Jump to content

USC Xitieshanzhen Wargames


Maelstrom Vortex

Recommended Posts

Gou Shi had chosen a very formidable terrain to drill his divisions in. He had chosen the Qaidam Basin. They would be rotated in and out of the training zone a division at a time, 10 divisions on site at a time for the drilling period. 100,000 men, 10,000 supporting armored units, and a ton of bombers. Over time, almost 40 divisions would be rotated through.. 10 per month at a time. Each month the same war games would be performed. Fortunately for him, he would be able to see it all from his remote command center in the suburbs of the town of Xitieshanzhen versus actually being out in the extreme conditions in the desert.

His second in command, Gao Zhao had taken command of 50,000 men and 5,000 of the armor or about 5 divisions of those upon the field. Shi had taken command of the other 5 divisions. He had no idea where Zhao's command post was, all he knew is that it was somewhere within the operating theater of the war games, just as his command post was. The fighting of course, would not go into the town, but each had objectives of identifying and getting to within 10 miles of each others command centers. Whoever did so first would be considered the victor.

One week was set aside for preparations. He was making sure all logistical concerns were settled before the games started.. and that his lines of supply were logistically flexible and well guarded by the new aircraft that had been requisitioned on the new budget allotted under the government's grand army expansion plans. The pilots were very green. He expected many errors in the first two weeks. The staff in both bunkers were quietly and privately running betting pools on who would win the war games. Shi was favored as he was the more veteran of the two commanders, having served not just in the army of the USC, but the other governments before it in other lower ranked rolls. He had fought the Dragon Empire in Malaysia; some of the most formidable territory in South East Asia.

One of the strategies he thought he should employ, given the environment.. were intense night-time operations. The desert heat would dramatically increase the stresses on his troops and tire them more rapidly, but if he struck at night both equipment and men would be granted a reprieve from the extremes and it might catch Zhou off guard.. unless he was thinking the same thing. Well, the only way to know that will be to test it.. so night time blitzes and recon by fire it shall be.

ooc: Finally geography that works with my objectives. Lol.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[b]Midnight[/b]

Tanks and IFV's rolled into the desert while drones flew out overhead. It was the beginning of the trials. All live ammo had been replaced with lasers and temporary paint warheads and shells to simulate combat events. Alpha, Gou Shi's team, was rolling to the west over the dunes. The leading tank column was in a wedge formation, expecting fire from potentially any angle. Zhao had anticipated Shi would blitz in the night correctly.. knowing his commander and long time comrade quite well. He had ordered his men to obscure themselves in the sand and to use camouflage and wait. The desert was laid with paint anti-armor mines. While the anti-mine technology at his commander's disposal would make short work of most of these.. in the middle of a blitz it was sure to cause a few casualties and set backs.

Zhao's artillery was on stand-by status. His forward recon had been told to monitor approaching forces until they were in ideal kill zones and then to call the shots. The only thing the two sides knew about each other was their initial orientations, just like national borders in a war. The mines, artillery, and recon set ups done by Zhao were done so that a mobile force would be at the very core of ideal artillery strike ranges at about the same time they hit the mine field.. something which should result in a stagnation of the enemy advance right in the middle of a major firing zone.

Shi knew Zhao might anticipate his Blitz. He knew that Zhao knew his angle of most rapid advance, but he'd chosen an alternate solution to the problem which would throw Zhao's plans into a bit of a quagmire. He decided to take an indirect approach. His forces advanced around the edges of the desert, just within the periphery of the combat area.

5 AM.. hints of the sun's arrival was tinting the sky. Suddenly there were puffs of smoke from the far edges of the mine field as some of the mines went off, setting off 'you're dead' indicators inside some of Shi's tanks to great cursing among the crews. A report about minefields was rapidly dispatched to the HQ. Clearing units were moved ahead of the column.

Zhao's recon units went haywire as they saw Shi's armor coming through the least dense portions of the mine field. Artillery was called. It would take a few minutes to re-orient the batteries, but fortunately it would not cause the plan to be a total loss. Just in case Shi tried to skirt his defenses, Zhao had ordered almost all of the breadth of the combat zone mined to some degree... but gave focus to the center. He didn't want an armored spearhead to drive his forces apart. At least if they were separated and forced into smaller areas the columns would be easier targets once artillery was aimed properly. As Shi's armor traversed the mine-field at a crawl, more puffs of smoke started to pop up as artillery indicators started setting off more kill-beacons. Zhao's armor started moving away from its obscured position behind the central dunes of the combat area and towards the flanks in order to meet Shi's armor. As they came out of cover.. Shi's air support showed up and laid waste to an entire column with paint cluster munitions. The A-10 III'S were then re-oriented towards what reverse-ballistic triangulation devices had told the forward columns were the source of the artillery shells.

Shi had committed a bit of a ruse. While he had sent forward a few of his tanks, they were only a probing force. When all was tallied by Zhao's command only about 25 of Shi's tanks had been killed. In the meantime, Zhao's tanks had been drawn into the open from their cover and his artillery's location spotted and identified. All had been designated as targets by Shi's air power.

Now came the part that could go either way.. the air war. Perfectly equally matched, the mesh of fighters and bombers of each side battled in the skies above.. in the meantime, the ground forces had both withdrawn somewhat to re-group after the first encounter now that they knew roughly were each other were. Unfortunately for Zhao, he'd gained little intel out of the operation whereas Shi knew were most of Zhao's heavy equipment was located on the battlefield... something Zhao would rapidly be attempting to change over night, but with drones now a constant observation threat it would be hard to do.

The heat of the day had little happening besides aerial warfare. The bombing campaigns were persistent. Shi had reserved his artillery's use so as not to give away their locations while Zhao's took a pounding at any opportunity the bombers got to release munitions safely.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 2

The second day consisted of mostly an air war. Zhao was getting the worst of it because his ground forces had fallen to a ruse to give away the position of their artillery by coming out from cover to respond to what they thought was a major blitz offensive when they had only gotten a couple of reconnaissance probe columns. Shi now had a complete perspective of Zhao's force distribution and was updating it with drones. Zhao was trying to find Shi's forces, but with no real idea where to look and Shi's forces under camouflage it was taking much longer.

As the sun went down, Shi prepared for the real deal. He sent the word along the lines to attack precisely at the second the last of the sun was over the horizon. With most of Zhao's artillery out of commission, Shi ordered his own artillery to attack this time by first launching mine-field clearing munitions over a stretch of the center.. and then to fire at will at targets of opportunity giving precedence to armored targets.

At dusk, the tanks rolled forward. As they came within the range of the mine field the tank commander called out to artillery over the radio. Echoes of thunder ripped across the dunes as shells detonated above the minefield, clearing most of the mines beneath. The explosions were mostly for show and simulation... the shells actually sent out a short radio burst that told all mines within a certain range of their position to go off. There was a large black smear in the desert sands. For precautions' sake, mine clearing vehicles lead the wedges as they advanced through the sands. The vehicles hit the occasional mine, sending up a vibrant column of the black mine-hit paint all over the machines.

Zhao heard the artillery. He had his tanks in waiting just at the back edge of the mine field and as the other tanks began to come through lead by their mine clearer, they opened fire. A very large armored battle ensued as Shi's forces tried to press through the center along a cleared corridor. At first Zhao was holding the line, but as Shi's artillery moved from mines to targeting tanks, his line began to be pushed back. Innumerable curses could be heard from their HQ.

Zhao decided to attempt a counter offensive to distract Shi. He sent a division of Armor accompanied by AFV's around the far corners of the desert as Shi had the previous evening. To their immense surprise they discovered the retreating recon groups from the evenings prior had left their own mines behind and the division got snarled in a mine clearing exercise at the periphery of the battle field, rendering them tactically useless for the moment. Zhao cursed himself for not having expected Shi would cover his tracks.

The battle went all throughout the night, the losses for each side were relatively even with Zhao having lost perhaps a percentage more of his men, but having managed to re-establish a defensive line in a fighting withdrawal which saw his tank commanders moving from behind one dune to the other as they fired for cover.

Shi was pleased with his progress, he estimated that if Zhao's forces were retreating towards Zhao's HQ, then Shi would have covered half of the distance to victory in that night's advance.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The exchanges went on for the full week. Eventually, Shi won the first series of training exercises when an artillery battery got lucky and managed to set off a kill beacon right over Zhao's HQ by random area selection as Zhao's forces were retreating under the pressure of Shi's blitz.

The months passed, the exercises and strategies used were changed up each round. Each set of 10 divisions was given relief of 1 week of vacation after the intense and beleaguering training.

Shi would continue the intense training over the course of the year unless interrupted. He would stage each training set in a different and harsh terrain. Temperate plains are a cakewalk to fight in, but the mud of jungles and the sand and heat of deserts or the ridges of mountains are not the friend of the common soldier. While what was called for was a common army, the amount of drilling that his men were getting were changing them into rather crack troops. The best was saved for last. Training in long term Urban occupation and domestic policing policies with restricted rules of engagement while the enemy was participating in a guerrilla insurgency; the kind of stuff that killed unprepared empires.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...