Test of Wills (MP/NATO)

[loki100]

Test of Wills

This is a short report on this scenario from a US perspective (the game was MP). It ended at 5.00 the following morning.

I don't have many images but my initial plan was to hold the line of obstacles but to weight my defense to the north.

My logic was this was where the VP lay and if the Soviets got around to the north I could have a lot of problems.

I was also afraid the Soviets would go for a massive quick rush here – from testing this works well vs the US AI. Once it was clear that wasn't going to happen I rapidly thinned out the front lines.



The southern urban area was more weakly held – and it was clearly not a good idea to leave an engineer company on the southern edge.

One early decision was to place the US MLR formation into a counter-battery role, in which it was to excel.



Our feeling at the end is this scenario really is about artillery. I probably over-used mine early on and had problems of it resupplying at stages when there were very nice targets available. We both did a lot of CB with considerable effect, and a fair few hits of Hqs.

This is the end in the north. I clung to the border town for as long as I could, in the end a Soviet tank battalion broke out but was halted by judicious Fascam and the constricted terrain. I also got lucky with some artillery fishing trips and the CB fire took out most of the Soviet mortars (which had started in the woods).



The main Soviet effort came in the south and I think had a breakthrough (and had trashed my company and battalion HQ system).



Quick summary of the losses.



And the VP situation. Both sides were utterly trashed, the only way I won was by holding most of the VP so the loss/vp ratio ended up in my favour.



The trip wire defense sort of worked but at times I was trading infantry platoon losses for Soviet recon formations.

I should have put all the ADA well to the rear as they became a bit of a VP drain and been far more restrained with the artillery in the early stages.

I guess in the end I did what the scenario says, hold a line and stop a breakout while the Soviets were on the verge of a breakout but lacked the reserves to complete the operation.

Anyway, we've just reversed sides and started again – with lots of shelling going on.

[altipueri]

Hi Loki,

If you are looking for artillery try this little video AAR on Armored Brigade by Russian Heel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlLE4gEgiGE

You can get it via Matrix site too.


Have you given up on EiA ?



PS go to about minute 13 of the vid to hear a radio role play - the writer was apparently a real M1 tanker so I imagine some of this is not far off

[loki100]

aye, this scenario in particular gives a real insight into sustained artillery as part of modern warfare. In part as a killer but more in just degrading the formations getting hammered.

Unfortunately our rematch was less interesting - its not quite finished yet. But the main Soviet HQ was detected and wiped out on T1 which left the Soviets (me) with such a massive command and control problem that even minimal co-ordination has been difficult and NATO has plenty of chance to stomp on any signs of an offensive on a given sector.

Still fun though [8D]

ORIGINAL: altipueri
...

Have you given up on EiA ?

...

I knew the UI was notoriously a struggle but didn't expect such an issue just with movement. When I get the chance I'll uninstall/reinstall. Its a bit like WW1Gold, there is a great game lurking in there if you can get to it?

[GiveWarAchance]

Exciting story. A lot of carnage burning the south so it must have been fun.
I like the phrase "artillery fishing trip". You were guessing completely or you had intel on their mortars?
What does ADA mean?
Too bad you lost your HQ in the reverse game. Maybe you can do another battle as Russia and post the story. It seems you have a moderate amount of skill at the game (more than me of course). I think playing as Russia is harder cause you have more to manage and must always be attacking.

[CapnDarwin]

ADA = Air Defense Artillery

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: GiveWarAchance

Exciting story. A lot of carnage burning the south so it must have been fun.
I like the phrase "artillery fishing trip". You were guessing completely or you had intel on their mortars?
What does ADA mean?
Too bad you lost your HQ in the reverse game. Maybe you can do another battle as Russia and post the story. It seems you have a moderate amount of skill at the game (more than me of course). I think playing as Russia is harder cause you have more to manage and must always be attacking.

unfortunately my opponent really knows what he is doing so I'm usually losing and not always sure why.

In this scenario with the Soviets you have so much artillery you can dedicate a few formations to do little but hit at feasible locations, the problem in the reverse game was the loss of the HQ seemed to end any on-call artillery (not sure if this was WAD or just how things worked out), so I constantly had to use orders to trigger fire plans. Ideally I would have just given a few artillery orders and to some extent use them to hit locations where something had blown up earlier.

With the US, certainly put that MLR onto CB and just let it do its job.

Overall with the Soviets I think its a case of devising a plan, to some extent sticking to it and exploiting what you can do well - a lot of firepower in a small area. If the offensive gets dispersed usually NATO can absorb the separate sections and use the order system to their advantage. Issue then is most scenarios have 2/3 relatively obvious offensive/defensive plans and to some extent its who picks best and then the extent that you can exploit/recover.