The Soviet 65th Army at Parichi, 1944

I've been reading about the massive, multi-front Soviet offensive on Belorussia during the summer of 1944. Mainly from these two books:



HPS Simulations offers Minsk 44, an equally massive PC war game that allows you to command either the German or Soviet armies during those trying weeks. The amount of historical detail in this (and any other of the Panzer Campaign series) war game is simply astounding.

Minsk 44 has a particular scenario that features the opening moves of the Soviet 65th Army at Parichi.

The Parichi scenario in Minsk 44. The entire Soviet 65th Army is shown as brown and redish icons. The grey icons are the German units. I'm playing this with fog of war enabled, so only the German units that are seen by the Russians are represented. Click the image for an expanded view.

I've played this scenario a couple several times as the Soviets. I would ussually put the main effort on the northern half of the 65th Army's sector, right on the road that goes to Parichi. If you see the game screen shot above, the southern half of the sector features more restrictive terrain.

The surprising thing is that in real life the Soviet 65th Army used that very restrictive terrain in the southern part of its assigned sector. Take a look at the map below.

This map is from Glant's Belorussia 1944, ebook version. Note the 65th Army's sector denoted as "65A" and how it advanced into German-held territory very much ignoring Parichi. Click the image for an expanded view.

Indeed, Parichi was taken by the Russians way long into the offensive. I've been puzzled about this for a while: why the 65th Army wouldn't advance straight into Parichi and rather use the poor terrain south of this city to advance? Maybe the maps in the Minsk 44 war game are miss-representing the terrain?

I don't know the definitive answer to that. But something is certain: the 65th and the 28th Soviet Armies (see 28A in the map above) leaned on each other for the offensive. In that way the main effort of the whole front was actually near the sector limits between both Armies.

Cheers,

Halt Security (Part 3), an ArmA 2 Tactical Vignette

Tense minutes. Waiting.

Contact ... east ... enemy infantry armed with RPGs!

Right after that, chaos. My mind is racing and the only thing I can bring myself to is to orient the AAV's grenade launcher towards the enemy. I can hear fire team 2 (the one in the east and closest to the enemy contact) firing their weapons. Should I pull back other fire team from the perimeter in support of fire team 2?

The map interface offers an easy way to target enemy formations. Here I'm orienting the AAV to the enemy contact. Click the image to expand it.

The enemy team bugs out but re-appears on fire team's 2 flank. Gah! I should have pulled fire team 2 back.

You have to admit that, warts and all, the AI of ArmA 2 is one of the best out there. In this picture, the bugged out and tried to sneak taking advantage of the woods. Click the image to expand it.

Fortunately the AAV appears to be taking care of them.

The AAV shooting at the sneaky enemy infantry. I am looking southwest.

Now I am taking fire. What the hell, how the enemy survived the 40mm grenade barrage? I am hit, damn! I move towards some trees trying to get a grasp to what the hell is happening.

This is what's happening.

I move towards the remanants of the AAV. The enemy is already in the village, so close to us. Where the hell is fire team 1? They were supposed to guard the approaches from the village!

As fast and furious as it developed, the firefight halts to an end. The silence now is eerie. I move towards fire team 1 position at the south of the village.

A dead insurgent at the edge of the village.

An AAV crewman, KIA. I really hate to say a zap number on the radio.

The final tally is 18 insurgents dead or wounded. As for us:

• One AAV crewman KIA
• Fire team 1, one Marine dead
• Fire team 2, one Marine KIA, one Marine wounded
• Fire team 3, no casualties
• Catastrophic loss of an AAV
  

I contact company HQ for MEDEVAC/casualty evacuation and get a message that we should expect a couple of M1s coming our way.

I send fire team 1 to link up with the M1s.

Cheers,

Halt Security (Part 2), an ArmA 2 Tactical Vignette

The terrible threat here are RPGs. With a maximum range of 1,000 meters, a single one can blow up the AAV with relative ease.

Ideally I would set up a security perimeter that puts the bad guys' RPGs out of range. Given the nature of the terrain at our location, increasing the diameter of a security would mean leaving each fire team without mutual support.

After walking through the surroundings and checking for fields of fire, I settle for the following arrangement.

A hasty security perimeter to protect the AAV with my Marine Squad. We were moving south. Click the image to expand it.

Fire team 1 orients north and controls any enemy forces approaching from the village and terrain NW and NE from our position.

Fire team 2 orients west and deploys in the reverse slope of the hill on our right flank so it can take advantage of the supporting fires from the AAV's grenade launcher.

On second thought, the dreaded forest in our left flank is not that much of threat. To get a clear shot, the insurgents would have to close with the AAV. Fire team 3 orients east and deploys within the forest, a few meters from the AAV.

The AAV grenade launcher orients south and controls the road. That dude over there better get busy with the track, things are going to get hot.

To be continued ...

Cheers,

Halt Security (Part 1), an ArmA 2 Tactical Vignette

The lone Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) where my Marine Squad and I are riding has been trailing behind our parent platoon because of mechanical issues.

Now it has just thrown a track. It is an estimated forty to sixty minutes before the AAV crew can repair the track or somebody can come and help us. We are immobile.

I order my Marines to dismount and what I see is less than encouraging.


Thick forest to our left and a relatively steep slope to our right. Somebody can sneak through the forest at our left and take a shot at us. Or they can use the crest of the hill to our right as cover to do the same thing ...

The civilians in the village behind us have gathered to watch our misery. They are making up for the missed opportunity to see the full Lima Company when it passed through the village during their sleep. All of the sudden, they bug out in all haste. I bet some bozo at the village must have used his cell phone to call any of the insurgent bands that control these lands from the shadows.


I order the AAV commander to contact the Platoon, deliver a SITREP and ask for help.

We need to establish a security perimeter around the immobile AAV. The insurgents can take it out with a single RPG shot.

To be continued ...

Cheers,

"HistWar: Les Grognards" Demo is Out!

The demo for "HistWar: Les Grognards" is out.

The graphics and color palette reminds me a lot of "Combat Mission Beyond Overlord". Oh, the irony!

Some cavalry squadron ... somewhere ... doing something ... Where's the manual? I'm gonna need it.

Note where I have the cursor: this game has friendly fog of war! I'm impressed.

More impressions at a later time.

Cheers,

Cheering for the developer of "HistWar Les Grognards"

HistWar Les Grognards is a tactical/grand-tactical 3D Napoleonic war game. A demo has been promised for tomorrow 10:00 AM (Paris time). Cheering up for you, JMM! :)

EDIT: you may notice Battlefront.com's logo after the video. Battlefront dropped HistWar from their line of products a short time ago.

Cheers,

"Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge", Screenshots

"Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge" is coming out soon.

Courtesy of Panther Games' Dave Arjuna and Matrix Games, I'm delighted to post here some screen shots. More game play details coming soon.

All images are from a beta version of the game and do not represent the final state of the product.

The tutorial scenario. Map is completely zoomed out. The gridlines represent one square kilometer. Click the image to expand it.

Same scenario. Map is mid-zoomed. I took out the grid lines. Click the image to expand it.

Same scenario. Map is completely zoomed in. Looking forward to fight this battle. Click the image to expand it.

More coming soon ...

Cheers,

Easier Squad Command in ArmA2

I've been writing about squad-level actions in ArmA2 with an special emphasis in command. What I have done before is to split my squad into fireteams by assigning different Marines to teams red, blue and yellow. Sometimes I would even put the three SAWs into one team. Though this type of arrangement gives you an exquisite amount of control, it can become a handful when the bullets start flying.

ArmA2 has this new "High Command - Commander" and "High Command - Subordinate" game logic that allows you to create any command structure you may want. The versatility of ArmA2 is really amazing.

Using this "High Command" thing allows you to command each subordinate fire team more easily (not that much keyboard wrestling) either from the first person or map view.

Each icon represents a fire team. I'm really happy about how I could manage to keep each FT at opposite sides of the streets. One thing not so-nice: the "look there" order is not functional (I use that order a lot to orient my fire teams). Click the image for an expanded view.

Cheers,

Urgent Message From Your Tutor: "Your Scheme of Maneuver Doesn't Seem to Make Sense"

The Virtual Combat Training Center is a computer tutoring system that plugs into ProSimCo's line of war games. Right now it is only available to the US armed forces.

It looks like a wonderful educational tool and I can only wonder how great it would be to have such a thing included in the game.

Back to reading field manuals here. Oh, man! :(

A screenshot of a pop up window that warns the player about his mistake. I've played this "Baghdad Assault" scenario in the plain vanilla version of Armored Task Force and the advice given here is spot on. There are plenty of ATGMs on the left flank of the US Cavalry forces depicted in the screenshot. Image is from the Virtual Combat Training Center and used without authorization or monetary gain. Please contact me if you want it to be removed.

Cheers,

Going Downtown with the AAVP7A1 (ArmA 2)

This weekend I have been messing around a bit with ArmA2, specifically with the AAVP7A1.

The AAV family of vechicles has a special place in my heart because when I was a kid my entire school class got a ride in an LVPT7 of the Naval Infantry of the Armada of my native Argentina.

An LVTP7 from the Naval Infantry of the Armada of Argentina. Author: Martin Otero, for this Wikipedia entry.

In this ArmA 2 scenario, I am supposed to secure a town with it. Unfortunately, the town is teeming with insurgents armed with RPGs. :)

Friendly tactical reminder: the AAVP7A1 is neither a tank nor an infantry fighting vehicle. The spiffy grenade launcher on its turret can deliver a lot of destruction, but the vehicle itself has a very soft skin. An RPG can take it out very easily.

If you want to get an idea on how difficult is to enter a battlefield with one of these, please get a copy of "Ambush Alley", by Tim Pritchard.

So, I stopped my AAVPT7A1 far enough from the village and I intend to keep it there to provide supporting fire while I advance dismounted with my Marines.

Getting to the town in the far background will require a careful approach march. Click the image for an expanded view.

Cheers,