Eyes, Ears and Teeth

[MikeJ19]

Okay, so I have found some enemy, what do I do...

[MikeJ19]

A lot can change in 18 minutes....

[MikeJ19]

A stack of 23 vehicles north of Kirchhain - too bad my arty was not ready for them...

[MikeJ19]

Maybe it is time to rethink a little - I'm getting more intel on the soviet forces and a better understanding of the tasks at hand...

[MikeJ19]

Some Hinds (I think) show up.

[MikeJ19]

Well, things are getting clearer, but not better...

[MikeJ19]

A little better...

[MikeJ19]

A wonderful battle...

[MikeJ19]

Had time for another 'turn'

[MikeJ19]

Avengers on the move

[MikeJ19]

The battle continues...

[MikeJ19]

The visibility keeps changing as the rain picks up and then falls off again. For about 5 minutes it was down to 50m - the game time went by quickly at that point.

I'm worried that I have been posting too many screen shots - so I've skipped a few...

[MikeJ19]

The last 42 minutes have been interesting. The rain picked up, dropping the visibility significantly for a bit, which hid a movement of lots of soviet APCs into the main battle area. It cleared up for a couple of minutes just before noon - enough that I planned an ICM mission along the road L3809 leading to the bridge outside Kirchhain - is was a very effective mission taking out a bunch of APCs.

At 1205, the rain slowed and the visibility went up to 2000m from 500m...

[CapnDarwin]

You are almost 3 to 1 in command cycle. OODA looped them good.

[MikeJ19]

Capn Darwin,

I'm inside their OODA loop, but I still need to be better at exploiting this advantage. In one of these scenarios, I want to show the soviets a target for them to attack, and not be there when the attack arrives, but be in a location that can take out the soviet forces more easily. I'm not explaining it well, I just know that I can exploit the command cycles better! Maybe I can do that in this scenario, with my upcoming withdrawal from Neiderwald...

Between 1214 and 1327 the visibility was poor which slowed down the mayhem a little. My forces did a great job taking out the soviets that popped the ridge at the south end of Cat along the L3809 and B62.

I've been using my fire support resources very well and put a FASCAM minefield in the valley along the L3809 to try and slow down the advancing soviet forces.

Here is the situation at 1327...

[MikeJ19]

Between 1400 and 1738, the weather was very inconsistent with low visibility for long periods of time.

I kept checking the area around the Dog (the northern VP locations) and saw no enemy.

Around 1530, I ordered a recce pair to move north and at 1604 I secured the 2 VP locations in Dog.

I've moved some forces to support the recce pair in Dog - to ensure that I hold onto the VP - and a decisive victory.

At about 1735, the rain stopped and the vis increase to 6000m...

[MikeJ19]

Game over!

Not much action between 1738 and 1900 - the visibility was good, but the soviets did not push much. I felt like they had run out of steam. Finally.

[MikeJ19]

The final reported claims and kill chart...

[MikeJ19]

Final positions

I will add some final thoughts on my actions and the scenario later today. I enjoyed this challenge.

[MikeJ19]

AAR

What did I do right?

I stuck fairly well to my plan – moving forward to towards Cat and then making decisions on how to respond as I figured out the soviet intentions. I did not have the forces to assault or be assaulted, and I did a good job of not letting my forces get stuck in close combat.

My use of fire support was very good. Early on when the soviets were still advancing, I let the FSCC control the missions, but when the fighting got more intense, and it was clearer where the soviets were and where they needed to go, I controlled the missions. I really like where I placed the FASCAM – along L3809 right after the bridge.

I seized the initiative to secure Dog. Early on, I was convinced that the soviets had left no forces and I kept checking this out, which led me to concluding that a recce pair could secure both VP locations. Waiting till near the end was also a good idea, as it gave the soviets less time to counter attack.

I did a better job of resupplying.

What could I improve on?

Attention to detail – if I had realized earlier on that the VP% were lower than the last scenario for victory, I would have been more confident going in. I was worried for the longest time that I did not have forces that could assault and capture objectives from the soviets and that would lead to a loss. I think that my plan would have been similar if I had realized this earlier on.

Use of helicopters. I lost a Cobra and some Kiowas early in the scenario because I flew them into an area where they had no protection from soviet AD systems. Later in the game, I took less risks with them, and gave them better chances to succeed. I need to get better at planning their moves and engagement.

My Avengers should have been better placed – I needed to be thinking about getting them into places that had good visibility over more of the battlefield.

Taking advantage of the OODA loop. The NATO forces have a built in advantage of shorter command cycles. I need to explore how to better exploit this advantage.

Thoughts on the scenario/game

It was a fun challenging scenario and it took me a long time to really understand how I was going to win – understanding the victory conditions would have helped!

The mixture of forces for the US player is challenging and it was interesting not to be defending something as much as trying to force the soviets into attacking so you can destroy them – it was a cool twist.

I’m surprised that the soviets lefts VP locations completely clear of forces.

This would be interesting to play as the soviet player – lots of options open to them.


Overall, I really enjoyed the change of pace and the challenge. It was a different mixture of forces and the impact of the weather was interesting too.

I think I will move to a scenario with choppers - to try and get better with them.