Armored Brigade- AAR- Valley of Death

Started by -budd-, February 25, 2020, 04:39:22 PM

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-budd-

Armored Brigade, a fine game that doesn't seem to get much pub. The Dev's have steadily improved the game, new update released yesterday ....see here... https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4767593 A new update is always a good reason to jump back into a game. The game has a lot of content and your sure going to get you're money's worth. Let's see, it's up to 25 stock scenarios if you have all the DLC, scenario and campaign generator with 5 large stock maps to battle on, again you need all the DLC for all the maps. Then there are some community scenarios and maps to add to the total.

Thought i's post a little AAR for those unfamiliar with the game. This scenario took me about 3 hours from start to finish. I spent over the game time considering terrain, setting up, and giving orders, i think i enjoy the setting up part more than the game play.

In this scenario i'm the Italians repulsing a USSR attack during the night.

Scenario description


My OOB
Thoughts on my OOB: Facing a Soviet mechanized column i'm not unhappy with my OOB. I have 4 each of heavy 106mm, medium 75mm, light 57mm recoilless rifles, with that we add 6 super bazooka's and an ATGM section. All in all not to bad, we have some teeth, it's also night so we should be able to work in an effective range without getting sniped from long range. I like this mix of force, plenty of mortars, and MG's for support. The other category is my pillboxes way forward, they won't last. I also have 2 mine fields, 2 wire, and 2 AT to place.

For context, here's the battle location on the overall map.


Next i'll show a few different looks/displays you can use to play and for judging LOS and the lay of the land. This pretty standard view, the dev's have improved the shading to reading elevations in a bit better, but there are other tools to help. This new update has drawing tools you can use to draw on the map, there are also some symbols you can place on the map with text, i didn't use the symbols and text . I drew what i think is the enemy plan of attack, and my defensive lines, i'll setup 3 in this case. There's five different colors you can use to mark the map with, you hold CTRL to add and delete lines. The little padlock next to the units shows most of my forces are locked to start with, i'll have to hustle them into position. This shot is just showing sections and platoon unit markers, not individual units.



If you want to play on a paper like map, here you go, not my cup of tea but some folks like it and its always good to have a choice.


Here's the height map with all units displayed. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess they have to come right down the valley. The small red arrows indicate routes of travel, roads and two bridges. Only issue is if i can get into position before they arrive. OOO... yes there are nato symbols for you purists.


Here's the ISO map to again help you the lay of the land. You can see i've placed my mines, wire and AT traps, the mines are blue, the wire is yellow and the red are the traps.
ISO map with height overlay

ISO map with all units.


Here's some LOS tools to help the user. There's a bunch of stuff going on here. First the red target thing indicates i'm doing LOS from a ground position, not a unit. I have it set to red/blue, the more blue the better LOS, red areas are degraded LOS. The stretched out line indicates i'm taking LOS from up on a slope looking down, the new update added a LOS percentage at the end point. If i was taking LOS from a unit the target thing would be green.


Time to start.

I push my scouts forward and 5 minutes in they spot some enemy recon, BRDM-2's. I forgot to put my scouts on hold fire.....so they don't...they manage to take out one BRDM, i try to pull them back but they get taken out from the other BRDM a few minutes later.


Both bunkers are taken out in the 8 minute mark. Here's my scouts are taking fire and will die soon but the super bazooka in the trees SW of the scout unit takes out the BRDM.


Enemy traffic arrives at the bridge, these guys are going to have a bad day. I managed to get 4 recoilless rifles, a platoon of Alpini infantry and 2 mg's and 2 super bazooka's into position on the forward defensive line covering those two bridges.


At the bridge and south of the bridge i'm doing some damage, knocking out 3 BRDM's, 2 BTR 60's and 1 T55A MBT, and another unknown tracked vehicle, but it comes at a price, i lose a super bazooka and 2 recoilless rifles.


29 minutes in fought off a major attack on the more southern bridge, my first line is broken. My second line finishes off the enemy units that got through. I start shifting all my units up north to the south.


After a few minutes of silence and no contacts i remember i have illumination rounds, i fire a few to light up the area.


My second line is breached, shifting northern units of the second line to the south. Also brought up a reserve Alpini platoon and a section of flame throwers.


37 minutes in second line is still holding barely but feels like the enemy is running out of steam.


A couple of enemy units reach the third line and cross the stream but the end is near.




I forgot to check to see enemy troops at the end, you need to do that before you start.

Just trying to do a quick showcase of the game, not really an in depth AAR. It's a game worth checking out and there's lots of play in the package and the Dev's are very supportive of their game.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.