AAR: US: Washington - One battle

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tonystowe
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Joined: Apr 10 2006
Location: Tennessee

AAR: US: Washington - One battle

Post by tonystowe »

This AAR is focusing entirely on one combined arms operation that I orchestrated while playing as Washington. The game itself is still ongoing however discussion of the role of engineers has prompted me to post this.

Setting: Standard game, US: Northwest, with me playing as Washington. I won't waste your time with all of my goals for the region but I want to point out that militarily I began a slow buildup. The buildup would allow me to hold my eastern border with Idaho and Montana while I aggressively attacked Oregon.

The story:

Early on I had taken control of the military away from my minister and began the buildup of forces necessary to support a two front war. My initial tasks were to increase my reserves, establish an in-depth air defense against Oregon with both ground and air units and to relocate a portion of my navy to the Aberdeen Sea Port to support any conflict with Oregon. I also increased my ground defenses in the east against Idaho to ensure that I had ample forces to contain them should they become discontent with my plans against Oregon.

In preparation for the invasion of Oregon I immediately began conducting aerial reconnaissance the length of our border using an AWAC escorted by 2x F14's. One KC-135 patrolled their route in support of this ongoing operation. I quickly realized that the eastern part of Oregon was of no military importance so I adjusted my AWAC’s route to cover only the western 75% of the border. I used this coverage to laboriously assess Oregon’s defenses and to monitor his troop movements when possible.

While my military was slowly building I took the time to assess the terrain and possible routes into Oregon and it was obvious that a difficult path lay ahead to say the least. My first obstacle was a major river the length of our border that had only three crossing sites – each site having a military base and the Portland area sites having two airports and an additional military base near the Pacific. The other critical factor was the mountainous terrain that I was going to encounter during the entire battle and the Portland urban sprall just across the river.

At the start of the war I conducted the following operations:

Naval related.

1. Two Carrier battle groups, each with full aircraft compliments and supported by five SSBN’s with full missile load, moved into position off of the coast of Oregon 1/3 and 2/3’s distance. The initial mission for each naval group was to destroy all enemy naval assets (which turned out to be none); their secondary mission was to constantly punish the southern airbases, destroy the bridges and attrit all enemy forces moving along the MSR.

2. Oregon deployed a sizeable number of forces in the military base located northwest of Portland near the Pacific. While these forces were not an immediate threat I did intend to keep them busy and out of the main fight by using my northern Carrier battle group to attack that base. I believe it was on D+4 that I conducted an airborne/air assault landing onto that base with several of my original INF and Ranger BN's capturing it rather quickly.

Air related.

1. I anticipated that Oregon would have a sizeable air force to control its airspace as well as a complicated ground air defense network to ensure they maintained air superiority. I first countered this threat by building multiple air defense bunkers three hexes inside my territory along obvious air corridors. Additionally I positioned Hawk-III and Hercules AD assets throughout these areas in supporting positions. Stinger teams were also deployed to some degree.

2. As I felt that air superiority would be a turning point in this war I decided to build 18x F-14A, 18x F/A-18C and 18x F-15C aircraft in addition to the carrier battle group aircraft. To support these aircraft I built an airstrip just NE of the Vancouver Military Outpost. All were stationed at this new airstrip except for two of each aircraft that were deployed at the airstrip in the eastern part of my region.

3. The initial mission of each air wing was to ensure that we maintained air superiority and the additional strikes made by the carrier-based aircraft assisted greatly in accomplishing this goal. The secondary mission was to conduct strikes against ground targets to further attrit enemy forces.
Last edited by tonystowe on May 09 2006, edited 1 time in total.
tonystowe
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Posts: 462
Joined: Apr 10 2006
Location: Tennessee

continued

Post by tonystowe »

Ground related.

I built an air wing of 12x A-10 aircraft to support the ground operations and they proved themselves time and again as a formidable platform. The A-10’s were dispatched in groups of three with nine attending to the Portland area and the remaining three assisting the effort vic Umatilla.

My ground forces were complicated to track once they were in place causing me to have to stop the game on many occasions just to ensure that everything was going as planned. Regardless, I deployed my forces, as divisions (DIV) with identical TO&E in which three DIV’s, herein referred to as 1st, 2nd, 3rd DIV’s, faced Oregon in the vicinity of the two western crossing sites (Portland) and an additional DIV, herein referred to as 4th DIV, located at the eastern crossing site near the Oregon Umatilla Military Outpost.

Each DIV consisted of:

Combat - 3x M1, 2x AAAV7A1, 1x SP Mortar, 1x Linebacker
Cbt Spt - 2x AVLB, 2x LAV-AT, 1x Vulcan, 2x Supply Trucks
REGTARTY -4x M110A2, 3x Supply Trucks
DIVARTY - 3x M270 MLRS, 4x Supply Trucks

In addition to the above I had formed an air assault DIV, the 5th DIV, whose initial purpose was to capture the three power and one water industries just across the river and east of the cities of Portland and Gresham. The air assault DIV consisted of THREE: 3x Marines, 2x M56 Arty, 1x Stinger and 1x dragon team each requiring three CH-47 aircraft. The second wave to be inserted consisted of 2x Supply trucks and 1x M198 Arty onto each target.
-The goals of these missions were to take these resources from Oregon, stop reinforcements from moving east, and to cause Oregon to divert resources away from my main effort. My main effort, being the 1st, 2nd and 3rd DIV's would not move into Oregan until much later in the fight.

At the start of the war I had positioned the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd DIV’s as a blocking force to ensure that Oregon did not push into my region. I had assembled a reserve force behind this "Corps" consisting of the various startup units that I had (minus some units detailed later on). The 4th DIV was positioned to take Umatilla and the 5th DIV (ABN) was poised to take their initial objectives.

I had all but forgotten about the eastern front with Idaho, but to top it off, I had positioned a number of the original ground units into defensive positions. Idaho would not declare war against me until much later in the game and even then they didn’t have the forces necessary to push into my region. My air force located in that area pretty much stopped them before they even got started and I maintained air superiority over their northern territory during the course of the war. I chose not to enter Idaho as I did not want to see Montana and Wyoming moving against me to soon.
Last edited by tonystowe on May 09 2006, edited 2 times in total.
Draken
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Post by Draken »

Nice AAR! Brings back a lot of memories from beta times....

(Note to self: must play again NE US as Washington)
tonystowe
Colonel
Posts: 462
Joined: Apr 10 2006
Location: Tennessee

Post by tonystowe »

Draken wrote:Nice AAR! Brings back a lot of memories from beta times....

(Note to self: must play again NE US as Washington)
I am just starting on the actually "meat" of this post. The first two posts were to set the stage with the final coming in a little while.

Tony
tonystowe
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Posts: 462
Joined: Apr 10 2006
Location: Tennessee

Finale

Post by tonystowe »

The meat of this story:

All of my maneuver divisions had serious mobility problems due to the limited crossing sites, however the 1st, 2nd and 3rd DIV’s were simply ordered to maintain a blocking position. The immediate problem was with the 4th DIV who had only one bridge to cross the river and if the enemy dropped the bridge, or seriously defended it as I was expecting, then I would have lost all of those forces to a considerably smaller force. Or worse yet, end up having one fourth of my combat power out of the fight – which wasn’t an option - or tied up in meaningless fight. By saying “smaller force” I mean in terms of overall combined arms, ratio and combat support units; regardless Oregon had positioned several mortars, LAV-AT, Infantry and at least one M1 tank BN in the vicinity of Umatilla.

To counter the natural obstacle I made a command decision in which two combat support elements from the blocking force would move to support the 4th DIV’s operation. This change constituted moving 4x AVLB, 4x LAV-AT, 2x Vulcan, 4x Supply Trucks from the Portland area east in support of the 4th DIV AOR. By having three Combat Support elements supporting 4th DIV I now had the flexibility to cross the river quickly and efficiently regardless of what the enemy decided to do with the bridge.

Additional ground troops were transferred from around the region to assist with the crossing. Three M2A3 Bradley’s were sent to protect the CS units and fifteen of the original INF Garrison units where positioned near this area along with sufficient CH-47 helicopters to conduct air assault missions across the river. The INF would be inserted in groups of three with: One group inserted on the south bank of the three river crossing sites (3x sites) to provide far security, one group inserted along the road two hexes east of Umatilla, and the last group inserted along the road two hexes west of Umatilla.

Three A-10 aircraft deployed from Fairchild AFB (located near Idaho) and three F-14 aircraft deployed from Renton AFB in support of this operation. One KC-135 was patrolling just north of that combat area in an effort to refuel the aircraft.

The first river crossing site was conducted at the bend in the river south of the city of Kennewick and one hex east of the bridge. The second crossing site was stood up two hexes west of the bridge just north of the Oregon Agricultural industry. The third crossing site was stood up two hexes west of the second site. I want to add that if you want confirmation that your bridging unit has successfully bridged the river, press CTRL-G for the grid to show and watch the LOS increase by like three hexes once the process has completed. I am not sure as to why this occurs but it certainly is an immediately heads-up that its ready to be crossed.

The WAR was finally started and my naval forces moved into position and immediately began combat operations as I have previously outlined. My Corps-size element in the west near Portland performed its blocking operation with little effort while my air forces fought for superiority. Content that the Portland AO was handling itself I focused my attention on the river crossing – which was getting underway. I want to mention that my insertion of the 5th DIV (ABN) onto their targets caused quite a ruckus with the troops defending Portland and Oregon’s air forces. The re-supply effort took some damages but overall the entire operation was a success with the Marines holding true to their fighting history.

Much to my relief, and disappointment, the enemy forces near Umatilla did not attempt to neither defend nor deny me the use of the bridge located at the power plant just north of their location. The forces remained in the Umatilla base and defended it to the death while enemy reinforcements were caught up fighting my quickly moving air assault forces. Nonetheless, I went with my plan and successfully conducted my air assault operations of the five groups of Inf Garrison and launched my 4th DIV with much anticipation over the crossing sites. The inserted infantry BN’s on either side of the Umatilla base caused a great distraction of the Oregon forces and actually pulled one or two units out of the base. The 4th Division moved into weapons range and quickly removed the enemy from the area.

The fight continues in other regions now, however after the battle for Umatilla I turned the 4th DIV’s attention west and southwest in order to isolate and squeeze the Portland area. The 5th DIV (ABN) was moved in one effort south to capture the two airbases and further isolate Portland. Once surrounded I simply squeezed until Portland let out its last breath and fell lifeless.

Tony Stowe
Last edited by tonystowe on May 09 2006, edited 1 time in total.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

That's a good AAR. :lol: but i got to say don't start a trend on what u use unit wise because u end up using it in a mp game :wink: The less known the better.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
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