AAR: Long Generated Campaign US v Communist

[Hermit]

Unlike the Chinese in the last engagement, who led with their tanks, the Russians have sent infantry forward quickly to feel out the area. They've used both older and the new model APC's to drive up really close to the objective areas and offload. We've managed to pick off a few enemy infantry with our snipers, mostly the vulnerable but easily concealed RPG-2 teams, but our snipers are going to be overrun soon if they keep shooting and get spotted, so for now they're laying low. Some of the scouts with them have crawled up through the woods to monitor the fields on the other side of the treeline, and both FO's have set up in places with long lines of sight.

The two lead tanks in each Bn were left riderless so that they could spot from hills and other vantage points at longer range a few hundreds meters in front of the other 10 tanks. This way, if the Russians open up on them they won't be covered by the hamburger that's sometimes left when infantry wait too long to dismount. The 106mm jeeps aren't nearly as helpful on the march. They're extremely vulnerable to any return fire, even small arms, and they can't hit squat at long range if they've moved much. The mechanized scout platoons encountered some of the enemy APC's and their infantry passengers, and started dueling at about 800 meters. Our APC's headed for the woods to dismount the scouts in concealment, and they've started spreading out to put some eyes on the enemy movements. They discovered a company column of APC's heading down the paved road and we've called in some arty to disrupt whatever nefarious plans they have. We've also diverted the two lead tanks from the southern Bn to take positions on the road and intercept any that proceed onward. The support tanks and infantry will take the sector to the south of the road, and the main-force tanks mounted with infantry will continue to move forward in the southern portion of sector between the two hills.

Up north, main force tanks from Bn B have also pressed forward diverting around to the northern perimeter of the northern hill. Support tanks have diverted even further north, to intercept an enemy thrust moving along the northern edge of the battle area.

The first major firefight erupted between the mech recon platoon APC's and 106mm jeeps, assisted by two Patton tanks on the paved road. At least two platoons of enemy mech infantry made it through the artillery barrage we laid on the road (althogh we had the satisfaction of seeing a third platoon being mostly demolished when several APC's blew up on the road and the remainder swerved wildly off the road and started smoking). The enemy infantry dismounted after taking MG fire from our APC's and a few near misses from the 106mm jeeps. The jeeps pulled back out of small arms range and out of sight of the enemy APC's. When the enemy infantry moved forward through some trees that occupied a bend in the road, those jeep crews just wailed on them like there was no tomorrow. Round after round of RR shells took apart that woods. Whether there were many casualties, I'm not certain, but they sure tried. Come to think of it, some of those flying tree limbs looked an awful lot like broken bodies. In any event, the infantry didn't get far, until a bunch of them rushed out of the woods at once, with two APC's rolling along as mobile MG's. The jeeps took out one and suppressed the other, but the advancing enemy troops forced the jeeps to pull back farther. Our APC's raked them with MG fire of our own, and they went to ground and took up defensive positions. A few fired their RPG-2 AT rockets, but thankfully none scored hits. That's when our two tanks joined the fight. They just slowly rolled forward, belching cannon and MG fire without a concern. The enemy infantry was pinned down for the most part, and part of the woods was on fire by then as well. Three more enemy APC's came out of the woods, probably to pick up their men and get the heck out of there, but our tanks left them smoking hulks. Eventually all the enemy infantry was driven back and scattered to the wind. Two more enemy APC's also bit the dust, while one of our tanks was slightly damage by an unseen RPG-2 team that must have rallied itself in the woods when the heavy fighting passed them by. Now we better clear out before enemy arty and tanks arrive. Hopefully we can keep them reacting to our probes, and we'll grind them up bit-by-bit.