AAR: Alone in the Snow [Spoiler Alert]

AAR: Alone in the Snow [spoiler Alert]

A Harpoon3 scenario for the PlayersDB

By Herman Hum

Sweden's neutrality lasted only as long as the Reformed Russian Republic had no need of anything that Sweden had and not a moment longer. The determined resistance of the United States' 1st Special Forces put the R3 theatre commander behind schedule by 36 hours. Behind schedule has never been a comfortable place for a Russian Commander and this commander was determined to be uncomfortable only for a very short period of time. His plan to get things moving again involved turning Norway's southern flank. But, in order to do that, staging bases closer than Germany were required. Unfortunately for Sweden, bases that fit the bill were Swedish. The remaining life of Sweden's neutrality was measured in hours.

 

NATO wanted to provide assistance. The problem was, other than providing advanced warning of the attack, NATO had nothing to give. The few remaining Norwegian F-16s could not be re-oriented to cover Swedish airspace without leaving the northern FEBA vulnerable. CENTAF simply had no aircraft to spare. RAF operational reserves had been released to guard the northern approaches to the UK. The German air force ceased to exist as an effective fighting force 90 seconds after the first shots were fired. Combined chemical, biological, and conventional missile, artillery, and air attacks have a tendency to do that.

 

Although alone in the snow, the Swedes were not without hope. Sweden had been neutral. Sweden had not been stupid. Sweden's defense expenditures had increased from 2.9% of GNP in 1987 to 4.5% of GNP in 1996. A large portion of that money was spent on the procurement of Viggens, Sweden's latest multi-role fighter aircraft. It was with the Viggens that this battle would turn.

Rodrigo Flores was just finishing up a hard week's work when we linked up and decided on a game of ANW. We decided to try one of the latest scenario releases for the PlayersDB, "Alone in the Snow". The scenario depicts a Russian attack on "neutral" Sweden. Rodrigo played the Russians while I played the Swedes.

As the designer of this scenario, I had a slight advantage since I had an idea of the overall Order of Battle. Luckily, Rod chose the side that I would have deemed more powerful and thus evened out the match.

I had three operational airbases and numerous targets to protect. As is usual on the defensive, I had insufficient assets to cover them all. I decided to focus on Visby Island as it was the most likely target. Sure enough, enemy planes began their approach. I intercepted the first flight of four (Floggers?) with four Viggen at low level. They stayed at low altitude before climbing to the attack just as they came into range. It was the case of the classic ambush and all four bogies were splashed with no Swedish losses and Alpha flight congratulated themselves as they sped back to Visby to re-arm.

As is often the case in war, the hunters can quickly become the hunted. Beta flight came in to relieve the departing Viggen and got a wholly unpleasant reception. This time, all four were shot out of the air well beyond the range of their own SkyFlash missiles. They were quickly avenged by Delta flight, but it did not assuage the feeling of sadness from the loss of their comrades. Delta flight also lost two planes in the melee. The score was now 6:6. Unfortunately, I knew that the Russians had a LOT more planes in the barn.

As the bulk of my air patrols congregated around Visby Island, Karlskrona suddenly reported an inbound air raid! No interceptors were within range, so all I could do was grit my teeth and bear it. The air base was hammered violently. On their egress, a flight of 6 Viggen managed to catch the mixed group of Fulcrum and Fitters from Peenemunde and decimated them. The two survivors were able to exact a token of revenge, too. One Viggen caught an Aphid missile in the port side just as she was turning to flee after expending her missiles.

A lull ensued as both sides re-armed and re-fueled. I ordered my air patrols to stay at low altitude. Ground intercept radar could clearly see an A-50 Mainstay loitering over Kaliningrad and I didn't want to present any targets for the swarms of Flankers and Fulcrum circling over the Baltic unless I had to do so. Soon enough, I was forced to reveal my patrols as teams of Flankers and Fulcrum started edging nearer.

Several were ambushed without loss. As the interceptors raced back to base for re-armament and re-fueling, a veritable swarm of helicopters was spotted hugging the deck and approaching Visby. After dining on Fulcrum and Flanker as the main course, the pilots were ecstatic in their discovery of "dessert" and tore into the helpless transports with RB-74 Sidewinders and aerial gunnery passes. Nearby patrols of Flankers tried in vain to protect the helos, but they were just too far away. The entire assault force was cut to ribbons.

At this point, Rodrigo suggested that he was no longer able to achieve his victory conditions as he had no more ground attack assets. While this might have been reasonable if he was playing a computer opponent, the fact that he was playing a human allowed him to continue. A military maxim states that, "When you are no longer able to achieve victory, the definition of victory changes to the prevention of your enemy from achieving victory." Rod certainly had more than enough assets remaining to make my life miserable.

At this point, we decided to save the game in hopes of finishing it this weekend. Thanks to Rodrigo for a fun match to this point and to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB

FilesOfScenShare