After Action Report

CPX - 11/24:  "The Thin Green Line"

First of all, I want to apologize for the tardiness of this AAR.  I've 
read Erik's from the 12/8 training [which I attended on 12/7 ;) ] and 
have taken to heart some of his suggestions for my next umpiring 
exercise.  As a result of the time lag, I may have some of the details
mixed up in this write-up.  I believe the general feel for the CPX will
be realized regardless.  After conferring with both commanders, it has
been decided to rerun this scenario again.  It could probably happen
Dec 28th/29th if there are any takers!  Or is that tankers!

Secondly, I want to apologize to those who participated on side green.  
Due to some late orders arrivals and nuances of the setup criteria, a 
mistake was made on my part in setting up the green armored company 
before the game started.  I will expand upon this in the AAR proper.

And lastly, I am going to give just a very brief rundown of what 
happened.  With the high likelihood of rerunning this scenario, I don't 
want to give away too much information on either side.

For this game, I decided to "turn the map around."  In that I mean, 
OPFOR enter from the west map edge (Map 001 was used) and side green 
deployed east of Northing 03.  Umpires - for future games, please 
remember to give initial orders for all greenies to turn around 180 degrees
under these conditions!  I did this for all the units I had orders for on
Saturday night, unit by laborious unit.  Unfortunately, orders were not
received for the armored company until just prior to game start (both 
due to email problems and the player misunderstanding the game start time).
This contributed to the demise of this company early on in the game.  I
haven't decided whether or not I want to keep the same map orientation again
for the rerun.  We'll see.

Initial Situation:
1/11 ACR (Ironhorse) Squadron was tasked with deploying along the 
East-West German Border located along the 03 Northing.  Vehicles were 
not allowed in the 1km zone between the 03 and 04 Northings during 
setup.  The squadron broke into 3 main Task Forces, Alpha (4xM3 plts 
+ 2xM1 plts), Delta (2xM3 plts + 4xM1 plts), and Camel (M1 Tank Co 
+ Regt troops) with each of one player controlling one of these Task Forces.
Alpha deployed in the north, Camel in the center with Regt troops to the
rear, and Delta in the south.

55th Motorized Rifle Regiment (MRR) consisted of a reinforced BMP MRR 
(for OOB, see the TacOps manual or game proper).  This MRR+ was tasked 
with identifying and bypassing the Main Line of Resistance in order to 
transition into the Pursuit phase for operational reasons.  The entry
order for the 55th MRR+ was along these general guidelines:

Recon - Scout Elements + 1xBMP Co
Forward Security Element (FSE) - 1xT80 Co + 1xBMP Co + Misc troops
Main Body - Rest of Regt minus 1xBMP Co
Rear Guard - 1xBMP Co

Options used were 3, 4, 5 & 7.

Other units were in the background for reinforcements on both side, but 
the scenario didn't make it that far.  It will next time though!  :)


Scenario Developments (rough):
OPFOR Recon entered the west edge in 2 groups, one around the 06 
Easting and one around the 025 Easting each proceeding east to the 01 
Northing.

In the South ...
2xBMP's and 2xBRDM-AT's were tasked with heading SE to the woods vic 
025/015 and establishing an OP on the east edge of those woods.  Their 
secondary objective was to move further east in order to observe the 
woods at 065/017 in order to OP arty fire from around 037/021.
In this, they were fairly successful to the end of the scenario.

In the North ...
The rest of the Recon elements, backed by the BMP Co, moved east 
essentially along the 063 Easting until they reached the 033 Northing 
where they were engaged by a Scout Team vic 033/062.  Of course, they 
were under observation the entire time leaving the woods vic 023/062.
Eventually, the Recon Elements overran the Scouts after losing a few
vehicles.  NATO arty tried to keep pace with these forces, but
continually fell off target.

Meanwhile ...
At 0715, the FSE arrived and proceeded, virtually undetected, along the 
road 046 Easting, through the town and woods there, up the valley vic 
027/045 and into the woods vic 032/042 where they prepared to emerge.  
Upon order, the T80's provided overwatch for the BMP's which headed
directly east.

The Slaughter ...
This is where the major action of the scenario took place, and where 
the setup mistakes manifested themselves.  Camel Co's placement was in 
the woods vic 042/030 (yes, the entire Co was slotted to go there; not 
what I would've done, but I was just the umpire in this one).
Unfortunately for Camel Co, I placed them there without the entrenchment
they were supposed to have (I had placed the entrenchment 200m east of
where the player wanted; upon hindsight, I should've confirmed its
placement) AND I didn't give them their all important "turn around
180 degrees upon opening bell" orders.  So, in effect, Camel Co was
looking east and not in the entrenchment.  
As the BMP's moved out from the treeline, the M1's actually saw them 
and opened fire.  The T80's saw this and a very large exchange of fire 
took place.  The Recon vehicles in the South had also moved into a 
position to "flank" the M1's by this time and contributed to the mayhem.
In the end, Camel Co was wiped out and so was the BMP Co.  The T80 Co may
have lost a platoon, but that's all and the Recon vehicles took a
couple of hits.

An important item to note here about SOP's:  All of NATO's units were 
given Reverse after Fire/if Fired upon and pop smoke.  It was evident 
(and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I paid strict 
attention to it later and believe I'm right) that units do not undertake
their SOP orders until the end of the turn minute.  Thus, even though Camel
Co had these orders and should've reversed, they didn't "execute" them
until the end of the minute by which time they were already dead.

Another important item for the players about these kinds of SOP's:  As 
an umpire, I found it VERY difficult to remember to "move the vehicles 
after they fire and shift over 100m to new positions and get back in 
cover."  It's hard enough to report everything that's going on when a large 
engagement begins to take place let alone look through all the 
applicable units and reorder them to different positions 100 or 200m 
away!  Perhaps those veteran umpires can chime in on this one via a
different thread.

Continuing on ...
The T80 Co (-) pushed on to the east and came under heavy ICM fire.  By 
the time it reached the woods vic 051/041, it had lost most of its 
vehicles to direct and indirect fires.


Main Body ...
Arriving at 0730, the Main Body split into 2 groups; 1xBMP Bn + 1xT80 
Co moved along the 06 Easting and the rest moved along the route the 
FSE had taken.  NATO had begun redeploying and was just about finished 
by the time these forces hit 045 Northing at which time I called the
scenario for continuation the next week.  NATO had been hurt badly,
but they were moving to contain the damage and I didn't feel OPFOR
had made significant progress to call them the victors just yet.

Epilogue ...
Unfortunately, I was called away on business the weekend after 
Thanksgiving and we were not able to finish the scenario due to other 
pre-scheduled CPX events.  From all indications, we will be rerunning 
this one, but have yet to set a date (I'm open for the 28th or 29th).
There were a lot of other behind the scenes actions going on I'd rather
not elaborate on at this time due to victory conditions consequences.
I'll be taking a lot of what Erik had say in his AAR and incorporating
them into the next go around.

Scott Davies
scdavies@ix.netcom.com