After Action Report: CPX #5, Prokhorovka II Played on TacOps Map 15 I wondered what would happen in a large-scale, well-supported engagement. We found out one possible outcome: mutual slaughter..... In addition, we tested running multiple turns at once (3 to 5 TacOps turns between each umpire report); this worked *very* well. This report contains: 1) The initial situation 2) A summary of events 3) Lessons learned ---------- Initial orders: Bundeswehr Orders: One of the major battles of the War of Revenge is on! We have launched a major offensive to regain our eastern territories. An extremely complex maneuver battle is currently underway. Your battalions are tasked with seizing the road and rail junctions in the vicinity of 12/04 and 12/01 on Map 15. You have outstripped your infantry and are currently the spearhead in your sector. The enemy is thought to have been broken, but has consistently had small numbers of AT defenses in ambush positions along our advance route. After taking the objective your force is to exit at least a battalion off of the east edge of the map. Further reinforcements may come your way from west, north, or south. Please be ready to utilize them in your battle plans if and when they arrive. It is possible you may be required to send forces north or south to reinforce your neighbors. Please comply with these request in a timely manner. You may deploy in up to 2 approach columns, west of easting 06. Forces: 1 Armored Battalion(+) (72 Leopard 2 in 5 companies of 14 each, plus an HQ sections of 2 Leo II, plus 6 LAV-25 as scouts, plus an air defense platoon of 4 Stinger Hummers.) Off-Map: 3x 155mm Arty Reasonable chance of air support ------------ Soviet Orders: For the third time this century we face the Germans. They have launched a major offensive in this sector which is on the verge of breaking through our defensive belts. You are in command of the spearhead of our counterattack. You are to smash the approaching enemy armored spearheads and drive west to further disrupt his offensive. You are to exit at least a battalion off the east edge of the map after destroying the enemy forces in your sector. You will also ensure the rail yard (115042) never falls into enemy hands. The situation is extremely fluid. You can expect the possibility of receiving reinforcements from the north, south, or east. Please be prepared to integrate them into your battle plans when they arrive. You may also be ordered to exit forces as reinforcements for your northern and southern neighbors. Please do this at once when ordered. You may deploy your forces in 2 march columns anywhere east of easting 09 on map 15. Forces: 2 Battalions of T-80U tanks (62 tanks) 1 Scout Company (4x BRDM, 4x BMP) 1 Air Defense Platoon (3x BMP2, 9x SA-16) 1 Company of BTR infantry, without BTRs, to defend within 1 kilometer of the rail yard (center 115042) and 5 entrenchments for their use. (1x Inf Team, 9x Inf Squad, 3x PKM MG, 3x AT-7 Saxhorn). Fire support: 3x 152mm Arty 1x 122mm MRL Reasonable chance of air support ---------- Stephen Althouse, the Soviet commander, provided a superb set of orders for this scenario. It included the following text and a map with graphics drawn onto map 15. The map had several axes and positions named on it, and these were largely enough to carry the conduct of the battle. This order & map set is one to emulate. To: All units 824 Guards Tank Regiment Subject: Operations order for Operation Summer Fury Orders follow As the lead unit for the 8th Guards Tank Army's counter-attack against the German Invaders we are to find and destroy their spearheads with speed and decisive action. Details of the very fluid situation are sparse. Enemy Situation: An estimated Brigade sized German armor unit has broken through the 1st Guard Tank Army's prepared defenses. The unit is composed mostly of Leopard 2's and attached recon. engineer and artillery units. The German infantry units are still fighting in the breach. They have broken contact with our forces so we do not have locations on the spearhead units. It is believed they are strung out in a march column with forward and flank security elements of no larger than company strength. Friendly Situation: We are the Advance Guard for the 8GTA's counterattack to destroy the penetration and restore the former defensive line. Divisional and Army Recon units have failed to determine the exact location of the enemy but they have narrowed the Area of Interest to the area depicted in the graphics (Map 15). Our regiment is spread across the army's route of advance. Thus for this operation in the Area of Interest we can only initially assemble two of the tank battalions, part of the ADA company and the Recon company. Additionally it has been determined that a rail yard (vic 115043) currently held by soldiers of the 1GTA must not fall into enemy hands. Other units will be released to us as the battle develops. Commander's Concept of the Operation: The available forces will be broken down into a Main Body, a Forward Detachment (FD) and a Forward Security Element (FSE). The Forward Detachment will be tasked with moving down axis Kirov to seize Battle Positions TANK and BMP. They will seek to distract and delay any enemy forces contacted. These positions must be held. They can only be abandoned on order of the Commander. The FSE is to move down axis Kiev to establish OP's 1,2 and 3 they are to observe and report enemy movements and locations. COMBAT IS TO BE AVOIDED BY THE FSE. The Main body will follow the FSE down axis Kiev with a minimum of 1 kilometer of separation. Based on information supplied by the FSE and the FD, the Commander will order the Main Body to attack down axis Baku, Kiev or Grozny. This attack must be pressed with maximum surprise, speed and violence. If the enemy is not detected at the initial locations. The FSE and FD will, on order, advance and establish positions farther forward. Their missions will not change, only the locations. Additional forces allocated to our attack will be assigned routes and positions as the situation warrants. The defense of the railyard should be accomplished by the quick and utter destruction of the enemy. In summation, I want to find the enemy with the FSE and FD. I want them to think the FD is the Main Body long enough to maneuver the Main body to their flank. I want to hit the enemy with nearly 2 battalions of tanks at once on their flank while they are trying to engage the FD. Following the destruction of the enemy spearhead I want to change from a movement to contact to a penetration attack to the west. Organization of Forces: Forward Detachment ADA Platoon (-) 4 BMP's 3 SAM teams C company 2nd Tank Battalion 10 T-80u's Forward Security Element Recon company (+) 4 BMPS 4 BRDMs 3 SAM teams 1st Platoon B Company 2nd Tank Battalion 3 T-80u's Main Body 1st Tank Battalion 2nd Tank Battalion (-) Regimental HQ (notional) BP Rail Defense Force Dismounted Infantry company 3 Sam teams Execution: FD will depart at start from vic 091052 order of march will be BMPS then tanks. They will move as quickly as possible down axis Kirov. BMP's will occupy BP BMP the tank company will occupy BP TANK. They will defend in place. FSE will depart at start from vic 091007. Order of march will be BRDM's, BMPs then Tanks. All will move down axis Kiev to establish OP's. BRDM's will establish OP 1. BMPs will establish OP 2. Tanks will establish OP3. They will observe and report, avoiding combat if possible. Main Body will deploy vic 095005 in march column. Order of march is !st Tank Battalion then 2nd Tank Battalion. On order the Main Body will depart and move down axis Kiev until ordered otherwise. BP RAIL Defense Force Establish defensive positions Defend in place Chief of Artillery BP Rail has priority of fires Observed stopped or slowed, armored forces are priority targets as well as enemy command/ control, ADA, artillery and FO vehicles. MRL attacks are on order of the Commander only. Air strikes will be coordinated with counter ADA artillery strikes There are no persistent or non persistent chemical weapons available. Phase I fires --fire support in support of the movement forward targets OP's, CP's and artillery. Designed to assist forward movement. Smoke fires to cover the FD and to indicate a larger unseen force in the north will be fired. Phase II fires---Fire Preparation for the Attack Short and intense smoke to cover lead elements of the attack suppressive fires on known enemy locations. Phase III fires---Fire Support of the Attack Destructive fires on enemy locations in the attack zone. Ends only at the end of the attack phase. Phase IV fires--Fire Accompaniment Used to counter enemy deployment of reserves Chief of Recon Priority Information Requests (PIR) The Commander's PIR's in order of importance Enemy main body location and axis of advance. Enemy ADA assets Location of enemy reserves Location of Enemy flank and forward security elements Location of Enemy CP Location of obstacles or NBC contamination (notional) Command and Control The Regimental HQ will be with the 1st Tank Battalion Chain of Command: Regt CO, Regt XO Regt Ops Officer, CO 2nd Tank, CO 1st Tank End of transmission [Please ask Steve for a copy of the map if you want one; his email address is: opfor@serv01.net-link.net ] ---------- 2) What happened. The scenario began in a dense fog. The Germans deployed two companies north tasked to head from 06/05 towards the rail yard, and 3 companies in the south tasked to move through the north road in town 07/02 and take the woods east of 07/02, the villages just northeast of 07/02, and the town at 10/02. In the north the Soviet FD (Forward Detachment) began near 09/05 headed to 07/05; in the south, the Soviet FSE (Forward Security Element) was to start near 09/01 and go south around the town at 0702, then into observation positions: the BRDMs in the NW corner of 07/02, the BMPs in woods at 063027, and the T-80s in the town at 068007. The Soviet main body was in column from 095007 to 135003 awaiting the order to move out. Initial visibility was 150 meters for both eyeball and thermal sights. Visibility doubled roughly every two minutes and was clear at 0713. The limited visibility had a dramatic effect on the initial stages of the game. The scouting groups from both sides moved past each other blind. The German scouts wound up stopping at their initially assigned positions and stayed there most of the game; the Soviet FSE entering its initially assigned positions unspotted by the Germans except for the BRDMs. The BRDMs got blown away by the tail end of the German column, in a battle in the northwest corner of 0702. The infantry from the BRDMs survived and spent most of the game as an observation post watching the clear areas to the north and west of town 07/02 - a major advantage for the Soviets. The first clash, however, was in the north. The Soviet FD collided with the leading German company after about 3 minutes, and in exchanges of fire at 200 meter range they blew each other away. The remains of the German company advanced to the woods at 077048 and the second German company advanced to the town at 088043. Both stayed in these positions for most of the game. In the south, the main bodies began to clash when visibility was at 1600 meters. As the visibility increased the battle turned from occasional sniping between the odd groups that spotted each other into a full-bore slugfest. One of the German companies had stopped in the woodsline east of 07/02 and this unit largely survived the firefight. Of the other two German companies, still advancing eastwards, one was obliterated and the other shattered; its remains retreated backwards to join with the company in the woodsline. These held this position nearly until the end of the game; at this time they constituted around a company and a half. The Soviet main body got the better of the start of the fight, but the worse of the fight with the Germans in the woods. By 0715 the Soviet main body had ceased to exist. At 0710, the Soviets received their 3rd Battalion, and sent it to defend the woods and buildings around 10/05. The battle quieted down temporarily. At 0715, both sides got further reinforcements. The Soviets received their 4th battalion in the south, while the Germans got another 2 companies, headed east down the road from 040024. The Germans lost half of the lead of these company to sniping from Soviet BMP, which had been moved into the NW corner of 07/02 after the German main body had passed by the city. The BMPs left their infantry, and 3 SAMs, behind. After killing the BMPs, the Germans sent the lead company around the south of town 07/02 to take the town at 10/02. It met the oncoming Soviet 4th Battalion and was completely wiped out. The Soviet 4th Battalion, meanwhile, was itself nearly destroyed in fighting with the Germans on the east edge of 07/02 and German artillery fire. The second German company headed north around 07/02 to the factory complex at 08/03. A Soviet battalion of T-80U ATGM, arriving at 11/00 at 0729, got into a fight with both the company moving through 08/03 and the Germans to the east of 07/02. The Soviets got extremely unlucky in spotting the tanks east of 07/02, but killed nearly half of them, and half of the company moving through 08/03, before they were wiped out by direct fire and massed artillery and airstrikes. The Germans in the woodsline were severely damaged by a series of Soviet airstrikes and artillery fire; they numbered perhaps 2 platoons by this point. Meanwhile, in the north, 3 German companies arrived via the gap in the hills on the north map-edge (north edge, easting 07-08). These and the company that had been moving through 08/03 charged the rail yard. They met with massed fire from the Soviet 3rd battalion and artillery fire. Within ten minutes virtually nothing remained of the force save a few platoons huddled at 10/04; the Soviet battalion had been destroyed by German fires, artillery, and massed air support. and charged the rail yard. Meeting the Soviet 3rd Battalion and massed Soviet ICM fire, these new companies were blown to bits along with the Soviet defenders. At this point we were 45 minutes into the scenario. The Soviets had 8 of 155 tanks remaining and the Germans had 22 (of which 4 or 5 were immobile or unable to fire) of 140 remaining. Asked for a situation assessment, neither side felt it could press the attack. I pondered a bit on what to do; we had plenty of time left to play as a result of running multiple turns between reports to the players. Simply continuing to throw equal reinforcement to both sides was likely to continue to produce a stalemated bloodbath. I decided to loosely follow history; in 1943, the Germans had been beaten in part because Soviet brought more tanks and the exchange rate was roughly equal. Therefore, the Germans were ordered to shift to the defensive and exit as much as possible after an hour of delaying the Soviet attack. They were also reinforced with a company of Leopard Is, which were ordered to set up a defensive line in the airport. The Soviets were ordered to press the attack and exit at least a battalion off of the west edge of the map, and provided with 2 fresh battalions of T-80U ATGM with which to do it. The Soviets moved their attack deliberately and carefully. It survived very well, in part because the axis they attacked down was one the Germans were not defending. In addition, the presence of infantry scouts still in the town at 07/02, and the platoon of T-80s from the initial scout groups, enabled the Soviets to ambush the Leo Is, and call in massed artillery and airpower on them. 10 of 14 Leo Is died to these; more would have died if the there had been any Soviet ICM arty ammo remaining. The Germans were not powerless, however. Experimenting with the CPX umpire tools, the Germans were provided with a brief test sortie by 2 AH-64, which wiped out 10 T-80s in 2 minutes, then ran out of ammunition (the Apaches were supposedly "test models" on loan from the Americans, not to be used in combat and only provided with a few missiles. Presumably the Germans placed an order after their successful demonstration!) In addition, the Germans placed an artillery-delivered mine strike on the head of the Soviet column. Since that head was not spotted at the time of firing the mines got somewhat scattered (meaning I placed them where I thought the Soviet column might be, but was not able to see it while placing the mines). The Soviets were lucky, and spotted the mines before they ran over them, although there were some very close calls with mines I nearly dropped right on top of some units. In the end, the Soviets achieved their required exit off of the west edge, and also exited 2 companies off the north edge as required in a later order (to outflank the German defenses north of the map). The Germans managed to extricate 8 of their 156 tanks. The game lasted 2 hours and was extremely bloody; 5.1% of the German force survived, 5.2% of the pre-renewed attack Soviet force survived (22% of the total tank force survived). The average ratio of real time to game time was 3:1 - more than twice as fast as the best previous CPXes we have run! ---------- 3) Lessons Learned. As usual, this is in two sections: analysis of the gameplay, and ideas on running CPXes. 1) For playing TacOps Many of the battles in this scenario bore out the value of being stopped and in cover when fighting. Usually, whichever side was *not* moving in a given section of the battle won it. Much of the difference in survival rates in the first parts of the battle was due to the greater German willingness to sit and wait. The danger of this policy, of course, if that the enemy may not come to you. This was demonstrated by the remainder of the German's Leo I company, which was outflanked and passed by the Soviet attack across the north of the map, and was blown away by the Soviets as it tried to retreat out of the airport. The other danger is that by sitting in one place you are more vulnerable to enemy artillery and air support; both sides took large losses to stationary forces from these, particularly the Germans. Getting observers into good spots is also, as always, important. The units of the FSE that the Soviets got behind German lines provided a fair amount of valuable intelligence on German movements, spotting for fire on German positions, and also some ambushes which weakened oncoming German forces before reaching the main battle. 2) For running CPXes. When Major H suggested to me that we try running 3-5 TacOps turns between each report to the players from the umpire, I was skeptical, afraid that the players would lose too much control and detail on events. I was wrong. The system worked wonderfully in this game and hopefully we will be able to keep it for others. I ran TacOps turns until 1) 5 minutes had gone by or 2) something of critical importance, or an event players had been waiting for, took place. Then I provided a report to the players and collected orders. Not only did the speed the game up - to over double our previous best pace, in a very big scenario - but it was less stressful for the umpire too. I *can't* remember every detail of what happens in 5 turns, so I don't try; instead I provide an impressionistic report of what happened since the last report. These are then backed up by sending out the CPX version's situation reports, which lists the location of all friendly units (these made up, in part, for my inability to send screenshots due to slow speeds on IRC). The players did lose some control; I kept up the previous game's (#3) practice of the umpire controlling the arty on the basis of player's directives. I also took more control of the companies in the game; this is rather trickier since it calls for judging, at times, how the player wanted the units to act. I tended not to mess with this much unless the situation very clearly called for a shift in orders. Stephen Althouse's map graphics greatly eased the control of his troops. He had 6 axes of advance, an equal number of pre-set company to battalion sized "Battle Positions", and about 10 "Observation Points" marked on the map and named. With a printout of the map next to me, this enabled Steve to give orders like "3rd Bn to BP North via Axis Kharkov" - quickly and easily understood on the basis of the map. His orders also tended to include an intent, which makes it easier for the umpire to make decisions about handling the troops on the fly. Players commented that they felt they had started the game too close together. Given the higher speed at which we are running the games it ought to be possible to start farther apart and unpack units into march columns as needed. Finally, this scenario was a proving ground for a lot of the special umpire tools in the CPX version of TacOps. Except for a few accounting bugs it worked quite well. This, plus the ability to add new forces at will, plus the new-found speed of running the game (which could possibly be increased, by not taking a number of 5-15 minute breaks!), makes doing the Air & Armor linkup game look very workable. It will have to be done over a series of weekends (3-6 of them), but once we have more umpires trained up, I hope we can do it. ---------- A file of IRC logs, the few screenshots taken, and all text reports made by the CPX engine can be had on request from James Sterrett [udrj007@kcl.ac.uk] or Steve Weatherwax [sjw1@postoffice.worldnet.att.net].