1988 Global War Game Western and Southwestern Theaters AAR

[larryfulkerson]

In T1 I decided to move an AAA unit and had to leave behind some equipment that couldn't move ( the Nike-Hercules SAM's ) and now in T2 after I disembark the unit from the train I notice that my Nike-Hercules SAM equipment was "lost" and that tells me not to move the AAA units that has that equipment as part of it's allocation of equipment. I would rather that those "lost" missles would have gone back to the pools instead of being "lost". That's what I expected to happen and it didn't.

[larryfulkerson]

I decided to drop a bridge near the border just so the Soviets can't use it. I expect Haris to use the RR capability that he has to move more units toward the front lines when the conflict becomes kinetic. I'm going to set a lot of my bombers to INT to stifle the Soviet advance for all the good that will do. I don't have any B-52's or B-1's which is a disappointment because they would have come in really handy in the early turns but I DO expect to have some to use before the game is over because they are listed in the inventory.

[LOK32MK]

In T1 I decided to move an AAA unit and had to leave behind some equipment that couldn't move ( the Nike-Hercules SAM's ) and now in T2 after I disembark the unit from the train I notice that my Nike-Hercules SAM equipment was "lost" and that tells me not to move the AAA units that has that equipment as part of it's allocation of equipment. I would rather that those "lost" missles would have gone back to the pools instead of being "lost". That's what I expected to happen and it didn't.

I should put this in the briefing. There are two kinds of AA units: Fixed SAM sites and mobile units with different equipment (that was true in real life). I tried to use different icons for them (mobile AA or regular AA). I may have missed some. The fixed units will lose their fixed AA guns/SAMs if you move them.
Since only very few units reconstitute (mostly SF and Airborne/Marines) - I think that's why the equipment does not go back to the pool?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: LOK32MK

In T1 I decided to move an AAA unit and had to leave behind some equipment that couldn't move ( the Nike-Hercules SAM's ) and now in T2 after I disembark the unit from the train I notice that my Nike-Hercules SAM equipment was "lost" and that tells me not to move the AAA units that has that equipment as part of it's allocation of equipment. I would rather that those "lost" missles would have gone back to the pools instead of being "lost". That's what I expected to happen and it didn't.

I should put this in the briefing. There are two kinds of AA units: Fixed SAM sites and mobile units with different equipment (that was true in real life). I tried to use different icons for them (mobile AA or regular AA). I may have missed some. The fixed units will lose their fixed AA guns/SAMs if you move them.
Since only very few units reconstitute (mostly SF and Airborne/Marines) - I think that's why the equipment does not go back to the pool?

Ok, makes sense. So by that same logic any units that are disbanded are just gone from the game. 10-4?

[LOK32MK]

Yes that's my understanding from the manual

[cathar1244]

And the anti-ship rating of 8 is hidden in the flag values I guess.

Larry,

There are three "cases" as to how anti-shipping value is generated. I wrote this up a while ago:

First requirement to generate anti-shipping capability: The anti-shipping flag has to be toggled on (FLAG3 has to include the value "2").

Two cases follow. The second case is in effect when the "torpedo bomber flag" is toggled on (FLAG7 has to include the value "128"), else, the first case applies.

Note that in both cases, when the antipersonnel rating is set to zero, the anti-shipping capability is still present but attacks may only be conducted against naval units.

First case -- anti-shipping on, not a torpedo bomber.

Code: Select all

 Antipersonnel rating            Anti-shipping capability
 
 0				120	can attack only naval units
 1 ... 15			120
 16 ... 23			240
 24+   			        360
 

Second case -- anti-shipping on, is a torpedo bomber.

Code: Select all

 Antipersonnel rating            Anti-shipping capability
 
 0				240	can attack only naval units
 1 ... 11	                240
 12 ... 17			480
 18+			        720
 

There is also a third case in which anti-shipping capability is auto-generated. This is the case in which the anti-shipping flag is NOT toggled and a (smallish) anti-shipping capability is made available based upon the AP value.

the anti-ship capability is figured as the square root of (two times the AP rating), rounded down.

Example: AP is 0. 0 times 2 = 0. Square root of 0 is 0, the anti-ship rating.

Example: AP is 8. 8 times 2 = 16. Square root of 16 is 4, the anti-ship rating.

Example: AP is 9. 9 times 2 = 18. Square root of 18 is 4.2426. Round down to 4, this is the anti-ship rating.

Highest allowed AP rating is 8000 (!) This works out to an anti-ship rating of 126 after rounding down. (Higher AP ratings can be entered, but TOAW will treat them as 8000.)

Cheers

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: LOK32MK
Since only very few units reconstitute (mostly SF and Airborne/Marines) - I think that's why the equipment does not go back to the pool?

Fixed equipment always goes to "lost" when the unit abandons it to move, regardless of other conditions.

[LOK32MK]

Thanks for the clarification. That explains it.

Larry,
I forgot to mention that you will get B-52 and B-1s (and lots of others, F-117, F-15s, F-16s etc.) as reinforcements. Most reinforcements are deployed (triggered) by Events. I think that's why they do not show up in expected reinforcements. Also several B-1 and B-52 wings were supposed to be deployed in the Middle East (part of the Rapid Deployment Force) and some in the Pacific (they are included in the Middle East and Pacific scenarios).

Turn 3: We are still in a ceasefire which gave the Warsaw Pact time to position most of its units to the front lines and keep some in reserve for the second echelon attacks.
There is a fundamental issue with sea hex ownership during ceasefires. I made sure to limit the Warsaw pact naval movements during the ceasefire by changing sea hex ownership of specific hexes. However, NATO still cannot move naval or do naval transport unless I change sea hex ownership in the editor. It's easy to do for short specific paths but changing ownership of all sea hexes is too painful. That leaves NATO at a disadvantage the first turn. Any suggestions how to fix this?

[LOK32MK]

The cease fire is over. The war started on Turn 4.
Northern Front: The Warsaw pact made slow progress with a couple of attacks and airborne assaults and attacks on naval units by the Northern Fleet air units.
Central font: Massive airborne and heliborne assault with Polish and Soviet units against Denmark (Copenhagen). Bombardment against ports and airfields to destroy NATO air & naval units in the Baltic and North sea.
In the Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) a couple of major attacks towards Kiel and Hamburg.
In the Central Army Group (CENTAG) a couple of major attacks towards Frankfurt (through the Fulda gap) and southern Germany. However, there is a weird bug. Some units which should have plenty of movement start the turn with zero movement. I am not sure why.
Southern Front: The Bulgarian army captured Edirne but did not make much progress against the Turkish 1st Army despite Soviet assistance. Soviet air and naval bombardments against ports, airfields and NATO naval units.

[golden delicious]

With all those red density lights I would have thought the first move for the Soviet player would be to divide down the large units. The drop in unit proficiency would be worth it for the reduced losses- as I recall a red light means at least 2x losses.

[LOK32MK]

You identified a problem with the 10 km/hex for this scenario. I thought the 10 km scale would open up the game and allow some more movement and a more dynamic game. I should have checked before I spent >100 hrs making the map.
At a divisional scale the red density lights are all over the place. Dividing units is one option - redoing the OOB at Brigade-regiment level is another.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: LOK32MK

You identified a problem with the 10 km/hex for this scenario. I thought the 10 km scale would open up the game and allow some more movement and a more dynamic game. I should have checked before I spent >100 hrs making the map.
At a divisional scale the red density lights are all over the place. Dividing units is one option - redoing the OOB at Brigade-regiment level is another.

Yes if you agree this is a problem I'd advise redoing the relevant parts of the OOB.

[Curtis Lemay]

But, how nice of me to devise the New Density Rules so that you at least have those red lights. [:D]

[LOK32MK]

But, how nice of me to devise the New Density Rules so that you at least have those red lights.

[:D][:D][&o]

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

But, how nice of me to devise the New Density Rules so that you at least have those red lights. [:D]

As I recall before it wasn't just the light missing but the penalty, wasn't it? That was pretty bizarro. Stack an AA company with a brigade and suddenly it's from nothing to red light.

[LOK32MK]

Northern front: Warsaw Pact (WP) player continued the advance in Northern Norway with airborne and sea borne assaults. Capital ships from both sides have been sunk (more on naval combat below).
Central Front: WP player making very slow progress in northern Germany. Copenhagen occupied by WP airborne air mobile and amphibious units. Air assault units in rear areas of NATO are isolated and out of supply.
Southern front: WP airborne air mobile and amphibious units supported by naval units landed north and west of Istanbul. Initial Bulgarian army attacks against Edirne have been derailed by Greek counter-attacks.

OOB-unit density: I looked into splitting the Warsaw Pact OOB into brigades/regiments (most of NATO OOB is already in brigades except for Turkey and Greece). It would increase the number of units by a factor of 2 to 3.
I am not sure it's worth doing everywhere. If players don't want density penalties they can avoid stacking. On a map with low unit density, they will end up breaking up large units anyway. I might split only Category A divisions.

Naval OOB: I used a single unit per submarine and/or major surface unit (frigate, destroyer, cruiser etc.). But it seems very painful to move all these naval units around. I plan to consolidate 10-12 large ships into a single naval unit.

Naval Combat: Naval interdiction works very different from naval attack. 9 naval WP units were annihilated by a single NATO naval unit when they were intercepted. However, similar (almost identical) WP naval units annihilated a similar NATO naval unit when attacking.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T6. The Warsaw Pact is unstoppable so far.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm not real sure what these TO's are supposed to do exactly but I'm hoping it's a good thing.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a T8 view of the front lines so far. The fighting is starting to shape up much like I anticipated. The WP is pushing my units around and killing them. My units are disappearing faster than a Russian journalist.

More news: My R&D team has developed a three-legged chicken in an effort to make a chicken with more meat on it's bones. The problem with the third leg is that it has enabled the chicken to run a LOT faster. It was clocked at more than 30 km/h. I asked the team what it tastes like and the team chief said they don't really know. They haven't been able to catch one yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the TO's that I chose this turn. I'm not sure I want to use Chemical Weapons but I'm pretty sure I'm going to need them in future turns.