Which word beginning with ‘o’ best fits this turn’s action? Oscitant (yawning; drowsy; dull)? Definitely not! Obtusion (the act of making blunt)? Tempting. Orthotypous (having a perpendicular cleavage)? A lovely word, but no. Obtruders (ones who obtrude)? Ah, that will do nicely.
(Operation Oryx is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Cold War set in 1981. The commenter-controlled Zendoran forces are attempting to ambush a column of Podrabian vehicles bound for Zečin, the Zendoran capital. Each turn covers one minute of WeGo action. For a scenario outline and summaries of earlier turns, click here).
Turn 22’s obtruders are the four Pod MBTs that push west this sixty.
Although the southern pair, a T-55 and T-80, trespass on Muttley’s cover arc, they are not fired upon. Presumably LoS blocking vegetation is to blame for this. At T+60 neither are visible to Muttley.
Unfortunately, the northern pair also advance unchallenged. At T+40, out of LoS of all Zen units, the beige behemoth nearest Tereza takes advantage of the peace and quiet, unhurriedly slinging a shell at a suspicious shape in the cornfield ahead of it.
That shape happens to be Droopy.
The hit eviscerates our northern Mutt and shrapnels one of the three men busy deploying a tripod-mounted TOW nearby. Can the two survivors set-up their weapon quickly enough to exact revenge? Is the T-55 even aware of their presence? I guess we’ll find out next turn.
Happily, the news I’m duty-bound to share today, isn’t all bad. Before pivoting in the direction of suspicious tank sounds (Our T-72 can hear Droopy’s executioner approaching the treeline south of the barn, but can’t see anything) Tereza glimpses the distant Shilka and lets fly. The SPAAG is reversing when the sabot round fatally perforates it.
And Recon ‘Team’ Bravo also does good work this sixty. In addition to finishing off the Pod infantry squad on the embankment…
…it alerts the rest of the Blue Team to a new threat – three amphibious light tanks making for dry land near the submerged chicken farm in the NE corner of the map.
Major Trajanov, Operation Oryx’s architect and biggest bigwig, isn’t unduly worried by Bravo’s naval news because he’s just heard that, against the odds, one of his M60A1s has made it to Strupnic!
Turn 22’s luckiest unit is unquestionably this Pod truck. It spends the action phase reversing and getting thoroughly riddled by our LMG team yet somehow survives.
Turn 23 orders here, please. Commenters are cordially invited to suggest moves for the following units. (A maximum of one unit per commenter. Subscribers can move two if they like). Turn execution: probably Monday morning.
Light mortar team (tube deployed) [BOX 47]
MG team [BOX 86]
Dragon team (ambushing) [BOX 72]
Recon team B (1 man) [BOX 75]
Recon team C (3 men, upstairs) [BOX 87]
Otto and Branko (sniper team) [BOX 100]
Forward Observer Team (calling in bombardment) [BOX 112]
TOW Mutt ‘Muttley’ (5 x ATGM) [BOX 100]
Team ‘Droopy’ (3 x ATGM, dismounted, 1 man incapacitated, deploying weapon) [BOX 23]
Mutt ‘Scrappy’ [BOX 87]
Trajanov [BOX 87]
Truck [BOX 86]
Milan Lesov (7 x RPG)[BOX 74]
BRDM commander [BOX 77]
M113 (unbuttoned) [BOX 99]
Tereza (buttoned, light damage)[BOX 16]
M60A1 [BOX 107]
ORDER
M113 to move FAST up the lane to the centre of boxes 85, 86, 97 and 98. And FACE North. Hopefully he can give our MG team a hand with the Pod truck and any surving tank crewmen from their.
ORDER
Lesov Jr to switch his empty AK for a fresh RPG and pop that truck before it empties out.
I’m hoping this in combination with the M113 will resolve any remaining resistance at this end of the map. Does that give us some options for getting units north of the road to backstop Teresa while it’s relatively quiet?
ORDER:
Teresa OPEN UP and QUICK to [16, 9, 3]. Should be 1-2 squares west of the big house.
We’ll hope she spots and takes out the T-55 before the amphibians become a problem, and hope that whoever hit her on the north side of the house can’t see her when she’s directly west of it.
ORDER:
BRDM commander to enter the house in box 77 and head upstairs to take a look around. I seem to recall last time I ordered Recon Bravo to do the same thing, two of them got unceremoniously laid out by a passing tank who surely couldn’t’ve had real life line of sight. So just in case, can I ask this guy to accept a duck/hide/be careful order after he takes a peek out the window?
ORDER:
The M60A1 makes best speed to 112 X3 Y2. Then it swings its turret northeast, covering the whole quadrant of the map. It rolls slowly into the copse of woods at 112 X5 Y3, hunting for armoured targets only.
Note: I am not super confident about this order, but since no other suggestions are forthcoming, I figured a dubious order to be better than none. If anyone has a better idea, I am willing to change the order.
Hot dog! Top notch reinforcements! Something tells me we’re going to need a little Pattoning here.
Gunner? HEAT!
Bonus points to the M60 for arriving in the nick of time! I think we were in real danger of being over run by those tanks. Now the real question, where do we send him?
Holy timely intervention, Batman!
We really needed that M60. It got a couple of options. We can stay in the shadow of Strupnic and help dragon team & friends in their sweeper role. We can try to flank the tank advance in the middle by either shoreing up Muttley´s position or even hooking further south through 112. Or we can fight along the highway, counting on superior spotting abilities. And, although very risky, we could consider joining our units north of the highway.
Droopy´s fate makes me sad, though. He did such good work until he was running out of ammo. I really hoped we had a time window to dismount, there. Let´s hope the two chaps left from the weapon team are discreet (and cold bloooded) enough to set up.
Also: When the platoon of PT-76 reaches land, it is right on course to clash with Tereza. Maybe right as she is forced to deal with the T-55 who is currently aggressively advancing just south of her. I don´t think she can fend off both at the same time. Maybe we move her in cover from one of the two, but as the previous turn proved, she is starting to get cornered.
Gosh. I missed the last couple of turns and it looks like things haven’t all gone our way.
Am I right in saying our M60 is the Starship model, with the fancy thermal sights? If it is, it should have a major long range spotting advantage over everything else on the field (though tbh the closer MBTs might already be too close to make good use of it).
Not absolutely sure which model it is, but I think in any case it is equipped with better optics than any other unit on the map, but the actual, weird starship model (M60A2) with the tube launched guided missile has a different turret and that little dome thing on the top of the chassis to the right.
Re: The Pod truck. Surely if Lesov Jr. just swivelled around to his left he would be well placed to blast it and its contents into next week? Or are we saving those RPGs for more worthy targets?
My concern with just leaving the truck to be machine-gunned is that the Pod troops inside will eventually disgorge unharmed, and given their proximity spot Lesov Jr almost immediately. I feel like barbecuing the truck now would be the best chance to prevent that from happening.
Good question as to the lack of fireworks. I thought the target arc had been cancelled by a previous order – but even so, it should have covered this! @Tim?
Lesov Junior wasn’t inhibited by a cover arc or LoS issues. He’s completely out of AK ammo, but that doesn’t explain why he didn’t use one of his seven RPGs on the reversing truck. I can try giving him an explicit ‘fire’ order next turn. That might help. Alternatively, the Dragon could carry out the execution.
Thanks Tim, I’ll make the order!
Thanks Tim and thanks Sminky!
I’ve been away for a bit, let’s have a look at how it’s going…
Oh, that’s a lot of tanks. A LOT of tanks.
Hmm, better work out how to kill a bunch of them then.
I feel like that PT-76 at the beginning was Chekhov’s amphibious assault vehicle. I was originally worried it’d come floating along the southern pond to wipe out all our guys before we even got started, but now his buddies are up top looking to take on Tereza. I hope she makes it through!