AAR: Modern War "The First Battle"

[Rabbit]

The first scenario of Modern War is a very challenging one that most veterans players will struggle with, let alone new players. I decided to create an AAR for it to help people who are struggling with it see a path to victory.

In the interest of generating an AAR, I took the liberty of using my knowledge of where the enemy was so that I could take a relatively direct route towards the objective hexes as opposed to trying to first clear the northernmost building hexes. Normally, you would want to be more careful about putting your troops into Ground Mode and also moving/assaulting through those building hexes to make sure they are unoccupied. Skipping that saved me a turn or two of movement, which allowed me to finish the scenario a little early, but more importantly I hope it made the AAR a little easier to understand. Using my prior knowledge of the enemy's position gave me a decisive advantage in getting the victory, but my goal was to show how a victory could be obtained, particularly in taking Objective hex [9,4] which is the crux of the scenario.

(Also a note about the images below: the yellow lines denote movement, the red lines denote fire, and the red lines with the triple arrows denote assaults.)


TURN 1 (see image below):

I moved the M-1 to hex [6,2] and fired my two smoke charges into hexes [7,2] and [7,3]. I changed the loads for all of my M-203s to 40mm Can. I dropped my three radios so that they wouldn’t slow down my troops. Then I moved the troops forward.




TURN 2 (see image below):

I fired a smoke round from one of my M-203s in hex [6,0] into hex [8,3]. Note, I haven’t fired my M-1’s main gun yet, which means it is at 100% effectiveness. I moved my 2-man squad carrying an SMAW into protected hex [8,2] (from where it can start firing into hex [9,4]).




TURN 3 (see image below):

I fired a smoke grenade into hex [8,3]. The 2-man squad in hex [8,2] carrying an SMAW fired at Objective hex [9,4]. I moved my second 2-man squad carrying an SMAW into protected hex [8,2]. I moved everyone else into hex [7,3]. My M-1 sat idle this turn.




TURN 4 (see image below):

I fired a smoke grenade into hex [8,3]. Both of my 2-man squads carrying SMAWs fired at Objective hex [9,4]. The fire from the SMAWs caused the enemy troops in hex [9,4] to become disrupted.

With the enemy in hex [9,4] disrupted, I decided to try an assault against that Objective hex this turn. Towards that, I moved my squads in Ground Mode from hex [7,3] into hex [8,3], but leaving my leaders behind in hex [7,3]. I then assaulted hex [9,4] using the squads from hex [8,3]. I got lucky with the assault, eliminating five enemy troops with no losses (my SMAWs must have had a good effect!).

I moved the leaders in Ground Mode from hex [7,3] into hex [8,3]. My M-1 moved up a hex into hex [7,3].

Note: the manner in which you take hex [9,4] is really the key to this scenario. I have found the best way to do it is to get the enemy squad in hex [9,4] disrupted and then move all of your men via Ground Mode and with the cover of smoke from hex [7,3] into hex [8,3] and then immediately assault hex [9,4] all in one turn. Anyone who sits in hex [8,3] during an enemy turn is going to get pummeled by enemy fire! If you fail to do this in one quick turn, then you might consider restarting the scenario again as you’ll be hard pressed to get a victory.




TURN 5 (see image below):

The enemy hadn’t fired from hex [9,5] yet, so they are still concealed. I fired twice in an attempt to draw them out, but to no avail, so I assaulted anyway and was fortunate to win the assault, eliminating 8 troops.

I moved my leaders in Ground Mode into hex from hex [8,3] into hex [9,4]. This instigated the enemy sniper in hex [10,5] to open fire on hex [9,4]. I moved the one of my SMAW squads from hex [8,2] into hex [9,5]. This instigated the remaining enemy troops in hex [10,5] to open fire on hex [9,5]. I moved the other SMAW squad from hex [8,2] into hex [8,3]; it couldn’t go any further because it was disrupted.

I moved my M-1 to hex [7,5]. I had planned on using it against the enemy troops in hex [9,5] once I disrupted them, but I unexpectedly won the assault, so now I plan to use the same tactics against hex [10,5] - that is, I will move the M-1 within one hex of [10,5] after I have disrupted the troops in that hex. I’m waiting until they are disrupted to lessen the chance that an RPG can take out my M-1.




TURN 6 (see image below):

I took some heavy losses from the enemy’s fire during their turn. I fired twice from hex [9,5] into hex [10,5], causing the enemy squad to disrupt. I moved my M-1 to hex [9,6] and fired once into hex [10,5].

I decided to go for broke and assaulted hex [10,5] from hex [9,5]. I lost three men, but was able to kill off the enemy leader. I moved my leaders from hex [9,4] into hex [9,5] and was able to rally all but two squads.

I then moved the remaining SMAW squad from hex [8,3] to hex [8,4].




TURN 7 (see image below):

I fired my M-1 three times into hex [10,5]. I was able to rally one of my two pinned squads.

My squads in hex [9,5] fired twice into hex [10,5]. I wasn’t able to pin the enemy squad, but I assaulted anyway, taking three losses to their one, once again failing to take the hex. Since I hadn't used my leaders during the assault, I used them to rally all but two squads.

I moved the remaining SMAW squad in Ground Mode from hex [8,4] to hex [9,5].




TURN 8 (see image below):

I fired my M-1 three times into hex [10,5]. I tried two rally attempts and was able to rally one of my two pinned squads.

I assaulted and was able to kill two enemy troops while suffering no losses, but my assault was again repelled. I was able to rally all but one of my pinned squads.

Rather than assault with disrupted units, I opted to use my remaining movement points to fire into hex [10,5] with the hopes that some of my troops will become undisrupted by next turn.




TURN 9 (see image below):

I fired my M-1 three times into hex [10,5]. Most of my troops had undisrupted. I rallied my two pinned units.

I assaulted and was able to kill the two remaining enemy troops, thereby claiming the final Objective hex.




Victory Dialog (see image below):

Victory
The key to the victory was being able to take the first Objective hex without having any units linger in hex [8,3]. It also requires a bit of luck too, and I happened to get unusually lucky in my assaults in this AAR. Your chances of winning this scenario decrease rapidly if you encounter bad luck early on, particularly if you get hung up in hex [8,3].




Hope that helps!

Best,
Rabbit

[TheBigRedOne]

Nice work! Seems like you had a little bit of Lady Luck on your side with those two successful assaults!

Text book way of assaulting that fortified position. Excellent write-up.

Questions: What rounds did you use with the M-1 and the SMAW?

[Nikb]

Alan has beaten me to the punch. But I have to say it...nice work. Really enjoyed the write up. What was even better was I learnt a few things on the way.

Excellent. :)

[BluntF]

Wow I really suck at this game

P.S. Please try Kamdesh and let me know if I am really terrible or it is just hard

[Rabbit]

Nice work! Seems like you had a little bit of Lady Luck on your side with those two successful assaults! Text book way of assaulting that fortified position. Excellent write-up. Questions: What rounds did you use with the M-1 and the SMAW?

I switched both to the vehicle only rounds. That is, I switched the SMAW to "83 HEAA (Vehicle Only)" rounds and the M-1 to "120mm AT/TK (Vehicle Only)" rounds.

Quoting the user guide, "Certain modern weapons have a high degree of specialization as anti-tank weapons, but are not as effective against infantry targets. These weapons are flagged as having an increased lethality against vehicles and targets in Bunkers and Pillboxes. When used against such targets, the lethality of the weapon is doubled. This feature is indicated by an ampersand (&) after the Fire value."

I honestly don't re-read the manual often enough. I recently made a post with the same text above - and while I remembered those weapons were effective against infantry in bunkers, I had already forgotten that the lethality would be doubled.

This means the M-1's vehicle only rounds would still have a penetration factor of 250, but the lethality would be doubled from 10 to 20 (which still isn't all that high).

However, it also means the SMAW's vehicle only rounds would have a penetration factor of 125, but their lethality would be doubled from 75 to 150 (which still is extremely high).

Also remember that the fire value is doubled if you a firing from an adjacent hex, so you can double those lethality values again (e.g., I believe the SMAWs would have a lethality of 300) if you can fire those weapons from one hex away.

This seemed to play out for me as the M-1's cannon occasionally would disrupt the Iraqis or get a kill, but its low lethality value meant it rarely caused much impact. On the other hand, the SMAWs were my primary means of inflicting damage upon the Iraqis. Apart than the SMAWs, I relied heavily on assaults to cause damage since none of my other weapons could penetrate the bunkers.

[jmlima]

Wow I really suck at this game

P.S. Please try Kamdesh and let me know if I am really terrible or it is just hard

Kamdesh on which side?

[BluntF]

American

[Rabbit]

The Kamdesh scenario you mentioned gives a good impression of being overrun by a large number of enemy troops, doesn’t it? The tough thing about that scenario is that if you encounter setbacks early (for instance, losing several of your vehicles), it has a large snowballing effect. This means it will feel like you are doing worse than you really are, since a few improvements in your defenses will likely go a long way in turning the tide.

I know people often say it on this site, but I recommend periodically re-reading the User Manual while you play, as you will likely pick up very useful tidbits each time you check through the manual. For instance, one helpful tidbit for the Kamdesh scenario - once you have an enemy unit pinned, unless he is with a leader, all you need to do is shoot at him once per turn to keep him pinned, and even just small arms fire will do the trick. This means you might primarily use your leaders to fire single shots at pinned and demoralized units, which will allow you to use your main firepower to try and disrupt and pin other enemy units. And if you are able to kill off enemy leaders, it will also go a long way towards making it so the enemy cannot rally his pinned units. Pinned units can't advance towards enemy positions, so the enemy won't be able to assault you with any units that you are able to pin. (The exception to this is when the enemy uses his Fanatical Charges. These will cause pinned units to rally and become unpinned. All you can do is simply try to withstand them and then re-pin the enemy units again afterwards.)

A big key to this scenario is in picking your targets very carefully. Initially, you will want to focus on the units that can cause the most damage to you; that is, the RGPs and the satchel charges. If you can disrupt or pin the enemy units carrying those weapons, it will reduce their weapons lethality by half! It’s even better if you can pin those units before they can close in on you, so that they cannot fire upon you or they are forced to do so from a distance.

Also target hexes where the enemy has stacked units, as that makes it easier to rack up kills. (The converse is true as well, try not to stack your units, unless perhaps a particular hex is at risk of getting assaulted.)

And keep the elevation in mind as well. Three of the American hexes are elevated, which makes them much harder to assault. You might consider retreating to the higher ground if you begin to get overrun.

Lastly, pay attention to which way your vehicles are facing and who can shoot at them from the rear. They are particularly vulnerable to rear shots, so try to turn your vehicles so that the enemy can’t get a rear shot in with an RPG.

Hth,
Rabbit

[jomni]

In my first play I was afraid to move the Abrams near the objectives for fear of an RPG attack. But looking at your AAR I guess that's what the smoke dispensers are for. Block the enemy's field of view during his turn. :)
Those Vehicle Only rounds don't do much. But agree that the SMAW is the best weapon to Disrupt / Pin the enemy.

One major mistake I did during my first playthough is I did not mass my Marines before assault. I all the previous squad battles games, I don't stack a lot of units in a hex as it meas more will get hit by enemy fire. But unlike the previous Squad Battles, you are organized into fire teams instead of squads so a one unit assault vs. an Iraqi squad is suicide. Looks like staking them won't hurt so much.

I ended up with a Draw. I will replay the scenario soon.

Also noticed that the Quality special option is turnded on. I don't usually turn that on but I think that's necessary for this game right?

[TheBigRedOne]

In my first play I was afraid to move the Abrams near the objectives for fear of an RPG attack. But looking at your AAR I guess that's what the smoke dispensers are for. Block the enemy's field of view during his turn. :)
Those Vehicle Only rounds don't do much. But agree that the SMAW is the best weapon to Disrupt / Pin the enemy.

One major mistake I did during my first playthough is I did not mass my Marines before assault. I all the previous squad battles games, I don't stack a lot of units in a hex as it meas more will get hit by enemy fire. But unlike the previous Squad Battles, you are organized into fire teams instead of squads so a one unit assault vs. an Iraqi squad is suicide. Looks like staking them won't hurt so much.

I ended up with a Draw. I will replay the scenario soon.

Also noticed that the Quality special option is turnded on. I don't usually turn that on but I think that's necessary for this game right?

I typically play with the Quality Loss Modifier on, as it adjusts units abilities based on their morale level. Higher morale a fairly sizable advantage, as you would expect. An A morale unit should probably fight better than a C or D morale unit. It simulates a higher level of training and unit cohesion and how that would play out on the battlefield.

Something to think about.

The SMAW is a nice weapon but keep tabs on its effectiveness. Joao made it less 'reliable' in order to simulate the fact that you don't have endless amounts of rounds for that particular weapon. Three shots in one turn and it's effectiveness is usually down below 70%. At that point it's best to hold fire and allow the 'rest and refit' to take effect, that is as long as your unit isn't being fired on in the enemy's turn.

You can switch the M-1's round to HE, which should have a much greater impact on infantry targets. The SMAW also has multiple rounds which can be adjusted based on your target.