Hailstorm--Turning an OPORD into a Mission Two Years Later

Two years ago I was a junior leader in a realism unit called Mobile Assault Group (Shoutout to those fellows, if they're still around.) and we were looking for guys to play with. A group stepped up and we began talking over when and how to go about it. Combined our turnout was projected to be around thirty or forty. I was pretty excited. Now being of the mind that cooperative play was the key to starting off good relations between thirty guys who've never met each other and have varying play styles I decided to minimize planning difficulties, show some professionalism (A concept I can laugh at now), and use the piles of reference material I've accumulated like some deranged military science obsessed hoarder.

Now the mission was called "Hailstorm" after the BM-21s the players would have to destroy in their raid. It was intended to be an air-assault raid conducted by an air rifle platoon against a Russian airborne company. There were to be grand screening artillery barrages and a tough helicopter extraction under pressure. What follows is the original OPORD in all its textual glory.

Task Organization is 1st squad, 2nd Squad, and 3rd Squad with one of the platoons machine guns.Situation:Enemy Forces are reportedly an understrength mechanized airborne company. Their morale is low and are entrenched on our platoon's objective. They are expected to put up a stiff resistance to hold their intitial positions, but will fall back to the south if the platoon can put enough pressure on them.
There will be no friendly forces acting on our platoon's flanks. Regimental artillery batteries will cover our flanks with indirect fires to prevent the enemy from massing combat power on our raiding force.
The platoon has three Javelins to support the raiding effort. They will remain in control of the platoon and will be returned to company control until return to friendly lines. One platoon heavy machine gun is attached to our unit for the duration of the mission.
Mission:1st Platoon will attack Hill 425 at 0545 to neutralize enemy BM-21 Grad "Hail" batteries northeast of the objective.
Execution:We will insert northwest of the Old Fields and sweep west to east. Artillery smoke cover will allow us to advance quickly and decisively on Hill 425. We will assault the hill with two squads and hold 3rd Squad in reserve. 1st and 2nd Squads will bound up and clear the hill of enemy combatants. 3rd Squad will then establish a base of fire on the objective while 2nd Squad neutralizes the enemy artillery battery. 1st Squad will be responsible for holding the southern flank while 3rd Squad holds the northern. All units will rally south of the objective and standby for extraction by UH-60M blackhawk. Artillery will barrage the southern flank while the platoon assaults Hill 425 to relieve pressure from potential reaction forces.Maneuver: 1st and 2nd Squad will travel through the Old Fields in bounding overwatch with 3rd Squad as rear security. During the assault of Hill 425, 1st and 2nd Squad will move on the objective simultaneously in traveling overwatch with 3rd Squad in reserve. The two attack squads will bound from each line of defense to the next up the hill. Once the first two lines are cleared, 1st and 2nd Squad will hold position for 3rd Squad to move into the first cleared line. 3rd Squad will then act as a base of fire for the maneuver of 1st and 2nd Squad.Tasks to Maneuver Units: 2nd Squad, prepare satchel charges for enemy artillery trucks. 1st Squad, prepare Javelin to neutralize enemy armored threats.

So scenario-wise it's believable and concise. As a guy looking to create an amazing experience it has all the things I could ask for. An eerie and tense but small series of running skirmishing firefights in the dense and foggy old fields, a few more lines of defense the raiders have to break through, an entrenched enemy on their objective and two units of reactionary forces that will encircle the players and provide a tense battle to the death.

The old fields have always been a favorite locale on Chernarus. It's a series of hedgerows and rock walls lined parallel along a slight hill. The terrain around it devoid of real tactical value and presents the usual giant killzone we try to avoid in a road. It lends itself to small groups of guys showing initiative and unit control issues. Poor control leads to overextension and poor security and makes for a tough firefight no matter how you cut it. Adding a thick fog to the region extends the tension even more to the possibility of close range surprise engagements.

So they push out as the fog rolls out with them, right? Into a few light outposts and defensive lines from the enemy company's battered and understrength platoon. A full rifle platoon will have a relatively easy time of brushing them aside, but it provides the next step up in the fight--now concentrated enemy units are forming organized defensive lines. 

Pushing through the second series of engagements the players wait for the artillery barrage to hit, masking expected locations of the enemy's positions on the objective hill. Most shells do their job, but there are bound to be gaps. The platoon bounds across an open field due to the need to maintain momentum and meet the time constraint. Enemy units sally out of Novy Sobor and Stary Sobor to the south and the southern squad stalls them with fire.

The platoon hits their objectives, fighting up from sandbag position to sandbag position and lobbing grenades at anything that isn't them. The enemy presents an anvil to the player's front and a hammer to the south. A mechanized patrol or two swings down the road from the north providing more pressure. 

Intense pressure from both sides presents a tactical problem for the platoon leader to either attempt to deal with each threat in turn or to try and hold off the attackers from both directions at once. Following the defense of player positions comes an extraction from a hot LZ as remnants of the enemy scatter and attempt to move on the hill and retake the terrain or avenge their fallen comrades.

So we've got some decent pacing, a climactic firefight and a dramatic extraction under fire. First problem arose in Arma 2 where I first planned it. The insertion was to be via blackhawk or three. I attempted to array them in a traditional LZ with three landing points along a parallel axis. The choppers would land/hover for three to five seconds and dust off with the players pouring out into defensive formations. Then I'd later activate the extraction by trigger and player thrown smoke grenade.

Let's be honest, Arma's piloting AI is only slightly better than having me at the controls. Normally a landing that doesn't cause an explosion is a good landing to me. But the AI is easily dissuaded from landing on LZs if they're within fifty to one-hundred meters and will sometimes pull off to their next waypoint instead. They also had a random chance to crash into each other. Or hell, sometimes they'd hover and start dismounting troops, then pull up and scatter them through the trees as they flew away.

So the main problem after that was attendance, but then we went to Arma 3. So we lost all our stuff, even Chernarus for a while. Which wasn't as big a bummer as the loss of all the content from Arma 2 (The great fictional factions like CDF and ChDKZ and NAPA and all the Takistani units plus their arms and equipment gosh it was so grand! It was grand, boy let me tell you!)

So I want to use the CSAT fellas, but they don't blend into the green-ness of Chernarus very well (Better to use on Takistan/Tora Bora or something) so I pick the AAF. Problem is that there aren't any howitzers or artillery for the AAF. So now I can't even replicate that. However their optics and everything make it just right, their Gorgons are just BTRs with rear mounted turrets, and they blend in nicely and feel appropriate.

So as for the whatsit they gotta blow up? How about some supply trucks. Deadly ass supply trucks that've killed over a thousand women and children. They engineered 9/11 and also started WWI when they ran over Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Next problem? Arraying the forces. I want them to be understrength, and I don't trust Arma's AI to properly execute a mechanized attack anymore. So instead I settle for distributing two regular strength motorized rifle platoons in some bases around the area and an understrength rifle platoon around and in the old fields. There are far more deadly concentrations of assets stationed on the flanks of the route in to guide the players into the area they should move through to discourage any wide flanking maneuvers.

But I keep looking around and realizing I probably won't be able to set up a call in for those choppers--namely because a ghosthawk doesn't even fit a full rifle squad (The old Blackhawks fit thirteen, enough for one of those gangly giant Marine rifle squads or something) so now I get to thinkin': Maybe I oughta send in a pile of HEMTT-Ts escorted by LAVs or something, or even AH-99 Comanches or a tactical nuclear strike. The concept of having the players hoof it back from whence they came doesn't really appeal to me--though I could send in an air assault reaction force to cut off the players route back to their extraction point further west.

I really like the concept of the players scrambling to get off a hill and having to claw their way through a fresh enemy force--sharing out ammo as their backpacks empty. Only thing is--can my guys pull that kind of stuff off?