Well, you really don't have much of a choice initially (assuming that you will adhere to the assigned battlespace). You first need to pass through the funnel of the lake in the south, and the nothern battlespace border which is in line with that small lake and, presumably, a swamp.
So you have the choice between a high risk and a low risk opening
- a mad dash along the central road until you approach the end of the forest, and then to unfold your company before moving further east towards the objective.
Advantage: Quick passage of potentially difficult terrain that eliminates much of the standoff distance that the heavy armament of tanks offers.
Disadvantage: Easy to anticipate by the enemy. The opening of the road (vicinity 9415 5150) will probably attract quite some attention (if it can be observed; you may want to use the terrain LOS analysis on that spot to see from where you could be seen there). - Dismount your infantry and move cutiously through the forest towards the opening.
The enemy doesn't seem to have much of a choice either (I guess, ENY is moving towards you at the same time, so you're preparing for a head-on clash of your tank COY (+) with a mech COY (+)) ... unless ENY is turning north to enter your left neighbor's battlespace through that swamp between 9500 5130 and 9590 5120.
Advantage: Better control over what's happening initially by deploying the infantry to the front while you're in the forest. In an initial contact that may help to preserve your tanks better.
Disadvantage: Slow progress initially, giving the enemy time to cross the open terrain that constitutes most of your battlespace while you can't see #%&*$# and remain stuck in the forest. Only 25% of your force is actually suited for this terrain, and if you meet the enemy in his full strength during that phase, you can't bring your heavy hitters to bear while the mexh platoon will be quickly outnumbered and eventually overrun.
Recommendation: The "risky" option a) minimizes your overall risk by securing the terrain that is the prerequisite to your real mission, taking the objective. Your tanks will give you a serious firepower advantage if you can deploy them with open terrain between you and the enemy, and a standoff distance. It is mission critical to pass through that narrow gap between the lakes in the initial phase of the battle, especially since you don't have precise intelligence about the enemy's location.
Take one tank platoon and one mech platoon together along the road, a safety gap of three minutes, then follow with the main body and combat support units/medics.
Once that you have reached open terrain, secure it with the tank platoons and let the mech guys secure the small forest patches ("bases") vicinity 9510 5075, 9550 5090, 9525 5025, 9575 5040; follow with tanks in bounds so you can continue supporting them with your heavy firepower by maintaining LOS to likely enemy positions).
Use the LOS tool to identify your own dead space (set the height slider to the enemy's main equipment height, e.g. BMP-1 ca 1.45m), then click on points along his likely route of advance to see from where he'd be invisible to you, then plan to set your own battlepositions with interlocking fields of observation to eliminate most if not all of that dead space.
You may want to segmentize your move towards the objective into "chapters" that allow you to coordinate who needs to move to where, when. E.g.
- phase line 1: Start of mission, circa right where 1/C is now
- phase line 2: 9420 5110 ... 9460 5150 - roughly along that line you have good LOS (in principle) for your tanks, here's where the mech platoon has to advance under the cover of the tanks to take the road fork (9480 5100). Move up one or two tank platoons, then begin the next bound.
- phase line 3: Northern forest nook - tip of red arrow - central small tree patch - Curlylake peninsula.
In principle, it's similar to the previous phase, but you'll have to decide whether you want to send the mech platoon through the center, or along your northern/right border of your battlespace, and whether you want to do perform the dashes parallel with one of the tank platoons, or if you want to keep them all in the rear. - etc.
For each of the phases, think about your own strengths and weaknesses as well as the enemy's. Pay special attention to the relative combat value of tanks and mech platoons in open terrain and forested area. Think of the firepower that you can effectively bring to bear. Think of how much time you'll need for each dash across open space (at 30km/h, a distance of 1km takes two minutes; keep in mind that 30km/h is a speed that you are
guaranteed to reach and exceed only on roads; difficult terrain might slow you down). If you have artillery at your disposal, think of what they can to to help your plan - fire a smoke screen, or deny enemy movement with HE barrage, ... plot your fire missions during your planning phase with a text element that already spells out the coordinate, length and width of the targeted area, and its orientation in mil. That will help you tremendously with the call for fire dialog box. Keep in mind that artillery usually takes at least 2:30 to arrive, maybe three, so you need to call for that mission
in anticipation of your next move on the ground.
A possible strategy could be to quietly occupy battle positions in a wide semi-circe with its center 9505 5070, and then to sit back until the enemy stumbles right into your kill box. The disadvantage is that it depends on the enemy playing ball (does he know of your plan, and agree with it?), and you might lose precious time on the way towards the objective, allowing the enemy to wait himself and maybe even bring up his own reserves. So it's probably better to have one tank platoon each in the northern and southern half of your battlespace, the mech platoon somewhere in the middle securing your "bases" one by one, and keeping one tank platoon as your reserve.
Well, it's just a suggestion.
