soviet afghan war scenerio's?

[general_solomon]

hello,

I am new to the forum. I would like to know if anyone has created any campaigns or scenario's.

thanks,

gen solomon

[Warwick]

Hi, Welcome to the forum. There is one Soviet vs. Afghan scenario. I'm not at home at the moment, so I can't tell you exactly which one it is.

Regards,
Warwick

[general_solomon]

sounds good, thanks

[DRG]

In the game it's scenario 15

Don

[jivemi]

Yes, quite. IMHO this is sublime. As the Sovs you've got tanks, mech infantry w/BMP's, heli-borne spetsnaz and paras, attack helos, loads of arty and ground attack jets, plus a couple engineer squads. What else could you want?

--SPOILERS BEWARE--

There's little choice for armor and mech infantry: Given the lack of trails through rough hill terrain they're stuck on the single road toward the VH-rich town a couple clicks away. Helo transports with Spetsnaz and (later) paras provide lift for hill-terrain objectives, but be careful; some (most?) have defenders, either mobile, static, or both.

Scenario rules are "easy": Just get the most points. But it's not as simple as that. The road is probably (heh-heh) mined, with ambushers likely lurking around every bend, or just about anywhere. VH's might be surrounded by "invisible" adversaries who seemingly multiply out of nowhere. Your venomous "Hind" attack helos--along with their fixed-wing cousins--must watch out for hand-held SAM's, not to mention small-arms fire from ideologically enraged grunts.

So how'd I do? A loss by around 400 points, about 1650:2050. What'd I do wrong? Lots. Impetuous (foolhardy) advances, both land-based and heli-borne, were the main culprits, resulting in costly, mostly unnecessary losses. Lack of focused, coordinated arty and air bombardment was another. Also, a failure to secure objectives after capture, especially in the hills. Finally, an inability to deal with caves until it was too late (they're juicy targets if you know how to take 'em out; seems like you're mostly wasting ammo unless you fire directly at the mouth).

This was definitely a worthwhile learning experience in asymmetrical warfare, and look forward to another go in due time. Cheers, and Happy New Year!

[wulfir]

Scenario 225 is based upon a joint Soviet-Afghan vs Muj operation in Mamhud-i-Raqi, freely after the book by Zigmas Stenkus, a Soviet VDV trooper of Baltic origin.

Sidenote:

In his book about his war service in Afghanistan Stenkus noted that the Soviet troops had no faith whatsoever in their Afghan allies (gov forces) and routinely detailed part of their own numbers to keep an eye on those supposed allies. The idea was that if the Afghan government forces tried anything funny (and from time to time they did) against the Soviets the Soviets were to be in such a position that they could blow their allies away.

[jivemi]

On my free DL version it's #256. Anyway looks neat; with 42 turns a lot can happen.

[shahadi]

Scenario #256, Mamhud-i-Raqi or Mahmud-i-Raqi, is by Ulf Lundstrom, therefore, on the face of it, you can expect a very good scenario. Thanks.

[jivemi]

So it was. Got all the objectives after 17 turns, but at the cost of 8 (out of 10) APC's and a bunch of grunts. There weren't enough arty assets--just 3 mortars!--to make a systematic push along the main road so a flanking force was sent to the high-value rear objectives. They made it, but only one APC and a couple para squads survived.

Meanwhile, after being stymied for several turns along the same stretch of village road, I threw caution to the winds and charged the 3 remaining APC's of that force through to the last intermediate objective. One made it, and managed to hang on almost single-handedly against an RPG team and guerrilla squads for several turns, miraculously surviving a close assault and 1 or 2 RPG shots at close range. Whew!

That, along with the flanking move, was key to the battle. Final score was 5741 to 1020, but that doesn't show how close it really was. If either surviving APC had gotten whacked, Muji reinforcements might have retaken enough VH's to make me the loser. Very well done, Mr. Lundstrom!

[wulfir]

Glad you liked it!

Another "funny" sidenote:

According to the author Soviet companies used to take turns when sweeping Afghan villages. The company that got the main street where the shops usually were located got the best pickings to the loot...