RAMADI (Iraq): Mother of All MOUT Maps

[LongLeftFlank]

On further reflection, in spite of the intense adrenalin in RL a couple of veteran command personnel in their 30s-40s probably wouldn't be yelling on the command net like a couple of 20yo jars raised on Fifty Cent.

They'd want to be setting an example, so most of their broadcasts would be at least nominally "business", albeit shaking with excitement. Of course, if the RPG hit while Booker had his finger on the mike, you might hear a few cracks in the facade....

"SIX, be advised we got-- we got -- uh, taking small arms 3 sides, rooftops along Michigan and the warehouses. Keep it movin', Tim! Go-go-go! [CLANG!] Son of a B*TCH! RPG, rooftop left! The tall one, above the store -- rooftop! See him? Hit that sumb*tch! (in background: "Get some b*tch! WOOOOOO!!!" TUNKTUNKTUNKTUNK!)

On the other hand, commanders don't always show such sang froid. There is the story of the "unknown" individual who cut in on the radio in the bomber carrying 8th Air Force commander General Eaker into the brutal flak belts over Regensburg screaming "J-C! Get us out of here! Get us out of here!"

[dan/california]

You lucky #$%^&**, I lost the armed hummer when I tried that.

[LongLeftFlank]

Here's a couple of more thoughts I had on historicity vs. playability in my design choices.

As I said much earlier in the thread, I am an armchair military historian more than a videogamer (although I'm a hex-wargame geek from wayyyy back), and that's what informs my scenario design decisions. If people don't like that approach, well, that's up to them. There are plenty of other scenarios out there.

On the other hand, I am not trying to force myself or others to recreate the identical historical actions blow by blow over and over again. I like to consider and try what-ifs, which requires that I offer strategic choices, not just tactical ones. So at a certain point I must depart from pure historical accuracy.

Another practical consideration is that to take in the true scope of the historical April 6 2004 action, I would have had to keep building this map east and south all the way down to the Mulaab soccer stadium -- about 250m further east and about 250m further south. That's where the QRFs historically linked up, then worked their way up Easy, methodically dusting off rooftops using the Humvee weapons. They then moved due west off Easy toward the sound of the guns until Donovan Campbell and JOKER 1-1, walking the point, finally located the lost JOKER 3-1 and 3-3 Marines. At that point, the Army Bradleys had also joined the force and the insurgents had largely melted away; the majority of their casualties were likely incurred in the Easy Street fight.

Historically, the "off-Easy" portion of the rescue operation took about 30 minutes (1330 - 1400 hours).

In the scenario, I've moved JOKER ONE much farther up Easy for map reasons, and also given you an extra hour since your forces haven't linked up (yet?). And you will find that the insurgents have just a tad more staying power than their historical counterparts. Anything more than that would be a spoiler.

[dan/california]

Which is too say its raining #^&&^$$#^&&g bullets in this #^&^$#Q@ hole. In the very best way of course, for a game. Way too many posthumous medals if its for real.

[LongLeftFlank]

Well it sounds like you and Moria both took a page from the

playbook, using your recon/command element as an assault force. And look how well that worked out for him....

[Erwin]

The important thing is that he looks really good thanks to HUGO BOSS.

[Thomm]

Well it sounds like you and Moria both took a page from the

playbook, using your recon/command element as an assault force. And look how well that worked out for him....

Hmmm, I was always wondering about the movie version.

You made me look up the real deal:

http://www.germanmilitaryhistory.com/blog/550674-graebners-reconnaissance-battalion-at-arnhem/

Must have been terrible!

Best regards,

Thomm

PS: Will be a lackmus test for the Market Garden module!

[Boche]

looks like recon by fire did not work for him!

[Gpig]

I think Grabner may have mis-read the ingredients . . .

It's TWO parts fire, and ONE part recon.

(And less ketchup)

[LongLeftFlank]

Hmmm, I was always wondering about the movie version.

You made me look up the real deal:

http://www.germanmilitaryhistory.com/blog/550674-graebners-reconnaissance-battalion-at-arnhem/

Must have been terrible!

Thanks for the link. This quote sums it up pretty well:

Surprise and shock were Graebner's only protection. It was a typical armoured commander's approach to an infantry problem. Panzerleute (armoured 'types') tended to disdain the resistance value of lightly-armed airborne infantry.

[Dietrich]

Surprise and shock were Graebner's only protection.

He also lacked the accompaniment of a Berlin Philharmonic rendition of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZp7u_Krp8. :cool:

[LongLeftFlank]

OK now we're almost channeling Python....

Nobody expects SS PanzerAufklarungsabteilung-9!!!

[Erwin]

I just don't think the German Wehrmacht has quite the killer music that it used to have:

[Dietrich]

OK now we're almost channeling Python....

Nobody expects SS PanzerAufklarungsabteilung-9!!!

"Bring in..." <pause for effect> "...the pillow-plated Panzer!"

I just don't think the German Wehrmacht has quite the killer music that it used to have:

Yeah, but even in 1944 the GIs huddling in their foxholes listened the singing of their German counterparts dug in along the opposite treeline and thought it awfully corny. =P

[Erwin]

I thought EVERYONE like Lili Marlene...

[abneo3sierra]

I just don't think the German Wehrmacht has quite the killer music that it used to have:

Yes, but I think they will be annoyed if you call them Wehrmacht now also. The military is the Bundeswehr now.

[Boche]

plus in the descpription it says:

The antiBW (may I assume BW = Bundeswehr) song so...

[Dietrich]

I thought EVERYONE like Lili Marlene...

Many liked listening to "Lili Marleen". But to my knowledge that song wasn't among those which Landsers (or GIs or Tommies, for that matter) would sing themselves.

My point was simply that whereas the GIs considered the Landsers' singing awfully corny, the Landsers themselves thought it indicative of fair-to-good morale.

[Erwin]

...the song of songs of the desert warrior was neither hot nor sweet. The song was considered a march song and march music was out of fashion. The song was based on a poem written by Hans Leip around the time of World War I. The poem was put to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938

That song was Lili Marlen.

To some Lili Marlen is a street walker. To other's she is one's true love. To every soldier in the desert, be he Desert Rat or Afrika Korps, she was the woman he left behind. Indeed, the song Lili Marlen is often called the Anthem of the Desert Warrior.

Neither the Nazi leaders or the Allied Command embraced the song, officially. In fact both tried to ban the song at one time or another. But in the end, the emotions of the average soldier, German, French, British, American, and every other nationality that served in the North African desert looked upon the song as "their song". In fact the British actually took the German song and had it translated for their troops.

But even with the English versions being played, the warriors of the desert always looked upon the original "auf Deutsche" version to be theirs. Below you will see the lyrics in German, a 1944 English translation, and the last a version written by a member of the SAS.

In 1939 Lale Andersen recorded the song under protest, not wanting to be associated with a "march" song. Joseph Goebbels hated the song and promptly banned it from play but it eventually made the air ways and by the time Rommel landed in North Africa the song was being played over Radio Belgrade in Nazi occupied Yugoslavia. Rommel liked it and asked for it to be played more often. It became a hit.

Lale Andersen, Vera Lynn, and Anne Shelton would all later produce wartime English versions. German versions were also recorded by Willi Fritch and Mimi Thoma Eventually Marlene Dietrich, a former German star who came to Hollywood to escape the Nazis recorded it in English for the Americans. She also recorded the song in German. Those who did not already know the song, knew it once Dietrich sang it.

http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/lrdg/lrdglilimarlene.html

[heer witmann]

how is the testing going?

[Erwin]

I got about halfway timewise, but one of my rescue KG's had lost so much that I thought it better to stop and report to LLF my reactions so far. It's a really xnt scenario, but certain initial set-up positions and reinforcement locations caused me immediate casualties. I play WEGO, so that was tough to avoid. Especially if you share my habit of stopping to give medic aid to WIA. That cost me a few more men.

The hardest challenge for me was advancing up streets where you couldn't dart into buildings and find covered routes and better positions to fire from (because the buildings do not have doors to each other, and high walls stop one moving from building to building). You HAVE to use the roads. This is what makes this scenario very unique as I had never encountered that in other scenarios.

I am very much hoping that LLF does an updated version based on all testers' feedback, as I really want to try again. But, I need a little time to forget what happened so I am not just playing "to get it right this time cos I know what to expect." Hopefully, there are several enemy set-up and movement plans to make replayability high.

[LongLeftFlank]

Erwin, Dan/Cali and AkumaSD have reported in so far with DAR impressions and I've already substantially rewritten the briefing to make some things clearer. At this moment, I'm shifting the initial unit positions so the poor WEGO players don't have to sit there and take fire for a full minute before they can respond.

Since the VC are based on US casualties alone right now, in theory you could hit Cease Fire and obtain a Victory right away, or any time before you hit the US loss threshold.

But I also don't want to force players to play through all 100+ minutes since historically the insurgent forces melted away into the city once they realized they had lost initiative. This wasn't a Mogadishu "fight your way out" situation. On the other hand, since there are no AI triggers, the AI forces just continue to hold their positions and move by the clock.

So I am testing a "touch" terrain objective that will basically require the player to stick it out for the first hour (until all the lost squads appear) in order to be eligible for a win. I will update folks again later.

Many thanks to the playtesters for their hard work and insights so far! I look forward to your emails!

[BlackMoria]

LongLeftFlank: Playtest results sent to you. If file size of the screen shots I attached as a zip is to large, let me know and I will resend by another means.

For those waiting in the wings for this, you are going to be in for a very difference experience. The map is literally a maze of streets, walls, and dead ends, so much so that to make effective headway, you need to keep to the streets. Lateral movement betweens streets is going to be a problem if not downright impossible in places, making flanking maneuvers problematic to execute.

Patience, proper fire and movement tactics, properly executed assaults and suppressing fires are critical. And guts. Sheer guts. Because, at times, you outright have to make a 'Hail Mary' dash for the next cover or through an intersection because you will be unable to dominate the surrounding buildings.

Also, you don't have the ammo is duke it out with every insurgent in the areas, meaning fire control and picking your battles is key. Let's just say, by game end, I had some sections who would be looking to break out their 9mm magazines for the pistols in RL if the fighting kept on.

But it can be done. Real Time - Elite. Only 1 US casualty at end game. But you will have to bring your 'A' game, make no tactical bunders and get damn lucky on the many 'Hail Mary' dashes like I had to make.

In short, it was a blast to play. Just expect to get 'schooled' in the first few minutes the first time you take this puppy out for a spin.

[LongLeftFlank]

Thanks, bro! I am actually pleased you got through it with 1 medevac; that should be possible to do, though not easy, if you use sound tactics (you may need a few reverts too). It's also realistic; most of the US casualties in the JOKER 3 action occurred in the first moments of ambush. Once Uncle Sam gets the initiative back, it's the other side that tends to do the bleeding.

I will check my email as soon as I post the following screed.

[LongLeftFlank]

All my playtesters have noted how much more challenging the Mulaab battlescape is than other CMSF urban maps. Most significantly, as Moria just reiterated, you can simply not avoid moving along the streets. And you simply don't have time to clear every single building compound of shooters -- nor is it necessarily desirable to do so.

Erwin suggested I provide a small "tutorial" map for players to hone their block fighting skills on before tackling the full JOKER THREE maelstrom. I do have such a map and will see if I have the time to put out a tutorial mini-scenario before JOKER THREE is published. No promises though.

In the meantime though, here are a few thoughts on how to own the mean backstreets of Ramadi as BLUE without taking massive casualties doing so.

So the below shot shows one of the s***tiest street layouts you can be on (it's also one of two streets JOKER ONE finds itself looking down at game start).

Why? (1) It ends in a T-junction about 200 meters away, and the bad guys have clearly set up shop down there. Even worse, there's a second tier of buildings behind it that also has defilade down this street.

(2) There's no building BLUE can occupy that gives you a corresponding defilade overwatch (HINT: rooftops suck for any purpose other than quick visits to spot -- you will lose a lot of men up there if you try using them as firing positions at less than ~250m).

(3) And there could be bad guys sitting in ambush upstairs in any of those buildings along both sides of the street, or on the roofs with grenades, or in the courtyards, or in/sighting down the 4 cross streets (GREEN lines). Pretty daunting, eh? considering you need to cross at least 600m of this stuff to rescue JOKER THREE.

So what's BLUE doing here?

Two fire teams have deployed across from each other.

The left hand team A is out in the street next to a flat section of wall. This is a good position if you want to TARGET cleanly up the street and want all your guys shooting to dominate the firefight. Obviously, it's more exposed though and it's important to either suppress the downrange moojies fast or get to shelter. This is a good configuration for MG teams and overwatch. Getting behind a doodad or parked car (or Humvee) helps soak up incoming too, and doesn't affect your outgoing LOS.

The right hand team B is partly sheltered where an angled wall enters a courtyard. You can decrease the number of guys in the street by shifting their FACE angle further right (toward the courtyard) although if you FACE beyond 45deg right your men will all go into the street. Practice a bit. Note that if you use larger Teams or full Squads, you're going to have more men out in the street exposed.

Team B can only explicitly TARGET the area between the two blue lines, and perhaps not even that. However, the 2 guys who are in the street can and will shoot targets of opportunity that appear almost anywhere down the street.

In terms of exposure, these 2 guys are pretty safe from return fire coming down the right half of the street (light blue line) which will tend to glance off all the walls. They're less well protected against fire from the other side, but can readily return fire or get into the courtyard or building if things get too hot. This is a good position overall, in my experience.

One other observation: the walls protect both teams very well from fire from the interiors of the buildings closest to them; this is NOT true of the rooftop though (brown lines). Compound walls are not "semitransparent" to fire like building walls -- unless you knock them down with HE, they are impenetrable to small arms. Guys in the buildings will still try to shoot through the wall though (unsuccessfully) and give away their position.

So let's say we've suppressed the deflilade shooters for the moment and the street has fallen eerily silent. What's next?

Basically, you want to leapfrog two teams up the street in alternate short QUICK/FAST dashes, mostly ending in the angled entryways like the one B Team is in now. These offer a good combo of cover and spotting. At each shelter Waypoint, I tend to refresh their FACE command too.

Preferably there is a C team to use, sitting behind B, since A team seems to have an effective overwatch. Also, given that the right side of the street seems like the "sheltered" side right now, you might want to keep the moving units on that side. That can change quickly of course.

Once B and C have crossed the first street and the moojies downrange are still quiet, consider QUICKing Team A across and down the street (red dotted arrow). That way, if B and C come under fire from bad guys in buildings opposite -- their most vulnerable spot, you can bring all 3 teams to bear on the shooters quickly. Suppression is key to casualty avoidance.

Note: were the Marines facing the opposite way, Team A's position would be no better or worse than it is now. Team B would now be facing the wall "stub" -- 2 guys would still be out in the street but the prone guy is now a few feet further out, more vulnerable. The team also takes longer to get settled in place than when facing the "angle".

In that vein, be mindful of the occasional "pointed" wall (yellow circle); your troops will deploy on both sides of it and may be more exposed. It will still limit their TARGET ability too.

Also, we have all learned to avoid balconies like the plague in CMSF. The green circled ones have a virtue though; they have LOS up the narrow street. They aren't nearly as dangerous as rooftops, as they can't be seen from too many places once the buildings opposite have been deemed clear of enemy. They are especially handy for launching rockets and GLs uprange -- you can shoot and scoot.