An MBX is a CPX conducted by email instead of over IRC.

Basil Burgess’ AAR:

MBX Mountaingy  - Battalion Commander's AAR

A group of us have just finished a TACOPS MBX, umpired by Jammer. There 
were 5 players, with myself as the commander of an armoured battalion, 
along with Brian Rock, Stephan Holmberg, Tim Harmon, and James Sterrett 
as company/team commanders.

Our mission was to penetrate an enemy screening force and exit a force, 
thru the east end of the map, sufficient to attack the enemy's rear 
echelons.

Opfor was estimated to be a battalion-sized armoured screening force.

The exercise went for 25 game minutes over about 8 days. At the end of 
that time, we had not exitted units and our strength was down to 
50%-60%. Based on these losses, I queried whether people wanted to 
continue. We were willing, but I suspect that from the fact I asked at 
all, Jammer decided to end the exercise.

From the choice of map and friendly forces, it was pretty plain we were 
playing TF Pucci. This assumption was not directly confirmed or denied, 
and I think that's right. As well, it was never stated whether Jammer 
found a person to play the OPFOR or if he used the AI. From the overall 
behaviour, I believe it was the AI. However, we were sufficiently 
confused by some of the OPFOR behaviour that we were never really sure. 
Once again, I think this is as it should be.

As Commander, I set the plan and moved my co/tms by that plan. As such, 
I bear the most resposibiility for our results.

The force consisted of:
   a scout platoon of M3, scout teams and FO teams
   3 heavy company teams - 4 pl M1 + 2 PL M2 with standard mech infantry 
loads. We were supported with 6 organic mortars (M106), and 2 batteries 
of 155mm arty. We also had 2 FIST-V's.

The exercise was run on Map 8. The plan was to to use smoke to screen a 
penetration along the southern-most axis of the map. Once the 
southwestern mesa was secured and obscured, a column would proceed 
across the axis and over the western edge of the map. I had tested this 
3-4 times against the AI. Unfortunately I did not anticipate the 
conditions Jammer would set.

The OPFOR set against us was modified from the stock "from the box" 
setup. OPFOR T-80U's were upgraded to T-80U ATGM. BMP2's were upgraded 
to BMP3. BRDM's were upgraded to BRDM AT. As well, some unit (I don't 
know which) was upgraded to A/T gun. On the other hand, our co/tm's were 
much stronger than the real life equivalents.

In short, every major aspect of the plan was directly foiled by 
circumstance or fortuitous placement of OPFOR resources.

We sent out the scouts to recon thru the woods on the SW mesa, to 
establish overwatch on the first objective, the SE mesa. The scouts 
seemed to have hardly moved before being decimated (all M3's destroyed) 
by what appears to have been a BMP3 set right on their advance (I'm not 
entirely sure about this. We got almost no info about what really 
happened). Because the scout force was given control of the indirect 
fire support, the combination of the destruction of the scout force in 
the game, and the fact that the scout force commander's machine gave up 
the ghost before he could get going, left us with no control of arty 
that had already been started. As a result, by the time the battalion 
re-acquired control of the off-map artillery, all the smoke and ICM 
rounds were allowed to be fired with no control or enemy targets. 

While we were trying to determine what happened to the scouts, the force 
tasked with securing the objective mesa, and the main column were sent 
out. The two lead companies were spotted and immediately engaged by an 
eneny counter-attack. In all, they were engaged by 2 armour 
counter-attacks and were in the process of preparing for a 3 
counterattack by BMP3's when the game was called. By this time, 2 of the 
3 co/tm's were down to a total of 10 tanks and a few M2's.

The plan failed due to my lack of foresight:
 - it was too heavily dependant on arty smoke to obscure our advance. 
Our arty smoke was allowed to be fired off, negating this key element. 
Also, I did not forsee that the umpire would give the OPFOR thermal 
imaging. I usually don't play that way because I prefer the realism. 
However, I shouldn't have expected the umpire to do the same. Also, I 
had expected the arty to be re-supplied; that never happened.
 - the umpire completely upgraded the OPFOR antitank strength. This was 
completely beyond my expectation.
 - the umpire appears to have placed optional obstacles/units that were 
unexpected. For example, we found a minefield across our axis of 
advance, and some units seemed to be placed in positions that were not 
seen in other games involving the Pucci scenario.

While I chose a route that gave us the maximum potential cover, it 
turned out that every choice I made happened to be countered thru some 
circumstance or other. Since our operation was dependent on these 
choices, I left my battalion with little option but to be clobbered.

In future, I intend to be more careful about how I perform or order 
recon to be done. Like the smoke, the setting of the recon force was an 
essential part of the plan. We did get some recon forces into their 
designated positions to observe the objective mesa, the loss of so many 
recon units so early was hard. M3's are good at delivering scout troops, 
but should hang back out of sight until the OP's are secured.

In future I will not depend on smoke as a strategic part of the plan. I 
will use it to obscure OPFOR infantry observation, but carefully test it 
against A/T weapons to establish it's ability.

I do not know how much my desire to hang back and coach rather than 
order my co commanders helped or hurt. It's my preferred command style 
to give my subordinates the maximum latitude. Possibly I could have 
pushed harder toward the overall mission objectives. I'll let the others 
comment on this. They had their hands full once we were fully engaged, 
and I tried to let them do their jobs with a minimum interference. 
That's how I saw it. I'm sure the perception is different on the other 
end of the FRAGO. <smile>

I was disappointed with the circumstances of handling indirect fire. I 
had specified that the scout team would have call on those assets. 
However, I also expected that I would have sufficient control as "bn 
FSO" so that I would know what was happening and could support my units 
in a timely fashion. I guess this was an unreasonable expectation as I 
had to go thru several messages over 2-3 rounds before I could get the 
arty back under control. By that time, all the smoke (which wouldn't 
have been as effective as I expected) and all the ICM (which I ended up 
needing) was allowed to be indiscriminately fired off. It's hard enough 
to plan and control effective fire in an MBX. It's much harder, and too 
much "fog of war" for my taste, when you have to fight to gain control 
this way. I'll have to re-think how I'll plan and use arty when dealing 
with umpires that prefer this level of play. In the first MBX I played 
as commander I was criticized for separating the recon from the fire 
support. In this one, giving the recon the control was wrong because the 
recon got killed. What the balance is? I don't know. I need to think 
about that.

I understand that this type of fog is typical in MBX/CPX for arty and 
air support. I think umpires should have mechanisms that provide for 
missions, and particularly adjustments, in a more realistic manner. 
MBX/CPX turns  may involve 3-5 or more minutes of game time. It is 
insufficient to subject fire support to this kind of quantization. 
Support missions are too critical and have no SOP options to allow 
automatic shifting, the way mobile elements do. It would be preferable 
if there were generally accepted practices for umpiring the fire and air 
support. Otherwise, umpires may be subject to distrust by players.

Well that's it for me. I want to thank Jammer for an enlightening game, 
and thank and commend my fellow team members for their excellent work.

Cheers
Basil


And Stephan Holmberg’s:

entlemen,
Some of the blame for this one needs to fall on me, AGAIN.  I think I
maintained commo better this time, but I'm not sure that dropping out for the
Fourth was a good idea.  Additionally, an error was made in my first turn
orders that ended up with my team wandering all over the landscape.  Had the
team been where it was supposed to be, when it was supposed to be, we might
have punched through as planned by Basil.
As it was, I think my last turn's orders showed I had a grip on the situation.
Hopefully no one thinks I'm a slacker.  :)
Some general comments:
1)  Who expected T-80U-ATGM's with thermals and IATGM's?
2)  Arty commo seemed a bit odd.  In CPX's I've always gotten reports about
where the rounds are falling, and of what type.  It would have helped my
planning to have that info here.
3)  Basil tried to implement two things that did not happen through no fault
of his planning.  Scouting and maintaining a reserve.  These two elements have
proven again to be critical.  [so sayeth all the generals]
I did have fun, and I must say I was surprised by the abrupt end.  I'm certain
that Jammer had his reasons.  Shall we try again?
Steve