Dawn's Early Light - Day One

No time to get to this during the week, but I did finish the remainder of Day One of the game this evening.

Early in the day, while their comrades of the 2nd Brigade I. Panzer hold the line around Eben, the panzergrenadiers of 1st Brigade are surprised by a morning airdrop by 2nd Guards Airborne Regiment around Stahlhammer AFB

Tank on Tank: West Front

I've been playing a ton of Battles of Normandy the past several weeks, interspersed with the occasional turn of Campaign Series: Middle East. I really need to suck it up and post some more about both games.

Battles of Normandy Released

John Tiller Software has released the next installment of their Panzer Battles series: Battles of Normandy.

Sticks and Stones from Tiny Battle Publishing

Today I had a chance to try a game of Sticks and Stones from Tiny Battle Publishing. Tiny Battle is a new wargame publisher specializing in print-on-demand and print and play games. They're a sister company to Flying Pig Games, and one of the benefits of this is that Tiny Battle publishes games from designer (and owner of Flying Pig Games) Mark H. Walker.

A US Company Team sets up to defend Gersbach

Tal Division at Rafah - June 5, 1967

Continuing my study of the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the last half of the 20th century, I picked up Middle East '67 from John Tiller Software. I've actually had this title for my Android tablet for awhile, but hadn't played it much. I think the PC versions are superior in any case.

For a first try, I decided to play scenario 67_05: Gaza and Beyond. This scenario depicts the attack of the Tal Division on the fortified area of Gaza around Rafah Junction on June 5th, 1967. This attack was a necessary prelude to the attack into the Sinai.

Jump-off positions of Tal Division. All of the 202 Parachute Brigade is fixed at the start, as is Baron Force (blue symbol backgrounds) 

Assaulting Jenin

After an extended excursion into 16th through 19th century warfare over the past couple of months, nearly all of which I played PBEM, I woke up one morning last week with a burning desire to return to the world of armored warfare. It might have been triggered by the extended Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue PBEM game I'm engaged in, but whatever the cause, I needed tanks.

Not just any tanks would do, however. I coerced my frequent PBEM opponent Jim into playing Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm and that's a ton of fun, but what I really wanted was to learn more about the greatest armored clashes of the post-WWII era: the Arab-Israeli Wars.

My armored task force at the Line of Departure near Jenin in 1967. The triangles mark the path half the force will take during the initial advance on the town. 

Hunting Bears - The Battle for Buchholz

This is a continuation of a series of posts using Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm to illustrate the use of the Military Decision Making Process in planning and conducting a battle in a wargame. At no time should anyone be under the illusion that I claim to have sufficient grasp of this that I could lead actual troops in so much as a barbecue. This is how I use these tools for gaming. The first post in this series is here. The second post is here.

In my first two post I examined terrain analysis via OCOKA and an abbreviated process for identifying enemy Courses of Action (COAs). This led to the development of a plan for the deployment of the forces I would have on hand at the beginning of the battle. As we saw in my second post, taking the time to do this planning upfront allow the elements of an US infantry battalion to render a Soviet Tank Regiment combat ineffective in about 30 minutes of fighting.

Remnants of a Soviet Tank Regiment at Holm-Seppensen

Hunting for Bears - The First Hour

This is a continuation of a series of posts using Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm to illustrate the use of the Military Decision Making Process in planning and conducting a battle in a wargame. At no time should anyone be under the illusion that I claim to have sufficient grasp of this that I could lead actual troops in so much as a barbecue. This is how I use these tools for gaming. The first post in this series is here.

At the end of my last post things were just about to kick off in the battle for Buccholz. Before we crank the track engines though, let's take a quick look at a couple more concepts useful for planning: Engagement Areas and Future Ops.

Planning map with Engagement Areas and future plans marked.

Planning for Hunting Bears

It's been a very busy few weeks this month! Today is the first day since returning from Origins that have had the time and energy to blog. When I can, I'll blog some about the fantastic time I had at Origins. Today, though, I want to apply some of what I learned at Origins, specifically from the wonderful Staff Wargaming sessions run by Dr. James Sterrett and Mark Graves (USA Retired).

Specifically, I'm going to apply the planning approach we used during these sessions to the first US campaign scenario from Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm. I'm partial to doing this with Flashpoint Campaigns because it's really perfect for this sort of planning. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Jim Snyder and Rob Crandall of On Target Simulations at Origins and discussing the game with them as well as using it during the Staff Wargaming sessions. I'm going to run through the process of terrain analysis using OCOKA, develop several potential enemy Courses of Action (COAs) and then plan my defense based on those COAs. To begin with, lets get an overview of the battlefield.

An overview of the battlefield in Google Earth. The Soviets will be advancing from east of Buchholz toward the western edge of the map on the route to Bremen. Note that the game map stops on an east-west line just south of Schierhorn-Tostedt.

Chong Ju: Firepower Demo

I found this cool video today of an Australian firepower demo.

Very impressive! This makes me want to go play Steel Beasts!

Death of a T-80 Platoon

Tonight's screenshot brought to you by Camp Hornfelt. A T-80 platoon advancing across a valley destroyed in seconds by an overwatching section of my M1A1 HA platoon. Note the smoke in the background from one of many artillery missions I used to support my successful completion of this mission.

Video: Steel Beasts - Camp Hornfelt Mission 4

I'm continuing to work through the Camp Hornfelt scenarios. The next one in the series, mission 4, concerns the tank platoon in a support by fire/overwatch role.

In this mission I must lead 1st platoon of CT Anvil as we first move to our forming up point, then move into a support by fire position. From there we need to suppress or destroy the enemy vehicles as other platoons in the CT move to assault the objective. Finally, I need to move my platoon through the objective and take up a position on the far side, once opposition in the objective has been eliminated.

Steel Beasts Pro PE: Camp Hornfelt - Destroy an Inferior Force

I'm still learning how to be semi-effective with tanks in Steel Beasts Pro PE. Fortunately there are some great training missions out there, not the least of which are "Gary Owen's" Camp Hornfelt missions. Tonight I did a run through of mission 2, Destroy an Inferior Force.

Video: A Little Taste of Combat

I went easy on myself tonight and played a very easy SBPro PE mission called "A little taste of combat." The last video seems to have been popular so here's another one documenting my charge through a small desert village and subsequent shooting up of an unsuspecting armored column.

I'll probably start narrating these soon, when I get to the point of having something intelligent to say!

Video: Between a River and a Hard Place

As great as AARs and blog posts are, sometimes I really just want a video to help me understand a game, or decide if its something I'd like to play. Here's my first attempt then at posting a video of one of my gaming sessions.

Dreaming of Tanks

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. Things have been so busy at work I find myself falling asleep when I sit still for more than a few minutes. That turns out not to be a state good for serious wargaming.

However, after resting a bit yesterday I found myself in the mood for some tank action. I ended up playing Steel Beasts Pro PE during what gaming time I managed (between naps!). It must have mad an impression on me, since I ended up dreaming about tank battles.

Taking that as a sign I should play some more SBPro PE, I downloaded and played JC's new scenario, Between a River and a Hard Place. He's blogged about it here; this is my go at it.

Plan for movement to battle positions

SBPro PE 3.0 - Platoon Recon

I've become a great fan of the German Leopard 2 tank, particularly the Leopard 2A4 and 2A5. I decided to take a platoon of them out today for a spin. This mission is one of the stock single player missions called "Platoon Recon."

Misson FRAGO

Our job is to conduct a reconnaissance in force to Objective DACHS, destroying weak OPFOR forces and bypassing strong points. The truth is I'm better at commanding a virtual brigade or division than I am commanding a tank, but I'm hoping to play enough to get better.  Let's see how it goes...

Some More SBPro PE 3.0

I'm trying one of the "Camp Hornfelt" training scenarios authored by SteelBeasts.com forum member "Gary Owen."  This mission is designed to teach the principles of tactical movement.  It's a great scenario if a touch unforgiving if you make a mistake, which I make plenty of!

I wanted to show off some of the more (to me) interesting features of this great simulator.  So, not an AAR really in this post, but a few screenshots that illustrate why this thing is so great.

Click to view large enough to read this

Mission briefing.  These can be quite detailed, and take the form of actual Op Orders.  In this one Gary Owen has described the principles of effective tactical movement, and the kinds of movement you'll want to employ between each phase of the mission.

Yeah, click this one too

The next step before just jumping in your tank and tearing off to find the enemy is to develop your tactical plan.  In this mission I need to get at least one vehicle into Objective Kermit while not losing more than one tank.  I've planned march movement from my starting point to Phase Line (PL) Ernie, then traveling overwatch from PL Ernie to PL Bert, since there's a possibility of contact.  From PL Bert to Objective Kermit I've planned for bounding overwatch.  There's a certainty of contact past PL Bert, and bounding overwatch is a safer but slower movement technique.  Also notice that there are several Target Reference Point (TRP) markers.  I'll use these to rapidly plot artillery fire missions, mostly for smoke to screen my movement.

Here I'm checking Line-of-Sight (LOS) from each battle position I've planned.  White means cleat LOS, pink partial LOS, and gray, not so much.

Finally, we're rolling!  I have a platoon of 4 M1A1 HA tanks for the mission, split into two sections.

View inside the turret from the tank commander's position.  His Thermal Imaging extension is the closest scope.  The further scope is the gunner's actual Thermal Imaging Sight (TIS).  Most of those controls are clickable and do something.  You can occupy the commander, gunner, and driver positions in the M1A1 and several other US, NATO, and Russian AFVs.

View from the unbuttoned tank commander's position.  You can look around and yes, fire the machine gun.

View from the TCs binoculars.  That's my second section of tanks, pulling up to PL Ernie where I'm already waiting for them.

As we advance on PL Bert, we see heat sources through the TIS.  These are OPFOR APCs and infantry. I order the gunner to open fire.  In this case I want him to use HEAT, since these are PCs.  The M1A1 HA also commonly carries armor-piercing SABOT rounds for use against tanks.

View of the engagement from the map. First section easily took out the closer platoon of three PCs.  Second section, in traveling overwatch, engages the two vehicles to the southwest and quickly neutralizes them, as well.

Tomorrow I'll try and capture some artillery action and my sections moving in bounding overwatch.  Things get much more difficult past PL Bert!

SBPro PE 3.0 - The Joy of Commanding Tanks

I'm finally getting around to shaking the rust off of my tank platoon command skills with Steel Beasts Pro PE 3.0.  SPPro PE is the personal edition (hence the PE) of an armor simulator used for training by many western militaries.  As games go it's pricey, but as training simulators go it's a steal if you're interested in authentic simulation of modern armor.

For an example of just how detailed this simulation is, see this recent post over at Real and Simulated Wars. eSim have actually simulated not just the different thermal signatures of various AFVs, but even the specific areas of the vehicles that would be hotter or cooler. That's some impressive fidelity.

It's been some months since I last played, and that was with a previous version.  So, I'm starting with a very simple mission.  In this case, I'm commanding a platoon of M1A1 HA tanks, tasked with first conducting an attack on a village where intel indicates there are a few supply vehicles waiting to resupply an incoming armor column.  Once the objective, code named "Sherlock" is seized, I'm to take up ambush positions and destroy the incoming convoy, with minimal losses to my forces.  The convoy contains around a dozen AFVs, and will be a mix of APCs and tanks. I'm provided with some artillery and a mission of FASCAM artillery deployed mines that I can use to block the road into the objective.

As always, I'm a sucker for a good tactical map, and SBPro has these in spades.  My tank platoon (blue NATO armor symbol) is located southwest of the objective.  The enemy armor is expected to advance along the road from the east.

SBPro is a simulator and not a game.  As such, planning your mission in advance is critical.  In this case, I plan through the initial assault on the objective.  Once the objective is secured, I'll issue new orders for the ambush.

A tank attack must "flow like water," meaning tanks should move via the low ground and under cover as much as possible.  My plan therefore is to move my platoon down slope to the low ground to my southeast, and then assault from the valley through the objective, destroying any enemy forces on the objective.  I intend for the assault to finish just outside of the objective circle to the northeast.

Note that I've captured screens from the recorded AAR function of the sim.  If I were grabbing these during actual play, you could see the way points I've specified for the actual assault.

My platoon at the jump off point.

The village and resupply trucks.

My platoon begins the assault, moving into the low ground between the hills.

As we exit the valley we quickly destroy the trucks and the lone BMP guarding them.

Assaulting through the objective.

The burning BMP on the northeastern edge of the objective.  In other circumstances I would attack by bounds, but it seemed like the shock of a rapid attack by the full platoon would be most effective here. There were indications that there might be AT missiles in the village, so stopping during the assault seemed like a bad plan.

Through the objective and the platoon stops to regroup.

I pause to issue new orders.  I plot a set of waypoints that will move the platoon to the eastern edge of Objective Sherlock, oriented east to attack the enemy convoy when it appears.

Before we can begin moving enemy AFVs appear.  Fortunately, we fire first...

...quickly destroying an enemy T-72. The enemy force appears to be a mixed company team composed of a platoon of BRDM-2s, a T-72 platoon, and a platoon of BMP-1s.

The BRDMs sprint for the village.

I focus my fire on the T-72s.  A second tank goes up as my platoon scrambles to take up their battle positions on the objective.

The lone surviving T-72 continues toward the objective.

My platoon races to the east side of Objective Sherlock.  I've mostly lost contact with the enemy at this point.  Moving into the objective was probably not the best course.  The line of sight wasn't great, I lost contact with the enemy, and ended up having to maneuver further to regain contact.  I'd have been better off to stay where I was and complete the destruction of the enemy column.

I decide to exit the objective and take up a hull down position on the hills south of the village.  The BRDM platoon is speeding for the objective, but my tanks can't get a clear shot at them.

With the BRDMs in the village, I trigger the FASCAM mission to block the lone T-72 and the BMPs. With no infantry support I do not want infantry taking up positions on the objective, and then have to try and drive them out with only tanks. That's a sure plan for losing vehicles.

As we race away toward the hills we take "Parthian shots" at the BRDMs.  The enemy recon vehicles don't stand up well to fire from tank cannons.

Once in battle positions on the hills we make short work of the T-72 and 2 BMPs as they advance down the road. The remaining BMP pulls up on the edge on the FASCAM minefield and begins to unload troops.

I move the platoon back toward the road to destroy the last BMP and any infantry that might have unloaded.

The view from my command tank towards the BMP.  The destroyed T-72 and BMPs are the smoke columns on the horizon. The remaining BMP is quickly dispatched. I never did see any enemy infantry.

With all of the enemy destroyed, I move my platoon back into the objective to take up defensive positions. Intel indicates that there are other enemy vehicles patrolling the area.

The final tally was 18 enemy vehicles destroyed to none of mine. I scored 1200 out of a possible 1500 points for the mission.  Honestly, this was about the easiest SBPro mission I've ever attempted.  Most are much more difficult.  It was a lot of fun however and a great reintroduction to this simulator.  I was pleased to find it very natural and easy to get back into commanding a tank platoon again.  I'm looking forward to playing some more challenging missions.  If I get good enough, I might even overcome my aversion to multiplayer gaming and join one of the SBPro groups to play some coop online.