Obviously this is not War Room 32: Tactical Means: there's a new Battlepack out for Combat Mission Cold War, so I thought I'd dive in tackle one of the new scenarios. This is a solid Bil Hardenberger tactical exercise, like the NTC training campaign, and there are a few different versions.

I enjoyed it. The plan was to get it ready to go in line with the BP's release on Wednesday, but that rapidly turned out to be impractical, so I'm just feeding it into the usual schedule.

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CMCW BP: Hasty Attack (ARTREP)

Welcome back to some surprise Combat Mission Cold War. A new battle pack has dropped so I thought it was a good opportunity to take a break from the usual schedule and head back to 80s to show off one of the new scenarios

I’ve chosen one of the Hasty Attack battles. There are five of these in total in which players command a company battlegroup from different Blue nations and periods in a hasty attack against a Soviet rearguard. This is the kind of the scenario that pushes my buttons: it’s all about helping players get to grips with the differences between American, British and Canadian TOEs and how those difference impact them as they perform the same action. Plus, its company sized and only 40 minutes long.

Of the five available options, I settled on playing the 1982 American version. This is mostly because I haven’t actually messed around that much with the Abrams and Bradleys in Combat Mission Cold War. It’ll probably come back to bite me because they aren’t going to benefit from the same kind of overmatch they get in Shock Force, but I guess I’ll fail forward on that front.

Force

So we’ve got a company task force with a pretty familiar organisation: A Coy HQ and FO in M2 Bradleys, 2 Mechanised Infantry Platoons in Bradleys, a 5 tank platoon of M1 Abrams and a weapons platoon with 2 M901 TOW vehicles and 3 M125 81mm mortar carriers. We’re totally organic for this one: there is not off-map support of any kind.

I think the key elements are going to be Abrams and the Bradleys. The dismounts in the mech platoons are only six men strong, so they’re not very casualty resistant and I’m going to need to other assets to do the heavy lifting before they get stuck in.

Another key force multiplier here are thermal imagers. The Abrams and Bradleys both have them, but the dismounts can also pick up by grabbing M47 Dragons from their vehicles. Despite these all being early generation thermals they should give my spotting and targeting a major boost and, of course, they can see through smoke. The vehicles all have smoke launchers and the M125s have 16 white phosphorus bombs each, so I might be able to pull off some cheeky through-smoke engagements.

Terrain, Mission and Enemy

The actual mission is very straightforward. This is part of the ARTEP, or Army Training and Evaluation Program: our company team has made contact with an Opfor Coy(-) in hasty defensive positions and we’ve got to punch up the map and smash them.

Our deployment zone is behind some woods at the south end of the map. Beyond them we have some big open fields that run down to a shallow stream. In between the edge of the fields and the stream we’ve got some pre-battle intel contacts: it looks like 3 IFVs, which would translate into an enemy motor-rifle platoon screening the security zone.

There are three crossing points over the stream- the south bridge, ford and north bridge- all of which are touch objectives. Across the stream we have the village of Budarky on the far left and the village of Zemlyanky in the centre. Zemlyanky is the site of an enemy strongpoint that we have to occupy, again we’ve got some contact icons and that seems like a likely place for another enemy motor rifle platoon.

Beyond the strongpoint, there’s an arc of open fields that rises to some high ground: points 211, 215 and 209 from left to right respectively. The enemy have a bit of a reverse slope to play with here and some long fields of fire over the open ground south of the stream that I’ll have to cross, so it seems likely the enemy will have set up any supporting heavy weapons here or even stashed a counterattacking element out of sight.

On the far side of the high ground we’ve got our limit of advance, which is a final touch objective.

In terms of points values, the emphasis is definitely on destroying the enemy: there are 400 victory points attached to the terrain objectives and 1125 for mangling the Opfor’s constituent parts. These objectives do give the game away a little bit about the enemy force: it looks like we’re definitely up against BMP-2s and T64s.

Plan

Now that I’ve got all that information, I’ve got to funnel it all into some kind of plan.

The main thing I want to avoid is surprises. One of the key characteristics of modern warfare is that even small teams or individual vehicles can ruin your day, so I don’t want to Hail Mary my way forward and trust to luck.

Between the Bradleys, M901s and dismounts with Dragons I have a lot of thermal equipped ATGMs that I can use as a screen to spot and hopefully neutralise enemy vehicles at arm’s length.

So the first thing I want to do is get a kind of combination recon-antitank screen up and running. The wood directly in front of my deployment area will be a good position for my dismounts to infest- they don’t have great line of sight because of the rolling fields, but they should be at least able to see across the valley to other side, which would bring most of the high ground at the back and the Zemlyanky strongpoint under observation.

There’s a hill on the left map edge I want to send the M901s to: that will give them an elevated position with a reverse slope to hide behind and, critically, a chunk of ground that will mask them from the north. That will put them in defilade to enemy forces in depth and hopefully act as a pivot I can use to pie-off the map.

The Bradleys will stay back for now- I’m going to need them to carry the infantry forward- and the Abrams are likewise going to lurk in my deployment area until I need them.

As for the mortars, I have three Forward Observers, so I should have plenty of options for bringing them to bear where I need them- particularly for smoking up enemy positions when it’s time to advance. To begin with though, I’ve got locations for all 3 of the security zone BMPs and their dismounts can’t be too far away, so I’m going to kick things off by hitting each one with a quick fire mission. Fingers crossed, that will do some damage or at least keep their heads down while the M901s and infantry get into position.

In terms of actual avenues of attack, the stream is impassable to vehicles except at the two bridges and the ford, so whatever I have to cross at those points. I’m currently leaning on sending one mech platoon left where it looks like there’s a masked approach to the left of the highway before sending the dismounts across the stream into Budarky where they can secure the far end of the south bridge.

That will hopefully give me a good jumping off point to roll up the strongpoint at Zemlyanky along the road and allow me to cover the high ground at closer range, but we’ll see. Depending on what the recon-atgm screen uncovers, it might make more sense to take a different approach.

Kick Off

The first thing my screen uncovers is a BRDM ATGM carrier. 2nd Platoon’s Dragon teams in the centre have crept through the woods and spotted it near Point 211 out on the left. That’s a pretty good position and annoyingly it’s about 100m out of range of the Dragons.

It doesn’t take long for more spots to come in. I’ve sent 1st Platoon’s HQ and 3rd squad out right to get a better angle on one of the presumed BMP-2s the pre-battle intel indicates is on the right. 1/3/B sneak up along with the platoon FO, confirming that spot and then resolving another BMP-2 in the middle of the strongpoint objective.

M901 and Dragon Openers

1/3/B nails the closer BMP, but the FO team manages to miss the more distant IFV with both of their missiles. They attract a burst of 30mm cannon fire in return, but that doesn’t do anything and I bring 1/3/B over to get the job done.

While they’ve been doing that, I’ve pushed the M901s and Weapons Platoon HQ Bradley across the highway to the left to take advantage of that defilade. Peeking over the crest, the two M901s spot the central screening BMP and the BRDM, which has another BMP alongside. They both miss their first shots, but thankfully the M901’s Hammerhead launcher allows them to fire twice in quick succession and moments after 1/3/B take out the BMP in the strongpoint, TOW missiles reach out and destroy the BRDM and central BMP.

This is really good news. The BRDM was a serious threat from the enemy’s depth and with 2 of the 3 screening BMP’s taken care I’ve gained a lot of freedom to manoeuvre. There are some enemy infantry hanging around the knocked out BMPs, but I’m happy to bypass them.

Time is getting on though: there are only 40 minutes on the clock and we’re on Turn 6 already. I want to keep 2nd Platoon spotting from the centre, so I remount 1st Platoon and start stacking them up in my deployment zone to go left. I’m still leaning on my tentative plan to send them down the highway treeline towards Budarky.

Driving in the Screen

The two main obstacles to that right now are the remaining screening BMP, which is tucked into some dead ground between the highway and a barn, and the BMP up on Point 211 next to what’s left of the BRDM.

The BMP on the high ground is the more straightforward to deal with. I’ve been playing peekaboo with the M901s trying to get a spot, but they’re not quite making it, so I’ve brought two of 3rd Platoon’s Abrams down onto the highway. They also struggle to identify the target, so with 3B on overwatch, 3C starts to hunt down the road.

Almost as soon as it sets off, 3B makes the spot and deletes the BMP with an APFSDS round.

That leaves the last forward BMP and with the M901s struggling to get good line of sight I’ve decided to just keep 3C rolling and rely on the Abrams getting the first shot off with its 105 when it rounds the corner.

It doesn’t come to that though: as 3C advances, the BMP starts to reverse away. It looks like the Opfor screen is collapsing in. That turns out to be a terrible decision for the BMP, which finds itself caught on the road by 3C and blown away. The BMP’s dismounts try to get away as well, abandoning the barn and getting chased off by coax and .50 cal fire.

This has a couple of important follow-on effects. First, the enemy screen is basically out of action and it’s probably safe enough to send 1st Platoon forward via the Highway. Half the platoon is already across onto the left and getting tangled in the dense terrain, so I can save some rapidly diminishing time.

Second, I’d already sent the Company FO across to the M901 position in their Bradley. The hill there is a good position for the FO to direct the mortars onto the strongpoint objective, but I had ordered the spare Bradley up to the crest to cover the BMP’s retreat towards the bridge. It didn’t manage to catch it before 3C, but it did spot another BMP-2 in the strongpoint.

After a few 25mm cannon hits the crew bail out and then the Bradley seals the deal with a TOW. The briefing templated a BMP-2 platoon in the strongpoint. There was already one smoke column there at the start of the battle and I’ve now added two more, which is a platoon’s worth of BMPs. So I might just have enemy infantry to deal with in the strongpoint.

In fact, I might have wiped out all the opposing IFVs already. The briefing indicated that there was a platoon in the strongpoint and one screening. I’ve accounted for all the BMPs in both those positions, plus one more up on Point 211 which may well correspond to the Company HQ vehicle. That doesn’t mean there aren’t more BMP-2s out there… but reading between the lines it’s possible I might have gotten them all by turn 10.

Crossing the Stream

Regardless of whether there are more BMPs- or worse- out there, I’ve still only got 30 minutes left and I haven’t even crossed the stream yet.

So I speed up 1st Platoon’s approach. Covered by two of the Abrams, they dash across the open ground in front of the bridge into the defilade offered by the stream woods, chewing up the enemy’s retreating screening dismounts in the process.

They’re masked from the Zemlyanky strongpoint there and can cross the stream into the adjacent farm without any problems, but the wooded streambed is so dense it takes longer than I would like. I know there’s enemy infantry in the strongpoint: one of them took a potshot at the 1st Platoon HQ Bradley as it moved up.

Thankfully that missed, but despite knowing exactly which house the offending Opfor are in- the brick one-, it’s in one of those annoying, awkward spots where I can’t draw the line of sight I need to hit it with area fire.

I’ve split 1st’s dismounts in half- the Dragon armed teams are going left into Budarky to set up a forward ATGM screen covering the high ground on the left, while the M60 teams are angling right to get eyes on the strongpoint and secure a bridgehead. They take a little fire in the process from the white building across the street from the brick house, but nothing serious.

1st Platoon is now committed on the left, which means I need to bring 2nd up to clear the strongpoint, but there’s no way I’m sending a Bradley full of infantry to test the South Bridge. That job falls to one of 1st Platoon’s Bradleys, 1C.

The approach to the bridge is complicated by deep ditches to either side and the burning wreck of the BMP-2 in road. I decide to pause 1C before the crossing to put some cannon fire into the strongpoint buildings, which is a bad move. The Opfor soldiers get two RPGs off while it shoots up the wrong building, though 1C’s TacAI is at least smart enough to switch targets when they spot the offending RPG gunner.

Luckily, I get away with getting hit and 1C crosses the bridge, pops smoke to mask future transits and reverses off the road to get out of the way.

That proves the bridge isn’t mined or particularly well covered. On top of 1C’s smoke I’ve got the M125s dumping 81mm white phosphorous all over the edge of the strongpoint, which should give me enough obscuration to push 2nd Platoon across.

They’re preceded by one of the Abrams, 3A, which also pops smoke and soon 2nd is getting across behind an effective screen.

I have two problems though. The first is that I’m reluctant to push too close to the village until I’ve got the whole platoon over. I know there are some RPGs in there and while they might be blinded by all the smoke, if I send 2nd’s dismounts in to clear them out they’ll also be fighting blind. The Abrams and Bradleys can see through the smoke with their thermals, sure, but it still feels excessively risky to send them forward to see if they can spot targets. Even across the stream, I still can’t get good enough line of sight on known enemy-occupied buildings to blap them without getting closer.

So 2nd Platoon starts to clump up in a relatively shallow bridgehead, offering a fantastic target to any enemy mortars or artillery fire.

The second problem is that I’ve got company.

The T64s Arrive

At the twenty minute mark, 1st Platoon’s FO team out on the far left picks up some tank contacts in depth on the right, between points 209 and 212. These rapidly resolve into T64s that are coming up via a track through the woods on the high ground.

If they get round either side of the strongpoint where they can see my car park of a bridgehead then I’m going to have a really bad day.

Purely by chance though, I’ve managed to site 1st’s FO where they can see down the track and 1/3/B had shared a Dragon missile with them earlier, so they’ve got one left after missing with all their own. This all conspires to pay off: the gunner finally manages to land a hit. The missile hits the lead T64 on the right track and immobilises it.

That traps the following tanks in the narrow confines of the lane and they proceed to have a pathfinding crisis as my M901s in the back take up the engagement.

They skim their first TOW over the turret of one T64 as it tries to overtake the immobilised one, but the quick follow-up allows them to connect and knock it out, adding to the roadblock.

While the ATGMs engage, I’ve scrambled the Abrams in my rear to get eyes on the chokepoint and deal with the T64s for good, but the two that are still mobile manage to get past and disappear into some dead ground on the right.

One of the M901s finishes off the immobilised T64, so at least I don’t have to worry about that, but I’m still pretty concerned that I’ve lost track of the two surviving T64s.

Clearing Zemlyanky

Meanwhile, I still have to clear the Zemlyanky strongpoint. Abrams 3A takes an RPG to the face as the smoke clears, but it fails to penetrate and the backblast allows the crew to spot the enemy. They’re in the White House and, even though the game engine won’t allow them area fire it, they can engage spotted targets and proceed to cut the RPG gunner in half with machinegun fire.

On the next turn one of 2nd’s Bradleys, 2C, shifts right a bit and demolishes the white house with 25mm cannon fire. That’s a good start, but there’s still the confirmed enemy in the brick house to deal with. I had half expected them to engage 2C as it came round, but instead they were focused on another Bradley.

Now that 2nd Platoon is over the stream, I want to bring 1st Platoon’s vehicles across to reunite with their dismounts on the left, so I sent Bradley 1D to the bridge to try and make the run. But as soon as it reached the roadside ditch, the enemy in the brick house hit it with an RPG. 1D is a total loss- all three crewmen were killed and I very lucky the wreck isn’t blocking the bridge.

Nothing up front makes the spot to return fire thanks to the terrain and smoke, but Bradley 1B and Abrams 3C further back catch a glimpse of the RPG gunner and engage. It’s hard to tell if they achieved much- the 105mm shell hit a tree and only a few 25mm HE-I rounds connected.

I really need to clear that brick building.

So Abrams 3A grinds up the main street and starts blasting it while 2/1 roll up in their Bradley and dismount behind some popped smoke. With the tank shooting them in, I split an assault team off and send them to storm the brick building. They make it inside easily enough, but they can’t see anything in the smoke and the enemy get the drop on them, wiping all three of them out.

That was probably a bit too rushed: I should have let 3A and 2B destroy the building before mopping up the shellshocked survivors from outside... which is exactly what I proceed to do. The remaining opfor in the brick house are unceremoniously finished off as they cower in the rubble.

I’m already edging some dismounts around the right side of the village to exploit and open up new angles. I’ve left 2nd’s FO team in the woods with their Dragon in case the T64s come round on that flank, while 2/2 make their way down the gardens.

They get shot up from behind as they do so: there’s an enemy infantry contact down at the ford. This is probably the central squad from the enemy’s screen: it makes sense that the screening platoon would fall back onto the crossing points. They manage to take out a couple of men in 2/2, but go to pieces when I send one of the Bradleys round to suppress them.

That slows me down a little bit, but the hang time also allows me to bring the M125s to bear on the far end of the village to cover 2nd platoon as they advance. It turns out there’s only one more contact: an opfor squad hanging around in a barn at far end. They reveal their position with a few bursts at 2/2. With the clock running out I’m not bothering to be fancy: I just push Abrams 3A up and drop the building on top of them.

That seems to clear the Zemlyanky strongpoint- no one is shooting at me anymore- but now that I’m occupying the village I need to go firm in case those T64s have a go.

Limit of Advance and T64s

Meanwhile, I’ve managed to bring 1st Platoon’s remaining 3 Bradleys across the stream and regroup them with their dismounts in Budarky, along with Abrams 3C. Their job is going to be punch up the high ground on the left and reach my limit of advance objective on the other side of the slope.

I’m not expecting much resistance- there’s been no sign of anything there since the BRDM and BMP-2 on top got schwacked earlier and by now almost the entire templated enemy force has been accounted for.

I’m still wary about those T64s on the right, but seeing as though my forces on that flank are now well placed to receive them if they counterattack over there I might be able to swing inwards from the left and hit them from the centre, wherever they are.

The high ground turns out to be clear. The Platoon HQ and 1/3/A head up to Point 211 in Bradley 1A, followed by Abrams 3C and squad 1/2 in Bradley 1B. There’s a random opfor radio operator behind a hedge that 1A deletes as it touches the limit of advance, but essentially no resistance.

At about the same, 2nd Platoon manages to find the missing T64s. They’re sitting in the edge of a wood in some dead ground covering the far exit from Zemlyanky. That finally gives me something to work with.

So I start to manoeuvre the three Abrams at the back to try and get some angles, while creeping 3A forward in the village and sending 3C along the high ground to hit their flank.

3C sneaks up to the field boundary on the crest and nails the first T64. The second reacts to turn its frontal armour in the direction the shot came from and exposes its vulnerable side to 3A as it emerges from Zemlyanky.

3A takes the shot, leaving both T64s brewing up as their crews run off into the woods. That turns out to be the last straw for the AI, which surrenders.

Endex

That makes sense: the post battle map reveals that the only remaining enemy forces are bailed out T64 crewman and the bypassed dismounts from the screen. In detail, they lost 63 men killed and wounded, 4 T64s, 6 BMP-2s and the BRDM ATGM vehicle.

My casualties were light in comparison: 9 casualties in total, plus a Bradley. The enemy squad occupying the brick house accounted for two thirds of my losses: the Bradley and all three crew on board, then the 3 men from 2/1’s assault element.

That’s what I get for not just demolishing the building straight away I guess.

Overall, I’d say my plan panned out pretty well. The decisive part was definitely establishing that recon-AT screen at the start. That was responsible for wiping out all the opfor vehicles on the map in the first ten minutes, then accounting for half the T64s when they arrived.

To some extent everything else was just mopping up and I think that’s an area where I could have done better. That area between the South Bridge and Zemlyanky quickly turned into a very static, target-rich environment that I should have been punished for. The Abrams and Bradleys couldn’t really see much while they were there and the lack of supporting fire made me reluctant to push forward.

In hindsight, it would probably have been better to send an Abrams or two and 1st Platoon’s Bradleys through the farm to the left of the bridge to get a better support by fire position up and running from Budarky, which was a little higher and offered a better position to start deleting enemy positions.

I think that would have greased the wheels some. There was quite a tight time limit here and I did feel the pressure towards the end. Tellingly I only secured the strongpoint objective at the 35 minute mark.

But that’s a quibble, I reckon this was a successful exercise. It was a fun scenario: not too long, not too big and it could be interesting tackling the other versions with earlier forces or with the Brits or Canadians.

So, hope you all enjoyed this scenario from the new Cold War battle pack. 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.