Scenario Design & Discussion

A recent article in Global Research at... http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-vig...rth-korea/4730 ...included a detailed account of the scenario behind Vigilant Shield 07. I would be very interested in reading the background scenarios (i.e., the "history" leading up to the "war" in the exercise) for similar military exercises. Quite apart from them being a gold mine for scenario design, I just think they are very interesting. But where do you find them? I imagine there is probably some archive of them somewhere, and if Vigilant Shield 07 can be discussed in this much detail, I imagine they get declassified after only a couple of years. (Or perhaps the basic scenario is n…

Playing around with ideas... This is a revision of a World War III concept I was playing around with a few months ago. I've tried to trim it back a bit, maybe make it a bit more realistic. I'd be grateful for feedback on this one as a background for wargame scenarios... How plausible is this? What else might happen (or what might happen instead)? What am I missing? Here goes... What would happen if, in 1985, the Soviet Union joined forces with Iraq and Syria (and some help from India, which had a military pact with the Soviets at the time) and invaded Iran? The Soviet Alliance is able to seize control of most of Iran, including its ports and oil fields, in a few …

File Name: Pledge 12: Passage to Denmark (1991) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 30 Oct 2012 File Category: Scenarios Task Force Romeo has completed an intelligence gathering mission in the Baltic and is now on its way back to Copenhagen. However, with the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse, tensions between it and the West are rising, and the task force needs to be careful not to spark an international incident on its homeward voyage. Image: German guided missile destroyer Rommel (D 187) underway alongside the U.S. Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) in 1986. (Photo ID:DNST8707145; Camera Operator: PHC JEFF HILTON.) Click here to download this file

File Name: Battle of Damascus File Submitter: Steven File Submitted: 15 Oct 2012 File Category: Scenarios A joint service scenerio with USN, USAF and Turkish units tackling a heavily fortified Damascus. Blue side must react towards an aggressive regime by neutralizing WMD sites and a Russian air base while boarding a suspect arms ship and position a helo to recover US Special Forces in downtown Damascus. You must also hunt down the defunct leader of the country. The Russians have sided with Damascus and have conveniently positioned the air base with bombers somewhere in eastern Syria that is moderately guarded with a wing of fighters. It is a distance from the …

File Name: High Tension File Submitter: Gunny File Submitted: 30 Nov 2012 File Category: Scenarios 1st scen made for TF450 project. Features 2 of the carrier forces against hardliners in the Persian Gulf. Click here to download this file

File Name: Black Moon Sailing (2014) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 06 Dec 2012 File Category: Scenarios Israeli forces must intercept a Turkish merchant vessel believed to be carrying weapons and other supplies for Hamas. Image: A port bow view of the Israeli Navy's guided missile patrol boat INS Hetz (Sa'ar 4.5). Source: http://www.defenseimagery.mil/ Author's Note: This scenario takes advantage of the feature in H3/ANW that allows one to board and take control of a vessel without sinking it--to win this scenario, you have to complete a boarding/takeover mission (among other things); simply sinking the merchant will not be enough. Clic…

Quick (maybe) question... How can you tell if one ship, helicopter, etc. is sufficient to board another ship? I'm working on a scenario where I've got patrol boats and UH-60s and so on going after a tramp steamer, trying to board (connected to a Possess victory condition), and I can't get it to work. A lot of the time the ships will match course with the target but not try to attack, or they attack and nothing happens, etc. I don't know if this is a database error, a game engine error, or a correct calculation that the assault somehow failed. Anyone have any advice? Thanks.

File Name: Test Platforms File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 28 Nov 2012 File Category: Scenarios This is simply a copy of the generic scenario I use for testing platforms. Please download it, modify it, use it as you like, etc. It is already set up with some units related to some of the bugs that have been reported recently, but feel free to change them, add new ones, etc. as you like. It also has a Victory condition related to Possession (rather than Destroy); feel free to change it if you don't need it. If you find ships, planes, weapons, etc. with problems, please let Gunny know here on Harpgamer. New versions will be uploaded periodically as new issu…

File Name: Pacific War 1 File Submitter: JSF File Submitted: 27 Nov 2012 File Category: Scenarios Pacific War 1: Ignition Japan vs China Date: August 14th, 2013 Long lasting tensions tend to explode some day. The struggle regarding the Senkaku (as the Japanese name them) or Diaoyutai (the Chinese name) Islands is one of those latent conflicts. It' s not about those little rocks, it's about the ressources around them. Ignition is the first scenario of a new Battleset which displays an accelating conflict, starting around those small islands. This a sharp tactical duel, be careful using time compression! Click here to download this file

File Name: Koeln Sunset (1981) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 25 Nov 2012 File Category: Scenarios My first scenario with the newest beta version of HUD-4, v 1.11. It is 1981 and tensions have increased between NATO and the Soviet Union. Intelligence reports suggest the Soviets plan to place several submarines in the North Sea and the English Channel. Their intentions are unclear, but NATO will not tolerate this provocation. A West German task force is assigned to force the Soviet submarines to leave. What will happen if the Soviets refuse to leave is not clear... Image: A starboard bow view of the West German frigate Köln (F 220) underway in …

File Name: Chinese Aggression File Submitter: Steven File Submitted: 22 Nov 2012 File Category: Scenarios A Japanese oil research vessel has been attacked and sunk off the coast of China and survivors have been taken hostage by pirates. The PLAN has claimed that the vessel was a military ECM vessel that had been hampering Chinese military communications and was well within Chinese territorial waters. The PLAN has threatened to sink any vessel and shoot down any aircraft that dare to approach the location of the sunken vessel or any attempt to rescue hostages. Click here to download this file

Just a few quick questions... 1) Am I correct that using this setting means an "attack" like a patrol or a strike does not result in the destruction of a unit but making it change sides when it has taken enough "damage," or does something else happen? And it only works if one is using certain weapons like paratroopers...I think it would count as a database error if one could "board" a ship with Harpoon missiles. 2) How well does this work in ANW 3.10? Or do I need to wait for 3.11 to come out? 3) Could this be used against a submarine? (I'm thinking of scenarios where the idea is to force the submarine to surface to prove it was really in waters it had no…

File Name: Operation Andes Wind (2017) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 14 Nov 2012 File Category: Scenarios A few years in the future...a military coup has put a junta hostile to the United States in power in Chile. American citizens need to be evacuated before they can be detained and used as hostages. An amphibious task force, and two other ships, must complete this mission while protecting themselves against Chilean forces. Image: A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey on the flight deck of an amphibious assault ship. Navy NewsStand Photo ID: 051115-N-3527B-049; Author: United States Navy, Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Timothy Bensken. Click here to…

The Taking of Sakhalin, from the HUD3 GC1 battleset AAR by Mark Gellis I am taking the role of Japan. It is 1994 and I have to escort amphibious ships to a landing point on Sakhalin. The Russians, not surprisingly, are eager to stop me. They have a task force in the area and some submarines, including an Oscar, according to my intelligence briefing. I have my task force, a trio of submarines, and about 20 aircraft at Sapporo. Before starting, I set up patrol missions for the submarines, as I am playing at full realism and will not be able to control them otherwise. I’m sending all three on sub hunts. This scenario was prepared for the HUD-4 (v1.1 b1…

“Assault on Zion,” from the HUD3 GC1 battleset AAR by Mark Gellis Taking the Israeli side…looking for PLO boats…must sink them before they do bad things… This scenario was prepared for the HUD-4 (v1.1 b10) simply by opening it in the scenario editor and rebuilding all platforms; the revised scenario was then saved. Scenario seems to load properly. I made a point of keeping an eye out for database errors. In this scenario, I saw no problems with weapons firing, ships not having any fuel, or any other database errors. I may have missed something, but nothing that was vital to the scenario. I did notice in the rebuilt scenario in the scenario editor that…

Pason-2: “Channel Engagement” Scenario by Ralf Koelbach. AAR by Mark Gellis Played on November 4, 2012 Pason-2 was prepared for the HUD-4 (v1.1 b10) simply by opening it in the scenario editor and rebuilding all platforms; the revised scenario was then saved. Scenario seems to load properly. I made a point of keeping an eye out for database errors. In this scenario, I saw no problems with weapons firing, ships not having any fuel, or any other database errors. I may have missed something, but nothing that was vital to the scenario. Looks like a nice, simple “search and shoot” scenario. 13:01. I set up a simple zig-zag course up and down, north an…

File Name: Pledge 11: Valor and Varna 2014 File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 25 Oct 2012 File Category: Scenarios Tensions between the Ukraine and its neighbors in the Black Sea region, allied Bulgaria and Romania, have reached a crisis point. Intelligence suggests that the Ukraine plans a massive attack against Bulgaria, focusing on its merchant fleet and the port city of Varna. Can Bulgaria, with the assistance of its ally Romania, defeat this threat? Image: MiG-29 take off for a combat training mission as part of exercise Rodopi Javelin 2007 at Graf Ignattevo Airfield, Bulgaria, Oct. 18, 2007. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael R. Holzworth)…

I had a crazy thought... Why not have a competition for small scenario designs for the HUD-4? Each round would have some general rules but some room for creativity--e.g., "A French task force with two warships and one light combatant vs. two groups of three or four gun boats and/or missile boats, anywhere in the world." Or, "A German convoy with two warships and six merchants must make an opposed passage against a nation with one destroyer-sized ship and 6-12 aircraft to use against them." In each case, we're talking relatively small scenarios, with each side having only a few vessels and/or about a dozen aircraft. Designers have 24 hours to produce the scen…

File Name: Pledge 10: The Cardiff Incident (2014) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 15 Oct 2012 File Category: Scenarios In 2014, a British task force must liberate a trawler seized under questionable circumstances by Ecuador. The captain and crew have been accused of everything from illegal fishing practices to being spies. The Prime Minister is reputed to have said, "When the time comes, we'll go to the International Court, and if I was wrong, I'll accept the consequences. But right now, the law be damned--we're getting our people out of there." Image: The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dauntless (D 33). U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Se…

I'm playing around with scenario ideas and had some questions about one of them. In 1980, the Soviet Union decided to not invade Poland, despite the Solidarity movement's challenges to Soviet power. It seems an invasion was planned, but was postponed... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_reaction_to_the_Polish_crisis_of_1980%E2%80%931981 http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ece/research/intermarium/vol2no1/jaruzels.pdf http://wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFB35.PDF ...but what if the invasion had gone ahead? On December 8, 1980, Soviet, Czech, and East German forces invade Poland. President Carter refuses to use a pre-emptive nuclear strike, and does not b…