ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead Private Military Company - Key Weapons in Keyhole Positions - Part 2

We are not going to let our dead fall on enemy hands. Mission is to recover the bodies of the two fellow contractors and bug out ASAP.

A quick peek down the street reveals an insurgent group, some 200 meters away from the intersection. It is clear that walking on the street to pick up the bodies would likely bring us under heavy fire. We are not here to fight, but we are surely going to pick one. I decide to set up my group in a position from which we can safely over watch the street.

You please take what I am going to do with a big grain of salt, because there are many inviting positions where to set up our key weapon. Your mileage may vary.

Positions where I could have positioned the group's automatic weapon. Great fields of fire, but likely to be targeted simultaneously by a lot of insurgents. I will not use any of those.

See the small arch in the wall near the bottom of the picture above? Keyhole!

I set up the flank protection heavily anchored on our right, a few meters from our SUV.

Right flank. Two of my men (right in the picture) watch towards the enemy controlled neighborhood.  Another of my men (left in the picture) overlooks our left flank.

A more detailed view of the contractor protecting our left flank. The open field in the background will force any enemy flanking units into a nasty kill box.

I position another man in the left flank. His position is almost in our rear.  He is the guy in our extreme left, and a few meters into our rear but I am going to be near him as I need to closely supervise the key weapon position nearby (see next picture).

Our key weapon (contractor #4) in a keyhole position. Beyond the arch in the wall, the street is getting hotter. 

The insurgents spot us and start coming down the street towards us.

Another view of our key weapon (contractor #4). He is kicking some serious butt (note the radio messages in green).

Here I am closely cooperating with my key weapon. Keyhole positions may produce some interesting fields of fire issues. In this picture, two insurgents can't be engaged by the key weapon (see insert in upper left corner), that's why I was there to provide support. The two insurgents were quickly neutralized by my  fire.

The firefight lasts for a good 4 minutes. The enemy tries to flank us at our left, but they get caught by the two contractors watching that flank. Our right flank doesn't get engaged.

Running from place to place within our defensive position (supervising and making sure everything is all right), I found this other excellent keyhole position in the house just in front of the mauled SUV. The street where the insurgents are coming from can be seen in the background. I would have loved to put my key weapon here, but it is difficult to herd AI-controlled team mates into houses.

When the firefight winds down, I bring a team member to over watch me while I retrieve the bodies.

Two casualties recovered. Time to bug out.

We mount up and get out of the place by going cross country, as far as we can from the built up area.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead Private Military Company - Key Weapons in Keyhole Positions

Position key weapons in keyhole positions. Read that one in a US Marines Corps field manual and can't remember which one. Key weapons are usually automatic/heavy weapons and keyhole positions are ones with narrow and deep sectors of fire. A keyhole position is difficult to target simultaneously by a whole group of enemies. The enemy bounding group falls in the keyhole's field of fire and the over-watch group can't target the keyhole position.

This is a short story. It's not about US Marines and the key weapon is not a SAW but an XM8 kited with a longer barrel and two 100 rounds drums (the so-called automatic XM8). Not too different than the XM8 carbine I have in the role of  group coordinator.

Gah! Life at 5.56 mm! We are a 6 men group of contractors carrying XM8s, one FN FAL and one M4. With its 7.62 mm rounds, I would have preferred the FAL as the key weapon, but the rate of fire and ammo loadout of the automatic XM8 won the bet this time.

My group is the quick reaction force/counterattack team of a small convoy transporting a VIP through insurgent territory. One of the most famous convoy drills practiced by private security companies is to block intersections with one vehicle while the main body of the convoy zooms by. Today something went awfully wrong after a vehicle covering the intersection got fired upon by insurgents. The rest of the convoy didn't stop, and everybody expected the engaged vehicle to swiftly pull out of the kill zone. The convoy coordinator watched from the back of his speeding vehicle, horrified at the density of tracers zooming through the stationary vehicle left behind. Gator (our call sign), where the &#!@ are you!


We have our own problems. We trail a bit behind trying to keep gun tubes on a suspicious vehicle that follows us and doesn't neither approach us nor let us out of their sight. Before the radio call I had to fight the temptation to turn around and shoot the hell out of it. Our level of alert is high, but our security is lousily focused at those guys in our rear mirrors. Our driver is pretty much the only one doing his job right. He leans forward, as if trying to get t into focus the dim shapes of the firefight ahead. $#!+, did you see that?

Our SUV speeds forward towards the troubled vehicle. I pull the kevlar blanket from my door and throw it to the rear seats. Never let armor mask your fields of fire. We are about one kilometer, behind. We really messed up this one!

Panoramic view of the shoot out, or what is left of it. We (quick reaction force, to the right in the foreground) have arrived to the scene. A badly mauled SUV is in the intersection. There is one KIA contractor on the opposite side of the vehicle and another up the street. It looks like the contractor in the background was dragged and left there. The enemy fire has certainly come from the street that goes towards the background.

Stay tuned, more is coming soon.

Cheers,

Combat Mission Battle for Normandy - Interview at RPS

A great interview about the upcoming Combat Mission Battle for Normandy was posted at Rock, Paper Shotgun.

RPS is one of the gaming sites I really look up to. Their style is fantastic and their war gaming articles/interviews show that they know their turf.

The interview itself is very informative. Knowing Steve Grammont from the forums, in the interview he is always being ... Steve. I didn't appreciate his mention of "chronic complainers" (people on BFC forums who complain, chronically). It came out a bit unkempt for an interview that should be focused in bringing more wallets to the store. As for Phil Culliton (new BFC recruit/programmer), he mentions that the tactical AI has "quite a lot of changes that have made a real difference". That's one thing I will try right away as soon as I get my hands on the new Combat Mission.



Gotta go to work ... :)

Cheers,

Barbarossa Derailed - The New Book Series by David Glantz

Pop quiz!

Do you know the orders Timoshenko gave to the 20th Army at 1800 hours on 17 August 1941?

I do, because I'm reading Barbarossa Derailed: The Battle for Smolensk, 10th July-10 September 1941, Volume 1, by David Glantz.

What a book, dear friends. It is the most detailed account of the Battle for Smolensk from the grand-tactical and the operational level point of view. The book leans heavily towards the Soviet point of view, but it doesn't fall too short on the German one. It is a book where you will find a lot of information in each of the 600+ pages, so take it slowly. The writing is very clear but (at least on what I have read since I got it) it is focused in formations of the size of divisions and above. If you are looking for a narrative or stories of individual divisions, regiments or soldiers, this book will not fit the bill. This is not a book for the casual reader and it's big physical size doesn't make it a good bed reading.

Volume 1 (already released) and volume 2 (to be released in March) will be a chronological narrative of the operations. Volume 3 will be a collection of orders and reports translated from Russian archives. Volume 4 will be an atlas with color maps made from scratch.

I continue to read this book but I will add a big side dish of war gaming. Following the narrative with the help of maps found in war games is a lot of fun. War gaming the situations described in the book will be fantastic.

John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns Smolensk 41 (published by HPSSims), here shown with MapMod (mapmod.hist-sdc.com/index.htm), is one of the best to get your war gaming fix of what you read in the book.

SSGs Across the Dnepr Second Edition (published by Matrix Games), also a very good war gaming match for the contents of the book.

Gary Grigsby's War in the East (published by Matrix Games) offers another great war gaming fix for the readers of Barbarossa Derailed.  The lower level of detail of the terrain (less terrain features due to the increased size of terrain represented by each hex) and the lack of a scenario focused exclusively in the Battle for Smolensk may be an issue, though.  

And before I forget, Timoshenko's orders to 20th Army were:

To Comrade Lukin:
-Commit 161st RD in the Sopshino, the railroad bridge over the Dnepr River, and Dobromino sector
-Commit 129th RD in the Dobromino and Klokova sector, after leaving one regiment at the boundary with 24th Army to protect the Novyi Iakovlevichi and Glinka axis.
-Have 153rd, 229th and 73rd RD begin their attack west of the Dnepr River when 161st and 129th RD reach the El'nia-Smolensk railroad.

Above text from page 444 of Barbarossa Derailed, Volume 1.

Cheers,

The Red Pill Looking for a New Name

A naming contest is up at the Armchair General's website. There are prizes, but what better than bragging rights to coming up with a great name for a great game.

Please submit your entries here.

This screenshot from a batch of new ones recently posted at Warfaresims.com.

I don't want to read too much into this contest, but the developers are looking for a name ... Is the release date close?

Cheers,

DCS: A-10C Warthog - Dropping Bombs

I'm feeling particularly courageous these days and decided that I should start a serious and methodical learning regime on the A-10's ordnance usage.

The DCS series pilot's manuals have not worked out very well for me. They are very detailed, but I just can't learn from them.

So I am reading forums checking YouTube videos and cross-referencing with the manual. Not so methodical, but well at least to figure out what I don't know. Wait! That is an easy one: I know nothing! :)

 I'm totally hooked with this simulator. I love flying it, I love the avionics, the targeting system ... I feel all geeked up with all the systems and button presses.

Yesterday I erased my old controllers profile. I'm using a CH Products HOTAS/Rudder Pedals combo and I mapped these controllers more or less in line with the real A-10 HOTAS. The stick was easy as it is very similar to the real one, at least button-wise. The CH Throttle not so charming, but oh well ... The idea is that if the realA-10  HOTAS is mapped that way, it must be very close to the optimal.

So, let me post here a video from a guy nicknamed ExcessiveHeadSpace. Absolutely great videos on DCS A-10. Make sure to visit his videos at YouTube and leave some feedback. He deserves a big thank you!



Cheers,

DCS Black Shark - Tunnel Vision

The game: DCS Black Shark
The tactical situation: a flight of two Ka-50 is prepping by fire the route that land forces will use to advance  through insurgent-controlled territory.
The topic: sensors are good, but watching out of the cockpit is what keeps you alive.

We stop well ahead every built up area to scan ahead.

Found a truck-mounted ZU-23-2 near the road. We fired at it, but the range was too high (3.4 km).

In search for a better angle of fire and a better range, we fly parallel to the road with the threat at our left.

At the new firing position, the range is still high. But the field of fire is extremely clear.

The new firing position and my sustained staring at the SHKVAL got us too close to a new built up are. Another AAA position fired at us and hit me.

The shark is bleeding smoke as I pull it out of trouble. The enemy AAA keeps shooting at us: see the tracer just below the rocket pods in my left pylon.

With all this damage, I'm surprised I could fly the shark out of the enemy fire.

Emergency landing. This is not going to look good in my pilot's file.

The enemy system that hit me was another ZU-23-2. I was a fool letting my flight so close to the built up area. But while reviewing the mission track I could see a first burst of AAA not hitting me. If I would be watching out through the window instead of the Shkval screen, I could have avoided the enemy fire.

Cheers,

My TrackIR 4 is Dead! Long Live my TrackIR 5!

What a week, folks!

Work was insufferable. My old Windows XP machine stopped booting up after I tried to install something. My TrackIR 4 died. When it rains, it pours.

The show must go on, though. I finally pulled out that mega order at work, I re-installed XP at the missbehaved machine (still have to un-license and reinstall some games) and got myself a TrackIR 5.

TrackIR 5 is noticeable better than TrackIR 4 in terms of response and accuracy. Yet I don't recommend upgrading if your TrackIR 4 is still working fine.

What went wrong with my TrackIR 4? I will never now. I noticed it not responding very well two weeks ago. Maybe I should have un-plugged it while I was not using it (sometimes I stay for hours in the computer and I wonder if these things overheat).

Wanna hear something good about a games company?

GoGamer.com! I ordered my TrackIR5 early on Monday 7th. Their website said it was available and that would ship withing 24 hours. I payed for a FedEx 2 day shipping. During the afternoon of Tuesday 8th, I write an e-mail to them asking why my order has not shipped (order status in their website was "processing") and they answered something like "yeah, yeah, it will ship today". Late Tuesday 8th, the order is still listed "processing" and I have no hopes of this thing getting in a long time. Wednesday 9th in the afternoon I get an e-mail telling me that the order has shipped. I track the package at FedEx and I found out the package was already delivered that morning! Meh! These GoGamer guys are men of action and not paper-pushers. They charged my credit card just today, almost a week later. Odd. But my TrackIR 5 was here just in the promised time span.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead British Armed Forces - Checkpoint Repels Insurgent Attack With .50 Cals

The game: ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead British Armed Forces
The situation: a patrol section (+) manning an unfinished checkpoint is caught by surprise by insurgent forces.
The topic: in open terrain the .50 cal is king. Hone your HMG techniques of fire, lads!

The engineers came, built a half-assed checkpoint and left with the promise of finishing it up the following day. Checkpoint North was born out of wire, earthen parapets, small sandbagged bunkers and the willingness of the British soldier to do whatever it takes to accomplish a mission. Our command post/living quarters was a nice change, though. We have been sleeping near our Jackals for quite a while and having a roof over our heads was a welcomed change in the routine.

The entrance to checkpoint North.

Rush hour at checkpoint North. The line is a whooping 10 cars long.

The search area of checkpoint North. We didn't even have the proper search tools. 

Panoramic view of the checkpoint. In the distance, cars wait to enter towards the search area. The whole checkpoint is surrounded by a perimeter of concertina of approximately 500 meters. More visible in the image, the wire was also laid out at each side of the road.

On the right side of the road, we placed a Jackal in a firing position overlooking the main approach to the checkpoint. The command post/living quarters can be seen on the left.

Same thing on the left side of the road.

The reasons why we ended manning checkpoint North with so few assets are hard to justify. Our patrols platoon was conducting presence patrols in the area when the order to set up a checkpoint came in. Our CO decided not to interrupt such patrols because he got HUMINT about "something out of place with the insurgents cell phone traffic". We ended up at checkpoint North with just three Jackals (three teams or a reinforced section). A platoon should not be split when the enemy is in the bushes ... This is true since the time of the Boer Wars.

It was while following a HUMINT tip at a village south of the checkpoint when the distant sound of an IED and the ensuing frantic radio calls reached my 5 men team. We jumped in our Jackal and rushed towards the checkpoint trying to sort out what was going on.

The smoke and fire in the distant checkpoint ... Nothing good is coming out of this thing.

As we approached the chekcpoint, we could see the smoking trails of SPG-9 recoilless guns fired at the two Jackals that were already in position. There was only two vehicle fighting pits at the checkpoint and we needed a hull down position immediately. The Jackal is moderately tall, and hard to "hull down". Out of desperation I drove our vehicle behind the cover of the command post.

Hull down, but with an exposed gunner. Such is the life of the lightly armored vehicle crews.

The view from our vehicle. In the distance, insurgents pour out of an assortment of vehicles.

The AI does a moderately good job shooting the L111A1, but I eventually I had to man the thing. Note the sandbags of the roof of the command post.

Mayhem. In the crosshairs, a vehicle mounted SPG-9 I just engaged with the .50 cal. In real life, any soldier worth of his profession would have the ranges already figured out. He would even planted stakes to mark those ranges. In this scenario, I just fired in a Z pattern until I hit the bloody insurgents. The optics of the L111A1 really paid off.

We have been lucky. The insurgents approached over open terrain and our fields of fire were wide and deep. We lost two men and a Jackal to the enemy's SPG-9s. The checkpoint held without using a single AT weapon.

We eventually abandoned the relative safety of the checkpoint and moved up the road to clear it. In this image, the Jackal covers us with the .50 cal. 

Never underestimate the power of the .50 cal.

Cheers,

Maneuver Warfare: A Wargamer's Notebook - OODA Cycles - In the Air: Sabres vs Migs

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.

In the previous entry, I mentioned how John Boyd got the idea of the OODA cycles from the air combat realities of the Korean War. Apparently, the F-86 Sabre had no advantage over the Mig-15 in thrust, turn or climb rates. It was the ability of the F-86 Sabre to quickly transition between maneuvers what made the difference against the Mig-15.


In this entry, I fly through the virtual skies of North Korea looking for some edu-fun-meint.


The choice of flight simulator was easy: Rowan's Mig Alley. I don't think any mod out there for more modern combat flight simulators can replicate the dogfight experience of the good ole Mig Alley. A thing I never got over with fan-made mods to flight simulators is the lack of information about their flight models. Since flight models are really very important for this entry, I just sticked with Mig Alley. BTW, this flight simulator (ugly as it looks by today's standards) has a lot of personality. Maybe I should write a few more entries about it.


So, I went on and flew the Sabre and the Mig in empty skies. On the issue of maneuver transitions: yes, I can invert, roll and shake the stick with an almost immediate response in the Sabre. Not so fast with the Mig-15. Check, issue is closed.


Can the fast transitions of the Sabre translate in faster observation-orientation-decision-action  cycles that can be used to gain an advantage? Seoul, we have a problem ... Of the OODA cycle, 3 out of 4 steps (observation, orientation and decision) depend exclusively on the man and just one (action) step partially depends on the machine. Yours truly is a terrible combat pilot ... 


Even when the Mig-15 was mentioned above in having the advantage in sustained performance, this advantage is not gigantic. For air-combat purposes, the Sabre and the Mig can be considered as "similar aircraft". I experienced this in the flight simulator: flying the Sabre in turn-and-burn dogfights (angles fights would be the academic term), and in particular at the very end of flat scissors maneuvers, I frequently ended up in a head to head zoom ins. In other words, both aircraft can turn almost at the same rate and with the same radius.

Head to head zoom in. Scary stuff ...

I still have to work my flying skills to take advantage of the supposedly faster transitions of the Sabre. All I can report today is how I took advantage of a bad OODA cycle of a Mig-15's pilot.


So here it goes: a mano a mano with a Mig-15 (computer opponent set to "hero", the maximum skill available).

A Mig-15 in my tail ... Just another day in the office.

The Mig-15 is turning with me.

He tries hard to saddle. Here is to hope that the Mig-15 overshoots.

The turns into me, I turn into him ... A tad late but that's what the books say I am supposed to do.

Another opening of the scissors. The Mig is shown turning into me. Note that this maneuvers are not actually textbook rolling scissors, as the Mig-15 has still  positional and angles advantages over me.

BAM! The Mig-15 pilot, now spooked by the multi-story buildings, is short in airspeed and altitude and abandons the turn in order to regain both. I can see him struggle to regain control of the aircraft without stalling. I turn into him immediately.

The Mig-15 is trying to get away. I struggle to regulate my airspeed to a perfect closure rate that avoids an overshoot. 

The Mig-15 is in the background, it gained some airspeed but it is still low and flying away in a gentle turn. My inability to regulate airspeed forces me into a lag pursuit roll, here shown in its initial stage.

In a surprising move, the Mig-15 reverses his turn into me and climbs to meet me. Fortunately, he started to climb at a relatively low airspeed and to add insult to injury he turns into me. He made an awful decision and is flying really slow. That's why I got a chance for a couple of on-target snapshots. Shown here, a few seconds after my two cannon bursts (smoke can be seen from the Mig's tail).

I let him to pass by my aircraft. He goes down in a gentle spiral turn. It's a confirmed kill.

Cheers,