Any good war stories out there? Been so bogged down with life as of late that my time in game has suffered. Did have one interesting Skirmish last week I thought would be cool to mention.
So anyways, whenever I do get a chance to play lately, it's been creating, customizing and testing out some specialized decks that I want to bring into some online battles. I've had this American "Air Cav" Division I've been waiting to try out, which is pretty unique as all the Infantry units are Airlifted - figured this would be a good deck for rapid deployment / containment duties.
Played one of the more urban maps (whichever one has a pretty large "city" in the center) and deployed somewhere in the ballpark of 20-25 mixed infantry units in Hueys, with some Air Superiority fighters for support. At launch I directed all the Hueys to the far edge of the city (facing the enemy), with a Recon chopper scouting for aircraft and my own fighters in reserve to engage if needed. As the Hueys neared their Forward Deployment Area, caught the leading edge of the OPFOR's force, which was comprised of mixed infantry in assorted BMP's, Tungusta's and a few T-55's and T-62's mixed in.
Huey's started taking fire from the AA / SAM units as they were unloading troops, suffered a few casualties before the infantry even made it on the ground. The ones that did touchdown however, opened up from the cover of the buildings immediately to devastating effect. ATGM engaged the BMP's and tanks, who were immediately overwhelmed and began to panic, while the Soviet Infantry that had disembarked was getting torn up by my entrenched troops. Lacking artillery support, I reserved enough CP to call in a Nighthawk for some surgical strikes on concentrated targets - which was now hitting OPFOR infantry that had made it into buildings for cover and was engaging my troops.
True to Soviet Doctrine, the attacks continued in mass with waves of Mechanized units being thrown into the grinder. Although my infantry was able to cause a hell of a lot of damage, it wasn't too long before their ammo had depleted, heavy casualties were sustained, and a tactical retreat needed to be initiated. Not wanting to lose the city my first wave of Air Cav had worked so hard to establish, I began ferrying in waves of Light Riflemen to support the retreating troops. I figured at close range, the reduced range and accuracy of their AT would be nullified due to the close combat conditions. My assumption was correct - the sheer volume of AT rocket fire was enough to slow the Armored / Mechanized Assault, allowing more Air Cav to be flown in to support the flanks and widen the front. As an added bonus, my supporting aircraft was able to achieve air superiority, as the OPFOR was clearly dedicated to spending their CP's on their massed infantry, so I was able to send in near constant F-16 strafing runs in to weaken the entrenched troops, with the occasional F-117 strike on high value targets.
The combined arms attacks finally started to wear down the OPFOR, and for the first time in the battle my infantry began taking back ground. Almost reminiscent of some of the great battles of WW2 Eastern Front, fighting went from house to house, before the city was completely retaken. Stalingrad revisited. Remaining OPFOR was mopped up, and a few strafing runs in their only remaining zone left and it was over. 6K worth of Soviets KIA, mostly Mechanized and Armored. The American Air Cav had been bloodied, and battle tested...and performed flawlessly.
