A Brit vs Syrian PBEM DAR

[TheVulture]

Turn 10 Action

The enemy seem to be advancing on all fronts at the same time. In the southeast, a Challenger 2 tank turns up alongside the Jackals, as does a TUM truck, probably ferrying a squad of troops in. There is some sporadic shooting; one of my squads exchanges fire with the gunner-less GMG Jackal, with no causalties to either side. The house that I vacated last turn (having launched an RPG from it) is hit by small arms fire and a small explosion this turn - probably an LASW round. I'd feel better about wasting the enemy's ammunition if there was any chance they'd run low before the end of the fight, but that seems extremely unlikely. One of my AGS-17 squads, reduced to a single man carrying his huge weapon around with him, is advancing in the hope of getting shots off from unexpected angles, but is lucky to make it in to a house alive after taking MG fire from an unspotted unit in the south east corner. From its position, I'd guess that the HMG Jackal has advanced into open terrain to watch the flanks of the southern buildings.

In the center, my squad that went wandering off without orders (and paid the price) have also pulled out of their position that was known to the enemy and retreated to a further back house. Through the smoke that my t-72 mysteriously dropped, they see an infantry unit moving in to one of the central two storey buildings. A sniper unit is also spied on a roof in that area by one of my AGS-17 squads, which wisely holds fire.

In the north, rifle rounds hit the house where my advancing squad was spotted by the enemy, but they remain unhurt. Some forward movement of enemy infantry is spotted as well. My ambush forces remain quietly waiting.

So despite a fair amount of rifle fire this turn, it looks like there are no casualties on either side.

Turn 11 Plan

I decide to risk a BRDM to hunt the HMG Jackal. Thanks to the rise in the ground and the trees in the area, I reckon I can sneak around the south and turn up about 45 degrees off his front, with him dead ahead. That should take care of the Jackal without exposing my BRDM to any enemy positions (yeah right, just wait for a javelin to come sailing in ... although getting him to waste javelins on BRDMs wouldn't be a terrible loss). There is some troop management to avoid getting shot up by tanks, and I'm going to try to get an RPG shot off against the central building the squad are running in to; just give them enough time to get in and setup by the wall for maximum casualties. Everyone else is still hiding to lure the enemy in; the increase in vehicles to the south hopefully means that he is massing forces down there.

It might actually be a good time to get everyone in the south to pull back a fair distance. I don't want them to be outnumbered and killed down there while I am winning a fight in the north, leaving my north against his south. I'd rather keep them alive while I win the fight in the north and nobody dies in the south, so I can face his force piecemeal. But that depends on being able to pull them back safely, and actually having a fight in the north, and winning it, pretty soon.

No pictures this turn, since nothing picture worthy has happened, and the situation really hasn't changed much since last turn.

[TheVulture]

Turn 11 Action

The turn gets off to a poor start. One of my units is getting out of a house because they are rather exposed to an enemy tank. To do this, rather than using the back door to get to the waypoint just outside the back door, they decide to run out in to the street in front of the tank, and as it turns out, in front of a GMG jackal too. Yellow circle in the picture is the position of the waypoint I placed. Blue circle is the door they should have used. They are fortunate to get away with only one man down.

Also in the south, you might recall that having fired a few RPGs from one house I'd pulled out of it. The enemy are kindly continuing to area fire on the now empty house, while my men wait around nearby. The HQ unit soon opened up on the enemy units in the area, but didn't do too well in the exchange, losing two men for no visible opposition losses.

In the center of the map, the enemy have continued to move into the central, two storey buildings, using a tank and another jackal to cover their crossing of the main road. They draw some fire, and one casualty is seen.

This comes at a high price though. Six men engaged in the fighting with those enemy are killed or injured. Throw in another three from one of my depleted squads risking a move to a roof to get off an RPG shot, and exposing themselved to elevated enemy positions, and I lose a total of 12 men this turn. Ouch. I have to admit that ordering those men to the roof top was a pretty dumb move on my part though.

The closest I get to good fortune this turn is the discovery that the British tank gunners are no better shots than my own, as one of them manages to not only miss the broad side of a barn from under 50 meters, but manages to hit the ground short of it.

Possibly the worst shot by a challenger tank in recorded history.

The BRDM that has gone ambling off on a jackal hunt hasn't quite reached its target yet; as the turn ends it is a few meters short of cresting the ridge that will allow it to open fire. I'm not sure whether the enemy have seen my BRDM yet. It is in pretty open country, but can't draw LoS to any enemy positions itself, so it is quite possible that the jackal will be caught unawares.

Turn 12 Plan

I've been keeping a few fractured squads and some of the support teams one row of houses back as a reserve, but with the losses in my front line, I decide to bring them up to hold the line. I'm going to move the company HQ and command units up too. I don't normally like to use them as combat units, but with the losses I've taken I need to be able to use everyone I can. Otherwise, most people are just staying put and firing.

[TheVulture]

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.

Can't remember whether these are jackals or WMIKs (or WMMIKs - or are those jackals? <confused>). I'm going to stick to calling them jackals for now anyway

[stoex]

I'll chip in again here and let you know that they are in fact TUM WMIKs - the Land Rover based platform - and not the slightly larger Jackals. They do look pretty similar, though, even at close range when seen from the front!

Roll cages on wheels, both of them .

BTW, while TheVulture complains rightly about bad luck (and pathing) and some bad decision-making costing him heavy casualties this turn - the Audience may be thinking at this time: "but doesn't the opponent putting his squads in the second storys of those tall buildings kind of expose them to the entire Syrian fighting force including the T-72s?"

The answer to that very interesting question is coming up shortly, trust me...in particular, I would like to note that while I have taken out tanks as expected, and infantry as expected, and at least seen an MG team or two by this point (also expected), I am still quite unaware of the fact that my opponent has a full detachment of AGS-17 GMGs minus mortar casualties at his disposal. As well as a set of BRDM transports. As a matter of fact, I am rather confident that I am already more or less mopping up the remnants of his forces. I am still wary of his remaining tanks and RPG launchers, but I'm not expecting much stiff resistance anymore, so I am beginning to be a little careless about my overwatch and moving a lot of infantry at once. I'm hoping for a quick surrender so we can rematch on a bigger and slightly more diverse map...

Cue a learning curve for the Brits, TheVulture?

[TheVulture]

Turn 12 Action

The BRDM continues its hunt, coming over the crest and spotting the HMG WMIK that hit reverse in rather a panic. A number of bursts of the 14.5mm MG head downrange.

The first few rounds are ineffective. The WMIK returns fire, and manages to destroy the engine of the BRDM. But then the BRDM gunner improves his aim somewhat, and the next rounds knock out the enemy vehicle. Miraclously all the WMIK crew survive and bail out and run for cover. The BRDM loses sight of them. While it is technically still alive and capable of firing, it is now stuck in a position that is likely to make it useless for the rest of the fight. Chalk that one up as a draw, I think.

Back at the main battle, a third Challenger tank finally hoves into view in my 'ambush' area, and begins making life difficult for my troops in the area.

With a platoon occupying the tall buildings, and tanks on either side providing support (not to mention a WMIK or two), stoex has now set up a decent central strong point. With the tanks providing cover, I expect him to start to make his main push soon in this area.

Turn 13 Plan

First things first. The new tank that has just turned up is exposing a nice flank. The enemy probably don't realise quite how vulnerable it is. I have an L-shaped main line of resistance, and one side of the 'L' in the west is, as far as I know, completely unknown to the enemy. The fact I've had my recon platoon sitting at the tip of the L for the entire battle also means that I know pretty well that there are no enemy units covering the road that leads to the tank's flank. So I can rush a tank up there and hopefully get off a flank shot, knowing that I control the area where my tank will be.

Also, since I can't afford to sit around while enemy tanks shoot up my buildings, I need to return the favour to keep the forces as even as I can. So my other tank will find a nice keyhole position to hit the central buildings the enemy are using,

- my tanks attack (flanking time)

One tank is going to shoot and scoot to the left; 20 seconds pause in the street to get 2 shots off, then reverse back in to cover. The target tank is the light blue circle. The other tank is going to sneak amongst the houses to a firing position to hit one of the enemy squads with area fire against their building. The target arc is just to get the turret facing the right way before the tank gets in to view of the enemy to reduce time spent in danger before getting a shot off and to have the main armour facing the target. The fact that the arc happens to cover the enemy tank position is purely coincidental.

[TheVulture]

Turn 13 Action

The t-72 tank guns the engine and start along the street, turret already slewed sideways to hit the enemy challenger the moment it comes in to view. They burst from behind a house and come to a halt. Long moments pass...

"So where's this tank then?" the gunner asks? "Right in front of you, you tool!" screams the commander. The enemy tank spots the t-72 and slews its turret to face the threat, beginning to turn the body of the tank too. Finally, after a small eternity, the gunner finally locates the enemy vehicle and fires. Too slow. The turret front armour is facing him; the body of the tank has almost finished turning too. There is no flank to hit any more. The shot hits the front glacis and breaks up. The challenger returns fire a second later, and it turns out there is a flank to hit after all, on the t-72. There are no survivors.

So for those of you playing along at home, my tank had a covered arc that covered just where the enemy tank was and no more. It was under 100 meters away in a wide open street with no obstructions and no changes in elevation in the terrain to obscure anything. The enemy tank was busy engaging my infantry with MG and main gun. It took my t-72 5 full seconds after it came to a complete stop to spot the totally unobscured, side-on tank that was the only possible target in its arc. The challenger spotted my tank with half a second of it coming in to view, despite being otherwise occupied.

Having never been a tanker in a challenger or a t-72 (or any other tank, unsurprisingly) I can't comment on the realism of this, but it does seem decidely screwy. It may be understandable from a purely game mechanical point of view, but it had me tearing my hair out in frustration. It's bad enough that I can't hurt his tanks from the front barring a minor miracle, but I can't even get a flank shot off under the best circumstances I am likely to see in this battle (barring crass stupidity on the part of my opponent).

So that's the bad part.

I have a better time of it elsewhere. My northern recon team, sitting on their haunches with a nice cup of tea for the last 12 minutes (they raided an abandonded NAAFI last week) finally get to ambush someone. The lead team of a British section come charging obliviously towards their position. They open fire at close range:

The team is wiped out, and the rest of the section covering them from the houses behind are pinned down by fire too. Quite near them, one of the AGS teams has set up on a rooftop. They target one of the Brit sections in the central buildings and open up. Two casualties seen. Soon they spot another Brit section in another building in that central position. Another four casualties seen. With luck, one or two unseen ones too.

My second tank also gets in on the act, doing exactly what I hoped it would. It finds its firing position, and puts several main gun rounds into one of the houses occupied by the Brits. It lands a round exactly on the corner where 4 British troops had previously been seen. I can't see any effect (they'd already been sent cowering on the floor by the AGS) but I do see some rapid movement away from that end of the building shortly after.

One more but of pathfinding screwiness bites me this turn. As before, in the south, I order a unit out of the house they are in, making usre to put a waypoint just outside the door I want to them to use. And just like before, they run out of the other door in to the path of the challenger and GMG WMIK that are guarding that street, and things go badly for them. Yellow lines and dots show the 'quick' move orders I plotted. Red circles show the location of the doors I wanted to use. Red arrow show the firing line of the GMG WMIK.

Maybe my men are just collectively concussed and wandering around in a dream-like state?

Turn 14 Plan

My main plan now is to sacrifice a virtual goat to the gods of war and pray for a small meteorite to obliterate the British half of the map. I've revealed just about everything I have, and while I have caused significant casualties this turn, there is precious little I can do to stop his tanks now blasting any men who show their heads, and advancing his infantry while I cower.

Since it is clear the fight is now entirely in the north, and the southern skirmishes have died out, I'm pulling almost all my men there out and bringing them around to the north. Or I'll try to; there is still a challenger tank cutting the road which might prove to be a problem, and my men have a lot further to go than his to get to the main action, so I've created rather a problem for myself.

The stranded BRDM can't do anything useful this turn, since it can't see any enemy and can't target any occupied buildings, so will settle for targetting buildings near my own in case any enemy try to move in to them.

[TheVulture]

Turn 14 Action

It seems that the heavy casualties and possibly rather close call with the tank duel have prompted a change in tactics from stoex. His two challenger tanks move forwards into the contested area and start battering my forces, backed up by some WMIKs. Apparently his heavy weapons are going to do the work to cover for his squishies.

My causalites are heavy. The AGS squad that did most of the damage last turn is wiped out by a few moments work from a tank. Other positions take heavy losses from the combined efforts of a tank and GMG. It's generally a scene of carnage.

Things aren't helped any when one of my southern units that is repositioning back into this main fight happens to repeat the 'using the wrong door' trick, although in this case it was carelessness on my part since I just gave them a single move order into a building without paying attention to door positions etc.

It doesn't all go the Brit's way though. The rest of the AGS platoons are doing their part.

Well, anyone foolish enough to go on a balcony has a very low life expectancy in CMSF. An enemy sniper is taken out by another AGS, while a third finds an infantry section in another building and sprays in their general direction, sadly only causing a single visible causalty. But in general it is pretty intense combat right now, with an awful lot of HE flying around the place.

Turn 15 Plan

Unfortunately I am losing this high intensity combat. By the end of the turn I have basically 2 functioning AGS teams left, and have probably little more than 2 platoons left in total out of 150 men at the start. I have 1 t-72, and 3 BRDMs (plus the stranded one that is a non-factor). It's fairly obvious that I've lost, and the question is how much the Brits will pay for the win. But my immediate problem is that with the British tanks having come forward to do the hard work, my forward position is untenable. My L-shaped line is around the edge of a relatively open area - smaller houses and more open space compared to further back - which gives his tanks room to move and line of sight to be able to hit virtually any target. So I'm going to have to move back into denser housing, where his tanks won't be able to gain LoS on my men and his infantry will have to come dig me out.

My lone tank is going to pop smoke to obscure the main diagonal road so that my southern men can then get across the road in relative safety and join the new defensive position, and the tank will then reposition hoping for a keyhole shot into the open area from further back. One of the northern BRMDs is going to go harass his section that ran into the recon ambush. I think I can get the vehicle further north and hit the house some of his men are hiding in without being exposed to anything else. It might also pull the attention of one of the enemy tanks and help me improve the local odds where my main line is.

The stranded BRDM will continue to shoot up a random assortment of houses that it can see on the off-chance that enemy units have moved / are moving in to them.

At the left edge of the two lines of troops we have the area where the ambush occurred which seems to have halted the British advance in that direction. A BRDM is going to swing around off the map to hit the blue line from the side. Just right of there is the 'open area' (you can see a Challenger 2 on the edge of it) which is now turning into a bit of a death trap, so I am going to pull back past the road. In the center we have the tall buildings and the center of my position, which is where the heaviest small-arms firing has been, and where both sides have taken fairly heavy causalties. On the right is the 'southen' section of the fight, where our forces engaged across another small open area, and the enemy vehicles have dominated the road through the middle of my position to the detriment of my men with the door-opening issues. With smoke from my tank obscuring the crossroads, I am going to pull men back into essentially the triangle of houses in the bottom center of the picture, leaving the recon platoon on the left out there rather stranded (although I might be able to use the BRDMs to rush any survivors back to join the main body in a few more turns).

[souldierz]

Seems like the Brits were able to hit hard and now have forward momentum.That's going to be very hard to stop especially with Challengers roaming around.

Seems like that fire mission in the beginning that hit a good amount of Syrian forces really hampered the Syrians capabilities of hitting the Brits hard.That well placed British fire mission seemed to have caused the Syrian forces to be stretched thin and confined them to a smaller area of movement and defense.Main roads are usually the main arteries of and Urban body environment.The one able to gain LOS and control them will be able to cut off the paths of reinforcements or troop movement, causing them to be pinned in one area of the urban environment, any one who attempts to move across the main arteries roads will get hacked, so the one who controls the main arteries, controls the life of the battle,and now can concentrate on certain sectors.

If all else fails, you can always count on your AGS teams to dish out some heavy blows, just like they did.Being ambushed by an AGS is a nightmare, one I'm sure all us players felt at one point, and can cause a slow down or gap in the opponents lines, hopefully causing him to slow down and shift plans and forces to compensate.

It must be a very high intensity battle, judging by the look of the map.Seems like the battle will revolve around close quarters fighting.The Syrians should be able to do some heavy damage in this situation even if the battle looks to be lost for the moment.Most are familiar with the term "Phyrrhic Victory", a victory that feels more like a loss because there is no more capability left in the victors army, and that's the victory you want Stoex to get if any

Another saying comes to mind along the lines of, you fight not because you can win, but because you can lose.

Those path finding bugs can be a real force killer.For the moment I would say brush them off as the Squad Leaders personal mistake and bad call,as well as a miscommunication with how command wanted the plan to play out.Sadly it does happen in real life and lives are paid for it, but you can't always personally take charge of how you want your men to react at a certain time.Sometimes command is left with a what the hell are the troops doing thought, and sometimes the troops are left with a what the hell are command doing thought also.

But yeah, bottom line for that is it does suck when you lose men to a bad path finding issue, I feel your pain:(

Keep it up,this is another outcome I am interested in seeing,as well as seeing how both players react and move.

Looks like things might be heading for a last stand, give em hell, the both of ya's

[TheVulture]

Turn 15 Action

Not so much going on this turn. There is still some shooting of course, but I've started to disengage and pull back a few units, so the intensity has dropped. One lucky squad gets targetted by 4 or 5 rounds from a challenger tank and some only takes one casualty. It's those weird bits of implausibly good luck that tend to get overlooked when they happen to you, which is one reason why everyone always things their opponent gets all the breaks.

My BRDM that went hunting does its job quite nicely.

With the slight elevation changes, the low walls, and the trees and bushes, line of sight in that area is actually surprisingly constricted. If a tank does come looking for the BRDM, it will have a harder time that you might imagine finding a spot with LoS. Meanwhile the 14.5mm MG chew up the rest of the British section that got ambushed. Two definite kills. Only one or two guys left there now.

Here's the end of turn view:

The yellow line at the top shows the firing lane of the BRDM. The red arrow shows my tank's reposition after it popped smoke, which you can see is nicely blocking the central area and rendering the challenger tank and WMIK in the middle of it blind.

Plan turn 16

I'll leave the BRDM firing for a bit and then get it back to safety before anything can be brought to bear against it. And just to keep things fun, I'll bring my other 2 BRDMs out of hiding to start spraying enemy positions with HMG fire, since those 14.5mm guns are pretty lethal against buildings. The pullback from the open area in the north will be completed. I decide to leave the southern force on the other side of the road for now; where the are they can engage the enemy, whereas if I pull them back across the diagonal road they'll be guarding an unthreatened flank, and would only overcrowd the houses of my new defensive line if I tried to use them there. So my actual defensive positions will follow the red lines here:

[TheVulture]

Turn 16 Action

Not a great deal happens. I lose a few more men in the south as small units get outgunned by the British. The great retreat across the road, away from the open space, is complete; I've left a GMG on the other side of the road to hit anyone trying to cross (after they've driven my men further back), and a few men from a batterd HQ unit in front of them to shield them from being immediately overrun if anyone comes their way.

Stoex seems to have taken a dislike to my BRDMs now, and two of his tanks have been dispatched to deal with them. In the north, a tank rumbles in the general direction, while my BRDM has done its shoot and scoot against the house and reversed back to rleative safety.

In the south, my immobilised BRDM finds itself in a troubling situation as the turn ends.

That's the knocked out WMIK in the background. My other two BRDMs have adopted sheltered positions where they can hopefully target enemy positions. Unfortunately a Brit squad happens to already be in one of those positions and hits my vehicle with an ILAW.

The BRDM survives unscathed. This seems to happen fairly often with BRDMs against light AT assets in my experience; at least playing as blue my success rate against them with SMAWs, ILAws and the like is underwhelming. Javelins, tanks, MGs, 30mm autocannon and just about anything else will take them out in short order though.

This shows the tank moves Stoex has made this turn, with the yellow lines showing his intended engagements. My defense is now south of the central E-W road, aside from the recon platoon isolated in the north, and the AGS squad with screen hoping for a chance to catch someone by surprise exposed in the road.

Turn 17 Plan

I have a grand total of 45 infantry left, plus 1 tank and 4 BRDMs (soon to be 3). The infantry include one AGS, two MGs and 2 RPG-7 launchers with a rocket or two each. The plan, such as it is, is to try and hold our current positions for as long as possible. I'm going to bring the northern BRDM back behind my infantry there, and try to get my RPGs into positions where they might get a shot at a tank.

[TheVulture]

Turn 17 Action

The Challenge 2 tank vs BRDM turns up a surprising result:

I lied.

My other southern BRDM, which survived an ILAW hit last turn, returns fire against the building the shot came from for 20 seconds (to no visible effect) and then reverses out of the way between two buildings. Unfortunately from its hiding place, it can see the tank that just killed its comrade. The driver panics, and reverses further to get out of sight of this new menace, out into the main road.

Sadly it finds another tank just emerging from the smoke on the diagonal street. Two BRDMs down. No other losses this turn at least.

Turn 18 Plan

Now we are back to the waiting game, skulking in houses waiting for the Brits to come and try to disloge us. The purple lines show the firing lanes of my remaining AT threats (two RPG-7s and a tank); my tank is repositioning again. The ROG covering the south (on the right) can't see too far because of the curve of the ground, but might get a shot off at the tank that is circling around to my rear if it gets too much closer. The central RPG can see the tank in front of it, but has a very short arc set - firing off against the front armour isn't going to do much, so I'm hoping the tank will come forwards and give me a close range side shot.

[Alan8325]

It's too bad this particular scenario only has a ground objective for both sides. If there were casualty objectives to simulate the importance the Blue side places on casuaties in real life, you may already have "won".

[hoolaman]

That first turn artillery barrage is a real gamey pain in the butt. The times a first turn no-delay barrage on a known setup zone is realistic would be few and far between.

Is this a quick battle?

[Alan8325]

That first turn artillery barrage is a real gamey pain in the butt. The times a first turn no-delay barrage on a known setup zone is realistic would be few and far between.

Is this a quick battle?

It's a scenario called "UK H2H Brit Arm Mix vs Syr Arm Mix".

[TheVulture]

Turn 18 Action

Having said that BRDMs have a respectable survival rate against light AT weapons, one of my remaining BRDMs now takes a hit to the front which knocks it out. The crew survive and bail out into the nearest house. Is it just me or does the guy on top of the vehicle look like a zombie or a ghoul?

On the main street, the Challenger tank starts to roll forwards and stumbles right into the covered arc of the squad with the RPG in the point house.

A hit is scored, and the tank grinds to an immediate halt. I wait with baited breath to see if the crew start to bail out. Nope - after a few second the turret turns, and a burst of coaxial MG fire kills the RPG gunner. Beyond the tank a Brit section is seen crossing the street, and are engaged while they are exposed.

One man is killed before they make it across the road. Unfortunately this exposes the positions to most of my men along the street to the tank, which proceed to rake the houses with MG fire, causing more causalties. No use of the main gun though, which makes me wonder if it has been damaged and put out of use. Judging by the lack of turning the body of the tank towards threats (and the way it stopped immediately) it also appears to be immobilised. (Stoex later confirms that this is the case).

My last t-72 was maneouvering into a new keyhole position, but I failed to take account of the flanking Challenger in the south when I plotted the move.

No surivors. That's just bad use of the tank on my part. Now I am down to 1 vehicle - my last BRDM - and under 40 men. We're very much in the mopping up phase. Or the being mopped up phase, from my perspective.

Turn 19 Plan

I have one RPG left with one rocket, but might be able to scavenge the RPG that immobilise the Challenger which has more ammo. So I take the risk of sending another sqaud in to the point house and hide there to see if they can get hold of the RPG without being seen. Everyone else will stay where they are.

Now I come to draw the movements of the enemy I saw this turn on a map, it seems likely that Stoex has shifted his point of attack. With his men in the north having been stymied by the ambush, and the ones in the center having taken heavy casualties, he is now attacking in the south, coming in from the east side, with the benefit of a tank more or less behind my positions to support him. If I'd noticed that I would have repositioned to meet him, but I didn't, so my men all sit tight apart from the RPG-scavenging plan above.

map

[Thomm]

Great thread!

Best regards,

Thomm

[TheVulture]

Turn 19 Action

The idea that the immobilised tank has lost the use of its main gun is put to rest pretty soon, as it start putting HE rounds into the houses I am holding. By some minor miracle, no-one is killed. Beyond that, the only action is where the British eastern advance meets my men.

Most of the fighting is between the two houses in the red circle. Two British infantry fall during the course of the minute, but the score is evened up by the loss of two of my men at the end of of the turn.

Turn 20 Plan

Sit tight. Shoot anyone who gets close. Pray that the scavenging an RPG plan works (it hasn't yet).

[TheVulture]

Turn 20 Action

One of my HQ units (okay - it's one guy, so calling it a unit is a bit of a stretch) is armed with an SVD sniper rifle, and shows the good initiative to get well back inside a house and start shooting at a WMIK GMG.

Due to the deep cover inside the house it takes a long time for the vehicle to spot him, although that is largely because most of his rounds ricochet off the inside of the house or the low wall just outside it. Eventually the enemy do notice and return fire with the GMG.

Since my sniper is so far back inside the house, he is all but immune to the GMG firing, which makes a mess of the front of the house but not much else. My northern recon platoon then get in on the fun with a volley of fire which takes out the WMIK gunner, once again proving how extraordinarily vulnerable those poor sods are in this game.

In the fighting in the south, my unit which had been enjoying some success in the previous turn has a less pleasant time of it. They lose another two causalties as the enemy gain local fire superiority, and eventually the last two men lose their nerve and run for it. Out in to the street.

You probably won't be surprised to learn that they are wiped out.

Turn 21 Plan

Down to 29 real infantry (plus 2 bailed out crew with pistols) and one BRDM. 11 of those men are injured to some degree. It finally dawns on me that the challenger tank is immobilised in a nice position where it can fire down two streets, and that I am foolishly occupying buildings on both those streets. Maybe a withdrawl to a further back position is in order. I decide to leave my sole AGS to cover that same street since a) it can't be seen by the tank, and it probably can't get across the road alive anyway.

The yellow line shows the edge of the area the AGS can see, and the red lines obviously show my current front line and my planned new one. My attempts to scavenge an RPG launcher are not working, although quite a lot of my men are still insisting on carrying around large numbers of RPG rounds. The one remaining launcher is still covering the green arc on the right (which doesn't contain the southern tank, out of shot on the right).

[TheVulture]

The End

At this point, Stoex and I agree to a ceasefire, since there isn't much fun to be had for either of us playing "hunt the last few cowering Syrians whilst waiting for auto-surrender". My men are now split in to 4 groups, although I had loaded 4 men up in to the last BRDM to try and rush them back to my 'main body' (of 17 men).

Since the result is based entirely on who controls the terrain objective, it is a British army total victory, but then it is pretty obvious that Stoex has won by any measure.

Final casualty lists:

Syrian

Men Okay: 28

KIA: 83

WIA: 61

MIA: 1

Vehicles lost: 3xt-72M1V tank, 3 x BRDM-2

British

Men Okay: 109

KIA: 9

WIA: 22

Vehicles lost: 1x HMG WMIK, one Challenger 2 immobilised.

Without wishing to steal Stoex's thunder after a convincing win, I'm not sold on the idea that this scenario is balanced for H2H play...

Anyway, hope y'all have enjoyed the DAR.

[Mies]

Thanks for the DAR. I enjoy reading these.

[hcrof]

Thanks for the DAR, an interesting read. You are right though, the 'H2H' scenarios are not balanced. I did manage to force a stalemate on one as the Syrians but I think it was more mind games that persuaded my opponent to give up, my force was in bad shape .

[souldierz]

Seems like the Syrians could not recover from that well placed artillery strike.

Good report and excellent screen shots.There's some real money makers in that batch.Well done and congratulations to the victor named Stoex and congratulations to The Vulture for putting up a fight and posting the action, i enjoyed it:)