Scenario: Urgent Fury I

[Tomas]

Now for something bit different:

Urgent Fury I
Date: October 25, 1983
Battle Location: Point Salines, Grenada
Battle Type: US assault vs Cuba/Grenada defend

Description: This is the initial battle of Operation Urgent Fury, where elements of 75th US Ranger Regiment struggle to secure the airfield at very southern tip of Grenada island. While the invasion of Grenada was met with little resistance at other locations, things were different at Point Salines.

After US HQ found out that it isn't possible to land on the airfield, since the runway was blocked by obstalces, they made hasty decision to perform low-altitude airdrop instead. Part of the forces was not dropped at all due to technical problems.

Supported by AC-130 gunships, US Rangers secured the airfield few hours later, capturing more than two hundreds of Cuban and Grenadian soldiers, before being relieved with additional troops that landed on now clean runway.

Notes: If played against the AI the human player should take the US side.

Sources: Internet.

Hopefully everything will work out. WINSPMBT MC-130 pilots aren't that cool as they were in real life apparently, so some troops might end in water. Real thing went smooth, if i remember right, there was only one injury (broken leg i think) and one ranger landed in the water, but managed to swim to the coast (keeping his equipment too).

Rest is modeled pretty much as it was, around ~250 rangers parachuted in. The defense is modeled roughly on what I was able to find out (also by dead & captured, from various sources).

Any comments are welcome.

[Warhero]

Thanks. Very tough battle (I got draw ). Damn those ZSU's are lethal... And difficult to destroy without artillery/mortar support. I used AC-130's but I forgot to choose flying direction... Most of them were shot down (only 1 was alive until end). Great scenario anyway.

[Tomas]

Technically, from what i've understood from the sources. The SOW (Special Operations Wing) operated at rather high altitudes, to avoid enemy AAA. ZU-23-2 topped at about 2000 meters, ZPU-4 at about 5000 meters - but those are maximums, where are the projectiles far beyond their effectivity and accuracy.

The Spectres operated above this altitudes, targeting the enemy AAA positions and they were notably sucessful.

On other hand, the very-low airdrop that was performed by the Rangers at around 150m (500ft) prevented the AAA to fire at the MC-130s as they were mostly located on the elevated land around the airfield and were not able to depress their guns enough.

We cannot model these facts in SPMBT.

Perhaps i will add offmap arty with same weapons as AC-130, this might be the way to model the high-altitude invulnerability of the Gunships well.

[Suhiir]

One thing you could do is make the AA weapons reinforcements.
Don't put them out until after the airdrop to simulate that it's being done from high altitude (out of range of light AA). Yet they'll be available to effect the ground defense after the landing.

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Tomas

Now for something bit different:

Any comments are welcome.

Yes, indeed this scenario is something different! It is not only something different from the author's other scenarios, it is different, just different, and my comments follow.

Urgent Fury I is a challenging scenario to play requiring thoughtful planning and a wee bit of luck of the Irish variety. In this scenario, two companies of US Army Rangers are dropped in a hot LZ to seize control of the Point Salines Airport, with support by two sections of AC-130H Spectre gunships. After the first turn, I closed the game as I could not accept the Ranger drop without first having the SEAL team perform recon and the Spectres deliver suppressive fires. Therefore, I opened the Editor and cleared both drop assignments.

Thereafter, I read the reviews of other players to learn the limitations of the Spectres in the game, that is, simulating the Spectres at high altitude. So, I armored up the Spectres by increasing front and side armor to 24 and 5 respectively (although 24 does seem a bit high.) Now, I approached the problem from the AA guns as well by reducing their FC and Vision ratings to 1. This gave the ZU-23’s and the ZPU-4’s a very small change to kill a Spectre, although they could deliver effective fires against infantry units. Yet, the games does not allow the Spectres to directly target the ZUs or the ZPUs.

I loaded the two 60mm mortars with the FO formation and then proceeded to load the remaining C-130’s by Ranger formation with the Battalion HQ’s unit (A0) loaded in the C-130 with GO formation. I planned to have the SEAL team recon along the road north of the runway to the trees at about hex28,33 with the F0 Rangers dropped at hex 11,36. The Rangers will capture the three Cuban VFs with the 60mm mortars setting up off the runway near hex 14,32 and the remaining units teaming up with the SEALs to form ambush and FP’s. Several enemy units responded to the VF captures and I responded by calling in the Spectres. The defensive line was set at hex 28,28 South to 28,34. The remaining units of F company dropped and moved east on the road south of the runway with the MGs and AGL’s in front. I put the AGL’s and MG’s in the trees from hex 34,40 to 38,40 joining the snipers and they did an excellent job.

Although, by turn 39, I had the Cubans flanked and were picking them off one-by-one, and I had captured all flags, and by turn 50 not one Cuban unit survived, the game ends in a draw. And, that is due to the scenario having Victory Flags without any value.

A few additional suggestions:

• Name the Formation, Company, and Platoon Hq units
• Let the player decide what, where and when to drop
• Add values to Victory Flags
• Increase the scenario to 60 as the battle took 2 hours or 120 minutes
• Turn Cuban units to face various directions
• Add bomb damage to runway

Indeed, I enjoyed this "something different" scenario and am looking forward to Urgent Fury II

[Tomas]

Thanks Shahadi (also for comments on Zhalanashokol incident). I seem to have some kind of problem with the VP values (forget to set them all the time), but the other ideas of improving this scenario are valid too.

Perhaps idea of letting the player drop the Rangers manually should be implemented too. I tried to make them airdrop to their historical locations, but it's too problematic (they drop into water).

For that Spectre fix, if it works like that, very good!

Will definitely fix these.

[Suhiir]

[quote=shahadi;827252]

Originally Posted by Tomas

Thereafter, I read the reviews of other players to learn the limitations of the Spectres in the game, that is, simulating the Spectres at high altitude. So, I armored up the Spectres by increasing front and side armor to 24 and 5 respectively (although 24 does seem a bit high.) Now, I approached the problem from the AA guns as well by reducing their FC and Vision ratings to 1.

The "armor" ratings on aircraft are "Hit points" and "360 armor".
So by making them 24/5 you made it require 24 damage points to shoot them down and gave them an armor rating of 5 (1 better then a Mi-24 Hind).

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

The "armor" ratings on aircraft are "Hit points" and "360 armor".
So by making them 24/5 you made it require 24 damage points to shoot them down and gave them an armor rating of 5 (1 better then a Mi-24 Hind).

The exercise, a two part one at that, was meant to simulate a Spectre flying at high altitude, beyond any real damage from the ZU or the ZPU. It works, as I speculated, the values may have been a tad bit too high, but not so unreasonable as the B-2 in the game.

I intended to strike the AA's with the Spectres, but they didn't directly attack the AA's. If a unit moves, the Spectres will get at it. If you move, it may lay friendly fire on your guy. So, I was thinking of having a unit move back and forward, to and fro from the AA units on a waypoint circuit of a no more than two hex, target the unit and see what the Spectres do.

I have not played a para drop in a long time, not since my PBEM days. Once again, I found this scenario, stimulating, and entertaining. BTW, Tomas, do your sources indicate the Ranger units that dropped on Point Salines?

[Suhiir]

Personally I find gunships considerably less then impressive.
I played around a bit tweaking their FC/RF values so they can actually hit something (I hope) but have yet to seriously test them with different values.

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Personally I find gunships considerably less then impressive.
I played around a bit tweaking their FC/RF values so they can actually hit something (I hope) but have yet to seriously test them with different values.

I do not think tweaking with the gunships Fire ratings will help. When I target a unit, the Spectre attacks the hex the unit occupies. The game will indicate AC-130H Spectre attacking hex, rather than Rifle Squad. It is as the Spectre delivers area suppression fires, or in the game, when a player presses the Z-key.

However, in this scenario, the gunships are crucial, and I suspect played an enormous role in suppressing the AA threat before the C-130 transports arrived in the actual battle.