Cmsf Aar

[KG_Jag]

This is a good AAR not only for the usual reasons, but because it also points out some of the problems still in v1.04 of CMSF in an urban setting--and does so within an in-game context.

It will be posted in three parts because of the number of in-game shots.

"This is topic Light-hearted AAR in forum CMSF Strategy and Tactics Forum at Battlefront.com Discussion Forums.


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Posted by Adam1 (Member # 4205) on November 12, 2007 07:46 PM:

This is an AAR, but hasty and fairly light-hearted.

I'm testing out a new scenario "Another block", which I have reduced to about 1/2 size for the purposes of this aar.

I have a coy of militia with no extra support. This consists of 4 2squad platoons and an HQ squad. The enemy are irregulars, one "Huge Combatant" and one "Large Fighter" group.

The objective is the intersection. We start in the south east corner. How does CMSF work in this environment?



The company deploys on the friendly side of the buildings, 3rd and 2nd platoon on the left with the company HQ and command squad, 1st on the right, and 4th in "reserve" in the woods.

The unit icons are screwed up (bug) so the men are not where their icons are. To show where the men are I clicked on each group in the above shots.



+00:00

2nd Squad from 3rd platoon navigates the safe side of this building with a hunt order, followed by a slow order at the edge of the corner. The intention is to get the squad to send a crawling man to the corner, to get a spot.

+00:30

1st Squad takes incoming fire through a building. (I had the enemy on shorter arcs than this - damnit!) The enemy must have spotted the man on the left.


Unfortunately, that squad is one with the screwed up icons. So the game will not allow them to return fire. The LOS/LOF line goes from where the icon is, not the men. I notice in the top left corner that a "slow" order has been formed from one of the units up there. It seems they wanted to crawl to their icon half-way across the map. D'oh!


1st Squad takes 3 casualties already. Those AK-47s spit out a lot of lead. Not much will stop the rounds.


1st Squad, 1st platoon, gets rattled by the nearby incoming fire. I want them to avoid crawling into the building in front of them, since an entire building is much better cover than a window. Unfortunately they have other plans, into the building!


Meanwhile 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon, auto-crawls towards it's icon. They are wiped out. I count it as an ambush or maneuver slip-up.

Posted by Adam1 (Member # 4205) on November 12, 2007 07:48 PM:


I intervene and send them back to where I had initially set them up, with their platoon hq squad whom are nice and safe behind the buildings as intended.


2nd squad, 2nd pltn., spots the enemy. Time to return fire. The LOS/LOF bug rears it's ugly head but I stubbornly target the enemy anyhow. Sometimes they fire even without LOS. 4th platoon also spots the enemy and lays a base of fire. The maneuvering platoons are pinned and have no idea where the enemy might be shooting from yet.



2nd squad, 1st platoon, takes casualties. (Trees off)


2/3rd now has navigated it's first corner. They went a bit far but fortunately find the road clear and do not take incoming from the buildings... yet.

[KG_Jag]

Now the entire company is slowly going from a state of surprise/pin to a full deployment. In this phase, we do not try to maneuver. The company tries to put as many of it's weapons online as possible to both suppress and destroy the enemy fighters.

Posted by Adam1 (Member # 4205) on November 12, 2007 11:47 PM:

Now that the company has made contact and deployed, we wait for enemy fire to slacken. That happens when the enemy becomes pinned or killed by our fire. There is a duel at this point to see who can pin whom. As it happens, I have almost the entire company covering this quadrant. It becomes my battlespace, and anything in it is dominated by my men.

Once the enemy contacts become (?)'s, it is time again for some maneuver. The objective at this point is to firm up the position. No forward progress should be rushed. Everything is set in it's place before we start our first squad assault.


First, we area fire ("light") on the old enemy contacts. We want to keep their heads down and test the waters. If we get return fire, another fire matchup starts, even stronger than the previous one now, and we repeat that process.

In this case, I get a bit of return fire and the company opens up on the contact. The enemy promptly dies/pins again and I know I am free to rush another squad into a better position. The first thing to do is to take the left flank positions at the bottom of the building rows. This isolates the main street.


I use "fast" for short distances like this when I'm pretty sure the enemy has become pinned. Time is more critical than cover here. We want to be across the gap before he has a chance to fire, we don't try to "absorb" the rounds like in CMx1.


And behold, they "land" perfectly. Nice.


We have control over the area. It's time to move 4th platoon into the gap created on the right flank. 1st platoon took casualties earlier trying to chase their unit marker, so we need to firm up that flank. Otherwise, there will not be enough fire support at the right angle to the apartments we are about to deal with.

Furthermore, since we've got fire superiority (or think so - a clever enemy can lure you into premature movement after an exhange!) we also move our squads into the buildings they were hiding behind, to take up firing positions. Our deployment goes from "back" to "up" now that we own the landscape.



Posted by Adam1 (Member # 4205) on November 12, 2007 11:49 PM:

This is a 3 step process to get 4th platoon into my desired positions. First, 1st platoon needs to recover it's squad from across the road, as they are needed to cover the tall buildings adjacent to 4th platoons new position. Second, one platoon from 4th platoon leads the rest with a "hunt" order to the road, and a "fast" to the *back* of a building near the objective. Note these moves are overwatched by the entire company. Thirdly and finally, the rest of 4th platoon will move up using the same process, and occupy the new positions.

What we don't do anymore is line up three squads in front of a platoon HQ and order them abreast to "advance", ala CMx1. A nice improvement.


4th platoon's route.


Running to "base" through the danger area. Temporarily out of command.


Keeping together, poking around the objective using successive "hunt" commands. An enemy discovered at this point will kill a few of my men but evaporate thereafter. In other words, the company overwatch protects the men from the advance, and platoon overwatch protects the squad from assault.


With 4th platoon deployed, the company deployment is full and complete. Now and only now am I willing to make a "move" for ground where the enemy has been known to fire.


Because the enemy has been spotted already to some extent, we know where his kill zones are. Normally I would at this point have 1st or 3rd platoon on the left hunt along the wall and check the ground floor of the first & second buildings of the main block. Because I know the enemy has any number of AK47s trained on that very spot, I decide instead to use the building in the center as a shield and advance up behind it. The rest of the company will cover vs flanking fire from the main block.


There are 5 men in decent condition in 1/3 squad, and they are in a good position to advance. Sometimes it is best to use squads which have taken casualties already, since a full squad can be excessive for a grab like this.

What do we want? We want the squad to reach the building unharmed, and the enemy to open fire on them when they are already behind cover. Then the company in overwatch would have no trouble dispatching anything that shows. If that is too optimistic, we are happy taking a casualty or two in the assault, so long as the company can be expected to kill anything that fires. This is the importance of deployment before maneuver.

[KG_Jag]

Posted by Adam1 (Member # 4205) on November 12, 2007 11:51 PM:


Off they go. But where?


Who knows.


To main street! Ah, of course.

Posted by ParaBellum (Member # 3232) on November 13, 2007 08:23 AM:

Thanks for putting up this AAR, Adam. Unfortunately, I have come across this kind of AI behaviour quite a few times as well.

Well, to be honest, "quite a few times" is actually a very polite way of saying that in almost every MOUT scenario I play I can see stuff like this.

You can have even more fun when armoured vehicles are involved. And for total hilarity add a densely-populated area... "

THE END (at least for now)