Slaughter at Al Amarah
A Combat Mission: Shock Force AAR
by Trash
Welcome to my Combat Mission: Shock Force After Action report. I've had a lot of fun playing this game and decided to show you people how a typical mission (or battle as this game calls them) plays out. Combat Mission: Shock Force is a tactical wargame in which a hypothetical invasion of Syria by Coalition forces takes place. It can be played in both WEGO turn-based and real time with pause.
The mission is to eliminate the unconventional troops that harass supply convoys on the highway. Their attacks have been mostly unsuccessful and the idea is that the resistance I will face is poorly trained and armed. Yeah right.
For a bunch of poorly led peasants they sure seem to have done a lot of damage to that overpass and the surrounding area though...
A number of important buildings have been marked as objectives, with particular importance given to the mosque that is seen as the insurgents' HQ. It's the building with the blue dome in the background.
I've been given two battalions of infantry with Strykers and a battery of mortars as backup with some snipers and machineguns for good measure. There are also supposed to be two Abrahms tanks that will show up later. Three of the Strykers have grenade launchers besides their machineguns.
The probability is large that I outgun the insurgents, especially with the Strykers. That means that the open space around the town favors me. However, once I enter the town that advantage will soon evaporate. I mostly worry about RPGs and IEDs.
I decide to split my troops in three groups. Group one will contain snipers, machinegunners and the artillery spotters. They will take up position on the overpass and provide fire support from up high.
Group two will contain all the Strykers with grenade launchers. These things pack a mean punch and I will use them to exterminate as many of the enemy as possible from a longer range before closing in. When they move in, I plan to use the infantry to assault and take the objectives in the west of the town.
Group three will directly move close to the objectives in the east and assault these with the infantry as soon as possible. When these are taken I intend the troops to push further into the city to occupy the mosque.
The mission gives me about one and a half hour to complete it. Another sign that resistance might be a bit more serious than the briefing suggests. Let's see.
Group two immediately makes contact and opens fire. During the turn I spot a lot of rockets flying by. The enemy seems to have quite a few anti-tank units. Not good.
The first casualties come from group three however. One of the Strykers is hit and the crew is taken out. Luckily the infantry aboard survives the hit shaken but otherwise ok. Further west, group two also draws heavy AT fire and the crews use smoke to conceal themselves. This works both ways, though, as my gunners cannot see the enemy anymore and cease firing.
And a Stryker from group two is hit and immobilised. Damn.
At least the Strykers from group one now reach the overpass and start pouring fire into the town. Enemy fire in the meanwhile continues to be directed at my troops, most of it rather imprecise. Luckily.
Group three draws close to the edge of town. I plan to assault the nearby houses with infantry while the Strykers provide overwatch. On the overpass in the meantime the Strykers continue to identify and eliminate nearby units.
As enemy fire seems to be weakening I dismount my forces from group three and let them take position behind a barrier. The smoke one of the Strykers deployed should help.
The assault on the eastern edge of town goes without a hitch. This seems almost too easy. Perhaps the majority of the insurgents are fighting at the western part of town?
Now that I´ve deployed my spotters I decide to take advantage of such a target rich environment and call in some artillery. This will take a few minutes to arrive, so I hope I won´t incur any more losses here in the meantime. The enemy does seem to be weakening but this doesn't have to mean that they are killed.
In the thick of it.
The guys on the overpass seem to have drawn quite a bit of attention to themselves. AT teams are at this point a priority target. I will not stand for any more wasted Strykers.
Group three is slowly inching towards the mosque. They seem to draw some fire but I can´t identify where it´s coming from at this time. On the overpass things are in the meanwhile as hot as ever with one of my snipers even getting killed.
Then as I push deeper into eastern part of the town my troops spot the enemy. And then more enemies. I quickly need to bring up some more units or those soldiers could be in trouble.
The enemy in the west seems to be slacking off. While waiting for the artillery to arrive I decide to move my Strykers closer and have the soldiers in them dismounted take cover in a conveniently placed ditch. Now all I've got to do is wait for the shells to start falling.
In the eastern part of the town all hell breaks loose. I quickly move a Stryker from group three up there to support the troops. It's a risky move with lots of RPG wielding insurgents around but my troops are getting shot up. At least we now have finally got the artillery striking. Ain't that a pretty sight?
This however isn't. My machinegun crew that I moved on a roof is eliminated by rather deadly fire from the mosque. Snipers?
Most of the enemy units there encountered earlier seem to have been eliminated or have broken off contact. I decide to move one of the Strykers even closer by to provide overwatch. This is a bit of a gamble since a single RPG or IED might take it out. Losses are however mounting and I need to spare my troops if I want to be able to push on. Not to mention that every soldier I lose costs me VP and gives these to my opponent. Victory is based on both VPs and objectives and a Yank's life is seemingly worth a lot more than a Syrian one in this game.
I decide to assault the houses where so many insurgents where hiding in the eastern part of the city. Luckily there is only one lonely insurgent left on his feet and he legs it. While this guy does manage an impressive sprint he's quickly taken down by my assault troops in a manner that Wyrmlord wouldn't approve of.
In the western part of the town I slowly start moving my troops forward. Time to conquer all those juicy objectives now that I pounded the enemy long and hard enough. I gather there are however some more insurgents on that roof so I call in some more artillery. The losses in the east have rattled me a bit and I'm also not sure how many enemy troops are keeping quiet in these buildings.
After that last insurgent was shot in the east I quickly surrounded and stormed the mosque. I was happy to notice it was filled with dead bodies and only one living insurgent who tried to get away and was quickly taken care of.
The last insurgent in the east gets it.
The final firemission of the day is now is now raining down in the west and I decide to start my assault in earnest. Apart from the impact of my own shells it has become almost eerily quiet.
My men fight their way through another objective, unfortunately a number of insurgents survived the firefight and ambushed my assault squad. Two more US troops down. I decide to use some overwhelming firepower to blast through walls and secure the other buildings killing several other remaining insurgents in the process.
Now that's an entry!
Finally some more toys to play with. These babies will great for smoking out the few remaining insurgents in relative safety.
Eh? Apparently the arrival of those beasts was all that was needed. The insurgents surrender. I can't say I'm too happy about my losses although it is nice to see the opposition came off far worse. In hindsight I should've called in the artillery a bit sooner and should've also poured more fire in the mosque when I was advancing towards it.
A majority of my losses were from the snipers in there that took out the troops I had stationed on the roofs. Moving the Strykers in the town was a very risky move but it paid off by providing some much needed extra firepower and overwatch. When I assaulted in the west I should've used more force at once. By moving piecemeal into one of the objectives the enemy managed to kill my assault party. Other than that, the original plan to make maximum use of my Strykers' firepower seemed to have paid off. I hope you people had fun reading this, I sure had playing it. |
