Scenario: “Operation Vigilant Resolve” (ORBAT) Help Needed

[marsorder]

Fellow Scenario Designers

Here is my purposed Coalition Order of Battle (ORBAT) for the First Battle of Fallujah “Operation Vigilant Resolve” April 4th 2004. My first concern is that I need to fit roughly 4,300 coalition fighters in 152(? unit slots. My feeling is that I may need to edit this scenario down to just feature the USMC and US Army units (roughly 2,300 including air assets). Please review any if you have any thoughts regarding what the programs capacity is regarding this force structure. I am in the process of completing the Insurgent (ORBAT) which will contain 2,000 to 3,000 troops.

Your assistance with this would be greatly appreciated
First Battle of Fallujah
“Operation Vigilant Resolve”
April 4th 2004
Coalition Order of Battle (ORBAT)
Strength Total: 4,300

US Forces
Commander: Lt. Gen James T. Conway
(Strength: 2,200)

I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF)

1st Battalion 5th Marines (1/5) “Geronimo”
Headquarters
“A” Weapons Company
“B” Weapons Company
“C” Weapons Company

2nd Battalion 1st Marines (2/1) “The Professionals”
“E” Weapons Company
“F” Weapons Company
“G” Weapons Company

3rd Battalion 4th Marines (3/4) Thundering Third
“I” Weapons Company
“K” Weapons Company
“L” Weapons Company

2nd Battalion 2nd Marines (2/2) "Warlords"
“E” Weapons Company
“F” Weapons Company
“G” Weapons Company

1st Tank Battalion “1st Tanks” M1A1
“A” Company
“B” Company
“C” Company

1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (LAR) "Highlanders" LAV-25
“A” Company
“B” Company
“C” Company
“D” Company

2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (LAR) "Destroyers" VAV-25
“A” Company
“B” Company
“C” Company
“D” Company

3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion “3rd Tracks” AV-7A1
““A” Company
“B” Company
“C” Company
“D” Company
“E” Company

1st Combat Engineer Battalion “The Super Breed”
“A” Company
“B” Company
“C” Company
“D” Company
Engineering Support Company

2nd Combat Engineer Battalion "Engineers lead the way"
“A” Company
“B” Company
“C” Company
“D” Company

1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (US Army)
“B” Company

21st Military Police Company (Airborne)

1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (SFOD-D US ARMY)


(These units needed to be confirmed as participants in the battle)

21st Military Police Company (Airborne)
1st Battalion 32nd Infantry, 10th Mountain Division
2nd Battalion 7th Marines (2/7)
5th Special Forces Group (Airborne)


Iraqi Government Forces
Commander: Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohan
(Strength: 2,100)

36th Commando Battalion (Iraq)

Two Battalions Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC)

Iraqi Counter Terrorist Force (ICTF)


3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW)

HMM-161 Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161 “Greyhawks" CH-46E

HMLA-775 Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775 “Coyotes” AH-1W / UH-1N

HMLA-167 Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 "Warriors" AH-1W / UH-1N

VFA-131 Strike Fighter Squadron 131 Wildcats" F/A-18C


Sources:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah

Global Security: http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...nt-resolve.htm

Strategy & Tactics Number 247 Battle of Fallujah by David R Higgins

The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200407/kaplan

No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah, by Bing West

Carrier by Tom Clancey & John D. Gresham

Marine / MEU by Tom Clancey & John D. Gresham

List of USMC battalions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rps_battalions

[Suhiir]

I sincerely wish you luck fitting that MEU into 152 slots.

I use about 250 slots for a "standard" MEU of 3 Inf Co, 1 Wpns Co, 1 Tank Plt, 1 Amphib Co, 1 LAI Plt, 1 Recon Plt, 1 Art Bty, 1 Engr Plt, 1 Composite Squadron (Attack, Light (i.e. observation), Medium, Heavy helos + a couple UAV's and 6 aircraft).

While you could skimp on the AT and AA weapons (SMAW's, Javelins, Stingers, etc) to cut it to maybe 200 slots any further cuts would be difficult.

Perhaps you should consider just doing a section of the battle rather then the whole thing?

[marsorder]

Thanks Suhiiir

Sorry I meant to say 250 slots. Which I believe is the maximum allowed (correct?) That is wonderful advise regarding paring down the AT and AA weapons (SMAW's, Javelins, Stingers, etc). as well as‘...do a section of the battle rather then the whole thing’ Another great idea, thanks, I guess I was caught up with the idea of doing the entire battle and lost sight (stubbornly) of the slot and time limitations of the game.

I think I can also eliminate the HMM-161 Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (CH-46Es) units as the were primarily used for medivac purposes

Iraqi Government Forces (2,100 strong) will need to be eliminated as well. This is not a large concern as 30% of the 2nd Battalion deserted enroute to the battle. And many others were ‘sympatric’ to the insurgents.

Thanks for taking the time to review this ORBAT as well as sharing your MEU ORBAT solution. I greatly appreciate your assistance.

I should be back soon with revisions to the US ORBAT as well as the first draft of the Insurgent ORBAT.

Cheers
marsorder

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by marsorder

Thanks Suhiiir

Sorry I meant to say 250 slots. Which I believe is the maximum allowed (correct?) That is wonderful advise regarding paring down the AT and AA weapons (SMAW's, Javelins, Stingers, etc). as well as‘...do a section of the battle rather then the whole thing’ Another great idea, thanks, I guess I was caught up with the idea of doing the entire battle and lost sight (stubbornly) of the slot and time limitations of the game.

500 slots are allowed but I'd never use more then about 450 because you need some for bailed out crews etc. and for myself I always forget something essential when I do a scenario abd need a few slots to shoehorn them in

Originally Posted by marsorder

I think I can also eliminate the HMM-161 Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (CH-46Es) units as the were primarily used for medivac purposes

Depends, CH-46's are the primary transport helo's for the USMC, UH-1's are more commonly used for medivac (being smaller they can usually land in places a CH-46 can't). If you don't need helo transport then you can certainly remove them from the OOB.

Originally Posted by marsorder

Iraqi Government Forces (2,100 strong) will need to be eliminated as well. This is not a large concern as 30% of the 2nd Battalion deserted enroute to the battle. And many others were ‘sympatric’ to the insurgents.

If it were me I'd try to keep at least some of the Iraqi forces that were there since the "fun" of dealing with 1st rate (USMC) and 2nd/3rd rate (Iraqi) troops in the same battle makes things interesting.

Originally Posted by marsorder

Thanks for taking the time to review this ORBAT as well as sharing your MEU ORBAT solution. I greatly appreciate your assistance.

I should be back soon with revisions to the US ORBAT as well as the first draft of the Insurgent ORBAT.

Cheers
marsorder

Another thing you can do is just ignore the Hv Machinegun platoon from the battalion weapons companies, while useful you'll have AAV's that have both .50 cal's and Mk 19's and are a lot more mobile. This will save you some slots too.
You can essentially cut the Bn Weapons Co down to just the 81mm mortars without too much loss of effectiveness. But you'll want/need those 81's.

For the Company Weapons Platoons you can use sections of 2 M60's/M 240's attached to each Infantry platoon - myself I've added a large (10 man) MMG section to represent the 2 3-man MG teams + the 4-man platoon HQ section to each infantry platoon when folks don't want a zillion 2, 3, 4 man teams in a scenario.
You can also use a 3 mortar 60mm section in one unit for the company mortars.

The biggest problem you'll have is fitting the units into the AAV's...I had to change their carry capacity to 21 to fit everything in and use a 4 vehicle AAV platoon when using the larger units vice the teams.

Another thing you can skimp on if you run short of slots is the infantry and LAV-AT's in the LAI platoons. Normally each LAV-25 carries a 4-man scout/infantry team...you can make it 2 6-man teams per 4 vehicle platoon and just ignore the LAV-AT.

Hope this helps.

[marsorder]

Thanks Suhiir. That is all very helpful feedback. I appreciate your thoughts.