File - IOPG - Halloween 1997 WWIII, Ghosts of an Alternate Past. Hypothetical Scenario.

[broncepulido]

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Halloween 1997 WWIII, Ghosts of an Alternate Past. Hypothetical Scenario.

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Halloween 1997 WWIII, Ghosts of an Alternate Past. Hypothetical Scenario.

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 IOPG Battleset and the HCDB2-170308 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later.

This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/NATO side or from the Red/USSR. You should play a few times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red side.

Image: The flight deck of the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) on the Persian Gulf October 12, 1997, just in this scenario time period. On deck there are aircraft of her single squadron of F-14A Tomcat and her three squadrons of F/A-18C(N) Hornet, two USN, one USMC. The aircraft with the round disks over the fuselage are the AWACS aircraft with their round radar domes. The three aircraft to the left of the foremost E-2C Group II Hawkeye and directly in front of the 1st elevator (outlined in red) are two S-3B Viking and an EA-6B Prowler. The one aircraft that is directly on the first elevator/lift is an F-14A Tomcat. Also clearly visible are the catapult rails and the folded jet deflectors (which are folded up when an aircraft makes a catapult launch). The two small rectangles directly to the left of the foremost E-2C are the weapons elevators.

Official U.S. Navy photo took by a serviceperson on duty and as consequence in public domain, took from Wikipedia Commons and from https://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn68_9.ht 

This remaking of the old original IOPG battleset scenario "12.0 ...and then there were two" is the answer at an request by a decades long harpgamer and political science professor, about updating a scenario he employs academically to teach naval operations on introduction to strategic studios. The updating is realizad because in the current HCDB2 platforms are very actualized and corrected, the orders of battle are historically corrected, and the new game engine is clearly superior. Also, at request, are added some submarine operations. Incidentally I flash developed it in few spare hours when travelling on holidays near Mantua, Italy.

Original scenario text:

12.1 Background: As the war against Turkey by Syria and Iraq raged, the Soviet Union found its own battle against Iran unwinnable because of U.S. assistance. The U.S.S.R. felt that it might be able to make the United States back down if it cut off the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union had underestimated the will of the American President. The Admiral of the Fleet Kuznetsov and the escorting battlegroup found itself trapped in the Arabian Sea between the remains of the Iranian Air Force and a Nimitz-class carrier battle group.

Updated by Enrique Mas, September 8, 2024.

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• Submitter
  broncepulido
• Submitted
  09/08/2024
• Category
  IOPG

 

[broncepulido]

Some sources and justifications:

https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/33622-iopg-and-then-there-were-two-remake-request/

http://gonavy.jp/CV-CVN68f.html

http://www.uscarriers.net/cvn68deploy.htm

http://www.uscarriers.net/cvn68history.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAW-112

UIT E-2C Plus Group II from early 1993 (in service 1992-2019).

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=3614&pid=12069&st=0&#entry12069

https://russianships.info/eng/

[broncepulido]

Notes on some platforms:

- The time period of this hypothetical scenario is set from 13 October 1997 to 14 February 1998 (I choosed Halloween, can’t avoid it!), when USS Nimitz was historically on this IOPG theatre of operations.

-   The Iranian Mirage F1EQ (ex Iraq) have very limited capabilities and weapons this time period, but supposely alter changing of side France support it, and came operative again.

-   USSR has survived to this date, and the First Cold War reachs 1997, to the start of WWIII.

-   USSR platforms and in service dates are estimates about the USSR persistence.

-   All the USSR ships are assumed as modified to use Ka-27 and variants instead of Ka-25, probably deleted from service before 1997 on this alternate timeline.

-  Are employed estimated probable developments of Su-33M (aircraft entry 10407) and MIG-29K (aircraft entry 10468, Indian MiG-29K Fulcrum-D 14, with older R-77/AA-12 Adder missiles, produced as preseries from February 1994, but not in regular Russian services, but widely exported), in service in the mid-1990s, with air-to-ground loadouts.

- Is the first time I have at last an excuse to employ the hypothetical unit CGN Anchar (Project 11990), in service 1995?+. More data about this project are available in this well known and recently update book: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/319433/Russias-Navy?src=hottest_filtered

 

More data on Project 1199 Anchar casually found in the Russian Wikipedia, looking for other thing:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Большие_противолодочные_корабли_проекта_1199

[donaldseadog]

Being topical, I played the original scenario last night from the Red side for a comfortable win, maybe I got over excited and decided to hit the red button and launch off a few nukes. The Tomcats are going to make this one much more challenging

Thanks Enrique

[broncepulido]

Thanks Donald!

More data on Project 1199 Anchar casually found in the Russian Wikipedia, looking for other thing:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Большие_противолодочные_корабли_проекта_1199

[donaldseadog]

One observation (I am now trying this new remake) is that Red side in the remake seems very limited in standoff land attack ability (without resorting to nukes).

 

[broncepulido]

6 hours ago, donaldseadog said:

One observation (I am now trying this new remake) is that Red side in the remake seems very limited in standoff land attack ability (without resorting to nukes).

 

Yes, but I understood the project was to do the remake faithful to the original, I did minimum changes.

[donaldseadog]

3 hours ago, broncepulido said:

Yes, but I understood the project was to do the remake faithful to the original, I did minimum changes.

Yes, no critcism meant, just an obsevation about how database can play a big part of situation

PS, and getting a win for the Red side is much harder.