Ukrainian Blues - Battle Of Donetsk Airport

[Tomas]

Hi guys,

so I've just created scenario.

The Ukrainian Blues
Date: October 14, 2014
Battle Location: Donetsk Airport, Ukraine
Battle Type: Ukrainian assault vs Rebel defend

Description: The battle takes place during the Donbass War, as both Ukrainian pro-government forces and self-declared Novorossiyan state clash to take over control of numerous cities.

Despite the ceasefire agreements, the battle goes on. The current scenario depicts Second Battle of Donetsk Airport, where DPR army tries to fend off a well organized assault by Ukrainian Army, which is struggling to retake the airport.


I just tried to recreate something from the today's Ukrainian battlefield. So I've created the Donetsk Airport map - the place where first Battle of Donetsk too place earlier this year and the second one battle still goes on.

The scenario is supposed to be played as Ukraine only.

I tried to keep the TOE and units real as much as possible. As the sources are bit scarce on numbers and other things, it might differ from what is currently going on.

The scenario is supposed to be a bit hard for the player (Ukraine).

The map and scen occupy the slot #350 in Maps and Scenario folders.

Any comments, results, suggestions are more than welcome as the scenario will probably need some minor adjustments :)

EDIT: Corrected version 2 is attached.

Changes:
- Some very minor cosmetic changes to map
- Main terminal building VP scoring is now doubled
- Reaction turn is now fixed for DPR units, so most of them stay in place
- Better positioning for DPR forces, opfire tweaks
- Ukrainian forces now have two ammo containers
- Ukraine gets smoke arty barrage on turn 0
- Some DPR units have the dated PTRD '41 instead of RPGs now

EDIT: Final version 3 is attached.

Changes:
- Added some barbed wires to simulate some roadblocks around the airport
- DPR forces now field D-30s instead of BM-24s, it's more realistic according to recent intel
- Some minor repositioning of the DPR troops, they cover the access to the airport bit better now
- Some changes to waypoints and some other minor stuff
- Some other minor fixes


Thank you all for your input, i consider the scenario now to be final. :up:

[Suhiir]

Nice little scenario.
Unfortunately I ran out of ammo before I ran out of opposition.
Since the force ratio was Red=72 units vs Ukraine=63 (9 of which are unarmed trucks) and the opposition was dug in this is hardly surprising.
As it was I managed a marginal victory.

[shahadi]

I opened this scenario, and liked the airport and surrounding map details. After checking my troops, I found the force of company size to seize an airport a daunting task as Shuiir reveals in the near parity ratio of forces, whereas normally an assault force is 3x the defenders. Secondly, my force is thin, limited air, no UAV, and no organic in-direct fires, mortars, and no scout units, although by the size of the arty, I expected a reserve force. In a nutshell, I'm walking in blind!

I have not formulated an assault plan as of yet. What I'm thinking of is to take and hold one or two objectives to draw the defenders away from a main assault.

More to come, it's a challenge indeed.

[Suhiir]

You won't be able to "draw the defenders" as it's basically an assault scenario, thus the defensive force (AI controlled) is essentially immobile.

Were I to play the scenario again I'd maneuver my forces to avoid as many of the defenders as possible and concentrate on the objective hexes.

[Tomas]

Thanks for input guys.

Well, although the size of the forces is almost 1:1, the REDs are rather poorly equipped. Their IFVs are ATGMless to simulate the fact that they scavenged or captured what they could. I also artificially lowered the RPG ammo qty for most of the units, to simulate the proper rebel army.

The key is to keep distance with your heavy equipment and use combination of artillery (which is rather abundant, including the BM-30 Smerch and also SU-25 CAS) and fire support from tanks/IFVs.

It's a challenge, indeed :-)

I have some plans for minor cosmetic changes though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Donetsk_Airport

The real battle still rages on aswell.

[Suhiir]

Could really use just one ammo resupply vehicle or for that matter an ammo container (that would resupply small arms but NOT tank/BMP ammo).

[DRG]

.....or give it an Ammo Container and a truck or APC to move it around in

[Suhiir]

There are several truck in the scenario that are basically useless once they've dropped off their troops.

[shahadi]

You won't be able to "draw the defenders" as it's basically an assault scenario, thus the defensive force (AI controlled) is essentially immobile.

Were I to play the scenario again I'd maneuver my forces to avoid as many of the defenders as possible and concentrate on the objective hexes.

Yes, you can draw defenders away from their positions if the designer did not set reaction turn to 98. This is a common mistake many of us make.

After two ATGM teams missed my assault force of BMPs, I quickly and luckily pulled them back behind some buildings. Thereafter, I sent a trucked rifle platoon, a mech infantry platoon, and my tanks to probe the rear flank. With my other trucked rifle platoon and mech infantry, I probed the opposing rear flank, leaving my main assault force in place.

One of my probing groups exploited a weakness, penetrated the rear and with galloping tanks captured every flag in sight. Thereafter, I set up a defensive perimeter in the enemy's arty park. When the enemy's infantry attacked, I killed too many of them. Happily, after killing an ATGM team, I knew the airport was free for me to attack. I took my remaining BMP's and captured every flag in the airport proper.

Although, it was a lot of fun, I would suggest that certain units have reaction turn set to 98 so that they remain in their fighting positions, that ATGms, MGs, and RPGs should be filtered for range and targets, and that objective flags values should be higher for those flags around the "main objective." In this case, the flags at the airport building.

Although, I took away a marginal victory, a "V" is a victory.

Thank you Tomas.

[jivemi]

A most intriguing scenario, not least because of its topicality. Quite challenging too. Took away a marginal (about 3250 to 750). Suhir's comment about avoiding defenders gave enough of a hint to find the right overall strategy.

Like most everybody else I ran out of primary ammo for vehicles, and limited rocket/HE ammo forced a niggardly ration of fire missions. Still, there was enough to do the job--even had enough to destroy one of my own T-64s with a final (and ill-advised) cluster-bomb run on the last airport VH complex around Turn 30.

Overall a definite thumbs-up. You could tweak it with more ammo for the Ukrainians but it's not absolutely necessary IMO. Yes, thank you Tomas!

[Tomas]

Big thanks to everyone for input.

Version 2 is now uploaded in original post.

Changes:
- Some very minor cosmetic changes to map
- Main terminal building VP scoring is now doubled
- Reaction turn is now fixed for DPR units, so most of them stay in place
- Better positioning for DPR forces, opfire tweaks
- Ukrainian forces now have two ammo containers
- Ukraine gets smoke arty barrage on turn 0
- Some DPR units have the dated PTRD '41 instead of RPGs now

[shahadi]

Like most everybody else I ran out of primary ammo for vehicles, and limited rocket/HE ammo forced a niggardly ration of fire missions.

I did not run out of ammo and managed not finding, although limited, penurious rocket and artillery fires.

[Tomas]

Since this is somewhat related. I've stumbled upon this (http://armamentresearch.com/Uploads/Research%20Report%20No.%203%20-%20Raising%20Red%20Flags.pdf) rather interesting overview of weapons used in this conflict.

Just wanted to share. :)

[Warhero]

Thanks Tomas:). Very interesting reading.

[Tomas]

Thanks guys, fixed (final) version is up!

[Anthony_Scott]

Interesting video update:

http://www.funker530.com/battle-for-donetsk-airport-sitrep/

[Tomas]

Interesting, how little has changed since I did the scenario. Below is picture of current situation at Donetsk Airport.

UA troops - Green
Separatists - Red

http://voicesevas.ru/img/73707c9a016ec3c30b4bfbaeb59425d0.PNG

[shahadi]

Interesting, how little has changed since I did the scenario. Below is picture of current situation at Donetsk Airport.

UA troops - Green
Separatists - Red

http://voicesevas.ru/img/73707c9a016ec3c30b4bfbaeb59425d0.PNG

Okay, I'm not following the map symbols. Can you use NATO standard map symbols, or just for ease here, what is the blue symbols denoting?

[Tomas]

@Shahadi: Sorry, i didn't do the map. I think that they're firing arcs of the units/arty that are deployed there (on the right side in blue, it says "firing positions").

There is some new footage of UA (ATO) tank reinforcements that unsuccessfully tried to take over the airport yesterday.

UA T-64s advancing to the airport (they must have been reactivated or fixed very hastily, note the various state and combinations of ERA - some have Kontakt-1, some have Kontakt-5 or their combination):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PGSL-TPODk#t=13

Some more footage (note BMP-1 with SLAT):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9uSvVypLs#t=43

[Apollo]

Fantastic map! but the mission is not so realistic. In real life pro-russian forces have not been able to capture airport terminal in october. From May to January main building of the airport was occupied by government forces :)

[Tomas]

Thanks. The scenario itself was just a wild guess, information concerning the real situation were scarce and contradicting, although I did my best to keep the OOBs realistic.

[Suhiir]

Thanks. The scenario itself was just a wild guess, information concerning the real situation were scarce and contradicting, although I did my best to keep the OOBs realistic.

That's about all you can do most of the time if you're modeling any current or recent conflict.
In 10 years there will be books listing the names and activities of everyone involved :smirk: