1V (2001).

2 small recon platoons (each of 2x4 man squads and 2xBRDM-2)

6 AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers plus their platoon HQ.

The main infantry are the pretty generic Syrian infantry platoons that anyone who has played the game will be familiar with. My tanks are fairly decent; the M1V(2001) variant has fire control computers and ERA. They are not as good as the Challenger 2 tanks my opponent will almost certainly have, but they will take 2 hits to knock out on average in my experience. They are not guaranteed first hit kills at any rate (only 40-50% first hit kills )

The recon platoons aren't terribly useful, being only 8 men. The BRDMs can add some supporting firepower with their 14.7mm HMGs, but are paper-thin. But what I do like is a whole 6 AGS-17s. I hate being on the wrong end of those when playing against Syrians, so having a decent number of them will be nice, as long as I can move them around effectively and find firing lanes, which is possibly a questionable proposition. I might try using the BDRMs as taxis to move them around move quickly, if the vehicles survive more than 20 seconds.

Enemy forces

I'd guess at around a company of dismounted infantry, a platoon of challenger tanks, and some jackal heavy weapons platforms. Since this will mostly be house to house fighting, that should neutralise the effect of the British 51mm mortars (memo to self, stay off the rooftops). Conversely it makes the squad-carried ASMs and LAWs that much more dangerous. The enemy probably have a javelin team or two lurking somewhere, but with the short sight-lines in this map, the squad LAWs will probably be more of a threat to my tanks.

Plan

Since the recon elements aren't terrible powerful in combat, they are going to screen my two flanks, mostly to watch for enemy movement and to slow down any infantry-only probes coming their way. One infantry platoon is going to screen my eastern flank near the objective (which I intend to studiously ignore), and my very loose plan is to attack with the other 3 platoons in a hook around the north end of the objective. The first stage of this is for one infantry platoon to head in that direction and establish positions to support the follow-on platoons. Armour will be held in reserve, as will any BDRMs that don't get spotted and destroyed too soon. My support weapons (AGS-17, MMG) will have a few supporting the flanks, but most moving up (slowly) in support of the main body of troops.

On this map, more than most, plans are going to depend much more on what I see my opponent doing that my initial ideas anyway. To be honest, my basic plan is to locate the enemy and attempt to discern his intentions whilst keeping my disposition flexible.

[roadiemullet]

cool, looking forward to seeing pictures of pixeltoops on both sides getting messed up.....

Ive been meaning to do something similar with one of my mates for AGES but his internets been bummed. ill have to take notes as ill prob be playing as the syrians when the time comes.

btw can u give us some more pics of the battlefield? just so we can see the terrain/tree lines in more detail?

[Taki]

Also looking forward to that. Even if the Plan dont live till the First Enemy Spotting i think good Preperation and overthinking is essential. Made me win lots of Missions till CMBO

But your plan is easy,flexible and every unit has its Part. So its a good one. Good Luck and Have Fun!

[Alek]

I played this scenario against the human - for red side

This is not present balance

1. Reserve red infantry has no T-HEAT rocket, there is no chance to kill any blue tank.

2. The red party has no off-map, and blue has off-map 81-mm mortatrs

3. Three tanks T-72M 2001 cannot kill blue tank (the blue tank can) on front. If blue-side player not the idiot, it plase her tanksbetween houses - to close side from fire.

4. Blue has Javelin, red is not present

5. Red AGS has no advantage - a distance here very small

red can go and shoot a little bit by tank on buildings - there will not arrive yet the blue tank or will not be Javelin launched.

[Alex]

this scenario is sucks, red side have no chance if play vs human.

[souldierz]

Good to see another DAR being posted.They always make for a good read.I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread.Keep us posted and good luck to the both of you

Looks like there will be some tense moments coming out of this one.6 AGS's can definitely pour out carnage on an unsuspecting foe and those T72-M1V are no push over either.They were(if not are)the toughest Syrian tanks I faced yet, and they refuse to go out quietly.I'm curious on the outcome to this mission, should be interesting:)

Good pic,I see your intended plan clearly.

[Frankster65]

Great. Looking forward to reading and looking at the pictures of your DAR.

[TheVulture]

Turn 1 Action

If you are paying attention, you might have noticed that I've got in excess of 150 men crammed in a pretty small setup zone. On one side is open terrain, not the favoured friend of infantry and certainly not the favoured friend of Syrian infantry against western forces. Which means that heading north through the town is the obvious route. Likewise no-one wants to run along that long empty street that leads straight to the enemy deployment area, so I'm getting most of a company running through a pretty narrow area.

Unfortunately, it was obvious to my opponent too, and for some hellish reason he has got artillery (and I haven't). With all my men crammed together, and the men within each squad bunched up more than usual due to terrain and having just started moving, a few direct hits virtually wipe out entire squads at a time.

Just goes to show you the power of making assumptions; I assumed my opponent wouldn't have any artillery since I didn't (and since the setup zones are so cramped and it is obvious where the opposing setup zone is). More fool me. The havoc caused by this is pretty impressive:

Some of those guys are cowering rather than dead, but almost all the cowering ones are injured. One saving grace: at least they weren't air-bursts. Can you do air-bursts on a pre-planned barrage?

By the end of the first minute, I have 26 men down, but the damage is worse than that. Some units are also pretty much useless now; a rifle squad with just 3 injured men (and non-responsive to orders) is a unit that will be good for nothing even if it does survive the rest of the barrage. An AGS-17 squad with 3 men down and only one guy to carry the heavy weapon and ammo (and he is injured too) is also combat ineffective to all intents and purposes. I'd guess that fully 1/3 of my infantry has been taken out of the equation in the first minute of this barrage.

Turn 2 Plan

The recon platoons got off unscathed in their BRDMs, and the eastern screening platoon is also untouched, so my eastern screen will be okay, and I will at least have some eyes in the north to see anything moving in. My 'main force' (as was) is just going to get the hell in to the nearest buildings and pray for now, since their odds of making it out of the impact zone are pretty low if they try to run any great distance.

Now that I've sent the turn off, I wonder why I've left my tanks in the danger area. Sure, they should survive the barrage; it looks too light to be 155mm, so it won't be fatal, but why risk it, and why risk any damage anyway? I've not got off to a good start here.

With the three platoons that were going to form my main body of troops reduced to less than two platoons, I'm going to have to rely on my armour more to do some heavy lifting. I'd better start praying that the enemy don't actually have any tanks after all (or if they do have artillery and tanks, their infantry consist of a few confused men armed with stoats).

[TheVulture]

Turn 2 Action

The artillery continues to fall. I continue to lose men, another 13 down, making 39 in total. My attempts to get the men in to buildings for cover are marginal. Some units make it in, others take casualties on the way and end up cowering in the street. 4th platoon who were heading east to form the screen along with one of the recon platoons get out of the artillery zone, only one man down, and get into their houses.

Turn 3 Plan

This time I decide to reverse my tanks out of the strike area. They are not in great danger, but why risk a lucky hit trashing some optics or ERA blocks. For the infantry, I try again to get the affected units in to cover.

[stoex]

Time for me to pitch in to this DAR...

I am TheVulture's opponent in this battle. Before anyone complains, we have been playing for a while, the battle is nearly finished, and TheVulture gave me permission to chip in with some info from my point of view - we thought it would be interesting to offer a DAR from both perspectives simultaneously. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but I will try not to make reference to his posts in mine, thereby hopefully offering the audience a suspenseful and novel experience.

Here, then, is my initial setup:

Friendly Forces:

I have a company of British infantry on foot, a platoon of Challengers, an FO with a module of 82mm mortars (more on this later), and the following support assets:

A Javelin section (2 squads of 2 teams each and an HQ), mounted on Jackals (which is new to me - these Jackals actually have Javelin missiles on board for reloading)

A section (if that is what it is called) of support Jackals - 3 each with HMGs and 40mm GMGs

A section of TUMs for reloading and transport

Enemy forces:

I expect a company of Syrian Army regulars/veterans, possibly motorized to make up for my transport capabilities (which I am a bit scared of, those BRDM 14.5mm MGs are very lethal to infantry in buildings, and there might be a lot of them), a platoon of modern tanks, plus some kind of support elements.

I also expect mortars since I have some, which brings me to my setup:

I want to get my units out of the way of a possible mortar strike ASAP, so I have them set up on the edges of my setup zone. Everyone will scramble, two platoons going along the village edge to the right, one to the left. Later they will turn back in to the village, heading for the high ground. Javelins will overwatch the open terrain outside the village to deal with flanking vehicles, my tanks will split up along three of the main roads through the village, and the Jackals will be brought up to support the infantry as needed.

Here is an overhead shot at the end of turn 1:

As you can see, most of my units are still scrambling for their positions. I was very surprised when no enemy indirect fires showed up, and from TheVulture's reaction via email I could tell that mine had stung. For the record, I offered that we could restart and I wouldn't use my mortars, but he refused. So we continued...

In the picture you can also see roughly where my platoons are headed, and where I expect his forces to show up eventually. While I am wary of his tanks and RPG's, I figure that my best strategy at this point is to exploit my advantage from the mortars and hurry for the high ground, to get there first and hopefully be ready for the enemy when he shows up.

[stoex]

TheVulture, you most certainly can use airbursts in pre-planned barrages, and I considered doing so, but decided against it for several reasons:

First, my reckoning was that you would have mortars as well, would use them and expect the same from me. Therefore I figured you would keep your infantry away from open ground, in buildings and whatever transports you had available.

Second, I thought that with HE, I would have an off-chance of damaging or destroying the odd vehicle as well. Maybe knock out a BRDM or de-track a tank...

The real saving grace for you was that my barrage settings were 2 guns, medium, medium - as opposed to 3 guns, heavy, maximum.

[hcrof]

Nice looking DAR!

In PBEM play I may not move at all in the first minute if I am expecting artillery or if I am not sure where the enemy might start. I also usually have an agreement with my opponent not to bomb setup zones

Of course, cautious play at the start can loose you the battle (like in my DAR) so its a hard choice!

Overall, one of the reasons why I prefer big maps is that artillery becomes less effective as it is easier (and necessary!) to disperse your forces. I just need to find a way to stop very big maps from crashing the game...

[TheVulture]

Turn 3 Action

30 more seconds of artillery before the barrage is exhausted. I only lose 4 more men, partly because more of them get in to cover, and partly because with so many dead, the target density is now somewhat less than it was. So I lost 43 of 150ish men to the artillery. Bah. I'd much prefer it is the scenario designer just gave me fewer forces and the enemy no artillery.

My 2 MG teams are fine. The AGS-17 grenade launcher teams have 3 teams okay, and 3 badly hurt. They might be able to get into a position, stay there, and get a few shots off, but I'm not going to count on them being effective. My main infantry, 4 platoons of 3 squads each, have lost basically 4 full squads. So by reshuffling numbers, I have two full platoons and one half platoon in effective combat power (although shaky morale and injured but active men might reduce that further).

Turn 4 Plan

Obviously the plan needs a rethink. With one platoon and two recon platoons screening, that leaves little more than one platoon plus the tanks for my main effort. Having most of my force screening is just daft. But there isn't much I can do for now. I need to get my devastated troops into some kind of order and get depleted support units up. First order of business is establishing a secure perimeter and getting tired troops into sensible positions. Buddy aid isn't high on my list of things to do. Offensive moves are a fair way distant in the future. So making more of a plan seems pointless until I see what the enemy are up to while I get organised.

I could in theory make some aggressive moves with the tanks in the hope of wreaking the same kind of havoc, but that would most likely be an exercise in watching tanks burn. I'd rather try and use them carefully at a decisive point than gamble on a lightning raid. Plenty of time to watch them burn later in the fight

[TheVulture]

Turn 4 Action

My men start to recover themselves and regroup in to some kind of fighting order. Just about in time, since the northern recon screen are alert enough to spot a British infantryman as he passes briefly through line of sight.

At about the same time, the eastern recon screen spot what appears to be an enemy GMG WMMIK that turns up at the end of one of the long streets, presumably trying to control the open road. I just happen to have put a tank at the other end of the road, although the rise of the hill across the middle of town is just enough to break line of sight between the vehicles. The forward team that spotted the vehicle have short arcs to spot without giving away their positions, so I have the advantage of intel in both these cases.

Turn 5 Plan

After some deliberation I decide to do a shoot and scoot with the tank. It isn't without risk, but since I won't be leaving the comfort of buildings I have men in already, and am only exposed in a brief dash across the main street (and I really doubt there are any enemy AT assets watching yet), then the main risk is that there is a javelin team lurking near the GMG. I give only 10 seconds pause at the end of the move before reversing back to the start position, trusting in the fire control of the t-72 to get the hit and scarper before any enemy response can be effective.

My depleted infantry continue to reorganise. I can get a mostly intact platoon into a line of houses, with MG and AGS-17 support close behind, to consolidate my position against any hasty enemy probe. And once again, short fire arcs are the order of the day. I want close engagement ranges, since the enemy accuracy and firepower is greater than mine at longer range. Plus ideally the enemy infantry will move mostly southeast from their current position, leaving the recon platoon with 2 HMG-equipped BRDMs potentially positioned to hit them in the flank and spring an ambush of sorts.

[TheVulture]

Turn 5 Action

The veteran tank crew, in their 2001 model tank with modern targetting equipment, roll forward into a nice hull down position to engage the enemy WMMIK at about 200 meters range. So naturally, the first shot misses and hits a building some way behind the target. The enemy vehicle responds with its GMG, which is considerably less accurate than the t-72 main gun, but manages none the less to land every round on target on the tank. Minor damage is sustained to the optics and smoke launchers. The tank crew don't manage to reload fast enough to get a second shot off before the driver hits reverse and gets out of there. At least the coaxial MG got some rounds on target, killing the driver of the WMMIK. Reversing back to its covered position, the tank also takes fire from a second GMG WMMIK looking along the NE-SW diagonal road. Minor track damage results.

As if that wasn't enough poor luck for one turn, one of my squads that I am 100% sure I gave no orders to and should have remained sitting in their house have decided to go for a run. I have no idea where they were trying to get to, but they didn't get there, taking fire in the open street from multiple directions.

Three men make it in to a nearby house alive, but now out of control (well, they already were )

In the north, two more contacts are picked up, making 3 enemy squads located there. Almost certainly that will be a full infantry platoon. One of the squads that shot up my errant infantry was spotted about 100 meters north of the WMMIK I shot at.

Turn 6 Plan

So far absolutely nothing has gone right, unless my opponent happened to have a whole company of infantry hiding in the house that was accidentally hit by the t-72 round. Possibly the enemy are expecting an infantry and light vehicle engagement, since leaving his GMG vehicles on the long roads to try and control them seems a bit risky if you know there are tanks around. Now that I've revealed I have a tank (and he'll probably assume I have a platoon) I expect them to move somewhere more protected pretty quickly, so I'm not planning on sending the tanks out for another pot shot.

With the northern units keeping quiet, and only my units in the east having been seen, hopefully the enemy will assume I am making an eastern move and will bring his northern platoon down in to my ambush zone in an attempt to hit my flank. So those units hold position and adjust their cover arcs, waiting for their chance. If he is hesitant about moving in, I may feint some more in the east to reinforce the impression I am focussed that way. But largely, I am sitting still this turn apart from continuing to shift heavy weapons to bring them up to useful positions to support my forward infantry. My forces are still in a mess. The casualty count is 48-1 against me so far.

[TheVulture]

Turn 6 Action

The ominous quiet resumes. A few of my infantry squads push forwards, and two of them find the view from their new location includes Challenger 2 tanks. Like the GMGs they are positioned to control the long open streets. Like the GMGs, their line of sight doesn't yet extend far enough to prevent me maneouvering my troops in any meaningful way.

Plan Turn 7

The current situation:

Pink lines show the firing lanes of the Challenger 2 tanks. Green lines show the firing lanes of the GMG jackals. I'm going to take a bit of a gamble this turn; all the infantry I have seen is in the north or the center; I think the south-east GMG (on the right of the picture) is just screening and trying to interfere with my movements, rather than supporting an infantry move in that direction. So if there is no infantry with AT weaponry near that jackal, then the flank of the Challenger tank is vulnerable to a keyhole shot between some buildings. So one of my tanks is making a dash to the position (yellow line on the picture) to take the shot (red line) at the side of the tank from under 100m range. The risks are that with the way this is going so far, I'll get hit in the side by the other enemy tank as I cross the road (I think he has marginal hull-down LoS to that bit of road), and that there will be some AT asset watching that area, which seems unlikely given how far out of the way it is for the enemy.

In the north I'm waiting around for a bit to see if his infantry will advance into my zone, or whether they are happy just sitting in their part of the objective and doing nothing. My action directed against the southeast might serve to reinforce the idea I am focussed in that direction and lure him in, but I'm not going to count on it. So some cautious infantry advancing is also underway, while most units hold position in case an opportunity to ambush does present itself.

In case the south-east enemy tank decides to advance rather than hold position, I'm putting my other two tanks out of LoS on the same road opposing it (plus covering the crossing to prevent his vehicles advancing down the road into my position). I'm relying on a 2-1 advantage (and stationary vs moving vehicle spotting) advantage to win the duel if he is daft enough to advance on this road, but I expect his vehicles to hold the streets while his infantry advance now.

[Alek]

Probably

It is better to make

1. To clean Т-72 from front of the tank Challenger

Challengerwill beat out from front T-72

2. If there whant - it is necessary to wait while blue open her infantry - and to beat tanks T-72 blue infantry - in buildings or at open place

3. Place Т-72 together and behind building cover (when they do not shoot blue infantry) - Т-72 more poorly than Challenger and on an open place there is danger Javelin.

4. To place AGS and machineguns (and/or BRDM-2) behind cover of a building for fire to flank along street, instead of from front- blue infantry on short distance kick off AGS and machineguns from a roof or from front position

[Alek]

Some more good things

1. To put small recon groups in БРДМ-2 and to do "open-up" mode. It will VERY WELL increase speed of reaction

2. To make еру "fire corridor" along flank streets from смешания БРДМ-2 + AGS + machineguns. The infantry has only HEAT shells for RPG -7, therefore weak against Chellenzher. To use infantry as supervision, fire in TWIMIK, not at Challengers

3. To wait while blue 'open' the infantry, to reconnoiter it and to kill by tanks T-72, hiding T-72 from Challengers.

There is a small chance - to kill blue infantry on any site and inflitred in a green zone. May be big losses of infantry - will 'shake' the blue player.

4. Tanks T-72 - to break the big buildings in the centre - that was Javelin roftoop positions

[stoex]

It would realy be my turn to put up something in this DAR for the blue side - unfortunately I was dumb enough to fall into the hacker's trap, and his nifty little rootkit buggered my OS so bad I had to do a full reinstall. This means I have no savegames to watch or make screenshots from, and I can't even play CMSF at the moment because I lost my eLicense as well and haven't been issued a new one yet.

Therefore I regret to say that I am effectively out of this DAR except for the odd rim shot...I will have to leave it to TheVulture now to give you guys the lowdown on our battle. Have to say that I am enjoying reading your posts as well, though, TheVulture. Excellent writing!

Here's a little 'bone' for the audience, however: remember how I said in the beginning that my Javelins would be screening the open terrain against tank rushes? Seems there is a tank rush coming soon...stay tuned !

Otherwise it might be interesting to know that at this point, my infantry very much mirrors my opponent's as seen on his last screenshot - I am advancing around the north-west while he is advancing around the south-east. We are practically circling around each other, with no-one daring to go into the middle of the map as yet .

[Blackcat]

"remember how I said in the beginning that my Javelins would be screening the open terrain against tank rushes? Seems there is a tank rush coming soon...stay tuned :)"

You little tease.

[TheVulture]

Turn 7 Action

The tank making the dash for the flank shot sets off. The plan falls apart almost immediately when the target Challenger rolls forwards a few meters, out of sight of the keyhole shot. But as it turns out, the plan was a no-go anyway. At the end of the turn, my tanks is still a few meters short of its intended firing position (yellow circle marks the planned keyhole).

Not making it in one turn gives the enemy all the time he needs to react, even if he hadn't moved. The mad rush also turns up an HMG Jackal lurking in the south east corner.

This one presumably is attempting to guard the flank, but the rise in the ground (and the trees) means that it can't see my nearby troops. If it does decide to come forward to enage, it will run in to a BRDM. They're not great, but I'd back one to win a fight against a Jackal at that range.

The other activity of note is something of a mystery to me. One of my tanks gets spooked by a ghost and fires off some smoke grenades.

As you can see, there is nothing at all in view that might pose a threat to the tank. There is nothing at all in view period. I'm not sure this tank has actually seen a single enemy unit itself in the whole battle, and certainly nothing in the 10 seconds either side of the launch (I've gone over it in some detail). It isn't hit by anything. There is some small arms fire further up the street, and I think the MG of the Challenger 2 is firing along the street at some meny foolishly crossing the road, but as far as I can see no rounds hit my tank. And it really shouldn't be popping smoke and running away from MG fire anyway. I am at a complete loss to explain why this tank decided to panic.

Turn 8 Plan

I grab the idiotic scared tank by the scruff of its neck and put it back up with the other tank where it should be. Still, the smoke might make the enemy think I am trying to mask some movement, rather than the gunner jumping at imaginary shadows.

The expeditionary tank is very likely toast. I really don't like its chances of reversing back to safety, so decide to stay with the momentum and keep it moving forwards. The HMG jackal ran away when it saw a t-72 coming, so I'm going to send it running in to those buildings to try and bag the jackal, as well as there being a faint chance that a move in a possibly surprising direction might skip outside some target arcs and survive to get amongst the buildings.

(Having sent the turn off, it now occurs to me that I should have dumped smoke as well to up the chances).

I'm going to move a 3-man infantry squad up into my northern ambush zone. I think they have a covered route to a further forward house, and if they make it in unseen it is one more direction for fire to come from, possibly at short range and in the middle of advancing enemy.

[TheVulture]

Turn 8 Action

The expeditionary tank doesn't get far. For one thing, I'm fairly careless in plotting its route, and it exposes its rear to a house of known infantry. To no-one's surprise, a volley of ILAW shots come flying out, and two hits disable the tank. And then a javelin team hiding off to its flank hit it in the side with a missile too.

My infantry in that corner of the map were waiting to ambush the British troops once they left their building. The covered arcs were set up some 5-10 meters short of the building. So naturally, when my men saw enemy soliders within the building, outside their cover arc, they fired off an RPG round and followed up with small arms fire.

It's annoying to waste a good ambush position. I'd rather be firing from positions of superior cover, but at least one casualty was caused, and probably more since in my experience RPG rounds on units in buildings are pretty effective. But the downside is that my men have nw given their position away.

And a further annoyance caused by sloppy planning on my part. The advancing squad of men in the northern ambush site give away their position to the enemy:

The blue line shows the door to door line. The pink line shows the limit of where the northern British platoon can see (using their last known positions). Notice how the men stray beyond the pink line. Again, this is sloppiness on my part, since that behaviour is predictable; infantry always travel through a sequence of action point centres, and most specifically, through the centre of the action point outside the door they wish to go in through. Since I'd been hoping to lure the enemy in by showing men in the east, and nothing in the north, this interferes with what I was trying to do (although how much it actually interferes with the course of events remains to be seen). I don't want the enemy to think I am advancing in the north yet, since that will encourage him to sit still and wait for me. So I may have to send that unit on a more easterly move later to reinforce the impression of an eastward orientation of my forces and a supposedly exposed flank.

Turn 9 Plan

I expect the enemy to react to the presence of my squad that hit them with the RPG in no uncertain terms. I settle on the plan of setting them to area fire on the occupied house for 20 seconds, just to get a chance to fire off another RPG round and maybe cause a few more casualties, and then get out of there. By the end of 20 seconds, his guys will have probably got out of the area or at least settled into less exposed positions, so further fire will achieve little.

With these guys bugging out of their position, the 'ambush' zone (which isn't really any more) is now only covered by a depleted HQ unit further back, so I bring some more guns to bear up in the area. With luck, they won't be seen and might spring a surprise as the enemy maneouver against the first squad.

Since the errant squad that wandered off without orders and got shot up is now back under control, they are going to take advantage of the smoke and the fact that the back door has just been secured by RPG fire of last turn to obey the maxim "don't stay in one place when the enemy knows where you are". They move to a better position, aiming for the long tradition of letting the enemy waste ammo and time assaulting an empty house and then hit them from further back.

As always, in the north nothing is happening really. There is some slight movement of guys, and I am trying to get some of the squads that were trashed down to 2-3 injured men a bit further forwards to hopefully create a really confusing situation for the enemy if they advance into the area.

[flamingknives]

Mr. Pickington-Smythe would like to point out that a Land Rover (in game, due to copyright restrictions, a Truck, Utility, Medium, or TUM) with a heavy weapon on top is referred to as a WMIK (Weapons Mount Installation Kit). The Jackal is a completely different vehicle (up-armoured Supacat HMT400), albeit armed in a similar manner.

[Taki]

I had same Problems too in "The Crucibel". T-62M Shot on a WMIK on 400m. First One Misses (as usual) and the Second one was a direct hit. It killed the Guy beside the Drive without doing any more Damage to the Tank. Things you cant explain.

Beside the inferior Tec and Education Standards there are Mayor Glitches for the Syrian Side.

[TheVulture]

Back after a little break...

Turn 9 Action

Dear reader, you will no doubt be surprised to learn that events this turn didn't quite work out as I had planned. The squad doing the 'area fire and withdraw' routine did their part of the job fine. The squads advancing to replace them in the line did okay. The only problem was the GMG jackal watching them. Admittedly it is the jackal that lost its gunner to my tank, so it only has a GPMG for armament now. It fired a fair few rounds, but didn't hit anything. The problem is that my moves were therefore all seen. Good news for the 'making him think I'm attacking in the south' plan, but bad news it terms of trying to keep the precise locations of my troops a secret.

Perhaps in response to the RPG casualties of last round, a second GMG Jackal has turned up in the south right behind the first one. As far as I can tell, it is the one previously seen next to the tank on the long NE-SW diagonal road that has relocated down here.

In the north, I had tried to sneak another small unit ahead of the one that exposed itself needlessly last turn. Using that as a cautionary tale, I had also made sure to pay attention to the action spot positions to predict where the squad would go. So, what did they do?

Yup, rather than approximately following the yellow line as I hoped, they decided to detour out past the edge of the building. They took some fire, but no casualties. After looking at it again, I think I know what the problem is, and it boils down to the door being right on the edge of a grid square.

Which action point do they go to on their way in to the door. Pink lines show the route I'd thought they'd take. The brown lines show the route they actually decided to follow. Not sure whether they are always going to go through the top right action spot, because the door on the boundary is considered to be in the top spot, or whether if I placed a waypoint in the bottom left point right on the corner of the building then they'd go in as expected - will have to test that at some point.

Anyway, more movement was spotted in the north:

Beyond my recon platoon lurking in ambush, a British infantry platoon has turned up. The other northern platoon hasn't been seen moving for a while, so it looks as though the first platoon has set up a base of fire, and the second one is swinging around it.

Turn 10 Plan

The latest situation map arrives on my desk.

After I uploaded it I spotted that I'd left off the HMG Jackal seen in the south-east corner near the burning tank. I've still only seen two enemy tanks, but since there are four in a platoon I'm open to the possibility of more turning up soon. If you object that I have four infantry platoons rather than the three marked, it's because one of them is so broken down that added to one of the other platoons they just about constitute one platoon of fighting force, and are being used together.

The actual planning for this turn is pretty sparse; there is going to be some shooting at the GMG jackals in the south, since they are very vulnerable so small arms fire. And in the north one of my rather useless HQ units (consisting of all of one man, down from 7) is going to make a rather visible run to join the two units that have already been seen, and generally suggest more of an eastward movement from them. While I don't want to throw these guys away, the fact that they are 1, 3, and 3 man units makes it less catastrophic if they run into a bad situation.

Red circles show where the action has been so far. Blue lines show the moves that I know have been spotted (and no doubt a few others in the central area have been too). The pink arrow shows the kind of movement I am trying to suggest I am making. The green line shows the forward line of my troops in the ambush area. I have the two BRDMs backing them up, and potentially the two tanks can be thrown in to support wiping out the enemy platoons if the opportunity arises, while their own armour is elsewhere. Not that I expect them to stay elsewhere. I'd expect at least one to turn up providing overwatch for his advance in this area.