After reading the briefing, my interpretation was that this game was going to be a lopsided affair, in favor of the Syrian Uncons. So, my objective was to retain control of at least some portion of the town, and the outlying area the briefing described as “the route you entered from”. To accomplish that objective I felt that I needed to slow down the enemy advance, and minimize the amount of time the enemy had to conduct an assault on the town itself.
The enemy was known to be coming from three directions, the SW, NW, and NE corners of the map. There are hills in each of those corners with rear facing slopes which I assumed would be the UnCon setup zones. The only areas in front of those hills where the enemy could realistically be located were the deep parts of the gullies.
With this intel, I decided to send screening forces out in each of the three directions. Each force would consist of three personal carriers. These PCs would need additional man-power to replace the gunner, and each force would need some infantry protection. As an added benefit the PCs would be able to find some hull-down positions in the gully. A scout team from each squad was assigned as the backup gunners, and one of the remaining 6-man teams from each platoon was assigned to each screening group to provide protection from the inevitable enemy RPG teams. This left six 6-man teams, and the company’s support (an MG team and 9 Jeeps w/ mounted MGs, Snipers, 2 Weasels, and 5 remaining PCs) to defend from within the town.
The screening teams moved out on turn 1. With one exception, they all made it to their intended destinations. Unfortunately, an enemy group of recoilless rifles, an ATGM team, and a mortar team where located just 500m outside the NE corner of town in open terrain which was clearly visible from the many high observation posts within the town. A round from the ATGM team destroyed the PC carrying the 6-man protection team, making it even more frustrating. Realistically, their setup zone should have restricted them to setup in the gulley, where my OPs had no LOS. This group was able, on turn one, to also target and destroy a jeep parked behind the tall building on the east side of town, and another PC that started on the south side of the map in the entry area. An ambush by forces hiding in the open.
I spent the next 4 turns trying to find places to hide the vehicles that remained in town from that group, and two others that appeared on subsequent turns. Both of these groups were located in the SW sector opposite from the initial group which made it more problematic, and I have no complaints about the setup zones for these other groups, as they were in wooded areas of this sector. I have to give some credit to Aurelius here for his use of these other groups. Over the next few turns, as I moved my vehicles to hide them from the initial group, I inadvertently exposed them to the still hidden 2nd and 3rd groups. Together with his VBIEDS I lost 12 vehicles in the first 5 minutes of the game, including 3 of my 4 mortar carriers. During this period, I used my snipers, and grenade launchers to target these teams, but they were largely ineffective, providing only minimal suppression, and putting just one of the ATGM teams out of action.
Five minutes in, his technical groups arrived using “shoot-n-scoot” tactics from the protection of the reverse slopes in each corner. I targeted two of these areas with my fighter-bombers. One scored two kills in the NE sector, but the other landed without deploying its ordnance. That fighter-bomber was retargeted eventually getting two vehicle kills in the NW sector.
His six fighter/combatant groups also appeared advancing toward jump-off positions for their final assault. This is where my screening forces appeared to have some positive effect. I kept them down in the gully so they didn’t actively engage the advancing forces, but Aurelius advanced as if to tempt them to expose themselves, perhaps so his technicals could get better kill opportunities, eventually backing them off to advance from a different direction. As a result, his assault didn’t take place until the final 6 or 7 minutes of the game. By this time my defenders were well suppressed by fires from his technical and heavier weapons units. I had 5 or 6 vehicles remaining at that point but my other units in the buildings were in bad shape. His assault was successful, but ran out of time, and I was able to retain control of about 1/3 of the buildings in the town, including the two 100 point VLs.
I forgot about my off-map motor but eventually used it to target a fighter group advancing to jump-off positions in the NW wooded sector, and subsequently his technicals in the SW corner where the barrage destroyed 2 of them.
Overall, I felt this scenario was “hard work”. I spent many hours on each turn trying to find positions where my units would have some LOS (to perform area fire) without over-exposing themselves as easy kills. In at least four cases I positioned a vehicle safely behind a building only to have enemy technical fire still take it out or cause it to retreat into the open where it was easily destroyed. Despite this, I felt that I achieved my initial expectations, so I was very surprised to see that I had the worst result of all the German players.
I encountered a few CM issues while playing this game, and I am wondering if anyone else experienced them.
- A map problem with one particular building caused vehicles to expose themselves by going around that building to get to a plotted position a few meters behind their starting position. Nothing appeared to prevent them from simply backing up.
- Also, with respect to spotted enemy units, I will often select those units to see which of my units light up to indicate they are the unit that can see them. More often than not the only unit that lights up is a panicked unit whose individuals are curled up and not looking anywhere, while a number of other units that are in good order and have LOS to the position of the spotted enemy unit can not see that unit at all.