UKRAINE STORM CMBS TOURNAMENT!

[PoorOldSpike]

Incidentally, I forgot to mention that every competitor who finishes his game will get this 'Ukraine Storm Competitor's cyber-medal', which will be pinned to his 'Achievements' banner in his profile in true Blitz tradition.
It represents the Ukrainian flag, a blue sky over wheatfields-



(Noobs: if you click your name or anybody elses, the 'Achievements' banner will come up, then roll your mouse over it to get a text readout of the name of each tourney, it'll say 'Competitor' or 'Winner')
For example this is my banner, I've been awarded 6 'Tourney Competitor' medals over the years but never actually won a tourney (sniffle), (don't bother rolling over it, it's only a static screenshot)-

[PoorOldSpike]

Eniced73's Ukrainians shout to the Russians in the house "You come out or we come in!"
The Russians choose to sit tight so two Ukrainians go in and flush them out (inset) into the fire of their mates LMG-

[PoorOldSpike]

FIRST TOURNEY RESULT IN!
Hunter2 gets a Draw



I scored more objective points but he racked up big points for killing all 4 of my main battle tanks to balance it out.

Endgame screen viewed from Russian side
Hunter2's Ukrainians are blue, my Russians are red.
Objectives #1(minor) and #2(major) are neutral (Grey flags) and I control #3(minor) (Russian flag)-



Endgame, obj #1 (neutral)
Hunter2 only lost one tank (blue circle) in the early battle for #1, but I lost three tanks (red circles), leaving me with just one tank left in the game, and from then on I assumed I'd lost and went into defensive posture for the rest of the game, my infantry had this precarious toehold on the obj at the end.
With hindsight I should have assaulted the two Ukrainians with my superior manpower but I thought there might be more than two in there, and without any armoured support for my boys I chickened-




Endgame, obj #2 (neutral)
My infantry and an APC maintained a toehold even when I lost my last tank (red circle)-




Endgame, obj #3 (Russian)
Hunter2 never contested obj #3 and i was able to walk this depleted inf platoon and an APC in unopposed and get enough points from it to scrape a Draw-

[Hunter2]

I decided early on to let Spike have one of minor VP objectives uncontested. My hope was to occupy one of the minor objectives with all of my forces and then use that as a springboard into the major VP. I was thinking that I could maybe change the orientation of the battlefield and catch Spike off guard and force him to redeploy on the fly. Unfortunately, almost all of Spike's armor went to the same objective I had settled on as my rally point. While I knocked out 3 T-90's in exchange for 1 Oplat, they shredded 2 platoons of infantry before they died. Without that manpower, it was impossible to clear the woods around the objectives. If Spike had realized my manpower weakness he would have taken my original objective easily. All in all, I think I was lucky to come away with a draw. Like I said to Spike, he had organized forces on all the objectives and except for my armor, I had only survivors.

[Hunter2]

Btw....playing on Basic Training, didn't really seem to change the spotting much. Just because the icons can be seen didn't mean everyone could shoot at spotted targets. Also, the men cowered or panicked as usual it seemed. The armor crews didn't seem to bail as fast. I don't know if the simultaneous firing of his T-90 and my Oplat was the result of the game setting, but it seemed right. Two modern tanks moving head to head. Probably equal quality crews, spotted, lased, and fired at the right moment.

[A Canadian Cat]

With hindsight I should have assaulted the two Ukrainians with my superior manpower but I thought there might be more than two in there, and without any armoured support for my boys I chickened-

^^^ this is one of the things I love about this game - you have no idea what the other guy has three quarter of the time because of FOW. Brilliant.

Great story behind the battle.

[A Canadian Cat]

Btw....playing on Basic Training, didn't really seem to change the spotting much. Just because the icons can be seen didn't mean everyone could shoot at spotted targets.

The difference is that your units don't need to find targets on their own - since they already know. I have no idea how your T80 vs T90s fire fight actually played out but I can use a hypothetical version of it to point out how the borg spotting can shift things off balance. Like I said I cannot comment your actual engagement but lets take the extreme end of possibilities:

Your T80 cannot see any T90s itself but infantry nearby have spotted the T90s so now the T80 has spotted them too. While it is correct that from behind the house the T80 cannot shoot at the T90s, as soon as the T80 moves and breaks cover the crew can open fire with no delay because the have all the T90s spotted. Lets also say, just for the example, that the T90 had spotted some infantry but not the T80 and none of the T90s friendlies have spotted it either. So the situation is that the T80 knows exactly where every T90 is and the T90 hasn't got a clue about the T80.

The T80 breaks cover and gets LOF on a T90 - bang dead (since this is knife fighting distance). The second and third T90 crews know something is up. T80 reloads, second T90 - bang dead. By now the third T90 has an idea of where the T80 is. Seconds tick by and the T90 crew spots the T80. To bad though because the T80 already knew exactly where the T90 was and all it needed to do was reload and bang dead T90.

I wish to point out again that I am not trying to recount your exact engagement only a hypothetical to show that Borg Spotting does make a difference. Now consider this same situation without Borg spotting (with differences highlighted):

Your T80 cannot see any T90s itself but infantry nearby have spotted the T90s so now the T80 has an idea there are enemy tanks near by but not a precise number or location. The T80 from behind the house cannot shoot at the T90s so it has to break cover to find them. The T80 moves and breaks cover the crew can start looking for the T90s. Lets also say, just for the example, that the T90 had spotted some infantry but not the T80 and none of the T90s friendlies have spotted it either. So the situation is that the T80 has an idea there are enemy tanks but is not sure exactly where or how many and the T90 hasn't got a clue about the T80.

The T80 breaks cover and gets LOF on a T90, the crew spot the T90 pretty fast because they had an idea it was there - bang dead (since this is knife fighting distance). The second and third T90 crews now know something is up. T80 reloads and huts for another T90. Eventually they see it. Meanwhile the T90 crews are also looking for the T80 they now know is there. At this point it is two crews to one racing to see who spots whom first but the T90s have rounds in the barrel and the T80 crew is still waiting on the reload. With this game there are many possible out comes at this point - including two more dead T90s but the chances of that are pretty low a much more likely out come is this; the second T90 crew spots the T80 then a second later the T80 crew spots another T90 then seconds after that the third T90 crew spots the T80. All hell breaks loose as the two T90s fire on and destroy the T80.

[A Canadian Cat]

I also want to be clear if you guys are having fun playing Basic Training then have a good time. This is a game after all and fun is good. I am in no way trying to diss you or your fun. All I want to do is make sure that people reading this understand how Borg spotting works and how it changes the game. But again fun is fun and that is the point.

[PoorOldSpike]

..I also want to be clear if you guys are having fun playing Basic Training then have a good time. This is a game after all and fun is good..

Speaking for myself I've decided I don't like the BT level.
It was my idea to use it for the tourney to see if it helps smooth the spotting mechanics, and it's too early to tell but it was worth a try.
But even if it does help spotting, the huge downside of BT is that you know the exact status of an enemy unit by clicking on it, which is highly unrealistic.
For example if your tank takes a hit but is still alive, the enemy can click on it to see if your main gun is still working!
And he can click on your infantry squads and AT teams etc to see their casualties, ammo quantity, experience level, suppression etc.
The next levels up from BT are Veteran, Warrior, Elite and Iron; I've played them all and I think I like Veteran best, the manual says- "Veteran: Most people familiar with the Combat Mission game system will prefer this setting. It is a fair balance between realism and fun.."

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The 'star' of this tourney is the map which is producing exciting games for two reasons-
1- There are 3 objective areas, and each one is the same distance from each player, meaning you have no idea which ones the other guy is going for, and in what strength.
2- There are plenty of woods for concealment so players don't have to worry about being paralysed by the threat of longrange fire, and can therefore freely manoeuvre in and around the woods for a highly mobile fluid game.
(All the woods have a 'light forest' floor so vehicles can move through the trees)

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Reminder: the Tourney ends at midnight June 30th (four weeks from now) so there's still plenty of time for people to enter if they're still undecided. The Russians have got their eyes on Ukraine, can you stop them?

Russian Cold War era tactical lecture-



If Putin isn't stopped in Ukraine, he might eventually have to be stopped on the Rio Grande-

[PoorOldSpike]

TOURNEY LEADERBOARD (as on May 31st)
Only Hunter2 has finished so far out of the 8 competitors.

1- Hunter2 (Draw 377-411)
2-
3-
4-
5-
6-
7-
8-

The first number (377) is the guys endgame score which is the total points from objectives held and enemy units killed, and the second number (411) is my score.
Score numbers will be used to tiebreak if more than one player Draws (or gets a Minor/Tac/Maj/Tot win)

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