Two related stories, though they aren't exactly gaming stories. They took place at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, where armored formations go for weeks of force-on-force training, kind lof like laser tag with 5,000 guys on a team, plus tanks, aircraft, and heavy artillery. The world's largest and most realistic wargame. The resident opposing force there is tough to beat -- they're well trained, and know the terrain like the back of their hand. They have a special mission unit called Task Force Angel, which is a company of dismounted infantry about 80-strong that lands in the night by helicopter assault and goes in to screw up the Blue Forces' rear area or seize some dominant piece of terrain.
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So my tank platoon is set in a defensive battle position on the north slope of Hill 781, serving as a backstop to the brigade's defense. The sun is beginning to come up, and we've gotten a report the KRasnovian force is on the march, and they're headed right for my little kill sack -- it's going to be a good day. Just after daybreak, I look up at the hill to my left, and see a column of purple smoke rising from the crest. I just have time to ket my radio and ask "what's purple smoke mean?" when my "whoopee" light goes off - -indicating my tank has been killed. "It means you're dead!" comes the response, as my wingman dies. The platoon dady's wingman was maintenance down, so the platoon sergeant just gets to trade a little Ma-Deuce fire with the hilltop before an ATGM takes him out. A swarming horde of sandpeople -- the infantrymen of Task Force Angel -- comes down the hill, through my battle position, and goes on to destroy my task force headquarters. Turns out they'd landed on the south side of teh hill during the night. Moral: make sure you secure the high ground.
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Far forward a year, and now I'm in a Bradley-equipped scout platoon. My wingman and I are doing a counter-recon sweep south of Hill 781, bounding from wadi to wadi looking for enemy scouts. A BRDM -- a wheeled recond vehicle (actually a visually modified HMMWV) -- squirts out of a wadi and tries to run an high speed, only to get pincered between us and get zapped by my wingman's 25mm cannon fire. We continue our sweep, and I stop to check in where my commander and part of the maintenance platoon are putting in an obstacle, before turning back to our assembly area. We're just getting moving when a Hind-D pops up from behind a hill, cannon blazing -- but there are two of us, and we quickly chase him off. We wonder where he came from, and then we see what looks like a bunch of ants on the ridgeline to the north -- a bunch of OPFOR infantry that has appeared out of nowhere! Call brigade -- no infantry able to respond, and the bad guys are in our rear area, so we can't get clearance for artillery fire. We're ordered to take them out, two Bradleys against about 40 infantry with ATGMs. We figure we're toast, but bound up to about a click away and open up with 25mm HE. The two ATGM teams go down in the first burst, and after a few Z-patterns we're pciking out the few survivors and sending them on their way with individual bursts. As we're done clearing the area, we hear the sound of rotors -- two Hind-Ds are escorting in 7 HIP helos, on the *second* lift of the air assault. I call my wingman: "Switch to TOW, I've got the lead, you get the trail." Two missiles later the Hinds are out of action, and we upen up with 25mm on the unarmed slicks. Pretty soon, thery're out of the fight -- they have to land to pick up the "dead" infantrymen and return to base.
Turns out the BRDM we zapped had been securing the LZ for Task Force Angel, and he got killed before being able to get off a message that the LZ wasn't secure. The first lift got in OK, but we killed them on the ground before they got the word to the second lift, and we killed the second lift in the air. Final score: Scouts 9 helos & 80 dismounts, TF Angel 0. I finally got my revenge on Task Force Angel.
Moral: Make sure you secure the high ground.
