Bridgehead at Kharalyk - Combat Mission: Black Sea

I enjoyed playing it. The Russians get significant reienforcments but if you just drive them forward acrross the open valley and your opponent has pressed forward enough it will end badly. So Jpratt88 played it right and kicked my butt. Well done.

Against a competent opponent-and he was quite competent its pretty weighted in the US sides favor. I launched 4 helicopter attacks against the US forces and most of the ATGMs were intercepted by APS. Same with RPG's. Russian tanks and IFVs generally don't match up well with Abhram's and Bradley's and the Russians don't get a numerical advantage.

This was a h2h match so I didn't pre-plot airstrikes or artillery that would have hit the US forces on turn 1. From my understanding when playing h2h games you don't pre-plot artillery or air strikes to hit on the first turn. Perhaps if airstrikes and artillery hit the US forces as the entered the map it may have changed the balance.

As the Russians make sure to keep you Tungustas alive. The US has access to quite a bit of airpower.

Seems to be difficult for the Russian side. The US has overwhelming support and parity in numbers of men and tanks. The Russians have some good defensive positions, but there is enough room for the US side to maneuver and catch the Russians unprepared.

Not very well balanced for head to head, the US side has some really significant advantages. The APS system in particular ( aka the magic armor) means Russian tanks are the only hope of destroying Abrams tanks. Abundant US air support plus drones for spotting, and air defenses. Abrams tanks that see first and don't miss, and that are equal in number to the Russian tanks. Not enough long open LOS for the Russian to make use of some of his ATGMs that might defeat Abrams tanks.

With some minor tweaks however this could be a good head to head scenario. Take the APS off most or all US vehicles. Give the Russian a little more air defense. Change the force mix so the Russian has slight or moderate numerical superiority. The map is great.

Fun terrain with lots of choices to make. There are opportunities for some nice armour fights too.

It's not a totally one sided scenario, as the Russians have an upper hand in infantry quality, very good tank country to be crafty if the US player gets too cocky and heaps of forward observers to keep you honest with plenty of PGMs.

I carried the scenario basically because I outmaneuvered my opponent and rendered his forces while putting a goddamned amount of firepower over the objective area. Green US Army troops have lots of fancy equipment but fall like flies when facing a cadre of hardened veterans. I could probably have pressed far forward and get a more definitive result but to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to any more casualties. This was a pyrrhic victory!