Sunday, September 5, 2010

Throwing Books at Victoria 2

When I play a tactical or a grand-tactical game, I check a real life field manual. Color me a weirdo, but I'm THAT interested in warfare.

When it comes to strategy or grand-strategy games ... well, there are no field manuals.

I am playing Victoria 2 right now. Started a game as Argentina and I have this deer in the headlights look. All I can do (game and interface wise) is clear to me. The un-answered questions are: what, why, where, how, when and who?

The following book is being helpful to answer those questions.


It's a primer in military strategy and it is aimed to provide a framework rather than thorough analysis. It is very concise and has a no BS approach.

As for my questions above, chapter 2 has a brief description of national security interests. The author classifies them in universally and variably important. Universally important interests are valid for every country in every situation. The variable important interests are followed depending on the particular situation of the country.

Universally important national security interests

  • National Survival
  • Homeland Defense
  • Domestic Tranquility
  • Military Power
  • National Credibility
  • Freedom of Action
Variably important national security interests
  • Peace
  • Stability
  • Prosperity
  • Ideology
  • Geostrategic Position
  • Morality
The list above may sound obvious for some veteran armchair strategists here. But the above list is helping me a lot to have a framework for my strategic plan. The book also describes a six-step strategic planning process. I'm going to comment on that in a future entry.

Cheers,

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

British Forces Training Grounds - Afghanistan in the UK

And speaking about videos, this documentary is being shown at VBS.tv.



Cheers,

Prisoner of the Caucasus - Good Viewing/Reading Material About A Region In Eternal Conflict

I have the good luck of chatting and e-mailing with one of the readers of this blog, Olav. He always surprises me with his insight and with reading/viewing material about almost anything.

A few days ago, when I posted about the book on the Russo-Georgian war of 2008, he commented and linked to a conference about the conflicts in Abkhazia.

One of the best links Olav provided me was the one to a video entitled "Immortal Fortress", which is about the conflict in Chechnya. There is some great combat footage that is worth seeing. Neither Olav or me are making any political points with this video. Just see it as an insight into combat in so-called "low intensity conflicts".



The whole region is a continuous source of insurgency and counter-insurgency. Past month, I read this article in the print edition of Foreign Affairs, and I was amazed at the history of revolt that the region holds (see the "Mountains Beyond Mountains" section of the article).

Why am I interested in this region and its military history? Well, I'm interested in ANY type of military history. But these type of fights can be simulated in both ArmA2, LOMAC and DCS Black Shark!

Cheers,

Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge - Tutorial Scenario - Day 1

With the new patch for Battles from the Bulge, I have no more excuses to not continue with the tutorial scenario.

This is a continuation of a series of entries I made quite a while ago. After a long digression, I settled for a  (sorta) plan.

During the first day  I want to secure the Steinebruck bridge and extend the bridgehead towards Lommerweiler.

The brigade I have available for the first day has one infantry battalion, one armored infantry battalion and one tank battalion. The troops on foot are useless for any assault on the Steinebruck bridge. The enemy occupying the heights of Lommerweiler would have a hay day if I move my foot infantry through the low terrain surrounding the bridge. I decided to use the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion and 35th Tank Battalion for an assault on the bridge. The 1st Battalion-318th Infantry Regiment is of better use if they cross the river where wheeled/tracked vehicles can't and try to attack from some sort of concealment. See tactical plan below.

Opening moves. Click the image to expand it.

Did you know that you can combine both the 51st and the 35th Bns in a single coordinated attack by clicking on one Bn HQ, pressing the Ctrl key, clicking the other Bn HQ and then issuing an attack order? The most senior HQ unit will then be in operational control (OPCON) of both battalions and will guide them through the attack. Only caveat is the increased command load for the HQ unit in control (watch for those in the Cmd tab, listed as "capacity" [how much the HQ unit can handle without too much trouble] and "load" [how much the HQ unit is handling at the moment]). If "load" exceeds "capacity", the two-battalion task force may suffer some extra orders delay. I'm kinda milking the system here, because during the first hour of the scenario there are no orders delays.

 After hours of hard fighting, at 1100 of day 1, my forces finally cross the river. I have detached a cavalry troop for reconnaissance missions. By now I need a larger bridgehead.

It was about time! We have crossed the river.

As soon as some space is gained across the river, the two-battalion task force (51 Arm Inf Bn and 35 Tank Bn) is ordered to pivot west and continue their attack towards Lommerweiler. By this time the foot infantry is in position to attack Lommerweiler in the opposite direction. With the combined firepower of an entire brigade, the enemy breaks down easily. Lommerweiler falls in our hands by mid afternoon.

The gods that wield swords and hold shields have been good with us so far, but the gods that ride horses have been more generous. That cavalry troop that I detached was ordered to conduct a reconnaissance mission towards St. Vith using the east flank of the enemy. The troopers reached St. Vith unopposed and found no signs of the enemy so far. By now the time is 1524 (day 1) and this is a pivotal moment in today's fight. This opportunity needs to be exploited with no delay. See map below for the new set of orders.

Onto St. Vith!

After some 40 minutes of nervous waiting (are orders delay fun or what?) the 35 Tank Bn moves towards St. Vith. The tanks reach St. Vith around 1730 PM with not enemy to shoot at. I feel like I sucker-punched the Germans and I wish I could preserve the battlefield as it is until the next day, when my reinforcements arrive. As the night falls, the enemy continues to attack towards the Steinebruck bridge and to put pressure in my foot infantry near Breitfeld. My troops hold their positions through a long night.

We are ready to be reinforced!

To be continued, stay tunned.

Cheers,

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Light Forces with Heavy Fire Support - ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead British Armed Forces

To accompany an ages-old military tradition that requires every British infantryman to have balls of steel,  your Majesty's grunts have a penchant to go light into places where others go heavy.

Take the Paras as an example, with their patrol platoons conducting recce in the middle of Taliban country riding in Land Rover WMIKs

ArmA 2 doesn't feature the Land Rover WMIK (pity, JCOVE has it), so instead I am playing around in the editor with the Jackal WMIK, which has a bit more armor. Riding in a Jackal through a city full of insurgents was quite a thrill. I bet these things can be taken out by a Molotov cocktail.

 
Not that we were defenseless. That 50 cal in the top of the Jackal can inflict some serious pain. See below the poor insurgent getting it from 800+ meters away.


With the editor having so many options, I added a flight of two Apaches to see what they could do for us.


Terrifying. The Apaches cleaned up and the mission was literally over! See below one of the Apaches unleashing lead.

 
I will have to balance this scenario. Maybe adding some serious AAA assets for the insurgents. But now I am curious and I am going to try this test mission from the insurgent's point of view. I bet I won't last a second.

Cheers,


Don't Take Your Tank to No-Tank-Country

I just bought the V2.538 upgrade for Steel Beasts ProPE (link opens a pdf with the release notes).

There new AI-controlled tanks and vehicles plus improvements to the engine. The new map objects that you can add within the editor sound great. Yet I hadn't try any of those yet. Hell, I have a lot of to-play scenarios yet!

Just to prove how rusty I am after the summer hiatus, the screenshot below shows me in the middle of a hopeless tanker blunder. I was trying to infiltrate (LOL, how do you infiltrate a 60+ ton behemot like the Abrams tank?) through a patch of woods and I was caught by enemy tanks who diligently dispatched me ... from the comfort of their prepared position located 3 Km away.

 When there is very little room to maneuver out of trouble ... who is the first crew member to get killed? The driver!

Cheers,

Saturday, August 28, 2010

"The Tanks of August" - Military History of the Five Day War



I've been waiting for something like this since 2008: a good military history of the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

It's a free pdf, grab it from this webpage. Thanks to WarfareSims.com for the heads up!

Attention LOMAC and DCS Black Shark mission editors. This is going to be a great resource for inspiration.


Although we got Abkhazia and not South Ossetia in LOMAC and DCS Black Shark, the terrain and the units in these two flight simulators can be used to create scenarios very similar to the real thing.

Cheers,

"ArmA 2 British Armed Forces" Arrives

Coalition warfare starts at the fictional 'Stan of ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead.
Along with patch 1.54 (remember to apply this patch first), BI released the British Armed Forces DLC.



I need a 10 year vacation to catch up with all the gaming I have in mind.

Cheers,

"Battles from the Bulge" Gets the Attention of the US Army

Take a look here.

For quite a while, Dr. James Sterret, at the US Army Staff College has been using games from Panther for a variety of exercises. He even hosted some of these staff exercises at game conferences.

This is great news for Panther Games and could be a real breakthrough for a well-deserving company.

Cheers,

Monday, August 23, 2010

JCOVE Lite - Parting Shots?

I don't think so!

Bohemia Interactive has an upcoming DLC featuring British Forces. I'm looking forward to it, but still I'm going to keep JCOVE Lite in my HD. Indeed, that reminded me of a couple of missions I was editing before getting hammered with job obligations.


Cheers,