Hi, folks...

Last weekend, I took a shot at running my first CPX. Here are the
results of that "historic" battle<g>

I have broken this report into two posts: the battle segment, and the
Game segment.  The first deals with the actual combat, the second talks
about the many problems (and in some cases, solutions) that I ran into
running this CPX.

BATTLE REPORT

The Players:

US:     James Sterrett (Cmdr.), Corinne Mahaffey, Brian Rock (Rocky)
OPFOR:  Chimera (Cmdr.), Gary Wollbach

Situation:      

A NATO breakthrough at the front has set the stage for a US task force
to strike at key industrial sites deep inside OPFOR territory (Map 15). 
OPFOR, however, has been harrassing US supply lines threatening to break
up the attack.  Any further strikes could force the offensive to stall,
or worse, become marooned without fuel or ammo as OPFOR regroups for a
counterattack.  

US Orders:

Capture the air base and eliminate the OPFOR air threat.  Hold the base
until fighters can arrive and refuel and supply planes can offload, all
of which should take around 30 min.  Secondary objective: destroy any
strategic targets (factories, refineries, etc.) as opportunity allows.

OPFOR Orders:

Defend the airfield and the factories.  Delay the US offensive long
enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Forces:

US --  2 mech companies (3 pltns. each)
       2 tank companies (3 pltns. each)
       1 company of paratroopers (2 pltns inf., 1 Ranger)

OPFOR - 1 rifle company (base garrison)
        1 motorized rifle company (outer security patrol)

Regarding reinforcements:

OPFOR Reinforcements were either category b forces coming via roads from
the south (BDRM2s and a few old model tanks, followed by BTR80s) within
the first 15-20 min, or heavy armor and mech units via rail from the
east much later, about 30-45 min.  These forces represented the first
echelon of the OPFOR counterattack.  Both sides were aware of this but
only had a vague idea as to the arrival times.

Regarding "paratroopers":

While most of the US task force had to start north of 06 northing, the
paras could be "dropped" anywhere!  Three types of drops were available:
1) Before the battle, so that paras are already landed on turn 1. 2)
After the battle has started at a preselected time (at H+)... or 3) held
in reserve and dropped when desired, but with a 20 min. lead time (the
transport planes are circling 20 min. away, waiting for the go-ahead). 
THere was a chance of drift both in distance and in time of landing.

I crudely simulated drift by simply pointing at the drop site on a paper
map as fast as I could with my finger, from arm's length.  (Didn't have
a set of darts around.<g>)  Where my finger hit the map was where I put
a unit. Most units ended up within 500meters of the LZ.  After dropping
all the units in one platoon, I gave them orders to march to a
rendezvous point based on that platoon's mission.  No communication was
allowed from time of landing until ptns. had formed up, simulating the
"blackout" period while individual teams were forming up.

NOTE: OPFOR only had an idea of size of the enemy and a vague idea as to
what type of force was coming.  They had no knowledge of the
paratroopers.

Regarding industrial sites:

An ops map was created and posted to Chimera's website showing the
various objectives.  Refineries could be blown up by just shooting at
them with tanks or M2s (no one asked about this, however).  Factories
would have to be destroyed by moving demolition teams (Engineers) into
the area for 30 min. or so and wire the place for explosives. OPFOR was
not told about the demolition teams, though they might have suspected
it, especially if they spotted the Engineers.

Regarding victory conditions:

I figured the outcome would be more or less self-evident, with the
control of the airfield being a primary consideraton and
destruction/preservation of the production facilities being a swing
factor.  (NOTE: The fact that OPFOR was not told about the airbase being
more important to the US was intentional.  It was to balance the
otherwise slightly lopsided odds (US had only a 5:2 attack ratio). It
also, I felt, reflected an understandable balance between needing both
strategic and tactical assets intact.

Weather:

I also prepared an overnight weather report (which unfortunately didn't
get sent until a few hours before the game) saying that due to low fog,
visibility was down to 2000m.  The fog would gradually lift during the
battle to normal vis. after 60 min.  (This was to "throw a wrench" into
each side's plans just a little to see who would adapt best.  No one
changed their plans at all.  The US side probably should have.<g>)

Okay, okay, enough with the setup!  What happened?!

Well, first of all, James began to outline his plans after making a
major error in the interpretation of the intel.  He somehow thought
there would be "no thermals," which proved to be a disastrous
assumption.  (I am still trying to determine how much this was my fault,
whether I inadvertently implied this somehow by describing the base
defense "2nd tier" forces.).  Based on this, he ordered a fast attack,
tanks in the lead, expecting to mow down ill-equipped infantry and take
the base, then set up a perimeter to defend against the reinforcements.

[*UMPIRE'S NOTE: Regardless of this grave error in interpretation, I
have to say I was extremely impressed by the way James delivered his
outline for the US attack.  His orders were clear, concise and most of
all, decisive. No "tentativeness" or waffling in his tone at all.  Very
inspiring to hear, sounded like someone who is comfortable with the role
of command.  Sure enough, both Corinne and Rocky followed his intentions
to the letter, I thought. (Right off the cliff, but by golly, they
followed them <g>). 

The US plan:

Corinne and Rocky each took a team of 2 companies each (1 mech, 1 armor)
and would descend on the airfield from the north, Cor taking up the west
half of the advance and Rocky the East.  Cor split off a mech platoon
and sent it to capture the "MiG factory" west of the airbase, while the
rest of her team approached the base in more or less scattered formation
from the northwest.  Rocky approached from the northeast "en masse" and
would hit the airfield from that side, after presumably overruning the
arms factory, also in the east.  

The paras, controlled by James, were sent in early (landing on turn 1)
to take the rail yard in the far northeast sector.  (*UMPIRE'S NOTE:
This decision was somewhat debatable to me, because reinforcements from
the west were not due until much later in the game, and I informed the
US of that. My assumption is that he thought the paras were better
suited for secretive operations than for going toe-to-toe with the
motorized rifle patrols.)  I thought the way James executed this plan
was inspired.) 1 pltn. would capture the rail yard, while another would
go farther east to the "bend" in the rail and break the rail. He even
thought it through enough to specify "break the outer rail first." 
Meahwhile the Rangers (4 recon, AGS, MG, 2 hummers) would patrol the
refinery and head south to the intersection of another rail line and
"break the switch," thus helping to prevent any troop trains from taking
alternate routes.  (UMPIRE'S NOTE: I felt this was both innovative and
shrewd, and added color to the game.  It also forced me to contemplate
orchestrating a disasterous OPFOR train wreck later in the game.  That
is, if OPFOR didn't take over the railyard again, or spot the sabotage).

OPFOR, meanwhile, (commanded by Gary at this stage), set up its base
defenses at the furthest permissable distance form the base (about
300m), covering all of the major access routes to the north.  (*UMPIRE's
note: I was interested by Gary's wanting to outward-deploy, as opposed
to keeping some defenses huddled in the middle.  (More compact, with
shorter interior lines.)  The outer security force (MR rifle company)
had only 3 platoon-sized "patrols" -- not enough to cover the whole map,
which forced OPFOR to make some tough choices as to their deployment, or
possibly to keep them patrolling to keep tabs on US movements.  Gary had
1st Patrol cover the MiG factory to the west of the airbase, 2nd Patrol
north of the arms factory (north-center area), and 3rd Patrol farther
east, just north of the refinery.  This meant the rail yard and the city
in the far northeast would be skipped, but this made sense, as these
were not primary objectives.

Okay, roll the turns.

Right off the bat OPFOR had a turkey shoot.  Cor's mech and armor units
appeared out of the fog in the west, and a 2 ATGM teams opened fire --
and kept on firing for 3 full turns!  I originally thought the fog would
help the US, allowing them to get closer to the base without being
seen.  But in fact, the opposite was true.  As the first mech platoon
came into view and got hit (and was unable to respond effectively due to
surprise/suppression) there was no support fire from the nearby tank
platoon because it was just slightly out of visual range of the ATGM. 
By the time the nearby tank platoon did come into range, the mech
platoon was now dead and the ATGMs could turn their attention to the
tanks, surprising and suppressing them the same way.  Same thing
happened all over again.  The tanks did not receive the benefit of
support from the other platoons nearby -- but this time it wasn't
because of the fog but because there always seemed to be a clump of
trees blocking the supporting M2 platoon's LOS.  The advancing US units
hardly got off a shot, and never got any supporting fire from any nearby
units -- the one main advantage of having superior firepower, lost!

(*UMPIRE'S NOTE: There was a problem in getting readable sitreps to the
US players, which might have helped the LOS problem, but only
marginally.  Everything was happening so fast, whole platoons were
vaporizing in less than 2 minutes.)

The one thing that did go right at this stage was the artillery fires;
the off-map 155's quickly found their mark.  (Even without TRPs and
spotting rounds).  Between that and some belated M2 fire, the first ATGM
team was quickly eliminated (not quickly enough for the US, obviously).  

So much for Corinne's right flank.  Her center didn't fare much better,
though, as 4 tanks hit minefields on the road cutting throught the woods
in the center of her advance and were either destroyed or immobilized. 

(*UMPIRES NOTE: There was a cost to OPFOR in laying mines -- 1 infantry
squad had to be put on reserve for every 2 mines, reflecting fatigue
from laying them the night before.  Gary only laid 6 mines on the entire
map but 2 of them found their mark, and another 2 were likely to if the
game had continued. Nice placement.)  

Corinne's troubles didn't end there. An OPFOR anti-tank platoon had set
up right in front of her other flank (directly north of airfield), and
combined fire from the Saxhorns at the base and OPFOR's 2nd patrol by
the arms factory were enfilading from either side.  Very ugly
situation.  One remaining tank platoon on Cor's left flank managed to
escape into the woods, but everything else was quickly turning into
flaming metal. At this point, only 6 minutes of the game had gone by,
and the US was at 16% losses.

(*UMPIRE'S NOTE:  Being my first CPX, I was a bit shy at showing any
initiative about getting units to safety once the shooting started.  I
did not realize until later that the US team was completely in a fog
about what was happening, due to my flawed reports and the sitrep
readability problem.  In retrospect, I think as umpire I should have
taken normal precautionary measures, with or without orders. SEE CPX
REPORT)

All this time, OPFOR has lost only one ATGM team, or 1% of its force.

Meanwhile, Rocky had successfully maneuvered both his teams of mech and
armor to the foot of a long ridge just north of the Arms factory. He
carefully sent a scout unit of M3s to the top of the ridge for a
look-see, which, sure enough, drew some fire from the base defenses. 
Coincidentally, at that very minute, Gary had ordered the 2nd patrol
(the one guarding the arms factory) to move northwest with the intention
of checking on how far the US advance extended to the east.  He found
out! The patrol came down the ridge and met face to face with Rocky's
entire force.  The BTR90s were blown away, but they got off some very
lucky (I felt) shots and took 2 tanks with them, damaging one other, and
killed a Hummer AD.  Rocky, for whatever reason, ordered an immediate
charge up the hill with his entire force.  

(*UMPIRE'S NOTE: I never did find out why Rocky ordered that charge up
the hill.  Visions of the Presidency al la Teddy Roosevelt and San Juan
Hill?  Maybe he felt the jig was up, and he'd better get moving before
the ICM starts hitting.  Then again, it's Rocky -- he doesn't need a
reason to charge!<g>  [Just teasing you, Rock!]  Actually, this may not
have been a bad idea at the time.  He had his force all in one mass,
which, in theory, might have proven to be a devastating attack force. In
*theory,* anyway.<g>)  

Unfortunately, when he crested, the lead units once again caught the
same ATGMs Corrinne had faced on her left flank, which were now free to
work on Rocky) and once again there was no support fire -- not because
of the fog this time, but rather, because the buildings of the factory
blocked half of the team's LOS! 

(*UMPIRE'S  NOTE: This has to be chalked up to bad luck, bad timing, and
I suppose to the sitrep problem.  Still could have been an effective
assault, IMHO.)

While the ATGMs came whizzing in, OPFOR's 2nd patrol (now without their
vehicles) kept slamming their LAAWs into the *rear* of the ascending M2s
from short range (80 meters), which they could do because Rocky ordered
to crest the hill -- away from the enemy dismounts.  This quickly took
out a mech platoon (which might have offered suppression fire on the
ATGMs, if they had made it up the hill.)

By the end of the next turn, Rocky lost between a third and half of his
force. This effectively doubled the US attrition, to 32%.  OPFOR: 5%.

At this point I decided to call the game. (There had been interest in
continuing on as an MBX).  It was clear the US had an irrevocable loss
on its hands:  Corinne's remaining gound force had little hope of even
reaching the airfield, much less holding it.  Rocky might have taken
control of the arms factory with the remaining half of his force
(Getting the demolitions crews there would still be a problem, however),
but that was not a primary objective.  Had he gone for the airfield, he
probably would not have much left for defense because OPFOR was in
excellent shape.  Only 5% losses (mostly because of losing the 2nd
Patrol's BTRs) and no suppressed units -- all were at full-threat
capacity, and US arty had not yet zeroed in on any of them since the 1st
ATGM team.  The first of OPFOR's reinforcements were already on the map
(though still in more or less of a reserve capacity).  The US
paratroopers did take the railyard effortlessly, which might have paid
big dividends, but that train wasn't scheduled to arrive for a good half
hour.  Besides, neither the railyard nor the killing or delaying of
enemy troops was the objective.  The airfield was the objective.  I felt
the US would be lucky to get out of this mess without more heavy losses,
much less take that base.

********* US After-Action Report (James) ************

In a lot of respects this battle was won/lost before it began.

  Opfor had a dug-in defense, with with good equipment (both in this
scenario and a couple others I've umpired the AT-7 has been murderous),
laid out to cover our avenues of advance.  From what I know of it (still
limited) it was well-laid out, which is in no way surprising grom Gary and
Chimera!

  We convinced ourselves that our intel was telling us that the enemy
would have only light forces and thus probably would not have many
ATGMs, and that the main battle would be against approaching enemy
reserves....  so having become firmly attached to this misconception,
we decided to try to rush the airbase fast, so as to gain time to
deploy to defend against the counterattack we understood would be coming.

  In the process we kind of got the cart behind the horse, by doing
more of our planning and thinking about how to defend a set of gains
than about how to actually secure them in the first place.  In fact,
we spent a great deal of effort trying to forestall the possibility
of enemy heavy forces which might arrive by train from the east -
this was the primary mission assigned to the paras (they were to
sabotage the rail lines to ensure any incoming trains derailed.)

  So we came, on the game day, with a quick charge into the base with 4
companies, ran into the Opfor defense, and *poof* most of our forces
melted away on the flank in contact (two companies).  We did figure out
we had to slow down and attack the airbase properly, but in the welter
of confusion (sitrep failures etc) didn't get much changed in the time
available.  Unusually for a CPX, the sitrep problems meant we had a
better idea of where enemy units were than our own.  %)

  Conclusions:  Unrealistic planning = death.   Bad assumptions =
unrealistic planning.  Anybody been caught by that before in a CPX (let
alone real life)?  Yup - *me*.  This is a habit I'd like to get out of,
I think!

  The main goal of the CPX was umpire training.  I think we met this
goal; certainly Riki Tikki has had a lot more CPX experience now,
and while he had the typical first-time problems at the beginning
they were getting under control by the end.  If we had not had
problems beyond his control (system crash, Mac sitreps unreadable by
PC players) we would probably have gotten more than 7 turns done (er,
given what happened, that means "8 turns done? ;) and thereby had time
for RT to finish figuring out how to run things.  We look forward to
his next game.  8)
James Sterrett & Corinne Mahaffey

*********** OPFOR After-Action Report (Chimera) ****************

Well, I had rather given thought to not submitting an AAR, given my lack
of involvement in the gaming end of this one.  A bad week, coupled with a
work load, contributed to Gary pretty much running this one, with a few
head-nods from me (some OIC, huh?).  But, I understand the need, so I
will put in my two cents worth.

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

The setup was simple.  We had two basic objectives:  guard the airbase
and guard the industrial complexes as best we could.  We would have backup,
and CAS, along with our own artillery, but that was not even figured into
-my- plan.  I planned to use the CAS as our 'eyes in the sky', but the
instant I saw the foggy weather roll in, I knew that plan was shot to hell.
So, I began falling back to a more solid plan, OPs positioned along the
'border' we were given (05 Northing, I beleive) to listen and call arty.
I had taken the CAS, artillery, and reinforcement coordination role,
while Gary was to use the units to engage.  I would concentrate on helping
Riki, if need be, and calling for silly stuff, like electronic jamming,
MRL, more help, whatever I could think a commander in this situation would
call on.
I had no idea what we were up against, but I planned a BN rolling into
us, which turned out being not far from the truth.

Gary's plan was much more sound, in my opinion, since he was planning on
a rotating patrol (I was planning a static positioning).  This allowed
him to 'roam' his units freely, even perhaps double up areas that were
weak.  Hit and scoot ability (though we never had a chance to use it)
would turn out to work much better in the fog, I suddenly realized,
as units disappeared 800m out. Lose contact, make a sharp turn go a
bit, dismount, wait.  It was perfect.  We had an hour of fog to fight
in, and this was perfect for the "disappearing guerilla" tactics.
We could engage and confuse with *much* fewer units, provided the
enemy couldn't knock out our movement.

As it turns out, I think one platoon pretty much wiped out most of the
American casualties that occured.  We lost 5% of our units (with only
maybe 7-9% engaging or even seeing the enemy so far) against the
American's 34% (which had close to doubled in that last minute of play!)
Gary had placed mines, in lieu of OPs, to listen for explosions on the road.
Worked like a charm, as lots of them were heard soon enough.  That stopped
an advance that surely would have blown past the one engaging platoon,
if my calculations were correct.  As it were, those roadblocks slowed the
advance to a tiny enough trickle that the few AT7 teams could pick off
those that did come through.  We couldn't have been able to face a wall of
anything.

I applaud Gary wholly for this victory, and will not take any glory from
him, as the man without the game won the day.  OPFOR owes this man a
large medal.


Chimera

************ OPFOR After-Action Report (Gary) ************

(Excerpts regarding battle only)

I was totally shocked by the opening moves from NATO.
        1.  They never preped the area with any kind of smoke or arty or
anything.
        2.  They drove right down major lanes of fire.
        3.  Thier flanks were wide open

If I had left the 2nd Patrol in place the results would have been far
worse for NATO, but I wanted to see how far to the East thier force
extended.  Well I found out.

The scenerio is an intersting one, one I think you should run again,
maybe do the MBX format.

gary

------------ end battle report ---------------