CM: BS DAR Gnarls vs. Artemis258: Art stay out...

[Gnarly]

Minute 54-53

And so the worm turns!

Lesson #1 - When you have an ATGM near-miss, do not presume you think you know where it came from, unless you can see it!

A second ATGM destroys the anti-tank platoons 1st IFV, though the gunner escapes. It looks like Art has another ATGM team positioned in the lower band of trees on Big Hill, in this case precisely in-line with the ATGM team I'd previously neutralized higher up...





Art's barrage is starting to do more than just pin down my pixeltruppen... A round close to the destroyed 1st IFV finishes off the previously lucky gunner..

Lesson #2: Remember to apply/enact the order's you intended (in this case, pulling men and materiel back from the forest..)!

Another round drops right behind the anti-tank platoon's remaining IFV, killing the gunner.

Fortunately the driver, and more importantly, the anti-tank platoon leader, manage to bail, escaping into a shrapnel-strewn environment...

There are additionally a small number of injuries among the other infantry teams cowering from the shell bursts.


My armour spends most of the turn putting down area fire on the presumed neutralized ATGM team's location (which I thought had fired the ATGM end of last turn). Some additional Russian crew-served weapons are spotted; aside from the location of ATGM team that took out the 1st IFV, another is spotted in foxholes on the north side of the hill, and a grenade launcher is seen in foxholes on the west flank.

Next turn I'll have area fire on all three of these targets, and the arty barrage is due in the next minute atop the hill (though I note I cannot 'adjust' this mission: anyone know what dictates which arty assets can be 'adjusted'??).

I'm also (belatedly...) pulling back pretty much everything from the northern half of the medium woods/ridge.

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 53-52

Sustained fire from my tank guns knock out the northern ATGM, and most likely the other two weapon teams as well.

Gun lines, tracers and explosions just never fail to excite, eh?!!

I've mostly pulled-back the troops from the northern half of the medium ridge; the continuing barrage there merely converts the forest into wood chips.... Looks like 4 guns.

Couple more BTR's spotted on Art's baseline, including a 30mm armed BTR-80 (the rest have been 14.5mm BTR-82's I think). A single trooper is seen fleeing east from the medium ridge; I think the remnants of that 2nd squad.

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 52-51

Two more BTR's are spotted and rapidly dispatched, this time in the NE (Art's right flank), including one behind the buildings way up the top NE corner. If Art's got tanks, not sure where he is hiding them?? That's 9 BTR's so far, with 7 of them Kaboomed...

Another ATGM team takes a shot at my advanced 3rd platoon tanks, and will bear the anger of 2 Oplots and a BMP shortly...


With my arty barrage beginning on the hilltop treeline., it time to advance just a little.... So 4 tanks will deploy smoke (grey lines) and then the 2 Oplots of 2nd platoon will sprint up to the next tree line (blue line): anzer:

 

[Gnarly]

Minutes 51-46

Seeing as the primary readership of this (lengthy?) discourse is me , I'll try to keep it brief... Though the next 5 minutes are fairly 'static' and uneventful; essentially the entire tank company overwhelming suppresses any sound contacts as well as likely vehicle or crew-served weapon positions. There are few if any visual contacts, outside brief glimpses of a couple of ATGM teams amongst the trees at the base of the hill.

The tanks of 2nd platoon dart forward uneventfully, supported by a nice thick smoke screen (you can just see one tank approaching his lay-up position in the shot below, whilst the second enters the smoke screen).

Art's barrage on the northern half of the Medium Ridge continues for another 5 minutes; by the end of it, most teams in the anti-tank and 4th platoons are 1 man down.

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 46-45

One of the tanks of 2nd platoon gets lased. Whilst reversing and popping smoke, it spots (just NE of the minor objective buildings) a T-90A!!! Finally we are seeing Art's big guns....

That beast gets a shot off, but of what I am not sure, as I think the ordnance explodes barley 30m down range (below)? I can only presume it was an AT-11 ATGM, somehow randomly hitting cross-fire machine gun rounds (though I couldn't spot any)?? Or perhaps a low-flying pigeon??

The Oplot retreats successfully, and seconds later, the tactical group HQ tank in my backfield spots the T-90A retreating, and ends this movement with a Kornet ATGM... One down, likely 3 more to go??

3 near-simultaneous laser warnings remind me that there is still a significant anti-armour threat across the river... To minimise this, the last of the buildings at the minor objective collapses from sustained DF...

My sporadic arty mission on big hill complete, I've decided to pulverise Art's last bastion (3 minutes away):

I've also begun returning to the medium ridge the anti-tank and 4th platoon teams, with the intent to get LOS into Art's deep right flank.

 

[Gnarly]

So tonight I had grand aspirations to deliver:

1. The next two minutes of action... FAIL!
2. A turn back to Art.. FAIL!
3. Army purchase and setup in a new game versus @Entrenched (well, I did tell him it was unlikely tonight)... FAIL
4. Something new and highly experimental.. SUCCESS (I hope you'll agree)!

Inspired by the BF forum's amazingly prolific and rather superb comic AAR creator (if you don't know who that is, you better start browsing!), but with no pretension of emulating his quality, I present my first comic pocket-story! (spanning minutes 47-44)



Notes:

• Emphasis on mini-story - I wanted to see how much effort and time it took.
• As it is, this took 3 hours, using trusty Snag-It
• Apologies for any cultural, technical (gunner versus commander positions?), communication jargon or any other errors. This is about the story, not the details...

And with that, I'm going to leave it there for the night....

 

[Entrenched]

There can be no success without failure

 

[Gnarly]

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 46-45 appendium

I did forget to mention the heavy mortar fire that started coming down on 3rd platoon, forward of Lieutenant Colonel Vernydub's position (just realized, I've incorrectly called them 2nd platoon in my little pocket story!!!). This was accompanied by half a dozen RPG rounds from the a little copse of tree over the river on my right flank (seen in the story); multiple units were tasked with suppressing the area.



Minute 45-44

The RPG team on my right flank is eliminated, and the heavy mortar brrage on 3rd platoon's positions continues, without effect.

But through the T-90's dissipating smoke screen, it destroys the distracted (by area fire to the flanks) Tactical Group HQ tank. Soon after it spots one of the 2nd platoon tanks, starting a duel... That the Russian fired first is a worry...





Area fire continues on likely infantry positions, revealing the presumed 3rd enemy squad and a number of RPG teams in the large copse on Art's front left. A truck is spotted behind those buildings deep on Arts right flank, and autocannon fire from a 4th platoon IFV forces a newly spotted BTR to retreat with some penetration damage.

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 44-43



The duel continues between the 2nd platoon tank and the T-90. The T-90 fires 3 rounds, the last hitting and destroying the Oplot. In contrast the Oplot gets off two, the second one hitting with a partial turret penetration. Those T-90's are tough bastards! Who said you can't have old fashioned tank duels in modern warfare!!!



I'd darted up the 1st Platoon HQ tank to support the 2nd platoon; it arrives as the Oplot explodes, and is quickly lased as the turn ends.... 1st Company HQ tank is still (safely??) up the back; I htink it's now the overall commander?



My ever reliable 2nd IFV of 4th platoon, positioned up the north end of the Medium Ridge, spots and destroys another BTR on the north slopes of the Big Hill. Be nice to see some T-90s going BOOM though.....

Oh, an infantry HQ is spotted in the woods immediately east of the 4th platoon IFV, so that seems to round out the expected full infantry company (3 squads and HQ). Now, if only I could find the rest of that tank company....

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 43-42



Sigh.



This picture sums up my general frustration with Ukranian armour in the games I've used them in thus far. They generally seem incapable of seeing anything at all...

The tip of the spear turns into a charnel house of both 2nd platoon and the Comapny HQ. Bet you it was all that single T-90 as well; certainly seems to have been main gun rounds for all.





My arty fire starts dropping int he NW corner (top right). That 30mmm BTR at the back of Arts forces is again spotted, putting down fire (I think) on my units still on the north of the medium ridge.

At the end of the turn, foxholes and a truck are also spotted on the road at the back of Art's line; likely ATGM team. Wonder if there is another T-90 somewhere there as well?; I had multiple tanks area firing on the known T-90 location, so I'll be impressed if it has dispensed with 2nd and Company HQ tanks by itself (or actually, highly unimpressed with the uselessness of Ukrainian armour, if it is the case).

For John K, current contacts marked in green, with question marks for 'lost' contacts. I've also marked the almost half of my tanks that are now burning wrecks. You can see my arty barrage top right.





At this point, it seems I ain't gonna see anything more from my current location, and the since 2nd platoon failed to see anything from even their advanced location (and very appropriately died for their utter ineptitude), sitting where i am is pointless.



So it's time for the original plan; charge some armour up to the western flanks of Big Hill, and if they survive whatever ATGM and tanks have LOS over the ford, whatever RPG teams are still on the hill, and whatever likely mines Art has dropped round the southern ford, MAYBE they'll get some LOS onto Art's right flank. That's an awful lot of maybes, and personally, this is gunna go to hell in a hand basket REAL QUICK.



Prophesising ahead of time; the jackasses in my 1st platoon tanks get their knickers in a knot trying to path-find across the ford, stall, and are destroyed piecemeal on my side of the ford. Any takers on that bet?

But I really don't have the patience in real life to sit still for another 6 minutes (= a week in real world time, at a turn a day) while my arty barrage finishes, and is redeployed for another suppression barrage on Big Hill. So here goes...

 

[Gnarly]

I have finally answered the cryptic riddle of how Oplots it takes to kill a T-90A.

FIVE!!!!

Four as sacrificial lambs to appease the gods of war, and one more to complete the fatal thrust...



At that rate, I hope Art hasn't too many T-90s left!! I've only got 5 alive, of which one I just discovered is non-mobile (in my pocket story, one of the 3rd platoon tanks actually took a RPG hit to its drive sprockets).

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 42-41



A minute of surprises!

The 1st Company HQ over-watching the center from just north of the road, does it best to avenge our fallen comrades. Initially putting down fire on those foxholes, it spots our nemesis, the T-90, and dispatches it with aplomb. FINALLY!




The battle scars of one tough tank:





Rotating back onto the foxholes, the resident mortar team (120mm?) is greeted with an airburst. By the turn end, 2 more groups of foxholes, trucks and another mortar team are located nearby.





Late in the turn, the Company HWQ tank also spots a couple of infantry retreating from that large copse of trees, and shares the love..



This is right on the end of the minute, but surely that's gotta hurt??



One very busy 60 seconds for the Company HQ tank!



Meanwhile, the two remaining tanks of 1st Platoon, and the only mobile one of 3rd platoon, deploy smoke, and (surprisingly) begin crossing the ford without resistance. Please tell me the Russians haven't got sea-mines???

Amazingly for me, these 3 came from different parts of the battlefield, deployed smoke mid-maneuver, and yet coordinated it all very well...





Elsewhere, sporadic rounds and some BTR fire suppress my troops in the Medium Ridge. Also my intense barrage ends onArt's right (only discernable result was the destruction of a truck; hopefully there is an associated weapon team spread over the landscape in meaty pieces. The FO doesn't have LOS or TRPs on the mortar foxholes, so not sure what I'll do with the arty yet, except Big Hill.

 

[Mr_Centipede]

Your left flank seems about to be penetrated though... or was that just a speed bump?

 

[Gnarly]

Your left flank seems about to be penetrated though... or was that just a speed bump?

Nah, I rather stupidly advanced a squad from 4th platoon to try and find the HQ team spotted sometime ago, without support and with Quick. They started taking infantry fire from those sound contacts, plus the BTR way up NE.

but I think that is all there is of Art's on my side of the river (HQ plus perhaps a squad?). My left flank still has two IFVs, three weapon teams and a couple of reduced squads.

 

[Mr_Centipede]

Good luck crossing that river

 

[Gnarly]

Good luck crossing that river

Surprisingly it goes well!

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 41-40

One very busy 60 seconds for the Company HQ tank!

which is brought to a brutally quick end by two hits barely 11 seconds apart killing the vehicle and both the turret's crew, followed by a third 5 seconds later that minces the driver as he attempts to bail.

The manual indicates that the T-90 autoloader can reload in 5-8 seconds, but the third shot suggests two tanks in play here?







This means my little army is now leaderless, losing both the Tactical Group and Company HQ tanks.... Effect?

Late in the minute, one of my ATGM teams spots another T-90 immediately south of the destroyed one; looking closely, they are both parked up in a tiny little depression (you can also see a BTR in the background).





Meanwhile the ford crossing proceeds smoothly, though two of the tanks get bogged for upwards of 30 seconds ( I didn't know that was possible in this game, but it's cool!), leaving the lead tank to sprint up to it's over watch position on that road alone.



My arty barrage is still ongoing on the farm in the far NE corner ( I was mistaken, there was just a pregnant pause whilst the gunners took a vodka break..)

End of turn:

- Coupe of BTR contacts in the NE, missed by the arty

- A number infantry teams forced out in the open by my suppressive area fire

- New T-90 contact in a hollow





My IFV's are maneuvering to put down fire on the remaining mortar foxholes in Art's center.

I'm adjusting the heavy arty mission to drop on the T-90 (it's just within my TRP's radius) in 2 minutes. The hollow it's in is going to be tough to crack; it can't be seen from my advanced Oplot, and if I move the tanks NE along the road, it's likely I'll lose a number of them before they get LOS. And I've a nasty feeling there is another T-90 or two in there...

 

[Gnarly]

Minute 40-39

After putting down some area fire on the presumed enemy infantry HQ location just east of the Medium Ridge, the two trail tanks join the lead Oplot on the road. The 2nd platoon HQ tank gets sprayed by a nearby AGS-30 team, stripping off quite a few exposed subsystems; the adjacent 1st platoon tanks knocks out the grenade launcher.



This maneuver team immediately spots and dispatches those two intermittent BTR contacts in the far NE; one the engaging tanks is the damaged 2nd platoon tank, so it's subsystem damage is not critical:





Turn end

I'd forgotten to mention that the 3rd IFV of 4th platoon, and its squad, have been on the 1st platoon baseline the whole time. Last turn I had them remount, and they are now following the footsteps of the maneuver team, with the intent of keeping the woodlines clear of pesky infantry with RPGs..



Still occasional mortar rounds falling at the north end of the medium ridge.

 

[Gnarly]

Maths-wise, having destroyed:

• 1 x T-90,
  
• 9 x BTR's,
  
• 2+ squads and
  
• a number of weapons team

And with intermittent visuals on another T-90, 2 more BTRs, and a scattering of weapons teams, I am thinking Art's started the battle with:

• a platoon of 4 x T-90's (where the hell are the other two???),
• a mechanized infantry platoon (4 BTR's),
• a reinforced weapons platoon (4+ BTR's),
• a Command team (incl. FO) (2 or 3 BTRs) and
• 4 x organic mortars in foxholes

My losses thus far:

• 5 Oplots (+ 1 Oplot immobilised but still in a good hull-down LOS location)
  
• 2 BMP-2's (weapons platoon)