OPERATION VARIABLE III

[Gibsonm]

Looking forward to it.

[Gibsonm]

Ummm...as we start in the dark tomorrow, do we have the T-72 IR searchlights up and running yet??

No, but feel free to intimidate us with your white light driving lights.

[Tacbat]

It should be light enough by the 20 min mark to be able to use the T-72.

[Lt DeFault]

Seeing is for wusses. If you need some light, just watch for my muzzle flash. :biggrin:

Edited March 8, 2013 by Lt DeFault
Charlie don't speak Russian. :)

[Tacbat]

C'mon guys. Really?

[Tacbat]

Thanks to all for showing up for mission 5. Blue came very close to locating Red's HQ, but Red's luck held out. Onto mission 6 for next week, the last mission!

[Tacbat]

Here’s the AAR from mission 5.

We had a total of 20 players participate in the fifth mission for OPV3.

Blue: Assassin 7, Mouse, Sean, JHay, Optimus Prime, Itkatsu, Tango 29, Darkhorse, Brun

Red: RogueSnake, Volcano, Toyguy, Lt Default, TankHunter, Connaugh, Rotareneg, Gibsonm, Wombat, Dejawolf, Tacbat

Blue lost a total of 41 vehicles, while red lost 29.

Blue captured the following objectives:

Fissenknick 300

Heiligenkirchen 300

Starting positions:

About half way through the battle:

End state:

Both sides had irregular forces behind enemy lines that caused a bit of mischeif. Red's main push was in the west where they were successful in pushing out the buldge that Blue created in the last mission. Blue was able to make gains in the center and east and captured two objectives.

Heading into the final mission, the lack of equipment on the ORBAT's is starting to become an issue for both sides.

[Tacbat]

Boundaries for mission 6:

[Tacbat]

Mission 6 is a go for Friday night.

[Duke(911)]

Sir alarm clock is set Sir.

[Tacbat]

:cvcys:

[Volcano]

I had a lot of fun, thanks for taking the time to run the campaign Tacbat, and Sean for hosting it, and to everyone else that showed up. Good times!

Can't wait until the next one.

[Tacbat]

Yes, thanks all for playing, the CO's for CO'ing, and Sean for hosting. Your patience throughout was appreciated.

Blue did very well, and earned a minor victory as they were able to shift the map far enough to get a shot at taking out Red's HQ. Red however, managed to keep their HQ alive, so they prevented Blue from achieving a major victory.

AAR/ribbon to follow, then please feel free to start posting your AAR points.

[Gibsonm]

Much appreciated to all those in command, and support/organiser type roles.

[Tacbat]

For those members of the community who particiapted in at least one OPV3 mission, you may in good faith display the following ribbon to denote your participation in the campaign.

The ribbon is the standard Opertaion Variable insignia, with a black "3" on a while background to represent the third campaign in this series, and that it was fought during the winter time.

[RogueSnake79]

In the early months of the year 2013, men came together, and tried to kill each other through the internet

-RogueSnake, Op V Red CO

Great Job tactical bat! That was fun. Woodland, desert, and winter. Were we going next?

[Tacbat]

I let you know in 12-18 months.

Here's the height map for those that want to open the scenarios in the mission editor. The password for Blue is b1, and for Red it's r1.

Paderborn_rough.rar

[RogueSnake79]

Great job Blue team as well. You guys fought hard, and earned a victory.

[Assassin 7]

Thank you Tacbat for allowing me to CO. It was fun and exciting, I want to thank every who was on blue for your hard fighting and teamwork. I also want to thank my XO Mouse for his outstanding support. Also thanks to the red players for their fighting and teamwork which made this Campaign very challenging. Assassin 7 Blue CO out :gun:

[Tacbat]

Here’s the AAR from mission 6.

We had a total of 20 players participate in the sixth mission for OPV3.

Blue: Assassin 7, Sean, JHay, Optimus Prime, Itkatsu, Darkhorse, Brun, Kessler, Duke, Reaper61, Tacbat

Red: RogueSnake, Volcano, Toyguy, Lt Default, Connaugh, Gibsonm, Wombat, Dejawolf, 12Alfa

Blue lost a total of 65 vehicles, while red lost 85.

Red captured the following objectives:

Fissenknick 300

Heiligenkirchen 300

Bad Meinberg 500

Horn-bad Meinberg 500

Southern Approach 100

Starting positions:

About half way through the battle:

End state:

Both sides used their irregular forces to scout behind enemy lines. Both sides committed most of their forces in the west. Blue attacked north in an effort to locate and destroy Red's HQ, but were hampered by mobility issues in the woods and hills. In an interesting decision, Red attacked south and moved their HQ behind their main assault. Once Red's HQ was sighted by Blue, Blue shifted their attack to the west. Red was able to form a defensive ring around their HQ, and kept it safe until the end of the mission. In the center and east, Red pushed south and captured almost all of the objectives on the map in a counter-offensive.

Although Blue did not achieve a major victory by destroying Red's HQ, Blue was able to win a minor victory by pushing the map to the north, and getting Red's HQ on the map. Well done!

[Tacbat]

OK, AAR points. Here are a few that I've been tracking:

1. Quality Assurance with respect to the scenario design. I know I made some mistakes throughout the campaign that affected both sides, and for that I apologise. I'll have to be more thorough in testing the missions. I also need to read the rules myself to make sure they are 100% accurate (the HQ issue).

2. Side missions. Generally good, but the UAV mission could have been set up better.

3. Objectives. Need to make sure that they are even and fair for both sides at the beginning. One idea was to have an equal number of objectives already behind both side's front lines at the beginning of the campaign.

4. Campaign Objective. I'm going to rethink the HQ idea, and try to come up with a different campaign objective.

5. Levels of victory. Add conditions for Major/Minor victory or a draw.

6. Objective points when already under control. I'll probably reduce this from 50% to 25% next time.

7. Adjustment of some of the point values for defensive items.

8. CCP. Instead of one big one, I'm considering making smaller ones for each of the companies, as they all had their own support vehicles. This might make the CCP's more valuable.

9. No map updates. This slows things down, so if used, then number of missions should be increased to give more time to move the map.

10. Map size. Keep it east/west or north/south instead of a diagonal. The overall map size may need to be reduced, along with the unit count. One idea was to take a 20x20km map and divide it in half so you would play on two 10x20km chunks if a larger area of operations is desired.

Feel free to add your observations.

[Mousehold]

In addition to what you've already said, Tacbat...

1. I strongly disliked having an identical orbat for both teams. This was made worse by night missions and no map updates. I wouldn't do this again.

2. I disliked the night missions. I know I have read before on these forums from a developer or tester that Steel Beasts is not considered to be very good at simulating night time (mostly with regards to AI spotting), and that the time of day setting is really only there to have missions that begin at dawn or end at dusk. I'd suffer another night mission again if I really ad to.

3. I'm never playing without map updates again until they update the way it works. Blargh!

4. As well as allowing multiple CCPs per team, I would like to see the CCP be dynamic rather than pre-placed. It should a circle centered on the lead vehicle in the supply platoon, and should only function if all other necessary vehicles from the supply platoon are also within that circle.

5. Not only was the map size too big, but there were too many units in general. I don't think there should be more than one platoon of combat vehicles per player. As Blue XO, in command of Bravo Coy, I spent much too much time pushing pieces around the map rather than looking through a GPS.

6. That mountainous forest just off center of the map! I spent every mission wrestling with that thing. It was not fun, and it was made worse by the simulation's lackluster infantry, night time, and no map updates. Ugly terrain features like that make for good tactical choices, but it literally extended from one HQ to another parallel to our advance.

7. Six missions felt too long to me. I think I was 'done' after about the fourth one, but that might be because of my previous point.

8. Helicopters! Well, I actually have some good things to say about using them in a campaign, but I'll do that later. It will take some time to explain and probably deserves a separate thread.

9. I think there's not only a better way to handle objectives, but also reinforcements. It will take some thinking about though, and I've got to get going for now.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Mousehold

[Volcano]

In addition to what you've already said, Tacbat...

1. I strongly disliked having an identical orbat for both teams. This was made worse by night missions and no map updates. I wouldn't do this again.

Well, what makes Variable so fun is that neither side has an advantage of one type of vehicle over the other. It is up to both sides to decide what they want to purchase.

However, Variable I did have *some* different vehicles for both sides. The point is, some vehicles would have to be shared by both sides because there just isn't always enough of a certain type to go around. For example, the Leo 2E is pretty much unmatched at the moment with the power of its gun, so that would have to be on both sides. However, something like the M1A1(HA) and Leopard 2A5, which are similar capability, could be exclusive to one side of the other sure. Bradleys could be exclusive to a side and CV9035-DK could be exclusive to the other (but probably a few more maximum ORBAT numbers to the CV9035-DK though). But for the lesser quality stuff it would still have to be common, there isn't a way around that really until more playable vehicles are added to SB over time. I did like the T-72 vs. T-72 situation at the end though, that was a first in SB and was interesting (junk vs. junk).

2. I disliked the night missions. I know I have read before on these forums from a developer or tester that Steel Beasts is not considered to be very good at simulating night time (mostly with regards to AI spotting), and that the time of day setting is really only there to have missions that begin at dawn or end at dusk. I'd suffer another night mission again if I really ad to.

Not sure who told you that. SB simulates night battles just fine, as long as you understand why things behave a certain way at night. Where SB suffers at night is only in the appearance of night (no moon or stars etc). But beyond that, yes, AI spotting suffers at night but this is by design. Basically, in the day time the AI TC is scanning independently of his gunner. The TC can see out to the maximum visibility (using binoculars and such). However, at night time, all the "older" tanks (including the M1A1 and Leo2A4) have a much reduced spotting capability (at least down by 1/2) because they do not have a CITV like the M1A2 or Leopard 2E/2A5 does, which means there is no effective independent cone of vision that the AI TC is utilizing.

All this means that the overall spotting is realistically much reduced, because spotting at night on those older vehicles then directly revolves around whether the AI gunner can see something in his GPS (and the TC is looking through that same sight as well -- the GPSE). The TC can use NVGs if he has them, but these don't see very far, so essentially the commander on these older non-CITV tanks have much less situational awareness, they basically are spotting muzzle flashes only in that situation. Of course non-thermal sight vehicles are blind in that situation unless the enemy is right on top of them, or unless they see muzzle flashes. However, this is not a bad thing -- when you understand this then it means that if one side or the other bought tanks with CITVs (the Leo 2E), then it means that the AI TC's spotting was just as good at night as it is during the day. I just don't think anyone thought of this when buying vehicles.

Maybe it is better to think of night situational awareness this way:

• BEST: Vehicles which have an commander's independent thermal viewer (M1A2, Leo 2E, Leo 2A5...)
  
• GOOD: Vehicles which have a thermal sight, but not a commander's independent thermal viewer (M1A1, Leo 2A4, Leo 1A5...)
  
• WORST: Vehicles which have no thermals at all (T-72, Leo AS1...)
  

Personally, I liked the night scenarios, but I say that it should only account for one mission in the campaign, rather than effecting 3 missions (or maybe it was two). One night turn simulates that there is night ops during the campaign, but that both sides limited their activity.

Tacbat, maybe a cool idea might be to have it be a choice. On the turn that would be night -- ask both COs if they want to conduct night ops. If at least one of them says yes, then it will be a night scenario next. If both say no, then it will be the next morning.

I do think that some tanks could be added to the next one of course, Strv 122 and Leo 2A5 as an example, because they are the middle ground between the M1A1 and Leo 2E.

3. I'm never playing without map updates again until they update the way it works. Blargh!

Not sure what that means -- you just have to practice with it.

4. As well as allowing multiple CCPs per company, I would like to see the CCP be dynamic rather than pre-placed. It should a circle centered on the lead vehicle in the supply platoon, and should only function if all other necessary vehicles from the supply platoon are also within that circle.

That is not a bad idea. Maybe each M88/M113 Repair + Medic that are within, say, 200m meters from each other has a 500m (or less) diameter small circle placed around them at the end of the mission, and that side recovers what is in that circle.

[Volcano]

The ribbon is the standard Opertaion Variable insignia, with a black "3" on a while background to represent the third campaign in this series, and that it was fought during the winter time.

Interesting, so there was a reason for the different colors! :biggrin:

[Mousehold]

I believe the visibility in all missions was set to a meager 2000m in all 6 missions. Why was it set so short?