Script for Semper Fi, Syria Mission 12 (Patreon)

Subject to a few changes, as usual. I've yet to check this, but I don't think it will need any dramatic alterations. A solid final mission!

Welcome back to Combat Mission Shock Force 2 for the final mission of the US Marine campaign. As Coalition forces chew their way into Damascus, some surviving elements of the Syrian Army and Republican Guard are making a break for the Lebanese Border.

If major enemy forces are able to escape into the Lebanese mountains, they’ll not only gain the breathing room they need to reorganise and consolidate, but have a perfect, safe staging area to support a post-war insurgency.

So the Marines, with their organic lift capability, have been ordered to stop them. Elements of the MEU are inserting into blocking positions on the main cross-border routes, for this mission we are commanding Fox Company as it moves to block Highway Two, the main road between Damascus and Beirut.

Terrain

The area is lightly agricultural. There are a few farms scattered about but the main feature is a series of large orchards. The fruit trees are small, so they don’t provide much concealment and they should make for good killzones.

The Marines are approaching from the North East, starting off in one of the orchard fields with another to their front and a third to their left. These fields are separated by some pretty chunky berms.

Going forward, we have Highway 2, which has a stretch of forest running along most of its near side.

Across the road, the ground rises in a concave slope towards the far map edge, covered in orchards and farms.

Objectives

Of particular note is Amer’s Farm, directly over the road from the Marines. This is an occupy objective worth 150 points. At the closest corner of the highway and the forest we have a junction where a track feeds in. This is a 150pt touch objective.

Together with these, there are 500 victory points on the table for destroying the enemy, a 200 point bonus if we degrade them past 70% and 100 more points for keeping more than half the Marines alive.

Enemy

The briefing anticipates the enemy approaching from the Marine’s left and seeking to advance across the map and exit on the Marine’s right.

It also expects the Syrian force to be a mess of different units, mostly on foot but potentially with some vehicles. The chaos of the retreat from Damascus means the enemy are likely to be poorly coordinated.

Force

Opposing them is most of Fox Company. 1st and 2nd Platoons have been assigned to this blocking position, backed up by the Company HQ elements, a section of 60mm mortars and a couple of Humvees.

On call, we have a platoon of 81mm mortars and they’re going to be joined by the Cobras from the helicopter escort in five minutes.

Plan

Putting all this together, it feels like this mission should be pretty straightforward.

I don’t necessarily need to physically get in the way of the enemy to stop them from transiting the map, I just need to take up positions where I can block them with firepower. To that end, there are three areas I want to dominate.

First, the orchards on the left, between the map edge and the forest. Second, the open ground from the forest to the base of the far slope. And third, the far slope itself.

I can cover the first two areas from the berms just outside my deployment area. Beyond the berms, the ground slopes left to right from the forest edge to the highway exit and I should be able to use that slope to advance on Amer’s Farm without too much exposure.

I am somewhat concerned by the way that the farm encourages a linear position which could be enfiladed from the top of the far slope, but I should be able to mitigate that with some careful positioning and overwatch.

The ideal chain of events here is that I’m able to catch Syrian infantry as they cross the orchards and open ground, pin them in place and then finish them off with mortar fire. With the company javelins and platoon SMAW teams on hand to deal with any vehicles, backed up by the Cobras operating in depth, the only thing that worries me here is that it’s the last mission in the campaign and I’m expecting some curveballs.

Kick Off

Things get interesting the instant the battle kicks off. While I’m carefully moving my sniper teams up to the top of their respective berms, the enemy is surging masses of infantry down the far slope, supported by a trio of BTRs.

An element of the ground I hadn’t judged quite right is that the upper sections of the distant hillside can trace line of sight into my deployment area. Of course, right now that’s not my problem. Because one of my javelin teams can spot the BTRs, it’s the Syrian’s problem.

This isn’t ideal- and it gets a lot less ideal in the next turn when I forget to move the Javelin team and it uses its last missile to blap another BTR. I had been meaning to save the Javelins in case anything nastier turned up. Now I only have two missiles left with the other team.

That’s not my main concern now though. As well as streaming down the far slope, enemy infantry starts to emerge from the forest to my front and there’s some uncon activity near foxholes dug by the Junction and the Farm.

So I order more Marines up the berms to start engaging them.

It does look like the enemy is moving pretty quick and I don’t want to let them rush off the map edge without a good chance of stopping them, so I start to advance elements of 2nd Platoon on the right and make sure I’m occupying that defilade and can catch any squirters heading off-map in the flank.

The BTR, Part 1

Everything looks like it’s going pretty smoothly until the surviving BTR takes up a position by the farm building. From here, it has a good view over the left berm and it proceeds to gun down some of the Marines.

Not good. The BTR is about 500m away- far too far for the rifle squad’s light AT weapons, but really don’t want to splurge another Javelin. So it’s the SMAW’s time to shine.

One of 1st Platoon’s SMAW teams crests the berm and engages. They stick to their task despite the heavy machinegun fire snapping past, but fire off all four of their HEAT and HEDP rockets without scoring a hit.

Pulling the SMAW team back down the berm into cover, it’s obvious that that BTR is going to be a problem. Luckily, it’s keyholed between the farm and the edge of the forest so its field of fire is at least limited.

That takes a bit of a chunk out of my potential firing line on the lefthand berm though. That could prove to be a problem as the contacts filtering through the forest intensify and another wave of enemy infantry appears on the far left.

My solution to this is to let 1st Platoon on the left cover their flank, while I push one of 2nd Platoon’s M240 teams up to the defilade between them and the Highway, where they can set up to enfilade the edge of the forest.

This set-up proves an effective counter to the Syrian infantry. 1st Platoon’s riflemen, supported by one of the sniper teams, are able to steadily pick off the enemy approaching from the left, taking advantage of their ACOGs to thin them out as they close from 500m to 300. The enemy infantry in the forest- running around in the open inside 250m- are simply stopped dead.

Humvee vs BTR

The BTR is still a concern though. I had been hoping that the Cobras will nail it and called them in as soon as they came on station, but they mostly amuse themselves by spamming rockets at enemy infantry on the far slope.

While they might target the BTR, I obviously can’t count on it. I do, however, have the two Humvees. Both the .50cal and the Mk19 are capable of neutralising the thin armour of the BTR. The problem is that thanks to the BTR’s keyhole position, without the kind of significant manoeuvre that I’m definitely not keen to embark on given the situation, they’re going to have to engage it head-to-head.

That’s risky and the two Humvees are important assets I might need later in the battle, especially the Mk19 given the apparent Syrian occupation of the Farm. In the end, I decide to give it a go with the .50cal Humvee. The HMG has a much flatter trajectory than the MK19, so it should get on target faster.

The Humvee rolls up to the berm and spots the BTR. It gets a couple of bursts off while the Syrian vehicle is busy spewing coax at my Marines, but although the outgoing rounds score some partial penetrations and cause some spalling… the BTR doesn’t seem bothered.

It swings it’s turret onto the Humvee and gives it a burst of 14.5mm that kills the gunner and the front passenger. The remaining passenger remounts the gun, but is shot in head by Syrian infantry that’s made it to a ditch by the junction.

That’s that Humvee pretty much out of action then. It rolls back down the berm, but seems to have at least spooked the BTR, which reverses away out of sight.

Not a fantastic trade, but I’ll take it.

The T72

At the same time though, things take a turn for the worst. A tank contact pops up. This resolves into a T72, which drives off the Highway and climbs the far slope next to a compound in the far corner of the map.

From here, it can see out over my berms. This is a much bigger problem than a BTR, as the tank demonstrates by starting to blast 125mm HE shells at my infantry.

There’s another tank contact as well- a T62MV which rolls down the Highway towards. It’s heading towards the Junction, where enemy infantry seems to be massing despite plenty of attention from the Cobras. If the T62 can back them up, they could be another problem.

One at a time though. The T72 is exactly why I’ve been keeping my remaining Javelin team on stand-by and- while the Syrian tank engages 1st Platoon on my left- I pop them up on the right-hand berm.

They can’t quite see the T72 though, in part due to an apparently ineffectual rocket strike by one of the Cobras.

After waiting a couple of turns- and sustaining a couple more hits- to see if the Javelin will spot it, I hastily relocate them. Finally, they catch sight of the T72 and take it out with a missile.

The T62

That still leaves the T62 though. I still have 3 SMAW teams with ammunition and set these up to engage the tank in the flank if it pushes past the edge of the forest. It doesn’t though. The contact has stopped moving.

A little probing with some teams I’ve gotten across the Highway reveals that it’s sat in the middle of the road. They also reveal that it’s paying attention as one of them takes a 115mm shell.

I am, at least, less concerned about the enemy infantry at the junction now. The Cobras have given them plenty of bursts of rockets and 20mm cannon fire and I’ve dumped some airbursting 81s on them to boot. While there are still some Syrian soldiers hanging around in the drainage ditches, they seem to have lost any forward momentum.

The tank itself is still an issue though. Although I’m content to fight at arm’s length for now, I will need to close with the enemy at some point to touch the Junction and occupy the Farm, both of which will inevitably involve entering the T62’s field of fire.

The smart, logical and obvious way of nailing the T62 is to push into the forest with infantry and hit it in the flank. But right now, having spent a good thirty minutes mowing down Syrian infantry in the same orchards I would have to cross to reach the forest, I’m not so sure about moving forward.

So this time it’s one of 2nd Platoon’s SMAW team’s turn to get into a tactically sub-optimal head-to-head. They’re currently watching the Highway exit down behind the slope on my right and- having smoked the tank up with one of the 60mm mortars- I bring them up to peek over the crest and engage.

They’re not quite at the right angle though and as the smoke dissipates, it turns out they can’t see the tank through the trees. Syrian infantry in the ditches can absolutely see them though and one of them takes a round to the body armour before I try and relocate them.

By now the smoke is completely gone and, although they quickly spot the T62… it spots them as well.

Both tank and SMAW team fire at the same time. The T62’s shot deletes the Marines- and as they were the only men with eyes on the tank- it disappears from view just as the SMAW rocket hits. It’s definitely on target… but without being able to see the tank it’s impossible to know what effect it had. There are no secondary explosions and no smoke plume… the T62 was covered with ERA which will effectively counter the single-stage HEAT warheads of the SMAW.

The only sensible thing to do is to assume the tank is still up and running and to get on with flanking it like I should have done in the first place.

The Forest

This takes time to set up. I know there are at least some enemy infantry beneath the trees and while they’ve almost certainly had a hard time thus far, one die-hard lunatic with an AK is a problem I would rather deal with from a distance.

So I begin to mortar the end of the forest and call the Cobras in again to help deal with targets in depth. One of them finally finds the BTR, which has retreated up the far slope, but naturally it’s the Cobra that has already used all its rockets.

It still sprays the BTR with cannon fire, but the 20m AP-I isn’t enough the knock it out. The BTR pulls back even further until it’s perched on the crest.

Meanwhile, I’ve send a team from 1st Platoon forward into the orchard while any enemy in the forest is suppressed by the mortars. They don’t take any fire and I quickly bring the rest of their squad up to join them.

A few turns later and they’re in amongst the trees. There’s no resistance, just one lonely Syrian rifleman trying to surrender.

Bringing another squad in and expanding the foothold sparks a few exchanges of fire, but it’s clear there’s no significant resistance here. It also reveals that the T62 has in fact been knocked out. The SMAW team got the job done.

With that confirmed, I’m able to touch the Junction objective and start thinking about attacking the Farm

The Farm

This definitely has enemy infantry inside it, there may well be more hidden in the woods behind it, and there were infantry contacts to the Farm’s left across the open field that may or may not still be there.

So the logical approach to tackling the farm seems to be to attack from the right. I already have elements from 2nd Platoon in the covered approach to the Highway and a couple of teams on the far side, so they’ll be the assault element. 1st Platoon’s squads in the forest can serve as a close base of fire and prevent the enemy reinforcing across the field, while the elements back at the berms- including M240s, SMAWs and the Mk19 Humvee, can provide more distant fire support.

There are still twenty minutes on the clock though, so there’s no need to rush. The Cobras and mortars still have plenty of ammunition, so I decide to make the most of it.

The 81s plaster the woods behind the farm, while the Cobra with rockets remaining finally nails the BTR.

With that out of the picture, the farm coming under fire and Marines already pushing up the right map edge to form up for the assault… the Syrians surrender.

Endex

That’s a nice surprise, but looking at the aftermath it’s understandable. The Syrians have taken 145 casualties, plus their two tanks, three BTRs and a random Technical with a DSKH that got rocketed.

The Marines have lost 18 men, all told, almost all of them inflicted by the T72 and the BTR. While I still think my plan was solid- and that pushing forward instead of staying back could have resulted in much greater casualties- it’s easy to see how risky it was to rely so heavily on four Javelin missiles split between two fragile two man teams.

But we’re done. The fact that this could easily have turned into a disaster is exactly what I’d expect from the final mission of the campaign. Fox Company have successfully blocked the enemy retreating down Highway Two into Lebanon and with that, the Semper Fi Syria campaign is over.

The Marines have not only conducted a successful amphibious assault, but punched through the Homs Gap and seized the city of Homs, before leading the way south into Damascus itself. In the process, they’ve sustained 200 casualties, lost 5 armoured vehicles- LAVs, a LAV-AT and some attached Strykers- and a total of 9 Humvees.

Trying to stop them, the Syrians have thrown conscripts, uncons, mechanised, airborne and Republican Guard units in the way and they’ve all been smashed. In total through all the missions, the Marines have inflicted 1971 casualties, destroyed 65 Syrian tanks and knocked out 38 other vehicles.

If we round that casualty count up to a round 2000, that’s an exchange rate of about 10-1. How much that is an accurate reflection of what we’d today call Peer vs Sub-Peer engagements, and how much it’s a result of Combat Mission’s AI limitations, I’ll leave up to you guys.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series and found it interesting. If you’d like to watch videos early, find out what’s up next and support the channel you can do so via Patreon and Youtube Memberships. Whether you do or not, thank you all so much for watching. I’ll catch you in the next video.