SCENARIOS!

[Suhiir]

Hopefully anyone playing against an AI USMC will see more airstrikes and helo ops then one normally sees in WinSPMBT vs the AI. I built the picklists with this intended result in mind.

[DRG]

That will only be true if the player has airstrikes set to default ( XXX ) in preferences.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by DRG

That will only be true if the player has airstrikes set to default ( XXX ) in preferences.

I thought it would need to be set for higher then default, say 5+?
I've noticed default normally gives 2-3, and frequently less.

[Mr_Bill_5000]

New Scenario : "Advance on Chervonohirka"

Ukraine Advance against Russia Defend

Date: Mid-July, 2023

Length : 20 turns.

NOTE : This scenario requires the 1Q 2023 patch to the Steel Panthers MBT game, or some of the units will not display correctly on the battle map. It can be found in Slot #561 of your "Scenarios" list.

Site: Approaches to the village of Chervonohirka, eastern Ukraine, south of Bakhmut.

The Ukrainian Spring 2023 offensive is now underway, and forward elements of one of Ukraine's (mostly) Western-equipped battle groups are advancing on the small rural village of Chervonohirka, which lies on Regional Highway T0408, between Orikhiv in the north and Tokmak in the south. Ukraine needs to take this village, and many others, to open the way to a later assault of Melitopol and, possibly, Crimea.

The Ukrainian army is approaching Chervonohirka from the north, heading south on Highway T0408. The battlefield layout is somewhat unusual, as the village is surrounded by wide-open wheat-fields, with a collection of houses and tree-stands arranged on either sides of the highway, and a regional road that intersects Highway T0408. There is little cover other than for this, which means that control of the village and tree-line will probably decide victory in this scenario.

Ukraine's strike group includes a motley collection of Western-supplied AFVs, supplemented by some Soviet-era equipment. Its regular army soldiers are better-motivated and -skilled than their Russian equivalents; unfortunately, however, most of the Ukrainian forces are made up by poorly-trained 'Territorial' troops, who are at best equivalent to the Russian conscript forces that they will have to fight. Off-map artillery support, in the form of the famous HIMARS rockets, is available, but ammunition is in short supply, so only a few barrages will be possible.

As for the Russians, they have had only limited time to construct a defense line around Chervonohirka, as Putin has kept most of his better units for other purposes (such as defending Crimea); so the Russian forces around the village are second-rate, and they have not had enough time to lay extensive minefields or other fixed physical obstacles.

Russia does have artillery and air superiority, and regional headquarters have allocated a few reinforcement units to shore up the defences of Chervonohirka, some time after the battle is joined. So the task of the Russian field commander will be to hold on, until reinforcements can even up the odds.

Will Ukraine capture Chervonohirka and open the way for a rapid advance down Highway T0408? Or will Russia's hastily-constructed defense line hold, and put an early end to the Ukrainian counter-offensive?

Play this scenario to find out!

Note : This scenario is dedicated to the brave and resilient people of Ukraine. May they find their way to a just and fair peace settlement.

[wulfir]

(Scn0621)



July 2006, Baluchi Valley,
Uruzgan province, Afghanistan

Operation Perth is underway, troops of the Australian Special Forces Task Group 3 move into the green zone of the Baluchi Valley north east of Tarin Kowt to search through the mud brick compounds looking for the enemy.

And, in a somewhat unusual move, the insurgents try to hold ground.

The episode becomes known as 'The Great Taliban Turkey Shoot'.

[Mr_Bill_5000]

Tanks At Tokmak

Version 1.0

Steel Panthers MBT (2023) Scenario #562

Ukraine Advance against Russia Defend

Date: Mid-September, 2023

Length : 36 turns.

Large 100-hex map with many dozen units for each sides. This is a big scenario that will take a good deal of time to play.

NOTE : The scenario requires the 1Q 2023 patch to the Steel Panthers MBT game, or some of the units will not display correctly on the battle map.

Site: Northern approaches to the town of Tokmak, eastern Ukraine, on the axis of attack towards Mariupol.

The Ukrainian Spring 2023 offensive has so far made only relatively small gains despite heavy losses of men and equipment; therefore, the Ukrainian High Command is determined to break Russia's main defence line in the Zaporizhzhia front, hoping in turn to create a break-through that will allow the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) to advance on Melitopol and Mariupol in the south (and thus split Russia's occupying forces in south-east Ukraine, in half). The AFU forces have swung to the west and then changed direction, trying to capture the highway leading south to the strategic town of Tokmak.

This is the first time that Ukraine's army will have come up against the outskirts of Russia's main defence line on the Zaporizhzhia front, although the actual defence line, complete with deep minefields and extensive trench lines, lies somewhat to the south of the battlefield depicted in the scenario.

Ukraine's large and powerful strike group, which significantly out-numbers Russia's local defence forces, includes a combination of Western-supplied AFVs, supplemented by a lot of Soviet-era equipment. Its regular army soldiers are better-motivated and -skilled than their Russian equivalents; unfortunately, however, much of the Ukrainian forces are made up by poorly-trained 'Territorial' troops, who are roughly equivalent to the Russian conscript forces that they will have to fight. Off-map artillery support, including a few high-tech Western ammunition types, is available, but not in very large numbers.

The Russians have anticipated an attack in this area and are determined to make the AFU pay dearly for every inch of terrain that they recapture. They have been able to deploy a few minefields and other fixed physical obstacles, but most of these have been reserved for the main defence lines further south and there is a lot of area to cover, so these defensive preparations are not as extensive as they might be elsewhere.

Russia has a strong army in this area and will get the first shot in many cases. Putin has agreed to send reinforcements if the battle continues for more than a short while. So the task of the Russian field commander will be to hold on, until reinforcements can even up the odds.

Tactically, the map, which has been adapted as closely as practical from available satellite imagery, is interesting. The map is dominated by the north-central to south-east highway on an elevated berm, as well as by a forest that curves from the south end of the map to the center-east. Ukraine must get past this obstacle without taking too many losses. There is also a lot of relatively clear terrain, meaning that tank gunfire and ATGM launches can be deadly. Both sides should pay careful attention to lines of sight, as play testing revealed some really odd situations where units far behind the front lines somehow became vulnerable to long-range direct fire.

Winning this scenario will be a difficult task for the Ukrainian player. He should be very careful about exposing his less well-armored units, for example Leopard 1A5 or T-64 tanks, to Russian Opportunity Fire. Those Russian T-90A and T-72B3 2A46 guns ARE very well capable of a first-shot kill against even a Leopard 2A6, under the right circumstances. And even relatively weak weapons, such as 100mm guns or RPG-16 rocket launchers, can kill Western tanks if fired against a tank's side or rear armor. Don't expose your AFVs to these shots if you possibly can avoid it.

It may make sense to lead with infantry and scout units until you have detected Russian firing positions and then carefully advance, hoping that the pre-positioned Russian tanks fail their sighting check, thereby giving you the first shot. Or, try to get your ATGM teams in position and knock out Russian tanks one by one. Your infantry is superior to its Russian counterpart in 1-on-1, close-range fire-fights, so use it aggressively, but watch out for Russian artillery which can be absolutely lethal when used in sufficient numbers.

Above all else, if you decide to do an all-out attack, do it with all your forces at once, to overwhelm Russia's single-turn firing capability. Sending in your tanks and APCs one-by-one is a prescription for disaster.

For the Russians, as you are outnumbered by the Ukrainians, you will have to leverage your superiority in air power and artillery to slowly erode the AFU's vulnerable foot infantry. One way to do this is to use snipers and machine-guns to pin AFU infantry squads so they can't move, then target saturation artillery barrages against them. Also, although the Ukrainians do have some air defence it is relatively weak, so if a particular AFU tank is dominating part of the battlefield, use an airstrike to blow it up.

Be careful in risking your tanks against Ukrainian ones, especially at close and medium ranges. Even a T-64, or an older model T-72, can kill a T-90 or T-72B3 with a lucky shot against the hull front. Finally, Ukrainian Stugna ATGM launchers should be a priority target. These missiles have a huge warhead that can kill almost any Russian AFV.

Both sides have a few force-multipliers. For example, both sides have ammunition carriers, helicopter gunships and drones. Careful use of these, without exposing them to enemy attacks, will be very important during the battle. Also, apportionment of reinforcements, which make up a large part of each side's forces, is a key decision, because the map is large enough to make quick re-deployment of them quite challenging.

Will Ukraine knock out Russia's defence line and advance on Tokmak? Or will Russia's hastily-constructed defence line hold and put an early end to Ukrainian attempts to advance on Mariupol?

Play this scenario to find out!

Note : This scenario is dedicated to the brave and resilient people of Ukraine. May they find their way to a just and fair peace settlement.

[Mr_Bill_5000]

Based on play-testing, here are a few supplemental notes to this scenario (and, more broadly, the current state of warfare in the Russia / Ukraine war) :

(1) Pay careful attention to what kind of tank (and, in particular, what kind of APDSFS Sabot ammunition, as defined by the maximum "APCR" penetration value shown in your tank's detailed information screen) that you are firing with, and what kind of tank you're firing at.

Not all T-72s and T-80s, on both the Ukrainian side and the Russian one, are equal. Older 2A46 guns have less effective APDSFS ammunition that will simply bounce off a modern tank's armor, especially on frontal shots. Meanwhile, don't try frontal shoot-outs against modern tanks, with modernized Ukrainian T-55s; those 105mm L7 APDS rounds will almost always bounce off the target.

(2) Notwithstanding the above, although 125mm shots against the turret front armor of late-model Western tanks (Leopard 2A6 and its Swedish equivalent, Challenger 2, etc.) have a poor chance of penetration (except at suicidally close ranges), a hit on the hull front against any of these tanks very definitely does have a good chance of a "kill".

As you can't aim for a specific part of the tank that you're targeting (the AI does this for you and you can't influence it), it's really a crap-shoot if, for example, you try a frontal shot against a Leopard 2A6 with the gun of a T-80B1VM or T-72B3.

(3) Paradoxically, although the chances of a clean hit (one that causes significant amounts of damage) using a MANPADS against a helicopter gunship, are pretty low, in fact you have a good chance of shooting a gunship down with a modern ATGM such as a Stugna or a Kornet... and, since these missiles have huge warheads, a "hit" will often be a "kill".

I wonder if the SP-MBT designers are aware of this as it is almost a bug in the game mechanisms (why should an anti-tank missile be better at shooting down a helicopter, than is a man-portable SAM that was specifically designed for this purpose?).

(4) Using some unit editing wizardry I was able to provide combat drones for both the Ukrainians and the Russians, although really this is inadequate to reflect what is actually going on, at the battlefield level. In particular, SP-MBT OOB's do not include "Kamikaze Drones" such as the infamous Russian "Lancet" which have caused grievous losses to Ukrainian artillery and AFVs. Perhaps a future update to the game will add these.

(5) The scenario was explicitly designed to reflect what, based on extensive research on my part (I follow the war very closely on a day to day basis), I believe to be the real force balances on the battlefield -- not to design a "fair" scenario that both sides have an equal chance of winning.

This factor is perhaps best exemplified by Russia's huge superiority in airpower and artillery, which becomes more and more obvious past about the middle part of the game. I'm aware that Ukrainian players may find this very frustrating, as they see their carefully-planned offensive operations crushed in a couple of turns, by saturation artillery barrages.

Unfortunately, this is the reality on the battlefield today, and I feel that it would be dishonest to deliberately "fudge" the force balances to make it unrealistically easier for one side of the other to win.

(6) As always, YMMV -- I'd welcome (constructive) criticism as to how the scenario was designed.

Regards

Mr. Bill

[Mr_Bill_5000]

Postscript :

In a recent "computer playing Ukraine vs. human playing Russia" instance of this scenario, the AI exposed a Challenger 2 MBT to Russian Opportunity Fire. (Keep in mind -- this is a Western tank with such thick turret front armor, that it is almost immune to even 125mm APDSFS / Sabot rounds, fired from the latest 2A46M cannon on the Russian's latest and best tank, the T-90M "Proryv").

The Challenger tank lasted 2 turns (roughly 10 minutes of real time) before being destroyed (by a combination of 125mm hits to the hull sides and "Kornet" ATGM strikes.) It was first immobilized and then destroyed in the next turn.

Is this an accurate representation of what is actually going on, now, on the battlefield?

Google this : "challenger tank lost in ukraine".

But never fear : Western "opinion leaders" are telling us, "just you wait... our Abrams tanks will be the REAL 'game changer', on the plains of Ukraine."

Yeah... sure.

[DRG]

No tank is invincible that should be known by anyone playing this game or paying attention to the real world

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bill_5000

(6) As always, YMMV -- I'd welcome (constructive) criticism as to how the scenario was designed.

I changed the scenario to a campaign with fixed core - the original setup has less than 200 units so there's no need to buy anything to have the same unit formations.

I did this because I prefer to do my own deployment, and made the Schwerpunkt along the road. I led with infantry, one company advancing along the road (main effort) with all of the engineer assets and the bulk of the AFVs.

One rifle company with the ATGM platoon and and a few of the non tank AFVs made a supporting attack across the open ground along the stream. I hoped to draw enemy attention and artillery from the main effort but expected it to be slow going across the fields.

The Ukrainian attack made it to the hard surface elevated road before petering out. By turn 19 Russian air and artillery assets had basically wrecked the UA effort.

By then Russian losses were a handful of infantry units, one 100mm AT gun three T-72 tanks, one Tunguska, one MTLB Vasiliek and some of the air shot down or damaged (incl. two Hinds).

UA losses by this time were massive, most due to air and artillery attack. From then on there is basically no let up in the Russian air and artillery strikes.

I began to disengage and start withdrawing some troops off the map. Weak Russian counterattacks developed on both flanks but posed no threat. A attack with all Russian forces present on the map might well have dislodged my UA force.

UA forces roughly held positions along the river and the elevated road, but controlled few VH flags. I opted to conserve forces rather than push forward.

All UA air assets (except on on map drone) were shot down - the helicopter and the SU-25s without causing any damage at all to the enemy.

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The scenario is not predictable which IMHO is great.

It is a little on the hard side for me, I would need a lot more turns to be able to claw out any sort of win here. A bigger size map would allow for more manouver space I think, the UA force has decent mobility.

The UA force has all sorts of AFVs and kit present, fun to play with but must be a logistical nightmare – IIRC they try to concentrate certain types to certain brigades (?)

I was impressed with the map, well done! I looked up the actual place - it’s an interesting location.

With Venhola it shows more elevations on both sides of the battle area something that is hard to judge from online map/satellite images.

Venhola Height map of the area for comparison: