AAR: Vistula crossing

[Aeraaa]

In this scenario, the Poles decide to counterattack. 34th Armored Cavalry Brigade of the 11th Armored Division has the mission of crossing the Vistula River and to engage the advancing Russian forces. Some elements of the 4th US heavy BCT will assist the Polish forces by deploying bridges to make the river crossing successful.

The US engineers deploy 3 bridges to the north near the village of Grabowko. Polish engineers deploy one bridge to the southeast of Kozielec. Suddenly, Polish recon forces report that Russian and Belarusian forces advance to the west. This means that a massive meeting engagement is about to happen. If the Russians are successful in capturing allied bridging equipment, they will be able to immediately exploit towards the Oder River.

The battlefield is 160 hexes long and 200 hexes wide. The map below shows all Polish/US units in the start of the battle:



The units are:
1-The HQ of the 34th Armored Cavalry Brigade, based in the village of Grabovo

2-A pair of Mi-24 helicopters, waiting in reserve

3-Reconnaisance company units, equipped with BRDM-2 Zbik-A armored cars. These BRDMs have extremely good sensors, with up to 50 vision.

4-A tank company (3rd company/1st Tank Battalion) equipped with Leopard-2PL tanks, the best tanks we’ve got. These tanks will form the spearhead of our offensive operation. The rest of the battalion will arrive at around turn 9-10

5-The 1st Company of the 2nd Tank Battalion. This units is equipped with older T-72M1 tanks. Good maneuvering and flanking shots will be used if this units encounter more modern Russian tanks.

6-The 2nd Company of the 2nd Tank battalion. The third company of this unit will arrive on turn 4.

7-A SP artillery battalion, equipped with 2S1 Gvozdik 122mm guns. As in the previous battle, these guns will used shoot and scoot a lot to avoid the deadly Russian counterbattery fire.

8-A ZSU-23-MP Biala SPAAG platoon. One more is planned to come as reinforcements at turn 11.

9-A Hibneryt-P SPAAG platoon. These are simple trucks with a ZU-23 AA gun on top, thus of little use against fast aircraft. They can be useful as fire support vehicles though.

10-A US combat engineer company. They just created the three bridges to the north. They are supported by an M-1A2 SEP V1 platoon.

11-A Grom SF platoon. Their main mission will be to scout behind enemy lines.

In addition to the forces above, more forces are to arrive as reinforcements:
-A BMP-1 equipped mechanized infantry battalion at turn 11.
-A Rosomak equipped motorized battalion at turn 5.
-There are also Polish F-16s and US F-35s as air support.

According to Intel, the southern flank of the Russian force is covered by a Belarusian brigade, possibly motor rifle. They have inferior equipment to Russians and are less motivated. In addition to that, they are deployed in the map faster than the Russians. The Russian force, mostly a tank regiment, will arrive to the north of the map.

With this in mind, I plan to defeat in detail the two forces. The southern force (the two T72 tank companies, the two recon platoons, supported by the artillery battalion and the two Mi-24s) will advance to contact to the SE corner of the map. Their mission is to find the Belarusian force and eliminate it. If they are successful, we will only have to fight the Russian force when it arrives. Speed and shock is of the essence here, a mission suited to tank units. To the north, the force will slowly expand, but will not be very aggressive in case they find strong enemy forces, at least not until we get reinforcements.

The scenario’s victory conditions are:
-Destroy the Russian force, gain a foothold to the east of the river and have at least two bridges operational for a decisive victory.
-As of above but without having crossed the river in force for a victory.
-If neither force has managed to cross the river in force and there is only one bridge left intact the result is a draw.
-If I am unable to cross and no bridge is intact OR if Russian forces cross the river in force with no bridges intact, result is a defeat.
-With bridges intact, the Russians to the western side in force and my force destroyed, result is a decisive defeat.

In addition to the above, I must have less than 35000 points worth of casualties, otherwise the result will be 2 points lower than above (I guess that means that for example if I manage to secure a DV with the above points but suffer more than 35K damage, result will be a draw).