AAR: Scenario 1

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AAR: Scenario 1 - Post 01 - 4/27/2004 12:23:41 AM

Greyshaft

Posts: 2252
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Sydney, Australia
Status: offline

Welcome to the Western Front comrade! I am Corporal Boris Borissofsky and I will lead you through this Battle. It is here that we prove to the decadent democracies that Might makes Right. What! You are still reading manuals? Put those down for now. Let me show you how an old hand does it.

We have loaded up the First Scenario "Soviet Forward Detachment" playing as the Warsaw Pact and we are now in the Setup stage. Our units are all colored a deep communist red, but this time it is NATO whose blood will decorate the snow. The NATO allies come in many colors, depending on their nationality. Today we face the Americans who are green in color but don't be fooled by that camouflage. Some of their units are extremely well trained. For this Walkthrough we will turn off the 'Hidden Units' setting in order to see all of the enemy units, but when you get into the real war you will find it more realistic to leave the enemy units hidden until you blunder into them.

Examine this map. It is divided into 40 squares wide by 30 squares high with the origin (0, 0) in the upper left corner moving down to (40,30) in the bottom right corner. Each location (i.e. square) is 500m side to side. If you want to reposition the main map on your screen then you can left-click a new position in the mini-map displayed in the top right-hand corner. During Setup we have a yellow square displayed on the map and we can deploy our units anywhere within that square by left-clicking on a unit and dragging it to a new location.

In the bottom right hand corner we can see our Map Location and Elevation. These elevations are displayed in height zones from 0 to 9 and are displayed on-screen by using the Ctrl-E keystroke. If you and your target are both sitting in squares at height 2 and there is a height 6 square between you then you can't shoot each other... unless you have an indirect fire weapon like a mortar or a 155mm howitzer. If this all gets too complicated then just use Ctrl-L to check your Line of Sight. The shaded zone indicates where your unit can see. Another important keystroke is Ctrl-C which displays the (0-100) percentage level of concealment for each square.

Our map here displays the elevations and we have also turned on the Line-of-Sight check. Since the currently selected 3rd Company in is the middle of a town it is not surprising that it can only see the adjacent squares plus a single hilltop just to the northeast of the American positions.

Enough of the geography lesson! More vodka comrade? Nyet? Suit yourself.

Let us examine our units. This scenario gives us an HQ with three Mechanized companies (each with 3 T80 Tanks and 11 APC) attacking an enemy HQ with four platoons (two armoured with 4 Tanks and 2 Recce with 6 vehicles). An easy way to check what each unit has is to left-click on the Unit and then examine the Unit Description Panel in the bottom right corner of the screen. Our 3 Co / 1 / 200 Gds shows itself at full strength and ready to fight. If we want more information about the unit we press Ctrl-I repeatedly to change the unit icons to display the number of 'Runners' (combat-worthy vehicles) then morale, training, fatigue, ammo, enemy units sighted etc. We won't bother redeploying any of our units. We will end the Setup phase here and get started on the liberation of Germany.

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AAR: Scenario 1 - Post 02 - 4/27/2004 12:24:57 AM

Greyshaft

Posts: 2252
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Sydney, Australia
Status: offline

The trick is to make the optimum use of our assets. In most scenarios our forces have the numeric edge in troops, vehicles and artillery while the NATO forces have a qualitative edge in training and in command control. The optimum NATO tactic in this scenario is to combine concealed deployment with Hit and Run tactics. Any of our units wandering into a square adjacent to a concealed NATO unit is liable to loose half of its vehicles and most of its morale. Fortunately we know where the enemy is for now, so we will be able to avoid that trap.

Another NATO advantage is in their sophisticated use of Artillery and Airstrikes. If we had friendly artillery here then we could reduce that NATO command control advantage by a pre-emptive artillery bombardment of the NATO on-map HQ. Their officers would be so busy looking for the slit trenches that they won't have time to call in their own artillery support. That's simple enough to organise when there is no hidden deployment but in a real war it is not so easy to find their HQ. Sometimes an HQ accidentally gives away its location because of the number of radio messages it gives out, so remember to keep your own Orders to a minimum. Don't keep changing orders for your units every turn or it is NATO who will be bombarding our HQ rather than the other way around. No matter. Neither side has an artillery unit here today so let us consider other plans.

There are many temptations to be faced in this battle. The first enticement to be avoided is the Parade-Ground Push. There is no requirement to line up your units side-by-side and march forwards since our preferred methods for clearing minefields have improved somewhat since the Great Patriotic War. Most units have quite long firing ranges and the enemy may begin firing at ranges of 10 squares or more if he can see you. Remember that artillery and air strikes can hit anywhere on the map so resist the urge to stack your units unless absolutely necessary.

Our plan today is to bring our three Mechanized Companies swinging around the northern edge of the NATO position and then advance through the wooded areas. The high concealment value of that terrain should enable us to get into close quarter combat where our troops can fight most effectively. Right-clicking on our 3 Co unit allows us to set a series of movement waypoints to ensure that it will get to the desired location at the right time. Of course, enemy fire and other unforseen circumstances may slow those units but those are the fortunes of war. While you were drinking your coffee I have also plotted movement for our 2 Co so we should end the first 30 minute turn with our three Mechanized Companies in a north-south line pivoting on our 1 Co. The 1 Co will provide covering fire for the other two companies as they move. Pressing Ctrl-W lets us see the plotted movement orders on the map. Let us run the turn and see what happens. Remember that it will take a few minutes for the orders to reach our units and for the crews to understand what to do.

Right-clicking on an existing Waypoint allows us to change the arrival time for each unit so we can co-ordinate flanking attacks on enemy positions as required. We can also specify that units will use 'Stealth' to take advantage of available ground cover as they travel, but that is more of a NATO tactic. I prefer to lay down an smokescreen with my artillery and advance behind that cover, but the young Tank Commanders of today have no memory of the Great Patriotic War and how we rolled through the smokescreens to fight the Fascists in our T-34s. Ah... the T34. Now there was a Tank! I remember at the Battle of Smolensk when I was just a recruit and couldn't even read. We had three tanks positioned behind a rise and the Fascists were moving towards us. Igor was drunk as usual but he never made a mistake as he sighted on the lead Panzer and then... What's that you say? The First Turn is over?

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AAR: Scenario 1 - Post 03 - 4/27/2004 12:27:16 AM

Greyshaft

Posts: 2252
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Sydney, Australia
Status: offline

Two Amerikan platoons have attacked us! That was indeed foolhardy of them. We have three times their number of vehicles and our 1 Co was positioned to give covering fire as our other two Companies moved into the line. We can use F9 to view the TOC Radio Log on the right of the screen and we see... serious losses... overwhelmed? I do not understand. Let me press F5 to bring up our Staff report and... NA HUY? MOTHER OF RUSSIA! WE HAVE BEEN BEATEN!

Comrade we are surrounded by traitors. Our attack was perfect and yet the Americans destroyed 2 of our Tanks and 14 Armored Personel Carriers. I must call Headquarters and get instructions.

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AAR: Scenario 1 - Post 04 - 4/27/2004 12:30:10 AM

Greyshaft

Posts: 2252
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Sydney, Australia
Status: offline

COURT MARTIAL OF CPL 2nd CLASS BORIS BORISOFFSKY
FINDINGS:
In a recent battle an attack by three Companies of the 200 Gds was disrupted and suffered severe losses. Cpl Boris Borissofsky was responsible for the deployment of units during that Battle and claimed that his orders to the 1 Co to provide covering fire to the other Companies was ignored by 1 Co. Subsequent examination of the map (see attached) of this battle shows that 1 Co had been deployed in a Built-Up area. Using Ctrl-C to display the Coverage Percentage on that map and Ctrl-L to display Line-of-Sight shows that 1 Co had been positioned so that it could only see into adjacent squares. The Amerikan movement and subsequent combat occured beyond the effective range of 1 Co and therefore 2 Co had no support during that Battle.

RECOMMENDATION:
Cpl. 2nd Class Boris Borissofsky should be dishonorably discharged from the Army and sentanced to Hard Labor in Siberia for a term of Ten Years

REVIEW:
By Order of General Ivan Borissofsky these Court Martial Findings are to be quashed and his Uncle (Boris Borissofsky) is to be restored to Active Duty.

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Post #: 4

RE: AAR: Scenario 1 - Post 04 - 4/27/2004 1:09:41 AM

Oleg Mastruko

Posts: 4921
Joined: 10/21/2000
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Excellent stuff, comrade!

I wrote much longer post with some questions, but unfortunatelly this damn kapitalist imperialist web board software decided to destroy it before it was posted

Oh, well...

Comrade Oleg

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Post #: 5

RE: AAR: Scenario 1 - Post 04 - 4/27/2004 4:15:37 PM

Tommi

Posts: 161
Joined: 7/3/2001
From: Finland
Status: offline

Well, that went well for the Reds!

Excellent AAR, Greyshaft, albeit a bit on the short side. I guess too much vodka in the Soviet HQ is to blame. More, please (AARs, not vodka - well why not vodka as well, more AARs and vodka, please).

< Message edited by Tommi -- 4/27/2004 4:18:07 PM >

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Post #: 6

2nd AAR almost ready - 4/27/2004 11:51:41 PM

Greyshaft

Posts: 2252
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Sydney, Australia
Status: offline

I think one of the important aspects of a pre-release AAR is that is serves to educate/inform potential players of how the game plays. Sure its fun to see Side 'A' beat Side 'B' or vice versa but I really understand the problems of sitting on the outside and wondering what's going to be in the final box and whether I will like the experience. C'mon WiTP Team! What's taking so long in there? Gimme some screen caps! Ahem... sorry about that...

Anyway, I'm trying to make the AAR show off the different features of the game in an entertaining and educational way. I bet we'll all check the LOS for any units doing Overwatch fire next time we play... right Boris?

I have another AAR almost ready to go... tune in say Thursday/Friday for more action.

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Post #: 7

RE: AAR Scenario 1 - 4/28/2004 10:17:02 PM

Paul Wykes

Posts: 267
Joined: 3/4/2001
From: UK
Status: offline

Very enjoyable AAR.

Gave a good general overview of some of the features available to the commander.

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Post #: 8