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Beta Release: Keep The Lights On


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Beta Scenario of my first attempt at an HCE scenario. This one uses the new HCDA database for the Americas. Please be kind if I made obvious mistakes and I look forward to feedback! :)

 

File Name: liteson.zip

 

File Submitter: Armando J. Heredia (Juramentado)

 

File Submitted: 13-MAR-2009

 

File Category: Americas Scenario

 

Author: Armando J. Heredia

 

Battleset: This one uses .SCZ with the Americas HCDA-080924 database (DB file included in Zip)

 

Scenario Background:

 

In organizational parlance, "Keep The Lights On" means to stay in business, especially under tough or trying circumstances. Given the world's current troubles, this closely describes the dilemma of modern navies as governments make hard decisions between defense and economic spending. Add to that noxious brew a touch of a "no-notice" crisis and things are liable to get very interesting.

 

Venezuela 2010: An ever defiant Hugo Chavez sees opportunity in the global drawdown of the American presence in the Carribbean, and declares an expansion of the nation's Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ). Citing martime security concerns, Chavez uses his weekly radio show to cite that unprecedented levels of gun-running and drug-smuggling from neighboring states have forced his hand in order to secure the safety of the Gulf area.

 

Venezuelan Coast Guard elements are openly harrassing and stopping legitimate traffic transiting the zone. Any vessels failing to comply are subject to immediate use of lethal force. Not surprisingly, intelligence sources note that Cuban, Russian and certain other nationalities are being given a free pass. Despite the obvious dangers in fleeing the illegitimate blockade, several ships have refused to submit and are attempting to exit the area through the North and East passages. SOUTHCOM has ordered 2nd Fleet to stand to and prepare operations to uphold Freedom of Navigation principles.

liteson.zip

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I ran this scenario through to the end from the Blue side. Some things I noticed:

 

- I liked the exhaustive detail written into the orders. Very authentic.

- There is no mention in orders about paths. i.e. Are the yacht and cruise liner allowed to change courses?

- I recommend that you specify that the player is not allowed to change the course of the Cruise Liner, Yacht, or merchant vessel. That would make it more difficult for him. Otherwise, they can sail anywhere they like and evade the Venezuelans

- you might want to run Spell check on the orders

 

Right away, the Tycoon's yacht was sunk and the Cruise ship was under immediate attack and sunk, too. The LCC command ship group running for their lives as helos re-armed.

 

I killed a few smaller gunboats with FireScouts then concentrated on the Stereguschiy. Ships started to gang up on Sullivans and Simpson, so they ran and evaded. A Harpoon salvo killed one FFG Sucre. The second one was taken care of by helos with Penguin.

 

Managed to hammer down all the Venezuelans and the LCC escaped to the port, but no Victory was granted when the clock ran out. Your ViConds don't work. I used the SE and took a look and think you have some problems in how they are set up.

 

The ViConds are:

Blue MinVic - Ship on station 30 min AND... [There is no second MinVic so I think that is why it didn't trigger.]

Blue TotVic - Sink 21 ships. [There are only 20 Red ships in the scen. Also, this is an AND condition. Don't know if it will trigger that way]

Red MinVic - Sink 5 Ships AND...

Red TotVic - Sink 8 Ships AND...

 

I believe that you may have a problem with the Red ViConds since they are "AND" conditionals, too. Also, I don't think that Red has any hope of achieving them. Maybe sinking 3-4 might be more reasonable for an AI.

 

I think that the AI detected the Simpson/Sullivan group first and closed on them thus diverting attention away from the LCC. Not certain, but it appeared that way to me.

 

Hope that these comments help and not hurt. Thanks for taking the time to write up your scenario and sharing it with everyone else. B)

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I am not all that adept with HCE. All I can suggest is that players really don't like to play a scenario for XX days only to find that there was never any way for them to 'win'. Therefore, I always stringently test my own scenarios to ensure that ViConds work.

 

One technique that I sometimes use is to sometimes make dummy sides / units. For example, if the Blue ViCond is, "Sink Nimitz", I might make a test variant/version of the scenario and add or replace the Red side with lots of bombers (enough so that it is guaranteed to sink the CVN). Then I test and make sure it triggers.

 

I might go though and test all the ViConds in this manner just to be sure that they work. I've seen scenarios that say, "Sink Nimitz" only to find that there isn't any Nimitz anywhere! ;)

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