The Sharp End Gaming

Last night I worked on 2 AI plans for my Compound 14 scenario.  The first plan had waves of Taliban fighters moving aggressively to engage US forces and potentially outflank them.  The second plan sent them advancing on the board but doing so more cautiously and only engaging with ambushes at 300 meters or less. Both plans worked out about the same for the Taliban though they did manage to double the US casualties from 2 to 4 KIA the second time I playtested.  The pictures below are from my three playtests of the battle.  Adding AI plans created a degree of uncertainty for me, which as the scenario author was nice and did make the AI marginally tougher than when they were defending in place. I am still learning about the editor and developing a solid AI plan is more of a challenge than I thought.  In a few instances I mowed Taliban down in the open as they made for unrealistic objectives I had set.  The way the AI works without preset paths is neat. The...

I have recently discovered the NatGeo show Battleground Afghanistan.  The show is pretty compelling and I've enjoyed following Golf company and their missions inside Helmand province. I wanted to simulate one of the shows I watched so the post below is my attempt to do so. I am still learning how to use the Combat Mission Shock Force Editor so the scenario is rough. I don't have the Marines expansion for Shock Force so I used 2 platoons of Stryker Infantry in this Compund 14 mission. Mission :  A reinforced battalion of US infantry has been inserted into the Zamindawar region of Helmand province to take the fight to the Taliban.  Zamindawar also has numerous poppy fields that   the Taliban are using to fund their war against ISAF so destroying the Taliban's hold on the valley has a financial impact on their prosecution of the war against ISAF. After one week on the ground, Charlie company has pushed the Taliban back and identified Compound 14 as the location...

I fooled around with the editor this evening to recreate a short firefight I saw on television over the weekend on the NatGEO channel. A Nato convoy of 3-400 trucks is pushing southwest along Highway 1 from Kabul to southwestern Afghanistan with critical supplies for Nato's summer campaign outside Kandahar.  A platoon of US Army Stryker Infantry has been assigned guard duty along the route in a dusty village.  Choosing the highest ground in the village they occupy a former Taliban compound and wait for the expected attack. Taliban forces are marshaling within the district and streaming out of the hills to attack the compound and cut the road. Firebase Echo under attack.   More to follow...

This is the third map I've created through the scenario editor.  I've been focusing on learning how to create realistic looking terrain and deploying forces in the editor.  I've not fooled around with the AI for the scenarios yet so the defenses I am up against are very passive and predictable. Mission: A NATO platoon of German alpine infantry are tasked with seizing a suspected Taliban compound in a narrow valley in eastern Afghanistan. Enemy strength is unknown. The battlefield.  Nato forces are charged with seizing four objectives at the upper end of the valley.  Objective Echo, the small compound at the top of the valley is worth the most points. However, Baker, Charlie and Dog are worth more points combined. I deployed enemy forces around the objectives with some random unconventional combat teams in the lower valley. The approaches are mined with a mix of mines. I don't know if the Taliban, AQ use mines but these forces do. Enemy positions at the...

I have been working on a new map set in Eastern Afghanistan.  German elite, mountain infantry have been sent in to seize 4 objectives around a small village high above a valley.  The approaches are mined and the Taliban strength is unknown.  I am testing this map out with platoons on each side and may expand to a company level engagement.   The German forces have Tornado air support as well as artillery support. Picture below:   The machine gun team in the treeline was destroyed by an antipersonnel mine field when crossing the road to reinforce the attack on Objective Charlie. The German platoon deployed four sniper teams to provide long range support. German commanders call in a Tornado strike on an elevatedTaliban position near Objective Echo.  The German infantry in the treeline are suppressing hostiles near Objective Dog while smoke is popped to screen the armor from RPG fire.

I created my second map and scenario using the mission editor for Combat Mission: Shock Force this week. The scenario takes place in Iraq along the Euphrates river.  A combined German-US Strike Force has been sent in to mop up some Iraqi Fedayeen and possibly some terrorist cells using the Euphrates river to smuggle drugs, money and men to help finance and fuel the revolt against coalition forces. The convoy, poised to make it's final push towards the Fedayeen position, comes under fire almost immediately as it pauses to regroup. German machine gunners, center, engage enemy combatants roughly 300 meters away across this bend in the river.  Water isn't simulated in Shock Force (or at least I haven't seen it yet) and so I used mud to represent the river. The German infantry which moved to engage the enemy along the road is coming under fire from over 200 meters away. At this point I am indiscriminately firing on buildings I believe are holding enemy troops. The s...

I jumped into the editor for the first time and created a simple quick battle over a suspected WMD site.  Syrian special forces, regular army and a small unit of unconventional fighters hold the site against a combined US and German strike force.  I've played the scenario twice and each time the Allied force suffers heavy losses at the start but eventually brings it's superior firepower to bear on the various strongpoints.  Here is a screenshot of the battle: Allied and Syrian forces battle over a suspected WMD site.  

I am completely new to Combat Mission Shock Force.  I love the pace of play and the variety of scenarios.  If I need a Modern Combat fix I play this game first. Tonight I played James Allen's Al Hawl battle.  At first, you feel really good about things.  You are in command of a Stryker Infantry company and the enemy opposition is a company of tanks and a mechanized company.  I've played enough of these scenarios to know the Syrian armor isn't the best and in the open US armor can smoke them. What I didn't know, is that it is really hard to hit tanks that hang back in cities and use buildings as cover. I started out like this: Looking like a cake walk... I ended up like this: Less cake and more pain. And the result, a minor defeat with heavy losses in men and armor is definitely a black mark on my record. Wow. The painful truth.

Some Combat Mission: Shock Force gaming last evening.  The photo below shows US infantry in an over-watch position as another squad pushes towards an insurgent stronghold in the local hotel.