I will be using this AAR to cover some of the finer points of FC:RS and hopefully provide some light entertainment along the way as I get my butt handed to me.

I will look at planning, friendly and enemy forces, key features, combined arms defense and attack, use of infantry built up and wooded areas, artillery fire support modes, air defence and heli/fixed wing attacks.

If you’re fairly new to playing this game, you may want to leave the limited order rule off. As it stands now I can issue 22 orders per command cycle. This includes artillery strikes, movement orders and adjustments to existing orders.
This figure can go up and down throughout the battle as I take losses, losses to troops actually increases the number of orders (less load on the command system) but losses to HQ units will decrease the number of orders (less of a command system).

Emergency resupply is slightly tricky and can hinder resupply activities, with it on whenever a unit is on low ammo it will automatically boost ammo levels to 30% if in combat, however I've found this can interrupt resupply commands so i tend to leave it off.

Visibility options are self-explanatory but please ask if you’re unsure

Here I look at what friendly forces are present and a few quick explanations:

Friendly
At my command I have 1 tank regiment (UK tank regiments are just tank battalions, the term regiments is an old naming convention from Calvary regiments of old) with chieftains Mk11 so 120mm main gun and thermal imaging packaged with advance composite armour, the chieftain was first seen in 1965 and has been upgraded over the years with the Mk11 being the last version before the challenger tank was introduced.












1 infantry battalion in FV432 with Milan anti-tank sections, the FV432 was little more than a battle taxi with only a MMG and light armour.
The Milan sections all have thermal imaging but limited range just under 2km.











Thankfully the infantry are eqipped with LAW80 one of the best handheld antitank weapons and will give any Soviet tanker a bad day











1 artillery regiment (again UK arty regiments are battalion strength using the term regiment from days past). Sadly these will come into play as reinforcements but 3 full batteries worth of M109A1 so once their make an appearance they will make their presence felt with ICM and mines in addition to smoke & HE round.











Minor units
1. tracked Rapier SAM, my only air defence and only 2 units each with 2 tracked Rapiers, need to keep these close to the forward units.
2. Gazelle helicopter – 1 unit of armed gazelle, armed with rockets so outside of recon it won’t add much value unless I can catch enemy recon or BMP units without AD cover
3. 1 Tornado – air support, useful as long as I watch out for enemy AD units

From the player briefing

So 3 tank regiments would have around 90+ tanks per regiment, 270+ main battle tanks vs my platry 58 Chieftans
1 Motor Rifle regiment is 100+ AFV, the majority of which have a main gun (73mm gun on the BMP1, 30mm cannon on the BMP2) and both BMP1 & BMP2 can mount ATGM, while less armour than a tank they can still knock out my tanks if their carrying ATGM. If i'm lucky they'll be mounted in BTR's which are a wheeled APC mounting a HMG, but luck was never my friend.

I'd expect a decent amount of arty support as well as airstrikes and helicopters.

The battle picture is looking less rosey by the minute.

Terms:
AO – Area of Operations
VL – Victory Locations

In this section I'll break the planning down into 2 processes, "map analyses" and "Task analyses" which will uses the map analyses and mix and match my forces into various tasks as required

Map analyses
1. Likely routes of enemy advance – I’ve marked most victory locations with red stars and the main location with a yellow star, from this I estimate 3 possible routes, the main route directly through the centre of the AO that allows easy acquisition of the bulk of the VL, a southern route that I consider a minor route but still with easy acquisition of the VLs and a northern route but these seems unlikely as its quite far from the bulk of the VLs.
Note: the trick here is to look for routes of rapid advances, meaning more often than not road networks are exploited while wooded areas are generally avoided.
2. Friendly options – I think a primary defensive area (gold outline) in and around the urban and wooded areas can be held by infantry with some tank support however I expect that the mass of red armour will push me back into the town so a northern pincer (blue arrows) that will swing south to counter attack into the enemy flank as they push into the town. My pincer will need to secure its flank in the north-east town before it swings south.
3. The red arrow marks my plan B if the primary defensive position starts to fall apart.


Task analyses
1. Primary defensive force will consist of the bulk of the infantry, 2 company’s worth with the majority of Milan sections, mortar support and backed up with 2 squadrons of tanks. The infantry recce platoon with my Milan Mobile sections will provide a screen to the south just in case the enemy tries flanking me.
2. My pincer force will consist of the remaining 2 squadrons of tanks with the 3rd company of infantry in support (they will secure the north east town – flank protection for my swing south)
3. Artillery, when they make an appearance I will use 1 battery each to support my defensive and pincer forces, the 3rd battery will be assigned to counter battery or fire support to critical areas.

In this and the next few sections I will cover off my setup and how the battle progresses with updates every hour (H+1, H+2 etc), I will also focus on key activities as they occur.

Pincer force setup
Here I have setup 4 RTR with its 2 tank sqn’s and 1 infantry company to move into blocking positions, A sqn (yellow line) taking the northern hill, B sqn (blue line) taking position in the woods and along the river bank, while C Coy move into covered positions behind the hill (black circle), with the recce platoon moving forward to screen. This gives me a nice kill zone (red circle) should anything try moving along the route.

Main force setup
1 RGJ are ordered to move rapidly into and secure the town, with C sqn (yellow line) moving into forward positions to engage any enemy recce (red circle engagement area) while A Coy (blue box) and B Coy (green box) move into the town itself with hold orders – at this stage they are the only troops to have hold orders at their last way point.
My recce with attached mobile milan sections move south (dark red line) to cover that flank, and I’m keeping D sqn (black circle) back as my reserve force who will receive their movement orders at the next command cycle phase.
To ensure I don’t have any traffic jams I’ve set A Coy to start moving after 2 minutes as their following C Sqn whom I want to move out fast to secure the eastern entrances to the town.

Command radius
A key point to note here is command radius, I try to keep everyone within their HQ command range, with the Brigade HQ in the center and as far forward as I dare, their command radius (green shaded area) is large enough to keep both 4 RTR and 1 RGJ HQs in range, likewise each of the battalion HQs are close enough to their lower HQs etc.

Commander: "gunner T64 1500m load SABOT"
Gunner: "Sabot loaded" "on target"
Commander: "FIRE"
BOOOM!!

The first command cycle went without a hitch, the pincer force reaching their positions quickly and as quietly as tanks allow, the main force reached the outskirts of the town and started to move into their allotted positions. A few minutes into the 2nd command cycle C Sqn made contact with an enemy recce unit of BDRM2 supported by T64B tanks and all hell started to break lose.

As per the plan C sqn with their 14 tanks brought enough time for A and B Coy of 1 RGJ to move into positions within the town, sadly 1 platoon A coy lost a FV432 and its rifle section to enemy arty fire as they moved through the town. C sqn exchanged fire with soviet tanks at uncomfortably close range but managed to knock out 7 tanks, 5 recce vehicles, 17 APCs mostly BMPs, 13 command units and 8 air defence units for the loss of 3 of its own.
Because of the number of HQ units destroyed I’ve managed to increase the soviet command cycle to 39 minutes.
You’ll notice that the majority of my infantry are within the town with no LOS past the outer edges with the exception of my Milan units who have good fields of fire (red lines).
I've ordered all my mortar units to start laying down smoke across my forward units in an effort to reduce incoming fire, thankfully my tanks have thermal imaging so they can see past the smoke.

My tanks can see a tsunami of red armour heading directly towards to the town supported by infantry in BMPs, this is going to turn ugly very quickly, i still have at least 30minutes before I get any serious arty support.

Southern Flank
I've ordered my mobile milan sections to move into firing positions covering the southern edge of town, while 1 of the recce units has been ordered to blow the bridge as I dont want anything leaking past, crossing the river and entering the southern part of the town.

Pincer forces
Here I have ordered B sqn to start the pincer move south, and using movement timing all 5 troops should reach their final firing positions at the same time. I ran out of orders (19/21 used) here so A sqn and C Coy will wait until next command cycle before receiving their orders.

The 2nd hour of Hells Crossroads has seen some bloody fighting over the town with both sides suffering losses.

Soviet tanks finally broke through to the river and the victory location with a combined armour/infantry attack with artillery and airstrikes, one of my Rapiers fired and while missed was instrumantal in ensuring the airstrike failed to cause any damage, now they appear to be shifting their direction of advance westwards again and are about to run head on into my reserves who have just crossed the river, this success however has cost them 16 recce, 102 tanks , 36 APCs, 21 infantry, 22 HQ, 15 air defence units. Thats about 1/3 of their force and pushed their command cycle up to 41min, while my losses are about 1 full company of infantry, a 2nd company worth of FV432 and 1 sqn of tanks.

Looking at the infantry in the town, they've been battered but thanks to the Milan teams (highlighted in blue box) have managed to account for over half the Soviet tank losses.
If you look at the red arrows, they point to a rough guide on how to tell how much of a force the enemy has left, they started with a little over 14,000 points of troops, but I've destroyed over 5,000 points worth and have around another 4000-5000 points to destroy to force him to the 30% force remaining mark and hopefully victory.

Southern Flank
Nothing really to report here, the mobile milan sections are still moving into position while I move 2 recce sections eastwards.

Pincer Force
I stopped B sqn from moving when it looked like the soviets were advancing north up the western side of the forest, however now those soviet tanks have turned around and heading south before moving west so I have started A sqn moving into their pincer move positions and C Coy are making their way towards the north east town to secure the flank of the pinch attack.

Good news
2 batteries of arty are now available, however due to starting my pincer attack I ran out of orders but managed to get 1 troop of M109's into counter battery fire mode so I can hopefully start hitting soviet artillery. I'm expecting the 3rd battery to become available soon.

Other notes:
Due to losses in and around the town I had to carry out a shuffle of my OOB as I lost 2 HQ units meaning some units were out of command range, its a bit messy but been corrected so I shouldn't suffer to much in terms of readiness/morale recovery as well as ammo resupply

Main Force
No plan survives contact with the enemy
How true this statement is, my plan while not completely in tatters certainly needs changing, the majority of 1 RGJ has been battered and only sections remain here and there, their supporting tanks have been reduced to 2 under strength troops of tanks. That said they have inflicted massive causalities on the soviets.
Now that my arty is present they have laid a series of minefields to the north and east of the town to disrupt enemy movements catching several tank units and are about to fire ICM fire missions on the stacked tank units, as long as 1 RGJ hold on my pincer attack will ease the pressure along with massive arty support through ICM attacks.

Southern Flank
Still very quiet so I have decided to move them northwards as it appears only scattered remains of soviet units are nearby, hopefully they’ll catch a few lone units and destroy them in conjunction with my arty (I’ll set 1 battery to direct support on the 2 forward recce units)

Pincer movement
The AI seems to have returned to a northern route of advance with 2 tank companies and 1 battalion of BMP infantry, this force has ran directly into the line of fire from A sqn as it leads the pincer movement, I doubt there will be much left of his forces in this advance over the next hour.
If you note the blue line, that is the flight path of my Gazelle helicopters, I tried to use the woods and hills to block LOS/LOF, they almost made it intact but lost one as they flew past the 1.5km gap between the forest and hills, revenge was sweet when they managed to take out 6 BMPs with their infantry and SAM team. Now with only 19% ammo they have to return to the Brigade HQ to rearm, hopefully one of my tanks will take out that SA8 SAM unit following his northern advance troops

Overall status
2" Mortar (Infantry Support Unit) - 9 starting, 1 destroyed.
Armed Gazelle (Attack Helicopter-Gun/Rkt) - 3 starting, 1 fallen out.
Chieftain Mk 11 (Main Battle Tank) - 58 starting, 7 fallen out, 15 destroyed.
Ferret AOP (Recon Unit) - 18 starting, 2 fallen out, 3 destroyed.
FV432 (Tracked APC) - 85 starting, 12 fallen out, 26 destroyed.
FV432 Mortar (Self Propelled Mortar) - 8 starting, 4 destroyed.
GPMG (Infantry Support Unit) - 6 starting, 1 fallen out, 1 destroyed.
Headquarters (Command Unit) - 19 starting, 2 fallen out.
Land Rover (Wheeled Utility Vehicle) - 6 starting, no losses or exits.
M109A1 (Self Propelled Artillery) - 24 starting, no losses or exits.
Mechanized Rifle (Infantry Unit) - 36 starting, 9 fallen out, 10 destroyed.
Milan (Anti-Tank Infantry Unit) - 20 starting, 5 fallen out, 4 destroyed.
Scimitar (Recon Tank) - 8 starting, no losses or exits.
Scorpion (Recon Tank) - 8 starting, 4 fallen out.
Scout (Infantry Unit) - 6 starting, no losses or exits.
Spartan MCT (Self Propelled Anti-Tank) - 4 starting, no losses or exits.
Sultan (Command Vehicle) - 3 starting, no losses or exits.
Tornado (CAS Aircraft-Gun/IB) - 2 starting, no losses or exits.
Tracked Rapier (Self Propelled SAM) - 4 starting, 2 destroyed.

I have 65% of my force left but have 55% of the victory points putting me in line with a tactical victory, while I have reduced the enemy to about 45% of his starting troops. Not brilliant but a win is a win and I'm still combat effective at 2/3 of starting forces, lets hope I dont made any major blunders.

3 hours and 17 minutes into the battle and the soviets stop attacking and start consolidating their gains after losing 70% of their force.

While I'm happy with a tactical victory I can still learn some lessons (hopefully you have too), I'll discuss lessons and results in the next section.

You dont need to capture the actual victory location, you need a greater unit influence within 12 hexes (6km), IF I had moved my pincer force eariler and futher south I might of had a greater unit influence within range of the 3000pt victory location.

Greetings from the Inspectorate of the General Staff -
To: General, commanding TF Hells Messenger
* In the battle of "Hell's Crossroad AAR" your forces worth 9,134 points secured 59% (13633 vs 9507) of awarded victory points against an enemy force worth 14,396 points. The Inspectorate congratulates you and rates your performance as competent and professional.
* Your force has claimed 21 Recce, 205 Tank, 57 APC, 46 Inf, 10 SP AT, 4 AT, 28 HQ, 22 AD, 11 Arty and 15 Utility enemy subunits.
* Remaining force tally -
Active: 19 Recce, 2 Helo, 45 Tank, 45 APC, 17 Inf, 4 SP AT, 11 AT, 20 HQ, 2 AD, 28 SP Arty, 6 Arty, 6 Utility and 2 Air.
Fallen out: 2 Recce, 1 Helo, 12 Tank, 14 APC, 10 Inf, 5 AT and 2 HQ.
Destroyed: 3 Recce, 17 Tank, 26 APC, 15 Inf, 4 AT, 2 AD, 4 SP Arty and 3 Arty.
* By the end of the battle your units had a 78% average readiness and a command cyle duration of 23 minutes.
* Your force took very heavy - 22% - permanent losses and must refit for for a considerable time to recover the 46 subunit(s) that have fallen out.
Staff evaluation complete.
Estimated state of forces at present time:
- British Forces:
2" Mortar (Infantry Support Unit) - 9 starting, 3 destroyed.
Armed Gazelle (Attack Helicopter-Gun/Rkt) - 3 starting, 1 fallen out.
Chieftain Mk 11 (Main Battle Tank) - 58 starting, 8 fallen out, 17 destroyed.
Ferret AOP (Recon Unit) - 18 starting, 2 fallen out, 3 destroyed.
FV432 (Tracked APC) - 85 starting, 14 fallen out, 26 destroyed.
FV432 Mortar (Self Propelled Mortar) - 8 starting, 4 destroyed.
GPMG (Infantry Support Unit) - 6 starting, 1 fallen out, 3 destroyed.
Headquarters (Command Unit) - 19 starting, 2 fallen out.
Land Rover (Wheeled Utility Vehicle) - 6 starting, no losses or exits.
M109A1 (Self Propelled Artillery) - 24 starting, no losses or exits.
Mechanized Rifle (Infantry Unit) - 36 starting, 9 fallen out, 12 destroyed.
Milan (Anti-Tank Infantry Unit) - 20 starting, 5 fallen out, 4 destroyed.
Scimitar (Recon Tank) - 8 starting, no losses or exits.
Scorpion (Recon Tank) - 8 starting, 4 fallen out.
Scout (Infantry Unit) - 6 starting, no losses or exits.
Spartan MCT (Self Propelled Anti-Tank) - 4 starting, no losses or exits.
Sultan (Command Vehicle) - 3 starting, no losses or exits.
Tornado (CAS Aircraft-Gun/IB) - 2 starting, no losses or exits.
Tracked Rapier (Self Propelled SAM) - 4 starting, 2 destroyed.

I really must mention a few 'hero' units that deserve medals

and certainly this platoon of infantry who took out 9 tanks

These 5 units accounted for 74 tanks. Sure they took a beating but thats over 1/3 of soviet tank losses for 1 Milan platoon and 1 infantry platoon, a good exchange rate in my book :)
Looking at the rest of A and B Coy 1RGJ, most platoons still managed to knock out a few tanks.

Overall I had my main force ravaged and put out of action, while my pincer force was pretty much intact and certainly still combat ready while the soviets had an entire division put out of action and in dire need of replacements.

A. Infantry are good vs tanks in built up areas as long as they have some form of antitank weapons and have good readiness.
I noticed that most of my infantry had middle range readiness due to a rapid advance into the town, if they had an chance to rest before the soviets reached the town I beleive their tank losses would've been greater.

B. Wait for support assets.
I'll discuss this in the next section but waiting for arty support before engaging in force I would've had more smoke as well as a greater volume of HE fire to hammer the soviets with.

C. Use terrain to mask helicopter movements as much as possible.
When i moved my helicopters I thought i was far enough away to be out of range, thankfully I only lost 1 helicopter.

D. The AI can and does change it axis of advance.
When I saw soviet tanks moving north along the eastern edge of the center woods, it caught me by surprised, and almost had my tank sqn run into them at point blank range and I would've lost that fight. More recon eyes covering a greater area is a must.

Could've/would've/should've

There was another plan I did consider which was holding back my main force until I had artillery support while my pincer force moved into position then attacking from 2 different directions at the same time.
By moving the 2 sqn of tanks into the woodline east of the river overlooking the main town I would've been in near ideal engagement range to hold off his advance at the river line, this would've likely reduce my infantry losses.

There are other options as well and I encourge you to play around and test them out.