3rd Red Banner Slam Interactive DAR

[Mad Russian]

Welcome to the Interactive DAR thread. I will be taking your orders for our mission in this thread. I will try to have the basics for the scenario in this thread as soon as possible.

Good Hunting on your mission commander.

MR



3rd Red Banner Slam

Scenario Size: Medium

Date: 22 July 1989
Time: D2+ 2 Hours (0600 Hours) Day Break.
Location: Near Paderborn, West Germany.
Weather: Foggy with dense clouds. Light wind from the Northwest.

The Soviet Union faked withdrawing it's forces from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). They had alerted both NATO and the UN that they were moving two divisions east in the sector of the 8th Guards Army. This announcement was made months in advance. Several smaller units have left their permanent duty stations, earlier this month, for new locations further east.

The moves had been a ruse and those divisions had turned and attacked through the Fulda Gap from their road march formations. In the confusion of the following days much fighting had taken place. Large scale chemical strikes had taken out much of NATO's logistical support centers as well as their hard surface airfields.

Two days after the opening of hostilities the I Netherlands Corps took a heavy blow on the border and the entire 1e Divisie had been destroyed. It had been pinned against the border; where the Soviets had used vertical envelopment with the 3rd Shock Air Assault Battalion to trap the division in place and destroy it with heavy tank forces. Once the 1e Divisie had been destroyed 10th Guards Tank Division had been passed through the resulting gap in the NATO lines and into the rear areas of the Corps.

The 10th Guards Tank Division was through NATO lines and advancing. Observing total radio silence the division was to thrust as deeply in the I Netherlands Corps sector as possible without being detected.

How would the Dutch commander respond? Would they pull back or would they advance to plug the hole? What would be the answer to the 3rd Red Banner Army?

[Mad Russian]

Here is the map with the Victory Locations and our setup area marked.

The part of the setup area in the forest is where I will place the units initially. I do this so that players don't get my setups. That was something I was taught how to avoid while doing CM scenarios in another lifetime.

Our follow on forces will enter from the two east map edge roads that have red tinted hexes. (The two roads on the bottom right map edge.)

Bridges to both the north and south of our advance area have been destroyed by aircraft strikes to isolate this part of the battlefield. Not all strikes were successful but enough were that NATO forces should be delayed in deploying to the area. Examples of blown bridges can be found at the village of Heiglarn (Center of the map)just north of the village name and just above the VP location at the village of Helmern, which is just below Heiglarn.




Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is our initial recon element. The 112th Independent Reconnaissance Battalion with an attached helo recon section from the 3rd Red Banner Army reconnaissance Battalion.

The units are set up with HQ on top and subordinate units below them.

The companies are set up from left to right - 1st Co through Helo.

Each of the recon companies has a wheeled recon plt, a tracked recon plt and an ATGM support plt.

The helo company has 2 recon helo plt's and an attack helo plt for support.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

- Operational Briefing -
Two days after the opening of hostilities the I Netherlands Corps took a heavy blow on the border and the entire 1e Divisie had been destroyed. It had been pinned against the border; where the Soviets had used vertical envelopment with the 3rd Shock Air Assault Battalion to trap the division in place and destroy it with heavy tank forces. Once the 1e Divisie had been destroyed 10th Guards Tank Division has been passed through the resulting gap in the NATO lines and into the rear areas of the Corps.

The 10th Guards Tank Division is through NATO lines and advancing. Observing total radio silence the division is to thrust as deeply in the I Netherlands Corps sector as possible without being detected.

- Mission -
Your mission is advance into the area west of Lichtenau and control the road net around the village of Atteln. If you meet no resistance you are to continue to move west and secure Etteln. You are to inflict as many casualties on any NATO units you encounter in the area as possible while accomplishing your mission.

At this moment there is almost a complete jamming of all radio frequencies. Orders will be sent by messenger if we cannot get through on the radio. You are to act independently and in accordance with your overall orders if contact with a higher command is not possible.

- Friendly Forces -
10th Guards Tank Division's 112th Independent Reconnaissance Battalion with helicopter support is leading the division.

A battle group consisting of units from the 61st Guards Tank Sverdlovsk-L'vov Regiment and the 248th Guards Motor-Rifle Unechskiy Regiment are immediately behind the recon element. 744th Guards Motorized Artillery Ternopol' regiment will provide support.

- Intelligence -
NATO battle doctrine is to defend from prepared positions. All communication and intelligence gathering has not indicated any NATO units in this area. That means nothing. The weather has been foggy this morning restricting aerial reconnaissance. Human intel has been very unreliable in this area. Electronic jamming is very high, that would indicate some enemy activity in the area. What kind exactly remains to be seen.

Rely only on what your ground reconnaissance reports to you.

- Reserves -
Units will be moving up immediately behind the recon element.

[Mad Russian]

There are two obvious entry paths into the surrounding area. The North and the South routes.

We first need to determine how to deploy our Recon Bn.

What are your thoughts on this?

Good Hunting.

MR

[CapnDarwin]

MR, should there be a bridge over the river just beyond the tip of the north arrow?

[Hexagon]

Nice, looks like sunny Siberia close the vacations period and tourists can return to home [:D]

Ummm interesting question, north or south... i dont know how arrive and when the reinforces but i try do a fake attack tactic, i try attack enemy to the north bridge and when is heavy engage lauch a rush to the south and isolate enemy in the river bulge, hard cut their retreat in Helglarn but with a little luck... the good point in the south attack is that you have after cross the river 2 options, or go for Helmen forcing enemy retreat by Helgarn or go for Haaren zone that is a farm of victory points.

All depends if the victory conditions, if you only need take objetives and casualtie are not a big problem i try expand all i can the enemy front to made him decide what defend, sure NATO needs decide where center defense and what victory places leave.

Lets see.

[Mad Russian]

So that you will have some kind of an idea of the quality of your units here are the HQ ratings for the recon units on the map. Since the middle part of WWII Soviet recon troops have been widely considered the best in the world at what they do. You will notice that I expect that trend to have been continued.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

I await my orders Sir.

Do we want to advance our recon to:

1) 10,11 and 12

2) 7,8 and 9

3) 1,5 and 6

4) 1,2 and 6

5) 1,2 and 3

6) 7,4,5 and 9

7) 10,11,8 and 9

NOTE: The bridge at location 11 is blown. Also note, most of our vehicles are amphibious.

Should we advance in multiple routes, or do you have a plan other than any of these?

Helicopters forward? Helicopters in reserve?

What are my orders commander?

Good Hunting.

MR

[budd]

I have not much experience with modern platforms, here it goes.

Strike while the iron is hot, briefing indicates we have pierced the line and are in the corps rear area.

Helo's forward, followed by 1st and 2nd to recon along 7, 8,9,

3rd to recon along 1, 5, if 3rd makes 5 without resistance. halt to await further orders.

Halt at stiff resistance, brush aside anything minor. Move, Move, Move.

[jack54]

I like the sound of that

1st and 2nd to recon along 7, 8,9,

3rd to recon along 1, 5, if 3rd makes 5 without resistance. halt to await further orders. (they may have to swing to 8 or 9).

Helos forward with north group but I'd like to see (1 recon OH) swing north maybe 10,11,8 just to make sure nothing is there.

[Mad Russian]

Does everybody agree with this? Unless I hear differently those will be the orders I execute.

Discussions about the best plan to use is acceptable. We can discuss the best way to proceed.

However, if there is no discussion I will execute the orders I've been given.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Once we have a direction at what speed to you want to proceed?

Here is the order selection stack.

On Call - puts units that can fire indirectly in an "on call mode", where they can respond to situations during the turn.

Assault - this is the formation you chose when you want to do an assault that is not over long distances.

Move Deliberate - this is tactical movement formation. It is where you would find such actions as overwatch, advance to contact, etc.

Move Hasty - this is where you move with no fear of enemy action. When you want to move a unit across the terrain quickly.

Screen - this is the order you give when you want your forces to deploy their weapons to their best capabilities. Screen is automatically assumed at the end of both Move Deliberate and Move Hasty orders.

Hold - this is the order you give when you don't want your units to leave a spot. They will defend that location without regard to the enemies proximity to them. Hold is automatically assumed at the end of an Assault order.

Build Bridge - you can give this order or if you give a movement order that is across a water obstacle the unit will automatically assume this mode until they do accomplish a crossing. Amphibious units will simply cross and not leave a bridge if this is done. If a unit that is affecting the crossing is not amphibious it will then place a bridge when the crossing has been accomplished.

Blow Bridge - this is a serious order. Units will stay in place for 30 minutes to blow a bridge. They will assume a Hold Order and fight for the right to stay right there and blow that bridge.

Resupply - is applied when you run low on ammunition.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is the deployment for 1st and 2nd Recon as well as the Helo section.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is the deployment of the Northern Recon force in detail.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is our initial Southern setup zone.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here are our recon forces in relation to the entire map area.

Good Hunting.

MR

[budd]

move deliberate sounds right. We don't have any indirect fire units on map yet right? when they hit the map they go on call immediately if in range of early objectives.

[Mad Russian]

Correct. The closest indirect fire units should be about 30 minutes behind us.

Soviet doctrine has specific traveling distances between units. That's difficult to judge when those units are off map. So, what I did was to give them a noticeable break in their showing on the map. Hopefully it will be enough of a distance for us to have them not be all jammed up but at the same time show up in plenty of time for us to apply them to the battle.

This scenario has not been playtested. I simply created it for this play through. For our purposes here it doesn't need to be balanced.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Orders have been given and saved. Next we tell the computer to execute our orders. It will tell you how long the orders resolution will take in game terms.

Good Hunting.

MR