Mission Foulups

1) You charge up the wrong valley (oops) (didn't understand your orders
quite...) 2) You charge up the valley and the enemy turns out to have guns
waiting 3) Your carefully laid out defense failed to note a small draw that
the enemy could use to move troops up and breach 4) Your radios don't behave
the same in the desert due to atmospheric conditions and the AWACS is retasked
so your backup comms method goes away too 5) The piece of new weaponry you've
been assigned turns out to have a critical flaw such as ripping casings in
half and jamming unless the shells are lubed, but of course no one told your
MG team that 6) Your assault is delayed thanks to the G*^
D%$# Barnacle-lubbers and so hits the beach
AFTER daybreak 7) Offshore fire support arrives... short 8) An allied air unit
doesn't have you as a friendly on his computer... and he is armed.... 9) Your
reinforcements get lost and are late or don't arrive 10) Your flank attack
leader fails to push his
troops to bring an off-board enemy to battle,
thus said off-board enemy arrives to reinforce
the on-board enemy thus turning an ugly fight
even uglier 11) You run out of gas as your overstretched logistic chain can't
keep up with your penetration 12) You run out of supplies because enemy air
attacks savage your supply chain 13) You attack a village expecting to run
into the remnants of a battered unit that wasn't very good beforehand... only
over the last couple of nights, the enemy has infiltrated one of their best
and most experienced elite units....
14) The pre-attack bombardment turns out to
be less effective than promised 15) The rolling bombardment meant to precede
your attack ends up chasing you
forward....
16) You are crossing a field into a village the enemy has pulled out of. Your
air units haven't got the message and see movement.... 17) You launch an
attack. One of your flanks is an Australian unit. The other is a French unit.
The Aussies run into a tough fight. You run into weak defenses and push
forward. The French, though not hitting opposition of any note, turn around
and call it a day. The enemy rams a huge counterattack into your side. 18)
Your local allies have been infiltrated, and you might come under sniper fire,
sabotage or meet mines the infiltrators planted as the game progresses.... 19)
A key message is lost, due to a jammed comms channel or dead messenger, so
your unit, following orders, is steadily diverging from the rest of your
forces which are pivoting away.... and you have no idea.... 20) Your airborne
attack force has problems navigating over target countryside and sets
down reinforcements pel-mel all over the place -
some behind enemy lines. 21) One of your allied unit, known for its symbol of
a Big Red number One, gets the date of the attack wrong and is sitting
encamped when all other allied forces launch the attack. This leaves a huge
gap in the lines, and other allied forces promptly spend the next long while
escaping enemy encirclement after the enemy penetrates the unprepared units
HQ.

These are just historical examples I can think up. One of them happened to my
Grandad in the Great War. At least one happened to my old unit.

As for the whole naval combat system thing, I have two comments: There are
some lurkers in that kind of work (Canadians). At ECC, a table consisting of
about seven of us were playing
post-con-day games. One of the USAians
mentioned having a high clearance at which point 4 out 5 Canadians mentioned
they held or had held Secret or Top Secret clearances for
work with defence/police. I think that was a bit
of a shock:)

Another interesting scenario possibility, this one for FT or DS on a large
scale: Combat ship used
for demonstrating technology and show-the-
flag and testing new systems has key defensive electronics package removed to
test other new system (which does not provide replacement function). Said ship
then (for some reason) ends up in an engagement.... now instead of being a
cakewalk, said ship is far more vulnerable and a serious threat exists. Not
that I'm admitting to knowing about any real life analogous situations....;)

T.

Hi Thomas

Great list, I had fun trying to pick the historical occasions. How about a
little spotlight on the subject with people sending in their 5 best Mission
Stuffup idea's.

Here's my humble contribution.

1. Running out if rounds during a massive attack and waiting inline for an
ammo handout at the only supply point. While the Quartermaster unscrews the
sealed wooden ammo boxes with the one and only screw driver.

2. Heavy fire is heard from were the right assault company should be moving
forward. Assuming they have run into the enemy early an immediate attack is
ordered in support. Unfortunatly the other company has been stopped at the
base of a 200 foot cliff and is waiting for orders. Your attacking uphill,
unsupported and the suspected enemy machinegun platoon is part of a battalion
that was preparing to attack your position.

3. The Commanding Officers watch is slow and he waits until 15 minutes after
the support barrage has stopped before ordering the attack on the enemy
trench.

4. The Unit Commander has said 'thanks' but 'no thanks' to an Allies offer
of a unit with specialist obstacle clearing vehicles as the bombardment and
'his boys' will take care of the enemy defences. Unfortunatly the bombardment
falls behind the defences and it's now upto you know who.

5. The companies mission was to advance and conduct a demonstration attack to
allow the rest of the battalion to outflank the enemy and take an objective
behind them. You get to the objective without meeting the the enemy, the rest
of your unit is stopped cold and withdraws. Your now sitting across theÂ
enemies supply line and unless you get help soon it doesn't look good.

Regards

You rush to reinforce a friendly unit that's getting hit hard and when you get
there, there's nothing but a hasty enemy perimeter and survivors of the
friendly unit getting secured and prepped to be moved to the rear as POWs...

What do you do? If you attack the POWs are likely as not toast... if