Umpire's AAR for Team Trackless CPX, Feb 19, 2000
This AAR covers two CPXes run on February 19, 2000 on Map 03. Missions and Opfor forces were identical both times, but in one CPX the Blue Force had a
Mech team, and in the other the Blue Force had a Trackless team. The situation was loosely based off of the "Blackhawk Down" situation in
Mogadishu.
Umpire: James Sterrett
Blue:
Bill Buckingham (Commander)
Gary Heverly (couldn't make rescheduled date)
Brian Rock - Sierra
Chuck LeBlanc - Romeo
Orval Darrow - Echo
Opfor:
Steve Heaton (Commander)
Tom Schaub - Ambush Teams
Rick Nelson (couldn't make rescheduled date)
The CPX was originally set to run on January 29th. This was scrubbed when the umpire came down with the flu, and the game was instead rescheduled for
February 19. Inevitably, not everyone could make that date.
Usually, these AARs are, like Caesar's Gaul, divided into three parts (Orders & Plans, What Happened, Lessons Learned). This time around a
fourth Part is added, Trackless Lessons, comparing the performance of the Mech and Trackless combat teams.
Orders and Plans:
US Orders
This scenario is played on map 03. It will be run twice; the situation will be the same both times except for your force: once it will be a
mech/armor team, and once it will be a Trackless team.
A US heliborne unit has been forced down at the crossroads at approx. 021020. It is under attack from local militias and needs assistance.
You are based to the east. Your force may deploy anywhere *east* of grid 06. You may break units down any way you like.
You have a 155mm artillery unit in support along with the mortar battery. However, if you ever fire HE or ICM into the city, the best level of
victory you can attain is a draw (the local militias will videotape it as an atrocity).
You may develop completely separate battle plans for the two teams. The bad guys can do the same and are presumed to know what sort of team you
have available as a reaction force.
Enemy forces will consist of light units only: infantry, machines guns, few vehicles, few anti-tank systems. Anti-aircraft systems are, obviously,
present.
Your missions:
- Rescue the downed unit
- You have the option of conducting this rescue on ground vehicles or on
helos. The helos cannot be used for any purpose other than extraction; they will fly directly to the extraction site, and thence offmap. [This
was modified on the game day to allow the US to specify the helo's route.]
- Recover all bodies
(Leaving an empty truck in an area with wrecks, for 5 minutes, in which it does not take fire, recovers the bodies in that area. If you clear and
secure the entire area all bodies are automatically recovered.)
- Keep your own losses down
Force Mixes:
In both cases, the downed unit is 4 infantry squads, 2 LMGs, and two recce teams in an entrenchment.
Mech Team:
1 standard Bradley company
4 M-1 tanks
4 M-1060 mortars
1 FIST-V
2 Apache (GP loadout)
1 155mm battery offmap, 25 HE, 7 ICM, 5 smoke
8 trucks
4 UH-60 helos for extraction
Trackless Team:
1 Trackless Company
HQ: 2 LAV, 2 HQ, 1 Javelin
1 FOO LAV w/ FOO onboard
3 infantry platoons: 4 LAV, 1 HQ, 4 Javelin, 3 Inf Team
LAV Assault Gun platoon (4 LAV AG)
4 LAV Mortars
2 Apache (GP loadout)
1 155mm battery offmap, 25 HE, 7 ICM, 5 smoke
8 trucks
4 UH-60 helos for extraction
US planning ran along similar lines for both versions of the scenario:
Team Romeo, with an infantry platoon, 2 mortars, and 2 tanks/AGS, would move south of the town, cross the river with smoke cover, and move towards
the downed helo from the west. (The M-1s would help other elements get through the eastern part of the town after covering the crossing).
Team Sierra, with the same force as Team Romeo, would attack the eastern half of the town and clear a path for Team Echo through to the downed
helo.
Team Echo, with the third infantry platoon, and all the trucks, would do the actual rescue and corpse recovery.
Movement plans for all these elements stressed the use of bounding overwatch in the movements around the outside of the town.
The Apaches and off-map artillery were held by the CO as fire support (smoke support for Romeo was laid out in the plan).
Opfor Orders
This scenario is played on map 03. It will be run twice; the situation will be the same both times except for the enemy force: once it will be a
mech/armor team, and once it will be a Trackless team.
A US heliborne unit (infantry company) has been forced down at the crossroads at approx. 021020. You may deploy units such that they are in
contact with it (in theory it is already under fire.)
Your force may deploy anywhere *west* of grid 05. You may break units down any way you like.
The enemy's quick reaction force is based to the east of the map. You may develop completely
separate battle plans for the two enemy teams; you are presumed to know what the bad guys actually brought to your country! The
enemy can do the same. The enemy forces are expected to be approximately a reinforced company, with artillery support possible and helicopter (Apache)
support likely.
You have a number of medic units in your OrBat. These are unarmed but for a video camera.
The GAZ-66 trucks were the closest the Opfor units get to a technical - sorry Steve! If we did not have to use Blue forces for Trackless, I could
give you some good technicals using Aussie Land-Rovers.
Your victory conditions:
Kill Americans.
Better yet, kill Americans and videotape your followers with the bodies.
If the Americans use heavy firepower in the city, get that on video too - atrocity!
If you can, wipe out the downed unit and videotape the bodies.
Do not suffer more than 75% losses. Do not lose your HQ (which must be in the city!), or your slimy, powergrubbing, honourless bastard of a nephew
will take over the Movement and ruin it.
Your forces:
5 GAZ-66 trucks
8 P8 Infantry squads
3 SPG9 recoilless rifles
3 ZU-23 AAA
1 HQ
4 Medics
Opfor developed two very difference plans to counter the Mech and Trackless forces.
Both plans assumed 4 infantry squads (with an attached camera team) would try to take down the downed helicopter. After initial testing revealed
that the original plan (a much smaller downed force, without an entrenchment) could be overwhelmed in minutes, Opfor gallantly suggested
beefing up the downed force and giving it an entrenchment.
Steve's HQ was always deployed, along with an infantry squad, a camera team, and an escape truck, in the northwest corner of the city. In
addition, one of the ZU-23 was always deployed at the spit of woods vic 014026.
Finally, both plans stationed "Team Bump", of two infantry squads, just out of sight of the western edge of the bridge (to ambush any forces moving off
of the western end of the bridge.)
To counter the Mech team, Opfor planning centered around arranging an ambush of forces - especially M-1s - expected to cross the bridge. Thus
SPG-9s were deployed to the north and south of the bridge, on the east side of the river, such that they could see the western half of the bridge - and
provided with a camera team. The ZU-23s were deployed to the north of the town to ambush the Apaches, and Team Bell, of one SPG-9 and one infantry
squad, was deployed at the crossroads in the eastern half of the town, with orders to retreat on contact, to give warning of the enemy advance.
To counter the Trackless Team, Opfor arranged a large ambush with 3 SPG-9 and 2 ZU-23 along the eastern edge of the town. 4 of the trucks were just
to the rear of these, ready to tow them to new ambush locations after the first volley.
What Happened?
By umpire's coin flip, we did the Mech Team CPX first.
Blue had some major problems during this CPX.
- Through overconfidence in the ability of Apaches to counter whatever Opfor might have, the Apaches were sent to orbit ahead of the main body,
then sent in a flyby over the town to try to help the downed troopers. During the flyby, both were blown away, one by a ZU-23, one by infantry
ground fire. Both were immediately filmed by a gleeful Opfor (and Opfor got the ZU-23 kill on film, as a camera crew was with the weapon.)
- The US CO, on hearing that the downed troopers were winning their firefight with Opfor, gave them orders to break out to the West. This was,
at best, premature. The troopers took it on the chin when they left their entrenchments, and the firefight soon ended - with the troopers wiped out.
Opfor cameramen promptly descended on the scene.
- Teams Sierra and Echo engaged in a disorganized and bloody advance through the eastern half of the town. Units were sent in piecemeal, and
consequently the small ambushes Opfor had ready chewed them up. Opfor also moved it units about periodically, which kept Blue from being able to keep
track of where it was getting hit from. Blind and confused, Echo and Sierra had a bad day. The main bright spot was the M-1s, which quickly
wiped out the Opfor units they came across. Blue was cautious enough with the M-1s that they did not get them ambushed, but also often did not have
them available for support.
- Team Romeo's move across the river went splendidly, and the only warning Opfor had of this move - one not foreseen in their planning as far as I
know - was the smoke falling to safeguard Romeo's passage. Romeo's M-1s moved north to support Sierra and Echo after the crossing. However, after the crossing, half of the mech platoon was sent, mounted,
to investigate the downed helo while the rest of Romeo went to secure the intended UH-60 extraction site (017022, on the road just west of the town). Predictably, the pair of Bradleys and their dismounts met a swift and sad
fate. Moving more slowly, keeping infantry dismounted and closely linked with the Bradleys, the rest of Romeo was able to move through and retake
the helo site.
Opfor simultaneously made its one major mistake of the first CPX: Steve Heaton, flushed with success and hearing he had just destroyed yet more US
troops at the helo site, decided to move, personally, to the site of the helos to get more film footage. There, he ran into Romeo, and was killed.
By about this point, Echo and Sierra had finally succeeded in taking the bridge and clearing out Team Bump (which had accounted for the better part
of a mech platoon) using an M-1 tank. [The tank was spared the SPG-9 ambush only because Opfor had seen the trucks and gave orders to wait so as
to shoot up the trucks, instead of plinking the tank.]
With a road route essentially clear (Opfor ambush would likely not kill enough trucks to make evac impossible, and Opfor's losses were very high),
the first CPX was ended. In all, it was a massive victory for Opfor: despite heavy casualties, Opfor had mauled the US force, and gotten plenty
of footage. The scenario was, however, a personal Total Defeat for Steve Heaton, since he got himself killed.
Loss Statistics:
Blue
UNIT
START
NOW ELIM EXITED
Inf Squad
4
0 4
0
MG Team 7.62mm 2
0 2
0
Inf Recon Team
2
0 2
0
M2 Bradley
13
5 8
0
Inf Team
13
9 4
0
Javelin ATGM
9
7 2
0
M1A2 Tank
4
4 0
0
M1060 Mortar Carrier 4
4 0
0
M981 FISTV
1
1 0
0
AH64 Apache Helo GP 2
0 2
0
Truck
8
8 0
0
UH60 Blackhawk Helo 4
4 0
0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 3839
Force Lethality Value, Now: 1985
Casualty percentage: 48
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 6.9:1
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 24.5:1
Red
UNIT
START
NOW ELIM EXITED
GAZ66 Light Truck 5
0 5
0
Inf Squad
8
0 8
0
SPG9 Team
3
1 2
0
ZU23
3
2 1
0
HQ Command
1
0 1
0
Medic
4
2 2
0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 560
Force Lethality Value, Now: 81
Casualty percentage: 85
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1:6.9
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1:24.5
We moved on to the second scenario: same situation, US has a Trackless Team.
After a short break, I asked if we were going to allow the teams to change plans at all based on things learned from the prior run of the scenario.
The basic agreement was yes, which both sides then altered a bit. The US canned its Apache support plan in favor of keeping the Apaches bouncing up
and down well behind their front line; and they shelled all the ZU-23 sites which Opfor had used in the previous game well before anything fired out of
them. (Only one was occupied.) Opfor decided to move Steve Heaton and his bodyguards to a point slightly north of Team Bump, approx 024024.
Nothing should have prevented Blue from learning from its previous mistakes; and, indeed, Blue put in a much improved performance the second
time around.
The downed troopers, left to slug it out from their entrenchment, steadily beat apart the surrounding Opfor squads. (I also added, after the first
round of Opfor squads was dead, a few small Opfor infantry units as pop-up targets; these too were demolished.)
Team Romeo rolled much as before, with a small hiccup from our sudden discovery that the LAVIII is not amphibious. Since my and Blue's planning
had assumed it was, I magic-moved the relevant units across the river. Romeo was somewhat delayed by this, but nonetheless moved to secure the LZ
(017022), and then the downed helo, in good time.
Echo and Sierra triggered Opfor's ambush, but it hit nothing, and the overwatching Apaches killed one of the ZU-23s. Opfor apparently had not
planned out where its units would actually go after the first ambush; Opfor slid into confusion for a time before sending units into essentially the
same defence as has been deployed against the mech company, except with an SPG-9 facing north out of the town, and a ZU-23 facing south. (The one
facing south was blinded by smoke and thus unable to affect Team Romeo's crossing.)
Sierra moved cautiously into the town, but got bogged down near the river taking on Opfor's SPG-9s and infantry. One section of Echo (2 LAVs and
infantry) moved north of the town and lost their vehicles to another Opfor SPG-9 (captured on camera by Opfor). Apaches fired rockets in support of
the LAV troopers; this and a few other rocket barrages provided Opfor with its only other useful video footage of the second CPX. This is when Blue
fell apart a bit again; the business of crushing the last few Opfor outposts on the east side of the river went pretty badly. It was not as
piecemeal as the previous CPX, but nonetheless costly.
In the West, Romeo evacuated all the downed helo troopers, leaving 2 squads of LAV infantry to guard the downed helo site. Opfor sent Team Bump
to retake the helo site as this happened; Team Bump wiped out the LAV infantry squads, but then was ordered back to its original Bump ambush
site. Thus Romeo was able to retake the downed helo without a fight and complete the casualty evacuation. The entire episode is a testament to the
confusion on both sides: Opfor and Blue had no idea where the other was, and as a result Opfor missed a golden opportunity to cause Blue a lot of
grief (by sitting on the downed helo and forcing Blue to retake the site in order to evacuate the LAV trooper casualties.)
By this point, Opfor had been badly bled, and Blue owned all the sites upon which it had lost troopers. Since neither side intended to move into
areas the other controlled, the game was ended.
If "learning is winning", Blue won the second CPX hands-down. The majority of the mistakes of the previous round were fixed, confusion was
largely absent, and they made good progress towards getting the close-in fighting in the town to work better as well.
In game victory condition terms, the second run was pretty much a draw or a perhaps a marginal victory for Blue. Blue had bled, but not as much as
before; and Opfor had bled a great deal for far less profit than in the first run.
Loss Stats:
Blue
UNIT
START NOW ELIM EXITED
Inf Squad
4 1
3 0
MG Team 7.62mm
2 0
2 0
Inf Recon Team
2 0
2 0
AH64 Apache Helo GP
2 2
0 0
Truck
8 8
0 0
UH60 Blackhawk Helo
4 4
0 0
LAVIII TCP (+)
2 2
0 0
HQ Command [-]
5 5
0 0
Javelin ATGM
13 12
1 0
LAVIII FOO/MFC (+)
1 1
0 0
Inf FO Team
1 1
0 0
LAV Mortar Carrier
4 4
0 0
LAVIII ISC (+)
12 8
4 0
Inf Team
9 3
6 0
LAV AG
4 1
3 0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 3476
Force Lethality Value, Now: 2720
Casualty percentage: 21
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 6:1
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 21.3:1
Red
UNIT
START NOW ELIM EXITED
GAZ66 Light Truck
5 0
5 0
Inf Squad
8 2
6 0
SPG9 Team
3 0
3 0
ZU23
3 1
2 0
HQ Command
1 1
0 0
Medic
4 1
3 0
Inf Team RPK
1 0
1 0
Force Lethality Value, Start: 580
Force Lethality Value, Now: 128
Casualty percentage: 77
Force Lethality Ratio, Start: 1:6
Force Lethality Ratio, Now: 1:21.2
Lessons Learnt:
FIBUA/MOUT is nasty. But you knew that already. More to the point:
- Move slowly. If you have vehicles with heavy weapons, keep them with your team, but stay dismounted, and try to keep the vehicles a bit back of
the infantry. Yes, it will be slow! But the units will live a lot longer too.
- If you can keep the enemy in front of them, tanks are pretty awe-inspiring against lightly-armed enemies. Blue lamented the lack of
tanks in its second run.
Look at all of your own, and the enemy's, mobility options. Blue's river crossing worked very well both times in part because they had thought of
the idea and Opfor had not. Equally, tough, Blue's river crossing worked well because it was carefully planned, overwatched, and covered by smoke.
Helicopters have a much easier life on the defence, when the enemy comes out to meet their fires. If Opfor had SAMs, the Apaches might have had
hard lives even in the second CPX. Providing useful overwatch without being blown out of the sky becomes a challenge.
Confusion is rife in CPXes! One of the biggest problems Blue had in clearing the eastern half of the town (Sierra and sometimes Echo) was that
Opfor's troops would shoot, but not be spotted. Thus Blue wound up shadow-boxing with Opfor's infantry and guns, forced to find Opfor by
letting Opfor take potshots. When Blue failed to keep close control of its movements, this disintegrated into chaos.
Casualty evacuation becomes a "Tar Baby". Blue found, in the second CPX, that any forward move it made entailed losses, which forced it to win
control of that small area in order to evacuate its losses. Thus, widely ranging operations soon generate many small submissions which further
disperse the effort. If your operations are tighter, your evacuation problems are simpler. [Some asked what the Tar Baby is. In American folklore, the Tar Baby was
used to trap B'rer Rabbit; since the Tar Baby was very sticky, when B'rer Rabbit tried to shake its hand, his hand got stuck. Then, attacking the
Tar Baby in various ways to get free, B'rer Rabbit is progressively entrapped by the goo.]
Opfor faced two separate missions in this scenario. Arguably, they would have been better served by concentrating more on one, or the other: kill
the rescue force, or kill the downed troops. The first time through, Opfor got away with both because of Blue's errors. The second time, they failed
to crush the downed force, and were ultimately unable to stop the rescue (though they caused it plenty of trouble.)
Lessons Learnt about Team Trackless
This is made very complex by the fact that Blue learned so much between the two runs of the game. Quite simply: If the order of running the
scenarios had been reversed, so would the overall results have been reversed.
Nonetheless, a few lessons can be drawn.
Against a lightly-armed opponent, there is nothing quite like a heavy, modern,
MBT. Opfor went to great lengths to try to create an ambush that might kill an M-1 by finding a place where they hoped to be able to plant
an SPG-9 shot into its rear. Blue gave them only one chance (which wasn't taken because of other considerations). Other than this, the firepower put
out by one M-1 was able to quickly demolish anything of Opfor's that wound up in front of the tank. Blue mourned the lack of M-1s at several points
in the second CPX, and the M-1s helped limit the scale of the disasters in the eastern section of the town in the first.
The key here is "in front of". Blue never lost sight of the need to be very cautious with the tanks for fear of losing them.
By contrast, the LAV-AG "pseudotanks" were much more fragile, and tended to die when they found themselves engaged at close quarters. The big gun
is nice, but the vehicle needs to avoid close combat.
In this specific situation - against a lightly-armed opponent - the heavy AT rockets (Javelins in TacOps) were largely useless. In theory they might
come in handy as bunker-busters (though not in TacOps); but if the purpose of the Medium Brigade is to be "light infantry with vehicles", the number
of Javelins is high. This is *not* the case if the Medium Brigade is likely to be committed against heavy forces. In that event, the Javelins
are essential to ensure the unit has the heavy AT firepower to survive.
Finally, (I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the general "Lessons Learnt" section), Bill Buckingham made a pertinent observation in the debrief:
"No matter how good fibua drills, this is still a badass mission".
Very true. After these CPXes, it seems much less odd that the US got a bloody nose in Mogadishu. A company team is, barely, up to the task as
presented in the scenario. A full battalion would be better, if possible, in real life.
James Sterrett & Corinne Mahaffey
jscm@voicenet.com