You Folks Have It Kind of Easy
Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 4:43 am
Yeah, that's a bold statement. A line drawn in the dirt with a bayonet. Bear with me while I explain.
First, we release scenarios that are "balanced". That doesn't mean they track with the realities of the time. That means two equally matched players can expect a decent chance at victory and the difference depends on decisions each makes.
Let's talk offsets for a moment:
1. Problem: The WP (Warsaw Pact) has way more hardware than NATO
2. Offset: How to counter the numerical superiority of the WP
3. First Offset: Tactical Nukes. Enough said there.
4. Second Offset: Tac Nukes no longer acceptable. So, Precision Guided Munitions. In FCSS, that's really ATGMs. but both sides have them and WP really used them first! rue, but it's how you use them.
What's missing is a scenario where the Soviet Voldemort decides your battalion is where the hammer is going to hit. So what does that look like?
1. At the point of breakthrough, a Soviet division frontage may be as narrow as 4 km.
2. The artillery devoted to that would be 100 to 130 tubes per km of frontage.
3. OK, so 20 hexes wide, 520 tubes of arty
4. Can you crouch in your foxhole and survive? Probably not.
Again, we haven't done that in our scenarios. Why? Because that's Graduate Level stuff. I seriously doubt the Pro's today could prevail absent some coaching. If I have time, I'll make a scenario or two like this in the next couple of months. My dance card is kind of full at present.
i spent a decade of rotations at various Maneuver Training Centers learning how to survive. I got tot he point where either me and my guy or at least me alone were the Lst man standing in my company. The secret? Moving to avoid artillery. Although, that one time where I was last man standing, I made a mistake. Light infantry, so I went to the company mortar squad and shot a dozen rounds in hand held mode. Then grabbed Dragon and two missiles and started trudging to the obstacle breach the sounded like an interstate highway of tanks and BMPs. The Observer/Controller was rooting for me, but the OPFOR shot 192 rounds of 152mm on my pointed little head. Should bypassed the 60mm mortar.
Alright, I'll give some clues:
1. You need to kill all enemy recon.
2. You absolutely cannot park your guys in the best terrain and wait for the enemy to walk into your sights. The preparatory artillery fires will kill you. That means hidden from observation. Terrain dictates. If your hide position is more than 1 km from your defensive position, you need to reconsider.
3. You need to know when to move into your defensive positions.\
4. That means you need eyes forward (recon)
5. Your recon can't be in the path of the enemy advance. if it is, it will die.
All of the above gets you a coin toss. It doesn't take into account using terrain.
Anecdote: Combat Maneuver Training Center, June 1990. Squad Leader, M113 Mech. Deliberate Defense Mission. Had a TOW section attached (Sec Ldr was a BBQ Buddy). We looked at terrain and decided on rear quartering shots as the OPFOR pushed up the valley. Aked up the chain of command for more TOW missiles. Got a double load. We had zero Blade Time (engineer digger vehicles to make positions for our vehicles). My M113 was stashed 200 meters away after we unloaded everything, including the Maw Deuce. My bud unloaded his M901 and I put my guys to work digging him and his guys in. About 4 hours before the expected attack time, we moved (his guys in my track) about 2500 meters away to wait out the OPFOR prep fires. Then we moved back in to our foxholes. My plt lost one track and squad due to OPFOR shooting FASCAM, He was closest to the enemy direction. My guys shot down a recon helo. The TOW section got a couple dozen tank and BMP kills. Wasn't enough for my company, though. Learned some lessons there.
The teaching point here is you can avoid the WP prep fires. But the hard part is threading the needle in getting back into position before the ground forces attack. That requires some recon assets in the right place and surviving. it is quite hard to pull off on the ground. Like i d=said, this is Graduate Level stuff.
Here's another tip. Military history. Particularly doctrine evolution.
First, we release scenarios that are "balanced". That doesn't mean they track with the realities of the time. That means two equally matched players can expect a decent chance at victory and the difference depends on decisions each makes.
Let's talk offsets for a moment:
1. Problem: The WP (Warsaw Pact) has way more hardware than NATO
2. Offset: How to counter the numerical superiority of the WP
3. First Offset: Tactical Nukes. Enough said there.
4. Second Offset: Tac Nukes no longer acceptable. So, Precision Guided Munitions. In FCSS, that's really ATGMs. but both sides have them and WP really used them first! rue, but it's how you use them.
What's missing is a scenario where the Soviet Voldemort decides your battalion is where the hammer is going to hit. So what does that look like?
1. At the point of breakthrough, a Soviet division frontage may be as narrow as 4 km.
2. The artillery devoted to that would be 100 to 130 tubes per km of frontage.
3. OK, so 20 hexes wide, 520 tubes of arty
4. Can you crouch in your foxhole and survive? Probably not.
Again, we haven't done that in our scenarios. Why? Because that's Graduate Level stuff. I seriously doubt the Pro's today could prevail absent some coaching. If I have time, I'll make a scenario or two like this in the next couple of months. My dance card is kind of full at present.
i spent a decade of rotations at various Maneuver Training Centers learning how to survive. I got tot he point where either me and my guy or at least me alone were the Lst man standing in my company. The secret? Moving to avoid artillery. Although, that one time where I was last man standing, I made a mistake. Light infantry, so I went to the company mortar squad and shot a dozen rounds in hand held mode. Then grabbed Dragon and two missiles and started trudging to the obstacle breach the sounded like an interstate highway of tanks and BMPs. The Observer/Controller was rooting for me, but the OPFOR shot 192 rounds of 152mm on my pointed little head. Should bypassed the 60mm mortar.
Alright, I'll give some clues:
1. You need to kill all enemy recon.
2. You absolutely cannot park your guys in the best terrain and wait for the enemy to walk into your sights. The preparatory artillery fires will kill you. That means hidden from observation. Terrain dictates. If your hide position is more than 1 km from your defensive position, you need to reconsider.
3. You need to know when to move into your defensive positions.\
4. That means you need eyes forward (recon)
5. Your recon can't be in the path of the enemy advance. if it is, it will die.
All of the above gets you a coin toss. It doesn't take into account using terrain.
Anecdote: Combat Maneuver Training Center, June 1990. Squad Leader, M113 Mech. Deliberate Defense Mission. Had a TOW section attached (Sec Ldr was a BBQ Buddy). We looked at terrain and decided on rear quartering shots as the OPFOR pushed up the valley. Aked up the chain of command for more TOW missiles. Got a double load. We had zero Blade Time (engineer digger vehicles to make positions for our vehicles). My M113 was stashed 200 meters away after we unloaded everything, including the Maw Deuce. My bud unloaded his M901 and I put my guys to work digging him and his guys in. About 4 hours before the expected attack time, we moved (his guys in my track) about 2500 meters away to wait out the OPFOR prep fires. Then we moved back in to our foxholes. My plt lost one track and squad due to OPFOR shooting FASCAM, He was closest to the enemy direction. My guys shot down a recon helo. The TOW section got a couple dozen tank and BMP kills. Wasn't enough for my company, though. Learned some lessons there.
The teaching point here is you can avoid the WP prep fires. But the hard part is threading the needle in getting back into position before the ground forces attack. That requires some recon assets in the right place and surviving. it is quite hard to pull off on the ground. Like i d=said, this is Graduate Level stuff.
Here's another tip. Military history. Particularly doctrine evolution.
