Tactical Battle Series: Armor Operations

The Tactical Battle Series is a set of scenarios played out on a single map utilizing the same objectives for each side for each scenario. The set contains the following installments: Airborne Operations, Armor Operations, Line Operations and finally Combined Operations. The scenario design is for the Allies to have a 3:1 superiority over the Axis forces with each mission lasting 48 hours.

On Day 2 of each scenario the Axis will receive a full complement of their starting force (another regiment if they started with a regiment, etc.) There are multiple reinforcement lists for the Axis side so that these additional forces will arrive at one of three possible entry points: far north, far west or far south. These three points will be randomly selected by the game engine.

Tactical Battle Series: Airborne Operations

The Tactical Battle Series is a set of scenarios played out on a single map utilizing the same objectives for each side for each scenario. The set contains the following installments: Airborne Operations, Armor Operations, Line Operations and finally Combined Operations. The scenario design is for the Allies to have a 3:1 superiority over the Axis forces with each mission lasting 48 hours.

On Day 2 of each scenario the Axis will receive a full complement of their starting force (another regiment if they started with a regiment, etc.) There are multiple reinforcement lists for the Axis side so that these additional forces will arrive at one of three possible entry points: far north, far west or far south. These three points will be randomly selected by the game engine.

PACOPS Type 93 Flamethrower

Both Type 93 and Type 100 flamethrowers were used by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy (SNLF) during World War II, although during the later war period their use devolved into an ad hoc anti-tank capability that met some marginal success on the battlefield. The type that is being modeled for the PACOPS estab is the Type 93 model.

The original concept was to field these weapons in flamethrower companies comprised of between 6-20 units, and these companies were organized into engineer regiments within a typical infantry division. The base unit contains 20 soldiers with 20 flamethrower weapons, with an infantry value of 20, a recon value of 4 and an engineer value of 2 (based on guidelines set forth in the estab editor manual).

PACOPS Type 89 15cm Cannon

Only 150 of these artillery pieces were made from 1929-1945, however it did take its place as the main gun for IJA heavy artillery units. Classified as a Fortress Gun, it had a firing weight of 10,360kg and could fire a HE or AP shell some 19km (it also could fire shrapnel and illumination shells, however those are not being modeled in this build). It could fire approximately two rounds per minute and had a muzzle velocity of 875m/s.

For this effort I will clone the American 155mm M1A1 gun and edit various parameters in order to mutate it into a plausible weapon for the Japanese forces. For the aper and the bombard ammunition I will use the existing JPN Type 1 HE Shell. Several sources reference that the shell was considerably heavier than that used in other 150mm howitzers; however I have not located a specific reference to the shell weight to make a credible change to the cloned data.

Race to the Volga AAR Soviet Union

Chris over at The Sharp End Gaming has provided me and Doug from Cry Havoc! an early build of his new Stalingrad scenario, “Race to the Volga”. This is a companion scenario to “Operation Hubertus” that Chris released on his blog on Monday. Doug has typically played these as the Germans, and I have been playing them as the Soviet Union.

I am in command of the Soviet 62^nd Army with 9,351 personnel, 55 armored fighting vehicles, 1,281 non-armored fighting vehicles and 153 guns with a combined anti-personnel firepower rating of 3,519, anti-armor of 31,474, bombardment of 666 (pure evil), armor of 348 and an infantry value of 4,809. These 113 total starting units are facing a German press into the city that I must repulse or delay as much as possible to collect the Victory Point locations my forces are presently arrayed upon.

Oперация Тернопіль

This is the first playable mission that I am releasing for Iron Front: Liberation 1944. The scenario is a fictitious engagement between a German Panzer Company (ten Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B King Tiger tanks) and a platoon of Soviet anti-tank forces that consist of four AT teams, three 76mm ZiS-3 guns and a small anti-aircraft platform.

Oперация Тернопіль is Russian for Operation Ternopil, which is a city in the western Ukraine where the village of Ivachev is near and what the scenario map Ukraine Ivachev 1944 is loosely based upon. The scenario begins on Sunday August 5, 1944 at 5:35 AM. The Soviets have a small tactical advantage in that the sun is rising behind them.

Progress Report and Alpha Build 1.0

Happy New Year! While things have been somewhat quiet on the blog for the last several days due to the holidays, a great deal of work has been going on behind the scenes with estab files, force lists, scenarios, briefings and graphics. A change log will be detailed at the bottom of this post to identify some of the work done in the Estab Editor.

I will also be posting the first alpha build of the PACOPS mod which contains battle specific Force Lists for use in the Scenario Editor. A sample mission that mimics the landings by US Marines on Green and Red Beaches on D-Day, June 15 1944 and the tragic counterattack launched by tanks of the Imperial Japanese Army’s 9th Armored Regiment is also included.

PACOPS: Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank

The 9th Armored Regiment of the 1st Tank Division was reassigned to the 31st Army in April 1944 and sent to Saipan where it was effectively annihilated and not reorganized. Commanded by Colonel Tadashi Goshima, the unit consisted of 31 Type 97 Medium Tanks (modeled below), 4 Type 97-Improved Medium Tanks and 12 Type 95 Light Tanks.

Just after midnight on June 16, 1944 the Japanese forces made a large counterattack against the US 6th Marine Regiment on the beachhead near Charan Kanoa and were soundly repulsed due to inexperience in mounting tactical armored engagements. The Marines were able to concentrate their firepower on the assault and were augmented by naval gunfire.

Operation Hubertus Part I

Chris over at The Sharp End Gaming has been kind enough to fire me off an early Christmas present of sorts, that being a work-in-progress build of the cornerstone scenario of his Eastern Front estab work for Command Operations: Battles from the Bulge. The settings chosen for this attempt are realistic orders delay, historical weather, standard reinforcement schedules and normal supply for both sides.

I am playing this scenario as the Soviets, in control of the 62nd Army which is arrayed on the west bank of the Volga River with several artillery units on the east bank providing indirect fire support. There are a total of 13 objectives during the scenario, and each one is active from the start until the finish with many of them being a mix of occupation/completion point accumulations.

Force List Progress

Work began this morning creating battle specific force lists for the United States Marines, focusing first on V Marine Amphibious Corps HQ, the 2nd Marine Division and in particular the 6th and 8th Marine Infantry Regiments that landed on Green and Red Beaches on D Day June 15th, 1944. These forces came ashore to the north of Afetna Point and the 23rd and 28th regiments landing further south.

Fortunately a great deal of the ground work for the Marines (1944 version) had already been accomplished when I created the I Marine Amphibious Corps HQ previously (which serves as the backbone of the current Marine Corps 2.0 mod). Additional work needs to be done as some of the sources I have referenced seem to have minor conflicts in data.

Type 89 Grenade Discharger

Known as the “knee mortar” by Allied forces in the Pacific Theater, this light mortar weapons system was capable of firing multiple munitions from 50mm HE to smoke and incendiaries. It entered service in 1929 as a replacement to the Type 10 unit and was operated by a crew of three soldiers. The Type 89 was able to attain a rate of fire of approximately 25 rounds per minute.

The version used for PACOPS will be based on the 5cm leGrW 36, and the ammunition will be cloned from the 5cm GrW HE ammunition with adjustments to some parameters. These weapons will be added to the existing Japanese basic infantry company establishment, and may at a later date also be added to a newly created mortar section or other units that had organic light mortar.

PACOPS Type 38 Arisaka Rifle

The Type 38 rifle was designed by Colonel Arisaka Nariakira and first saw combat action in Japan’s war with Russia in 1905. Influenced by the German Mauser design, over three million weapons were built in several variations. The 6.5X50 mm cartridge was perceived to be weaker than other available at the time so the Japanese Army moved towards the Type 99 rifle with its more powerful 7.7X58 mm cartridge.

The Type 38 I am currently modeling in the game is the “standard issue” 1.280 mm (50.4 in) version, however this might change with additional research into Japanese combat formations, especially when it gets down to the creation of specific force lists for actual battle. At this length it was the longest rifle of the war primarily due to Japan’s emphasis on bayonet training at the time.

Trial by Fire

The 21st Marine Infantry Regiment is making an amphibious assault across the Lower Rhine in an attempt to secure three key highway objectives. They land on the north bank of the “Island” approximately 1 km from their first objective and are screened on the south bank by the 1st Battalion 9th Marine Infantry Regiment (supporting 3rd Division HQ elements).

The three landing battalions arrive a day ahead of their regimental HQ and support units which must come from far west of the area of operations due to their heavy supply trucks and other vehicles requiring roadways. Ammunition can become scarce during this time so it is important to utilize the landing force quickly and decisively to avoid being pinned down on the “beach”.

PACOPS Type 99 Arisaka Rifle

The Type 99 rifle was meant as a replacement to the Type 38 and was based on the German Mauser design. It is considered one of the strongest military bolt action rifles ever produced, but late war models were made of lower quality materials and fabricated through rushed production resulting in weapons that were noticeably inferior to their original model.

Produced at nine different locations and in four variants, over three million rifles were built between 1939 and the end of the war. The weapon weighed 3.7kg, was 44 inches long and had a barrel length of 25.87 inches. It fired a 7.7X58mm Arisaka cartridge at a muzzle velocity of 730 m/s and had a five round internal box magazine with a stripper clip.

Piercing the Gothic Line Axis AAR

This custom made historical based scenario by Chris over at The Sharp End Gaming pits elements of the Axis 4th Fallschirmjäger Division against elements of the Allies 85th Infantry Division is the inhospitable confines of the Il Giogo Pass during the Gothic Line Offensive which took place from August 1944 to March 1945. This scenario starts on September 12th and lasts approximately 2 ½ days.

I start with a force of 1,421 personnel, 101 non-armored fighting vehicles, 36 artillery tubes, an anti-personnel firepower rating of 829, an anti-armor rating of 533, a bombardment rating of 241 and an infantry value of 317. This force is situated on all the scenario objectives except for the principal one, Il Giogo Pass which is worth 25 Victory Points (16.7 on occupation and 8.3 on completion).

PACOPS – Pacific Theater Operations

With the resurrection of the Marine Corps modification to its current build 2.0, naturally further development would tend to lend itself to a following of history. In order to immediately use the Marines in the Airborne Assault game engine as presently represented by Command Operations:Battles from the Bulge, an alternative history backstory was developed that consisted of the fall of Japan and the Soviet Union.

Work is presently underway to bring the Marines to the Pacific and those efforts center on the creation of maps, establishments and force lists. Once those core components are complete, then the painstaking task of developing accurate battle scenarios will take place.

Pressure Cooker

The following after-action report is for a new scenario I have created for Command Operations: Battles from the Bulge which utilizes my Marine Corps 2.0 mod which must be installed for the scenario to work (please refer to the download links listed below). The scenario was designed with the current public beta build for Command Operations which is 4.5.264.

The scenario is a battalion sized engagement of semi equal forces that are tasked with seizing a ferry crossing in the Renkum area of operations. Both sides are supported by a tank battalion and an engineer contingent. As with the Operation Thunderclap scenario, this is an alternative history story line set in the year 1947 after the defeat of the Soviet Union.

Pressure Cooker Beta Test

Pressure Cooker is a new scenario I am working on that utilizes my Marine Corps 2.0 mod for the game. In order to play this scenario, you will have to have previously installed the mod. The beta test scenario folder contains three files which will need to be placed in their respective game folders (map files go in the map folder and scenario files go in the scenario folder).

This scenario is setup on a cropped version of the Renkum map that is only 3 km X 3 km and the only crossing point is a ferry that is primed. There are no bridging units; however each side has an engineering unit available from the start that should assist in securing/denying the crossing depending on which side you decide to play as.

Arnaville Bridgehead

Chris over at The Sharp End Gaming will be releasing another scenario for Command Operations: Battles from the Bulge entitled “Arnaville Bridgehead”. I have the pleasure of getting an early build of the mission and an opportunity to playtest it and post an after-action report (below). This AAR will be a post-as-I-play effort, and may take a few days to complete.

Operating under General Patton’s Field Order No. 10 to XX Corps, elements of the US 5th Division are focused on a bridgehead over the Moselle River with orders to cross the water obstacle at night, opposite Arnaville and seize the commanding heights over the river. Opposing them are elements of three German Panzergrenadier divisions including the tough 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division.

Operation Thunderclap

With the fall of Japan is the spring of 1943, many units in the Pacific Theatre of operations were re-tasked to the European Theatre after the stunning collapse of the Soviet Union during Battle of Stalingrad. The subsequent arrest and execution of Joseph Stalin breathed new life into the German offensive as they rolled onward to capture Moscow and turned their sights on China.

It is into this cauldron of chaos that the United States Marine Corps is introduced into the Netherlands Operations: a combination of harassing attacks to disrupt German momentum on the Eastern Front. Overconfident and overextended, many Axis forces are ripe for easy picking, especially on the semi-ignored Western Front. It is from here that the Allies will make a thrust into the Rhineland.