Jerry Hall’s Red Pass CPX.

Jerry was very busy with Real Life™ and never got a complete AAR out.  The following 
are presented in the order my email program claims they arrived:


This is an Opfor-side AAR for the recently-concluded Red Pass CPX, played on Map 213 
(NTC Southern Corridor).  The map comes with TacOps CE; a viewable image of it can 
be downloaded from http://www.sterrett.demon.co.uk/ .

Opfor players:

	We had a number of changes of who did what both during the run-up and during 
the game; this tries to list everyone involved at some point and what they commanded.

	James Sterrett:  CO and Artillery
	Jammer 6: MRD Recon and Force Abd'allah (Breaching Force)
	Kevin Martell: MRR Recon, MRBn Recon, Force Jihadin (Flank Security) and 
then Force Khamsin (Assault)
	Steve Althouse: Force Khamsin (Assault)
	Rick Nelson: Force Jihadin (Flank Security)
	Steve H: MRB Recon

	Jerry Hall and Toby Hale were the umpires, though we never had any contact 
with Toby (was he running things for Blue?)

Situation:

	We were provided with a BMP battalion, a T-80 battalion, an engineering 
company (for minefield breaching), recon companies from Regiment (MRR Recon) and 
Division (MRD Recon - included a tank platoon), one battery each of 122mm and 
152mm, and an MRL battalion.  At one point in the game, we would also have a pre-
planned set of fires from Division, from 2 152mm batteries (HE only) and an MRL 
battalion.

	Our mission was the cross Map 213 from west to east, exiting at least one 
company off of the north map edge, east of easting 55 - put more simply, to crash through 
Red Pass (565030) and crash north; all of this in aid of outflanking the main US defence 
to the north.  The enemy was expected to consist of a Company Team and a Cavalry 
Platoon with extensive engineering support.

	In the north of the map, the area both north of 05 northing and west of 52 easting 
was off-limits during the assault operation since it would be used by our neighber to the 
north.

	The game was planned to use an MBX for the recon battle, and then shift to a 
CPX for the main assault.  Our first recon units were to enter the west edge of the map at 
0700 12 June, with the main assault set to enter the map at 0700 13 June.

	We had to designate the targets for the pre-planned prep fires by midnight, 13 
June (7 hours before the attack).

What happened:

	MRD Recon (Jammer 6) moved onto the map and worked its way down the 
central valley; after about mid-map the recon teams dismounted and started walking.  To 
my amazement, one of the teams, Penny 1, managed to walk right into Red Pass and 
spent most of the MBX observing US activity from the southern tip of Porta-Potty Hill 
(at about 558032).  Toether with the other MRD Recce teams, it gathered a tremendous 
amount of information for us.

	Things turned more worrisome in the afternoon of the 12th.  The US sent its Cav 
platoon scouting west; it wiped out our vehicles keeping an eye on the central portion of 
the map, and moved into the throat of the central pass, advancing to 41 easting.  We were 
quite nervous about this, with visions of losing our entry corridor, but for whatever 
reason, the US stopped.  We were able to kill most of their recon teams, and when our 
main assault began the US pulled most of its vehicles back without a firefight.

	In the meantime, all sorts of weird little events occured.  Jerry apparently had a 
table of random events, which periodically triggered stuff off.  We found a bulldozer and 
a lot of explosives sitting at an abandoned mine at 430025, which later came in quite 
handy.  One the minus side, one of our Recon BMPs got killed when the driver, half-
asleep, accidentally started the engine at an inopportune moment.  The US seemed to 
suffer from a string of incidents with local partisans sniping at them, Civil Affairs 
helicopters running around broadcasting messages to calm the locals, and, importantly, a 
mishap handing the mines they were emplacing which caused a tremendous explosion 
and slowed their work to the point that their minefield was incomplete.

	The last 12 hours of the MBX went by in a flash.  Jerry wound up behind 
schedule because 1) we were slow in getting orders in; and 2) TacOps, it turns out, stops 
running correctly after 9 hours and 6 minutes (an internal timer suddenly overflows to a 
negative number and scrambles anything in the game that is timed.)  Nobody had noticed 
before because nobody had tried to run a game so long before!  Major H came to the 
rescue (thank you!) but this cost time as well.

	There was a pause at 2300 12 June for me to set in the prep fire targets.  By this 
time, I'd drawn up and issued our basic plan as well.  I also thought I had figured out the 
enemy defense scheme at Red Pass - largely correctly as it turned out:  A belt of mines 
and AT ditches at about Javelin range from the center of Red Pass.  Inside of Red Pass, a 
line of Javelins.  East of Red Pass, vic 58/04, the M-1s and M-2s emplaced to cover Red 
Pass and the minefields.  All of this would be set up to deliver massed simultaneous fire 
into a force attempting to breach the minefield.

	The plan called for our force to enter the map at 0700 13 June, move forward and 
allow our artillery to emplace in the central pass so that it could take part in the prep fire.  
The combat forces would be broken into 3 sections:

		Force Khamsin, of 2 BMP and 1 Tank companies, would be the assault 
force, clearing a path to the enemy minefield, stoping short of it, and deploying to 
provide overwatch for the breaching force.

		Force Abd'allah, of a BMP company, a T-80 company equipped with mine 
plows and mine rollers, and all the engineering equipment, was to be the breaching force.

		Force Jihadin, with a T-80 company and the MRBn Recon vehicles, was 
to provide flank security to the south of our advance, securing Whale Gap (47/98) and the 
area east of the Whale (the Whale is the mountain at 50/96).

	The prep fire was set to go on a phase line trigger at easting 47; I targetted a 
variety of positions that we had spotted, or thought we had spotted, in the vicinity of Red 
Pass.  I intentionally did not target the vehicle positions around 58/04, in order to prevent 
the enemy from knowing that we knew of them.  Penny 1 was sent north - out of the prep 
fire impact zone - to investigate the possibility of passes over Porta-Potty Hill that we 
might use to outflank the defense at Red Pass.

	In the run-up to the game, after setting out this plan, we wound up moving up the 
map entry time to 0600 and moved the prep fire trigger line to 50 Easting.  I also spent a 
lot of worry on how we were going to deal with the enemy Cav platoon that had 
advanced in the central valley.

	In all of this there were several flaws that were not apparent until the CPX stage 
was underway.  I only got our overall plan written up and sent out on Wednesday.  This 
gave the subordiantes very little time to get their plans formed.  I had simply assigned 
them missions, but left the details to them; then Real Life intervened and left them 
without time to get their plans done.  As a result, we entered the map with a plan that had 
a broad outline and no internal structure.  I knew how I wanted things to go, but I had 
failed to properly communicate that.

	As a result, when the CPX started (07:25), the entire operation looked like it was 
going to unravel.  Jerry (and some of you are well permitted a bit of schadenfreude here 
8) ran the game fast enough at first that we really did rather lose control.  With Blue 
retreating, this did not create too many problems and only two crises.  First, Blue left a 
stay-behind force of some M-1s, M-3s, and mortars around 43/03.  Khamsin was meant 
to take these out, but Jerry missed the order; then only the MRD tank platoon went after 
them (and died), and finally we got an entire BMP company to go and wipe out the Blue 
force.  Second, while I had wanted to stop before crossing our prep fire trigger line, we 
simply sped over it and the prep started.

	All this had me very worried, but in the end it did not work out badly (though the 
vision of the stay-behind force moving south to wipe out our artillery - slated to deploy 
just south of that part of the valley - was rather frightening).  We rolled up to the 
minefield and got settled in for overwatch by about 08:20.  I was rather surprised by the 
weak resistance west of the pass; I thought we had found vehicle defensive positions west 
of it, but Blue chose to pull everything back into the one set-piece defense.  We delayed 
the mine-clearing operation until 08:40 to wait for some Blue jamming of our fire support 
net to clear away; attacking without smoke sounded like a recipe for suicide.

	Much of the rest of the game was spent on two projects:  mine clearance and pass 
clearing.  Penny 1 had discovered a pass at 550045 that would allow single file vehicle 
traffic over PortaPotty Hill, if a few boulders were cleared away.  We brought up a 
bulldozer - the one found earlier - for the task.  (MRR Recon had found another pass at 
550055, but since this one was said to be very rough going, we feared that some vehicle 
would throw a track and bock it if we tried to use it.)  Between transit time and boulder-
moving time, the pass would not be ready until about 10:00.

	Much of that time was taken up by the mine breaching operation.  We elected to 
hug the mountain wall, hoping that this would keep us clear of the bulk of Blue's 
overwatch fires.  Until about 09:15 we were able to cover Red Pass in smoke and thus for 
a while the breaching operation went smoothly.  Once the win picked up, and the smoke 
became ineffective, the breaching was conducted under artillery fire and was a bit of a 
nightmare.  We lost dead or immobilized every engineering vehicle and completed the 
breach on the strength of infantry that had been marched up, and expended about half of 
our arty ammunition on Blue positions in Red Pass trying to suppress them and prevent 
effective artillery spotting.  (We did not know until later that there was a hummer 
watching us from 562984.  Flank security had been turned into part of the assault force 
by that point, since we were not taking direct fire.  Oops.)  Penny 1 was discovered in 
Porta-Potty Wadi by an M-1 and killed; MRR Recon 3, sneaking towards 57/06, was 
similarly discovered and killed.  The troopers of these teams are going home as Heroes of 
Krasnovia for their superb recon work, albeit posthumously.

	(At about 09:30, game time, we learned that the last US player, Bill Jennings, had 
to go.  I gave Jerry a brief outline of our intended plan and suggested he simply run the 
game very fast so we could finish before Bill had to go, and Jerry agreed.)

	While we took heavy losses, in the course of this the US forces in Red Pass 
seemed to get mostly wiped out.  By about 10:00, we had a breach through the minefield 
as far as Red Pass - very fortunately for us, we had chosen to breach the field in the spot 
that it was weak due to the losses from their earlier mine-handling mishap.  A company 
of BMPs was ready to move from the 550045 pass into PortaPotty Wadi and charge north 
while the rest of our forces popped around the corner from 567027 into Red Pass and 
assaulted the main US defence; all this timed to coincide with the arrival of our last MRL 
volley onto the US defences vic 58/04.

	The attack worked.  Blue had 2 M-1s at the north end of PrtaPotty Wadi that cost 
us a platoon of BMPs, and at the cost of a company or so each of tanks and BMPs our 
assault force wiped out the US defence at Red Pass.  With the equivalent of over 3 
companies headed north by 10:30, we had the game in the bag and Jerry called an end.


Lessons learned:

	As a CO, make sure that all the force coordination you are expecting to have to do 
is laid out clearly.  I was sometimes frustrated by what seemed to be player's lack of 
knowledge or understanding of my intent, and I have only myself to blame....  they 
cannot read my mind.  This may have come close to causing a disaster when we nearly 
failed to kill the stay-behind force at 43/03 - it might have wiped out our artillery, on 
which much of the plan depended.  Had Blue done more to disrupt us in the march across 
the map our plan might have unravelled completely.

	Minefield breaching is a bear - especially when the minefield is nearly a kilometer 
deep in places.  The smoke worked very well, and overall our overwatch did the job when 
it could see our assailants.  We took very heavy losses to artillery, though, because we 
relaxed on flank security, focusing on the breach and preparations to exploit it.  That we 
did as well as we did in the breaching owes a lot to: selecting a breaching axis that was 
subject to very little direct fire; using a lot of smoke in protecting ourselves from what 
could use direct fires; and last but not least lucking into a weak place in the minefield.

	We went a long way towards winning this game in the recon battle.  Not a 
surprise, perhaps, but once the nature of Bill's defence scheme dawned on me we had a 
major advantage.  My only critiques of Bill's scheme are these:

	- there was not much direct-fire coverage of the south-eastern section of the 
minefield - although getting coverage of that would force units to be in an uncomfortable 
position if Opfor came in at any other angle.

	- while Bill tried to deploy much of the force to put fires across the entire 
minefield, from what I can tell not all of it did.  This, I think, let us engage some of the 
defence peicemeal in the final assault.

	- The Cav platoon retreating from us might have considered springing some kind 
of activity on us - ambushing scouts, calling artillery.  Blue at one point owned 10-12 
kilometers of space that it did very little to use to delay us.  This might have gotten us to 
waste time and pushed the game closer to the time when we could not cover our 
breaching activity with smoke.  On the other hand, if Blue had done this, it might have 
sustained losses that would have made the Pass defence too weak.  Tough call.

	- The defense seemed very static.  I do not know if Blue thought to look for 
passes; if they did, they did not defend them.

	- Having said all that, were I in Bill's shoes my defence would probably have 
looked a lot like his.  8)

	Jerry (and Toby, though he was off-stage for us) did a great job running this.  It 
ran reasonably fast all the time, and while it seemed too fast in the beginning, this had a 
lot to do with our fears of facing an immediate encounter battle.  In Jerry's shoes I'd likely 
have run it at an equally forced pace rather than let Opfor waste a lot of time jumping at 
shadows.  In the MBX portion, the random events added a lot of spice to the game.

	Thanks to all who were on the Opfor side; it was a pleasure to play with you.  
Well done!!  8)


Jerry commented:

Good comments, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am going to work on my AAR, but a
few quick comments:

Bill only controlled his Div Cav assets until your lead elements were sighted:
they had orders to withdraw off the map while reporting the location of your
advancing units. This is a standard cavalry mission; screen the main body,
then withdraw, usually become the reserve, then perform additional
reconnaissance or security missions. That's why you didn't encounter any
resistance up to the pass.

He also had two Scout Weapons Teams (SWTs=2 OH58s), also from the Div Cav
sqdn, for two 2 hour periods. He chose the doctrinal times, 24 hours and 12
hours before your attack, which coincided nicley with the times you chose (or,
more appropriately, didn't change) for your recon to enter.

Bill was most successful when he was aggressive with his counter-recon. This
would have been especially important around the Pass itself. He chose to use
his infantry to help emplace the mines, which gave him more mines, but took
them away from running patrols around the pass, which would have been the best
thing to do. Had you been blind going into the pass, would have made things
interesting.

Smoke was other problem. In 105 you could change the preferences in the middle
of the game (that's how I did it in the other NTC CPXs). You can't in TACOPS
CE. I forgot about this until it came time to change the smoke defeats
thermals settings when the winds picked up about 1010. I just made a mental
note not to call arty smoke, and to set vehicles not to pop smoke. 

What happened however, was that I didn't realize that your MRL was out of
ammo, and so the strike I plotted was smoke by default, which blinded a whole
platoon of Bill's Brad's for several crucial minutes as your MRB began its
attack. At the time I thought it was just the residual smoke from an HE burst,
but that only lasts one minute. T-80s were on top of the Brads even before the
smoke cleared, and by the time it did, the other platoons in Bill's company
were dead.

I didn't figure all of this out until later, when I was thinking about the
battle, worried about its balance.

So I went back and ran the battle without the MRL strike, just with the arty.
3 out of 10 times the US company whacked your MRB hard, with remnants equal to
about two platoons leaving the map to link up with the MRC (-) that made it
thru PP Wadi. 7 out 10 times your MRB took about 50% losses, but managed to
get off the map with about an MRC and half, not counting the PP Wadi guys.

Then I went back to when the lead MRP hit the two M1s in PP, and 8 out of ten
times they killed that MRP with no loss,  then the second, and wound up dead
after the third and HQ combined. This left the main attack to meet the victory
conditions pretty much alone, with the results above.

This means that the scenario was winnable for the US even after the breach and
infiltration into PP, which was my main concern. Even if it was only a slight
chance, Bill could have won at the point if I hadn't screwed up the MRL. He
probably could even have won with that with better luck against the MRC in PP
and better results in the pass; there were a lot of misses on the US side, and
it didn't seem that the entrenchments were helping all that much.

Something else I noticed was that in the US briefing I said that OPFOR would
have an MRB and a Tk Co, while in the OPFOR brief I gave them an MRB and a TK
Bn. I couldn't remember which I meant after I got your order containing two
Bns! With all of the mines and entrenchments, I figured the US could handle
it.

Anyway, would like some additional comments on the scenario, epsecially play
balance. THere were a lot of random events that affected things that are hard
to account for, but your impressions would be appreciated. I intend to run
this one again after I move and get settled in. I think it offers a lot in
terms of replayability, plus it was a heck of a lot of fun to umpire! I was on
the edge of my seat until the last 10 minutes, which is really when the game
was decided.

The question of finding routes thru what I said was impassable terrain was
another concern I had. Since you gave that as I task for your recon, I
considered it reasonable, and even went and talked to some guys who were
Observer controllers at NTC to confirm these routes. To balance it, I made a
mental note that if Bill moved any ground units near, I would comment on the
fact that it looked like vehicles might be able to pass thru, as well as alert
him to vehicles sounds in the vicinity when you moved into them, which I did,
although I think I confused him into thinking that those sounds were your main
body staging just past the breach. I'll have to look at the log and see what I
reported.

Oh, and unfortunately Toby couldn't make it.

Jerry


Mike Dunn wrote:

All,

I thought that the MBX/CPX was absolutely excellent, and enjoyed my self
thoroughly.  For those of you on the OPFOR side, I was in charge of the
BLUFOR Recon (albeit nominally; real life intruded with the birth of my son
which "distracted" me from being as involved as much as I would have
liked).

Armed with Bill's guidance (find them deep, kill them deep), I sent the
recon elements out basically into three directions - 2 HUMMVs north to vic
5207, 2 HUMMV south to vic 5899, and the remainder to 5100, basically to
act as a quick reaction force to whatever we may encounter.  I also drew up
two Aviation Axis' of Advance to scout relatively deep to try to discover
which avenue of approach OPFOR would use for both recon and main attack. 
At this point, real life intruded (see above) so, had to basically ease off
a bit.  Bill then pushed the main body of the recon into the mouth of
Valley of Death in order to kill OPFOR recon as far forward as possible,
and to set up OPs in order to ID OPFOR main body.  At the same time, the
two flank recon teams moved 1. north to the entrance of John Wayne Pass,
and 2. south to Whale Pass.  The idea here was again, ID and engage as far
forward as possible.

Looks like we were successful with finding the mounted recon, however, we
had less success with the dismounted recon.  As Jerry had pointed out,
BLUFOR assumed risk by putting the infantry teams to work on the obstacles,
as opposed to conducting local counter-recon patrols.  Once again, this
prove that there is just not enough time to do all the tasks that need to
be done.  It was a risk, but given the mishap the occured in setting up the
obstacles, one that was well worth taking.

Bill and I were feeling pretty good about ourselves when we IDed the MRB
coming down John Wayne Pass; the feeling of smugness quickly turned into
terror when we IDed the OTHER MRB coming down the Valley Of Death.  I never
felt so relieved as when the MRB in north left our sector!  

Faced with the reinforced MRB (we thought we were facing just one TK Co,
not a whole Tk BN; that's a strike against S-2 <g>), we struggled to keep
eyes-on while the OPFOR blew past us.  As Jerry pointed out, we had to
withdraw the DIV CAV once the main fight was on, and so was basically left
with a tank and mortar section forward with the HUMMVs and dismounted OPs
we had set up.  We had wanted to use this force to basically engage the
OPFOR engineer assets with indirect fires.  Unfortunately for us, OPFOR 
persued our stay behind force with a MRC+, and killed it rather quickly. 
From my point of view, the game turned into a struggle to keep contact with
the OPFOR main body with out getting killed.

Lessons learned:  RECON MATTERS!  We needed to kill the OPFOR recon, but
more importatly, we needed to keep OPFOR recon from our main body.  We
succeded in killing the dismounts, but didn't really benefit much from it
as turned out  OPFOR had our positions down pretty accurately.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and look forward to the next one put on by 
Jerry.  (Though I suspect Jerry will get more than his fill of NTC rather
soon)  Great job to OPFOR; 'twas great fun!

Mike Dunn


Jerry explained a few things further:

<<Ah - that explains much.  8)  Was the group in 43/03 left behind on
purpose?>>

Yes to destroy any engineer assets, if possible. I might have used a brad for
this, but not the tank and mortars.

  
<< OK.  We were worried about the possibility of attack helos, but they never
 showed up - to our relief.>>

I wanted  a battle with no air and no helos :-)
 
 
 <<Yes!!  If we had not known what we were facing, it would likely have been a
 disaster.>>

The main purpose of  the MBX
 
 >Smoke was other problem. In 105 you could change the preferences in the
 middle
 >of the game (that's how I did it in the other NTC CPXs). You can't in TACOPS
 >CE. I forgot about this until it came time to change the smoke defeats
 >thermals settings when the winds picked up about 1010. I just made a mental
 >note not to call arty smoke, and to set vehicles not to pop smoke. 
 
 <<OK.  And I assumed that the settings were changed and stopped trying to
 call it.  8)>>
 
 >What happened however, was that I didn't realize that your MRL was out of
 >ammo, and so the strike I plotted was smoke by default, which blinded a
whole
 >platoon of Bill's Brad's for several crucial minutes as your MRB began its
 >attack. At the time I thought it was just the residual smoke from an HE
 burst,
 >but that only lasts one minute. T-80s were on top of the Brads even before
 the
 >smoke cleared, and by the time it did, the other platoons in Bill's company
 >were dead.
 
 <<Argh - chalk one up to my poor admin, too, then, as I thought we had one
 more HE strike left and was counting on the suppression effect to help us
out.>>

Yeah, I felt kind of bad about. 
 
 >So I went back and ran the battle without the MRL strike, just with the
arty.
 >3 out of 10 times the US company whacked your MRB hard, with remnants
 equal to
 >about two platoons leaving the map to link up with the MRC (-) that made it
 >thru PP Wadi. 7 out 10 times your MRB took about 50% losses, but managed to
 >get off the map with about an MRC and half, not counting the PP Wadi guys.
 >
 >Then I went back to when the lead MRP hit the two M1s in PP, and 8 out of
ten
 >times they killed that MRP with no loss,  then the second, and wound up dead
 >after the third and HQ combined. This left the main attack to meet the
 victory
 >conditions pretty much alone, with the results above.
 >
 >This means that the scenario was winnable for the US even after the breach
 and
 >infiltration into PP, which was my main concern. Even if it was only a
slight
 >chance, Bill could have won at the point if I hadn't screwed up the MRL. He
 >probably could even have won with that with better luck against the MRC in
PP
 >and better results in the pass; there were a lot of misses on the US side,
 and
 >it didn't seem that the entrenchments were helping all that much.
 
 <<I expected to take heavier losses going through Red Pass.  On the other
 hand, I think the MRL, landing as HE as I expected (oops), would have
 tilted things more in our favor than 'no arty' - although less than the
 smoke!!>>

I thought you would take more too! In some of replays, your did:-)
 
  
<< My jaw dropped when I saw the number of mines there.  8)  Too bad, in
 retrospect, that we didn't try to figure out the passage through them from
 the vehicle tracks as the Cav retreated through.  Oh well.>>

I'lls end you the US file that contains everything: order, planning chat, mbx
chat and cpx log (I'm working on the OPFOR one, too).

I was wondering if you would notice that; I can't remember if I sent enough
spotreps for you to figure that out, though. I wasn't going to come out and
say it! Bill forgot to close the lane with his command detonated mines, but
I'm sure he would have blown them had you gotten close to the lane.
 
 >Anyway, would like some additional comments on the scenario, epsecially play
 >balance. THere were a lot of random events that affected things that are
hard
 >to account for, but your impressions would be appreciated. I intend to run
 >this one again after I move and get settled in. I think it offers a lot in
 >terms of replayability, plus it was a heck of a lot of fun to umpire! I
 was on
 >the edge of my seat until the last 10 minutes, which is really when the game
 >was decided.
 
 I was very very nervous about the assault....  actually, it kept me very
 nervous the whole way through.  8)
 
 I don't think the random events altered the play balance much.  Some were
 good for us (captured map, mine explosion, finding the dozer) and others
 were not (BMP driver falls asleep, and, um...)  But none were game-changing
 except, maybe, the mine explosion.  Even there, I think we'd have been best
 off using that approach route through the minefield.
 
 Was it balanced?  To be honest, I tend not to try to get balance too fine;
 player idiocy can change balance by a wide margin.  In rough terms, it is
 balanced - possibly even hard for Opfor to win, if they do not get good
 recon data on the US.  Going into that minefield blind would have been a
 nightmare.
 
<< The one worry I'd have about the scenario is the relative immobility of the
 US position in the CPX stage.  That could get boring (don't know since I
 wasn't there) during the CPX stage; I tend to try to give the defender some
 scope for maneuver.  Not that they always take it.  8)  (A rule of thumb I
 was given a while back as "make sure each player has three major decisions
 to make each game".  If you take it as a guideline, it works well - make
 sure the players will have to make some kind of a major decision - or
 several - every game, and they'll likely stay excited.)>>

Bill's immobility was of his own choosing. The US mission was a defense in
sector, with the purpose of stopping you from exiting forces off the north and
east corner edges. He could have defended any he wanted: static, mobile, west
of the pass, in the pass, east of the pass, etc., which is why I think the
scenario has some replay value. There are endless possibilities for both the
attacker and the defender.
 
 <<  If you run it again, change some of the stuff in it.  8)  My SS-20
 scenario last fall was to my mind a re-run of a "Khuruchabja" scenario a
 year before - even on the same map! - but nobody noticed because of a
 combination of cosmetic changes (place names, name of the brass ring) and
 real changes (Blue attacking in the second and defending in the first).>>

I wouldn't do much more than possible make a menu for OOB, or randomly
determine it. Could be a tank bn and MRC, even 2 tank bns, etc, vs. a us pure
tank/mech co, or a "balanced" co/team of 2 tank and 2 mech plts, or some other
combination, maybe let the US player keep control of the Div Cav, but double
their point value so that he doesn't just get them killed (hard to delay in
contact against BMPs!)
 
 >The question of finding routes thru what I said was impassable terrain was
 >another concern I had. Since you gave that as I task for your recon, I
 >considered it reasonable, and even went and talked to some guys who were
 >Observer controllers at NTC to confirm these routes. To balance it, I made a
 >mental note that if Bill moved any ground units near, I would comment on the
 >fact that it looked like vehicles might be able to pass thru, as well as
 alert
 >him to vehicles sounds in the vicinity when you moved into them, which I
did,
 >although I think I confused him into thinking that those sounds were your
 main
 >body staging just past the breach. I'll have to look at the log and see
 what I
 >reported.
 
 <<I was surprised by your reply to Kevin's intial question on that, I admit.
 I had assumed that since you said 'no go' you meant just that.  But once
 you said 'go and see'....  well, what was there to lose?!  8)  By the way,
 was our fear of a vehicle breaking down and stalling a column for some huge
 slice of time in the northern pass (055055) justified?>>

There would have been a 25% chance of that; I was surprised you chose the
bouldered one. It would have been faster, barring breakdowns, in the north.
That is another technique OPFOR uses to block passes (I've seen them do this
in JW Pass, which is narrower than depicted here: they use a bulldozer to push
boulders into the middle of the pass=instant obstacle!)
 
 << In your AAR, can you explain all of the small random events that triggered
 off?>>

Sure.

<< Actually. I'd think it is a toss-up - the Brad has a longer range but the
 tank is more likely to get off more shots.  but I'd have thought to leave
 an infantry team and called for arty!  8) 
 Speaking of which - did their artillery battery stay in 62/02 as reported?
 I'd have shot at it but I figured it would move.>>

He never moved it. Probably would have been better to engage with arty, but he
was saving it for your breach forcem which paid off. Had he not fired a few
ICM volleys at Jihadin's tanks vic the Whale Gap, he could have probably
stopped your breach force before it got a lane established
   
  > <<Argh - chalk one up to my poor admin, too, then, as I thought we had one
 > more HE strike left and was counting on the suppression effect to help us
 >out.>> >Yeah, I felt kind of bad about. 
  About....?>>
  
Screwing that MRL mission up. I know that the odds just went against the US at
that point, but I felt I had really dropped the ball as the unpire by missing
that one. I'm going to have to ask the major to make sure T98 has the ability
to change all preferences druing game play so that you can be creative. He
already said he's going to make thermals more selective, like giving them only
to one type of unit, like T-80s, so that you can have other tanks without
thermals. 

<<(I love
 packing.  8(  )>>

Are you moving too? Or just going on a trip? We are heading to Colorado
Saturday to look for a house.
 
 ><< The one worry I'd have about the scenario is the relative immobility of
 the
 > US position in the CPX stage.  That could get boring (don't know since I
 > wasn't there) during the CPX stage; I tend to try to give the defender some
 > scope for maneuver.  Not that they always take it.  8)  (A rule of thumb I
 > was given a while back as "make sure each player has three major decisions
 > to make each game".  If you take it as a guideline, it works well - make
 > sure the players will have to make some kind of a major decision - or
 > several - every game, and they'll likely stay excited.)>>
 >

I threw that extra MRB in in HV/JW Pass to give them a scare! Plus it sounds
like trying to track you in sector kept them fairly busy.

 << True, but there are aspects of the scenario that *beg* the US player to
set
 up immobile in Red Pass. It looks like an awesome defensive position:  the
 enemy *has* to come to you down this narrow wee route, and you can choke
 the whole of it with mines.  I'd likely have succumbed to the temptation
too.>>

I'll include my "school solution" to the US defense in my AAR. BTW, your
attack was just about perfect. You used good "combat patience" in setting up
and executing your attack. I tend to get impetuous, which has paid off at
times, but not always. 
   
 <<Believe it or not, I'm not sure Opfor ought to be smaller or the US bigger.
  An awful lot of things went right for us that needn't have; reverse them
 and we'd get slugged.>>

Maybe not bigger or smaller, but with some OOB choices. A mech heavy team vs.
a tank heavy team, etc.
  
 <<< One of the nice side effects of the way you ran this was that it took on
 aspects of an RPG in some ways - in much of the game, whether we really
 realized it or not, we were relatively unconstrained by the limitations of
 TacOps and were encouraged to get creative and try to think of plausible
 real-world solutions to the problems - the pass we scouted and cleared out
 being a prime example.  Adds a lot to the game, though I suppose it could
 also get out of hand!>>
 
 I'm glad it worked out like that! I was hoping to make it something more with
the random events. I've attached the random events list, How I worked it was
that since there was no air, I set the chance of additional air for each side
to 1%. When an airstrike was received, it triggered a randome event for that
side. If the event said a random unit, I rolled d100 until I came up with a
unit from the Sitrep. If it didn't make sense, then I just ignored it.

Jerry
 
 
 One odd question:  sometimes to turn resolution seemed to take a while.  Do
 you run TacOps with the sounds on or off?  Off speeds it up a bit in
 combat.  Also, turing down the screen color depth can speed the game up a
 bit.  All that assumes it was slow, of course!
  >>
TACOPS RANDOM EVENTS  

D100		EVENT

01-02		d3 unplanned CAS sorties gained
03-04		d3 CAS sorties lost
05-06		d3 arty batteries gained for 10-60 minutes
07-08		d3 arty batteries lost for 10-60 minutes
09-10 Intelligence coup: enemy maps/orders found

11-12		False intelligence coup: fake enemy maps/orders found
13-14		Accident: randomly determine unit. Affected unit lost for 10-60 minutes
15-16		Positive weather effect
17-18		Negative weather effect
19-20 Out of fuel: randomly selected unit cannot move

21-22 Lost: randomly selected unit lost for 10-30 minutes
23-24 Loss of commo: randomly selected unit out of commo for 10-30 minutes
25-26 EPWs captured intelligence gained
27-28 EPWs captured: false intelligence gained
29-30 Radio Intercept: intelligence gained

31-32 Radio Intercept: false intelligence gained
33-34 Aerial/Satellite photo of enemy gained
35-36 Reinforcements gained
37-38 Supply level increased by 10%
39-40	Leader loses control of sub-unit; unit ineffective for d10 minutes until subordinate 
takes over

41-42 False spot/contact report sent by randomly selected unit
43-44 Randomly selected enemy unit disclose position accidentally
45-46 Civilians provide intelligence
47-48 Civilians provide false intelligence
49-50 Gain d3 unplanned helo sorties

51-52 Randomly selected unit encounters booby traps
53-54 Randomly selected vehicle breaks down for 10-60 minutes
55-56 Randomly selected unit has equipment break down for 10-60 minutes
57-58 Friendly artillery fires short; all arty must cease fire for 1-6 minutes
59-60 Randomly selected unit victim of fratricide







61-62 Personnel replacements: randomly selected personnel unit brought up to full 
strength
63-64 False contact report: enemy reported as KIA still alive
65-66 Local militia/reserve/police unit joins side
67-68	Usable special weapons cache found: randomly determine ATGM, ADA, etc.  
69-70 Bridge destroyed/road cratered in sector

71-72 Civilian transportation found: trucks, boats, etc
73-74 Civilian construction equipment found: bulldozers, backhoes, etc
75-76 Civilian explosives found
77-78 JSTARS/strategic intell report received
79-80 Corps/Division LRS report received

81-82 Civilian riot/demonstration
83-84 Civilian refugees
85-86 Civilian sniper engages random personnel unit
87-88 Civilian militia engages random personnel unit
89-90 Heroic leader: random units fights as d3 additional units of type

91-92 Gruesome death of leader: random unit frozen for 10-30 minutes
93-94		Fire damages infrastructure/personnel/equipment near/of random unit
95-96
97-98
99-00

Jerry


And last but not least, Bill Jenning’s AAR:

The US force assigned to the defense of Red Pass (Map 213) was a company 
team (Team DAWG, 2-69 Armor, 3rd Bde/3rd ID(M)) with attached engineer 
and reconnaissance elements from brigade and division.

Our mission was an economy-of-force operation ordered to deny passage of 
Libyan forces through the Pass on the southern flank of an expected main 
assault to the north. We were allocated 24 hours to prepare our defense 
in anticipation of the arrival of enemy forces at 130700 JUN 98, 
estimated to be an MRB with attached tank company and other MRR/GMRD 
assets. During this 24-hour period we were advised to expect enemy 
reconnaissance forces of the Libyan 1st GMRD and its 1st MRR at 120700 
and 121800 respectively. MRB scouts were estimated as a possibility 
around 130000.

To conduct the defense we decided on a relatively simple plan. The 
engineers, with the help of the DAWG infantry platoon, would emplace a 
double line of six minefields directly in front of the Pass, anchored by 
two anti-tank ditches to the northwest and southeast. At the same time, 
an ACE (aided later by a small backhoe) would prepare a series of vehicle 
and infantry firing positions in depth extending northeast from the Pass. 
While this was in progress, we would conduct counterreconnaissance to the 
west with attachments from division cavalry (3 M3/scouts, 2 M1A2s and 2 
OH58-GP), brigade scouts (2 HMMWV-HMG/scouts) and battalion scouts (2 
HMMWV-HMG/scouts, 1 HUMMWV-Mk19/Javelin team). We augmented this group 
with an ad hoc platoon (ZULU) from DAWG consisting of 2 M1s and two M2s 
plus the team FIST and mortars. Division cavalry elements and engineers 
were scheduled to be withdrawn at 130700, and at that point ZULU platoon 
would join the remaining scouts to form teams whose primary mission was 
to locate and kill advancing MICLIC and other breaching units before they 
reached the Pass. With these assets destroyed or reduced, the Libyans 
would be unable to effectively breach the minefield/ditch barrier, and if 
they did so would be attrited to a point that they could be handled 
easily by the tanks, Javelins and M2s dug in to the east.

Things went fairly well for the first 12 hours or so. Although we spent a 
good deal of time searching for infiltrators west of the pass, we found 
none but did manage to locate and kill some Libyan recon elements in the 
Valley of Death, around Whale Gap and vic Whale Pass. Our biggest 
concern, a possible foray by enemy battalion scouts around midnight, 
never materialized, and as dawn approached we concluded our counterrecon 
effort had probably been successful. As we learned later it had not; at 
least two enemy recon teams seem to have gotten east of the pass (how 
they did so I have no idea) and were able to observe our preparations and 
later call in artillery on our positions.

Earlier, however, there had been a couple of important developments: 
First, radio problems around 121800 caused garbled orders to two inbound 
Kiowas, which resulted in the immediate loss of an OH58 in the same area 
in which two others had been lost earlier. The division cav commander 
immediately pulled the survivor back and we lost all air recon for good. 
This is significant in that the Kiowas had (in response to sniper fire on 
the engineers earlier) actually been slated to conduct a thorough search 
of the entire Soda Mountains/Red Pass area from map edge to map edge, 
including areas east of the pass. Had we been able to do so, we doubtless 
would have been able to locate and eliminate the infiltrators.

Then, at 122014, an engineer mishandling a mine detonated it and caused a 
chain of explosions which resulted in numerous casualties and, very 
importantly, a setback in the timetable for completing the minefields. 
This resulted in one of the six fields being only partially laid when the 
engineers had to pull out.

When the expected assault commenced around 130700, we were surprised to 
find not one but three battalions coming at us, one MRB down John Wayne 
Pass and another MRB and tank battalion out of the Valley of Death. A few 
minutes later the MRB in John Wayne Pass turned north into Siberia (after 
killing two of our HUMMWV recon vehicles); presumably it was part of the 
main assault in that area.

Unfortunately, our planned ambush of the breach elements did not happen, 
partially because we had guessed wrong in selecting deployments for the 
teams and partially because of commo foulups. One of our key elements, a 
Javelin team, was left stranded on foot in the Whale Gap area while its 
HUMMWV displaced to the southeast. One ZULU tank/M2 team, after killing a 
T-80 platoon, was killed itself as it attempted to reposition south and 
hit the breach units which had just cleared Whale Gap in the rear. The 
other ZULU team had not moved in time and, finding itself directly in the 
path of the oncoming MRB/TB, had to be wihdrawn east of the Pass. 
Remaining units (HUMMWV, COLT and Javelin team) went to ground and Libyan 
forces and engineer assets were able to reach the Pass virtually intact.

The Libyan breach effort began immediately, covered by an extensive 
barrage of smoke, mostly on the eastern side of Pass itself. Although 
there was apparently an effort being made to breach at the northern end 
of the barrier, the greatest effort appeared to be concentrated near the 
southeast corner -- exactly where the barrier was weakest. Unable to 
bring direct fires to bear, and with no unit close enough to call 
artillery, we managed to work the Mk19 HUMMWV around to the south and 
then north and east again in order to get close enough to the breach area 
to call in artillery fire. With this unit in place and with gaps in the 
smoke apparently giving us some LOS from units east of the Pass our 
artillery began to have some effect on the Libyan sappers. Finally, as 
the breaching units began to break through, they were hit with heavy 
concentrations of ICM and were almost totally destroyed. Unfortunately it 
was too late -- one or two remaining sappers had managed to complete the 
breach.

At some point during the breach operation, artillery fire began to fall 
with accuracy on several of our positions, especially one in Portapotty 
Wadi. It finally became clear at this point that the Libyans definitely 
had reconned us east of the pass. M1s were dispatched to hunt them down, 
which they did successfully.

As the Libyan MRB and TB units began to assemble for an assault, we had a 
final surprise. Earlier there had been reports of the sounds of tracks 
moving to the west of our infantry positions at the junction of the 
opening of Portapotty Wadi and the Pass area. We assumed these were the 
tracks/dozers/whatever still working on the breach at the northern end of 
the barrier.We were wrong: a bulldozer broke through a previously 
unknown/undiscovered draw and a MRP came trundling out and headed north 
up the Wadi. We immediately dispatched a couple of M1s to ambush them, 
which they did -- and were both killed themselves in the process.

At the point the Libyan main assault was launched, our units were under 
heavy artillery and MRL fire, constantly suppressed, outflanked by forces 
coming through the wadi wall breach, and from what I've been able to 
learn, decidedly ineffective in their fires on the Libyan forces. The 
defensive effectiveness of the firing positions themselves was apparently 
something approaching nil. According to the last sitrep, we were 
apparently wiped out. I don't know what if any damage we did to the 
Libyan assault force.

--------------------

Lessons learned:

1) When you think you're doing enough recon, do some more. The US defeat 
in this game was due to not doing enough and/or not doing it more 
aggressively. In hindsight, we would have been much better served with 
the infantry doing more recon in the Pass area than with them helping the 
engineers lay a few more mines.

2) If your defense depends on ambush, make sure a) you have enough 
firepower to bring it off and b) you choose your ambush positions with 
care. Be anal about it: plot ranges, lines of fire, fall-back positions, 
etc. etc. We had the right idea but in retrospect we were a bit 
undergunned, our plan was too loose and I certainly could have picked 
some better sites. Add a little fog-of-war to that and the chances of our 
successfully killing the Libyan sappers were greatly diminished. Had we 
been successful the Libyans would probably still be trying to breach that 
minefield <g>.

Thoughts on the game:

Not much really other than to say again what a great scenario this was, 
and as always, kudos to Jerry for planning and bringing it off. The mix 
of MBX and CPX was excellent. The play balance was fine (I thought) and I 
especially liked the random events concept -- we had civlian snipers, CA 
guys coming in to get any surviving snipers to surrender, and a shedful 
of TNT/nitro which we used to wire Whale Pass with enough HE to send most 
of an MRB to hell had it come through that way. All in all, great fun. 
Actually, I'd like to play this again sometime with the sides reversed 
(US attacking, Libyans defending).

As a final word I'd like to thank Mike Dunn who managed to participate in 
this thing during a period in which he also experienced of the arrival of 
his first-born (a son). Having been there, I don't know how he found any 
time at all...but I'm sure glad he did! Thanks, Mike.