Script for Company Challenge 23: US Mixed Company (Patreon)

I'm sure this company has a better name than this- it should probably be a Rifle Heavy Mix, though I haven't checked to see if there's a tank heavy mix out there.

Anyway, a nice early script this time round. Very straighforward stuff, I got a headstart on some of the prep work for this on Sunday, then ran the mission and finished the script off on Monday.

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CC23 US Mech Inf Mixed

Welcome back to Combat Mission Cold War where we are taking the next the step in our more graduated company challenge part 2. In the last two episodes we put a couple of basic, out of the boxes mechanised and motorised companies through our challenge, now we’re going to start bringing in companies as they were more likely to be used.

So, going to back to our Americans, we have a mixed company from a battalion task force. This is exactly the same as the mechanised infantry company we took out in the first video, but with one of the rifle platoons replaced by a tank platoon. That gives us a company HQ, two infantry platoons in M113s, a tank platoon, and a weapons platoon with an M901 antitank section and a medium mortar section.

For the tanks, I’ve decided to go with the M60A1 RISE Passive: that’s pretty standard in Combat Mission Cold War’s 79-82 period. When we get round to the Soviets, the plan is to use the T62, so we have something analogous.

Adding tanks

How does this change up the company then? Well, most obviously, we’ve lost a platoon of infantry, but gained the ability to put 105mm direct fire out to a couple of kilometres. That’s a big deal.

Looking at it in terms of our three tasks: we now have the ability to support the break-in from longer range, for clearing the objective we can now bring a tank up and give problematic enemy positions some direct HE, and when the armoured counterattack rolls up we’ve got five more mobile antitank assets.

The flipside of this is that we do need to look after the tanks. M60A1s are not very heavily armoured, so the defender’s AT-7 ATGMs and RPG-7s will make short work of them if given the opportunity. Making sure the enemy never gets an opportunity means being careful: using terrain, using smoke, staying out of sight and making sure plenty of suppressive fire is going down.

I could, for example, push the tank platoon into the wood to act as a base of fire for the usual approach and break-in… but being in a wood just makes them hard to spot. And given that they’re probably going to get spotted when they open fire I need to think about whether they will be able to spot and engage any ATGMs that launch missiles at them given how the trees will disrupt line of sight, how fast they’ll be able to disengage through the undergrowth if they need to and how little actual protection the wood offers compared to a reverse slope they can play peekaboo over.

Having a tank platoon also brings with it the question of how to organise the tanks. I have 5 M60s: do I want them to operate as a unit- assuming I have the space for some sensible dispersion- or do I want to dole them out to rifle companies for close cooperation… or do I want to find a middle ground? Like we just covered, the tanks have a role in all three of our tasks here and that means that they can be useful whether they are on their own, with the infantry, or in depth with the M901s.

Of course, the counterpoint to that is that because tanks are mobile, they can chop and change. We don’t have to pick one option and stick with it.

Planning

That said, I do think I want to parcel out an M60 to each rifle platoon. That leaves me three to still throw around, which a whole platoon’s worth for some forces.

I definitely want to use them to adding fire to the break-in, but I don’t want to go in the wood. I think it’s a bit of trap for tanks- especially tanks like the M60 which are so tall the turret might be blinded by the lower tree branches while some plucky enemy antitank gunner can see the hull perfectly well.

There is a little bit of a reverse slope on the right of the wood: the M901s were using it in the first run to engage the counterattack. From there, the M60s will be in defilade from most of the farm, but still able to shoot up the side of Alpha that I’ll be attacking.

Combined with some smoke from the mortars and the usual transit onto the right, I think that’s going to translate into an effective break-in. From there, we’ll see how it goes, but I think hitting one objective and mortaring the hell out of the other is probably a good option.

Kick Off

Something I had forgotten about until actually starting the mission was that the M60s carry smoke shells. I was originally going to have to wait until the Company FO got into position on the far side of the woods and sorted out a smoke mission to obscure the crossing on the right… using the tanks to put some smoke down is infinitely faster.

Both my rifle platoons, accompanied by one tank each, are across the gap after only four minutes. From there, with supporting fire from a couple of M60s back by the wood and the 81mm mortars suppressing Bravo, 1st Platoon moves up, engages the outside of Alpha and injects a couple of squads into A1 and A2.

There is no resistance: turns out Alpha is completely clear in this run. After about five minutes, the rest of the platoon has come up, along with their attached M60 and I’m consolidating on the objective.

Things haven’t gone entirely smoothly though. With the tanks and infantry focused on the right, I’d deployed my two M901s on the left: setting them up on the reverse slope to cover that flank, with the wood masking them from the farm.

Unfortunately, I was a little too optimistic about the defilade effect of the edge of the wood and one of the M901s gets taken out by an AT-7. The worst part is that I didn’t even notice until several turns after when I gave the whole map a quick eyeball.

The silver lining is that that’s confirmed an AT-7 on the far left of the farm complex- it could only have fired from B13, maybe B12. Obviously that means I want to avoid going that way and with the break-in battle being something of a flop thanks to the fact that Alpha was completely undefended, I decide to tackle Charlie and stage a secondary break-in.

Charlie

It’ll also make a for an interesting comparison with the Soviet experience in the last episode, so 2nd Platoon and their M60 leave the valley on the right and start to head out to flank Charlie.

In the meantime, the Alpha-facing edge of Charlie looks pretty clear, right until I send a team outside. A PKM and some infantry open up from Buildings C4 and C5, as the firefight escalates and more of 1st Platoon’s dismounts get stuck in, another two enemy teams engage from B11, firing across the centre.

1st Platoon takes a couple of casualties, but they’ve got the firepower to quickly gain the upper hand. That fixes the enemy and keeps them suppressed- if this was the same set up as the first American run I’d have to work out how I was going to close with them and clear the buildings. This time, I can cut the tactical corner and blow them up with 105mm HEAT shells.

1st Platoon’s M60 puts some rounds in the Charlie buildings, then pulls back and comes through Alpha to give B11 the same treatment as 2nd Platoon comes up on the right and takes over the Charlie angle.

With the mortars now adjusted onto the back of Charlie- courtesy of line of sight through the centre of the farm- I can get stuck in. Some M60 smoke fired directly onto the Charlie corner gives the M113s the obscuration they need to safely close the distance, but I still decide to kick the dismounts out early.

This is mostly because I’ve not got a lot of targets in Charlie. Obviously I’m a little paranoid about certain positions after the BTR Company run, but I’ve got nothing concrete to go on and although I have more vehicles, more dismounts and a tank, I still want to know what I’m getting into.

So a couple of squads get out to try and provoke the enemy into opening fire and revealing their positions. Ironically, it’s actually the gunner of 2/1’s M113 who attracts attention. Some fire comes his way from C8, in the middle of the Charlie blocks. He sends a burst from the .50 back, but gets domed and the M113 reverses off.

On the next turn, the enemy in C8 hit one of the dismounts and another one looks to go down from fire coming from the Charlie corner. C8 gets a storm of return fire, including some 105mm shells. The corner is a different prospect because it’s still pretty well smoked up, so I send 2/2 in to assault it almost directly from their vehicle.

I’m confident C12 is clear- I’ve been shooting at it and it’s not shooting back- so 2/2 gives C14 a quick burst and then storm inside, with orders to keep shooting into C15.

Then everything goes wrong. There’s an enemy team waiting for them in C15 and they immediately open up- to the point of firing an RPG at them, which I have to admit was pretty ballsy. The reality is that C15 is totally unsuppressed and while 2/2 had orders to unload into that building as they occupied C14, the way Combat Mission works here is that they will complete their move, then open fire.

I ordered the entire squad in, which meant that it would take some time for them all to finish the movement order, so they never got the chance to open fire. It might have gone better if I had split off a smaller team, but I didn’t and 2/2 gets absolutely shredded.

I can’t sort this out from where I am- trying to put some suppressive fire up the narrow angle between C12 and C14 is a non-starter, but I have got a problem solver up my sleeve. A couple of turns earlier I was getting a little bit cagey about only having a single tank supporting my attack on Charlie, so I sent another one up from the rear.

This is just arriving as I discover a sudden urge to delete C15, and I bring it round on the far side of the farm to get the job done.

The M60 gets a couple of shots in, setting the stage for the infantry to exploit, then something hits it in the turret. Somehow, it’s not a penetrating hit and there are no casualties… equally lucky the crew spot the AT-7 team that just engaged them from Building B13 up ahead and quickly dispose of them.

With infantry teams moving into C12 and C14 capitalising on the M60’s contribution and killing the enemy that almost wiped 2/2, I pull the tank back a bit. Luckily, only the .50 in the commander’s cupola is out of action and, although I very quickly solved my problem on the Charlie corner, I have to admit I was probably going a little too fast here. I just lost a sixth of my rifle squads and almost lost a fifth of my M60s: we’re only 20 minutes in, it’s not like I need to rush.

That said, break-in achieved on Charlie, so I can afford to slow down a bit.

2/3 clears up the corner buildings, polishing off the enemy platoon HQ in C16, securing the flank of 2/1 so they can come up and take C6 and clear the middle Charlie block. With 2/2 out of action, that’s about the limit of what I can achieve with 2nd Platoon, so I bring 1/3 round from Alpha under smoke cover to enter C2 and clear the closer block.

Neither squad encounters any meaningful resistance: all the outgoing fire has certainly done its job.

The C/Atk

With the blocks secure and a squad at the Bravo end of each, I can start plotting my next move. Sending a team out into C1 draws no fire, so it looks like the enemy threat to this avenue of approach was neutralised when the two teams in B11 went down.

Moving 2/3 up to C10 and C11 likewise draws no reaction. It’s only when I pop a team out to the hedgeline outside C5 that I get a spot: there’s some enemy in B12. This contact quickly resolves into the other AT-7 team and they go down under a hail of fire.

With no other sign of the enemy in Bravo, I start working half of 2/3 up to check the buildings when 2nd Platoon HQ gets a contact icon to their front: the Combat Reconnaissance Patrol has turned up.

I’ve already been conscious of that possibility, so all the M113s are tucked into cover and I have a somewhat impromptu antitank screen up: the half of 2/3 that stayed behind has a Dragon and while 2/2 is out of action, the platoon commander himself has picked up theirs.

Plus, of course, I have three M60s in the farm. The two tagging along with 2nd Platoon are in position to quickly reorient to the north, the third is back in the triangle where I can send it left or right as necessary. For now, the enemy is out of sight to the other two tanks and surviving M901 in the rear thanks to the slope.

As it happens, the enemy picks the left. 2/3 get a Dragon into the side of the T72, knocking it out, then 2nd Platoon’s lieutenant nails the BRM.

There’s a little interlude as the other half of 2/3 checking on the dead AT7 team comes under fire from B8, but by now I’ve sent 1/3 across into Bravo and they’re able to nip that threat in the bud.

In the final turn, one of the M60s takes out the first BMP, then the second one goes down to a one-two punch from 2/3’s Dragon and the other tank.

With that, the enemy surrenders.

Endex

All in all, I’ve taken 18 casualties this time round, plus the M901 which registers as a tank for some reason. If we consider that 8 of those casualties were from 2/2, which was almost wiped out in a single incident, and another three were from the M901- the gunner made it out- then we can chalk a good 11 of those losses up to me being careless.

The defenders, on the other hand, are almost entirely out of action. They’ve sustained 55 casualties, including all their vehicles, and only have two men still kicking: two bailed gunners from the CRP.

My initial takeaway here is that this run was by far the fastest and smoothest of any of the Company Challenges so far. The ability of the M60s here to delete or smoke up enemy positions was a total game changer and I only really used three of the five.

We’ll get to that though. Let’s break everything down first.

The Break-In

Actually getting to the objective and establishing a foothold was kind of trivial because Alpha was not only completely empty, but as it turned out, both enemy ATGMs and their FO team were on the other side of the farm. Combined with all the RPG teams being further back and in defilade, there was literally no threat to 1st Platoon as they came in.

That does feel like a bit of shame, because I shot the snot out of Alpha with the M60s. Their ability to put down smoke was on display though and that’s really our first indicator of the tanks acting as a tactical lubricant here.

Smoking up the gap between the deployment zone and the valley on the right was trivial- the M60s just had to fire some smoke shells. Having direct-fire smoke on demand is a fantastic ability, especially given that it can be deployed out to a considerable distance.

This was really useful in 2nd Platoon’s attack on Charlie, which is mostly what I’m going to looking at for the break-in because, you know, it really was a kind of secondary break-in and this time there was actually some opposition.

Attacking Charlie I uncovered three problematic defensive positions. The enemy in C8, which I pasted with a M60. The enemy in C14, which got the better of me until I was able to… paste them with an M60. And finally the At-7 in B13 which did got its hit in, before I pasted it with an M60.

The big issue the Motor Rifles had was that they didn’t have the firepower to suppress or destroy the enemy, meaning they had to fight their way forward and take a lot of risks. The combination of smoke and high explosive offered by the tanks turned that around completely.

Yes, I lost an entire squad, but that was on me. 2/2 got wiped because of bad drills, not because the TOE was flawed or even because of bad tactical decisions at my end. I fumbled the clearing of a building, I put too many men into a position where they were exposed to an unsuppressed enemy. Mistakes were made, the speed with which that enemy team was subsequently taken out- literally the time it took to blast them with 105mm HEAT and mop up with dismounts- should illustrate that it was me screwing up.

Clearing the Objective

Naturally, the Charlie Break-in merges into clearing the objective and… I guess we’ve pretty much covered it. The old infantry Find-Fix-Flank-Finish became more like Find-Fix-Destroy-Mopup. There was much less of a need to maintain fire superiority for extended periods while infantry teams manoeuvred onto the enemy position to clear it: finding the enemy was half the battle because once they’d been located it was pretty trivial to bring a tank up and remove them.

There are, however, some important caveats. Firstly, the enemy antitank threat in this particular run, was pretty anaemic. The two AT-7s were out of position- though we could argue whether I exploited that after the M901 got hit- and the three RPG-7s in the Soviet platoon were all scurried away with poor fields of fire. There was one in C15, which was literally on the far side of the objective only able to fire outwards, and the other two were both in C8 due to a quirk in the random deployment. That’s not necessarily a bad antitank position- it’s got some keyhole defilade going for it- but I didn’t notice them getting an RPG off.

In fact, the only RPG I saw the enemy fire was the one that 2/2 copped.

That doesn’t mean that tanks can’t perform as a fantastic tactical lubricant, just that I got very lucky here and that they might not always have the room to work.

Speaking of room, I very consciously didn’t want to commit all of my tanks to clearing the farm. I felt the need to bring another one up to help 2nd Platoon and that did sterling work, but I also wanted to keep a minimum of two back to both retain some flexibility and to avoid overcrowding in the farm complex.

In a similar vein, having one fewer rifle platoon made congestion much less of an issue, essentially taking four vehicles and 8 infantry teams out of the equation. The M60s didn’t only make up for the loss of firepower but brought their own capabilities to the party and undoubtedly made the formation more effective, but that came at the cost of having fewer bodies.

Obviously it’s always a blow losing a whole squad, but losing one out of nine is much less of a big deal than losing one out of six. When 2/2 went out of action, I was left with two squads on Charlie and three back on Alpha.

1st Platoon was hanging around on Alpha to cover Bravo and offer some Dragon-based antitank capability, not specifically to act as a reserve. So chopping a squad to 2nd Platoon to help clear Charlie was not necessarily what I intended to do. It certainly restricted my options as to how I was going to tackle Bravo: I was committed to attacking through Charlie and didn’t think I had the strength to try and get into Bravo from another angle.

In this run, that worked out. But this was a pretty good run.

Finally with regards to clearing, the 81mm mortars were firing HE pretty much all the way through the battle. They started off with a light mission on Bravo, to suppress any potential ATGMs that could cover the approach to Alpha, then I cut them down to a harassing mission hitting the back of Charlie and adjusted that further and further onto and then through Bravo.

They still had ammo left at the end, including all their smoke, which I didn’t use because it was so much easier to use the M60s. They ultimately accounted for four enemy casualties, which isn’t bad given that they were all in buildings, but at the same time there wasn’t much for them to hit in Bravo given the enemy’s deployment.

The C/Atk

That leaves us with the enemy counterattack. And like the other two runs, it was the easiest part of the scenario to deal with. I was in position with ATGMs and tanks to completely wipe the enemy out, they never even got a shot off. All I had to do was make sure I had AT assets in position.

Unlike the first US run, the M901s didn’t get a look in, Dragon got 3 of the 4 targets, with the other one accounted for by an M60. Despite that, I had a lot of confidence in the M60s. I had two ready to engage and got them into defilade, with another one as a kind of close reserve and two more able to contribute from depth if necessary, along with the surviving M901.

So, almost as usual: we have a mix of weapons with different but overlapping engagement envelopes, all of which I can bring forward with my lead elements to maintain an anti-tank bubble.

If anything, this really confirms the counterattack’s existence here as a kind of antitank tick-box: here are four armoured targets, have fun; rather than as any kind of threat. After we run the Forward Security Element through this, I think it might be worth beefing this final task up and making it more of a test.

Conclusion

But for all that, very impressed with the Mixed US Company here. Adding the tanks is a total game changer, my mistakes notwithstanding. This just straight up outperformed the basic M113 Company. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but I found the difference it made a lot more significant that I was expecting.

So it’s going to be super interesting to bring out the Soviet Forward Security Element. Not necessarily in comparison with the BTR-only company, because… let’s be honest it’s not going to be difficult to improve on that, but in comparison to this company.

The FSE not only doesn’t exchange any infantry for its tanks, like the US Mixed company does, but should on paper have 120mm mortar and 122mm howitzer support. Which… would jazz things up somewhat.

Definitely going to be a lot less farm left when we’re done, I think. Hope you all enjoyed this one and found it interesting. If you’d like to watch these videos early and support the channel, you can do so via Patreon and Youtube memberships. Whether you do or not, thanks for watching and I’ll catch you in the next one.