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Old April 13th, 2018, 05:43 PM
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Aeraaa Aeraaa is offline
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Default Re: Return of the Ottomans

Advance on Sofia part 1

The Turkish advance to Sofia has begun. The first objective is the control of a pass that is defended by Bulgarian units. The Turkish 1st Armored Brigade spearheads the advance, but the advancing elements are short on infantry. Instead, an airmobile battalion will support by an air assault.

In the beginning of the battle, I have the airmobile battalion and a cavalry platoon (or troop depending on the army). My tank support, a tank battalion equipped with M60Ts) will arrive starting from turn 6. My plan is as follows: the airmobile battalion (-3 platoons) will use the woods to the south for masking and will land directly behind the objective line, the road between the wooded area. From there it will try to secure the objective flags that are to the rear, dig in and wait to be relieved. The 3 platoons that remain will be used to support the Turkish armor that arrives. The Cobra helicopters that I have (4 in total) will support the air assault operation when it begins.

The map of the battle is the following:



The battle report follows.

My helicopters come under intense MANPADs fire from the positions (1), (2) and (3). One Puma transport and one Cobra attack helo are shot down (and I also lose one Milan team). Nevertheless, my remaining Cobras and heavy MG fire eliminate the thread very soon. Small arms fire hits every helicopter that reveals itself from the same positions. In addition to that, I receive ATGM fire from position (4) that force 2 helicopters to withdraw, and also knock down one of my 2 M60A3s that belong to the Cavalry troop. The Cobras and mortar fire eliminate that threat as well.
After I deal with the initial fire, I begin my air assault, shown with the tilted red arrow passing through the woods to the south. I do receive some small arms fire from scout at (5), but nevertheless, I manage to infiltrate. I land my troops at position (6), airmobile infantry, 120mm mortars; 81mm mortars a 105mm howitzer and heavy MGs. This force moves northeast and encounters light resistance. I find 2 82mm mortars at (7) that were firing at my position and take care of them. Alas, a M-2001 tank company shown at (8) shows up. Serbs volunteers fighting for Bulgarians? Who knows? Anyway, they fire at my helicopters, destroying 3 of them and forcing the others to withdraw. I do manage to knock down 2 tanks with a Cobra and a Milan, but the tanks are successful in shooting down my attack helo.

The tanks force my airmobile force to take a defensive posture, making only small probes to the south. Soon however, my tank force shows up (Turn 6 to 10). The tanks, supported by the 3 airmobile platoons that stayed back, advance forward like a steamroller, finding and clearing resistance from the blue positions (9), (10), (11) and (12).

Thanks to the combined arms force of M60Ts, airmobile infantry and indirect fire support, I capture all objectives. I decided to attack the tank force to (8). The result is not in my favor, since I lose 5 M60Ts to 2 M-2001s (I damage one more). The game ends and the final results are:



The game is a draw. The Turks secure the forest road, but the unexpected arrival of Serbian tank reinforcements halt their advance.

To be frank, the last battle is what has cost me the marginal victory I believe (each M60T is worth 505 points, so I lost 2525 points in the final turn). But the tank battle between the two forces was totally worth it so it does not matter.

Anyway, this is my last battle with the last patch. The final two missions will be played with the V12 missions.
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