Subject:
Tourney final AAR. Green.
Date:
Thu, 30 Dec 1999 21:19:56 +0000
From:
Nicholas Moran <nessie@clubi.ie>

Great... this time, not only am I going for the <third> time into a
scenario that I haven't as much as looked at before, but this time I'm
going up against the scenario designer who has a tad more experience
than me at it! Fortunately, to counter this, Matt gave me the option of
sides. I figured that in order to give myself the best chance of
winning, I had better dictate the way things went, so I chose the US
side.

Choices choices.. I had so many choices in this game, I didn't know
where to start... What would my objectives be? Easy, minimal victory. I
didn't need to try to wipe the floor with the opposition, just beat him.
Airfield capture, two factories, or factory and refinery? At first, I
was going to go with the two factories, in order to negate the effects
of anything at E0 to the East. However, I soon changed my mind when I
saw the distance involved. I had decided to go as one mass, not as two
separate attacks. With luck, this would allow me to deal with a smaller
portion of the enemy force at any one time, quadrupling (hopefully) my
local firepower advantage. (Also, the 'Mammoth', effect, wasn't that
what it was called? In the last CPX that I ran, it absolutely blew away
anything it met)

Decoy force, or full strength attack? Another easy one. Full strength
attack. (a) The plan was to have my objectives completed before it was
possible for any reserves to interfere, and (b) that way I wasn't
relying on the opposition to co-operate with me. If he correctly deduced
that it was indeed a diversion, he wouldn't have called in his reserves,
and my mission goals would revert to the same as for the full attack.
The difference being that I would then only have about half the
firepower to do the same job. So at least this way, I know to expect the
reserves, and not spend my game wondering if he'll commit them. (It
turned out that wondering where and when he would commit them was tense
enough!)

Finally... Mech/paratrooper or cavalry? I have to say, I was quite
tempted to go for the cavalry. Double the amount of AFVs would be quite
hard to say 'no' to. And of course, I'm a cavalry trooper. But in terms
of survivability and effectiveness in defense, I fear that the infantry
force would win. Although with half the tanks, they would have had the
same amount of ATGMs (All those Javelins) and a javelin is a tad tougher
to kill with AT-5s and 125mm rounds at range than an M3. Not least
because it can afford to take a hit and still shoot next turn. Getting
to the objectives (Offensive force, where the Cavalry would win)
wouldn't be an issue for either choice. Defending it would be. Besides,
thought I.. One thing I really feared were those Hinds. I had seen on my
own screen what those rocket pods could do to closed-in groups of
vehicles, (The afore-mentioned 'Mammoth') and I wanted to get them out
of the way at game start. Unfortunately, I had misread the rules.. I had
read that firing ranges had to be set at zero for the first two turns
for the paratroopers. The helos couldn't be given orders until two turns
after the first indication that the enemy had landed. So I figured that
I would get one turn of fire at them with the paratroopers before they
got off the ground. Unfortunately, the rule didn't state that two
complete turns had to pass without SOPs, just that the order would be
given two turns later. So both units were given the all-clear at the
same time, and Javelin, in TacOps at least, isn't effective against
flying helos.
Also, using the paras, I could (a) secure one of the objectives so that
the armor didn't have to stop too long on its way to the refinery
(Shades of Market-Garden here) and (b) I do like those scopes on the
snipers and recon. Lets me know what's around.

When I finally figured out my mistake, I decided to abuse a game
mechanic (Sorry.. but it was legal!) The rules allowed me to set a range
of zero and a target priority on helos. If fired upon, the game allows
the unit to override the zero range and fire. Combined with artillery, I
thought I had a good chance of getting one or two of the opposition on
the ground. In order to make sure that the paratroopers would survive
the first two minutes, they would all pop smoke before releasing their
harnesses and grabbing their gear.

Now, the route to take... The ground units would go for the W edge of
the Eastern factory first, partly to avoid mines and defending units to
the direct North, and partly so that if I felt it necessary, I could
abort and take over the airport instead. The engineers would ride in
Bradleys, the M113s carrying infantry. (They would be too conspicuous
otherwise). I also decided to drop engineers onto the buildings so that
I could at least get a running start...

The drop itself started out badly, but got better. For some inexplicable
reason, I felt compelled to move the requisite 3000m with my eyes shut
from left-to-right. Now, because of the size of my hand, or
responsiveness of the mouse, or whatever, usually I would only end up
moving the thing about 2500-2700m. Only later did I figure out that I
should have done the guesswork in a vertical direction. The three
platoons were to be dropped at the airfield perimiter, the factory edge,
and the factory buildings itself. At least the factory was also laid out
in an E-W manner, so that as long as my 'aim' was true, the distance I
moved the mouse was less critical. The first platoon ended up fairly
scattered over an 800m area. The second (recon) was closer-together, but
unfortunately not as close to the factory as I would have liked. The
third (And engineers) landed fairly nicely into the factory itself.
Hardly realistic, I know, but quite legal! (BTW, they were called
Kaiten, Tokko Tai and Kamikaze respectively... Never guess why!). The
parachuting engineers were named for Lt Gerry Russell, an engineer from
Limerick who was in charge of the Irish contingent at my jump course!
(But enough of this...)

OK. To the game. This game had <endless> connection, compatability and
crash problems, but we eventually got it sorted out. Turn 1 revealed
that I had landed right on top of two Spigot teams, that was good, and a
few other squads in the factory. Engineers were kept with engagement
range zero, they weren't to attract attention to themselves! Artillery
misses the helos.. darn.. Worse, the FO's LOS was blocked because
someone forgot to bring along their hand-held thermals! Turn 2, smoke
clears, and I note a few AT guns to the N of the factory (Soon they will
be smoked) assorted ZUs and ZSUs lying around the place, and a BTR or
two. Gerneral firefight breaks out. My troops keep missing. Especially
the snipers.

Turn 3.. the Helos are off.. Oh smeg... One heads North-ish, possibly at
high level, but comes into view of my entire 4 companies. Riki says he
didn't see much, he didn't get a chance. A side benefit of having all my
units close together was concentration of air defense. The third stinger
killed the Hind. But this is where Riki seems to have missed a critical
clue. If I was taking the diversionary force, I would only have two
Avengers. Three launched at him. Ergo, it was a full attack, and he
could request the reserve. I think if he caught that one, he could have
beaten me. The other helo sets about rocketing my troops, doing not a
hell of a lot really. I start taking out a few trucks and ZUs with
javelins.

A while later, and my main force is just at the E0/E1 change at the
North, and about to cross.. Indeed, a few platoons get enthusiastic and
go over before I was ready. (It was IRC, so I couldn't be arsed checking
everything and double-checking them at 4am. More on this in the game
mechanics section). Now, the best way to crest a hill or break cover
especially if you know that the enemy doesn't outnumber you, is everyone
at once. None of this probing nonsense, or advancing by bounds. So sure
enough, 28 Abrams and 34 or so Bradleys meet.... Two BTRs and a few
other assorted yokes? Suffice to say, I won that little escapade, and
the tanks then set about helping out my rangers by killing off the
remaining defenders. At, say, $40,000 a TOW (I think that's about right,
no?) I would have spent some 3/4 of a million dollars killing six 120mm
SP mortars in trees. I couldn't hit squat. The Hind ducks South, over
3000m from my SAMs but not over 3000m from my lead units, and starts
picking me off with impunity. Not sure why, supposedly SAMs are immune
to the 3000m thermal visibility limit. Anyway, only one helo had no more
than 4 ATGMs. I killed him later. The spigot team I landed on finally
gets removed, but Saxhorns and Spigots from the airport open up. Then a
little later BTRs. One platoon in particular was a right bloody irritant
down to the SW where it was just close enough to see a few of my units
at a time, so cover fire wasn't happening.
All that I could really do was wait for him to run out of ammo.
Besides, this was a race against the clock, and casualties aren't part
of the criteria. 'Damn the ATGMs, full speed ahead!' to paraphrase that
civil war chap. I bring up the M113s to speed up the demolition process,
but two more BTR platoons show up. They concentrate their fire firstly
on Bradleys, and secondly on M113s. They get the M113s (With no
engineers in them though) but by the time they popped their noses over
the second time I had a company of tanks waiting for them at about 500m.
They brought a few AT guns with them, one or two of which killed an
Abrams or two (I know, the shame of it..), but smoke and 120mm fire
generally dealt with them. Javelins and TOW deal with a few trucks that
occasionally turn up wandering around somewhere. I have to say, I
wouldn't have used those BTRs in a counter-attack like that. I knew from
the kill tallys that there were no thermals left on the Opfor side to
defend the refinery, so drop smoke, ye boys in Artillery and on we go
with some 18 tanks I think. Somewhere around this time, an Opfor
airstrike shows up. The genius tries to attack an Avenger and gets shot
down for his trouble. I mean of all the vehicles you airstrike with
cluster bombs, and AD vehicles wouldn't be it.
Over on the airport side, I would occasionally dispatch an M2
platoon or whatever to head over and see about capturing the control
tower. Unfortunately, I kept overestimating the amount of missiles the
enemy had fired. After losing a half-company or more like that I gave
up. Beside, it seemed that the tanks had a very decent chance of killing
the refinery. Some Bradleys carried Javelins and snipers to a forward
battle position in trees South of the factory.
Sure enough, Riki had placed infantry teams in the middle of all the
refineries, and good use of smoke and slow advances by the tanks made
short work of the first two clusters. (One N, the other S). By this
point, if Riki had called the reinforcements on turn 4 as I thought he
would have, the Southern cluster should have been under protective fire.
But it wasn't. So... He must be taking the extra few minutes to take the
brigade-strength counterattack. I should be able to get to the last
refinery cluster and blow it before they appear.
In short order, an Abrams platoon gets to the last refinery, but as
it gets distracted with shooting up an AT gun, this smegging Russian
Rambo unit eventually kills all three tanks. I was facing them, but they
were getting rear shots. Still, at 20 meters, there's probably a game
mechanic at work for that, it wouldn't be the only game where I've seen
such a rule. So.. We send in another platoon. This takes two more
minutes to get there. I'm starting to get a little worried now....
"SHOOT AT THEM YOU B&&*$*RD!!!" but nothing happens... I had forgotten
to reset the fire range from zero to whatever after they killed the last
refinery cluster. Another turn passes, and I kill the infantry. At this
point, I'm getting really concerned. I take the next turn moving into
position in the center of the cluster. Riki losing the connection to IRC
repeatedly wasn't helping my stress levels one bit. Every turn, I'm
expecting a T-80 and BMP battalion to emerge from the trees some 300m to
my East. They don't turn up... The refinery is blown. A stray mortar
round blows up a supply crate in a dump to the North. Cool. At about the
same time, my engineers finish the demolitions job. Great, let's blow
this thing and go home...(Cue laser and proton torpedo fire and Death
Star blowing up.... oh.. wrong movie. never mind). So.. two minutes for
the MRL strike to land and signify destruction. (The rules don't say
whether the MRL strike can be timed to land for the same turn that you
finish setting the charges or not, but I decided to play safe). I
wait...
I wait...
I wait...
Four turns later, I have a look... it says 7 seconds to land... Next
turn, it says 1 second. Hang on a minute.....

Doh!

I forgot to check 'Allow fire support on own position' as an SOP for the
soon-to-be-very-dusty units in the factory.

At about this time, the Opfor reinforcements finally arrive. I'm amazed
to note it's the T-72 battalion from the South. I was getting some
indications of it (Trucks and that ^&$* BTR platoon were wandering
around down there earlier) but I didn't believe it. Still, they turn up
and charge forward. Some 7 Javelin teams and two Bradleys in the front
treeline go 'Oh goody' and start firing. Tanks are told to hurry up and
get back to E1... Wait a minute.. what if I held off on blowing the
factory until the enemy battalion was inside the MRL strike blast? I've
an engineer team 500m away all set to push the plunger...That would be
fun.. OK. I'll do that. Let's see if I can decimate that battalion. So
missile teams, and my Southernmost tank platoon start eating into the
advancing Red Hordes. I start doing quite a bit of damage, but in my
haste to get things over with and go to bed (5am anyone?) I kept
forgetting about resupplying the Javelins. They ran dry in short notice,
but at least they RPGd most of that BTR-90 platoon that was giving me so
much hassle earlier. MGs and M203s join in the fun even a sniper killed
one BRDM, and I think I got him down to not far off two companies, maybe
less when he finally reached the factory and killed off one of the
engineering teams. (Not Russell's crowd though). I push the plunger, and
the place blows: I only kill three Opfor tanks. Interestingly enough, Lt
Russel's marker was right in the middle of it, but suffered no
casualties. Much though I would have been curious to see if my tanks
could polish his ones off, it was hideously late/early, and I went to
bed!

Even during a CPX, I can't remember that much tension..... Well done
Riki, a decent fight, and good use of your ATGMs.

Game Mechanics....

OK. Who's the genius that decreed that the final should be on IRC?
(Looking at Matt....) Time differences aside (Both times I was up after
5am), I clocked up over $15 worth of 'phone bills on the final alone,
it's just as well I won! At least I can balance it off against the prize
fund and still make a profit! I'm not sure it had much of a beneficial
gameplay effect either. A lot of the game, I couldn't be arsed to make
certain moves (Eg, earlier on I had smoked AT gun positions and bypassed
them. In the final assault by Riki, I just didn't bother with it any
more as they could only kill a Bradley or two) because it was so
late/early; and as for 'pushing the game forward because of the pressure
of IRC', I don't think anyone was worried. There was no umpire around
going "oo? 5...4...3...2...1" like a CPX, and whilst I certainly did
needle Riki (Sometimes a bit too harshly, and I apologise for that!)
about the amount of time taken to run/send turns there's no reason to
indicate that a player over IRC would take any less care or detail over
his orders than in a PBEM. Unless it's 3am and we're still only on turn
3. As in my case!

Other than that, and a few queries about the formatting of the rules for
the scenario (I'll tell you about those later Riki) I have no gripes
about what was otherwise an entertaining competition and I appreciate
your running it. Now.. I have to defend my title next year!

All Glory to the undefeatable Irish Cavalry!

(OK, OK.. I know that technically I didn't get past the qualification
rounds, but we'll just gloss over that bit, shall we?)

DWH
Manic Moran

The difference between infantrymen and cavalrymen is that cavalrymen get
to die faster, for we ride into battle!