I had the Canucks vs
@Nathangun . The LAVs the Canucks have were almost the exact same set of vehicles I had back in round1 where I had the Marines. They have the same 25mil auto-cannon and use the same ammo. Each force has a TOW variant. The Canucks have slightly better armor but both missions were against enemy tank formations, so neither is going to survive being hit. The terrain and type of enemy armor though were totally different from each other.
The marines were on fairly big desert map with rolling terrain and fighting a combination of T-55s and T-62s tanks. The Canucks were on a much smaller heavily forested area with a trail network to allow vehicle passage and were fighting the most modern armor the Syrains have, T-90 and T-72-turmsT tanks.
My marines in the first round where able to penn both the T55s and T62s from almost all angles and ranges they engaged them from. The marines optics and fire control was a clear overmatch to the older enemy armor, including being able to use their smoke grenades to blind the enemy while using their I.R. optics to see through and kill the enemy armor. The terrain gave the stand off distance and hull down firing positions the TOW vehicles need to be used effectively.
None of those things carried over to round5. I did not seem to have any spotting or fire control edge at all. Even popping smoke was next to useless because the enemy could see through it just like my units. I could only penn those tanks from the flank or rear and even a long burst of fire from my auto-cannons might or might not be doing serious damage to the tanks. I have a very clear memory of catching 1 tank on its right flank during the last 30-ish seconds banging away on it til the end of the turn . Which about 15-ish seconds left another of my units started banging away on the same tank from its left flank till the end . This action carried on for about 20-ish seconds into the next turn (a tank being shot on both the left and right side of it's turret at the same time!!!) then the tank finally slued it's main gun to it's right and blasted that LAV off the map and then back to its left killing that LAV.................... I still have the turn saved!!!!!! The tank never moved after that but it did manage several to kill several more of my infantry and was still alive and shooting at the end of the game!! The TOW vehicles were not much of a factor it was very hard to find any sight lines more then 3or400 meters long, way short of the standoff range those vehicles need and maybe worse almost none of the elevation changes they have to have a covered firing position they could sit still in while guiding their missiles on target............. One last thing about the equipment. A lot of players, me included, fall into the mindset that the Russian/Syrian optics/fire control equipment are not any good. Maybe garbage or junk or whatever 4letter word pops to mind when one of our tanks gets smoked. While it is true that the modern US/Nato stuff is better that does not mean the Russian stuff is bad... My Canucks had a few Carl Gustov anti-armor teams that I thought would be very good units for this map...lots of woods for the small teams to hide in and ambush enemy tanks or IFV...... I don't think any of the teams got a single shot off because those "trashy" IR optics the Syrains had spotted those small 2 man teams from100s of meters away no matter how deed in the woods they were hiding and sniping them with a single shot 120mm main gun round. Which impressed me considering they done it even though they don't have the air--bursting ammo like the CMBS T90s have. I really liked both RD1 and RD5 because of how different they were from each other even though the blue force was tactically the same force.....
Speaking of RD5. I think me and
@Nathangun had a very fun game and a very interesting result. I managed to stop 20 of his tanks from getting to the exit zone even though these 3 were almost there. Sorry
@Nathangun that is prolly an aggravating memory for you
Also stopping 6 BMPs from leaving and killing 83 of his infantrymen. Netting me 78percent of the total points I could possibly score. But it costed practically my entire force to do that. losing 47 of my vehicles and getting 300 of my infantry killed, only 50 of my guys survived the battle. Giving
@Nathangun 86percent of his total available points. Because the total available points are not the same the scenario rated it has a major victory for me but to my way of thinking that is NOT a major victory for any western force no matter which title... I am a lil bit unsure how I would rate the result..... but is not the important part...... The important part is i thought i was a very fun and interesting game and i think
@Nathangun played it really well from his side..........
So my bottom line is, win, lose, or draw, it was a helluva fun game with a good opponent that I am sure I will be matched up with again in another one of these tourneys and I am looking forward t the rematch.........
Thanks
@SlySniper and
@Nathangun