Thursday, January 7, 2021

Combat Mission Black Sea - I'd Would Have Preferred my Engineers Not to Explode

The business of maneuvering armor in tight spaces is a dangerous one. In this scenario, I'm fighting as the Russians, trying to clear up a road for a further reconnaissance mission. The road had only one bend, yet the route was tactically tortuous. The first stop of the tactical route: clearing mines.



Panoramic view of the scenario. My forces are labelled with red icons.

A strip of AT mines has been previously located. A tiny bit north, a hamlet.

The road bend in the center of the screenshot has all the markings of a nasty ambush.

This scenario is somehow related to the one I reported before using Steel Beasts ProPE. Unfortunately, that report is now lost, but let me briefly bring up the main point. This scenario represents the actions of a tank company reconnaissance mission. The reconnaissance objective is beyond the reaches of this map and the lead element of the company (1 T-90, 2x BMP-2Ms) has to clear this stretch of road before the main reconnaissance body (located 10 Km behind) arrives to this area.

Contact. I initially moved with the T-90 MBT up front, which soon found an Ukrainian BMP. The BMP lashed out the first shot, which fell short as seen in this screenshot. Within fractions of a second, my T-90 fires back and hits the target. Note the BMP-2M vehicles, which are still protected by the shallow ridge ahead.


This is the instant when the Ukrainian BMP was destroyed.

The suspected minefield's position is now visible (right by the barbed wire). The engineers (left) are moving up to blast a hole in the stretch of mines. Since enemy infantry is taking potshots at them, I move up one BMP-2M and start a thorough clean up of suspected enemy positions. That included buildings.


One engineer is shot. Things are heating up at the breaching.

The explosives detonated by the engineers triggered multiple mine explosions. Three engineers fell to these blasts.

Warts and all, the actions and self-sacrifice of the engineers allowed my armor to cross the obstacle and move onto new challenges. Contact right! Enemy improved positions. Note the gun-enforced demolition work on the left. And yes, that thing on the far left is a real AT gun. It takes some balls to show up with one of these ...

The actions that follow are no less exciting, please stay tuned. 

Cheers,

JC




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