Scourge of War Waterloo - Sandbox Play

Marching my division across the Belgian countryside toward our objective, a small town

After playing The Last Success  much of yesterday, I finished the evening with a session of Scourge of War: Waterloo to have a slightly different Napoleonic experience.

Thunder in the Korea Strait

Despite owning both of the NWS Steam and Iron games, I've never tried the campaign portion of either. I guess I wasn't sure I understood enough about naval warfare of the era to do a campaign justice. All of the focus on WWI this month rekindled my interest in the era, and that combined with picking up a game about the naval campaign of the Spanish American War prompted me to revisit these fine simulations.

The cruiser squadron at the heart of my force in the Bay of Korea. CL Hashidate took a torpedo hit during a skirmish with Russian destroyers.

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.

A Light Infantry Assault

Yesterday I felt the need for a change of pace away from WW2 East Front gaming. Deciding it was high time I became more familiar with the ARMA III editor, I decided to attempt to create a simple mission reflecting an assault by a Light Infantry squad against a prepared position.

An overview of the map and the mission. This is my first run through of the mission outside the editor and at Regular difficulty.

I like the new editor. It is familiar to me from Arma II and Iron Front, but overall seems less clunky. There are a number of features to really help streamline mission creation. I suspect that after I've had a chance to practice a bit more with it, I could knock out a pretty complete simple mission in under an hour.

Video: Combat Engineers I - Arma 3

This weekend I finally managed to carve out some time to start playing Arma III. The upside is that this is a fantastic sim. The downside is that it's been so long since I played Arma II that I've forgotten almost everything.

What drew me in was JC's latest mission. I gave it a try last night. Note that this is my first time commanding any other troops in the game.

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.

Iron Front - Delaying Action 2

I've learned a lot about the Arma 2/Iron Front mission editor in the past several days.  Mostly, I've learned that the process of creating a briefing is fraught with potential error, that it's very easy to get so caught up in adding another unit or trigger and get to the point where the entire scenario is unworkable, and, that if you want to do this the easy way, head over to Planned Assault and let their web robot just build the mission for you.  Now that I've built a mission by hand, I suspect I'll do it the easy way more often than not in the future.

Still, I've knocked out what I'd consider my first "real" mission.  This mission is probably a lot more realistic and somewhat more balanced than my first efforts - and include no Panther platoon.  Though it cost me much of my remaining hair, this mission has a briefing and appropriate mission tasks/objectives. Here is the briefing:

Last night's Soviet attack on the nearby farm drove us back to this village and left us with many wounded that need to be evacuated.  The Russians are now in possession of the farm, and are likely planning another attack to drive us out of the village.  Take your squad and move up to observe the farm.  If the Russians are forming for an attack, delay them long enough for us to evacuate the wounded to the rear.  Once the wounded are clear, withdraw to the village, board the waiting truck, and rejoin the remainder of the company.

 Some screenshots from a recent (failed) run through:

Initial squad position.

Dawn of a grey, wet day.  The location of the observation post we need to establish is down this road.

Advancing along the low ground as the rain starts.

Overlooking the OP location.  I'm ordering a section forward.

They're in place, time for the rest of us to bound past them.

Contact!

A burst from my MP-40 brings the Russian down.  I order my second section to move toward the OP location.

Contact again, and we have a man down.

Looks like a Soviet squad, with an assault gun in support!

Crawling forward to get to my wounded.  One of them is the soldier with the Panzershrek, our only way to stop the assault gun.

The enemy fire is too intense and I take a round.  Wounded, my squad is now out of command and they fight to delay the Soviets until fire from the assault gun ends the game for me.

The mission definitely is winnable, I've done so but don't want to give away too much for anyone that wants to play it.  Note that when you board the truck it will begin driving out of the village on its own, ending the mission.

If you're interested, you can download the mission here.

Update: If you grabbed the scenario in the first 20 minutes or so I had it posted, I've uploaded a slightly updated version that uses markers on the map to make it a bit clearer on where the objectives are.  The mission also uses waypoints to show you your next destination.