SP-MBT Scenario : "Battle In East Ukraine"

[Mr_Bill_5000]

Hi everyone, my name is Mr. Bill 5000 and I am new here (although I am a long-time Steel Panthers player, going right back to the first editions of the original SP back in the '90s).

I have designed the appended scenario (for slot # 286 in your "Scenarios" list), which depicts a hypothetical Meeting Encounter between Russian and Ukrainian forces in March 2014 (OK, there's snow on the ground... you can easily update the map to make it greener!). I have included fairly extensive instructions in the scenario notes, but here are a few additional tips :

(1.) The scenario has a LOT of units milling about at times. Make sure to save your battle to disk every so often, as I have seen SP-MBT occasionally crash in the middle of a turn managed by the AI.

(2.) Do not expect all units to work exactly as they would out of the Russian and Ukrainian OOB's! The scenario assumes that both forces were called upon to fight with little advance notice, using whatever units were locally available... and some tanks and aircraft had to be loaded out with whatever weapons happened to be at the base depot! :-)

(3.) Pay careful attention to your roster and in particular your reinforcements. You will need to plan around when and how you can best bring these into battle.

(4.) Do not over-commit your airpower (this applies to both sides) too early in the battle, as you will likely lose aircraft to enemy AD if you strike too deeply into the enemy's rear (this is more true of Ukrainian air attacks than it is of Russian ones), and you may need a couple of precision stand-off attacks to neutralize enemy break-throughs later.

(5.) Watch those flanks! And especially watch that wide open area on the north of the battlefield, in the center. Playing tests showed this to be the "Field of Death", where advancing your tanks (depending on type and frontal armor), EVEN ONE (1) hex further forward, could literally be the difference between life and death (e.g., "you can survive a hit from a shell with 55 APCR, if you have 56 frontal armor, at a range of 2000 meters... but at a range of 1950 meters...") (well, you get the idea, don't you?)

(6.) Pay attention to your tanks' capabilities... not all T-55AMP2Bs and T-62MVs are created equal! And yes, contrary to popular opinion, a T-90 very definitely CAN be killed by a lowly T-55... although not frontally...

(7.) The game definitely CAN be won by both players, but with equal luck and players of equal skill, the Russians are more likely to win a marginal victory than the Ukrainians. Repeated AI-vs-AI playtesting showed both sides ending up with a net score in the 11500 range, which I think proves that this is a well-balanced scenario.

(8.) Finally... watch out for Igor Kravchuk! In one play test, this guy (I kid you not), knocked out a T-90... with a hand grenade(!) (Honest, folks... I'm NOT making this up... my wife witnessed it happening, and couldn't understand why her husband had collapsed into utter hysterics.)

I hope you like the scenario... comments and suggestions for improvement, would be appreciated.

Sincerely

Mr. Bill 5000

[Imp]

Is it just me or does the MT-LBM-6M1B2 not exist anymore in the OOB

[jivemi]

Thanks for the scenario (now #300) Mr. Bill. A stunning, staggering struggle, especially for one used to more pedestrian fare (w/o laser range finders, thermal imaging, VIRSS/CIWS missile defense, composite armor, etc.). Took over a dozen hours to play considering the destructive capability and cost of units. Imagine, incredible carnage over objectives that barely add up to a single CS tank!

Thought I'd give some feedback based on your notes (SPOILER ALERT):

1) Dispatching reinforcements was the key. Even then it wasn't easy figuring out where the next attack was gonna be, or how long it would last.

2) Didn't commit (Ukrainian) airpower until the last few turns except for the attack helo, which got off all its missiles, but they were defeated by VIRSS/CIWS. So it shot up a couple infantry units around the Krasina Works and retired. Russian air killed a number of SP ATGM's, APC's and trucks but didn't hurt any tanks IIRC. Managed to damage some of them (plus the helos) but none were shot down.

3) As for the flanks, up top west of Bosnevo--already occupied by friendly infantry--it was sheer luck (along with some helpful overwatch by an SP ATGM) that prevented disaster. As the four high-value tank reinforcements started forward I happened to notice the guy in front saw something. For some reason neither the upgraded T-55 or T-80 east of Bosnevo fired at it, so the guys in back opened fire before moving, destroying both targets. From then on they all moved VERY carefully and caught every Russian AFV emerging from the woods.

Down south around the Osnovni Works the battle started out well but nearly ended in catastrophe after a T-80 Bars, T-90A, and two T-72 Rogatba's showed up late. They shrugged off satchel charges and RPG's while blowing off infantry as if they were mere pests, and brewed up the two T-55's lurking in ambush through 100 (150?) meters of smoke. SP ATGM's and a laser-ranging tank got the T-72's but at terrible cost. Only a single BMP Shkal survived the encounter, and it had expended all its Konkurs (all but one missile from several AFV's were defeated). Finally some artillery and late airstrikes stunned the T-80 and T-90. The BMP killed the T-80 with its 30mm cannon by a "head shot" from the rear while a T-64BM Bulat delivered the coup de grace to the retreating T-90A. Whew!

4) As you mentioned in the scenario notes Russia has the advantage with laser range-finding and TI. On numerous occasions--especially around Kuganskoya--my AFV's got killed by missiles or cannon fire from unseen enemy. Just south of the Krasina Works, where thousands of points worth of armor were lost fighting over a 30-point objective, a Ukrainian T-84 got wasted by a missile, apparently fired from a Khrizantema-S with TI rated at 60 through what seemed like a couple hundred(?) meters of smoke and trees.

5) To the best of my knowledge Igor Kravchuk did not perform any heroics in this battle. However a couple squads with Neto RPG's dispatched a few tanks while others spotted, often detecting their opposite numbers trying to sneak up and bushwhack friendly armor. They did yeoman service and played their parts, however modest they may seem. Couldn't have done it without them.

6) Final score was 5551:15341, enough for an MV and a sigh of relief. Some saves are provided for your information and amusement: