CMBS Rollin' on the River Con vs Undercover Geek AAR - Game Over

[Con]

OK So I see Geek here has decided to write an AAR of our newest adventure.  So I wanted to make sure that I present the Russian side or as I like to call them the Glorious liberators from the Fascist Imperialistic West.  I am assuming that Geek will not be peeking in here as well (I am having a tough time not to look at his lies and propaganda posts)

since this game is 2 and a half hours long expect this to be finished sometime around Christmas

Christmas 2017

Con

[Con]

Greeting Comrades
Its another glorious day in the Russian Ground Forces.  After taking major losses around Kiev we have made a strategic advance to the rear and now need to make a stand against the soft Amerkanski forces on this piece of ground.
Our Air Forces have managed to live up to all their expectations and have been swatted from the air like lazy poo filled flies.  So now we have ceded air power to the Americans and how do you say you are boned in Russian.   Instead you have plenty of Tunguskas to compensate.
Use your Recon to touch startegic points and get eyes on the Americans.  They will be coming soon with at least a Stryker Brigade.  The railway line is your last line of defense.  Do not let them cross it.  We will be scrapping up some reinforcements including T90 tanks for you.  Use them wisely.

Initial Forces


So this is my third PBEM game in CMBS and my first attempt to write an AAR on it.  I am playing Undercovergeek and between us we manage a lethargic turn or two a night apart from when we are both travelling.  So in real time this game will take months...and months, possibly years.  In fact I will go to say it will take a long as a certain someone's write-up on Steel Panthers {Edit Fixed this: meant to say Panthers in the Fog}.  So don't hold out any hope for a swift and exciting writing pace here.

My last two plays were as Ukranians and currently as the US forces.  So what have I learned playing from the US side?  War is lethal and the US has an unbelievable edge with precision munitions and drones.  However Tunguskas can shoot things down very well if they survive.  In order to survive I need to disperse them as far apart as possible and put them under cover or behind buildings.  These things are right now worth their weight in gold.

The rest of my plan is brilliant in its simplicity. 
1. Get guys into the watertower to see if they can spot anyone.
2.  Push Recon units on the right flank into the woods and then see if they can touch any of the recon objectives (plus send one on a further end around)
3. Push the left flank recon units up through the woods to see if they can spot the Yankees (send one Tunguska up there with them)
4. Wait for reinforcements and hopefully have an idea of where the US forces are by then.
5. Use the Tunguskas to keep those same reinforcements alive from the hellfire equipped drones and aircraft.

So lets see how this works out for Ivan.  I will only post turns if something interesting happens

Initial and Brilliant Plan

[JasonPratt]

(I am having a tough time not to look at his lies and propaganda posts)

"A smoking ruin. I like that part." 


(Just to reassure everyone, there is NO WAY I would dare ruin this by giving away cross-posted intel. )

since this game is 2 and a half hours long expect this to be finished sometime around Christmas

Christmas 2017

Can it be April already so I can call this dual AAR my new favorite thing this month? It has to be April somewhere, right? Like... Jewish April? Help me out here, elder bros!


Incidentally, I keep forgetting completely this isn't Russia vs Germany in WW2. No one's fault about that, just habit I guess.

So now we have ceded air power to the Americans and how do you say you are boned in Russian.

"BRRRRRRRRTTTT! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT!! WHOOOOSH.... ...... blam"

In fact I will go to say it will take a long as a certain someone's write-up on Steel Panthers.  So don't hold out any hope for a swift and exciting writing pace here.

You're already infinitely ahead of Panthers in the Fog. That's how math works, right, putting any number above it in the denominator?

These things are right now worth their weight in gold.

"BRRRRRRRTTT!!"

(Well, to be fair if it gets closer than whoosh-blam, there might be a chance.)

[Con]

5 minutes in and I am already breaking out the digital body bags for the poor recon saps.  Modern warfare is terrifyingly lethal and there never seems to be a good outcome from pushing too hard and fast for an objective (even though those were my orders).
So UCG has been very aggressive and gotten some of his troops over the river fast (unless my Military Intelligence screwed up by telling me that that this side of the bank was free of Yankees).  Wouldn't be the first time that Military Intelligence got it wrong.  Their motto is "We bet your life".  No wonder the rest of the troops refer to them as green slime.



In the screen shot you can seem my far right Recon BRDM-2M getting lit up like a piñata by an enemy AFV.  I have not been able to ID it but I am assuming it is a recon force most likely a Humvee since a Bradley would have left nothing but a glowing crater.  Another non ID Yankee symbol is heard driving around in front of the water tower.  I am going to keep my recon HQ unit hidden in there since they are more valuable spotting then firing on a close recon unit.  Instead I will start maneuvering my other recon assets to try and see if I can get eyes and hopefully an AT rocket on these burger guzzling capitalists.  It's going to be Recon vs Recon and hopefully I can give UCG a little taste of his own medicine.

[jomni]

I learned that Russian optics are crap and the US will almost always spot first.

[JasonPratt]

As long as there's seasonal flaming Russians I'm ok

>:D

[Con]

Turn Time 0224
What are these guys...ninjas?  Seriously they must be ninjas.  Another recon BRDM goes up in smoke without me even spotting any of the Amerikanskis.



Of course there is always the chance that my crack recon troops have been partaking of the vodka flavored antifreeze and are now drunker than a weasel.  The only thing they will shoot at are the Pink Elephants on Parade.

As for the cunning plan.  The recon troops on the far left flank continue deeper into the woods.  These guys are equipped with MT-LBM-6M a much superior AFV.  I maneuver them towards the edge of the woods hoping to spot these elusive fireball spewing ninjas. 

Con

[Con]

Turn Time 0224
Time for a quick overview of THE PLAN (I need a better name for this plan, one that is grandiose yet vaguely menacing to fit the Russian psyche).  Maybe it should be Daring Russian Liberation of Oppressed Masses (5 year plan)?  I will accept any better suggestions
Part 1 = Disperse the Tanguskas is done.  They are spread along the back edge of the map and or hidden in trees or behind buildings.  (Aside the scenario I am playing as the US I just whacked two Tanguskas from 2000 meters away with my Javelins so these guys need to stay out of LOS not easy on this flat plain)
Part 2. Find the enemy forces...well they are ninjas so this is still a work in progress (however see map)

Con

[JasonPratt]

Varangian Vikings vs Invidious Ninjas

(...do Russians claim their Viking ancestors?)

[JasonPratt]

Dithering Horde

[JasonPratt]

Smiling Wolfhunter ("grandiose yet vaguely menacing")

[Sir Slash]

How about Operation WTF Are They? ;D

[Con]

Turn 0215
Yay reinforcements....not so yay its a beat up rifle company with dubious morale issues (but excellent field vodka distilling skills)
THE PLAN now needs to get some significant upgrading to make it as cunning as a fox appointed professor of Cunning at the soviet version of Oxford.  Also needs a new name and I have decided on
In Soviet Russia Plan is You
Lets keep it simple for these conscripts
1st platoon hooks far right on fast to get behind the trees and defend the railway embankment
2nd platoon hook right behind 1st platoon but will deploy to for a 90 degree angle between the embankment and trees on the left.
3rd platoon will occupy the houses in the middle and be reinforced with HMGs from 4th platoom
4th Platoon HQ will try and race up to where the recon forces are in the woods in front of it.  This will be risky but trees are our friends to hide from those prying American eyes in the sky so more troops in there the better.
Less risky but more important I will move the AT units FAST to the wall on the outer edges of the village where they can dismount and have long LOS on to the rail road bridge etc.  I will leave 2 units here and if possible run the additional 2 units over to reinforce 2nd platoon in the angle.
Recon units will continue looking for Americans who I have renamed Snipes, now they are snipe hunting!

[JasonPratt]

You could call the new guys, Molotov Cocktails!

(...and now I wait.)

[Con]

Turn 214 to 213
This is one of those turns that in hindsight I could have figured this out.

Screenshot is of one of the MT-LBM of Platoon 1 coming into the embankment area.  I saw that there had been a hit on it which struck me as odd since I was not sure who could have been firing on him.  I didn't look at it closely enough and dismissed it as a lucky long range keyhole type of fluke shot.  My bad those things never work out that positively in modern warfare.


The initial plan was to keep the troops bottled up in their AFVs since I was worried that UCG would drop some arty on this area if he was able to get eyes on it (and this was confirmed by my guessing wrongly that there must be somewhere he was observing with the "lucky" shot above.  I also was worried that he might have a drone observing and arty can be called down frighteningly quick.
Well UCG in a move worthy of either utter madness or great genius or both has managed to push up a Yankee troop (recon?) into these woods without being observed by any of my finely trained Russian troops.  This leads me to believe one of two things, when playing the US you dont realize how well the CC and spotting works for you.  When playing the Russians they spot like Mr. Magoo.   In fact I think I would take Mr. Magoo over these inept inebriates since at least he would come out miraculously alive at the end.  The end result is a toasted MT-LBM with an entire squad of Platoon 1 KIA.  They are forever now assigned to the 1st Molotov Brigade.





So time to get the troops out of the AFVs and into the woods and hopefully flush out these sneaky sons of bitches.  I still can't believe that he was able to get them there without me spotting them at all but anything is possible (I will have to check after the game to see if these guys they were positioned closely or planned in the scenario somehow).

On the plus side I finally catch a glimpse of the rare elusive enemy.  I will name him Yankee Warbler and add him to my birding book.  Unfortunately its the commander who can spot him the ATGM to his left doesn't have LOS so I need to do a little re-positioning.  I have also requested some 120mm Mortar fire Personnel on a straight line along the tree ridge line where the Stryker is positioned to hopefully take out any infantry he has dismounted.  Of course being Russian it will take 8 minutes to get approval.



The recon group on the right in the woods continues to dither and even on hunt cannot spot a US AFV which lights them up killing two of them.  Additional reinforcements come in the form of ATGM Kornets (these are nasty and have long range fire) and automatic grenade throwers.  I will set the Kornets up in the middle in the long houses (meant to represent chicken coops I think) .  The grenade launchers I will disperse between the village and try to get some back over to the railroad tracks (I might keep them back to try and dust off the railroad tracks) as well as the woods up front.

So lessons learned so far.  Spotting is not in my favor as Russian.  I will need to really work on setting up the ATGMS with long LOS.  I want to stagger them AT 13 Saxhorns further upfront  with the AT-14 Kornets behind them.  I am now concerned that UCG might have more forces on the right and left flanks since my spotting is so poor.  I will reinforce the left flank woods with the automatic grenade launchers.  Rivers are easily fordable now with modern AFVs so I daren't fixate on only the bridge as a crossing point.

Life is getting interesting and we still have over two hours of combat left!