Artemis vs Spitfire CM:BS DAR; SPITFIRE STAY OUT!!

[Artemis258]

Well, after the spectacularly bloody showdown between myself and Gnarly, I've taken on a new opponent. It's the Ruskis vs the Ukranians again but with a twist.... I'm the Ukranian!

This battle was set up by my opponent Spitfire, and it looks like an interesting one... the map looks good, but before we get into all that analysis boredom, let's go shopping!

THE LIST



With a very decent amount of points to spend, I got to have some fun with this. A company of tanks AND a company of infantry? yes please!

With a few hundred still left over, I could even tweak a bit. Dropping a tank from the company bulked up my play money a bit. One tank here won't make much difference, and gives me three units of 3 to play with. With these extra points, I could outfit each platoon with their own corsair-toting crazyman. Having played the Ukranians before, I know the power these little dudes can bring to the battlefield. They're the only eastern shoulder-fired ATGM, giving them a much better mobility and smaller signature than their tripod-mounted brothers.

I also took a half-platoon of MANPADS. I don't like air support in these games terribly much - I find it unreliable in all but the biggest of battles, and expensive. That said 5 dudebros with iglas will give me a bit of a buffer against anything Spitty brings against me there.


I also kept the inf. Battalion's grenade launchers, recon teams and antitank platoons. All indispensable.

This has forced some cutbacks. My guys ride into battle in BTR's not BMPs, and only two of them are the modern shiny 4E's. My rationale here is that the BMPs, while a capable fighting vehicle, don't bring to the battle the same punch as an Oblot. I wish I'd had just enough points to mount them in at least the modern ones with the RWS (Which I ADORE!), however I got greedy with other things. So that's that.

Finally, I've got the 6 tubes of 120mm mortars from Battalion. These dudebros are off-map. Lazy sods.


With the remaining points (a few hundred) I specced up most of my tanks to Veteren level, my company and platoon atgm's to Vet or above, and my battalion AT assets to crack!

anything left over specced up the footsloggers, starting with arty observers then moving down the chain of command.



Some group photos! In case you're wondering about the units, I use Kieme's excellent retextures for all my units! They can be found HERE http://community.battlefront.com/topic/117795-kiemes-modding-corner/?do=findComment&comment=1620919

 

[Gnarly]

With these extra points, I could outfit each platoon with their own corsair-toting crazyman. Having played the Ukranians before, I know the power these little dudes can bring to the battlefield. They're the only eastern shoulder-fired ATGM, giving them a much better mobility and smaller signature than their tripod-mounted brothers.

Yup, I've learnt my lesson now about that! Only Skifs and Corsairs for me from now on (only had cold war left-over AT-4s and recoiless rifles in our game...).

This has forced some cutbacks. My guys ride into battle in BTR's not BMPs, and only two of them are the modern shiny 4E's. My rationale here is that the BMPs, while a capable fighting vehicle, don't bring to the battle the same punch as an Oblot. I wish I'd had just enough points to mount them in at least the modern ones with the RWS (Which I ADORE!), however I got greedy with other things. So that's that.

As long as you remember that those dinky little 14.5mm will just bounce of BMPs...

Some group photos! In case you're wondering about the units, I use Kieme's excellent retextures for all my units! They can be found HERE http://community.battlefront.com/topic/117795-kiemes-modding-corner/?do=findComment&comment=1620919

Downloaded all of Kieme's UKR stuff last night after seeing your AAR shots. The digital Oplot is bad-ass, and the rest of dirtied-up vehicles looks soooo much better!

 

[Gnarly]

PS @Artemis258 , before you get too distracted, any luck with that video of yor command team's grenade takedown of the Oplot?

I should say, this will be interesting reading; I'll be taking notes for future psy-ops!!

 

[Artemis258]

The Set-up!


Ok, so the battle will take place on an interesting QB map I've never played before. It's 1200m square, with rolling terrain and some interesting features. I've named what I consider the key points of terrain here, just to give an overview;



Time to put on my best Bil Face and take this seriously! Pre-battle analysis is something I need to get better at (as in; remembering to do!) so doing so publicly will help I think!)

METT-T (Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops, Time)


Mission - The map itself has two major objectives and three minor ones. In my experience in PBEM, while considerable points are available for destroying the enemy, achieving objectives can be the tipping point of the match. That said these objectives are distributed such that it's a reasonable assumption that we'll achieve about 50% of those each. Hence I believe this battle will be decided purely on casualties - either by points, or if one side achieves a decisive blow by the other, indirectly winning through kills by then gaining other objectives. The mission then is simple;

KILL THEM ALL

Enemy - This is a tricky one. Intel is zero. Spitfire's a new user here, so I've no idea how he plays. No AAR's to look at. Nothing.

What I do know;
-He has approximately enough points to field a good mix of tanks and infantry. If he cuts back on one or both, he could conceivably field some air support or heavy artillery, though it would reduce his ground forces considerably. Liekwise, he could trade numbers for very high quality, and it could be in his interests to do so.

-Neither of us have APS, due to a prior agreement.

-Given the point values, I expect T90-AMs. I do not expect 72's.


My guistimate would be a reinforced mechanised company with at least a platoon of Armour, mounted in BMPs. Strong supporting assets, maybe battalion level Artillery.


Terrain- This is interesting. Lots of hills and dips, lots of scattered tree cover. The conditions are warm, wet, with light rain and a gentle north-westerly breeze.

The view from my deployment zone



Key terrain has been marked on the map at the top, I'll include some pics from various perspectives.

Heartbreak Ridge

The view, looking towards my deployment zone (looking west)


The most dominating piece of terrain, and it's on his side! From here a player can get eyes on most of the rest of the map! And it's on his side! Behind it is the resort, which gives that VP an excellent reverse slope position to defend from, and it's sheer size and position gives him the ability to mask his movement almost completely! That said, cover is sparse, limited to a few trees and a copse to the north end (Sherwood Forrest). This is the key piece of terrain, but I don't think control of it will win the battle per-se. Sitting on top of it gives a great view, but also exposes you to the enemy, and it's sheer size means a hull-down position really restricts line of sight in the vertical. It's true value lies in being too big to ignore, and to cover the southern movement of troops behind it.

Sherwood Forrest

The view from Sherwood Forrest



A good, well-covered overwatch of the northern end of the map. It also covers some of the blindspots in the aproaches to the foot of Heartbreak ridge. It'd be a phenomenal place to put an anti tank team or maybe hide a tank behind. I think I'll shell it to oblivion.



Toko-Ri and the Lunar Flats



Sense a naming convention here? Toko-Ri overlooks the Lunar Flats all the way to my opponent's deployment zone, as well as giving a great view of Heartbreak ridge. I'd love to use it, but it has less cover than the ridge itself. The approaches have some great low ground cover - I'm fairly confident of GETTING there, but I'm less confident of staying there. Moreover, if my opponent charges across the flats to surprise me, he could well be in a position to kill anything trying to take position there. But it does have a nice view...

The flats are just that -the longest section of clear terrain and a probable death trap to cross. Plus the ploughed field offers great opportunity to get bogged.

Fury Rise


My own perfect overwatch position. Great cover from the woods, steep sides, providing amazing defalaide for my movement behind it and an amazing view in front of it.

It'll probably get shelled to oblivion.


The roads are roads, typically they're in valleys, I don't have much to say about them at this point so I'll just post the pics of the MSRs.

The view down Able



The View down Baker



Troops - outlined above

Time- The battle time limit is 1 hour.

 

[Artemis258]

PS @Artemis258 , before you get too distracted, any luck with that video of your command team's grenade takedown of the Oplot?

I have it, I just have to do some minor editing, though it's really nothing special :S

 

[Artemis258]

THE PLAN

Given what I know of the terrain and the objective layout, and the technological gap between my forces and the enemy, my plan is initially defensive. I know this may not sit right with the more bloodthirsty (c3k!) however I only stand a chance if I kill him on my terms, not his. Thus the order of the day is hull down, hide in the gullies, and ambush!

However, my present position is ill-suited to the task and I can't let him take all the victory points unopposed. Moreover, I predict that Heartbreak Ridge offers too great an advantage in terms of concealed movement to ignore...

So, I have dived my forces into three sections.


1. The bulk of my infantry, and 2/3rds of my tanks, will move to occupy the village and immediate surrounds. The 1st MEch inf platoon will remain mounted at the rear (western edge) of the village, screened by buildings, as a QRF along side the tanks of 2 platoon (armoured), slightly behind them in the trees. The two tanks from 3rd along with their COY take up overwatch either side of MSR BAKER, again to the west. The rest of the infantry will take and secure the village, 3rd taking the center will 2nd pushes out to the northern edge. My MANPADS are largely scattered around this group.


2. My company-level Anti-tank and support assets (Recoiless rifles, MGs and GMGs) will spread out among the various hills and forrests, spred out to proivde interlocking and decentralized fields of fire. I want it so as many avenues of approach as possible are covered with minimal exposure to artillery or direct fire.


3. My recon, supported (at range) by the 1st tank platoon, are to rush east to determine the enemy's movements around Heartbreak ridge and (if possible) ambush them! They have their own corsair launcher, some RPG-22's, as well as 2 GMG's and an RPG-7 (some lucky sod found kicking around in a BRDM!) Additionally, one of the Reconciles rifles can also support.


The plan; Ambush the enemy when he sticks his nose out and bloody it badly.


Here's a map




And some pics as my men move out!




Recon on the move. Notice platcom and AT dismounting already



Recon member gets run over. No Yuri! Look both ways!




Don't drop that! Reciless Rifle crew loses his AK

 

[enigma6584]

Great write-up. Looking forward to watching this unfold. The terrain you are in makes me nervous.

 

[Artemis258]

Really? I'm counting on it being an asset!

 

[enigma6584]

Way too open for my liking.

 

[Artemis258]

Haha! The key is in the folds and valleys! I hope...


Turn 1-2


It was a fairly quiet start, with some minor traffic jams (moving nearly two companies into a small town! but everyone seems to be where they need to be, more or less...

At the end of the first turn one of my ATGMs made out a lone russian wandering along the northern road, not really in cover, nor moving very fast... Over the next turn he popped in and out of LOS... a scout? the far end of an infantry squad? A diversion? I need more information!

First Contact



To this end I've pushed the 2nd platoon up into the western northern forests, as well as their BTR-4 to cover anything that might pop out from the north road vp.

2 Plt Advance



I've also kept the 1st platoon mounted as well for now, just in case I need to be more mobile. They're in cover behind the village, and the first few moments of real battle will probably be ranged armour/AT fire anyway, so they're safer there. Also, if arty comes down on the town, they're a bit more covered.




Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, my recon forces have dismounted and potentially found their first quarry; a tank sound contact, just on the other side of the valley, and right next to my RPG team! Hopefully the hill will shield them from the tank's sight, which will almost certainly be directed towards my own lines. If all goes well, they can hunt around to flank. Popping a tank in ambush this early into the game will certainly give Spitty a pause for thought, and may convince him that his southern flank is under threat...


Hunting Armour





My thoughts here are that at this point, Spitfire and I are performing almost exactly the same movements! Pushing the bulk of our forces to the left while probing with recon on the right... however it seems (and I don't have much intel at all right now!) that his advance has been much more caution than mine. Hopefully that infantry contact is the most forward he has his forces... which means his intel on my disposition will be even less than mine on his. Maybe. Or, he could have a drone in the air and know exactly where I am. sod. Oh well, time will tell. Hopefully Sergeant Honcharenko and his boys can gain first blood on an enemy tank next turn!

The board, turn 2

 

[Artemis258]

Turns 3-7

And it's off with a bang! Spitfire and I had a very good back and forth last night so this is going to combine a few turns into one. What I'm going to do is divide it by event, so each section will account for 4 minutes of life of the events described.



On my right, my recon force moved into contact with a sizable enemy force, about a platoon of mechanised infantry. However, the vehicle contact disappointingly turned out to only be a missile-toting truck, not the glorious tank I supposed it to be. My Skiff team popped a few shots, eventually destroying it, while the recon platoon tried to pivot around the base of the hill. Sadly, this is where I discovered the BMP3s, and airburst rounds knocked out two of my teams, though they took some of the enemy with them!. The SKiff and the recoiless rifle also made a good showing for themselves, bagging a BMP each!


Don't see one of those often. This was the first veicle contact my recon team unearthered. It didn't hit anything nor last long - it's shooting at a BTR. Map Point 1



Buhbye! Map Point 2



A Russian tends to a wounded comrade, bagged by my recon team. Above him, the dust of the missile from the previous shot can be seen drifting away.

Meanwhile, apparently preplanned bombardments of the first major treeline NE of my deployment zone began a few minutes in, killing the mg team and most of the mortar platoon HQ there. Thankfully, it's not near any of my ATGM positions. I might have to relocate though, and importantly, I've lost one of my experienced spotters for my mortars.



Artillery rains down on the Mortar Hq. The mg team's already bought it. Notice the SKiff and GMG just below, lucky!! Map Point 4

The center town was the scene of first blood, a Kornet team popped up right where i expected them in Sherwood forrest, and I stupidly had left a BTR (the Recoiless rifle transport) exposed. Not a huge loss but a stupid one. The ammunition that went up is of a greater loss than the vehicle though, so on balance it's not a real blow. 5 minutes in my mortars came down and I've not heard from him since, and a truck was seen retreating from the forrest. Hopefully the airburst rounds knocked out the launcher - they tend to be delicate to that sort of thing. Towards the end of the trun some small explosives started to rain on the town and another BTR, doing minimal damage... I suspect there's a Grenade Machine Gun somewhere up on the hill, but be damned if I can find it.



Ffffirst Blood! Map Point 5




Grenades! Mp point 6

On the far left one of my ATGM teams trying to make Fury rise came under fire from small arms and a tank, forcing them back with one casualty, though launcher intact. Guess that's a no-go then. Quickly the culprits began to pop up on thermals... T-72s? At least four of them too. Now that's a surprise, but a pleasant one.



Old school. Map Point 7

Ouch. SKiff team cops HE Map point 8

Behind them my FO tries to manouver to get a lase on one of the tanks, but is spotted. Thankfully they too are able to pull back without significant losses. I'm pushing 2nd plt from my armoured company up under defilade to see if I can get an angle on that armour, but I really want to pop one with my infantry first so they're not expecting it.... I don't want to add a tank to my losses.



The Butchers Bill Turn 7;

Losses:
1 BTR
1 MT-LBU arty obs vehicle (no clue what killed this, I missed it)

men;
1st and 3rd teams from the recon platoon KIA - including my RPG toting section. Damn.
1 casualty from small arms on the left.
3 from Mortar HQ
1 MG team

total killed: 12. 4 teams rendered combat ineffective.


Kills
1 BRDM ATGM Vehicle
2 BMP-3s

men;

1 MG team probable
1 Kornet Team possible
light casualties inflicted on eastern mech platoon confirmed
light causalities on western infantry possible

Assessment:

The destruction of the BMPs outweighs my infantry on the right flank, but I've got to be careful here. I'm going to try and move two platoons up to the east from the town to help, but it's going to be tricky getting them there. A loss of a vehicle could kill a whole squad, while moving on foot is too slow. I'm going to try and fix that enemy force on the east with my recon while I do this - to that end my grenade machine guns are repositioning. Thankfully my tanks give pretty good overwatch too... The grenades flying into town are a bother, but I'll suppress probable positions with the btrs and ignore them for now. I'm also surprised at my opponents choice of vehicles... T-72s, non-era BMP3's, and some whacky missle-toting trucks are not quite what I expected... but seem to be playing in my favour. I wonder what he's got hiding back there...?



Map. The numers indicate positions of each of the screenshots above. Red indicates possible movement of my mechanised QRF, though I don't want a transport popped en route. Green indicates my tank re-positioning, the dotted their holding point.

 

[Artemis258]

Sorry for the delay folks, uni got a bit on top of me over the weekend! As a reward, pictures! LOTS OF PICTURES!

Turns 8-12

The next few turns have nothing special worth mentioning except... Ukranians can't shoot straight!


I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again. Guided missiles my arse.

Let's step back a bit.
Remember those -72's? Well, I was able to edge a corsair team up to take revenge...


These guys

The AT team quickly gain a spot, and take aim with their nice shiny modern pretty man portable laser guided state-of-the-art weapons of the glorious Ukranian army...



Ambush! This is how my strategy should unfold!

However, it seems my operator got distracted by a butterfly or something...



Incompetency!

In hindsight, I figure that the rain is playing merry havoc with the laser guidance system. However it was a perfect opportunity gone terribly wrong, and the response is swift. After 2 minutes of heavy shelling the team looks more like this...



Do or do not. There is no try.


However, this distraction allowed me to move my surviving skiff on FURY to get an angle... the lads sprint up, drop the tripod, take aim...


There he is... plinking our lads!



Clearly these gentlemen paid attention in training!

However, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished...


shi...


The earth shattering kaboom. Wrong side.


Other than that, the turns this round have been pretty standard.



The situation at the end of turn 12...

 

[Max]

Nice job on the AAR so far. Good naration and fun to watch! Keep up the good work and thank you for the work!

 

[Artemis258]

Sorry for the slow rate of reply, my oppo had some holidays over easter and there hasn't been much happening.

No pics till the next update, buyt another half dozen turns have gone by with minimal exchange of fire; however fresh contact is imminent!

 

[Artemis258]

Ok, back on the bandwagon now.


We're now at turn... 22? So there's a bit of a jump cut. Here's an updated map of the situation:

On the northern Flank, the Trio of T-72's which advanced down the lunar flats have been checked somewhat. A lucky hit knocked one out and they've been in hiding since then, little pansies. No real sign of infantry support yet either, though I'm calling the last of my arty down to make sure. I've alsod advanced some of my tanks up under the cover of smoke, hiding behind buildings and such... I have an rpg team close by too which I might try and 'leap out' on the side to ambush, but I don't want to be caught with my pants down on that....

The center is dead quiet, and with the cover given by the valley I'm wondering if I should try and sneak something down MSR Baker.... but it's still overlooked by Heartbreak Ridge and it could end messily if there's something there I can't see.


The battle for the southern woods and MSR betty up until this point has been fairly low intensity. A few turns ago he wheeled a t-72 out (i'm not sure if it's from the trio or not, there was some movement of vehicles from the north to the south), and that's done some he dropping here and htere, but I've honestly done as much with fratricidal 20mm grenades... that said, this turn things start heating up....



Turn 22: The Double-Team On the South Flank


At the moment the lines are reasonably static, neither one of us willing to risk a push into the unknwon I suspect his intel of me is possibly slightly more complete than mine of his, but the dance has been probing actions so far. However this time my wonderful opponent made a fatal error, and for that I thank him!

Over the hill, a clanking of tracks heralded the advance of heavy armour. 3rd Platoon, cramped in deflade under the cover of the tree-line, trembled. Their commander was knocked out, bleeding when one of those accursed trigger-happy foools with the GMGs a few hundred meters behind accidentally sent a burst into the trees above their heads. The young officer would live, if he got evac. But now this tank....

popping an ATGM team of mine, but revenge will come...

The clanking came to a stop and the hollow boom-crump of shot and detonation made everyone duck instinctively, but it wasn't meant for them. A young private, sick of hiding under trees, stood up to shout angrily in the direction of the sound. Unexpectedly, standing gave him the barest glimpse of the turret of the offending vehicle. "Blyatt.." remembering the disposable rpg slung over his back, he took a knee and shot, not even waiting for his sgt's permission. The rocket arced gently above the hill, almost disappearing from sight before a flash hid the tank from view.

"You Idiot!" Sgt Bondarchuk slapped the young private over the head, knocking him to the ground. "look! now it comes for us!"
Sure enough, the tank had turned and was clearly seeking its antagonist. The young men dove to the ground, praying it had been hit bad enough not to notice, and each secretly preparing themselves for death. There was a second explosion and they all flinched. But it was different, not the hollow crump of a gun, but a more violent bang! of high explosive. The private peaked his head out of the dirt to see oily black smoke rising from the tank. Someone else had got him!

if you look closely you'lll see the smoke from the RR shot in the treeline top right. Not the big smoke! That's from my scardy-tanks, they got lased by this t-72 earlier. At least I hope it was this one...

I really like the Ukrainian recoilless rifles. They're not too expensive and I always seem to have good luck with them. This is kill no. 2 for these guys!

Good kill!

The next move

I'm a bit on the fence about what to do next. I've another platoon (1st of infantry I can push up the south, but I worry it might get caught out by something I haven't seen. It's been a while since I played this particualr game (stupid real life) so I'm less confident about my plans. This turn I think I'll hold the line a little and consolidate - there's also a BMP-3 I need to do something about before I move too aggressively there. I'm hoping a corsair will do that for me very soon.

That said, my opponent has lost two T-72's in the last few turns so that has to have checked his enthusiasm somewhat. It also means I'm winning the tank-attrition game. Only one of mine has taken a hit (disabling it's main gun unfortunately- so it may as well be a kill) while two of his are burning wrecks and at least one more can't really advance without exposing itself to fire... That said, this turn shows how easy it is to lose one to anything else in this game, so this advantage could really be lost at any moment.

 

[Artemis258]

No turn in nearly 2 months Hoping this game isn't dead.