TacOps

[Al]

Over here http://www.wargamer.com/articles/tacops_article.asp is an article taken from Armor magazine about using the game tacOps to train captains. I think the article is very well written & explains both the shrtcomings & benefits of using an off-the-shelf simulation in Army training.

 

Has anyone here played TacOps? Anyone here have first-hand experience with the training described in the article?

[Manic Moran]

Give me a day or two, and I'll be posting up AARs of Saturday's CPX.

 

NTM

[FALightFighter]

I am sending this post as a link to a buddy who graduated ACCC in late May 01. I will encourage him to comment.

 

Forward Observers, the Eyes of Death

[Allan W]

I've played TacOps extensively and I am also testing the next version, which is 4.0. The Canadian Armed Forces use it for training as well.

 

Here's a couple of links to articles about CF use of TacOps for training:

http://www.army.dnd.ca/allc/website/englis...tch/tacopse.pdf

http://www.army.dnd.ca/allc/website/englis.../vol7no4eng.pdf

 

 

Allan

[Scott Cunningham]

The Army is now using Steel Beasts as well in the role of a training aid.

 

I did use TacOps while on active duty, mainly as a resource for Tactical Decisionmaking Games for young leaders

[Manic Moran]

OK.. here it is...

 

Umpire's AAR, CPX 23/6/2001

 

I hadn't umped a CPX in ages. I was bored as hell, and really wanted something to do. So, it was only natural that I should volunteer to run one!

 

Unfortunately, as a bad start, the weekend just kinda crept up on me. With 5 days to go, I realised suddenly that I had no comitted players. And not even a fixed scenario in mind!

 

I'd been kinda hoping for the RedFor CO's AAR as well, so I could comment on both Blue and Red, but I guess not.

 

The next problem was that I had no players. Suddenly, the 23rd wasn't the best possible day for people to play. So began a mass recruiting drive off of the TacOps list... Steel Beast players and a few from Tanknet.org were contacted, but only the Beasters actually were able to turn up. (But the good news is that

the Tanknetters seem more interested now!)

 

So then, to come up with a scenario. Rikki thought that maybe we could take the CPX as a scenario from his big MBX, and maybe extrapolate some results from it. One of the current fights is Serbia invading Croatia, with NATO rather taking the Croatian side. He then started to come up with a whole plethora of

scenarios to consider.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't think any of his first salvo were particularly gameable, either due to size or the fact that no equipment even close is in the TacOps database. His second salvo was better, but by this point, with two days to go, I had to get something out the door, so I came up with what I had hoped to be a suitable scenario without his guidance. Turns out that it may not be so useful for him, but at least it might make a good ENN report.

 

Anyway, the situation as I had envisioned it...

 

Our scene is set in 2009, at a town on the route to Zagreb. The Serb steamroller has bypassed this pocket of resistance, and continued on to Zagreb, but this town has to be taken soon before it becomes a serious thorn in the Serb logisitical side. Serb High Command has decided it is now time to finish

off this town that they had been besieging for the last couple of days.

 

So, to the map. Map 540, available from the TacOps Resource HQ at Battlefront.com. Quite a good one, with plenty of trees and hills to keep people occupied. Now that I think of it, it's not an accurate representation of the real-life terrain in the area (Far from it, the real thing is flat fields), but at least it'll make for an interesting game.

 

Our objective is the town up in the NE corner. I designated the complex to the South to be an armory, which has been helping to supply the Croat defense. A secondary objective.

 

So, to the forces...

 

First, we have our valiant defenders. The Croats.

Since TacOps at this time won't allow redfor tanks on both sides, I couldn't give them T-XX series. So, just like any 'breakup' CPX we've ever run, we figured that the Croats had gone shopping in the last couple of years. In this case, I went with Canada. (a) To make a change from all those M60s, and (

because CA reminds me of Croatia a bit. So, in defense, we have two infantry companies, and one tank company. The tanks are common or gardern Leopard C1s.

 

Each infantry company was created by taking a standard US Mech Inf option, and converting the M2s to either M113 or trucks, the Javelins to either Dragons or Carl Gustafs, and the infantry to Canadian infantry. (One company was to represent a Croat line unit, the other a unit of reservists). Unfortunately, it seems that Dragon has thermal sights in the game. Oops. They also had a battery of 105mm and one of 81mm artillery.

 

SFOR/NATO is sending a relief convoy of 16 trucks with food, medical supplies and such into the besieged town. They don't have that much by way of heavy assets to do it, I gave them two platoons of Abrams, a mech infantry company, and a Hummer scout platoon. But, I figured that IFOR would have hefty rapid-reaction air support available, so I gave them an entire company of attack helos and plenty of air strikes. The helos, I made AH-64s in GP configuration. I figured that if each had 16 hellfires, it would have been too much. Started with 4 airstrikes, and 8% chance of new. Their goal would have been to resupply the town. If the town were to have fallen by the time they got there, they would have received instructions to go home. I also gave them a UAV, thinking that it's the sort of thing IFOR would have lying around in decent quantity in

2009.

 

Serb forces also were split into two. The units doing the besieging, and the attack force. The besieging forces were two BTR-80 companies (Masquerading as TAB-71s), and two T-55 companies. When creating the scenario, I had envisioned

them as being intermingled along the FEBA, but as it turned out, they never co-operated. The attack force was a full battalion of T-80Us (Masquerading as M-84As, they did not have ATGMs, thermals, or DU ammunition), and also a Mech Infantry battalion, with two companies of BMP-1s (AKA M-80As), and one of MTLBs. The M80 actually has an autocannon instead of a BMP-1s 73mm, but has

Sagger instead of a BMP-2's Spandral.

 

Startup positions: Serb forces could set up anywhere W of the 070 Easting, Croats East of 090. The Serb Attack Force would come on at 07:15 in the SW corner of the map, (015000) the NATO convoy would arrive at about 07:30 on Western Edge (000042) I gave them the option of bringing on the UAV (And a 155mm battery to shoot with it) at 0700, but they declined.

 

The way it was planned...

The Croats decided that they would set up the light infantry company in the town in trenches. Armed with plenty of LAWs, they would do damage to any mechanised force that might try to take it. The M113 company would have duty down near the Armory, but one platoon would be detached, sans APCs, to city as well, to give some ATGM capability. Minefields set North and South of the city to channel the enemy into the entrenched troops. The Leopards were going to be a mobile defense, primarily to the South, to try and drive the enemy attack Northwards. I let the trucks run an ammo convoy to the 105s... 4 trucks managed

to load up and went on their way, in two groups of two.

 

The Serbs completely failed to have any form of infantry/tank co-operation between the besieging forces. All the tanks were in the North half of the map, all the infantry to the South half. Both were sent East to go find the enemy so that the main mechanized force could react accordingly. In fairness, both

groups did use bounding overwatch. but the big Serb flaw was in the SOPs. None of the advancing units had orders to dismount if fired upon or to pop smoke. (The M84s were later given this order, but it didn't help the infantry much)

 

And so it began...

 

First contact was up North.. Advancing T-55s crest a hill, and a Leopard platoon at 102061 opens fire. Leopard fire throughout the game tended to be inaccurate, but they also tended to shoot first which made up for it. One T-55 platoon gets knocked out. Survivors pop smoke and reverse back down the hill.

Smoke is called in on the Leos' position. Leos fall back to the rear of the woods, looking for keyhole shots.

 

The next contact is down South.. Leos at 092032 open up on a BTR platoon at 080030, and miss completely. Overwatching ATGM units get a Leo, whose buddies decide to pop smoke and fall back, however, the BTRs turn South, into the line of fire of another Leopard platoon at 093015 which then destroys two.

Two BTR platoons further South attempting to outflank these Leos get spotted, and one platoon is destroyed. The other hides for a bit. An ATGM finds it way into a Leopard. Remaining Leopards decide to pull back into the forest.

 

In the meantime, the T-55s decide to take an extreme Northern route under cover of smoke. The Leopard platoon up there, realising that perhaps something is going on, also falls back further. It sees and engages a T-55 platoon and misses, then dives for some woods. Unbeknownst to it, however, the T-55s it saw were an overwatching unit that had finished overwatching, and the woods that the Leopards dove into already contained two platoons of Serb tanks. A quick firefight at about 150m resulted in the destruction of one of each tank before the Leopards popped more smoke and fell back a little. T-55s move forward, only to meet the Leos again about 200m later. Leos are ready for them, and take out the platoon for no loss. However, the victory is short-lived. A third T-55 platoon is diverted, and sideslams the Leopards whilst the second remained to the front. The (slightly depleted) two T-55 companies are now pretty much home

free as far as the city.

 

The Serb main force turns up, their order of march is the tanks first, and then the infantry. They proceed North to the crossroads, leaving a ZSU platoon and the 122mm artillery behind, and then turn right, to take the Southern road to the Armory. Their plan was to basically drive through the armory, then turn North and hit the town from the South.

 

The Yugoslav Air Force must have been having a good day. Generally NATO has been making flying an unpopular passtime of late. Two MiG strikes became available to the Serb side, they decided to direct them a minute apart. The first at the city, to see what it could see, and the second to hit the juiciest

target of opportunity. The first strike goes in, but due to the difficulties inherent in spotting entrenched troops in a city, it only spotted one entrenchment. Bombed it, and caused a few casualties. Nothing critical.

 

Unfortunately, the RedFor decided that the lack of a whopping spot report meant that there was little defending the town itself. They send in the T-55s!. (Two companies of T-55s should deal with a rifle platoon, no?) The other flogger gets diverted to spot around the armory instead.

 

I guess I need not tell you what happened to the T-55s.. Despite waiting for an MRL strike, some of them hit mines, some got picked off by an ATGM, and most got destroyed by Carl Gustafs. A Southern T-55 platoon got caught in a crossfire between Leopards to the South, and Dragons to the North. One T-55 survived the experience in a functional state, and just sat in place for the

rest of the game. No need to attract attention. One thing they did do though was destroy the last of the trucks carrying ammunition.

 

The Northern BTR advance begins to stall after Dragons reach out and touch them through the smoke. Not too many casualties, but they stop and deploy in overwatch positions. They remained here for most of the rest of the game.

 

The Southern BTR group, realising that the Leopard platoon they were looking for didn't actually withdraw all that far, dismounted and started walking. As the Leos are distracted shooting up survivors from BTRs, the infantry sneaks up

behind them and RPGs from the rear at close range puts an end to that platoon.

 

Serbia was doing pretty well up to this point, barring the T-55 debacle, I'd say they were confident. However, their next spot report referenced Apaches and Kiowas to their rear. Apaches knock out some SP Artillery. A battle royale then developed between the helos and the air defenses. The Apaches would get about 4 ZSUs for every helo (Kiowa or Apache) lost. Finally, Serbia ran out of ZSUs. It was now down to SA-16s, of which Serbia had a prodigious amount. BMPs, BTRs and MTLBs all started disgorging silly numbers of the things. Which turned out to be unfortunate for fixed-wing zoomies.

 

Thinking that the helos would provide intel for Croatia, the decisions were made to spread out to avoid ICM hits on the column, and the rear couple of platoons dropped troops and headed North as a diversion. The spreading out was a damned good instruction. That turn, 5 F-16s made an attack run on the column.

Serb gunners appear to have improved of late. Of the five aircraft, two were shot down, one heavily damaged. One aborted, and the last one just didn't flinch, but missed.

 

SAMs flew frequently, but most missed. The grand final tally was three Apaches and two Kiowas downed, I was expecting more. The Apaches spent a lot of time sniping, but because they generally hung around the Serb rear, they didn't do a hell of a lot to blunt the Serb advance, shooting up the sacrificial BMPs and

ZSUs that were left behind.

 

The American convoy proceeded very slowly and cautiously. Nothing wrong with that, I had told them that there was no particular time limit. Didn't meet much, a SAM unit got killed and a few mortar rounds landed next to a Hummer.

 

The Croats finally began to get an idea of the true size of the attacking force after a Leo platoon took on a tank company, another group of tanks killed an M113 platoon that was repositioning, -and- the aircraft reported tanks at another location. Leos again would shoot, pop smoke, and fall back. Trading two or three T-80s for a kilometer of ground. They decide not to contest the armory directly, but instead take positions that can contol the area by fire. Only a couple of

squads and some trucks were left in the armory itself.

 

The infantry battalion swoops up from the South, deploys and conducts an attack on the city. A leo platoon gets keyhole shots on BMPs as they go by, eventually the BMPs get miffed by this and orientate to fire back. After losing a Leo, the tanks decide discretion to be the better part of valour and fall back North.

 

Not wishing to be caught between Croats on one side, and NATO on the other, the Serbs decided to accelerate their advance a bit. Any track that could would pick up troops and head for the town. Troops left on foot would secure the armory from the very little resistance still fighting back. Unfortunately, this bascally resulted in a cavalry charge against tanks and missiles. AH-64s

finally were moved to the 'front', and airstrikes came in too. Unfortunately, the Serb SAMs were pretty much left as were, and weren't going to have as much success as they did last time. The Apaches expended the last of their ammunition against T-80s, and another five airstrikes that arrived were virtually unopposed. (But fortunately didn't do as much damage as they could

have). A solitary F-16 that turned up a couple of minutes later got shot down.

 

Then T-80s encounter troops in woods, losing a platoon, but the worst was a couple of Dragons that had a lovely field of fire against IFVs that came around the armory. The good news was that the tanks caught that last platoon of Leopards redeploying, and simply fired so much that something had to hit.

 

This last line before the city pretty much took the steam out of the Serb advance. The two attacking battalions had been reduced to not much more than a reinforced mechanized company, and another company of leg infantry. They were unlikely to capture the city as it was, and so we all decided to call a halt to

the proceedings.

 

So the overall score...

Croatia: Lost the Armory, but retained undisputed control of the town. (Though some of the approaches to the town were now subject to Serb fire). They lost the whole company of tanks, and a lot of trucks, but really didn't lose much infantry beyond two platoons of troops, and one of M113s.

 

Serbia. Definitely the losers out of this one, losing the guts of a battalion of M-84s, and another of IFVs. (That said, they also had control of the battleground, and so could probably recover and repair a goodly number of them, and Leopards). Also, two companies of T-55s were obliterated, and two platoons

of TAB-71s. In terms of actual personnel losses, however, they weren't all that bad. They would need a little recuperation and reorganisation time, but I'd say the infantry battalion retained over half the manpower. On the other hand, they now had access to supplies and ammunition right next to their positions.

 

NATO (US). The supply convoy definitely would have made it through intact. Losing five helicopters and some four F-16s however can't have made a particularly positive impression on the home front. More importantly, by requesting even more air support than the amounts they got (I ended up doubling

their new airstrike chance), they brought the US, and NATO as a whole, much deeper in the conflict, and very partisanly on one side.

 

There was a little question of whether or not Croatia could take back the armory after the game ended. I would doubt it, the Serbs had over a company of intact mechanized infantry (TAB-71s mainly), plus the many troops that were on foot. I would say that the armory was firmly in Serb hands.

 

So, to affect the future? If the Serbs decided that they were going to push again, they are in a better position to do so, but the question becomes with what equipment? It would probably be a night infantry assault. Could be interesting to game out.

 

I should have IRC log files available if anyone wants me to send them.

 

I'll have the Blue Co's AAR up after I get home Sunday night or Monday morning.

 

Later...

 

NTM

[Blackbear]

Thank you to:

Nick, for the effort you put into umpiring the CPX;

James S., for holding my hand through my first attempt at participation in a TacOps CPX;

All my teammates, the Blue team, for your help and patience;

And the Red team, for giving us such worthy competition!

Everyone involved were truly good sportsmen. What an outstanding gaming experience the TacOps CPX is! If you have never tried this before, and have a chance to participate, do so, you will not regret it.

-Blackbear

[Manic Moran]

Knew I forgot something...

______________________________________________

Blue Commander’s AAR for Nick Moran’s Serbia vs NATO/Croatia CPX, 6.23.01

 

Players:

 

James Sterrett (Commander)

“Ozzie” Ozborne

Rattler (Matt Ohlmer)

Blackbear (David Freeman)

Pete Maidhof

 

The scenario was played on Map 540, which can be found at RT’s Map Archive (at http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacop...om/index.html).

 

Our Mission: Move a resupply convoy to the town at 135065, and hold the town. (map 540) Secondary objective is to hold the armory at 120030.

 

To do this, we had two forces: a Croatian battalion defending and a mixed NATO TF moving with the convoy. Unfortunately, the Serbs were between these two forces….

 

Forces and Task Forces:

 

The orders I sent out:

 

------------- begin orders snip ----------

 

Deployed EAST of 09:

 

Leopard Company (commander: Pete)

 

Croatian Mech Company (minus one platoon of dismounts; Ozzie) with one entrenchment

 

Croatian Infantry Company (plus one platoon from Mech; James); with 4 hand-laid mines, 4 artillery-laid mines, 7 entrenchments

 

One mortar battery; one 105mm battery (James)

 

Trucks from the Croatian Infantry company (James)

 

Arriving at the WEST edge ~07.30:

 

Apache company (6 Apache, 4 Kiowa; Rattler)

 

Forward Team: 1 platoon M-1, 2 platoons M-2, 1 platoon Hummer Scouts (Blackbear)

 

Convoy Team: Truck convoy. AD Hummer, 1 platoon M-1, 1 company M-2 (minus 2 platoons) (Warwick)

 

UAV (James)

 

155mm artillery (offmap, available from 0700 but requires NATO spotter)

 

Orders for each group:

 

The Croatian forces will hold the town and the armory. The defence in front of the armory will be stiffer, in order to invite the Serbs to come to the town and there engage in a close-range infantry slugfest while we pound them with air and artillery.

 

Pete’s Leopard Company is to deploy east of 09 in positions to delay and attrit the Serb advance. The defence is to be weighted south in order to assist in influencing the Serbs north. As the battles for the city and armory are joined, assist in protecting their flanks and destroying attacking enemy units.

If the defence goes very well, be prepared to attack to help clear a path for approaching NATO forces.

 

Ozzie’s Mech Company, minus one platoon of dismounts, is to defend the armory and assist in the delaying action. It gets one entrenchment marker.

 

The dismounted infantry, with 8 minefields, seven entrenchments, and a detachment dismount platoon from the Croatian Mech, deploys to defend the town. Each entrenchment in the main town gets 2x infantry sections and 1 7.62mm MG team. The SRAAWs are distributed, north to south, 2, 1, 1, 2,

1, 2. The entrenchment in the suburb gets 2x Mech infantry, 1x 7.62mm MG, and 2x Dragons. The rest of the Mech inf platoon (2x infantry, 1x MG, 1x Dragon) goes to a BP vic 138068, facing to cover the minefield to the north.

Set the northern mech inf unit (138068) to a range of 600 meters.

 

See attached map (City Defence.bmp)for the arrangement of entrenchments and mines.

 

The mortar and artillery battery are to deploy into the woods east of the town (~145070).

 

The two Javelin SAM teams deploy to: 147054 and 146045. They should be on the high ground, with visibility to low ground (the southern one should be able to see S and W). Set both to 100m range. Set both up with telephones to call for arty.

 

The Croat trucks are to begin at the armory awaiting the possibility of getting more arty ammo. If Ozzie can spare 10 to 20 infantry for 15 minutes then we’ll move extra arty ammo to the 105mm battery. This is not a requirement for the Croat Mech force! Defence is more important.

 

NATO forces:

 

The Forward Team and the Apache Company are to clear a path for the Convoy. They enter at ~07.30 on the road at 000042. I would like the Apaches and Kiowas to hang back for fire support. The UAV will assist in spotting and calling for artillery fires.

 

The convoy and its forward guards are to take their time. We do not have a time limit. If the Serbs are going to crush the town defence, our hurrying the rescue force into an ambush will not save them. Take the time to do the recon carefully, use overwatch, and destroy each Serb defence. If the Serb players die of boredom, we win. 8)

 

Because we expect to hold the Armory, and thus it is a closer point of the Croat defence, the initial NATO plan is to advance down the southern part of the map. This is ambush territory.

 

---------------- end orders snip ---------------

 

I tried to match people to what I thought they would do well or were ready to handle. I took the city defence because it would be utterly static and thus boring to command. I knew Pete and Matt were experienced players, so I gave Pete the Leopard delaying action, and Matt the helicopters (along with, in fact, all the airstrikes and artillery as well). Ozzie had observed a CPX before, so I handed him the Armory defence, which was arguably throwing him in at the deep end. However, the

remaining players (one of whom did not appear) had even less experience, and I wanted them on the NATO TF so they’d have 30 minutes of game time to figure out how a CPX worked. In the event, Blackbear commanded the Forward Team and I took the Convoy.

 

A side note on Type 2 maps: if you make an ops graphic, then with a Type 2 map you can replace the original map graphic with your ops graphic and thus have TacOps display it right in the game. This is pretty nifty. 8)

 

What happened?

 

The game as played out was a real roller-coaster for

Blue. Initial contacts were very lopsided, as Pete’s Leos blew away some T-55s and BTR-80s. A lot of smoke in the north looked like a diversion, and turned out to contain two companies of T-55s (which, given our limited view of the force, we presumed to be a battalion.) These went charging towards the town, and, after some quick pondering, we decided that was just fine: the infantry or the mines would kill them. In the event, the mines

and infantry destroyed a lot of them north of the town, and a small group that went south of the town met a similar fate. In the process of the T-55 charge we lost the Leo platoon holding the north.

 

South of the town, we steadily fell back before the BTR-80s, losing a few more Leos to missile fires. We thought things were going pretty well. Then NATO arrived, and the UAV soon caught sight of the tail end of the Serb main force. Turns out they had a battalion each of BMP-1 and T-80 (which were referred to by their Yugoslav designation, which I cannot recall.) Thus, the Serbs were sending the bulk of four battalions against our Croatian battalion (the T-55 and BTR battalions were each

missing a company, but they also had a company of MTLB.)

 

I was convinced the Serbs had deployed a defence to stop the NATO approach, so the NATO convoy moved very slowly and carefully in CPX terms, taking 20 minutes to get 4km. However, the air and arty component of the force went ful-bore. We sent a huge (and very unsuccessful) airstrike at the tail end of the Serb column, and our Apaches fought a grinding duel with their ZSUs. Eventually, it dawned on us that there was little defence

or none, and that the bulk of the Serb forces, if not all of them, had stuck in the southern part of the map. We turned the convoy and its escorts north, after a bit of hassle tearing some fire support away from the Armory defence to provide them with some smoke to get by a patch of Serb dismounts left over from BMPs the Apaches destroyed.

 

While NATO plodded - much to Matt’s annoyance - the Serb advance rolled onwards towards the armory. Eventually, the Armory fell in a bloodbath for both sides; our forces actually in it were weak, but supported from the flank by the last of the Leopards, and also supported by more airstrikes and the remaining Apaches. We gutted the T-80 and BMP battalions in this fight, with less than a company of either remaining when

it ended. (Our airstrikes were apparently very effective, most Serb air defences having been left further West to try and help with the Apache duel.) However, as the armada of Serb AFVs approached the Armory, Blue was feeling pretty low - it seemed we were going to get steamrolled.

 

At the end of that assault, everyone was tired. The game had run for 12 hours (slow in part because Nick could not maintain a connection through his ISP for more than 5 minutes.) We hashed things out in debrief.

 

The Serbs probably had enough force left to attack the city, but not enough to take it, especially in light of the approaching fresh NATO force. The Croats had lost the Leo company, the M-113s defending the armory, and one of the infantry platoons defending the armory. NATO lost 3

Apaches, 2 Kiowas, and a passel of F-16s. However, the city had been held, the convoy was going to get to it, and the Serb attacking force had been gutted. The TacOps points ratio had gone from 1:1.1 against Blue to 1.7:1 in Blue’s favor. Opinion was divided regarding NATO’s chances for retaking the Armory. I think a slow and careul attack might have done it, albeit

bloodily. Statistics from the end-of-game overlay:

 

Blue

 

UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED

 

Leopard C1 Tank 14 0 14 0

M113 APC 13 4 9 0

Inf Section 26 21 5 0

Dragon2 ATGM 9 6 3 0

Javelin S15 SAM 2 2 0 0

LG1 105mm Hwtzr 5 5 0 0

81mm Mortar 5 5 0 0

MG Team C6 7.62mm 12 10 2 0

Inf Tm w LMG + M203 3 0 3 0

Iltis LUVW 1 1 0 0

HQ Command [-] 1 1 0 0

Truck LSVW 13 0 13 0

SRAAW Team 9 9 0 0

Truck 16 16 0 0

M1A2 Tank 8 8 0 0

M2 Bradley 13 13 0 0

Inf Team 13 13 0 0

Javelin ATGM 9 9 0 0

OH58 Kiowa Helo GP 4 2 2 0

AH64 Apache Helo GP 7 4 3 0

HMMWV Air Defense 1 1 0 0

HMMWV + HMG 2 2 0 0

HMMWV + MK19 2 2 0 0

Inf Team 4 4 0 0

UAV 1 1 0 0

 

Force Lethality Value, Start: 11184

Force Lethality Value, Now: 7774

Casualty percentage: 30

Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1:1.1

Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1.7:1

 

 

Red

 

UNIT START NOW ELIM EXITED

 

T80U Tank 31 6 25 0

T55M M1974+ Tank 22 1 21 0

BMP1 IFV 29 4 25 0

Inf Team 5 4 1 0

MTLB APC 14 0 14 0

Inf Squad 47 35 12 0

PKM MG Team 24 17 7 0

AGS17 Team 6 4 2 0

SA16 SAM 17 10 7 0

122mm SP Hwtzr 6 4 2 0

BTR80 APC 23 11 12 0

AT7 ATGM Saxhorn 5 4 1 0

ZSU-23-4 AAA 8 0 8 0

BRDM2 APC 1 1 0 0

BRDM2 AT 3 3 0 0

120mm Mortar 5 5 0 0

Truck [OP] 1 1 0 0

 

Force Lethality Value, Start: 11778

Force Lethality Value, Now: 4553

Casualty percentage: 61

Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1.1:1

Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1:1.7

 

Lessons Learned:

 

In delaying, shoot and scoot. Pete generally stuck to this rule, and as a result, while the Leos were constantly engaged, the last Leo platoon only died at the very end of the game.

 

Slow and careful is safe. However, it may not actually fit the situation ahead of you. I entered the game bound and determined not to repeat some of the common CPX errors, including that of rushing down a road without recon. In the event, this was a waste of time which Matt protested

against. Had the Serbs planted a series of ambushes in our path, then Blackbear’s slow sneak and peek would have been the correct decision. Had the Serbs taken equal caution in their own advance, and avoided bunching up to be shelled and bombed, then we probably could not have gutted their assault force.

 

A bastion defence needs to see to its flanks. My concept for the defence was that we would have two bastions the Armory and the City and a mobile strike force in the Leos. In the event, the Armory bastion was actually weak, since I stole one of its infantry platoons for the city, and by the time the Serbs hit it, one of its platoons had been moved NE to help

hold the southern flank of the city while its third platoon was still in a woods north of the armory waiting for Serb forces that turned out to be going south of it. Nonetheless, the City defence itself was heavily oriented west in anticipation that the Armory and Leos would protect its Southern flank. This did not prove to be an entirely accurate expectation. While the Leos, Armory defence, and arty and airpower did gut the Serbs at the Armory, we were also scrambling to try to put a defence in

place south of the City.

 

Don’t be too tricky in a CPX. Remember that it will be 4 or 5 minutes before you get to give orders again: design your planning in expectation of this. If you want something to happen as a reaction to something else, make sure that it is in the SOPs or can be more or less simply programmed into TacOps movement orders with the “Delay 15 seconds” button.

 

---------------------------------

James Sterrett & Corinne Mahaffey

jscm@voicenet.com

[ross.browne]

I've got a copy of Tacops and am quiet keen to have a got at a CPX. 1) What is envolved, and how does the software handle the orders etc 2) Is there anyway of making pc v human scenarios?

[Manic Moran]

1) An umpire, two teams, and a lot of time.

 

See the CPX FAQ on http://www.battlefront.com/resources/tacops/index.html

 

Software handles the orders just like a hotseat game.

 

And (2) You can't. The AI is programmed into the scenarios. This makes the AI very difficult to beat, but at the cost of not having user-created one-player games.

 

NTM

[ross.browne]

Thanks Manic.

 

Are there any hopes of getting more AI scenarios in the next version? It would be good if AI C3I ability could be degraded as well (by destroying C3 vehicles etc), and perhaps giving some utility to various support vehicles (ammo carriers, radar etc). Ahh well...