Steel Beasts ProPE - Operation Sucrose - Single Player Scenario Available

I uploaded the Operation Surcrose scenario to SteelBeasts.com. Footage of this scenario's gameplay can be found in my previous videos. Please see below.

Graviteam Tactics: Tielieketi Incident - Chinese AT Teams

Before I embark in the campaign, I like to get familiar with the capabilities of the two factions of this DLC.

Today, the Chinese AT teams. Featuring two recoilless rifles and a heavy MG, I have them facing a Soviet column of APCs moving down a road.

Valor and Victory - Coming Q4 2018

This squad, tactical level computer war game has Advanced Squad Leader written all over it. And Storm Over Arnhem ... and Rommel's Panzers ... and Stalin's Tanks.

REPOST: Maneuver Warfare: A Wargamer's Notebook - Surfaces and Gaps - A US Marines Squad's Contribution to Recon-Pull Command

This blog has been around for a while. Some of the posts were and are more popular than others. It would be a pity for some of the new readers not to get a chance to read those posts. In that spirit, time by time, I'm going to be re-posting some of the oldies. Be advised, some of them are quite old and may contain inaccuracies, grammar and spelling errors.

This series of blog entries are about the so-called "maneuver warfare" as explained by William Lind. The writings of Robert Leonhard will also be included. I claim neither expertise in the subject nor devotion to this way of waging wars and thus I am not trying to convert you into anything. This series is not an analysis or a review of all ideas about maneuver warfare but rather some explorations about the topic based on computer war games and simulations. Future entries will be delivered based in readership.



Surfaces and gaps is a very simple concept: avoid enemy strengths (surfaces), find a gap in the enemy lines and go for the enemy's position depth. Kinda common sense, we may say. The real acme is how to find and be ready for these gaps. Remember the enemy is not an static entity and will be on the move or react to your moves.


Finding and exploiting those gaps in a timely manner is what is known as "recon pull" (future course of action is frequently adjusted by lower echelon commanders to what your reconnaissance troops find out). That is opposed to "command pull" (future course of action remains constant for a considerable amount of time and determined by higher echelon commanders).


Today's entry is about the smallest unit action you can imagine during a recon pull. A US Marines squad is about to conduct a reconnaissance patrol after being stopped by a seemingly strong enemy position.


According to Lind, the usual infantry squad is too symmetrical (each fire team has exactly the same weapons). In page 25 of Maneuver Warfare Handbook, Lind proposes that the squad should be split in a probing/assault team (riflemen and grenadiers) and a fire support team (automatic rifles plus grenadiers). 

The probing team, composed of riflemen and grenadiers, should act as the probing, breeching, and, where necessary, assault element. The support team, armed with the squad automatic weapon and grenade launchers, should provide firepower to suppress enemy opposition.

In the next paragraph, Lind comments on how the exact composition of such teams should be adjusted according to the situation at hand. In wooded terrain, for example, he proposes that the probing team should be composed of two, maybe three riflemen with the rest of the squad as the support team.


Let's see how that works in ArmA 2.

The overall tactical situation is not very promising for the US Marines in Chernarus. A forward detachment of a Russian Mechanized Battalion (big red icon) has started moving south and once all forces arrive, it is expected to conduct a south-bound assault on the Marines' position (not shown here). Out of options, a US Marine company commander orders his troops to interdict the enemy (crossed arrows with the letter "I" on top of the big red icon) in order to buy time until reinforcements arrive. A US Marines squad (rectangular blue icon) is on point for the first platoon of the company. The objective of the squad is to conduct a reconnaissance of the enemy defenses around Pavlovo. The squad had dismounted from its AAV-7, just short of the open terrain north of the road bend.

Steel Beasts ProPE - Operation Cахароза - OBJ Baikal

And now, for a long overdue mission finale!

Please see my two previous videos about this mission.
I was planning on posting this mission at steelbeasts.com, but I may need to tweak it before doing so. I kind of feel it was not so challenging, at least the second part.

Comment here or at YouTube if you are interested in this mission.

Cheers,

Falcon 4 BMS - Update 5 - Somalia Theater of Operations

In one form or the other, it has been two decades on Falcon for me.

This week, Falcon BMS got an update (U5), which is mainly for the multiplayer gameplay. And also the release of  project that I heard about but never followed up: The Somalia theater of operations.

Graviteam Tactics: Tielieketi Incident - A Lesson in Light Infantry Tactics

And the Oscar for war gaming company with highest rate of fire and marksmanship goes to ... Graviteam!

Seriously, I barely scratched the surface of Black Snow and ... Bam! Another DLC knocks my door. Come on in, I always have time for Graviteam's bountiful supply of virtual places to war game. The next day, I had to open the door again for a patch fixing some glitches and bugs.

CMANO, Black Gold Blitz DLC - Air Superiority is Expensive

You could look miles away for a safe spot to cross the labyrinth of taxiways of the King Fahd airbase and you wouldn't find one. The massive collective roar of the fighter's engines -some taking off, others taxiing, many waiting to taxi- could be heard as far as at a gas station 12 miles northeast of the airbase. In the nearby town of Al Taif, a minor-league soccer game had to be interrupted because it was impossible to hear the referee's whistle.

Air superiority is an ungodly monster that devours resources, flight time and available wings. King Fahd is where I started paying the price.

Starved for realistic air operations in the Persian Gulf, I opened up my copy of Command Modern Air and Naval Operations (CMANO) and let loose the Black Gold Blitz DLC.

After a few tries with this scenario, and an equal number of cases of bloody nose. I realized that I was not playing the air superiority game correctly. In particular, the amount of fighter aircraft in the AO was sorely insufficient.

Arma 3 - Recon Like a Russian

In the latest Armor Magazine issue there is an article by Lester Grau about reconnaissance in force. This article caught my interest because reconnaissance in force appears to mix combat and information-gathering just in the right proportion. Which is rich material for wargaming/simming.

DCS World - Eagle Dynamics Continues to Be Great at Small Things but Small at Great Things

With the release of a new DLC map (Strait of Hormuz) and a new DLC aircraft (F/A-18C Lot 20), Eagle Dynamics has secured a firm hold to the crown of modern air combat simulation.

However, I can't avoid the impression that every single DLC release (internal or third party) leaves Eagle Dynamics in a deeper hole of debt for updates and for missing battlefield assets.