SCENARIOS!

[Mr_Bill_5000]

2023 CANGAMES SP-MBT CONVENTION TOURNAMENT SCENARIO

The appended scenario was the basis of the Steel Panthers MBT tournament held over the May Long Week-end, at the annual CanGames games convention, in Ottawa, Ontario.

An extensive set of game notes was prepared for the players of the tournament, however the rules regarding uploads for this Forum do not permit the upload of a large (~2.2 Mb) .pdf of this type, so if you want to see these notes, please message me and I'll try to find some way to get it to you.

The scenario was very well-received and all the players commented on how realistic it seemed.

Details of the scenario, which occupies slot #560 in the SP-MBT Scenario List, can be seen below.

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Assault on Armiansk depicts a Ukrainian attempt, in mid-Spring 2023, to dislodge entrenched Russian forces just outside and in the north-west parts of the north Crimean town of Armiansk, which sits astride the main highway running from inside Crimea to Kherson on the western side of the Dneipro River.

Taking Armiansk will be vital to Ukraine’s military objectives in Crimea, as this region is connected to the Ukrainian mainland only by a few narrow isthmus (this is one of them) and without a break-through, Ukraine would have to try a very dangerous and likely futile amphibious invasion elsewhere on the Crimean coastline to advance on the #1 objective, the port city of Sevastopol.

Unfortunately, the Russian High Command staff are very well aware of the area’s importance, and they have taken steps to fortify it so as to make Ukrainian advances, very difficult and costly.

So...

“Pokolvnyk (Colonel) Fedeorsuk of Ukraine’s Glorious Armed Forces, here is your intelligence briefing for this important battle.

Your orders are to send Mr. Putin’s ‘Orcs’ (Russian soldiers) in the Armiansk area, fleeing in terror from the righteous wrath of Ukraine’s avenging army.

To do this, you will have to accomplish at least three goals : one, ‘kill as many Russian units as you can’; two, ‘capture as much of the Kherson Highway as possible, down to the far southeastern part of it leading to the ‘Khimik’ Sports Stadium; and three, ‘capture as many as possible of the special victory objective flags which we have identified on the battle map’.

We should warn you… we do not expect this battle to be easy. Although we are sure that our soldiers have much better morale than the ‘Orcs’, and we have amassed as many of our boys (and girls) as we can for this operation, we do not have a large numerical superiority in the area; so preserve your infantry as much as you can, since every lost Ukrainian hero soldier will hurt our chances of victory.

As far as armored combat is concerned, you have been given command of a small number of new Western main battle tanks, and while we believe that on a 1-for-1 basis they are superior to anything that the Russians might have in the area, these are not “super-weapons” : they can be killed, notably by some of the more recent anti-tank missiles that the ‘Orcs’ are known to have in their possession. And they can be rendered almost instantly useless simply by driving them over a land mine. So use and move them carefully!

This is even more true of the few mine-clearing T-64 tanks that you have been allocated, as these will be vital in helping you to remove the minefields that the dirty Russians are suspected to have laid, in and around Armiansk.

Your tanks (especially the Western ones) are much better-protected than your armored personnel carriers (even the Bradleys). So if you believe that you are going to take a missile shot no matter what you do… let the ‘Orcs’ fire it at our Western tanks first, as they are more likely to survive a hit or two. (Note that we said ‘more likely to survive’… not, ‘invulnerable’.) Also, we have some advanced APCs (BTR-4 and Bradleys) that have potent anti-tank missiles. If they survive the first few minutes, use them for defensive purposes later on to defeat Russian armored counter-attacks.

Unfortunately, we have almost completely exhausted our pre-war supplies of artillery shells and air defense missiles, over the winter of 2022-23; so we are weak in both these areas. Do not be surprised if you encounter large-scale Russian artillery barrages and*/ or airstrikes. Disperse your units as much as you can so they are less vulnerable to massed indirect fire.

You will be given one airstrike (very little of our pre-war air force remains operational); we recommend that you hold it in reserve until you see a worthwhile target (for example a Russian tank column) for your Su-25 to bomb into oblivion. The Russians have somewhat better local air defenses than we do, so do not expect your ‘Grach’ strike plane, to survive forever.

As far as specific tactics on the battlefield are concerned, you will notice that the main highway runs from the top-left (north-west) of the map to the bottom-right (south-east). We expect this route to be heavily defended so it may not be worthwhile to try to force it.

The Russians are known to have partly fortified the approaches to the town; they are dug in and have set up trench lines, barbed-wire, minefields, and anti-tank obstacles in some places. Yet we believe that they do not have enough soldiers to have done this, everywhere. You will have to probe to see where the weak spots are, then ruthlessly exploit these.

We suspect that Russian defenses will be weaker around the southern approaches to the town (near the bottom of the map) and perhaps around the large spillway that runs parallel to the highway, in the northern side of the map.

You could try your luck marching through the forested area that runs alongside and just to the north of the highway; of course, your units will move more slowly here, but they may not be exposed to a great deal of long-range opportunity fire. You will have to move your units as quickly as possible to take the victory objectives within the expected deadline; but do so in as safe a manner as you can.

There are a few victory objectives in the north-east part of the map (north of the spillway). You will have to decide if it is worthwhile trying to capture these. We think Russian defenses in the area are relatively thin, but they are not entirely absent, so proceed cautiously here.

Another warning is warranted, about the offensive : our NATO-supplied intelligence sources have detected what appear to be Russian reinforcements, heading to the Armiansk region. These may include some older tanks (as the diabolical Putin is thought to have deployed most of his newer tanks further south to guard Sevastopol, also to the north around Bakhmut) and possibly some other units as well. So just because you don’t encounter enemy tanks in the first phases of your attack, that does not mean that they will never show up. Be on guard!

So those are your orders, Pokolvnyk Fedeorsuk. Ukraine’s long-suffering citizens in Crimea await their liberation from the evil Russian ‘Orcs’. It’s up to you, to break their defenses and open the path to Crimea. Do not fail your motherland!

Slava Ukraina!”