UKRAINE STORM CMBS TOURNAMENT!

[PoorOldSpike]

RESULT JUST IN!
Raz Atoth powers to the top of the Leaderboard with a Tactical victory!



He bought no tanks but bled my Russians white with a potent combination of Tunguskas, AT-missilemen, Artillery barrages and infantry.

Endgame screen, all I could do was get a toehold on obj #2



Amazingly with 18 turns to go I had a good hold on all three objectives (below)
(tactical note- I didn't cram all my infantry into the objs in case they came under artillery bombardment, and kept some back in reserve in the woods)



Raz systematically bundled me out of all the objs and with just 5 minutes left I was out in the cold (below)..



So I counterattacked all along the line in the final few turns and had mixed success, here my T-90 failed by a whisker to get into obj #1 because its tracks had been damaged in an earlier encounter with a Tunguska and it could only move at a crawl through the woods..
(tac note- the smoke is the T-90's, popped to provide cover)



However I had better success here at obj #2, advancing down the red arrows and managed to get a foot in the door to keep it neutral.
(The vehicle-popped smoke is to provide cover, the smoke at top left is from my BTR-82, its smoke grenades fly to about 140 metres, too far if you ask me)
The ruined buildings are the handiwork of Raz's Tunguskas, they're like the devastating assault guns of WW2..


A smoke off view..



But my attack here on obj #3 broke down completely, I had to commit my troops without armoured support because their BTR-82 had been toasted (see earlier screenshot in this thread) and within seconds of moving off they came under crossfire (below) and soon retreated..


---------------------------------------------

TOURNEY LEADERBOARD (as on June 11th)
The other 3 games are still ongoing, tourney ends midnight June 30th unless everybody finishes before then.
(Note- if two or more players achieve the same level of victory like Raz and GazNZ's Tac victories, my score will be subtracted from theirs to tiebreak)

1- Raz Atoth: (Tactical victory 526-120) [tiebreak score= 406]
2- GazNZ: (Tactical victory 649-360) [tiebreak score= 289]
3- Eniced73: (Draw 419-414) [tiebreak score= 5]
4- Hunter2: (Draw 377-411) [tiebreak score= minus 34]
5- Tumatauenga: (Minor defeat 319-432)
6-
7-
8-

"There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported"
-(KJV Bible: Ecclesiasticus 44:8)

[raz_atoth]

Having played POS three times before, i knew he's an armor heavy guy. That's why i decided to gamble everything on one card and went ahead without tanks. I figured in the end all i'm risking is some public humiliation. And becoming theblitz's laughing stock

My force pick consisted of two reinforced companies, each of the 6 platoons having 1 Corsair and 2 RPG teams attached. 2 platoons were motorized, with 6 conscript MT-LB serving as battlefield taxis. Additionally, i purchased no less than 4 Tunguskas. I don't know about you, but i absolutely love those things. From what i can tell, it has a (slight?) spotting advantage over armor. While the 30mm guns aren't enough to penetrate a T90, it does a fairly good job at trashing the tank's precious subsystems, thus seriously reducing it's combat value. On top of that it does a terrific job at bringing down buildings. You have some tough infantry in a building holding your advance? Send the Tunguskas and problem solved

Now, i knew from the start i had no chance of reaching the objective zones first. Not with POS's armor roaming around. Thus my plan was to steadily advance, using the woods as cover for my infantry, and try to flank his tanks and positions.

The game didn't started well for me. I decided to risk rushing a MT-LB towards the middle city; i figured having some AT assets in the area to scare POS's tanks while my infantry advanced might pay off. A minute later my MT-LB was burning after coming toe to toe with an enemy T90. Still, POS's advantage only lasted for a couple of minutes. He send a lone T90 wolf on my left flank, no doubt trying to hunt down my tanks This approach might have done wonders, if only i had tanks Instead, the hunter become the hunted and 2 minutes later it was a burning wreckage after a RPG team fired a round in it's rear armor. Pretty much at the same time - in the middle - one of my Tunguskas exited the woods and spotted an enemy T90. It started to fire and managed to immobilize it. POS can correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm under the impression it also took out some critical subsystems - including the APS. With the tank immobilized and thus just a siting duck, it was fairly easy to sneak up another RPG team in it's side and take it out. At this point, POS pulled back his remaining tanks and tried to hold on the positions he controlled with his infantry. Still, slowly but certainly my numerical superior infantry pressed forward and with 5 minutes before the countdown i had control of the 3 objective zones. Of course POS wasn't happy with me claiming all the objectives so he pressed forward with 2 mins before the countdown. He already did a fine job covering this particular phase of the battle in his previous post, so i won't go into to much details. The game finished with me holding two zones, with the third one neutral.

In the end my tactic of spamming the map with AT units paid off, although ,granted, it wasn't an action packed game. Still, my goal was to capture the objective zones with as few casualties as possible and in the end i pretty much managed to achieve it. Many thanks POS for organizing this tournament!

[PoorOldSpike]

..i purchased no less than 4 Tunguskas.From what i can tell, it has a (slight?) spotting advantage over armor. While the 30mm guns aren't enough to penetrate a T90, it does a fairly good job at trashing the tank's precious subsystems, thus seriously reducing it's combat value...

Yeah I noticed.. and even though your Tung is only shooting at one of my tanks in this screenshot, it's shells have got a "shotgun" spread pattern that also clobbers the other tank and buildings at the same time..





The Tung's message to all its enemies is short and simple-
"You like Jesus? You're gonna meet him!"

[PoorOldSpike]

RESULT JUST IN!
Artyman Tactical defeat



He concentrated against the major objective and kept it neutral..




Several of his infantry-carrying BMP's had the bad luck to run into my 2x T-90's early on..



But he pressed home his attack into the main village with 2x Bulats (foreground)..


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TOURNEY LEADERBOARD (as on June 12th)
The other 2 games are still ongoing, tourney ends midnight June 30th unless everybody finishes before then.

1- Raz Atoth: (Tactical victory 526-120) [tiebreak score= 406]
2- GazNZ: (Tactical victory 649-360) [tiebreak score= 289]
3- Eniced73: (Draw 419-414) [tiebreak score= 5]
4- Hunter2: (Draw 377-411) [tiebreak score= minus 34]
5- Tumatauenga: (Minor defeat 319-432)
6- Artyman: (Tactical defeat 10-511)
7-
8-

"There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported"
-(KJV Bible: Ecclesiasticus 44:8)

[PoorOldSpike]

AT missiles are deadly in modern warfare, here my Tunguska is seemingly nicely tucked away, shielded by a house and treetrunks, but Alwaysfish's unspotted missileman squeezes one (circled) through a gap..



..and nobbles the Tung. I don't know what type it is but it looks very scary, it might have a tandem warhead..


Tactical note- although the Tung is pretty good at spotting vehicles, it seems to be no better than anything else at spotting infantry

[PoorOldSpike]

RESULT JUST IN!
Alwaysfish Minor defeat



I held minor objs #1 and #3 to scrape a minor win.




At major obj #2 (below) I chickened out of sending my 3 x T-90s (foreground) against his solid missile wall lest they suffer the same tragic fate as my burning Tunguska (left), and settled instead for keeping the objective neutral..

[PoorOldSpike]

"There are people on the pitch, they think it's all over! It is now!"

RAZ ATOTH WINS THE TOURNEY!

FINAL LEADERBOARD

1- Raz Atoth: (Tactical victory 526-120) [tiebreak score= 406]
2- GazNZ: (Tactical victory 649-360) [tiebreak score= 289]
3- Eniced73: (Draw 419-414) [tiebreak score= 5]
4- Hunter2: (Draw 377-411) [tiebreak score= minus 34]
5- Tumatauenga: (Minor defeat 319-432) [tiebreak score= minus 113]
6- Alwaysfish: (Minor defeat 68-265) [tiebreak score= minus 197]
7- Artyman: (Tactical defeat 10-511)
8- Slingload: disappeared after 2nd turn

"There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported"
-(KJV Bible: Ecclesiasticus 44:8)

This hallowed trophy will be posted to Raz on wings of angels!


See posts 28, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43 in this thread to see him in action..:)

[A Canadian Cat]

Sweet. Congratulations Raz

[PoorOldSpike]

DEBRIEFING

If anybody's got any comments, feel free to post them here.
My own opinion is that the 3-objective map format was very successful because it meant there were often three mobile battles going on at the same time, and they were near enough to each other to allow units to be quickly switched between them as the changing tactical situation required.
However I think I should have made the map much bigger around the edges so there'd be plenty of space for flanking actions.
And on a bigger map players would have had to realistically buy enough transport to get troops up to the front line quickly.
On the small touney map I simply ran most of my infantry up to the front on foot which was a bit unrealistic.

Not so successful was my decision to make it a Basic Training level battle, because at that level there was no 'fog of war' as each player had too much info about his opponents units exact status.
Also, I'm still not sure if BT improves the game's spotting mechanics.

With hindsight I think I should have made it a 'Small' or 'Medium' sized battle instead of 'Tiny' so that we'd have more meat on our forces with enough purchase points to be able to also afford aircraft and big arty barrages etc.

[A Canadian Cat]

Cool concept though and I liked reading about the games.