Los
10-25-2006, 03:55 PM
Yes I know it's not an infantry simulator. I have been writing some infantry based JRTC scenarios (I will post asap) and running through them multiple times just to see what's the best COA in various conditions working with the program as written. The good news is even with Infantry in SB Pro PE still representing some sort of stilted "tanker-crunchy" perspective for them there's still a lot you can do. BTW I should disclose that I spent most of my adult life under a rucksack and conveying myself around via LPCs (leather personnel carriers) so perhaps I'm am slanted!
Hopefully some of these thoughts will help incorporate more meaningful infantry operations into their designs.
ORGANIZATION OF INFANTRY UNITS
Inf squads are limited to no more than 6 guys. This is fine for mech dismounts but for other inf types a plt org may be a bit more complex. For say Air Assault platoons units you can use something like 6 x 4 or 5 man squads and 1-2 4 man squads that are carrying a 7.62MG instead of 556 to represent plt MG teams. This gives the platoon an anti-infantry reach out to 1000m. You can also do the same with MILAN teams and remove MILAN capability from the actual sqauds (leave them w/ AT4s) Playing with the ammo options allows you leeway. BTW if you create a bradley platoon you can't modify wat the dismounts are carrying per perhaps someday the squad that defaults to the Milan can perhaps also dismount to 7.62 instead of 5.56 MGs? (M240b v M249)
DEFENSE
WRT defense it's a much easier proposition particularly when you have a good handle of scenario design. Without inf going in buildings (I know that's changing any day now) the use of prepared positions near buildings is key. The other major tool to use to construct a good prepared defense is spawning.
Certainly in MOUT environments you can get creative with fighting position placement to mask the positions from the suspected avenue of approach and get flank shots at close range. If you combine this with spawning at last minute particularly in constrictive or built up terrain then you have a pretty good prepared defense and ambush. Particularly in cities it is good to have some of you squads not emplaced and roaming or what not. Unfortunately most of this good stuff has to be set up in the scenario editor so can't be done on the fly.
Make sure you use the Fire control feature to dial down infantry fire ranges or just set to 0 until you are ready to engage (You can highlight a number of selected units at once with mouse drag right click and then turn on fire too. This way you don't get someone engaging at too far a range and blowing everything. You can tie IEDs to regions around your defense also though I've yet to see an IED damage an armored vehicle they may kill inf. Likewise small minefields or other obstacles covered by fire and concealed from the enemy avenue of approach until the last moment can raise hell too.
ON THE ASSAULT
Attacking is a much harder proposition and requires some careful attention, or else you look away and find all your guys dead. When designing dismounted infantry assaults, you can do the player a favor and start the inf up close concealed from the enemy and already moving into some sort of final attack position. Create small 2 man squads (say one per platoon) to represent a point element that's out ahead. You get faster movement via march routes (not bounding overwatch there) but be careful.
Once you are ready to attack use Assault routes instead of engage routes in order to keep the attack going. Even though "turn on smoke generator" is not greyed out as an option on the menu I've yet to see a squad do it, so you have to use on call arty for smoke. Always find a concealed route to the OBJ if you can for dismounts or use smoke. Infantry attacks are costly due to a lack of some articulation in the game model so any time you can attack from a flank (like in RL) use it especially against bunkers. Mass is key for assaults, you got to zoom the map into 8x to move your guys because of squads are 100-200m apart they'll die piecemeal as opposed to keeping your platoon together so they mass their fire. Of course you have to balance that against the threat of artillery again just as in RL.
A word of caution I've found that when assaulting bunkers, if you set the route to assault right up to the bunker, often the squad will fire it's AT4 at point blank range and in doing so kill not only the bunker, but a least half their own guys! So experiment with what's the best range for bunker busting and do not approach closer than that. Note: In RL I have seen experienced troops go right up to bunkers very close (Like 15m or less) and crack an RPG round right into the opening so it can be done if you are foolhardy enough-but not in this sim.
Attacks require careful attention and a smart mix of fire support, obscurants, and maneuver. Conduct the final assault from a flank or rear with your smallest possible element while everyone else blasts away. Sometimes as the scenario designer you might want to attach a section or platoon of light armor to an assault to both help them along (and give you something to shoot at!)
AIR ASSAULTS:
An air assault, even a small platoon sized one to establish a blocking position behind an enemy you are assaulting, can be a nice feature to a scenario and looks very cool when done right. Unfortunately we only have the HINDEs but if you’re willing to suspend disbelief and pretend they're anything else they are quite versatile. You can create blackhawks chinooks, or HIPs out of HINDEs by setting their ammo to zero and setting their fire control to off. Default flight control height is normal so be sure to set that to treetop. Also make sure it remains as so during the routes. At the LZ have the helo drop to NOE and then hold their by setting the next route as conditional based on time, say 10-12 seconds for troop extraction or 1-2 minutes for vehicle extraction (Hummers).
Make sure to create a region out of the LZ and set the infantry (2-3 squads per bird) to spawn if that helo reaches waypoint X. Then set the wait time on the spawn for say 4 seconds for the 1st squad 8 seconds for the next squad and so on until everyone offloads. That will give you a nice looking assault landing. I highly suggest that in the scenario editor you give the landed squads a movement/engage waypoint off the LZ to a nearby attack position under cover. This then shows the squads moving off the LZ and gives the player time to assess the situation without being overwhelmed.
Always have some gunships covering the assault. Air assault units like the 106th GA, 82d, 101st, and FJ bns etc all make a lot of use of attack helos. You can set pairs of attack helos away from the action to Spawn if Trigger x is set and then use an event to call in pairs for fire support. A nice touch.
WARNING If you are going to try and do an assault landing on a LZ covered by unsurpressed enemy fire it will be a very short misison. Even the HINDEs are very fragile to small arms fire. They do a good job killing vehicles but are less effective suppressing troops under cover/bunkers.
Some minor or major Infantry Wish list items any of which may enhance inf a bit (understanding it takes aback seat to vehicles) In no order...
New units and equipment:
1. Dismounted engineers that can breach
2. Dedicated machine gun teams
3. Mortar teams!!!
4. Smoke grenades (tab key)
5. Hand grenades (used automatically when within x meters of enemy including a little explosion graphic)
Some capability features:
A. Ability to set options (ammo level etc) on dismounts to mech platons)
B. A partisan/guerilla camo skin that can select several different civilian looks?
C. Ability to deploy forces in bulding (Coming)
D. Ability to set an assault waypoint into a building to have your guys go in there and fight it out (coming?)
E. Infantry mortars even if only in direct lay /direct fire mode to lay HE and smoke.
F. The ability to set additional arty platoons (another way around E. above) to arrive based on events trigger conditions.
g. Ability to set covered arcs for squads/MGs or click with mouse in normal view to designate DF TRPs for that unit.
If I've laid out any erroneous info I'm sure you guys will set me straight. Cheers...
Los
Hopefully some of these thoughts will help incorporate more meaningful infantry operations into their designs.
ORGANIZATION OF INFANTRY UNITS
Inf squads are limited to no more than 6 guys. This is fine for mech dismounts but for other inf types a plt org may be a bit more complex. For say Air Assault platoons units you can use something like 6 x 4 or 5 man squads and 1-2 4 man squads that are carrying a 7.62MG instead of 556 to represent plt MG teams. This gives the platoon an anti-infantry reach out to 1000m. You can also do the same with MILAN teams and remove MILAN capability from the actual sqauds (leave them w/ AT4s) Playing with the ammo options allows you leeway. BTW if you create a bradley platoon you can't modify wat the dismounts are carrying per perhaps someday the squad that defaults to the Milan can perhaps also dismount to 7.62 instead of 5.56 MGs? (M240b v M249)
DEFENSE
WRT defense it's a much easier proposition particularly when you have a good handle of scenario design. Without inf going in buildings (I know that's changing any day now) the use of prepared positions near buildings is key. The other major tool to use to construct a good prepared defense is spawning.
Certainly in MOUT environments you can get creative with fighting position placement to mask the positions from the suspected avenue of approach and get flank shots at close range. If you combine this with spawning at last minute particularly in constrictive or built up terrain then you have a pretty good prepared defense and ambush. Particularly in cities it is good to have some of you squads not emplaced and roaming or what not. Unfortunately most of this good stuff has to be set up in the scenario editor so can't be done on the fly.
Make sure you use the Fire control feature to dial down infantry fire ranges or just set to 0 until you are ready to engage (You can highlight a number of selected units at once with mouse drag right click and then turn on fire too. This way you don't get someone engaging at too far a range and blowing everything. You can tie IEDs to regions around your defense also though I've yet to see an IED damage an armored vehicle they may kill inf. Likewise small minefields or other obstacles covered by fire and concealed from the enemy avenue of approach until the last moment can raise hell too.
ON THE ASSAULT
Attacking is a much harder proposition and requires some careful attention, or else you look away and find all your guys dead. When designing dismounted infantry assaults, you can do the player a favor and start the inf up close concealed from the enemy and already moving into some sort of final attack position. Create small 2 man squads (say one per platoon) to represent a point element that's out ahead. You get faster movement via march routes (not bounding overwatch there) but be careful.
Once you are ready to attack use Assault routes instead of engage routes in order to keep the attack going. Even though "turn on smoke generator" is not greyed out as an option on the menu I've yet to see a squad do it, so you have to use on call arty for smoke. Always find a concealed route to the OBJ if you can for dismounts or use smoke. Infantry attacks are costly due to a lack of some articulation in the game model so any time you can attack from a flank (like in RL) use it especially against bunkers. Mass is key for assaults, you got to zoom the map into 8x to move your guys because of squads are 100-200m apart they'll die piecemeal as opposed to keeping your platoon together so they mass their fire. Of course you have to balance that against the threat of artillery again just as in RL.
A word of caution I've found that when assaulting bunkers, if you set the route to assault right up to the bunker, often the squad will fire it's AT4 at point blank range and in doing so kill not only the bunker, but a least half their own guys! So experiment with what's the best range for bunker busting and do not approach closer than that. Note: In RL I have seen experienced troops go right up to bunkers very close (Like 15m or less) and crack an RPG round right into the opening so it can be done if you are foolhardy enough-but not in this sim.
Attacks require careful attention and a smart mix of fire support, obscurants, and maneuver. Conduct the final assault from a flank or rear with your smallest possible element while everyone else blasts away. Sometimes as the scenario designer you might want to attach a section or platoon of light armor to an assault to both help them along (and give you something to shoot at!)
AIR ASSAULTS:
An air assault, even a small platoon sized one to establish a blocking position behind an enemy you are assaulting, can be a nice feature to a scenario and looks very cool when done right. Unfortunately we only have the HINDEs but if you’re willing to suspend disbelief and pretend they're anything else they are quite versatile. You can create blackhawks chinooks, or HIPs out of HINDEs by setting their ammo to zero and setting their fire control to off. Default flight control height is normal so be sure to set that to treetop. Also make sure it remains as so during the routes. At the LZ have the helo drop to NOE and then hold their by setting the next route as conditional based on time, say 10-12 seconds for troop extraction or 1-2 minutes for vehicle extraction (Hummers).
Make sure to create a region out of the LZ and set the infantry (2-3 squads per bird) to spawn if that helo reaches waypoint X. Then set the wait time on the spawn for say 4 seconds for the 1st squad 8 seconds for the next squad and so on until everyone offloads. That will give you a nice looking assault landing. I highly suggest that in the scenario editor you give the landed squads a movement/engage waypoint off the LZ to a nearby attack position under cover. This then shows the squads moving off the LZ and gives the player time to assess the situation without being overwhelmed.
Always have some gunships covering the assault. Air assault units like the 106th GA, 82d, 101st, and FJ bns etc all make a lot of use of attack helos. You can set pairs of attack helos away from the action to Spawn if Trigger x is set and then use an event to call in pairs for fire support. A nice touch.
WARNING If you are going to try and do an assault landing on a LZ covered by unsurpressed enemy fire it will be a very short misison. Even the HINDEs are very fragile to small arms fire. They do a good job killing vehicles but are less effective suppressing troops under cover/bunkers.
Some minor or major Infantry Wish list items any of which may enhance inf a bit (understanding it takes aback seat to vehicles) In no order...
New units and equipment:
1. Dismounted engineers that can breach
2. Dedicated machine gun teams
3. Mortar teams!!!
4. Smoke grenades (tab key)
5. Hand grenades (used automatically when within x meters of enemy including a little explosion graphic)
Some capability features:
A. Ability to set options (ammo level etc) on dismounts to mech platons)
B. A partisan/guerilla camo skin that can select several different civilian looks?
C. Ability to deploy forces in bulding (Coming)
D. Ability to set an assault waypoint into a building to have your guys go in there and fight it out (coming?)
E. Infantry mortars even if only in direct lay /direct fire mode to lay HE and smoke.
F. The ability to set additional arty platoons (another way around E. above) to arrive based on events trigger conditions.
g. Ability to set covered arcs for squads/MGs or click with mouse in normal view to designate DF TRPs for that unit.
If I've laid out any erroneous info I'm sure you guys will set me straight. Cheers...
Los