Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Steel Beasts ProPE - Kill Zones Should Not Give Options to the Enemy

In this fictional scenario, I took just 6 soldiers from the Ejercito de Tierra (Spanish Army) head on to an insurgent attack of a military installation.





Our vehicle was a RG31E with a remote weapon station. Our mission was to block the insurgents reinforcements pouring into the military base. Some of them already made it to the approach routes in front of the base. An extensive cleanup awaited.

The situational awareness for the gunner is poor, but I'm counting on the eyes of the commander. He sits in the front of the vehicle and enjoys a view of the battlefield not too different than the one from a civilian truck. In this screenshot, a RCL technical approaches at full speed on our 11 o'clock.
The remote weapons station has a target acquisition system with a laser range finder (see top right "RANGO 445L" which translates into "range 445", meters I suppose). Even when it is not the pinnacle of firepower, the recoil less rifle is a very dangerous weapon system due to its high mobility. In this image, it has been struck enough to go up in flames.

A technical truck with plenty of insurgent cargo was dispatched without mercy. Our firing ranges have gone down considerably and now we are shooting targets at 200 meters. The risk of getting an RPG is high, but we needed to occupy a better position to engage insurgent reinforcements coming from longer distances.


The tall grass concealed many hidden insurgents. 

I was not very fond of our tactical situation, but the objective was still too far away from the objective to allow myself not moving.

Insurgents crawling into the base. Properly lased or not, the gun delivered flawlessly.


Closing with the enemy. I dismounted my soldiers and surprisingly they didn't come under fire. The killing has been thorough.

And this is when it happened. Occupying a battle position and scanning for targets, I spotted a column of insurgents working their way towards us. 

They were in the open, ripe for plucking. I can't be that lucky, what a killing zone! I thought as I pressed the trigger. And the insurgents disappeared on a fold of the terrain, crawling unscatched. I failed to perceive that nuanced cover and gave the enemy the option to fall back under complete cover.

A couple of minutes later, I gave up on them and engaged  other targets. 
I completed the assigned mission (blocking the insurgents) and I waited patiently for the quick reaction force to clear the military base installations. I couldn't erase from my mind those insurgents who I let live because of my mistake.

Cheers,






1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great article! Some enemies getting away is quite realistic.

This is off topic, but I just noticed the click map! Wow! You have readers all over the world! I even noticed a few near me here in Southern California! How cool!

-tFS