BATTLE IN EAST UKRAINE -- Meeting Engagement, Russia vs. Ukraine*
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February, 2022 : It has finally happened; Putin has launched the invasion, and full-scale war has broken out between Russia and Ukraine!*
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This scenario is an overhaul of the similar 2014 scenario and it uses the same map; however the force balances are drastically different (both armies are better than they had been in 2014, but Russia's one has, relatively speaking, improved somewhat more).*
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The scenario depicts a meeting engagement on the broad Eurasian plains in the eastern half of Ukraine and is based on a hypothetical (not exactly based on any "real" physical location) set of small towns in eastern Ukraine. (Note : I'm aware that in reality, perhaps the scenario should be more of a Russian "advance" than it is a "meeting engagement", however, given how SP-MBT manages things like "opportunity fire" I felt that having the scenario set up as a "meeting engagement" would produce a more interesting and challenging battle.)*
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The scenario can be played either as the Ukrainian or Russian player although it is much more challenging as the Ukrainians. (If you're playing the AI, I recommend you run the Ukrainians, for this reason.)*
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Some unit characteristics, weapons and so on, have been changed from the default, to reflect the ad hoc, chaotic nature of the confict.*
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GENERAL NOTES : This is a "come as you are" battle, and only some of your forces are up to date; you will have to rely on a significant number of "second-tier" tanks, and (particularly for the Ukrainians) neither aircraft, nor AFVs, nor air defences are up to the latest standards. Especially, be very careful to check to see if a given tank has TI sights that can "see" through smoke, and also check to see if each one of your tanks has Active anti-missile equipment, as having this may be the difference between life and death in many cases. Most AFVs (of both sides) have had their firing ranges set way below their theoretical maximums, to avoid giving away their position and wasting ammunition with poor-odds long-range shots, but it may be to your advantage to check over each unit (particularly ATGM launchers) in your army and disable their main weapons so you don't waste limited numbers of missiles.*
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Much of the battle will depend on how the first crucial few turns go. Keep careful track of how many of those precious Ukrainian SAMs get expended against the initial Russian heliborne assault! If the Ukrainian AD gets lucky and shoots down the Russian troop transport helos with just a single SAM (or two), the rest of the battle will be quite a bit easier for the Ukrainians. If, on the other hand, the Russian helos manage to dodge these silver bullets and are able to safely land their airborne troops near the middle part of the map, it will be critical for the Ukrainian army to dislodge them from "Krasina Works" (etc.) before the rest of the Russian army shows up to reinforce the airborne teams.*
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Both sides should pay careful attention to the range at which their tanks engage the enemy, and watch how close they are coming to penetrating an enemy tank's frontal armor (and vice versa). Sometimes literally a difference of a distance of one or two hexes more or less can be very important. Because of the nature of the battle, a lot of your army will only show up as reinforcements, so plan ahead for how to use your reinforcing units. (Don't forget that reinforcing units don't necessarily show up on the turn when they're expected, they can be late.) Guard your ammunition resupply units at all costs, as (especially for the Ukrainians who need these desperately to replenish depleted SAM launchers), running out of ammo in a 40+-turn game can be disastrous!*
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Another thing to note -- and this is a big difference from the 2014 scenario -- is that artillery (especially rocket artillery with cluster munitions) is DEADLY! Make sure you get your infrantry in the field into good cover (e.g. buildings etc.), because if they're caught in the open by a saturation artillery barrage, you may find yourself owning a lot of 2-man "squads" who are so suppressed that all they can do is sit there and wait to be wiped out by the next barrage! Also don't forget, it's a long scenario; don't fire out all your artillery ammo too early in the game or you may regret having done so later.*
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AS THE UKRAINIANS : You have a decent army at your disposal and the victory objective hexes are relatively closer to your side of the map, but you also have a number of significant handicaps.*
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Your minimal garrison in the built-up areas in the center of the map (these are basically drafted staff from the local factories, with minimal weaponry and poor morale) will likely not last long against a determined Russian assault. It may be advisable to sacrifice these units just to slow down the Russian advance forces, but (as noted above) a great deal of this will turn on how many of Russia's heli-borne air assault troops make it through your SAM screen, in the first few turns. You will have to race your vanguard forces as far forward as possible early in the game, grab as many victory hexes as you can and then fight tenaciously to withstand the Russian counter-attack. And watch those flanks!*
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Expect to take a terrible pounding by the superior Russian air power (which has better EW than your air force does, hence the Russian strike aircraft are less vulnerable to you AD), and be aware that your militia units do not have the same morale or equipment as "real" Russian infantry units, so don't expect miracles from them. You may want to deliberately "disable" some of your SAM launchers during the first half of the game, just to avoid them exhausting all their missiles on low-odds shots against Russian strike aircraft with good EW ratings. Being caught with "no" effective AD later in the game might prove to be your undoing!*
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As far as your own air force is concerned, while it can do real damage to the Russians, be aware that Russian AD is superior to yours. I recommend against using your air strikes against the Russian rear echelons, as the likely result of that is just to get your aircraft shot down without even being able to fire their weapons. The better strategy is to retain your air strikes as a "force in being" and use them to slow down or negate break-throughs of Russian tank formations.*
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Ukraine has only a few tanks that can survive a frontal shooting match with the better Russian armor (do everything that you can to preserve your "Oplots" as they are key to your strategy!). Your "Bulat" tanks, while they do have decent protection against ATGMs, do NOT have the frontal armor to last long in a shooting-match with the latest Russian tanks, so don't leave them exposed to enemy tank fire if you want them to survive. Use your available ATGMs sparingly and fire them first against soft AFVs that don't have active defences. (Hint : NATO has supplied you with a few Javelin ATGMs that have a reasonable chance of a kill even against modern Russian tanks. Again, these are key force-multipliers, so use them wisely. On the other hand, watch out for the Russian "Kornet" ATGM; this thing has a huge warhead that very definitely can knock out even a MBT, on a "front hull" hit.)*
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AS THE RUSSIANS : Your forces are significantly superior to the Ukrainians, but not so much so that you can take stupid chances. Use your airpower sparingly in the first parts of the game; the Ukrainian AD isn't as good as yours but it still can shoot things down. Later on, you may want to use airstrikes with your more advanced aircraft to deliberately force the Ukrainians to fire missiles at low odds; once they're out of ammo, it will be much easier to break their positions, as you can use your gunships to maximum effect.*
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As noted above, much of the game may turn on the outcome of the crucial first few turns involving the pre-planned helicopter air assault. Your transport helos are extremely vulnerable to even relatively weak Ukrainian air defences (particularly SAM launchers) so if you get a helo anywhere near to the objectives in the center of the map, land the damn thing, have it disembark its passengers and call it a "win"! Advance the main part of your army (especially APCs which are very vulnerable to guided weapons) cautiously, because even if you think you have broken a Ukrainian position, you will still have to deal with the enemy's reinforcements.*
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Use your (mostly) better tank vision equipment to pick off vulnerable Ukrainian AFVs from behind smoke-screens, but don't forget that some Ukrainian tanks have TI sights, so this tactic won't work all the time. Carefully review the capabilities of all your tanks, as the original model T-72B's, while objectively still a very good tank, is much more vulnerable to modern ATGMs, than the later T-72BM versions that have active defenses. (The same is true of a T-72B in a shooting-match with a modern Ukrainian tank with up-to-date 125mm APDSFS ammunition; the T-72B will likely lose that contest.) Watch out for those Javelin ATGMs, and be aware that (as a "top-attack" weapon) not only do they have a good chance of knocking out even a T-90, they can even shoot down helicopter gunships!*
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Design by: Bulos Qoqish 

