Script for BAOR: Troop and Platoon Tactics (Patreon)

Well, I went for one of the other BATUS scenarios, inspired by this: https://youtu.be/b9zSIyt-JDg?si=ZSLWSjYO2lj5BkL-&t=700

This is another really solid GeorgeMC scenario... could have gone better, but probably more interesting for that.

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CMCW Troop and Platoon Tactics

Welcome back to Combat Mission Cold War and the BAOR module, where we are going to tackle one of the BATUS scenarios.

BATUS stands for British Army Training Unit Suffield and it is very broadly the British equivalent of the American National Training Centre, swapping the Mojave Desert for Alberta Prairie. This means we’re dealing with extensive rolling grasslands where the only cover comes from the contours.

That’s an issue for Cold War because we’re approaching- but haven’t quite reached- the see it-kill it state of modern warfare. The weapons are capable, but optics, sensors and fire control haven’t quite matured. The problem with that is that it can be quite difficult to work out if you’re not seeing anything because there’s nothing there or because the enemy is hard to spot.

Luckily, we’re playing George MC’s Troop and Platoon Tactics scenario so we have a good idea of where the enemy is. This mission is based off a British Army training video of the same name- I’ll pin  a link in the comments- and it features a British combat team consisting of a tank troop and an armoured infantry platoon encountering and attacking a Soviet platoon-plus outpost.

Nice and straightforward on paper, I think the interesting part here is going to be comparing my effort to how events pan out in the training video.

Terrain

The enemy have been spotted in the vicinity of Points 93.3 and 96.9, NW of our deployment zone. There are 700 victory points on the table for destroying them and 50pts each for occupying objectives Green, White, Blue and Gold. That puts the emphasis squarely on hitting the other guy- after all, if the enemy’s been smashed we can take the ground at our leisure.

The objective area is about 2km away, on some high ground between Points 93 and 96. Roughly 600m downslope from there in our direction is a boggy stream. This looks like it should be passable to infantry, but it will slow them down and there are only a few muddy spots suitable for vehicles.

The stream does appear to be in dead ground relative to the objectives thanks to the shape of the slope, but that doesn’t mean that there are not enemy positions capable of taking it under fire, nor that the enemy has not prepared it in the way we could expect them to prepare dead ground with mines or target reference points for artillery.

So the stream constitutes an obstacle. Crossing it is probably not impossible, but will take time and run some risks.

The stream only covers the eastern side of the enemy position though: we can bypass it to the left and either attack directly up the 93-96 spur or cut in along the stream to exploit the dead ground.

The issue there is really the approach. On the right, beyond the stream, there’s about 400m of steep exposed downhill running into the potential safety of the dead ground. On the left, taking a route that avoids the stream, we have a much wider gentler bowl leading down from the high ground between Points 102 and 96.8. There is a shallow gully that arcs through the saddle between them and may offer some cover, but the left basically translates into a longer, more exposed approach of maybe 7-800m.

That… might not be as bad as it sounds. We’re not going to be advancing on foot here, we’re going to be dashing forward with Chieftains and FV432s. With covering fire and suppression from artillery, the longer route bypassing the stream might be a sounder option than it appears.

Either way, the final element of the ground we need to consider is the available high ground. This comes in two parts: a ridge gradually descending from Centurion Hill and Point 110 on the right and curving round towards Point 96.8; and behind that just outside our deployment zone, another ridge gently sloping down from Point 116 to Point 102.

Both these ridges offer a view over the objective area and some potential opportunities for berm drills. It is quite a long way though: 1500 to 1700m from Point 116 to the objectives and 900 to 1200m from Point 110.

Enemy

The expected enemy here is a platoon in BMP-1s, so three IFVs with ATGMs, plus a T72. All of these will be able to reach out to the high ground, so playing peekaboo may not be advisable.

In addition to the vehicles, the enemy will have their dismounts, though these will obviously only be able to contribute out to effective RPG range of about 500m. In addition, the briefing suggests they may have engineer support and we could expect wire obstacles and mines about 300m in front of the main defensive positions.

Also of some concern is the possibility of enemy positions in depth. It’s not 100% clear from the briefing which direction the enemy main body lies in. Our deployment zone is on the eastern map edge, but the objective enemy outpost is on the north edge. If the enemy main body is off to the north, then it’s not going to be a problem for this scenario, but there is a conspicuous amount of empty, apparently unused map off to the west: literally half the map. That concerns me because it doesn’t look like it needs to be there in the context of this scenario, implying it may be concealing a threat from other enemy positions. It’s a bit suspicious.

Force

To tackle this, as the mission title implies, we have a combat team with a 4 tank Troop of Chieftains- Tango Troop- and an infantry platoon in FV432s- India Platoon. Attached to tanks are a pair of Scorpion light tanks for recce- callsign Foxtrot-, tagging along we also have a handful of engineers- callsign Holdfast-and a Forward Observer, Golf 31, who can call on our supporting assets: 3 Abbott self-propelled 105 guns and 3 81mm mortars.

According to the briefing, we’ve been allocated one ‘heavy’ fire mission from each, so we’ll try to stick to that. They don’t have a huge amount of ammunition.

In theory, I have a much more significant force than the enemy. In practice, I suspect the long-range fight is much more even than it seems. The FV432s aren’t going to contribute to that- or potentially anything given that they’re lightly armed battle-taxis- so it’s down to the Chieftains. And four Chieftains vs a T72 and 3 BMPs at distances in excess of a kilometre is, I suspect, something of a glass cannon party. I think everything will be able to kill everything else at that distance so it will come down to spotting and accuracy. The ATGMs on the BMPs could be problematic.

At shorter ranges, things will be a little more up in the air due to the vagaries of infantry combat.

Plan

In the training video, the combat team drops artillery on the enemy position and assaults it with infantry under cover of the tanks. The broad strokes there make sense, but for Combat Mission I’m going to need some more details.

The first thing I need to do is get a good handle on the enemy position. That means getting the two Scorpions and the FO into positions where they can observe the 93-96 ridge. Hopefully, they’ll be able to spot the main elements of the enemy’s combat power: his T72 and his BMPs.

Once I’ve got a handle on what I’m up against, I need to set the conditions to close with the enemy and destroy him. That means taking out his vehicles at arms-length. ATGMs would probably be best for this, but we don’t have any so it’s down to the Chieftains.

That translates into berm drills on the high ground: it looks like Point 110 offers some defilade I can peak around the sides of to see either side of the objective. That could be very useful for concentrating the Chieftain’s fire on isolated enemy targets without exposing them to the others.

Once I’ve degraded or preferably destroyed the T72 and the BMPs, it’ll be time to mop up the infantry. That means calling the mortars and artillery down to keep them suppressed while the FV432s move up. I’m not sure which route to take yet- left around the stream or right over it. Either way, the idea will be to get forward and tackle enemy position at a time, relying on supporting fire from the Chieftains on the high ground, who should hopefully be able to operate with impunity by this point.

In much simpler terms, I’m approaching this as a battle of range-envelopes. We’re starting off with two contesting long-range bubbles courtesy of the tanks and IFVs. The side that wins that fight and bursts the other’s side bubble will be able to dominate the other from a stand-off distance.

Kick Off

Starting out, the first thing to do is to get the recce out. So the Scorpions head off up the slope: F1 going left to take up a position past Point 102.5 and F11 going hull down just left of Point 110.

Along with them, the FO moves up in their Spartan. I want to get them into a position where they can see the objective area, not just for spotting but so they can direct fire. The obvious place for them to do this is the highest ground. That would be Point 116, but the enemy are hitting that with some airbursting 122s so the FO isn’t going there. Instead they’re heading for the slope behind Centurion Hill, which offers similar elevation without being quite so obvious.

Meanwhile, I’m moving Tango Troop’s Chieftains up to the dip between Point 116 and the Centurion Hill-Point 110 ridge. We only have an hour on the clock, so I want the tanks on hand to deal with any contacts quickly.

It’s the FO who makes the first spot: there’s a BMP-1P hull down at the back of Objective Gold. This is the BMP with the upgraded ATGM- it has a SACLOS AT-4 stuck on the roof instead of the BMP-1’s much harder to use MCLOS AT-3.

That makes for 1 of the 3 BMPs, which is in an area under observation by the two Scorpions as well as the FO- the CVRTs just haven’t seen them. It’s hard to tell whether that’s because both spotters and targets are too hull down to make the spot or because the FO has veteran experience and a forward slope to see from.

F11

Either way, I decide to edge the Scorpions a little further forward to see if they can resolve anything.

F11, near Point 110, only goes a few metres forwards but quickly gets another BMP contact icon near Objective White. The crew confirm this about 30 seconds later, at which point they decide to take a pot shot with their 76mm gun.

This is a terrible idea on several counts. The 76mm is not only short barrelled- meaning it doesn’t have a high maximum muzzle velocity- but the only antitank ammunition the Scorpion carries is HESH.

HESH stands for High Explosive Squash Head. In simple terms, it’s a big fat shell with a wodge of plastic explosive at the business end. When it hits an armoured target, the explosives squash onto the armour, then detonate. This doesn’t actually penetrate, instead it sends shockwaves through the armour and causes scabs and fragments to fracture off the internal face and zip around the interior in a very unpleasant fashion.

HESH has a lot of advantages, not least that it also works as a generic high explosive shell against light targets and buildings, but a key disadvantage is that it is a low velocity shell. It needs to be big and fat to get enough explosives in and if it impacts the target too fast, the plastic explosives won’t squash onto the armour properly.

So we have a low velocity gun firing a low velocity shell: that means we’re dealing with a very high, arcing trajectory and that getting shots on targets at long ranges requires very good range estimation.

In other words, when F11 looses a round at this new BMP 1200m away, it overshoots by a considerable margin. This doesn’t only miss, it gives F11’s position away and the target BMP responds with an ATGM that does not share the same long range engagement problems.

F11 takes the missile in the turret, both gunner and commander become casualties and the driver scrambles out in a panic.

Picking off the BMPs

I could maybe have avoided that if I had done a little berm drill with the Scorpions or had them hold fire… but it’s done now. At least I’ve confirmed the location of another BMP and gotten a good demonstration of how effective they can be.

Nothing else is turning up though- I can’t see the third BMP, the T72, any infantry or any fortifications- and time is ticking. So I decide to get stuck in with the Chieftains and start picking off the targets I can see.

This is where Point 110 comes in handy. Bringing Tango 12 and Tango 14 up to the right of the hill, they can use it as a shield to pie-off the objective area and tackle one slice at a time. There’s a bit of crest to play with to boot, meaning that it’s about as safe as I can make it.

The first time they both roll up into firing positions on the Gold BMP, T12 makes the spot and gets a round off. The Chieftain’s 120mm gun has a much higher muzzle velocity than the 76mm on the Scorpion, but it’s still firing HESH and it misses.

I’m only popping them up for 20 seconds, so T12 doesn’t have time to get another shot off before it pulls back. T14, meanwhile, never sees anything.

Another try gets the same result, but the BMP doesn’t seem to have reacted so on the third try I decide to take the risk and leave the Chieftains in position so they can work the engagement its conclusion. T12 finally nails the Gold BMP in the turret. The game doesn’t register a penetration, but that’s not how HESH works. A little while after the hit, the hatches open and the crew bail. One down.

T12 and T14 pivot around Point 110 to get eyes on the White BMP. It takes them a while to spot it, but T14 finally gets eyes on and wipes it out with a first round hit.

Crossing the Stream

Both Chieftains are hull down but very much on display here- it’s kinda hard to miss a 120mm gun going off. They can’t see any more targets and nobody is shooting at them. The FO, still up on the hillside behind them, can’t see any more targets. And the surviving Scorpion, F1, can’t see anything either.

We’re 15 minutes, there are 45 left on the clock, as far as I can tell I have the freedom of manoeuvre I need to close with the enemy.

I’ve been engaging from Point 110 and Centurion Hill- I’m confident this angle is safe, so it makes more sense to advance from here and cross the stream than it does to throw the infantry out wide to avoid it and enter into a new space that might be covered.

So while India and Holdfast start stacking up in the dip behind Point 110, I bring F1 up to go and recce the stream.

The Scorpion rushes downslope, over-watched by the Chieftains, with drawing any fire. It proceeds to cross the gap in the stream, veering right to avoid some muddy patches and gets over without issue.

That excellent, because it’s a prime spot for the enemy to mine or cover with fire. With that approach looking safe, I can start sending the infantry down and re-org on the far side of the stream before moving up to assault under cover from the tanks on the high ground.

Of course, there’s still a risk of bogging in the streambed. The Scorpion is a CVRT and they all have ridiculously low ground pressure, so sending F1 across doesn’t necessarily mean that the heavier FV432s will make it.

So the first batch of infantry to try consists of the engineer’s Spartan APC- another CVRT variant carrying Holdfast 12- and one of the infantry sections- India 34 in their FV432.

Going much faster, Holdfast 12 takes the right hand path through the gap, following in the tracks of the Scorpion. India 34 veers left, taking an alternate path through the mud patches to minimise the traffic jam potential.

And hits a mine. The FV432 is immediately knocked out and the crew are both killed, along with half the section in the back.

That was totally avoidable- I strayed from the known safe path and paid the price. It’s not going to stop me pushing the rest of the platoon across, but what’s left of India 34 is now panicking in a minefield and they need to get out.

Holdfast 12 is right next to them and they can at least mark the mines and create a path. I dash them over in their Spartan to get them out of the way of the crossing, but as they dismount and head over to help out they stumble into another minefield.

The Assault- Phase 1

Both of those sections are write-offs for the time being. Holdfast 12 can probably mark their way out of their predicament and go to help India 34, but neither of them are going to be contributing to the wider battle anytime soon.

The rest of India platoon can still get stuck in though and they head off to the right, following another path blazed by F1. The plan is to clear the 96-93 ridge from right to left, starting with Objective Gold. The whole are is overlooked by the Chieftains on the high ground, who I can call on to blast enemy positions with HE, and the FO is calling in the 105s on the left: an airbursting mission that should at least suppress Green and White.

While the infantry is getting into position, more targets are popping up. The third BMP resolves, on the other side of Objective Green, and although it’s staring down the barrels of three Chieftains, they only spot it when it fire a missile. Luckily, the BMP gunner loses control and the AT4 ploughs in the hillside well below the tanks, giving T14 the opportunity to take it out.

There’s also a tank contact icon out there- this looks like it’s hiding down on the reverse slope beyond the objective area. It comes forward as the infantry approach and Tango 11 makes the spot. It hits the T72 with an APDS round, but although it causes some spalling, it fails to penetrate the turret. The T72 disappears after that. It’s not clear whether its still in the fight: spalling in the turret could do all sorts of damage or prompt the crew to bail. Regardless, I’m confident it’s either not going to be able to interfere with the attack on Objective Gold because it’s below the crest, or that it will get nailed by the Chieftains or infantry antitank weapons if it rears its head again.

Speaking of the infantry, India platoon has dismounted and moved up by fire teams to within 100m or so of Objective Gold without any trouble. They’ve been covered up until now by some smoke shells fired by the Scorpion. Now the 105s are coming down deeper into the objective area and Tango 13 is rolling up onto their flank to provide intimate support.

This nearly gets Tango 13 taken out. As the infantry close in on Gold, they start to take some small arms fire. It’s not clear exactly where this is coming from until India 33’s section leader goes down: there looks to be a few enemy teams dug into the microterrain on Objective Gold.

They get an RPG off at Tango 13, which luckily falls just short. The tank returns fire, but the Soviets prove very hard to hit. They’re in foxholes in slightly lower ground- in Combat Mission terms this means their positions can’t be targeted directly, they’re technically on the reverse slope.

The result of this is that they can only be suppressed by shooting over their heads and that doesn’t seem very effective.

Tango 13’s commander gets domed as the tank pulls back, but it puts a smoke shell directly into the centre of Gold and the rest of its Troop start pumping in 120mm shells from the high ground to keep the enemy’s heads down. India platoon can’t see or do much where it is- the 2 surviving sections are prone in the grass just on the reverse slope from the enemy.

As a result, it’s difficult for either side to really see the other. I’m able to bound forward behind the smoke and start to get some fire down on one set of foxholes though. As the smoke clears it looks like I’m gaining fire superiority over the enemy at Gold.

But actually closing to a position where I can finish the enemy off is proving difficult. India 32’s delta team bounds up to try and get deeper into the enemy’s flank, but comes under fire from new enemy positions on the reverse slope up ahead and then from the nearest Soviets in Gold as well.

It doesn’t feel like I’m getting anywhere.

Trying to unpick the situation with F1 leads nowhere. Hooking it round behind Tango 13 in an attempt to enfilade the reverse slope brings it into view of the T72, which is evidently still up and running, because it puts a round straight through the Scorpion.

Assault Phase 2

It’s at this point that I decide I’m not getting anywhere. The little Gold hollow is proving a tough nut to crack, there are unsuppressed enemy positions in depth, my infantry can’t do anything where they are and get shot up every time they try to move forward.

I still have the mortars up my sleeve, so I make the call to pull back from Gold, hit it with the 81s and then follow up. I have a couple of FV432s up forward helping to hose down the Gold foxholes, the infantry pull back towards them while the FO starts to organise the fire mission.

While they’re disengaging, the T72 resurfaces. It’s now on the far side of the dip beyond the objective, exposed to the Chieftains. Tango 12 bounces an APDS shell off the turret front, then Tango 11 scores another turret hit and causes some spalling.

The T72 fires back in the meantime- it hits Tango 14, failing to penetrate but wiping out the opened up commander. The Chieftains keep firing, scoring a handful more hits- including with some HESH- but the Soviet tank shrugs the incoming fire off and disappears again.

The Chieftains are clearly not going to get through the armour at this range at this angle, so I send Tango 13 round from its position machinegunning Objective Gold to try and get some enfilade down the gully and catch it in the flank. Tango 13 makes the spot and takes the T72 out with an APDS round.

The Chieftain seems relatively safe there, so I keep going and take up a new position on the far side of the objective before turning round to shoot the enemy in the rear.

Soon, the 81s are dropping on Gold. There’s not that many of them so the fire mission is over quickly and I dash India platoon back forward to take advantage of the suppression. The first man out into the objective is immediately shot at close range by an enemy soldier in yet another new position, while the second section dismounting on the right to provide support comes under fire from a dismounted BMP crewman and goes to ground.

The new contact in Gold gets deleted by HESH, courtesy of the overwatching Chieftains, but the section in the objective has fallen in a panic. Bringing up the other half of the engineer detachment- Holdfast 13- to take over ends up with them taking fire from the left. Obviously there are also enemy positions down in Objectives Blue and Green. Without the smoke and suppressive artillery fire of the first assault attempt, it looks like they’re able to contribute to the defence.

And it’s still a very effective defence. Finally regaining some control in Gold and moving forward to get in the nearest foxholes reveals the enemy on the reverse slope are still in the fight. Tango 13 has been hitting them with HESH and coax for several minutes now, but there are more positions than I anticipated and I only seem to be able to neutralise them reactively.

Within a few minutes of the mortars finishing, I definitely feel as though I’m back to square one. The difference is that I have some bodies in Objective Gold, but India platoon has been shattered, there aren’t enough engineers to make up the difference and bringing Tango Troop up to try and physically overrun the remaining objectives seems like a recipe for disaster given the potential for RPG-based surprises lurking in more of that microterrain.

So with 10 minutes to go, I decide to call it a day.

Endex

Ceasefiring resolves the battle as a Tactical Victory for the British. I’ve racked up 510 of the 700 victory points available for destroying the enemy, plus another 50 for securing Objective Gold. The Soviets have scored 252 points in total, 100 from holding Objectives Green and White, with the rest accounted for by taking out the two Scorpions and savaging India platoon.

That was actually better than I was expected, but it’s not exactly great so… what went wrong?

First of all, I don’t think the overall plan was at fault here. Everything was going pretty well until I actually reached the objective. Sure, I lost a Scorpion early on and managed to blow up half a section and their vehicle in a minefield I could and should have avoided, but those are errors of judgement or sloppiness, not really reflections of the plan.

Things only really started to go sideways upon reaching Objective Gold and bumping enemy infantry dug into the micro-terrain. They were basically impossible to see until the last moment, difficult to directly suppress and arrayed in depth.

The plan was to destroy or suppress these positions at a distance using the Chieftains. That didn’t seem to be that successful at the time, partly due to the need to get direct hits on the foxholes, not being able to get direct hits because of the microterrain and possibly the effectiveness of HESH.

A 120mm HESH round is a big round with a lot of explosives in it and you wouldn’t want to be near one when it goes off, but it’s not going to produce a lot of fragmentation and given the intended function against armour- that is, the plastic explosive in the nose pancakes on the target and then explodes- I can see it diving into the ground and then exploding in a way that significantly reduces the explosive effect. To be really effective against infantry, HE shells need either airbursting or effective contact fuses. That’s mostly educated guesswork though and I have no idea if Combat Mission models it.

I definitely did feel like the Chieftains had a much slower rate of fire than I would have liked, which would be because they have chunky 120mm guns. Bigger ammo, longer reloading time, makes sense.

These two factors combined with the ground meant that, actually, the Chieftains probably weren’t as effective at neutralising the enemy positions as I had planned for.

That said, I think I took a wrong turn deciding to use the mortars on Objective Gold. For all the problems, at that point, Gold was probably effectively suppressed and the real problem was getting into its little hollow to mop up the enemy in their holes. If I had mortared the enemy positions on the reverse slope beyond Gold, which were the ones actually giving me trouble at the time, I may well have been able to capitalise, get in there and clear the objective out.

As it happened, I lost time and men pulling back from Gold and attacking all over again.

What I think I really needed for the attack was on-map mortars for direct fire. India Platoon’s 51mm mortar actually got a few kills in with its HE bombs, but the team just didn’t carry enough of them and the platoon had no FV432 PEAK, which carries more ammo.

Combat Mission allows on-map mortars to basically ignore the reverse slope restrictions on direct area fire, so mechanically, I think it would have been much more effective dropping something like 81mm mortar bombs right into the microterrain and the enemy foxholes than skimming them with shallower angle direct fire from tanks and machineguns.

Something like a FV432 mortar carrier, which carries a ridiculous amount of ammunition, would have been a game changer here.

So, the supporting fire was probably not as effective as I was hoping. At the same time, the defenders were more experienced. The entire British force here is regular, except the FO who is veteran. The Soviet motor rifle infantry here were all veteran, the engineers- who were the ones occupying the reverse slope positions, were crack- and the enemy FO who was the last man standing in Gold was actually Elite. That was probably to make the enemy artillery fire more effective, but the takeaway is that the enemy was not only occupying very good, fortified positions down in the microterrain, but had a qualitative advantage.

I don’t think the realities of the infantry fight really highlighted the battle rifle vs assault rifle factor, because the defence had the edge in so many areas, but it probably didn’t help.

Overall there are things I would do differently if I tried again. Integrating the mortars and artillery better is probably a big one, better use of smoke is another. In hindsight I don’t know why I didn’t use the tanks and Scorpion to isolate Gold with smoke. There’s an element of stumbling over the final hurdle here: I was a lot less on the ball than I should have been for the assault.

And of course, relating back to the original training video… the final assault there fought straight through the position with no resistance because the enemy had withdrawn. So, go figure I guess.

Conclusion

Anyway, this was a really good scenario, hats off to George MC for another banger. I don’t usually play scenarios more than once, because I feel like the enemy force composition and deployment can be compromised, but I might tackle this again to try and nail down the mechanical problems at my end.

So, hope you all enjoyed this one and found it interesting. If you’d like to see 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.